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this-is-moony-lovegood · 3 years

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Nat’s Plan (Part 1/2)

Summary: When a recon mission in Lagos goes sideways, Sam and Bucky have to find a creative way to slip away from terrorist agents without causing another international incident. To do so, Bucky suggests they use one of Natasha’s old plans that helped her and Steve dodge HYDRA agents back in 2014. In other words, I can’t help my obsessive need to write about the kiss-to-hide-in-plain-sight trope for Sambucky.

Word Count: 2.9k

Link to AO3

Lagos, Nigeria - 2024

The last time Sam Wilson was in Lagos, was eight years ago in 2016. He, Steve, Nat, and Wanda were on a mission to get a bioweapon out of the hands of Brock Rumlow and his merry gang of ex-Hydra agents which should have been successful. Technically, it was successful - minus the international incident that ensued when Steve didn’t clock a bomb vest and Wanda accidentally blew up a building trying to stop the blast. Maybe semi-successful was a more appropriate word.

Regardless of Sam’s interpretation of the events, the US government and SWORD took extra time and care to warn Sam, Torres, and specifically Bucky Barnes that this trip to Lagos was meant to be incident-free. No super suits, no guns, no knives, no weapons of any kind unless absolutely necessary.

After everything with John Walker over the past few months, Sam thought it was a good idea for Captain America to not go in guns blazing. Yes, they were trying to stop a new terrorist cell, but if Sam could use this trip to gather intel that would help stop them without exposing the Nigerian people to even more threats, then that would appease the government and his conscience.

For the most part, everything had been going swimmingly. No one had recognized them, they were working incredibly well as a team, and had easily slipped inside the terrorist HQ due to Torres’ ease of hacking into the security cameras, and Bucky’s innate ability to knock people unconscious with ease. Bucky and Sam had even managed to make it through the mission without bickering (at least, not more than the usual acceptable amount).

See, everything was great. Was being the keyword, because, after five minutes of trying to hack the cell’s computer to retrieve the data they needed on their upcoming attacks, Bucky got a little too impatient and accidentally tripped an alarm.

Sam groaned and threw his head back, “You’ve got to be shitting me. You’re the ex-assassin, aren't you supposed to be the stealthy one?”

“An ex-assassin with a metal arm who used to not give a fuck about who saw him coming. I didn’t have to be stealthy as the Winter Soldier, Sam. I just took what I had to and killed anyone who got in my way.” Bucky replied, ripping the flash drive out of the PC the second the last file transferred over. Sam sighed, watching the wave of guilt washing over the soldier’s features.

“Don’t start.” He added, holding up a hand to shush the former PTSD support group leader. “This is not the time for a therapy session.”

Lying, Sam began, “I wasn’t gonna-”

“Yeah, you were. Now, let’s get outta here.” Bucky said, motioning for Sam to follow him over the door.

“Hold on, Cap, let me get the wings, and your suit. I’ll be there ASAP.” Joaquín called over their coms. Sam could hear a rustling in the background like he was tripping over items as he rushed for the wings. Sam knew he had been itching to use them but now was not the time.

“No, stay where you are.” Sam insisted, physically holding his hands out as if he could touch Joaquín. “No suits, no wings, we can handle this.”

“Are you sure about that? ‘Cause according to these cams I hacked, you two are severely outnumbered.”

“He’s got a point, Samuel,” Bucky said, reaching for his gun he had tucked in the back of his jeans. Sam reached out, holding onto Bucky’s right wrist.

“No guns.” Sam’s eyes darted to Bucky’s metal hand inching towards his knife holster, “Or knives. Not yet.”

Bucky rolled his eyes, “then what’s the plan, Cap? Cause you know I hate to admit that the kid is right.”

“A kid that outranks you.” Annoyance flashed across Bucky’s face at Joaquín’s quip, and before he could snap back Sam immediately stepped in by saying, “Alright, Torres use those cameras and find us a route out of this building. If we get out of here first, then we can go from there.”

“On it.” Sam could hear the rapid clicking of keys against Torres’ keyboard, before he said, “Head down that hallway and take the first door on your left.”

With Joaquin’s directions, they two made their way out of the building, only having to fight a few agents (which the partners easily took care of without weapons), but unfortunately, they weren’t the only ones with access to the cameras. More agents were hot on their tails as they burst out one of the side doors. Sam and Bucky took off running, cutting through side streets until they slipped into the crowd at the marketplace.

“We’ve gotta blend in,” Bucky said, immediately stripping off his jacket as they walked, and dumping it on the back of a chair outside a small food stand. Sam couldn’t help but admire the way his flesh and metal arms flexed as the super-soldier revealed that black t-shirt that hugged his chest and biceps in the best possible way. He quickly swallowed, before averting his eyes ahead, only to catch Bucky swipe a pair of sunglasses off a merchant table.

“Woah, what are you doing?” Sam said, gripping Bucky’s army to stop him in his tracks. “You can’t just steal shit, Buck.”

“Now is not the time to lecture,” Bucky said, looking over his shoulder, to see a few agents following them, eyes scanning rapidly scanning the crowd. “We need to hide in plain sight. Dressing like the locals is our best shot to do that.”

“Find another way, besides stealing,” Sam said, taking off his black baseball cap and quickly setting it on a kid’s head that ran while chasing after his friend.

“Fine, hand me your wallet,” Bucky said, extending his metal hand. Sam rolled his eyes before stopping briefly and begrudgingly gave his wallet to the super-soldier. “Good, now take off your jacket.” Without hesitation, the captain slid out of his jacket and tossed it over to Bucky.

Sam watched as Bucky quickly ducked over to an open clothing stall, and greeted a local merchant woman in Yoruba, a smirk spreading across his face as he pointed at a few clothing items and then pointed in Sam’s direction. The woman smiled brightly looking back and forth between the two of them as Bucky handed over a few bills from the wallet along with Sam’s jacket for a short-sleeve button-up shirt with a blue geometric print, a Nigerian football polo, and two brightly colored baseball caps. Bucky said something else quickly, causing the woman to giggle while she placed one of the caps on his head and pinched his cheek.

The entire exchange probably lasted no more than thirty seconds, but Sam couldn’t help but be enthralled in the moment. First, Bucky knew Yoruba? How many languages did he learn as the Winter Soldier? Second, what exactly did he say to that woman to get her light up like a Christmas tree? What did Bucky tell her about him?

“What did you say to her?” Sam asked as Bucky approached quickly.

“I’ll tell you later,” Bucky replied, tossing the polo in Sam’s direction and placing a blue and pink cap on his own head. “Put that on.”

As they continued weaving their way through the crowd, Sam slipped the polo on over his t-shirt. The shirt was a bit snug, hugging his chest tightly. What the hell had Bucky bought him? “Looking good, Samuel,” Bucky said, giving him a once over with a glint in his eyes and a smirk playing on the corners of his mouth. He then threw the button-up over his own short-sleeve shirt (which he didn’t bother to button) and set the other cap on Sam’s head backward. “There you go, now you look like a real local.”

“You know that was one of my favorite jackets that you gave away.”

“Don’t like the shirt I just bought you? I think it suits you. Shows off all those shield throwing muscles.”

“You mean the shirt I just bought me?”

“Semantics.”

“Where are you guys?” Joaquín’s voice called over their earpieces once more.

“Blending in.” Bucky’s smile faded, as he responded. “I count six agents trying to track us. What does the bird say?”

“Redwing,” Torres began, and Bucky could sense the sass rolling off his tongue, “shows six behind you, and six approaching from the front.”

Immediately Bucky stopped them in their tracks and scanned the crowd ahead of them. Sure enough, he could make out six familiarly dressed agents scanning the crowd for them. “Fuck.” Bucky cursed, “Come on.” Before Sam could react, Bucky had grabbed his hand and pulled them into a small alley between two buildings. He had been hoping they could sneak through onto another side street, but no, the alley was a dead-end into another building. “Damnit.” Bucky dropped Sam’s hand, and Sam nearly sighed at the loss of contact.

Bucky groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose, “I think it’s time for guns, Sam.”

“Do you see how many people there are out there? They will all be caught in the crossfire. Do you really want that?” Of course, Bucky didn’t want that. Sam knew - hell was there for - the nightmares Bucky experienced because of people becoming collateral damage for the Winter Soldier. He’d been there to talk Bucky through the aftermath of them when he was willing to talk and fix a cup of coffee or hot tea when he wasn’t. The pain and guilt in his eyes for something he had no control over… that look alone hurt Sam, he couldn’t even imagine how much it hurt Bucky. No, he would not allow Bucky to feel that pain any more than he already was - you know, on top of not harming the civilians. “We need an alternative plan.”

“They’ll be approaching you in about forty-five seconds, Cap. What’s the plan?”

“I have an idea,” Bucky said, looking up at Sam, a look of uncertainty across his face. “Steve told me once about one of Natasha’s plans that they used years back to slip away from Rumlow and the rest of HYDRA’s agents. It could work.”

“One of Nat’s plans? Hell, it’s got to be good. What is it?”

“Don’t know if you’ll be up for it.”

“Buck, we’ve got twelve bullets and a metal arm between the two of us, and I - and the US government - would like to avoid using any of them if possible. If Nat’s plan doesn’t require using those, I’m down. Does it?”

“No guns, no weapons of any kind actually.”

“Alright, then I’m up for it. What’s the plan?”

“Not a lot of time to explain. Really going to just have to show you.”

“Well, go on with it then.”

“Thirty seconds.”

“Do you trust me?” Bucky asked, a question directed only to Sam, sincerity in his eyes.

Do you trust me? What kind of bullshit question is that? Sam thought. Of course, he trusted Bucky. They’d been going on missions together for months since they stopped the flag smashers and they’ve had each other’s sixes constantly since then. He'd welcomed Bucky into his home to be around his family - and practically live there. Sam Wilson trusted Bucky Barnes with his life, with his family’s lives. No questions about it. Attraction (or deep-seated feelings) aside, how could Bucky not know that by now?

“We don’t have time for this, Buck.” Sam protested, peeking around the corner of the alley to look for the approaching agents.

“I need an answer, Sam.”

“Fifteen seconds, whatever you’re going to do, hurry it up!”

Groaning, Sam said, “Fine, yes, I trust you. Now, will you just-“ Before Sam could finish scolding him, Bucky had swiftly pushed the captain back against the brick wall, and covered his lips with his own.

Bucky had his metal hand securely on Sam’s hip, while his flesh had cupped Sam’s left cheek simultaneously holding him in place and pulling him as close to the soldier as possible. To say Sam was surprised was an understatement, but it only took him a few seconds to just let go and relax under Bucky’s touch. Bucky’s lips were wet and warm, and moved effortlessly against Sam’s. Sam wasn’t sure what compelled the super soldier to do this, but at that moment Sam didn’t care. This mission at hand and the approaching agents faded from his thoughts as he melted into the kiss he had secretly been waiting for.

Bucky’s tongue swiped across Sam’s lower lip, asking for entrance, which Sam immediately obliged, letting him deepen their kiss. As he did so, Sam roughly fisted the collar of Bucky's new button-down, tugging him forward as he tried to eliminate any distance between the two. Bucky’s flesh hand ghosted down Sam’s neck, then his left arm, and his side, leaving a trail of goosebumps in its wake before it settled under the hem of Sam’s shirt, before settling on his lower back. The touch sent a shiver up Sam’s spine and he let out a small moan, which Bucky easily swallowed with another kiss.

Sam couldn’t remember the last time that he had been kissed like this - so passionate, yet so gentle. In an attempt to make it a little less so, Sam let go of Bucky’s collar and snaked his hands up to the base of Bucky’s neck, and buried his hands as deeply as he could in his short dark locks, giving them a tug. The moan that followed this action, was much louder than Sam’s, and almost resembled a growl. Damn, Sam loved that sound and knew he’d do anything to make Bucky elicit that sound again, and again.

Bucky responded by kissing Sam harder than before, and pushing himself closer to him, settling his body into between Sam’s legs, as he moved to deepen the kiss once more. He gripped Sam’s hips so hard he was sure they were going to bruise, but Sam loved every second of it.

He didn’t know how long they had been like this - seconds, minutes, hours - it didn’t matter. Time had stopped the moment their lips touched, and everything else around them had faded, which is exactly why Bucky had to be the first to pull away - because Sam wouldn’t have dreamed of it.

Bucky had disconnected their lips, but both of his hands lightly rested on Sam’s hips. “Sam,” he breathed, his words barely coming out above a whisper before he swallowed hard.

Sam loosened his grip on the Sergeant’s shirt but still rested his hands against his chest. “What... was... that?” He asked, a bit dazed. He was breathing heavily and his hooded eyes lingering on Bucky’s pink, slightly swollen lips.

After a moment, Bucky responded, “Public displays of affection make people uncomfortable.” Sam hummed in response, but only because he couldn’t string any other words together. All he was thinking about was that uncomfortable was not the word that he would use to describe what just happened at all. “When I kissed you the agents only looked for a second before turning away and going right past us.”

When did Bucky have time to look for some damn agents during that fucking unbelievable kiss (more like a make-out session if you asked Sam)? “They did?”

“Yeah.” Sam needed a minute to let the words sink in. The kiss was just a part of a plan. Nat’s plan. A kiss as a distraction/cover. Of fucking course that was a Romanoff plan. A damn good plan, but he couldn’t help but feel the sting of thinking that the kiss - that fucking amazing kiss - was supposed to be… strategic.

For weeks he had been battling over this lingering feeling of wanting something more with Bucky than just a partnership… until this moment of crushing realization, it felt like they had possibly moved to the next step.

Then again, if it was just strategic, why was Bucky still so close to him? He hadn’t made any attempt to move away, still holding Sam against the wall - albeit, without the arousing force he had minutes before.

“Do you think they’re all gone?” Sam asked, loosening his grip just enough for his hand to rest on the sides of Bucky’s neck.

“Probably.”

“But not for certain?” Sam questioned, rubbing his thumbs along Bucky’s strong, stubble-covered jawline, and down his throat. His fingers grazed over Bucky’s pulse point, and he could easily feel the artery pounding beneath the surface.

“Would probably need some more recon to confirm that.”

“Well until then, better to be safe than sorry, right?” Sam dared, doing anything he could to get Bucky’s lips back on his. From the way, the soldier’s heart was racing Sam could only hope that maybe, just maybe, Bucky would want to kiss him again, too.

“Right,” Bucky breathed, and without hesitation, leaned forward once again to kiss Sam, only to be interrupted a minute later, by Torres’ voice in their coms calling for their attention.

“Cap, Sarge.” This time, when Bucky pulled away he dropped his hands and took a few steps back, instantly putting a few feet between the two partners. The captain silently cursed Joaquin and his incredibly terrible timing. “I’ve got eyes on them, they’re headed back to base. You should be in the clear.”

“Okay, good,” Bucky said, a little too quickly for Sam’s liking. “We should be back at the safehouse in 20 minutes. Gotta run an alternate route just in case we’re being followed.”

“Got it,” Torres said, signing off.

Bucky quickly removed the earpiece before shoving it deep into his pocket. He looked around the corner, scanning the crowd before motioning for Sam to follow. “Come on, it’s hot as fuck out here, and I need a shower.”

Yeah, me too. A fucking cold one, Sam thought.

#sambucky #james bucky barnes #sam wilson #hiding in plain sight #don't mind me being obsessed with sambucky #my first sambucky fic #is it any good?#falcon and the winter soldier #captain america and the winter soldier #tfatws #fatws

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florrickandassociates · 3 years

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TGF Thoughts: 5x03-- And the court had a clerk...

Hello again! It’s nice to have this show back. This episode was a bit less of a standout than the previous two, but I’m still happy with the overall direction for this season. More under the cut (or here, because tumblr sucks).

When Robert King tweeted the episode title, I asked him if all the titles this season were adding up to one long sentence/story, hoping he’d confirm it and give a little more information. He did! He said it’s “in the Farmer in the Dell mode” and while I think I get what he’s saying, I’m very curious to see how it plays out. Haven’t been able to track down 5x04′s title yet, but the promo is out. (As of this morning! It’s interesting they’re not putting them after the episode this year; I kind of like it.)

Kurt’s job is up in the air given the new administration. I think this scene exists mostly just to remind us where Kurt works and the stakes.

What month is this supposed to be in? The transition seems recent but no one is wearing masks.

Kurt spots a poster asking for help ID’ing people at the Capitol on January 6th. He thinks he recognizes someone...

And now we’re in case of the week land. This case is about a small business owner whose business went under after someone created fake news articles accusing him of pedophilia.

I think the whole point of this (kind of long) scene is to show that this case is a pretty small deal. Low stakes, inexperienced opposing lawyer. (Not even sure why Liz would be arguing this in court, but whatever.)

Tbh I thought this was going to wind up in 9 ¾ court.

Now that we have junior level characters, we get scenes showing that there are, in fact, people at RBL who are mid-level. Liz asks an associate to work on something, he asks another associate to work on it, she delegates to other associates, and they delegate to Marissa and Carmen. This work seems terrible.

It’s so funny to me how this is probably more realistic than most of the lawyering on the show and yet it only shows up selectively. We only see the hierarchy here to make it clear that Marissa and Carmen are at the bottom.

David Lee interrupts and asks for Carmen. He’s very rude to her. Interestingly, she’s hesitant to leave her grunt work and follow David, even though she must know he outranks the associate who gave her the grunt work.

“Why am I supposed to know you?” David asks her as they walk through the halls. “I don’t know if you are,” Carmen responds. “Why does Benjamin Dafoe know you?” he asks. She doesn’t know who he is.

“Who are you?” Dafoe asks when Carmen enters. She states her name, again. “Why are you important?” he asks. “I don’t think that I am,” Carmen responds.

Then Dafoe says his top client, and it’s a name that the characters all know. I’m glad this scene is free of any “he’s the white OJ” expository lines (that’s from Sweeney’s introduction) -- it’s clear from the reactions and the discussion of police and rape that the top client is a bad guy, probably a rapist. The rapist wants Carmen to represent him.

Putting 2 and 2 together, Carmen asks if the rapist knows Rivi. He’s not, but he’s at the same prison. As soon as Carmen says she’s representing Rivi, David Lee switches gears, understanding the situation and trying to sign the new business. He’s so shameless!

Marissa sorts ALL the papers. There are a LOT of papers. I’m swamped. Look at all this paper.

She catches the associate who assigned her the task leaving for the night just as she finishes up, and cheerfully notes she’s finished the task. Then the associate mentions this was only half of the bills. Marissa does not like that. Since her goal in wanting to be a lawyer is mostly just to give her something exciting to do and earn respect... this hierarchy thing is not going so well.

Marissa decides that after her rough day, she’s going to stop by Wackner’s court. He’s in the middle of a case about Emily in Paris fanfiction and he’s very happy to see Marissa.

Wackner’s night court has a program—it notes the sponsor is Copy Co-op (I thought it was Copy Coop?) and the paper products were also provided by them. And “there will be regular intermissions at the discretion of Judge Wackner.” It’s very theatrical.

Wackner takes a recess and calls Marissa to his “chambers.” He asks for her thoughts on the case. “All they want is attention and to feel like they’ve won,” Marissa notes. Wackner’s on the same wave length and compares it to the Scarecrow’s diploma at the end of The Wizard of Oz. So, he makes copyright certificates and some minor modifications to each of the fanfic books. They say “I respect you and I love you” and that’s that.

Wackner catches Marissa before she leaves and asks her to be his law clerk—part time or full time, 10% of all the legal filings and unlimited use of copy machines. She is hesitant because she “doesn’t even know what this is.”

Wackner says his court is “the future.” Marissa turns him down; notes she wants to pass the bar. “You know why all these people are here? ‘Cause the courts and the lawyers and the appeals have made justice... unattainable. Out of reach. To anyone who doesn’t have a shitload of money to wait it out. That’s why Exxon beats out Mr. Nobody. Read Kafka’s Before the Law.”

I just read it, and you should too! It literally is a page, but tl;dr, there’s a man who wants to get to the law and instead he spends his whole life trying to win over the first of many gatekeepers on the path to the law. He never gets through the gate.

“Justice is only just if it’s available to everyone,” Wackner says. Marissa thinks about that.

As I said last week, it’s smart that Wackner makes so much sense. Hearing him say all this, knowing that it’s true... it makes it very easy to get on board with the thought experiment. Of course there would be huge repercussions to this kind of system, but it makes so much sense it’s compelling TV!

Kurt’s showering when Diane gets home, which gives her time to stumble across the WANTED poster and notice that Kurt has drawn facial hair onto one of the pictures. “Who is this?” she asks him. “No one,” he says. “Well, you drew in a beard and a moustache on him,” Diane notes. Kurt says he was doodling, but Diane calls him out as he is the “exact opposite of a doodler.” Kurt says he thought it was someone he knew, but he’s not sure. Diane pushes him to tell the feds. Kurt reiterates he’s not sure, but it’s someone he went shooting with. “Oh my God, then it’s him,” Diane jumps to (not incorrect) conclusions. Kurt says he didn’t talk that way; he’s a veteran. “Kurt! That’s the profile!” Diane argues. Kurt isn’t convinced and he doesn’t want to be responsible for naming names. He notes he’ll be threatened with indictment for not naming names and then only lawyers will end up benefitting. Diane is not convinced.

I think this is an interesting conflict for Kurt and Diane. I understand why Kurt is hesitant to speak out before he’s sure. And I understand and agree with Diane that it’s important to identify the attackers and prevent anything like that from happening again.

I don’t mean to blame Kurt, exactly, but I feel like all of what happens next could’ve played out differently if Kurt had been just a little clearer with Diane about why he was hesitant to ID the man. Like, the threat of indictment for not naming names sounds like some typical anti-government rambling. Saying you specifically are afraid that this will turn back on you and you need to weigh your options and come up with a plan first would put Diane in a very different mode, in which they’d work together to craft the best strategy. Because this man would’ve been ID’d by someone, sooner or later, and Kurt would’ve needed to be prepared.

Diane stares at the wanted poster at work and asks Jay to find his identity. He’s on the FBI TEN MOST WANTED? Ten!? Ok!

Diane shares the extra information she has—the gun range and that he’s a veteran—and Jay gets to work.

Turns out there’s no money in the case that Liz, a name partner, is working on and Marissa just spent all those hours sorting bills for. I could’ve told you there was no money in that case lol.

Jay IDs the guy very fast. He’s faster than the feds because they didn’t know where he shot. The range had his license on file, and Jay got ahold of it.

“Well, we don’t pay you enough,” Diane says. “Oh, I know that,” Jay laughs.

Diane says she’s going to think about calling the feds—it's definitely the same guy.

Marissa notes someone high profile (David Cord, who I presume is a thinly veiled stand-in for David Koch given the name, his role in the plot, and the fact that he is “David Cord of the Cord Brothers”) in the lobby giving a fake name and goes to tell Liz.

David Cord is performing magic tricks for the receptionists (they don’t recognize him) when Liz and Marissa show up. “I knew your father. I hated your father,” Cord says. “Yes, well, he hated you too,” Liz says. He says he gave a fake name to see what the reception would be like since he’s kinda infamous.

Liz introduces Marissa as one of the law clinic lawyers. Marissa knows what to say in this situation. Specifically, she knows that it is the exact right moment to name drop her father.

“Democrats as far as the eye can see,” Cord notes. At that, Liz asks Marissa to get Julius involved.

More good expository work! (No, editor feature of Word, I do NOT want that to say “Better expository work,” that would change my meaning, go away and please stop grading my recap??? I don’t know how I brought this up but it’s telling me my score is 72%, so a C, and it’s driving me crazy. Oh, now I’m a 71%. It had me at like, 50%, because I had written “Wackner” and “Wackner” is not a word. No shit.)

Anyway, back to the exposition. I like that we don’t get a line like, “Liz! David Cord, the Republican super donor, is here!” We just get to see Liz’s reaction, Cord’s hate of Liz’s father, and the line about democrats. Then it becomes clearer who Cord is.

Just noticed Liz is wearing an Apple Watch.

Liz stands for her meeting with Cord, likely to maintain power. Cord says January 6th changed everything to him and now he’s all about unity and loving America.

Cord has something to say about Liz’s case, the one that’s not making any money, and he seems to know quite a lot about it. That spooks Liz.

Then Cord offers her $12 million to continue the case for another six months (all of these months, seemingly, will play out in the couple of days the rest of this episode takes, but, whatever). He just wants them to go after the social media company that distributed the fake news... and Section 230.

Don’t know what that is? Now you do, because there is a Good Fight short! These work so much better when they’re actually needed (explaining concepts, etc.) than when they’re trying to force one into every episode (remember that Downton Abbey one? What... was that?)

I was talking to @mimeparadox about this short and he pointed out that this short has a VERY clear POV on an issue that actually doesn’t seem to be all that straightforward. If you’re like me and only had a vague sense of what Section 230 was prior to this episode, this short is telling you what to think of it—it isn’t just explaining what it is.

I do tend to agree with the show’s POV on most things, but this is an issue I’d like to read more on. I love how Section 230 was something I hadn’t really read up on prior to this episode and now that it’s been on TGF I realize it’s something that actually, yes, I would’ve been interested in knowing about earlier. Is this because things that are on TGF are interesting to me because they’re on TGF or is it because TGF generally only discusses things that would be interesting to me? Probs a little bit of both.

Diane asks Jay how to make an anonymous phone call and he hands her a burner phone. She calls the FBI with the rioter’s name. She doesn’t leave her name and then she dumps the phone.

Credits! Did you catch there’s a Jordan Boatman in the credits? She plays one of the associates who passes down the grunt work to Marissa, and she’s Michael Boatman’s daughter in real life! She’s also been in one other episode, in season 3.

I never get tired of these credits!

The RL partners (and some associates who are on the case? I think these are the same ones who delegated the work to Marissa?) debate whether or not they should take Cord’s money. Madeline notes that he’s funded a lot of Republican campaigns; Julius notes that both Republicans and Democrats agree that Section 230 is flawed and this is an opportunity for unity.

Diane notes that the right doesn’t want to stop conspiracy theories from spreading, so is this really that bipartisan? “It would help if the boomers would stop falling for those conspiracy theories and sharing it with their friends,” an associate (I believe this is Michael Boatman’s daughter again) notes. That quiets the room and the partners all glare at her. Yeah, that was a kind of stupid thing to say. First of all, it’s just not appropriate to say to the partners, and it’s also, like, missing the point? If it’s easy for conspiracy theories to spread among boomers, maybe just expecting each member of that generation to suddenly have a millennial’s understanding of the internet is the wrong strategy? Maybe there’s some structural issue here? That maybe, just maybe, this case is actually about?

The associate also points out that the internet is currently a place where people can speak out about sexual harassment-- “they repeal section 230, and there would be no #MeToo.”

One of the partners says he doesn’t believe that—if they regulate section 230, then newspapers can actually be competitive and there’s still free speech online.

“We’re not going back to reading newspapers, grandpa,” some associate says. What the actual fuck, dude? Who talks like that to their boss?! It’s so condescending. He’s also wrong! “Newspapers” are not just physical things... reporting by major publications still matters and will continue to matter. Like, is he suggesting that in the future all news will just be random people tweeting things they think are true with no fact checking or curation? Sure, journalism is struggling right now—but I don’t think that’s because there’s a lack of desire for well-reported news.

I am glad the partners call him out on saying “grandpa” and honestly I’m shocked he isn’t asked to leave the discussion after that rude remark. Unless this young looking dude is a partner too? But I don’t think he is.

Julius notes that if they’re going to pursue this case, they need money like Cord’s. At that, Liz starts to leave the meeting. “We haven’t decided if we’re taking this Cord money yet,” Madeline protests. “Of course we are,” Liz says and leaves.

Now that’s more like it! I’m not sure if this is necessarily the best way to handle this, but she’s a) correct, they were always going to take the money because it is $12 million and an issue of interest and b) using her authority. Should Liz be making decisions totally on her own? Maybe not. Does Liz making this decision and then leaving (with everyone accepting that she’s correct) cut through a lot of bullshit and establish Liz as the one in charge? Yup.

Diane says, “Ooh-kay” with a little bit of an eyeroll after Liz exits, but she’s still laying low. I think in a different season Diane might’ve tried to push back.

Is it me or does Baranski get a lot of material this episode we haven’t seen before? Lots of really good reaction shots/tones in this episode I don’t really think we’ve seen from Diane before. I’m impressed there’s still new stuff after 12 years.

At some point maybe I will actually write the essay I’ve been wanting to write for ages about how TGF is still so relevant despite being in a universe that should be showing its age by now. I wish I could find the first time that I called TGW a period piece set in the present day (I know it would’ve been during season five) because I think that’s the key to TGW/TGF’s enduring success. The shows always feel timely because they try to capture the present moment (which is, of course, always changing) and don’t get stuck in any one moment in time. Further, the fact that the writers are always so tuned in to events and skilled at quickly reacting to what happens in the world makes them VERY good in a pinch, which is (I think) why they’re able to make the most of unexpected situations (Josh leaving TGW, the pandemic).

Liz and Julius bring a suit against ChumHum to attack 230. Judge Friend is initially skeptical of their argument that 230 is unconstitutional; then she’s intrigued. I am too. This argument about the press is a very interesting one. I obviously have a lot of reading to do on 230, but my take after this episode is pretty much that social media platforms have to be held responsible in some way, but I don’t think it’s feasible or desirable for them to be responsible for every single one of billions of posts. I think there has to be some way to regulate social media giants that would allow everyday people to share things and speak out but would prevent the curated (even by an algorithm) spread of fake news and make social media giants accountable when there are very public bad actors using their platforms. What that regulation would be I have no idea. I just refuse to believe that our options are to give the social media sites full immunity or to regulate the internet so strongly that no one is able to speak freely because all the platforms are worried about lawsuits.

Over at the VA, people are being fired. When Kurt gets into his office, Madeline Starkey (wait, are there two characters named Madeline in this episode?) is waiting for him. She’s still very quirky and scary.

Starkey says the guy that Diane reported is now saying Kurt trained him on using assault rifles and buying ammunition in bulk. Kurt notes these were topics covered in a group setting, which Starkey knew—and what she’s really after is the names of the others in the group. (She may already know them, since she knows there were five of them.)

Kurt refuses to name names and just stares at her.

Case stuff happens! (I liked the last two episodes a lot but it’s much faster for me to just write, “case stuff happens” for some of the scenes.)

Hey, surprise Aaron Tveit! (Not really a surprise; he is in the credits. But still yay!)

I don’t really know why Liz and Julius are talking about newspapers specifically and not all types of fact-based journalism/press? I feel like their argument is most convincing when it’s about actual newspapers (especially local ones) but still would apply to cable news...

Marissa’s still hard at work sorting papers when the associate comes back in and informs her she can stop; they’ve changed strategies and everything she’s done is now irrelevant. She also says “I forgot to tell you” at the start of that thought, meaning that she neglected to tell Marissa this important information earlier and wasted her time. Marissa is not pleased and so she goes to Wackner’s court, where Wackner now has a deli ticket machine and is wearing super-sized novelty sunglasses. Why not!

He sees Marissa and calls a five-minute recess. In “chambers,” Marissa tells him she’d like to work for him part-time but keep her RL job.

Wackner needs her help processing more copyright certificates. He’s priced them competitively at $20 and found that a lot of writers want these certificates, even though they have no legal value. (Neither do actual copyrights, Wackner notes. And he notes that if anyone plagiarizes, they can sue in HIS court.)

“Marissa, I’m building something here. I want you to join me. I want your advice on cases. I want to bounce legal theories off you,” he says. “What are your legal theories?” she asks. “I don’t know. That’s why I need to bounce them,” he says.

Marissa gives him from noon to 2 and 5-7, which seems awfully ambitious for someone working at a law firm!

“That’s how revolutions are made. Back rooms of copy shops,” he says, accepting her offer.

Kurt is sulking in the dark when Diane arrives home. He lets her know about Starkey’s visit and she immediately goes into lawyer mode. Notably, this scene does not spend much time on how Starkey found out the rioter’s name. Curious if they’re saving that for later or if Diane and Kurt both know what Diane must have done or if Kurt think’s it’s a coincidence.

Kurt SET UP A TOUR OF THE CAPITOL for one of the veterans in his shooting group, and that tour was ON JANUARY 6TH! I really do wish he’d told Diane that upfront.

Maybe the long pause where Kurt refuses to tell Diane which congressperson arranged the tour even after she promises she won’t say is him letting on that he knows that Diane ID’d the guy? Or maybe it’s just Kurt.

I do not like the dead birds in Starkey’s office, mostly because I do not like thinking about dead birds.

Starkey compares Diane and Kurt to the Conways.

And now more case stuff happens.

Julius gets to question a witness for the first time in two years! He’s a little shaky at first but then he does a fantastic job! Yay Julius!

When Diane arrives at the office, reception is filled with around a hundred teddy bears. “What?” she asks. “Build-a-Bears. They were sent to Marissa,” the receptionist explains. “Okay... why?” Diane asks the logical next question. The receptionist does not know.

“This one’s a Marissa bear,” she says, showing Diane a bear wearing boots and a wig. It does not look much like Marissa and it says “Hug me.”

Diane looks confused and furious at the same time. Her look here is, like, a milder version of the death stare she gives Alicia in Outside the Bubble when she learns about Alicia and Cary’s plan to leave.

“Why don’t we, meaning you, take all these stuffed animals and put them in the conference room,” Diane instructs the receptionist. She is NOT! HAPPY! The receptionist seemed to be having fun with the bears, but clearly the right answer was to have done something with them and... not to have put them over every surface in reception. Eeek.

Carmen’s new client, the rapist, arrives at the firm before anyone can hide the bears. “This may not be the firm for you,” his advisor/lawyer (I’m not totally sure what this dude’s job is) warns.

Madeline notices the rapist and glares at the receptionist. “I know. I’m putting them in the conference room,” the receptionist says, thinking Madeline is upset about the bears. She is not upset about the bears.

Diane finds Marissa, who’s working with Carmen again. She asks Carmen to give them a moment.

“Why are there hundreds of teddy bears in our reception?” Diane asks. Marissa is confused. Diane shows her the Marissa bear. Marissa looks horrified and amused. “That doesn’t even look like me,” Marissa notes, completely missing how pissed off Diane is. I don’t think we have seen Diane be this direct/no-nonsense in ages.

“That would seem to be beside the point. What is going on, Marissa?” Diane demands. Marissa suspects this is based on some advice she offered to a client who was buying a Build-a-Bear franchise and thinks this is a thank you gift. “What client? You’re not a lawyer! Why do you have clients?” Diane says exasperatedly.

Marissa gives her a look, and Diane immediately understands that she’s been back to Wackner’s court. “Oh my God, this is about that Copy Coop court?”

“Marissa, no. By participating in that simulacrum of a courtroom, you exposed this firm to malpractice, sanctions, and God knows what,” Diane says. If that were really true, she wouldn’t have sat there and argued. I mean, I don’t know the legality of this all, but I feel like it’s a bigger optics issue than legal issue if Diane and other lawyers are willing to even consider participating?

“If you wish to continue your employment at this firm, you will never do anything like that again. Do you understand?” Diane says. She will not hear any arguments.

I love that Marissa is the thing that keeps Wackner coming back. It’s a good plot for her, but structurally, it also allows the show to keep Wackner around without many contrivances. Wackner sees that Marissa would understand what he’s up to, she sees that he shares some of her frustrations with the law, and they both want to work together again. It’s not like suddenly everyone’s talking about Wackner’s court and all the cases somehow end up there or anything.

The receptionist, who is having a truly terrible day, comes into announce that Kurt and Starkey have arrived. “Don’t put them in the conference room!” Diane commands, knowing that the teddy bears will be there. It’s too late, though, because the receptionist (who previously seemed to be fine at her job if bad at recognizing public figures and understanding that partners might not find teddy bears amusing) has already put them in the conference room. I feel bad for her, and don’t think the other things were her fault, but I feel like she could’ve seen this one coming...

I find the teddy bears HILARIOUS, mostly because the reactions to them are so funny. It’s kind of the same gag as the balloons for Lucca in season two, but I don’t really care, because I’m getting to see Diane Lockhart treat hundreds of Build-a-Bears like they are a real work problem.

Starkey jokes about the bears; Kurt is silent.

The rioter from the poster is now accusing Kurt of coming up with the STRATEGY for January 6th, which Kurt and Diane both dismiss as bullshit.

I could do without Starkey’s musical cues.

I can’t tell if Kurt is in trouble here or if she’s just pressing him to name names. Why wouldn’t she just have rioter guy name names if he’s so eager to blame Kurt? I guess maybe if the others were actually there, he might be less likely to name the names of his actual co-conspirators? Or, Starkey might already know the names (surely the shooting range has logs) and be using this to raise the stakes.

No one (except maybe the partner named Daniel) is happy about the rapist in reception. “Since when are we representing people like Wolfe-Coleman?” Julius asks. Didn’t these people help both Sweeney (though I think Sweeney was in some weird police brutality case and they didn’t actually want to represent him) and Bishop? And Rivi? But they draw the line here? Sure.

Ah, there we go, an expository line-- “he’s the next Jeffrey Epstein”. Almost made it the whole episode without one of these. I’ll forgive it since it’s so late in the episode lol.

“Did you approve this, Liz?!” Madeline demands. Liz did not. Daniel wonders if that means Diane approved it. Liz doesn’t think so and calls Diane (who happens to be walking past) in.

“I know, the teddy bears. I’m working on it,” Diane says when she opens the door. I think the teddy bears are a bigger issue to Diane than to anyone else.

Diane didn’t approve representing Mr. Rapey either. She’s uncomfortable that a meeting was happening without her; Madeline notes that she is standing there specifically because they wanted to involve her.

David Lee pops up out of nowhere with the answer: one of the new associates (not Marissa, “the real one”) pulled in Mr. Rapey. Are there only two associates now even though orientation was for a big group?

Firth is gone, btw. David Lee is the new Mr. Firth. I have no idea why David would want to be STR Laurie’s guy for managing RL but... sure, whatever? David Lee is an effective antagonist, especially in small doses, and this allows the writers to keep him around and continue the STR Laurie plot without a key guest star. If STR Laurie is still a thing, and it seems like it is going to be a thing for a while, then having David Lee take on this role makes sense for plot. Otherwise they’re going to have to shoehorn him in to every plot somehow. At least now he has a reason to be around.

Liz and Diane take a walk to chat. Diane is worried about having David as their boss. Liz says she has a worse worry—David Lee knew exactly when to come downstairs with information, suggesting he know what they were talking about. “Would he do something like that?” Liz asks when Diane wonders if there’s a bug. “Oh, yeah,” Diane replies. Hah, yeah. He absolutely would.

They decide to have Jay search for bugs and Liz is frustrated with how much time they have to spend on things other than lawyering. Yup.

“What is going on with all the teddy bears in the conference room?” Liz asks as they head back to the office. “It’s a long story,” Diane sighs. I also love that the teddy bears link the various pieces of the episode together—it feels like all of these threads are happening simultaneously because of that constant.

I don’t get RL’s approach to clients. Bishop and Rivi are ok, Wolfe-Colman is not (except that actually he is fine). Cord is okay too. Do they draw the line anywhere? I know Liz was right when she said that OF COURSE they were taking the money, but is there really nothing that differentiates that situation from this one? I feel like there should be.

Marissa goes back to see Wackner. Since someone refuses to say “I respect and I love you,” Wackner reverses his ruling. This is part of the “Bad Loser Law of last Wednesday,” so the rules of Wackner’s court are clearly a work in progress.

Marissa explains she can’t be the law clerk because of Diane. She tries to connect him with a real lawyer, still not understanding exactly what Wackner’s after. “You know just enough not to crush what I’m doing here,” Wackner explains. “A real lawyer will look for reasons why not. I need someone to look for reasons why.”

Case stuff happens. I cannot read Cord’s handwriting. Liz and Julius lose the case because Judge Friend says what’s happening isn’t fair, but it is constitutional. (So here we have, at least in the show’s POV, a good and attentive judge who can’t make decisions that make sense because she’s bound by a document written before anyone had ever dreamed of the internet.)

Cord is waiting for Liz in her office. He’s prepared to bankroll an appeal. Did they blow thorough that $12 million already? Impressive; it’s been like a day.

Cord says they are definitely the firm he wants. Interesting.

Now Liz wants a meeting with Carmen, so it’s Marissa who leaves the room. This scene seems like it was meant to be a different day?

Liz wants to talk about Mr. Rapey. Carmen is, yet again, chill about the case. “Carmen, is there anyone that you would not represent?” Liz asks. Funny, Liz, I could ask you the same. Being hesitant about it is not changing the fact that you’re representing bad people. Carmen’s just cutting the bullshit.

“I don’t understand. Is there someone you don’t want me to represent?” I love how Carmen’s incredibly polite responses always seem very pointed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Carmen’s reply, and yet it puts Liz in a place where she can’t dance around what she’s trying to say.

“I’m just trying to get a sense of who you are,” Liz explains.

Then Liz decides she’s going to help on the Craig Wolfe-Colman (Mr. Rapey) case, and they will keep talking about her career path. Liz, this does not seem like the right solution! You're worried about your associate representing bad people so you’re like, I know, what if I ALSO represented bad people? If your goal is to convince Carmen not to take clients like this, you’re kinda shooting yourself in the foot!

“Are you worried about me?” Carmen says, again turning things on Liz. “I don’t know what I am about you,” Liz replies. Me either. Well, I know I'm intrigued, but beyond that, no clue!

All the bears have ended up in Diane’s office, where Wackner is waiting. He jokes about how his court is always seen as informal, yet this real fancy law office is covered in Build-a-Bears. Then he says he wants to hire RL—he's willing to pay. He wants consultation from Marissa (“consultation on legal issues”) and he’s prepared to spend a lot. And, if there’s one thing we know, it’s that they’re always going to take the money. So, they do.

I love that Wackner’s goal is to “perfect my little clubhouse of the law.” It’s a fun plot, and it also allows for the rules in his court to change (I’m sure we’re going to be treated to/subjected to a lot of whimsical gags around changing and ridiculous rules). It's also a good way to work through the thought experiment over the course of the season. It’s not like Wackner already has a system set up and it’s perfect—I'm sure we’re going to see his system run into issues and explore that more, too.

Wackner monologues a bit here about why he’s running fake court, and he lets us know he’s going to monologue. Basically he thinks people no longer want to help people and are only motivated by their own self interest. He notes that no one talks about the Peace Corps anymore and asks the last time Diane heard anyone say those words. I’m sure I’ve heard a reference more recently but my mind went RIGHT to season one Cary Agos saying “Peace Corps. Belize,” as some kind of smarmy pickup line. This is likely not where my mind was supposed to go.

Wackner wants “A new Peace Corps. For America.” Diane’s sympathetic to that and agrees to take him on as a client.

Wackner asks if he can take a bear. Diane instructs him to take two.

Aaaand Wackner and Cord end up on the elevator together. Wackner hands Cord a bear, the elevator doors close, and the episode ends. Since last episode ended with Marissa and Carmen in the elevator together, I’m hoping this will be how every episode this season ends. I think using the Kings’ favorite liminal space to transition between episodes is kind of fun, and it fits with the ellipses at the end of every episode title.

Speaking of... did you see today’s elevator-themed episode of Evil? It was written by the Kings. Those two have been obsessed with elevators for at least a decade.

#the good fight #tgfthoughts

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kyrievali · 4 years

Note

I've been reading your posts and in one of them you mentioned that Iroh in fact is very shady and Azula has every right to hate him, may you explain why?

Sure, I’ll go into it.

Let me start off by saying that I actually really like Iroh as a character. I think he’s great and well-written. I think the fandom tends to gloss over his flaws and label him as “perfect”, which is not true. One of his greatest failings (aside from making two teenage siblings fight each other for the throne...or really not intervening at all where Ozai is concerned) is his treatment of Azula, and him saying “No, she’s crazy and needs to go down” and essentially writing her off when, if you compare Azula’s personality with Season 1 Zuko, they’re really not all that different. Azula, people tend to forget, is a 14 year old girl who was as much a subject of abuse as her brother. Zuko and Azula were essentially pitted against one another to both gain Ozai’s affection and, more importantly, avoid punishment. The only difference is that she was rewarded and praised by Ozai for her power and cruelty, while Zuko was punished for his “shortcomings”. Zuko’s entire storyline proved how important it is to have a good, guiding parental figure in one’s life, and it’s tragic that Azula didn’t have that.

Now, let’s talk about why Azula probably hated her Uncle.

1. She thinks he’s a failure and, worse than that, weak

And I don’t mean weakness in terms of his firebending skills. Let me explain - Fire Nation citizens are ingrained with Nationalistic pride and complete loyalty to the Fire Lord from a very young age. Iroh, once upon a time, was the heir to the Fire Nation’s throne and the favored son of the notoriously cruel Azulon. He laid a 600 day siege against Ba Sing Se during which his son, Lu Ten, was killed. This tragic event caused him to withdraw his troops, despite having breached the outer wall.

Upon his return home, his father dies under mysterious circumstances and decrees that Ozai will be the heir to the throne. Instead of contesting it, Iroh leaves the Fire Nation and ostensibly spends his time traveling the world, meeting with the Dragons, and getting in tune with the Spirit World. Doing so gives him the knowledge and wisdom to see the error of his ways, at which point he returns to the Fire Nation and serves as a General in the army.

Let’s look at this from the perspective of Azula, or really any other citizen of the Fire Nation. Their country waged a nearly 2-year long siege against the Earth Kingdom - and right when they make progress by breaking through the first wall, the Crown Prince gives up because his son died. Countless Fire Nation lives and resources were spent on this 600 day campaign, and they end up with nothing to show for it. If you look at the philosophy of Sozin, Azulon, and Ozai, they likely would have used the death of Lu Ten to galvanize the troops and double their efforts, in an attempt to exact revenge against the Earth Kingdom for daring to spill royal blood - and so that their sacrifices thus far would not have been in vain.

And then, not only does Iroh withdraw from Ba Sing Se, he also abandons his duties and his country completely. Iroh had a reputation as a fearsome Firebender and cunning strategist - and he just leaves. So now not only is he a failure, but he’s also a deserter, one who abandons his nation while it’s reeling from a humiliating defeat and the loss of its Sovereign, Azulon (who, by the way, ruled for about 80 years).

In Azula’s eyes, all of this amounts to weakness, and as we all know from how she was raised by Ozai, weakness is unacceptable.

2. She is parroting her father’s feelings of resentment

Given that Azula was the favored child of Ozai, it’s likely that she idolized her father and thought he was superior to her uncle, the Crown Prince (for the first few years of her life, at least, Iroh WAS the Crown Prince) and should have been the true heir to Azulon. We don’t see a whole lot of Ozai or his backstory/characterization, but it’s not unreasonable to assume that he, being many years younger than Iroh (it’s never officially stated, but Ozai is around 45 at the time of the show and Iroh appears to be in his late 60’s/early 70’s) had an inferiority complex growing up, and probably some form of sibling rivalry. After all, Iroh is already an adult by the time Ozai is born, and the Crown Prince, who has been groomed from birth to be Azulon’s heir. Ozai is an afterthought; an insurance policy, who at the very moment of Lu Ten’s birth, is outranked by an infant.

Ozai probably resented Iroh his entire life, so it is not unlikely that Azula would probably feel the same way.

3. He’s a traitor to the Fire Nation

Azula is a Nationalist and Ozai’s most loyal enforcer. Iroh’s a traitor, and as far as she knows, a corrupting influence to her brother, Zuko. She also probably thinks that he’s committing treason because (she doesn’t know any better) Iroh wants to be the rightful Fire Lord, and she is not going to stand for that.

4. He reminds her of her mother

Azula is used to being the golden child - a prodigious Firebender, the favored daughter of her father, representative of everything the model Fire Nation child should be. And yet, her own mother does not appear to love her. Her Uncle has stated distaste for her. She thinks she’s doing everything right - because according to Sozin and Ozai’s philosophies and the emphasis of power and loyalty to the Fire Nation - she is; so why do two of her own family members prefer Zuko, the “screw-up” of the family - to her?

It’s clear that Azula craves the love and adoration of others, but she doesn’t really understand it. I think as she grew older and saw more of the world and how people behaved toward her, she understood on some level that she was considered a “monster” and that people were afraid of her; but that’s how she was raised. Fear was power, and power was everything. And growing up, she was only ever positively reinforced for her ruthlessness and cunning by her father (of whom she is very much afraid, by the way...that is made perfectly clear in her attempts to bring Zuko home and also give him credit for allegedly killing the Avatar. Part of it is actually probably due to some level of affection she has for him, but part of it is definitely motivated by having someone else take the heat off of her in an abusive household) and she witnessed firsthand how perceived weakness was punished - so she did everything she could to achieve the ideal of perfection that Ozai, Azulon, and Sozin had proliferated. So she probably never really understood why her own mother and Iroh didn’t like her. And the fact that they both seemed to prefer Zuko, who she’s been taught to think she’s better than, would only further that resentment.

She thinks she can earn people’s affection by being a perfect Fire Nation soldier, because that’s what works with her father - and when it doesn’t work with Ursa or Iroh, two important adult family figures in her life - she doesn’t understand why and, even worse than that, it makes her feel inferior to Zuko.

5. My final point is purely speculative, but...He didn’t do anything to directly stop Ozai’s rise to power

In the years after the war, after recovering from her mental break and maybe rehabilitating to become an advisor to Zuko (let’s be totally honest, a Nation whose entire economy for the past 100 years has been built on war and imperialization is not going to have an easy transition into peace, especially when they are expected to give up their colonies and play nice with an equally corrupt government that was controlled by the Secret Police force which has no qualms about brainwashing its own citizens...also the new Fire Lord is a banished Prince who is the apprentice of the Disgraced Prince and who returned to defeat the pride of the Nation, Princess Azula, Ozai’s Chosen Heir and the Conqueror of Ba Sing Se), Azula’s going to be pretty pissed that her supposedly wise and worldly uncle did not intervene in her megalomaniacal and abusive father’s rise to power.

If my uncle, who never liked me, lost countless Fire Nation lives and resources in a battle that ended with him retreating, abandoned the Crown to go on a sightseeing tour of the world, returned and became a traitor to the nation by foiling the Admiral’s conquest of the Northern Water Tribe resulting in the loss of more Fire Nation lives, escaped from you multiple times and went on to become a tourist and small business owner in an enemy nation, turned your brother against you, did nothing to stop his own brother whom he knew was deeply abusive even after he came back after gaining all this supposed wisdom, and THEN also left you alone with your abusive father while taking your inferior brother under his wing and helping him become an extremely powerful bender who eventually defeats you with the help of a Water Tribe peasant...yeah, I’d be pretty pissed at him, too.

To be fair, she probably never would have willingly gone with them because they were basically just sent on a wild goose chase at that point...but he never even tried to help her.

Anyway, that’s why I think Azula hates Iroh and honestly, she has every right to hate him. He abandoned her Nation and wrote her off completely, so there’s no reason she wouldn’t do the same.

#a:tla #avatar #azula #iroh #a:tla analysis #anon answers #i actually do like iroh btw #i just don't think he's perfect #and don't give me that he's perfect because he's imperfect crap #he's predominantly portrayed as wise #so when he says Azula is crazy and needs to go down #all the fans think that too #and it's sad because azula doesn't get any love #not even from her mother whoops

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ibijau · 3 years

Text

chap 2 of the modern xisangyao, also on AO3

Against his better judgement, Meng Yao finds himself quite charmed by the too handsome researcher who wants to meet his employer

Mister Shanzi will be unhappy when he discovers that Meng Yao has agreed to meet with a researcher without first consulting him, but he is simply too curious. It is so odd for anyone to be so interested in that obscure painter, and so desperate to see more of his work. Of course, Mister Shanzi himself holds a clear interest in Nie Huaisang, one that he has unwillingly transmitted to Meng Yao… But mister Shanzi is an odd man, and ordinary people cannot be compared to him.

For this reason, Meng Yao's first instinct upon being contacted by Lan Xichen had been suspicion. Mister Shanzi has his enemies, as Meng Yao knows well, and they try to act clever sometimes.

His second instinct, after a quick internet search, had been amusement. Surely nobody expected him to believe that this man, handsome enough to play the lead in a drama, was a mere university teacher.

A more thorough search had confirmed it though. Meng Yao knew enough about running a con to spot modified photos and fake credentials, and he had found none of that. Digging further, Lan Xichen appeared in the background of photos and was referenced here and there on relatives' social media, with no incoherence to the presentation he'd given in his email.

So Meng Yao had found himself intrigued, and offered to meet and chat.

A decision he half regrets now, because somehow, Lan Xichen is even more handsome in person. He is, in fact, the single most beautiful person that Meng Yao has seen in his life, easily outranking mister Shanzi who had reigned there supreme since the day Meng Yao met him during a con gone wrong.

"I am so glad you offered to meet me," Lan Xichen says with a warm smile. "I am really sorry that I was so insistent, but it is so rare for several of Nie Huaisang’s works to be in a single place."

“I understand,” Meng Yao replies, trying to match the warmth of that smile when he can’t help being a little dazzled by that handsome stranger. “Though at the moment, my employer is a little wary of showing any of those paintings in his possession until he has inspected them all again. It is very embarrassing that several fakes fooled him, and mister Shanzi wants to restore his reputation. He is still getting used to modern technology, and how much it has changed the art market in recent decades.”

Mostly, mister Shanzi complains a lot on the matter, and keeps saying he’s going to have to change career soon. Apparently, back in the days, it was much easier to sell a decent fake as long as you also sold enough real things. But now with age testing of the paper and analysis of the ink, it’s nearly impossible to do a good enough job.

Of course mister Shanzi could quite easily make as much money only selling legitimate art, he has the connections, the collection, and impeccable taste. So Meng Yao suspects it’s not just about money, and more about the twisted joy of deceiving others. He can't fault him for that.

“Yes, that makes sense,” Lan Xichen sighs. “I was fooled as well, so I understand the feeling. It’s so disappointing, but not unexpected. Nie Huaisang attracts forgers like no other artists.”

Meng Yao nods sympathetically. He’s heard mister Shanzi boast that well over half of Nie Huaisang’s paintings in circulation are copies he made himself, and perfectly undetectable unless one runs those ‘damn new tests’ on them.

“If I may be so bold, why the interest in that particular painter?” Meng Yao asks. “Surely you could have found someone less complicated to study.”

Rather than to answer immediately, Lan Xichen considers the question. He takes a sip of tea with more elegance than this café deserves, and Meng Yao is struck once more with the idea that this man should be acting in drama, not writing essays nobody will ever read. It’s easy to imagine Lan Xichen playing the role of a noble prince, or even a god.

“He’s just a fascinating character I suppose,” Lan Xichen says at last. “Outside of his art, we know so little about him. We don’t even know his real name.”

“What?”

Lan Xichen smiles, clearly very pleased to have gotten that reaction.

“He wasn’t born Nie Huaisang,” he explains. “That’s only his courtesy name. You see, he belonged to that… well, they called themselves a sect, though at the end of the day they were closer to nobility, with the same inheritance problems and power struggles. Still, Qinghe Nie held a number of beliefs, and one of them was that the birth name of its members had to be kept a complete secret… and Nie Huaisang is among those who succeeded at obeying that rule. So we don’t know his name, we don’t know his date of birth, and we don’t know how he died or when.”

“Is there anything that is known about him?” Meng Yao teases, more endeared and intrigued than he would care to admit.

Lan Xichen must notice, because he smiles again, as if delighted to have found someone willing to listen to his impromptu lecture.

“We know he was raised by his brother because their father died when they were young,” Lan Xichen says. “Well, half-brother. Nie Huaisang was the child of a concubine, or even of a servant. His father recognised him, but his legitimacy was called in question a few times. We know he survived a local insurrection nicknamed the Sunshot Campaign, though it’s unclear if he was old enough to have taken part in any fighting. His brother did though, with great success, but died without heirs a few years later and Nie Huaisang found himself in charge of a fief.”

He pauses there, his expression turning sadder, as if he were talking of a personal friend rather than a long dead man. Meng Yao finds it ridiculous and a little endearing.

“A few anecdotes from the lives of contemporaries tell us that he must have had a rough time at first,” Lan Xichen continues, “and he was suspected for a while of being implicated in the murder of the head of the Jin clan, but nothing ever came out of that. He’s just thirty at that point, still fairly young, and he lives on for another fifty, maybe sixty years… and we don’t know anything about what he does during that time. Nobody really talks about Qinghe Nie again until his successor rises to power and brings the clan back into the political sphere. Nie Huaisang’s life is a mystery. What little we think we know comes from the few poems he left, and whatever clues we can gather from his numerous paintings. Isn’t that fascinating?”

What’s fascinating, Meng Yao thinks, is the way Lan Xichen’s eyes light up when talking about something he’s passionate about. If it’s an act, then it’s an excellent one… but Meng Yao finds himself hoping that it’s sincere, that Lan Xichen really is just an odd man who is apparently half in love with a painter who died a millennium and a half ago.

There is no way that mister Shanzi would ever let anyone see his private collection. Even Meng Yao is barely allowed to go to his employer’s house, to avoid attracting attention to the place. Lan Xichen’s request is never going to be granted.

But it has been a long while since Meng Yao has been so intrigued by someone, not since first meeting mister Shanzi in fact. And mister Shanzi, in spite of the mutual attraction that Meng Yao knows to be there, has made it quite clear that he isn’t interested in anything but a professional relationship. Meng Yao has satisfied himself with that so far, because his life really is pretty good as it currently is, but Lan Xichen changes that. Surely there’s no harm in pretending that there’s a chance he might get to see the painting, at least until Meng Yao can decide if that too handsome man is trustworthy or not, dateworthy or not…

“It does sound interesting,” Meng Yao admits. “I’m sure mister Shanzi would…”

His phone starts vibrating, interrupting him. Meng Yao can’t help a slight frown, which turns to a deeper one when he sees the message he’s just received.

“Well, I have to go,” he sighs. “I’m really sorry. But… mister Lan, if I may be so bold, would you agree to exchanging numbers? That way we can continue talking about this more easily.”

“Yes, of course,” Lan Xichen replies. There is a trace of pink on his cheeks as he takes out his own phone, which Meng Yao finds both very fetching and rather encouraging.

He’ll have to be careful, this could be a trap, Lan Xichen might be an excellent actor, part of a team skilled enough to have fooled Meng Yao, but… but he might not be, too, and it would be a shame to miss this chance.

After having exchanged numbers and promised to be in touch soon, Meng Yao quickly heads home. He lives on the edges of the city, in a building that already looked ancient when he was a kid. Today’s a good day, because the lift is, in fact, actually working for once.

Upon getting to his floor, Meng Yao goes to knock on the door next to his. It opens nearly immediately.

“Meng Yao, you’re saving my life,” the young woman who lives there greets him. “I’m really sorry, I’ve tried everyone else, but I’ve been called in for an extra shift and I need the money so bad, I’ve had to buy her new shoes this month, and…”

“It’s fine, I don’t mind at all.”

His neighbour thanks him again, and rushes inside. She’s back quickly, her daughter in her arms. The child nearly throws herself at Meng Yao, and her mother runs off to work, leaving them alone.

“Well, Beastie, it’s just you and me,” Meng Yao says, walking to his door. “What are we going to do tonight?”

“Watch fighting movies! Eat candies!”

“And what will we tell mama we did?”

“Watch documentaries and eat greens and I went to bed and I was good!” The little girl roars.

Meng Yao laughs, and puts her down while he unlocks his door. Beastie runs inside to check the tv, while Meng Yao makes sure they actually have something to eat. He tries to keep his fridge full and his cabinet fuller, especially since Beastie has become a regular at his place. Her mother is a hard working girl who, like Meng Yao’s mother, got pregnant too young from a man who didn’t stick around. He used to babysit Beastie for extra cash before meeting mister Shanzi, and for some reason he never really stopped, even if he refuses to take money for it now. He just likes Beastie and her mom, and he remembers how much his own mother used to rely on neighbours too, whenever things became rough.

As Beastie and him settle down for the night, ready to watch one of those cheesy, over the top old kung-fu movies that they both love, Meng Yao gets a text from Lan Xichen, thanking him again for meeting him. After only the briefest of hesitations, Meng Yao quickly answers that he’s sorry he had to leave so fast, because he loved chatting with Lan Xichen. This prompts another text from the handsome teacher, to which Meng Yao replies as well.

His phone doesn’t stop buzzing all nigh, and Meng Yao doesn't stop smiling.

In the days and weeks that follow, Meng Yao and Lan Xichen manage to meet in person a few more times, and text nearly constantly. At their second meeting they’re still pretending that this is only about Lan Xichen’s research, but by the third one they start openly chatting about other things.

Lan Xichen is very open about his life, and everything he says fits with what Meng Yao had found during his initial investigation. He has a little brother nearly fifteen years younger than him who lives with him, he enjoys teaching and researching equally, he has a pet rabbit called Liebing he dotes on, he can’t handle spice at all, he has, in fact, been asked more than once if he was interested in a modelling or acting career but always refused because academia is his calling.

Meng Yao is more careful with the information he shares. He admits to having worked for mister Shanzi for nearly five years, but doesn’t elaborate on how they meet because that's not a story for honest people. He confesses he didn’t have any particular interest in art until taking the job, though he has tried to educate himself on the subject since then (Lan Xichen offers to go to a museum together someday, and to his own surprise, Meng Yao agrees). He doesn’t have pets, but he does have Beastie and he’s pretty sure that counts.

The way Lan Xichen’s eyes go soft over that… it does things to Meng Yao’s poor heart.

As does almost everything Lan Xichen does or says, in fact.

Meng Yao is half appalled at himself for how fast he’s falling for Lan Xichen. He tries to resist it, tries to be reasonable, but Lan Xichen just has to smile the right way, and Meng Yao’s heart flutters in his chest. He feels like a teenager with a crush.

He starts thinking like one, too.

Ever since meeting mister Shanzi, Meng Yao has been loyal to his employer. There is something about the man that demands it, and though he has never made threats of any sorts, Meng Yao can feel that mister Shanzi is not a man who takes kindly to betrayal.

And yet, it would be so easy to arrange for Lan Xichen to come to mister Shanzi’s home without his knowledge. Meng Yao is in charge of his employer’s schedule, so he knows where he is at any given time. He also has the keys to that isolated house in the middle of nowhere. It would be so easy, and Meng Yao has never been too good at resisting temptation.

At this point, he knows that if he tells Lan Xichen he won't see the paintings, the other man will be disappointed but will ask if they can keep seeing each other anyway. This isn't about finding a way to keep his attention: Meng Yao knows he has it already.

It's about Meng Yao guessing how happy Lan Xichen will be to see those paintings, and deciding surely that's worth the risk.

That’s how Meng Yao and Lan Xichen find themselves in a car one day, heading out of the city together. Meng Yao feels his skin buzzing with nerves, though every time he takes his eyes from the road to glance at Lan Xichen and finds him glowing and as excited as a child, he knows it was the right choice. It takes them a few hours to get to the house, which they spend chatting about a number of things. About midway through the trip, when they take a break, Meng Yao announces that due to a last minute problem, mister Shanzi won’t be able to meet them at the house, but welcomes them to check the paintings without him. Lan Xichen is of course disappointed and offers to try again another time, but Meng Yao convinces him it’s more convenient to go that day.

The house, hidden in a bamboo forest, takes Lan Xichen’s breath away when he discovers it, just as it did for Meng Yao the first time. It’s not particularly big or extravagant, but there’s something about it that makes Meng Yao’s heart ache every time he sees it, as if he’s known it before. It’s ridiculous, of course. He’d never really left the city before starting to work for mister Shanzi.

“It looks like home,” Lan Xichen whispers as he exits the car.

“Does your family have a place like that?”

Lan Xichen frowns, and shakes his head. “No, not at all. But it still feels like home. I can’t explain why… Ah, don’t mind me. Let’s just go inside.”

Meng Yao hides a smile and goes to open the door. In truth, he’d like to get this over with as quickly as possible. Mister Shanzi has no reason to be back from his trip until tomorrow, but Meng Yao won’t feel safe until they’ve left. It really is stupid to have come here at all, and even Lan Xichen’s happiness is starting to not feel worth the risk.

The house is quiet when they go in, and a little cold, making them shiver. It’s always fresh in there, which Meng Yao assumes is why mister Shanzi has taken to calling his home the Hanshi.

“It’s not a very welcoming name for a home,” Lan Xichen says as he looks around, sounding a little distracted.

“It’s not much of a home anyway. He doesn’t live here most of the time,” Meng Yao explains as they head for the kitchen. “It has his private collection, a few personal belongings, and that’s it. He prefers to stay with friends or at hotels if he can. Check the fridge and you’ll see how bad it is.”

While Meng Yao pours himself a glass of water, Lan Xichen does check the fridge, and finds it predictably empty except for some forgotten leftovers. Sometimes, Meng Yao suspects that mister Shanzi doesn’t eat at all unless he has company.

After taking a moment to rest from the long trip, Meng Yao takes Lan Xichen toward the workshop in the basement, where he knows his employer usually keeps the best parts of his collection, fake and authentic paintings carefully divided according to a system he taught to Meng Yao.

It really feels more and more like a betrayal to be doing this, but Lan Xichen is glowing, and mister Shanzi will never know.

Meng Yao starts opening the door.

His blood turns to ice when he realises that there’s light inside the room.

He thinks, for a second, to stop and run away while he can, but it’s too late already. Lan Xichen would ask questions, and he wouldn’t like the answers. It could save him from also dealing with mister Shanzi’s fury at least, but even that won’t be afforded to him. When Meng Yao peaks inside, mister Shanzi’s swivel chair is turning toward the door, with mister Shanzi sitting crossed leg in it and looking curiously at the intruders.

It is painfully obvious that mister Shanzi isn’t expecting visitors. Instead of the polished outfits he favours in public, he’s wearing a pair of novelty boxers with emoji on them, and a hoodie two sizes too big with ink stains on the sleeves. His long hair isn’t in a neat braid, but in a messy bun held in place by some cheap chopsticks. In short, mister Shanzi doesn’t look like the refined young man he endeavours to be when he has to show his face somewhere, and more like a college student who has forgotten the taste of any food except instant noodle and energy drinks.

That impression is only made worse by the headphones he’s now lowering, and the game console on his lap. They must have caught him taking a break.

“Meng Yao, why are you…” mister Shanzi starts asking, unfolding his legs so he can stand up, only to interrupt himself when his gaze falls on Lan Xichen.

His hands start shaking, badly enough that his console falls from his grip and onto the floor, its screen cracking upon impact.

“You!” mister Shanzi gasps, eyes wide with terror.

#xisangyao #xiyao #lan xichen #jin guangyao #xisang #mostly just hinted but still #jau writes #counterfeit au #next chapter will probably be pretty short

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crystalelemental · 3 years

Text

Eirika: “Alright, listen up! We, as the winners of Brave alts, must now discuss division of the weapon colors! No two units can share, and we have to get this figured out!”

Gatekeeper: “Greetings, everyone! Nothing to report!”

Marth, crying: “How did I lose to a meme?!”

Marianne: “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m here. I don’t deserve this.”

Eirika, under her breath: “Oooooh gods…”

Eirika: “Okay, listen. No one’s happy about this. We’re just going to have to do the best we can to make this work. One red, one blue, one green, one colorless. We have to figure this out as best we can, okay? Anyone want to get a point of discussion rolling?”

Marth: “I call sword! It’s iconic, like me, the mascot the multiverse!”

Eirika: “The hell do you mean ‘mascot of the multiverse?’”

Marth: “I was here first so I am the most important of all!”

Eirika: “Uh-huh. Anyone have objections to Marth taking sword?”

Marianne: “Well, I wasn’t sure what to take, but I was thinking I could use a sword. Since my relic weapon is a sword. And I think people would really like a sword cavalier, since there aren’t many of them.”

Eirika: “Alright, Marianne contests the sword.”

Marth: “No! You can’t take this from me too! It’s all I have left!”

Marianne: “Oh! I-I’m so sorry, forget I said anything…”

Eirika: “Complaint withdrawn. Any other contesting for the sword?”

Gatekeeper: “Nothing to report!”

Eirika: “Then the motion passes, and Marth will take sword.”

Marth: “Yes!”

Eirika: “That leaves blue, green, and colorless. Any takers?”

Gatekeeper, raising his lance: “Greetings!”

Eirika: “Okay. Marianne, any opposition?”

Marianne: “I was thinking about blue, based on the holy magic.”

Eirika: “Yes, but that can be Green too, so you have to decide which one you want.”

Marianne: “Um...well, what about you?”

Eirika: “I’m not taking blue. If you want it you can have it.”

Marianne: “Um...I think I’ll be okay. He can have that. If he wants.”

Eirika: “Very well. Uncontested, Gatekeeper will take Blue as a lance unit.”

Gatekeeper, raising his lance: “Nothing to report!”

Eirika: “That leaves you and me for Green and Colorless, Marianne.”

Marianne: “Oh, well...I don’t really feel like it’s my decision, so...why don’t you pick first?”

Eirika: “Well, Latona and Excalibur are the only sacred twins left from Magvel not in use. Which are Colorless and Green respectively. So I could go either way. But unfortunately, that’s not how this works. Much as I hate to admit it, you outrank me, so you get first pick.”

Marianne: “Then...maybe I can take Green magic...”

Eirika: *shaking her head ominously*

Marianne: “U-um, no, maybe Colorless is better? I am a healer, after all.”

Eirika: “That’s a fair pick. Then I can take Green. I wonder if Ephraim will give me Garm…”

Marianne: “If you had a preference, you should have just said so…”

Eirika: “Hey, you beat me, fair and square, right? That means you get first pick, and what matters is that it was your choice, right?”

Marianne: “I-I’m sorry…”

Eirika: “So there we go. Marth red, Gatekeeper blue, Marianne colorless, me green. We’ll submit our preferences and hope for the best.”

Marth: “Wait, it’s not guaranteed?!”

Eirika: “Of course not. Concessions have to be made. The first CYL, everyone wanted sword. It was a disaster, and no one came out of that one happy. But you outrank Marianne and I, so you likely get first pick.”

Marianne: “Well, not always. CYL1 did prove they do give priority to lower ranked options as needed.”

Marth: “But...my sword...”

Eirika: “Look, I don’t want it. I can use magic and staves, and am dead last. I’m not going to be sword.”

Marianne: “And I have Blutgang for sword, holy magic that can be blue or green, and healing for colorless. I could be anything, and there are two people who mainly use swords. I don’t think they would give it to me over you, especially when you outrank me.”

Marth: “That is true...okay, that’s a reli-wait. What do you mean you don’t want it?”

Eirika: “Why would I ever voluntarily make myself the worst of the four?”

Marth: “What does that mean?!”

Eirika: “Sword always sucks, and you will also suck.”

Marth: “That’s not true! You’re lying!”

Eirika: “Marth, let me level with you. You’re going to be the billionth sword infantry unit in the game. There will be almost nothing you could do that sets you apart, especially since Alm exists with a Falchion variant, sealing the dragonslayer focus. And he was the worst of his batch by far. Worse, he’s up for a refine just before our Braves arrive. Not to mention you came in second, so you don’t even get a unique skill to help you stand out like he did. You’re dead on arrival, dude.”

Marth: “You...you cheated! You tricked me into take sword!”

Eirika: “Sure did! Tough shit, loser.”

Marth, crying: “You’ll see! I’m gonna get a super good Falchion that will totally make me unique and work well, and then you’ll be sorry!”

Alm, also crying: “You tell them, Marth!”

Eirika: “Who the hell let you in here?! Who was supposed to be guarding the door?!”

Gatekeeper: “Nothing to report!”

Eirika: “I shouldn’t be surprised...”

Marianne: “Well, I don’t know how strong I’ll be, but I’ll do my best.”

Eirika: “As long as you take Colorless, you’re fine. Colorless is always the best.”

Marth: “It’s not that good!”

Eirika: “Oh yeah, it only had Lyn and Veronica, two of the most dominant units of their era.”

Marth: “Just because it used to be the best doesn’t mean it is anymore!”

Eirika: “Right, like Camilla didn’t get the best kit of CYL3, and Claude didn’t get the most future-proofed kit. Colorless is always the best and she will be too.”

Marianne: “Wow...thank you, Eirika.”

Eirika: “It’s just the truth. As long as you take Colorless and stay away from my Green alt!”

Marianne: “U-Understood!”

Gatekeeper, raising hand: “Greetings?”

Eirika: “No, blue sucks, and you’ll suck.”

Dimitri: “I don’t know about that. Blue has worked well for me.”

Eirika: “Seriously, stop letting people in here! Do your damn job!”

Gatekeeper: “Nothing to report!”

Dimitri: “I’m just saying, blue turns out well sometimes.”

Eirika: “I guess so! And hey, he got more votes than you did last year, so I guess he’ll be better than you!”

Dimitri: “Is that so? Congratulations, then!”

Gatekeeper: “Greetings!”

Eirika: “I hate you people. Why can’t you be as irritated about this as the rest of us?”

Dimitri: “Because, this event acknowledges everyone. We’re all popular, so we’re guaranteed alts, including the Braves, eventually.”

Chrom, who’s been waiting four years, and whose game has gotten one (1) alt in two years, and fewer characters on their New Heroes banner: “Yeah...yeah, eventually.”

Marianne, who still is not in the game despite ranking 8th in the female division last year: “Um…”

Eirika, whose game has one of the lowest alt counts, and who’s waited a year and a half for a Duo or Harmonic when her brother was the second to get one: “God I hate your entitled ass.”

Dimitri, whose game got 4 banners exclusive to them and 2 alts last year alone: “What do you mean? Everyone gets the things they want here, right?”

Eirika: “Just...fuck off already. The point is I will be the best brave alt.”

Marianne: “But, um...you said Colorless was…”

Eirika: “You’ll be the strongest, but I’ll be the best. I always get hit with red, and green is the perfect color coverage. I’ll be getting what’s best for me.”

Marianne: “Oh. Well, I suppose that is fair…”

Marth, crying: “I hate you all so much!”

Gatekeeper: “Greetings!”

Alm, still crying: “And I’m gonna get an amazing refine and then Micaiah, Eliwood, and Camilla will be sorry!”

Dimitri: “I don’t get why everyone’s so mad.”

Eirika: “God I hate this event. At least I’ll never have to deal with this shit again...”

#feh headcanons #choose your legends 5 #eirika #gatekeeper #marianne #marth #alm #dimitri #chrom

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somegirlsnerdywords2 · 3 years

Text

Favourite Anime 2020

1. Fruits Basket 2nd Season (Rating: 10/10 - 25 Episodes - Spring 2020)

Genres: Slice of Life, Comedy, Supernatural, Drama, Romance, Shoujo

Synopsis: A year has passed since Tooru Honda began living in the Souma residence, and she has since created stronger relationships with its inhabitants Shigure, Kyou, and Yuki. She has also grown closer to the rest of the Souma family and has become familiar with their ancestral secret, having helped them with many of their personal issues. The closer Tooru gets, however, the more she begins to realize that their secret holds a darker truth than she first presumed. Summer is approaching and Tooru is invited to spend her days with the Soumas, mainly Kyou and Yuki. Tooru wishes for an easy-going vacation, but her close relationships with the two boys and the rest of the Soumas may prove to cause trouble. As they grow more intimate, their carefree time together is hindered by older hardships and feelings from the past that begin to resurface. The Eternal Banquet also dawns on the members of the zodiac, and they must tend to their duties alongside the unnerving head of the family, Akito Souma. With the banquet approaching and a plethora of feelings to be solved, will Tooru's life with the Soumas remain peaceful, or will she find herself in a situation from which she cannot escape? [Written by MAL Rewrite]

2. Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun (Rating: 10/10 - 12 Episodes - Winter 2020)

Genres: Comedy, School, Shounen, Supernatural

Synopsis: The famous "Seven Wonders" that every school seems to have are a staple of Japanese urban legends. One of the most well-known of these tales is that of Hanako-san: the ghost of a young girl who haunts the school's bathrooms. Kamome Academy has its own version of Hanako-san's legend. Rumors claim that if one successfully manages to summon Hanako-san, she will grant her summoner any wish. Lured by the gossip, many people have tried to call upon her, yet every attempt has failed. However, when Nene Yashiro, a girl hoping for romantic fortune, dares to summon Hanako-san, she discovers that the rumored "girl" is actually a boy! After a series of unfortunate events involving Nene's romantic desires, she is unwillingly entangled in the world of the supernatural, becoming Hanako-kun's assistant. Soon, she finds out about Hanako-kun's lesser-known duty: maintaining the fragile balance between mortals and apparitions. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

3. Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shiteshimatta... (Rating: 9.5/10 - 12 episodes - Spring 2020)

Genres: Comedy, Drama, Romance, Fantasy, School

Synopsis: Most people would prefer being the protagonist of a world full of adventure, be it in a game or in another world. But, unfortunately, a certain girl is not so lucky. Regaining the memories of her past life, she realizes that she was reborn in the world of Fortune Lover—one of the games she used to play.

Unfortunately, the character she was reincarnated into—Katarina Claes—is the game's main antagonist, who faces utter doom in every ending. Using her extensive knowledge of the game, she takes it upon herself to escape from the chains of this accursed destiny.

However, this will not be an easy feat, especially since she needs to be cautious as to not set off death flags that may speed up the impending doom she is trying to avoid. Even so, to make a change that will affect the lives of everyone around her, she strives—not as the heroine—but as the villainess.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

4. Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu 2nd Season (Rating: 9.5/10 - 12 Episodes - Summer 2020)

Genres: Psychological, Drama, Thriller, Fantasy

Synopsis: A reunion that was supposed to spell the arrival of peaceful times is quickly shattered when Subaru Natsuki and Emilia return to Irlam village. Witnessing the devastation left behind by the calamities known as Sin Archbishops, Subaru sinks into the depths of despair as his ability to redo proves futile. As the group makes their way to the Sanctuary in search of answers, Subaru has an unexpected encounter with the Witch of Greed—Echidna. Subjected to her untamed rhythm, he is forced to dive into the spirals of the past and future. At the same time, several mysterious threats set their sights on the Sanctuary, heralding a horrific fate for the hapless people trapped within. Everlasting contracts, past sins, and unrequited love will clash and submerge into a river of blood in the second season of Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu. Pushed to the brink of hopelessness, how long will Subaru's resolve to save his loved ones last? [Written by MAL Rewrite]

5.Chihayafuru 3 (Rating: 9.5/10 - 24 Episodes - Fall 2019 Leftover)

Genres: Game, Slice of Life, Sports, Drama, School, Josei

Synopsis: Winning the high school team tournament was a great accomplishment for the Mizusawa members. Each of them has made great strides in improving themselves, and the victory symbolizes how far they've come. But after accomplishing one goal, their individual aims are within reach. Chihaya Ayase has her sights set on Wakamiya Shinobu and the title of Queen, and now that Taichi Mashima has made it into Class A, he can finally compete against Arata Wataya. Everyone in Mizusawa wants to get better, and there's no telling what the future holds if they keep trying. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

6. Boku no Hero Academia 4th Season (Rating: 9/10 - 25 Episodes - Fall 2019 Leftover)

Genres: Action, Comedy, Super Power, School, Shounen

Synopsis: After successfully passing his Provisional Hero License exam, Izuku "Deku" Midoriya seeks out an extracurricular internship with a professional hero agency. At the recommendation of his mentor All Might, Midoriya lands a position under All Might's former sidekick, Sir Nighteye, now a famous hero in his own right. As Midoriya's classmates further their own abilities through various internships, up-and-coming villain Kai Chisaki utilizes his terrifying powers to gather favor in the criminal underworld. Known by the moniker Overhaul, Chisaki's ambitions collide with the League of Villains and its leader, Tomura Shigaraki. Through his work with Sir Nighteye, Midoriya discovers Chisaki's crime syndicate and the villain's hostile relationship with a mysterious young girl named Eri. Fearing for the child's safety, Midoriya and his upperclassman Mirio Toogata must work together to put an end to Chisaki's reign of terror. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

7. Haikyuu!!: To the Top 2nd Season (Rating: 9/10 - 12 Episodes - Fall 2020)

Genres: Comedy, Sports, Drama, School, Shounen

Synopsis: Karasuno enters into the second half of Nationals with brand-new opponents: Inarizaki High. The long-standing powerhouse team includes a few familiar faces, namely Miya Atsumu. Named Japan's "best high school setter," Miya previously rubbed elbows with Kageyama at the All-Japan Youth Intensive Training Camp. Karasuno will have to overcome a setter that outranks their own, and Atsumu's twin brother is on the team, too. (Source: ANN)

8. Haikyuu!!: To the Top (Rating: 8.5/10 - 13 Episodes - Winter 2020)

Genres: Comedy, Sports, Drama, School, Shounen

Synopsis: After their triumphant victory over Shiratorizawa Academy, the Karasuno High School volleyball team has earned their long-awaited ticket to nationals. As preparations begin, genius setter Tobio Kageyama is invited to the All-Japan Youth Training Camp to play alongside fellow nationally recognized players. Meanwhile, Kei Tsukishima is invited to a special rookie training camp for first-years within the Miyagi Prefecture. Not receiving any invitations himself, the enthusiastic Shouyou Hinata feels left behind. However, Hinata does not back down. Transforming his frustration into self-motivation, he boldly decides to sneak himself into the same rookie training camp as Tsukishima. Even though Hinata only lands himself a job as the ball boy, he comes to see this as a golden opportunity. He begins to not only reflect on his skills as a volleyball player but also analyze the plethora of information available on the court and how he can apply it. As the much-anticipated national tournament approaches, the members of Karasuno's volleyball team attempt to overcome their weak points and refine their skills, all while aiming for the top! [Written by MAL Rewrite]

9. Kakushigoto (Rating: 8.5/10 - 12 Episodes - Spring 2020)

Genres: Slice of Life, Comedy, Shounen

Synopsis: Kakushi Gotou is a somewhat popular manga artist whose works are known for inappropriate content. Because of this raunchiness, when his daughter Hime was born, he vowed to keep his profession hidden from her, believing that she will be disillusioned if she finds out. This paranoia-induced belief leads Kakushi into hectic situations. Despite being a single father, he does his best and often resorts to extreme ends just to protect his secret, such as guising as a salaryman every day or holding emergency drills in case Hime somehow finds her way to his workplace. Kakushigoto tells the story of a father and daughter living side by side, maintaining their peaceful existence as the father attempts to preserve the status quo. However, there is a saying: "there are no secrets that time cannot reveal." In time, Hime must learn the reality behind the things she took for granted as she grew up. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

10. Fire Force Season 2 (Rating: 8/10 - 24 Episodes - Summer 2020)

Genres: Action, Supernatural, Shounen

Synopsis: After his confrontation in the Nether with his younger brother Shou, Shinra Kusakabe's resolve to become a hero that saves lives from the flame terror strengthens. Finding a way to turn the Infernals back into people, unraveling the mystery of the Evangelist and Adolla Burst, and saving his mother and Shou—these are the goals Shinra has in mind. However, he has come to realize that attaining these goals will not be easy, especially with the imminent danger the Evangelist poses. The Evangelist's plan is clear: to gather the eight pillars—the individuals who possess Adolla Burst—and sacrifice them to recreate the Great Cataclysm from 250 years ago. Having been revealed by the First Pillar that the birth of a new pillar is approaching, Shinra is determined to protect his fellow pillars from the Evangelist. Thus, the fiery battle between the Special Fire Force and the Evangelist ignites. Together with the Special Fire Force, Shinra's fight continues as he uncovers the truth about the Great Cataclysm and the nature of Adolla Bursts, as well as the mysteries behind human combustion. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

#fruits basket 2nd season #jibaku shounen hanako-kun #Toilet-bound Hanako-kun #Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shiteshimatta #my next life as a villainess #re:zero season 2 #chihayafuru 3 #boku no hero academia #haikyuu to the top #kakushigoto

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maladaptive-ninja-returns · 4 years

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Kira Vol 2 (3)

The Mistress

CHAPTER 3: Is This Jealousy

Loki x fem!Reader (Kira)

Series: A new chapter begins in Kira’s life. Old secrets, new confessions, surprising allies and unexpected meetings. All of them have one name in common. Loki.

Chapter content: soft feels

Warnings: a teeny weenie bit of jealousy

Word count: my cousin is awesome. She is such a pure soul and I am so protective of her that I will beat the hell out of anyone who tries to hurt my little- but tall- baby.

MASTERLIST & Taglist in bio, my love

The bubble of slumber has barely found Loki when a ripple of scream shreds every ounce of peace this house knows. The silence of the autumn suddenly sounds like a Hallow's Eve blood bath when Loki's body dashes towards the source of the voice. He does not even think for a second, his body already charging itself towards the stone-y path, his son outrunning him on his fours to come to a skidding halt at the foot of her bed. "Kira," he calls out with a contrasting tone compared to the rigorous beating of his heart.

But she does not hear. Her eyes are wide open, looking at the window in her room while her cries wear her lungs out. All she screeches are the words 'no' and 'stop' repeatedly while looking at the empty space. What disturbs Loki, even more, is that she is numb to the blood oozing out from where the needles were once sticking into her are ripping her skin apart. The duvet that covers her is being used as a shield against whatever she is afraid of while the blood smears the fabric with a new hue wherever it comes in touch with it. There is fear in his eyes for what he plans to do, but the fear of watching her writhing in pain like this far outranks it. And so he takes the first lunge by sitting down next to her and slowly taking her trembling hand into his. She yelps and jolts away from his cold touch. "It's me. Kira, look," he calls out to her while switching on the bed lamp close to him, "It's Loki." Her shivering figure cowering away from him takes its time to hear his voice while he patiently waits by the edge. He knows he has to let her come to him. Or he might lose her again. And it would already be one too many times. "Loki?" She has no idea what her frail voice does to that man's being. He can feel an electric current drive from his head to toe and all he can do is sit there nodding his head. "Yes, I'm here." That man has barely finished his sentence to breathe when he feels heated arms being thrown around his torso while her head wants to hide in his chest. "There's someone out there. There's someone out there, Loki." Silence. What is he supposed to feel right now? The otherwordly elation on the touch of her arms, whose heat seeps through the soft cotton and is absorbed by his thirst-ridden skin? Or should he feel sad for the suffering that does not seem to leave her even when she heals? In the swift moment, his rational brain scolds itself for having not having any intelligible actions ready like it usually does; for being useful during the one time it should be working at one hundred per cent capacity. "Please," a whimper comes from his chest, "make it stop." Like a flip of a switch in a cornered animal, Loki's pupils go wide while his arms come around her back with a life of their own. The cold palms hold the sweaty shirt on either side, making a barrier around her. "Come here," he whispers, pulling her closer to him, letting her rest her head in the dip of his shoulder while his body seeks all the unnecessary heat from her untethered figure. "Nothing can hurt you, I promise. Okay? No one can hurt you. I'm here." The wails dilute to sobs under the rhythmic soft pats of Loki's palm on her head in between soothing strokes through her hair. "I'm here." The sobs reduce to loud inhales and exhales, trying to find the resting point of her lungs. The patting continues into the dead of the night when unexpected rain showers wash away whatever bad lurks in the beautiful dark night outside, making her eyelids heavy and her body heavier on Loki's chest. Finding the strength inside him, Loki takes her head in his palm and carefully drags her down the bed to let her head rest on the pillow. The tightened nerves inside him relax when they hear her light snores, convincing him she is finally asleep. It is not easy to drag himself away from that angelic face resting so tranquilly but he puts his foot down on the floor- ready to let her rest- only to find a strong tug on his shirt by her fisted hand, pulling that loosely woven pure threadwork closer towards herself with wrinkles in between her brows. "Kira." That man is now suddenly a little boy standing outside the study of his father, from where a mellow golden light flows out into a river at the end of which he stands with a unicorn in his tiny hands, his green eyes twinkling with the dance of both shadows and light as he tries to look inside through whatever space the barely open door allows him. Little Loki witnesses his father carry his brother in his arms, telling him stories of kings and princes that conquered lands and brought peace by defeating all evil; narrating his love for the golden boy and boasting to the air in that room how he will be the next man to take care of the empire that his father built for him. Outside, the raven-haired boy stands patiently before turning away to walk through the endless corridors to his room where the nanny is already waiting for him anxiously. "Loki! Where were you? Now is not the time to sneak out." The little one does not bother explaining for he goes straight to bed under his covers, his eyes towards the ceiling to look at the stars put up on there by the servants for his musings. "Mother says stars walk alone," Loki stated out of nowhere for the nanny to hear as she tucks him into the bed, "because they burn bright for everyone. She also says I am a star. A really bright one." "Of course you are," the woman smiles at him while wondering where this talk was coming from. "I don't think she knows that I know stars can burn whatever comes near to them. It is not even practical to be a star without dying a cold death." Margeret has to gasp. "Relax Margeret. It is the work of gases. You would not understand." And saying that, he turns to face the other way. "I don't want to be a star," he mumbles, wishing upon those bogus stars a wish that crumbles with every passing breath in his life till there remains no evidence of these ashes that were ultimately tagged as hollow hopes. Hopes that seem to be reborn without so much as a warning when Loki finds himself lying down next to her and she- without even a conscious effort- pulls herself upon his arm, burying her head in his chest, facing away from the world. A jolt of shiver runs through her body, immediately bringing Loki's arm over her shoulder, overworking his already imbalanced heart. But the calm finds him in her presence just as it finds her in his arms. The night outside, fresh out from nature's bath feels the need to notice its presence not acknowledged by the two souls that used to let their demons roam in her robe. Now, those very souls rest them in each other's arms, devoid of the exhaustion that once haunted them in their loneliness.

"Okay, I'm already putting this out there so no judgments are made later on...I just learned how to drive. You don't get to say how bad I am. If you are scared to sit next to me hold on to your seat. If the car stops in the middle of the road do not rush me, I know I am bad with shifting gears and the accelerator right now. Oh, and at no time will you offer to drive instead. Okay?" Loki's eyes take in your body on alert in the driver's seat of your dad's borrowed Suzuki. You adjust the rearview mirror and look at the controls, mumbling some things to yourself before double-checking the seat belt and starting the engine. He cannot help but stare at your elation with heart eyes when the car starts without any trouble. What churns up the lights inside him is that crazy giggling smile stuck on your face. "I'm driving a car," you squeak at a really low volume while your neck disappears and your shoulders go up in tender excitement. By the Norns, who made her this cute, he truly has to wonder without realising a goofy smile has invited itself on his lips and has been sitting there even for Heimdall to see outside the gate when you exit. "That good a breakfast, huh?" He teases his boss, who is quick to hide any evidence of joy on his face. Sadly the master strategist and deceiver can't hide it from his eyes. "Did you get all the work done," Loki does not even move his brow when talking to the Watcher. "I had a nice breakfast too, thanks for asking," he is quick to acknowledge that cold stare, "and yes it's done. So, where are you guys headed?" You scoff, raising your hands from the steering wheel. "At least act surprised to see me driving even if you know it already." Heimdall chuckles. "I'm taking Loki to show around my town. Wanna c-" "Oh good, Lord!" Loki blurts out of nowhere, making you jump where you sit, "turn the car, Kira! There's a cat about to walk under it!" "What?" "Turn it out of the driveway!" "But-" "Let's go! Before it tries to climb the wheel!" You are hastily shifting the gear to drive. "They do that?" "Now! Now!"

This is his first time. And he still cannot believe it is happening. Well, shame on me for thinking only Odin had the finest colonial lands. Trees line up both sides of the roads that are cleaner than the supposedly progressive concrete jungle that you two left behind for a while. The patience all the drivers have on the road with their cars in a smooth drive is really impressing the man, besides putting him at ease considering his heart has taken the wheel. There are people out and about on the sidewalks. And there are people exploiting the cycling tracks to get their blood pumping in this cold weather. Kindergarten kids, school kids, college kids- there are clusters of them coming and going; some sad to leave their parents, while others are running and skipping towards theirs. This city is coloured in every hue imaginable even in the coldest of days. And unlike the iron world, he sits atop, this one seems like it takes out time to look around. The car is parked in a spot right outside a local city museum and unlike you, someone notices the line of expensive rides next to yours while their owners are huddled together over one with beer cans and cigarettes. Every one of the five men standing on the other corner wear brands that equal your one month's salary. "Let's start with this place," you bring Loki out of the calculating trance he is in since the second he laid eyes on the men that has been staring this way, "so we can get out and enjoy something much better if you get bored of this place." Loki smiles at you and makes it a point to walk towards your side to place his hand on your back, mellifluously ask, "shall we?" and walk away with you with the energy that marks the five feet around you as a zone not to be stepped in.

Well, it is hard to get bored of your face no matter how long he looks at it because he is certain he has memorised every little scar on it till he watches you fascinated by the medieval art displays. Your eyes have the deepest ocean of y/e/c ever seen that goes shallow for that black endless void that widens on seeing something that curates to its curiosity. Your lips. Damn those lips that have been blessed by the Gods themselves. They turn and pout in question, are tormented by the teeth when something does not sit right and are touch in a peculiar fashion by your fingers that Loki forgets he has to breathe at one point. He envies the fallen eyelash that sits on your cheek; envies that it gets to touch you and be prayed upon for a wish or desire while he stands to praise nature's work from a distance. But he does not let that bother him for he cannot recall any other time when he has been this content with his life.

"Point at anything in here and you will love it." "Really?" "Mm-hmm. They are really good at everything they make." "Oh...that's-wait. Is this the place that serves that pasta you keep comparing to everyone else's?" Your face is already breaking into the smile and Loki's heart cannot help but whisper 'stop' while running a marathon. "Yup." "Okay, so I'll have a-" "Kira?" Loki turns around before you to see who recognizes you and if it is a threat. "Henry?" The marathon comes to a pause for there is a little prick that is felt right in the chest. You recognise this man with a decent scruff, wide eyes and a bubbly smile. He has already been read head to toe by Loki. He does not seem like a threat. "Hey!" greets Henry before swooping you in his arms and giving one tight hug which leads to your alleged date to grind his teeth. How dare he. "How are you?" "I'm good. What about you?" You don't have to ask him that. He looks fine for someone who just got up from his sleep and drove here. "Fantastic now that we meet." Right. As if you were miserable before. "Where are you these days?! I've met CJ and Kat but never you." "She's with me," Loki declares. And that is when you notice the shift in the energy around you. "Henry, this is my boss, Loki. Loki, this is my school friend, Henry." You watch as Henry brings his hand forward for Loki. "Nice to meet you, man." Loki reciprocates but you can tell by that sharp cut of his jaw that something bothers him even though he isn't being vocal about it like he usually is. "Wait-" Henry's narrowed eyes are already telling Loki something he is tired of hearing- "Loki as in Loki the guy from Sun Corp. The Loki who went missing for two years before-" "So I heard from Kat you're opening a rest-" you try to divert the conversation. "Yes," Loki affirms much to your surprise, "that very Loki." And a smile. "Damn," Henry whispers. "Well, I'll leave you to it then. And you two are invited to my restaurant's soft launch today. Kat will give you the deets and you have to bring Loki." "Oh." You are a little dazed by the incomprehensible smoothness of this conversation. "Uhh..." You feel the brush of Loki's arm with yours when he closes the distance with the two of you. "We will be there," he concludes with his smiling eyes while you are wondering all the reasons you could be feeling this sudden gush of warmth in your cheeks. Nothing escapes Henry's eyes and that bubbly smile. You two have never been close which is why you are wondering why this guy is so excited to meet you. It hits you after a few seconds that the reason you were noticed might not have been because of you but your company. You are still thinking about it when you and Loki settle down in the corner seat looking out the bakery shop. "You don't have to go if you don't want to," you stress, reaching out for the bill in Loki's hand that he has already paid for. But that sly man is already pulling the receipt away from your grip. "I'll go if you go. And considering you are a textbook people-pleaser around your friends, you will be going tonight." All he reflects for your slightly unhinged and offended jaw is his smirk that has a tendency to stir something up inside your gut. "Correct me if I'm wrong." "I am not a textbook people plea-" "You went out to visit Kat even when your leg wasn't healed because she said you had not met her in a while." You scoff. "W-It was true! I hadn't met her in a while and I-" "And because CJ said she was mad at you because you hadn't answered her texts and calls." You do open your mouth to contradict but nothing comes out except a defeated sigh. "You could have told her about your health." Loki tilts his head and melting eyes that have their full attention on you. And you are feeling the goosebumps all over your body from that dedicated stare. Did he always look at me that way? The sensible voice in your head clears her throat and wonders...He could look that way to anyone. But your inner voice is already dancing. Look at the face, woman. Drown me in shallow waters if he isn't head over heels for you. "I...have used my health as an excuse for multiple occasions so I don't think it'll cut for them anymore." There is a slight crinkle in between his brows that does not seem to get as much attention as his tongue that darts out to wet his lips. Why is that even legal? Your inner voice is angry while it involuntarily purrs. "It is your health, Kira. I am pretty sure your friend will understand. Would you not rather that your friends tell you they are not fine instead of hearing about it when it all gets worse someday?" You turn your toes to internally curse yourself on realising he has a point; a very good one. "I'll talk to her," you agree and thank the waiter who brings you your lemon and mint iced tea and Loki's cold brew. "Okay," you sing with crackling judgment humming in your voice as your eyes are stuck on Loki's dark drink, "since when are you into coffee? I haven't been gone that long." "My existence will disagree," he mutters without so much of a thought as he lets his lips touch the straw in great anticipation while his eyes look up at the blank bump of an expression stuck on your face. Heart thumping to the beats of embarrassment, your brain shuts down, pulls away the glass of cold brew and pushes your iced tea towards him. "Just have the tea, you monster." You try really hard to keep up that frown on your face while your insides want to come out and confirm the words he just said. "Me? A monster?" If you did not know any better, Loki would seem flabbergasted right this second. You narrow your eyes and let sarcasm drip just from your expression. "I have seen you murder your employees without even having to raise a weapon when you aren't in a good mood. Trust your assistant, Mr Loki, coffee is not your friend." "Are you sure?" He narrows his eyes at you and crinkles his nose. "Do you see anyone else being worried about you?" you direct at the surrounding with your hand. There is a tilt of his head and crossed arms come to rest on the table. "So, you are worried about me?" Your eyes pause any movement to stare into his for a moment so long he can feel his soul bare in front of you. "Someone has to..." He is left numb with that look on your face. "Because I am too tired to find another job." Numb from the heart attack he just had till he feels his senses coming back to let him wack in the back of his head and let him know how he got played. What is better than those microscopic jolts of relief he is feeling on your skin is your wide-toothed laughter then nearly pinches your eyes close. Whoever is watching him right now can without a strain of doubt point out at the man in love, looking at his life shine brighter than anyone in the room while he pauses all that he is doing- even breathing- to look at you like it is his first and last time doing so. Whoever is watching him is suddenly craving for a longing look like that; whoever is watching you envies what you can do to that beautiful man putting a good number of insecure humans to shame. "Oh my Gosh-" you suddenly break out of your laugh with a sudden realisation- "I almost forgot about him." Loki, the stoic-as-ever man- who is nearly bending over the table ready to dissolve- furrows his brows at the thought of you remembering someone other than him! "Who?" he asks with a surly taste in his mouth. "Fenrir! How is he?" "Oh." You are somewhat puzzled at that flawless face going from a simmering stare of potential judgment to an innocuous reflection of understanding. "He is as fine as he can be," he shrugs and scratches something on the nape of his neck, making your eyes dart at the bit of exposed skin under the maroon that is royally screwing up with your head with pictures you do not want to be imagining in public right now. "So, he is being a bitch," you summarise for him. He nods in agreement, bringing back his hand and leaving that exposed microscopic yards of his shoulder and neck to be devoured by your stare so hard even the devil would blush. And unbeknownst to you, the devil hath blushed multiple times. "I think he misses his roommate," Loki throws the statement nonchalantly, pulling your iced-tea back to him. "Aw," you squeak a little putting your face in your palms and glittering eyes, "I miss him too." "Then get back to work, Miss Kira," Loki's flat and stern tone softly plays on his tongue, "you have had more than enough of vacation time." "Excuse me?" "What." "I got my bones broken for my company." Loki shrugs and sips your tea. "I nearly died for mine. Big deal." "Wow," you exhale. "Fine. I need a raise." "Okay." "..." "What."

"Just like that?" "You nearly died for the company. The company wants to thank you for your unwavering loyalty." You don't really know what to say next. You never planned this far, thanks to your impulse. That is till the socialist in you finds a silver lining. "Cool," you tilt your head in your palms, "then you can cut my salary for a few more vacation days." Concluding it with a wink. And Loki feels his insides sigh. Never in a million years could he have imagined a soft face like hers would hold the ultimate power to melt his insides like this.

Nature watches again. Through the windows and winds that enter at the opening and closing of the door. Two souls more than just content in their hearts to be in the presence of the unexplainable they thought they lacked. That little boy inside Loki is sitting at that table looking at you with all the innocence and love he can feel in his little heart; all that he wants to give to you. Little Loki knows who the star is and what it is like to be in its presence. And he would not have it any other way. The bakery plays a lofi mix of Just Want To Be The One You Love as these two closeted lovers bickered and enjoyed their much deserved time together, never knowing the company far away clicking pictures of their private time together before disappearing into the crowds and cars on the road outside.

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darkfalcon-z · 3 years

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So you want to write a fic/draw fanart about Sun Wukong, but you don't know anything about macaques? I'll share some interesting facts with you I found in the internet (I'm not a primatologist/ethologist, so take it with a gain of salt) there is this cool youtube channel that is mostly about Rhesus Macaques, but you may get bored soon watching because those guys are mostly chilling, eating and grooming all day long and the don't do anything dramatic. Also be warned there are a lot of monkey channels that are essentially animal abuse. Stay away from those - if the monkey is a pet it's animal abuse, if a lot of accidents happen to the monkeys that's staged and it's abuse as well. I’m just writing down things you may want to play with in your fic or art.

Side note: this should be obvious, but if you want to write a fic with Wukong you actually need to do the research into Chinese culture and history.

Now back to macaques (it's mostly about rhesus or I'll specify otherwise):

- they have matriarchal society, girl children are preferred over the boys, because the boys would leave the natal group one day, usually when the dominant male decides that he doesn't want them around any more. If the boys grow up too big the dominant male may by too weak to kick them out on his own and he'll have to wait for the support from the females. Smarter and bolder boys may be kicked out earlier, because dad sees them as potential threat. Meek sons of low ranking females may stay longer because they are not a threat/not related to the dominant male.

- there are more females than males in the troop. The males that are the part of the troop usually outrank most females because they are bigger. Outsider males, who only drop by to visit or to mate have lower status, though. So you are in a cushy position if you secure yourself a place in a troop, but if you are a lone male not so much.

- girls inherit status of their moms, they are just below mom in hierarchy, but their place in ranking drops when their sisters are born - younger daughters have higher status.

- youngest daughter of the dominant female becomes next queen. To become the boss the male needs to kick out the previous top male and to gain approval of dominant female. Only the top male in the group can mate with the queen and the pair is supposed to have babies every year. I’m not sure how Wukong would fit in a sexual politics on the group, given that he’s most likely ace. Figuring it out may be one of the plot lines in the story.

- lesser males defend the troop on behalf of the top male, who only fights if the things get really serious.

- top female is the leader for life, top male is replaceable.

- status of females in the group is relatively fixed but your status drops if you have multiple boys in the row, because no one is is going to support you when the boys leave. Having multiple daughters boosts your ranking because they'll have your back. Being in the good graces of resident males, particularly the dominant one won’t hurt you either. But you need to be careful, if you become too bold the high ranking females will put you in your place.

- higher ranking members take food before lower ranking ones, they’ll take your food away if you eat out of rank. Even from your cheek pouches.

- you generally chill with macaques of similar status.

- higher ranking members will discipline lower ones, but they are usually more tolerant towards the babies (except if a baby takes a desirable food out of rank).

- macaques sleep in trees. They also huddle together.

- rhesus don’t eat meat. If you left them meat they won’t touch it/will drop it as soon as they realise it’s meat. They only eat insets, mostly ones they’ve picked while grooming. Long tailed macaques eat meat and shellfish.

- When we are at that long tailed macaques can use stone tools to open shells. It’s awesome but also kind of a problem because long tail macaques have voracious apatites and they will eat as long as there’s food so they are in danger of bringing to population of shellfish to extinction and forgot their technological advancement as a result. In contrast rhesus only eat as long as they are hungry and they will leave even the most attractive food when they are satisfied.

- rhesus eat fruit, seeds, nuts, shoots, flowers (particularly nectar), occasionally leaves and they can eat human food like bread as long as that food doesn’t have meat in it. I’ve seen rhesus eat spoiled milk :/

- they also eat soil, they do it because sometimes plants they eat have toxins and soil helps with that. Also nutrients possibly.

- they have very clean fur. The spend a lot of time grooming (1996 adaptation got it right). You want to romance a potential partner, you groom, you spend time with your family, you groom, you sit alone, you groom yourself, you want to persuade other monkey let you babysit her kid you groom her and then you groom the kid when she finally lets you, you want to make up after a quarrel, you guessed it, you groom. You are a lone bachelor and you’ve met your old auntie, who used to babysit you, you groom. It is all purpose social interaction that also keeps lice and tick of your fur. Macaques don’t generally get flees because they sleep in trees, while flees hop on their hosts from the ground, but they’d rid of fleas any way with all that grooming.

- other multi purpose gesture is showing the rump. You do it to say you’re sorry, to ask for something (usually for other monkey to let you babysit) and when you are flirting. The other monkey make hop on your back to show domination, accept apology or reconciliate. It kind looks like a copulation from afar.

- lip smacking is for showing affection and signalling you want a hug.

- open mouth stare signifies aggression (I think 1986 Wukong does that, when he faces his enemies (?), but I haven’t seen that in other on screen performances).

- yawning with teeth exposed is also aggression/threat (without teeth it’s just yawning).

- barking sound is also a threat.

- showing teeth in a grin is stress/apology.

- they scratch themselves more when stressed (and it’s depicted in several JttW adaptations).

- those guys may steal your food, steal a bag if they think it may contain food and even steal your other possessions in order to exchange for food (or sometimes just to play).

- they know if they show up with a baby in their arms they are more likely to be fed by humans. But at the same time they don’t like humans near their babies.

- macaques get redder during mating period (that is winter), males with more and darker red marks are considered more attractive by females.

- baby season is in the summer.

- girls are usually more developed at birth and grow up faster.

- yearling girls are super interested in the new born babies, boys are usually less interested but they help out sometimes as well.

- nearly all females love babies. They may not want to give the baby back if they are babysitting.

- usually both moms and dads prefer daughters. But there are exceptions because those monkeys are individuals, some actually prefer little boys. There are also females, who don’t like babies that much and little girls who are not interested at all in their younger siblings.

- if a baby dies a mom or babysitter can carry it for days. Sometimes they even carry around miscarried foetuses. They will groom the dead baby as well. Apparently if you’ll try approaching mourning mom other troop members will attack you.

- rhesus males don’t practice infanticide, because the females only get in oestrus at fixed time of the year, long tailed macaques supposedly do to make the oestrus come faster.

- most macaques figure out their own reflections relatively quickly.

- they love how to swim, they are good swimmer and they like to high dive. But they can overestimate their abilities and it’s not rare for them to drown.

- Macaques are somewhere around 2 feet tall (generally shorter than a human toddler, standing up they’d probably reach to your mid thigh depend how tall you are) Sun Wukong is 4 feet tall, that’s as big as modern 7 year old, perhaps he could passed as pre teen in Tang period because people used to be shorter in the past and it took longer for kids to grow. Anyway he’s small for a human but huge for a macaque.

- now for sexual dimorphism (people with trans head-canons take notes, I’m not telling you want to do, but only what you can play with):

- males are bigger and with bulkier shoulders (Wukong is huge anyway, so this one may not be so important),

- males have longer (more prognostic), squarer muzzles and bigger fangs (all male primates have significantly bigger fangs than females save for humans), females have shorter and rounder faces, you can more or leas tell the sex of an adult from the face after you’ve watched them for a while.

- females tend to be redder, both on face on on the buttocks. Older females tend to be redder than younger ones. Males get redder on the face and balls during mating seasons. Males often have only red marks on the upper part of the face, some just look as if they are wearing red eyeliner. Meanwhile a lot of females have whole faces red. I suppose female also get redder during mating season, but it’s not that obvious.

- lactating females have sagging beast, they are visible but usually not particularly big. Females, who don’t lactate don’t heave breasts. They may still have long nipples (in contrast all males I’ve seen have small nipples).

- males have quite big testicles comparatively to their body size, the balls reach almost to their kneed during mating season (when the macaques is on all fours at least).

- like most mammals they have penis bone.

- mounting time is less than 8 seconds for rhesus but the mount multiple time during the same event. Male hops on the top of female and often supports himself by holding her shins in his feet. Female often reaches back grab him with one hand.

- bonnet macaques are known for homosexual behaviour (they are known as the bonobo of macaques).

- Macaques are supposed to have periods but also oestrus cycle?? apparently

- it seems like all rhesus with leucism are female (??) or at least the condition occurs much more often in females. Those monkeys have golden fur and transparent nails. Usually leucistic monkeys are low in group ranking. You may include this fact if you want to write an underdog story.

- usually rhesus fur is combination of light grey, light brown and orange. Head and shouldered tend to be greyer, lower back and legs tend to be more orange, forearms tend to be darker grey, while the belly is much lighter than the rest.

- the winter coat is longer an thicker.

- Rhesus macaques typically have dark nails. They have nails, not claws. In fact almost all monkeys and all Old World monkeys have nails. Hand looks very much like humans. The thumb is just a little shorter and the palm just a bit different shape but you’d be hard pressed to find any hand resembling that of a human even among other primates, you’d get cebids and maybe great apes and that’s it. Actually macaques have closer thumb to finger ration to humans than other great apes.

- macaques do not knuckle walk like apes, instead when they walk on their flat palms.

- the hand does not resemble cat paws at all. It is not padded like cats or dogs’ paws. It looks almost like human hand but with hair on the top.

- needless to say macaques are very dexterous. Their hands are optimised for object manipulation.

- they have longer feet with pointy heel and opposite big toe.

- it’s not rare for rhesus to have brown palms even though they have light pink faces.

- rhesus have relatively short tails. Also no Old World Monkeys have prehensile tales (but you don’t have to draw, just have fun, heck I draw Wukong with long tail even though I think he’s supposed to be rhesus).

- the limbs are also relatively short with arms being shorter than legs.

- those guys are incredibly resilient and can survive losing a limb or two without human medical intervention as long as there are no predators in the area. They can also heal open broken bone.

- also while they discriminate against macaques with golden fur, the don’t seem to discriminate against monkeys with missing limbs or many other deformities.

- oh, yeah, about that, they care for injured macaques or at least if the injured one is their sibling.

- macaque bites aren’t very likely to pierce human skin (zoo keepers claim)

- but be warned you don’t want macaques saliva or other body fluids anywhere near your person because over 80% of their adult population (and about 25% of juveniles) carries monkey herpesvirus B. It hardly cause them any harm but mortality rate in infected humans is over 70% (at least that we know of, fortunately it does not usually spread to humans, there have been only about 40 cases on the record, all in the lab setting). Important note: this virus spreads sexually. Wukong may carry this virus without being aware.

- they have cheek pouches so collars or clothing that is tight around the neck is bad for them. If you put collar on a macaque they wouldn’t be able to eat properly because they usually put their food in the pouches and then gradually swallow.

#macaques #monkeys #sun wukong #macaqe #rhesus macaque #journey to the west #myposting

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ninastarkov · 4 years

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Ahsoka and the clones:

Rex and Ahsoka edition

Part 2

Hey guys! This is the third post in a series about Ahsoka’s relationship with the clones (here’s the one on ahsoka and the clones, minus Rex and ahsoka). I talk about what we know in canon/what’s reasonably predicted off that, what the fandom has decided, and my own takes.

It might make more sense to read my part 1 post before this one, for an analysis of their friendship in the movie through season 3! On this one I’ll go through seasons 4, 5 and 7, though obviously season 7 will have the most. Anyway, here we go!

Referencing my last post, I see them as going from mentor-student to friends and equals to family. I’ve established them as equals by the end of season 3–Ahsoka has grown a lot from that snippy 14 year old padawan, and Rex has grown to trust her. By the end of season 7 I see them as found family (i’m sorry found family is just. my favorite.)

Season 4

Ok, Ahsoka and Rex pretty much don’t interact AT ALL in season 4. But...umbara. Though Ahsoka isn’t actually present for umbara, her (and anakin’s) influence on the 501st, and the contrast between them and krell, is clear to see. I think his relationship with Anakin has just as much of an impact with what happened on umbara, but since this post is about Rex and ahsoka i’m not going to focus on Anakin.

Also WOW umbara is long but I like the points I made so get ready:

Rex has spent the whole war under Anakin, and most of it under Ahsoka. Anakin can get angry and Ahsoka can be immature especially early on and they’re both headstrong idiots sometimes, but they’re good people who care deeply for their troops. Krell is everything Anakin and Ahsoka are not. The relationship that Rex has with them is part of what makes it so hard for him to go against Krell (the other, probably bigger part being his conditioning into seeing Jedi as authority figures to always follow). Ahsoka has shown that she’s willing to die for them, with the geonosis mission, and that she mourns their deaths, with ryloth. And while not explicitly shown in canon, most of us agree that she tries to connect with her troops. Krell shares none of these traits that Rex has gotten used to seeing in his Jedi. Rex believes that the Jedi are good, and trusts them to make hard decisions to get to victory. Krell breaks this trust, and I have to think that this would have long-term consequences on his relationships with Jedi in general, and Anakin and ahsoka specifically. We aren’t shown the aftermath of umbara in the show (which is one of my biggest complaints but,, off topic), but we can’t expect such a fundamental break in trust to not have its effect on all of the 501st and their Jedi. I would say that Ahsoka probably had to build up a lot of trust (that had previously existed between them) with Rex again after umbara. And since their relationship in the show doesn’t seem to change much afterward, I could guess that Ahsoka spent a lot of time trying to help Rex and the 501st cope and trust their Jedi again (also, I’ve read some fics about ahsoka helping the troopers through the aftermath of umbara and now I believe that had to have happened for their relationship to return to what it was before).

So, at least in my opinion, after umbara Rex is less likely to place complete trust in ahsoka (though he probably hates that he can’t). Also, remember me talking about them being equals by now? Yeah, another thing Krell breaks. Ahsoka sees Rex as an equal, though technically she outranks him. She looks past the rank and sees the person (the person with more experience than her). Krell is, again, the opposite. He literally sees clones as fundamentally inferior to himself, and that dehumanization that Rex faced had to have had an effect on his own self-worth. Being constantly degraded by a figure that Rex thinks he’s supposed to see as an authority to follow, probably means that afterward his own sense of self-worth would have gone down significantly—nevermind the guilt he feels over waiting to take action against Krell. So, though Ahsoka still sees Rex as an equal, it’s complicated for Rex. For one, he’s lost trust in the Jedi, so the respect towards ahsoka purely because of her Jedi status is diminished. On the other hand, I think his opinion of himself has gone down. It’s a complicated dynamic, now. However, by this point in the war, I really think that Rex and ahsoka see each other as family (I see Ahsoka’s family including Rex and some of the older 501st like Jesse and Kix and anyone can Fight Me On This but ANYWAY). As fellow soldiers or even friends, I think the trust between them would have been permanently damaged. But as family, Rex knows ahsoka, knows that even though he’s lost some faith in the Jedi, she will never be like Krell, or even other Jedi like Quinlan Vos who aren’t literally evil but aren’t good towards the clones either. And on Ahsoka’s side, she’s going to do anything she can to help her family through the aftermath of umbara, even as a Jedi.

I think most of the aftermath is resolved between umbara and Onderon, but zygerria was. there. Rex and obi wan were slaves for an unknown amount of time. This part hurts, but I would guess that in Rex’s time there he was forced to confront some hard truths about the role of the clones in the war. They’re all proud to fight for the republic, but that doesn’t change the fact that they don’t have a choice. I think this also sets the stage for that big conversation between Rex and ahsoka after maul is captured in season 7 (“we clones have mixed feelings about the war”), where they discuss their own feelings about the war and how it’s affected them. (Also I know that most of what I just said is about Rex and not really ahsoka, but his changing viewpoints are really important in their dynamic).

Season 5

By Onderon, I think Rex and Ahsoka’s relationship is mostly back to normal (equals), and any trust lost has been repaired (not counting Rex’s permanent disillusionment(?) with the Jedi). It’s literally only them plus Anakin and obi wan oh the mission, and it seems like they’re having a good time (as much as you can in a war zone). I point out Onderon because it’s the last time they’re together before the Wrong Jedi arc.

And now...the wrong Jedi. Hearing that Ahsoka killed clones during her escape HAD to have shaken Rex. A lot. There was definitely a moment where he thought back to umbara and Krell. But Rex also chased ahsoka outside the prison, and saw that she did nothing to harm the people coming after her—in fact, went out of her way to avoid it. I think Rex was definitely struggling with himself here—his experiences with Krell would have him believe that ahsoka is capable of this, but his bond with her would have him think the opposite. Overall, in my opinion there was a moment when Rex believed it to be true (due to umbara), but I think he would have rejected the idea relatively quickly because he knows ahsoka (they’re FAMILY and she wouldn’t hurt his brothers!).

Then ahsoka is cleared but leaves the Jedi. Leaves the 501st. I don’t think that she talks to Rex or any Jedi after she leaves the temple, which means she’s out of contact for months. Rex gets a second hand account of what happened through Anakin, and knowing anakin’s anger and pain over the situation, I can’t imagine he wanted to talk about it much. So Rex probably gets told that ahsoka was cleared but isn’t coming back. (Honestly I really don’t know how this would go down but i’m leaning towards an angry Anakin giving as little explanation as possible because he doesn’t want to talk about it). Add this to what I talked about in my first post on ahsoka and the clones, how maul gleans from Jesse that the Jedi abandoned her—meaning this was Jesse’s view of what happened—this probably means that her family in the 501st blamed the council for abandoning her and didn’t blame her for leaving. This also fits with the welcome she recieves in season 7. So even though Ahsoka left, Rex still holds the same respect for her (or more, even), and still considers her family. And even though ahsoka felt she had to leave the Jedi, I doubt she ever blamed the troopers for coming after her, so she still sees Rex as family.

Season 7

Skipped season six since...no ahsoka, obviously. Just keep in mind Fives’ arc (😭😭). Also, Anakin changes. He’s still a good person, a good general, but i’m assuming Rex notices he’s more angry and a little more distant than before. They all miss their favorite padawan commander :((

NOW, Old Friends Not Forgotten:

the LOOK on Ahsoka’s face when she sees all the troopers with their helmets painted...*single tear*. Rex looks so happy to see her, and of course ahsoka is glad to see him too, but there’s clearly a large part of her that’s shocked she’s getting such a warm welcome. I think she was worried that the Rex and the troopers would think she abandoned them (and a part of herself thinks that as well). But obviously, Rex doesn’t feel that way (“you don’t have to call me commander anymore” “ok, commander”). And the helmet paint!! You can tell Rex is worried she won’t like it bc he says something like “oh the paint job is a bit messy but we hope we got the point across.” But of course ahsoka understands they’re trying to honor her, and is grateful. AND! Armor painting is such an important way for all the clones to show their individuality, and they gave that up for her (even if Rex and Jesse went back to their original paint). And back to that little moment where he calls her commander—ahsoka says “you don’t have to call me commander anymore.” I think this was her guilt at leaving showing itself, and hints to us that she thinks she’s not worthy of that title. This may be more of a stretch, but she didn’t say “i’m not a commander anymore,” she said “you don’t have to call me commander anymore.” Maybe there’s some larger guilt about her role in a republic that doesn’t care for the ones that fight and die for it. Also a stretch but I think this alludes to the fact that they see each other as equals—though technically ahsoka was a commander and Rex a captain, they were a team. Now that Ahsoka’s no longer part of the GAR, Rex doesn’t have to call her commander, doesn’t have to keep to the strict rules of authority. Instead he can have her back as a friend, as family. And when Rex calls her commander anyway, it shows his continued respect for her, not because he has to respect her as a superior and Jedi, but because she’s earned his respect through her actions.

And MOST IMPORTANTLY, Rex smiles more in this one episode than probably the entire rest of the show combined?!? We get the small happy moments, when Ahsoka doesn’t need a jetpack and races Rex to the ground (and he LAUGHS—i’m pretty sure that the only time Rex has actually laughed was in the movie in response to ahsoka, and in that ep). And once they reach mandalore, “some things never change”—they’ve returned immediately to their old dynamic. Honestly I think that one line sums up a lot of their relationship in season 7 and afterward, all the way to rebels. They may spend a lot of time apart (15 YEARS WHY), but they will always be family—that will never change.

This part is based on a picture from the ep I saw once, never to be found again (and I tried looking through the old friends ep but I can’t find the shot where you can see this), but i’m pretty sure there’s one moment in one of the episodes where you can see tally marks on Ahsoka’s bracers. She HAD to have picked that up from Rex, idk I just thought it was a nice thing to point out (unless I’m remembering the image wrong lol in that case ignore this paragraph).

Next, after Ahsoka meets with the council and doesn’t tell them about what Maul said about Anakin. Rex calls her out on it, and she doesn’t give a reason why she didn’t, but we can all guess. Anakin is probably the person she is closest to, and is the reason that she didn’t believe Maul’s claims. She probably didn’t want to tell anyone about what Maul said, because she would never believe Anakin would fall (😭). But she told Rex. This is a HUGE example of how much she trusts him, because she trusted him with this terrible information about her closest family. The only other person she had planned to talk to was Anakin, obviously. Yes, part of the reason why she didn’t tell the council was because she knew they could be...less than sensible...at times when they suspected a Jedi of using the dark side, like with her farce of a trial. (Sidenote, when Mace calls ahsoka “citizen” and Rex makes a face lol). I just. This is probably one of my favorite moments with them of the whole show? The amount of trust Ahsoka has to have in Rex to tell him that Anakin is being groomed to be a Sith Lord. I want to connect this back to all those years ago on Maridun(?) with aayla and Bly, when she trusts Rex to stay behind with injured Anakin while she goes with everyone else to find help. Ahsoka has trusted Rex with Anakin from basically the beginning, and such a long time of trust is necessary for her to tell him about Maul’s words.

Ok, now we have what you’ve been dreading waiting for...Shattered. Right before the Horrible Moment, Ahsoka gets a sort-of vision about what’s up in coruscant with Anakin and palpatine—and her immediate reaction is to run to Rex to tell him about it. Again, TRUST. There’s not even a second thought about whether to tell him or not, showing that Rex is the one person she feels she can always confide in. Of course, she doesn’t get to tell him.

First off, there were two things that saved ahsoka. One was her bond with Rex, that bought her time to react, which is what I’ll talk about. The other was Rex’s knowledge of what happened to fives and the chips. I’m not going to discuss that much in this post but just disclaimer that I view that as just as important in her survival (I think @gffa made a post on these two things which I wholly agree with and i’m sorry if i’m wrong and it was someone else that made that post!!)

Anyway. After the original Wrinkly Old Man tells Rex to execute the order, Rex is able to fight it for long enough to buy Ahsoka time to prepare, and give her the information that will save both of their lives (“Find him...Fives!”). You can see that he’s fighting so hard against the order, though in the end it wins out. He turns to face Ahsoka and he’s CRYING!!! I don’t have much analysis here because what happens in the show really says it all—ahsoka is his family, he doesn’t want to kill her. But once the chip takes over, Rex is gone.

On Ahsoka’s end, of course she knows something’s up. She knows Rex would never try to kill her, even if he was ordered to. That one line she says to Maul when she sets him free says everything about how lost she is (the clones turned against me. Even Rex.”). The latter statement isn’t meant for maul, since of course he doesn’t know much about Rex or their friendship (besides what he may have gotten from Jesse). This is all ahsoka trying to figure out what the hell was happening—because she could believe the clones turned against her, maybe. After her trial, after Brain Invaders, it’s probably easier to. But even Rex. Going back to what I said about the wrong Jedi arc, I think that Rex believed ahsoka to be innocent. Even in that arc, Rex was on her side. But this time, he wasn’t.

And then ahsoka finds out about fives and the chips. The holo of her that one of the droids plays to Rex before they knock him out makes me so sad. Ahsoka had to know that the Rex that was under the order wouldn’t listen to what she was saying in the holo, so i’m thinking that (besides a distraction) her words were meant for Rex to remember after the removed his chip—one more reassurance that it wasn’t his fault.

And here’s my thoughts on the chanting “I am one with the force and the force is with me,” as they try to find the chip in Rex’s head. Ahsoka had to have created some kind of connection between them for him to be saying these words with her—while unconscious AND still under the order. I know next to nothing about force bonds and the technical stuff, but it seems that a likely explanation for the chanting together is that some kind of connection was created between them in the force. Into the world of wild speculation, this could mean that Rex is more force sensitive than the average guy? Even if it was a temporary connection, it would make sense that Rex would have to feel the force somehow in order to connect with ahsoka to say the mantra. (Not sure I actually believe this but...putting it out there)

Once his chip gets removed and Ahsoka asks if he’s okay, Rex calls her “kid” again. I point this out because it’s definitely been a while since he’s called her anything but commander—probably out of a place of respect. But his first instinct after the chip is out is to call her “kid.” This was partially for reassurance that he’s back, because a Rex still affected by the chip wouldn’t call her kid. I also want to say though, that his first instinct is to call her kid, not commander, because he sees her as family first. And then when he has to tell her that every single clone is chipped, he calls her ahsoka (I think for the first time ever??). They’re far, far beyond their normal roles as captain and commander, and this reflects that. I also wonder if Rex realizes that ahsoka would hate to be called commander right now, after being forced to hurt the troops she has always tried to protect.

Aaaaand then they try to escape only to find the hangar filled with all the troopers, Jesse leading them. Ouch. Rex cries AGAIN (can any of us handle it? no.). He tells ahsoka that all of the clones, his brothers, only care about killing them—they don’t care if they die trying. Rex sounds so angry in this moment and for a second ahsoka looks surprised, but then she realizes how Rex is feeling and they have a Sad Moment when she takes his helmet off. There’s a moment when he visibly deflates as ahsoka seems to realize what he’s really feeling. And yeah, he turns away once his helmet is off, but he let her take his helmet off and see him cry. I feel like Rex has always been the person that’s strong for others, and doesn’t like to show his own vulnerability. Throughout the show he’s always been a steadying presence for others, whether it’s with ahsoka or fives or someone else. Even on umbara, he doesn’t let himself fall apart. But he lets ahsoka see that here. In his relationships with others, Rex almost always has to be the authority, the one who keeps calm in the face of everything. But with him and ahsoka, they can be equals—they can show their uncertainty and sadness. The only other person we see Rex really be honest with like this is Cody, in the bad batch arc when Rex talks about how he’s watched so many brothers die, and Cody says “it’s hard being the one that survives.” Cody and Ahsoka are the only people that have seen this side of Rex, because he trusts them more than anyone, and feels he doesn’t always have to be strong in front of them.

Then ahsoka says “you’re a good soldier, Rex.” I can’t NOT connect this to “good soldiers follow orders,” and Fives’ death. I don’t think ahsoka knows all about the “good soldiers follow orders,” but she knows Rex. She knows that Rex has always tried to be the good soldier, has been taught that following orders is everything, but has also grown so much over the course of the war (from meeting Cut to going through umbara to watching fives die). He’s grown into a person that realizes sometimes he has to make his own decisions, even if that doesn’t fit with the orders he’s been given. She gives him the reassurance that, despite everything, he’s still the person that he wants to be. Ahsoka sees through the anger he puts up, because of course he doesn’t want to kill his brothers, but it isn’t them anymore and what else are they supposed to do?

Once they are forced to fight the rest of the troopers in the hangar, it’s obvious that ahsoka and Rex work well together. Not much to say specifically, but the teamwork? the coordination? we love to see it (but also hate to see it bc o u c h).

Now we get back to trust (it always comes back to trust). Once they find the y-wing to escape on, Rex tells ahsoka to “get me over there” and just. Runs and jumps into thin air? Of course ahsoka gives him a boost with the force and he gets on the y-wing, but we know that Rex doesn’t like heights. It’s been a running joke through the show for other people to throw Rex in the air (geonosis? bad batch MULTIPLE TIMES lol), but it’s always without him asking and he Does Not Appreciate. This time he TELLS ahsoka to throw him over there and doesn’t even hesitate to jump. If Ahsoka hadn’t caught him he would have fallen to his death, and yet he trusts her so much that he does it anyway. He doesn’t even wait for a response from her after he tells her to throw him over there! Now, I don’t know if Rex is actually scared of heights or not, but if he is then this shows even more trust between them. He trusts her with his life completely, and probably vice versa.

And now we get to the end. Ahsoka and Rex buried all of the troopers they could find, because they’re family and it wasn’t their fault and they deserved better and agshdkjskjdh. At this point, they don’t know what’s happened in the rest of the galaxy, but Ahsoka’s felt the death in the force and they probably fear the worst. They are the only family they have left. We end with them about to get on the y wing and probably go to figure out what’s happened. Ahsoka stands at the graves and Rex sees her from beside the ship. There are no words, but they are united by the family they’ve lost.

Personally I find it really hard to believe they would have separated right after that, and i’m not sure what’s canon anymore with the ahsoka novel and when it starts, but whatever. Fitting (ish) with the ahsoka novel, they eventually realized that it wasn’t safe for either of them to stay together and had to say goodbye. I like a headcanon by someone on here (just lmk who you are and I’ll tag!!) about how ahsoka and Rex eventually find Wolffe and Gregor, but wolffe is badly affected by Ahsoka’s presence and so she makes the decision to leave. No matter what actually happened though, they stayed family, even apart. When they meet again in Rebels it’s so sweet!! They’ve both come so far from who they were at the start of the Clone Wars. In the beginning, Ahsoka saw Rex as a sort of mentor and quickly gained a lot of respect for him. Rex, in turn, was at first unsure about ahsoka but changed his mind fast. Ahsoka grows into the best Commander she can be by the end of season 3, and by this point they each see each other as equals. Though Ahsoka is commander and Rex captain, she respects his experience and cares about him as a friend, and maybe even family. By seasons 4 and 5 they see each other as family, after Ahsoka was there in the aftermath of umbara and Rex trusted her in the wrong Jedi. Even though ahsoka left, she never blamed the troopers for what she went through. And when she returns in season 7 she sees all of her family again, just for a moment, until it all comes crashing down and she and Rex are all each other has left. Over the three years of the war, Ahsoka and Rex was one of the friendships that wasn’t broken by betrayal or breach in trust. They had each other’s backs and grew to trust each other with their lives, and that didn’t change even after the war ended.

WOW that was long—I got carried away and went a lot into their individual characterization as well. Sorry if the conclusion was a bit dramatic, I wanted to wrap it up meaningfully. Let me know what you like and agree/disagree with, and hope you found this interesting!

#star wars the clone wars #the clone wars #clone wars #tcw #tcw season 7 #tcw s7 #ahsoka tano #captain rex #tcw finale #sw meta #tcw meta #this was very very long wow #sorry it took me a while #so many words #ahsoka and the clones #long post #my meta

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airis-paris14 · 4 years

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Human Nature 2

Summary:T’Challa’s got a secret and he’s tired of loving her in secret.

Warnings: None

A/N: Here’s part 2. Hope you enjoy. Let me know if you’d like to be added to the taglist!

1| 2 | 3 | 4 |

If they say why (why?), why (why?)

Tell them that it's human nature

Why (why?), why (why?), does he do me that way?

If they say why (why?), why (why?)

Tell them that it's human nature

Why (why?), why (why?), does he do me that way?

~ Michael Jackson “Human Nature”

Me: I know it’s late, I hope your business trip is going well. Call me when you wake up. I love you. Sweet dreams my love.

“Girl I know you aren’t texting him still. It’s probably after midnight over there.”

Naomi looked up as her friends chastised her. “Is it a crime to miss my husband?” Naomi cocked her hip.

“No, but that’s why we’re here. Besides, he had to leave for work like this when y’all were dating too. You should be used to it girl. You know what you signed up for.” a young toffee skinned woman sassed back. Tasha Johnson had no problem speaking her mind. That was precisely the reason that she and Naomi got along so well. They kept it real with each other, but were always there to support and encourage the other when the situation called for it.

Naomi knew she was right, she was usually right. Every time T’Challa had to go away like this, she would take the opportunity to invite her friends over for the night. They were only partially right though, she did miss her new husband, but she also missed living with her girls. She had lived with them up until she and T’Challa got married a few months ago. With her husband being gone so often, she wasn’t used to being alone. “That doesn’t make the separation any easier,” Naomi argued.

“Then why don’t you ask to go with him next time?” Gabrielle offered from her seat at the island. Gabrielle Hall was Naomi’s oldest friend. To be fair, she only outranked Tasha by a few months, but time had never mattered with these two. Gabrielle was Naomi’s roommate at Clark Atlanta University freshmen year. They instantly hit it off and with Tasha living across the hall, roommate less after her roommate left the school, the three became fast friends.

Naomi turned off the stove before replying. “You think I can?” She turned and grabbed three bowls from the cabinet. “Uh duh sis, you got wifey status now. With that big ole rock on your finger.” Tasha chimed in. “Still, United Nations stuff might be kinda private,” Naomi reasoned.

“As long as you buy your own ticket, it shouldn’t be that big of a problem. It’s not like y’all will need a separate room.” Gabrielle replied.

“Right, you don’t have to go to work with him, but homeboy be going to some nice places. Make a little vacation out of it. And I’m sure he’d be happy to have a little piece of home with him.” Tasha reassured. Naomi hummed in response. She placed even helpings of pasta in each of the bowls and handed them out. “I’ll think about it,” Naomi promised, settling at the dining room table.

“So what else is on the ‘keep Naomi from texting her future baby daddy’ agenda?” Gabrielle teased. “Well I could use some help with wedding planning-,” Naomi trailed off as her friends groaned. “Oh come on y’all, you’re supposed to be my maids of honor. This is maid of honor work.”

“But like isn’t this what you do for a living? Plan other people’s weddings?” Tasha asked. Naomi twirled the pasta around her spoon. “I mean yeah, but it’s apparently a lot easier when it’s not your own wedding,” Naomi mumbled before lifting the pasta to her lips. “Well, it should be a little less stressful,” Gabrielle comforted, “ y’all did the hard part already.”

“True, the courthouse should take off a lot of pressure.” Tasha echoed her friend. “Yeah, but this time all of our friends and family will be there. I just want everything to look great and have fun. I want it to feel like us.” Naomi explained.

“And it will,” Gabrielle offered. “It’ll be as bougie and black as y’all make it. You’re on top of your career, and so is he.” Tasha hyped. “Exactly, you are the woman who planned Beyonce’s vow renewal. You can definitely do this.” Gabrielle added.

“Thanks, but I would still like y’all’s help,” Naomi pouted.

“Fine-” “We’d love to-” Tasha and Gabrielle started at the same time. Naomi laughed.

“What do you need help with girl,” Gabrielle elbowed Tasha. “We have to choose the venue. They all offer something different but I just can’t decide. They’re all within walking distance of the reception hall, you know so that guests will hopefully participate in the second line parade.”

“Wait, the bridesmaids get a change of shoes for this part right,” Tasha interrupted. “Girl that is so not the point,” Gabrielle laughed. Naomi shook her head, “Anyway, these are the options,” Naomi pulled up the list on her phone and the group got to work. Hours later the women found themselves lounging on the couch. “Are you gonna include T’Challa’s family in this?” Gabrielle interrupted the comfortable silence of the room. “I don’t know yet, he hasn’t really talked much about inviting his family. He said he might try to see them on this trip.” Naomi replied.

“Well, if he wants them here, you should try to include his little sister, maybe as a bridesmaid. She’s what 18,19?” Gabrielle continued. “Yeah, he said she turned 18 a few months ago,” Naomi confirmed. “Good, it’ll be a great gesture if it can happen.” Gabrielle finished.

“Yeah, I’ll ask him about it when he gets back.”

“Have you guys set an official date for the wedding?”

“It really comes down to what day the venue is open. So we’re pretty flexible. Like y’all said, we’re already married, this is just the fun part.” Naomi shrugged, wiggling into a more comfortable spot on her part of the large sectional. “What about the honeymoon?” Tasha questioned. “We don’t know yet either, we have to see how long he can take off. Also realizing that if something goes down, he could be called into work.” Naomi frowned at the thought.

“I guess there’s no rest for everyone’s favorite United Nations ambassador,” Gabrielle teased.

“I guess not,” Naomi laughed. Tash sat up from her position on the chaise, “The real question is where are we going for this bachelorette party?”

“I was thinking Greece,” Naomi smiled, “Ride some horses on the ocean and sightsee. Mostly hang out on the beach. But we gotta go to the Parthenon y’all.”

“Oh god, she’s gonna turn the party into a history tour,” Tasha groaned. “Shut up,” Naomi threw a pillow at her friend.

“You know the strip club and bar scene isn’t really her thing, besides she’s already married. With a husband like T’Challa, I’d be surprised if any stripper could measure up anyway.” Gabrielle teased.

“Moving on,” Naomi loudly announced as Tasha cracked up on the carpet. “Ha ha ha,” Naomi deadpanned. Gabrielle shrugged, “I’m just speaking the truth. Besides, Greece sounds great. Who’s going?”

“I was thinking just us, and I guess T’Challa’s sister if she wants to go. Maybe, Natalie and Bey if they can get away. Nothing huge.” Naomi revealed. The bride to be again stood up and stretched. “Still can’t believe I’m gonna be in a wedding with Beyoncé” Tasha sighed. “You act like didn’t meet her at the engagement party,” Gabrielle yawned. “It’s still a major milestone for me,” Tasha sat up.

“Well, I’m gonna head to bed. Y’all know where the rooms are. Night.” Naomi yawned before trudging up the stairs, blanket over her head. “Night,” Tasha and Gabrielle called before following suit. Once in her room, Naomi picked up the picture of her and T’Challa at the courthouse on their wedding day. He was pressing a kiss to her cheek as she grinned. With his hand wrapped around her waist, she flashed her diamond ring for the camera to see. The happiness in the picture was contagious. A grin spread across her own face before she face-planted into their bed.

Taglist: @almostpurelysmut @blackbypurpose @nyneebee @hutchj @tchoking @sisterwifeudaku @wikiwakanda @royallyprincesslilly @90sinspiredgirl @strictlyashley @afraiddreamingandloving @thedelightfulone @autumn242 @purple-apricots @kumkaniudaku @queertrex @kaciidubs @halfrican-heat @skysynclair19 @dramaqueenamby @gorjiss @leahnicole1219 @kreolemami @mzbritt @yoyolovesbucky @derangedcupcake @builtalongthewayside @ilcb7 @chaneajoyyy @lalapalooza718 @ororowrites @leahnicole1219 @dopegalkk @sarcastic-sunshines @sarahboseman @shesakillerkween @waitingonafriend @faatassbitch

#tchalla #tchalla fanfiction #tchalla imagine #tchalla x reader #blackpantherimagines #apbpfics #tchalla x black! reader #tchalla x oc #tchalla x black!oc #humannaturefic

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platypik · 5 years

Text

“My whole life, people have been hiding the truth from me”

“You must know where I came from”

On that wonderful implication that Light Hope is “hiding the truth” from Adora (courtesy of the new trailer), I’d like to share a small (pretty big) theory I’ve been sitting on for some time:

Light Hope is not to be trusted, the role of She Ra is not what it seems, and (most importantly) the First Ones are Evil, actually.

So why are they such bad news?

For starters: the First Ones were not natives, they “settled” (Light Hope’s words) Etheria. They’re imperialists. Not a good start already. And yet First One’s technology controls every aspect of Etheria’s functionality (from weather to the elements), going so far as to make up the very core of the planet.

The First Ones came to Etheria, gutted it to fill with their own tech, obstructed the natural order with their technology, and forced the elemental and magical force of the planet to bend to their will (harnessing it through Rune Stones).

They were literally hollowing out the planet and then building alien technology into and onto it that was more than likely harming or even destroying the planet and its inhabitants.

*Cough*

[More below the cut - main points are bolded]

Season 1 & 2 Spoilers Ahead!

Going along with the idea that the First One’s were cool with messing up or flat out destroying the place (at the least junking it up), means that the First One’s likely gave zero fucks about how their work was going to affect or harm the natives.

This likely wouldn’t be their attitude towards the planet were Etheria the first and only planet they’d conquered. This implies that the First One’s had already “settled” a number of planets in addition to this one. That they even have a system in place for settling new planets.

Light Hope introduces herself as a “facilitator” and from what it sounds, she controlled the First One’s major infrastructure on Etheria. Her central importance is backed up by the fact that her hologram appears in every ruin we’ve seen thus far. Seems such an important job should go to a First One (maybe with the HELP of an AI, but still).

Etheria is not special.

Quick aside: here’s further proof that the First Ones were definitely doing something to the planet when they hollowed it out:

“Facilitator” doesn’t sound like it’d be very important work, at least not from the title. Not enough to warrant direct supervision under a First One apparently, or even garner a title outranking “facilitator.”

it certainly doesn’t sound like the title given to someone doing something as important as running a planet. Unless of course, running planets is old news and really not that important at all.

Now MAYBE they got the natives’ permission for all this. PROBABLY not.

And I’m sure not every Etherian was ready to roll over and accept the alien invaders and what they were doing to their planet. No, I think they put up a fight for Etheria and its integrity. The proof of struggle is in the ruins the First One’s left behind.

Any time the main cast has gone near a First One’s anything, without prompting, it’s tried to kill them -- except a handful of times when Adora identifies herself as an administrator.

Even that doesn’t prove to be enough every time. Even after Adora clears herself in the beacon in S1, the First One bugs still attack Catra (even after she insists Catra’s no threat).

An implied fear of non-First One trespassers of any kind strongly suggests there was opposition to the First One’s.

Otherwise, why build so many safeguards and security features?

First One’s tech is designed to attack, kill, and protect. It was potent and durable enough to withstand centuries later, so these are no light security measures. What purpose could it serve having all that security if all is peaceful on Etheria?

Thus:

She Ra was a peacekeeper, and her “purpose” was to force cooperation and control amongst the natives

Light Hope says She Ra was “appointed by the First Ones to protect and unite [the] planet”: to keep the peace.

So then what the hell was She-ra supposed to be ‘uniting’ and ‘keeping the peace’ for before the Horde existed?

You can interpret She Ra’s role as existing to put down totalitarian regimes such as Hordak’s or to enforce one such regime (by putting down “unpeaceful” protesting and “uniting” everything under the First One’s control.)

This sounds A LOT like what the Horde is doing now. And if the parallel holds true: there was likely a rebellion group of natives fighting against the alien invaders messing with their world and literally tearing out its core.

I realize this seems farfetched still, but it makes more sense after the next point:

Mara didn’t “lose it”. She rebelled against the corrupt First Ones alongside Etheria’s natives

History’s written by the victor’s, and the ONLY person who we’ve heard shit talk Mara is Light Hope. Madame Razz speaks kindly of Mara, and the ancient legends celebrate She-ra as an epic hero: not as a derailed young woman who massacred a bunch of innocents in a crazed rampage.

Surely, if Mara had directed her aggression on the Etherians, that would have shown up in their legends, and they would likely not be so kind to She Ra. Again, the only one who seems to have a problem with her is the First One facilitator.

No -- Mara very purposefully rebelled against the First Ones.

What proves Mara’s attacks weren’t random or deranged but were specifically targeted against the First One’s?

Her attacks were not random. For one, there are no “old Etherian ruins from the great Mara massacre." (Rebuilding and time-lapse aside).

Her attacks were premediated: Mara seemed to zero in specifically on communication devices used to contact First Ones off-world (the Beacon, the Communication Hub, and the Broadcast Tower in the orchard).

The narrative makes a point to specifically say that Mara was the one to scourge these places. More than likely, she did it as a way to keep the First Ones from phoning home for help.

She went after them meticulously, hitting them where it hurt most. None of this lends to the mental image of her being off her rocker.

More than that: we’ve seen what the First Ones are capable of, even centuries after they’re gone. Adora has had a hard time dealing with First One threats, and yet we’re supposed to believe Mara casually took down the whole lot of them while lacking any form of sanity or the ability to strategize and think rationally? Or without help?

Light Hope says Mara “was compromised. She gave in to fear and faulty reasoning.”

According to Light hope, Adora’s conviction to stay attached and to have friends was also “faulty reasoning” -- specifically the same faulty reasoning that led Mara down the ““wrong”” path.

The desire to stick by your friends, to do what’s right and not just do what you’re told, and the tendency to think for oneself and reject blind loyalty -- these are traits Light Hope rejects as “faulty”.

And what good guy, EVER, has promoted the message “yeah dump your friends, they’re just slowing you down.”

Mara realized what the First Ones she served were doing to Etheria (gutting and assimilating the planet to the point of its destruction), thus she turned against the corrupted First Ones, joining her companions in the rebellion against the invaders. She chose friendship over blind loyalty.

Because of this she was colored as deranged, misguided, and corrupted by the First Ones.

#shera #she ra #spop #she-ra #she ra season 3 #she ra season 2 #catra #adora #light hope #theory #text #shera theory #spop season 2 #spop season 3 #i spent way too long on this #but srsly guys listen this shits big #i feel #like i think first ones are end game bad guys but idk

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just-emotional-trash · 4 years

Text

An Outranked Romance Ch. 2

Pairings: Eventual Romantic Prinxiety, Logicality, and Remile

Story Summary: At Camp Regality, lords, ladies, and royalty alike learn the values of being a member of court in the Kingdom of Animiria. Prince Roman is thrilled at the chance to get out of the stuffy palace! Virgil, the son of a lowly Baron, is ready to leave the moment he gets there, and plans to slip through unnoticed. But what happens when a certain Princely figure won’t leave him alone?

Inspired by this post by @ironwoman359

Chapters: World-building - First - Previous - Next

Chapter Warning(s): Non-descript anxiety attack

Words: 2k

—————

Roman was so ready for camp to start-

In fact, he was packed a week in advance. Camp Regality was his first chance at freedom and art and a chance to finally meet some other people his age. His cousins were fun, but there was so much more out there. All of the other princes he met were either straight, in a relationship, or obnoxious and pretentious. As the limo pulled up to the camp, it bypassed the gate most of the nobility were being dropped off at and pulled directly up to the second largest building in the camp. It was a gold and white mansion, with large, greek columns and two large doors.

The chauffeur parked in front of the building, and the three guards assigned to the prince and two dukes flanked the limo and opened the doors. Roman walked out with a sigh and a stretch of his arms, grateful to get out of the limo he’s been in for the past five hours. He moved to grab hold of some of his bags (he had many of course, he would be here all summer!), but was stopped by one of the guards.

Roman frowned. “Let me help bring in my bags.” The guard didn’t budge, so Roman took a different approach. “Look, there’s a lot of bags, and only three of you. We’re not in the palace anymore, I can help without any ‘nobleman’ getting huffy over it!”

The guard sighed, “This is still a place of nobility, your highness. Let us do our job, it will be of no trouble.” Roman let out a resigned sigh and turned to his two cousins, currently looking around the camp with big eyes. Being members of the Royal family, they were all used to being carted from palace to palace any time they traveled. This was a change of pace, and what a change it was.

The woods behind the camp called him to explore, and the small lake in the distance sparked with invitation.The future nobility milled about in the sand pit and the sparing ground, meeting old and new friends. And behind them his two cousins- were now in front of him, holding the door open in invitation. They laughed as he realized he had been standing still, looking out across the camp. He chuckled and walked up the stairs, into the mansion.

—————

Roman, Patton, and Emile walked through the halls and up the stairs to find their rooms. Patton’s was immediately next to the stairwell, accented with a painted sign of his name in cursive on the front.

Patton grinned, “Aww! That sign is a-door-able!” Emile tried to stifle his laughter as Roman suppressed his grin and shook his head in disappointment. Patton just smiled at them and waved as he walked into his room with a guard following him with his bag.

Emile’s room was not far from Patton’s. It also had a sign with his name on it, this one with big, bubbly letters. Emile just grinned and walked into his room with a wave at Roman. The poor guy hasn’t had any alone time in the three days it took to travel to the camp, so he was probably eager to have some space to himself.

Roman walked a small ways to the end of the hallway, where his name was written on a sign in an elegant scrawl across the large door. He walked through the doorway to find a room nearly as large his own at the palace. The room was crawling with colors of the nobility - white, red, and gold - and Roman was happy to see them follow him here. After all, red was his favorite color for this exact reason.

He made his way over to the corner of the room, where he was delighted to find a piano, sheet music, and an easel with paints. Being the masculine prince he was, he was discouraged by members of the court to learn artistic abilities. “That is women’s work,” they called, “leave something for the female nobility to contribute!” Not that he didn’t enjoy swordsmanship or sparing, but he wished to express his creativity!

His father, King Thomas, had never discouraged him from pursuing such simple delights as art, and even got him a sketchbook. However, anytime the young royal had tried to learn an instrument, a man of nobility had come to sweep him away for one reason or another. This left him with only his voice, which he had developed well over the years.

"Alright piano,” Roman said as he dramatically pulled the cover off of the instrument, “show me what you’ve got!” He sat down and pulled out sheet music. He spent a few minutes singing the bars and rhythms and matching them to the notes before he got a feel for it. A few hours work and a lot of frustration later, he could barely pluck out “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. Groaning in frustration, he pulled away from his piano and clambered into bed, draping himself dramatically over the comforter. A moment passes and he hears a knock on the door.

“Hey kiddo!” Patton walks in without need of permission. “That was some good music I heard from down the hall!”

Roman groaned, “You heard all that?” Patton nodded empathetically. “Don’t patronize me. Turns out playing piano does not come quite as naturally as expected.”

Patton smiled as he sat down at the foot of Roman’s bed. “Well, you just need to find a good teacher! You have a music class in the afternoons, correct?”

Roman shot up, “Hey yeah! I bet someone would be able to teach me!” Patton just smiled and nodded his head. Roman tackled him in a hug, “Pat, you are a blessing upon my life!”

Patton laughed at his cousin’s antics and said, “Yes, of course, I know, but now we need to go down for dinner!” At this, Roman took notice of his cousin’s suit and light blue tie. “Ah, of course! I’ll change into my uniform.”

They walked downstairs to meet Emile in a light pink tie and an older, stern looking woman in a dress that looked like it was made for her grandmother. “Hello,” she spoke in a voice far too high to be pleasant, “I am Miss Higgenbotham, the headmistress of this campus. i welcome you, Prince Roman! And your cousins, the Dukes. Welcome also. I trust Cabin Majesty has been accommodating?”

Roman could tell that she was just as snotty and old fashioned as the rest of the court at home. He could only hope the other kids there wouldn’t all be the same. He turned on his courtly smile and responded, “Thank you, headmistress. I’ve been nothing but impressed and am eager to spend my summer in such a lovely camp.” She stiffly smiled back, reassuring him that he used the correct amount of formality.

Guards flanked them as they started toward the main building as Miss Higgenbotham began to point out buildings and giving them names that Roman immediately forgot. All he managed to remember is that the largest building was called the Palace of Perfection and it was the home base of the camp. As they approached the main doors, Emile lagged behind the rest. Patton went back to find out what was wrong, and Roman and the headmistress stopped by the foot of the stairs.

After a minute of talking, Patton started hugging Emile. Roman finally saw his younger cousin’s face and could tell he was crying. “Headmistress Higgenbotham, if you would go on into the ballroom, we will join you shortly.” She seemed miffed at the break of her plan, but she nodded nonetheless and walked in. Roman walked over to the brothers and put his arms around the both of them.

“What do I need to slay my sweet Emile? A dragon? A witch? A dragon witch?” Roman could feel his younger cousin laugh softly as they pulled apart.

Emile wiped at his eyes and slowed his breathing as he tried to gather his thoughts. “I-its just... there’s going to be so many people in there, a-and I’m not even supposed to be here yet-”

Patton interrupted him, “Emile, you’re here now because Roman and I wanted you to go to camp with us! It just wouldn’t be the same with only two thirds of the three musketeers!”

Emile still looked doubtful, so Roman added, “Besides, who else would help talk me through it when I inevitably screw something up? I need my therapist at my side just as much as my best friends!” Emile cracked a smile at that and nodded.

“Okay,” Patton clapped, “let’s go wash your face and let the redness calm down and we can go on in.” They entered the mansion and asked the house staff to lead them to a bathroom. A sweet maid led them to a small, personal bathroom just off of the Grand Ballroom where the dinner was to take place. They took their time joking and laughing until they decided to go on to the meal.

As they walked up to the grand double doors, a large man with a staff walked in before them and called out, “Presenting Prince Roman Sanders, and his Royal Dukes, Patton and Emile Picani!” Roman shrugged and stepped out, once again donning his court smile and waved at his fellow campmates. He felt his cousins following him, which was a great comfort.

As they reached the end of the long walkway between tables, the headmistress walked up to a podium and gestured for Roman to stand beside her. She began to give a welcoming speech, which the royal tuned her out in favor of taking a look around the room. Everyone was in uniform - a white shirt and kaki bottoms, with a grey blazer and the Royal Crest on their lapel. He met the eyes of many as he surveyed the room, but they caught on a pair of mismatched ones. One blue and the other... brown? Hazel? It was hard to tell from far away, but surreal to say the least, not to mention the strange dark shadow underneath his eyes. The man that owned the strange eyes was beautiful, with dark hair and sharp eyes that stared right back into his light brown ones.

Suddenly, the eyes left his as the man ducked down and began to talk to the person beside him wearing sunglasses. Roman was made aware of the rest of the room once again, and noticed that the headmistress was still dragging her speech on.

“Not only is the royal family oh so generous for allowing us to be blessed with the presence of their very offspring, but they also-”

Roman stepped up to the elder woman and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. As much as I appreciate this glowing speech,” he speaks as he leans over into the microphone, “these people must be awful tired of waiting for their food. I know I am!” His princely smile returned once again to his face as the people laughed and showed agreement.

“Yes well,” she made a disgruntled face at her speech being cut short, but she would not deny the prince. “I suppose it would be alright if we went ahead and began dinner. Waiters! Appetizers, please.”

Waiters flow through the doors as the Headmistress Higgenbotham gripped his arm to guide him to the staff table at the front of the room. A small part of him had hoped that he would be allowed to sit where he wished (certainly not just to learn the name of the beautiful stranger he held eye contact with for just a moment too long), but he knew that even such a small freedom would be over the line.

Roman sat down at the right hand of the headmistress as she lifted her glass. “A toast!” she called to the table, “To the beginning of another great summer!” Roman lifted his glass and smiled as he prepared for one of the best summers of his life, even with the few restrictions left over from the palace.

—————

Taglist: @treasureofpriam @ghosttb0y @mostpeopleannoyne @athenashipsthings @icequeenorginal @monroig @anaussiefander @www-dot-ohshit-dot-com @cas-is-a-hunter @justastressedprincess

#an outranked romance #royal camp! au #prinxiety #ts prinxiety #logicality #ts logicality #ts remile #remile #roman sanders #ts roman #virgil sanders #ts virgil #patton sanders #ts patton #emile picani #ts emile #ts dr picani

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ladyemberswrites · 4 years

Text

Lotura Week, Day 2

Fantasy/Anger

"I'm nothing if not a hedonist"

Summary: The newly crowned Emperor and Allura are still very much at odds with one another, in order to relieve some tension the princess talks the former prince into playing their virtual dnd game, unfortunately Lotor refuses to make things easy for her.

Allura turned around only for her smile to drop right off her face. It crumbled than crashed right to the floor with an audible thud. white noise blared in her ears as they drooped off to the sides and an awkward, very uncomfortable quip of her lips sat upon her face.

"So then, Princess" Lotor began as though everything was completely normal "where shall we begin our quest?"

Whatever came barreling out her lips might as well been gibberish until "What the hell!?" She shrieked and the galra emperor had the audacity to look at her as though she was the one who had lost their mind.

"Pardon?"

"You! That! Your!" Her face only burned in mortification "You must change immediately! Now!" She points to his outfit, or what little of it clung tightly to his body. His very chiseled body. But that was entirely besides the point, he was dressed as though he were a common whore.

"Why?" She could've sworn the way he said it came off innocent, however she knew better, Lotor was many things but oblivious wasn't one of them.

"You know exactly why! Your outfit is terribly inappropriate! Change! Immediately, your princess commands it!"

"Ah, but my dear princess I outrank you" he placed his hands on his hips which only emphasized his state of being scantily clad.

Her body might as well been on fire. Burning like a thousand suns.

His attire was nothing more than glorified silk hardly something one wore in battle. Black, thin accompanied by thigh high leather boots. The tunic he wore only covered his waist, long and beaded with gold, it left little to the imagination, leaving the skin of hips exposed. His hair was tied back in a entrically tied ponytail, he added earrings, and the only thing that covered his chest was the strap of his bow and arrows. One arm was adorned in a heavy gauntlet and the over a long fingerless glove.

And the bastard looked entirely at ease with himself.

"That's hardly the point!" She wanted to slap the smirk right off his face. She shouldn't be looking, stars knows she shouldn't, but she can't help but stare because of how gaudy it was "you look like a prostitute!"

"Hm." He picked at the fabric in deep thought before dismissing it completely "perhaps, but my people aren't so-" he searched for a proper term yet came up with none "hung up on such notions as nudity. It is after all the most natural state of being"

Allura felt like her brain was melting and oozing out her ears "you cannot be serious!" She squeaked.

"Oh.." he flashed his fangs and something warm stirred in her belly "but, I am, Princess" she squinted at him incredulously, her heart pounding her chest as sweat gathered at her temples.

"But, it seems to be having a rather interesting affect on you" immediately, she folded her arms across her chest. Consternated she sniffed at the insinuation.

Scoffing "Only in your wildest dreams, Emperor" then he approached, like a predator, like some sleek panther on the prowl and loomed over like a shadow. It was hard to keep herself straight laced, but he was half-naked and pressing himself upon her like he had no manners whatsoever. It didn't help that her face didn't even reach the large swath of his chest.

She tilted her chin up brows set and her lips pressed into a firm scowl. Lotor responded in typical Lotor fashion, amusement printed clear on his pretty face. She wanted now not just to slap him but punch his teeth out.

"Truly, Princess?" Her name curled over his tongue in a sinuous manner that her proprietary screaming in terror. On instinct, she backed away only for her backside to hit the large tree behind her "Do I have no effect on you?" A strange expression clouded his face, she can't decipher for the life her whether it was arousal or contempt. Or a mixture of both, she can never quite read him when he became like this.

Swallowing, she fell silent.

"E-emperor" she fumbled "we should probably find the others" he doesn't move instead leans in closer until his lips brush against her causing a shiver to ride up her spine, curling her toes inside her boots.

"I like to think that you have an effect on me" he whispers "after all you smell heavenly, Princess, like the sweetest treat" he caressed her cheek with his as he drew back and away from her.

"You're a hedonistic pervert"

"Ah, that I am" he finally stepped back allowing her room to breath again.

"Your not supposed to agree with me!" She fumed.

"I cannot deny what I am" he replies flippantly. She briefly wondered if he'd retaliate if she did indeed punch his stupid, pretty face in.

"I hope you trip and stumble down the mountain side"

"Your adorable when your angry"

"I'll asphyxiate you with your tunic!"

"Cute indeed."

"Listen here-" she stamped her foot.

"Allura!" Hunk and Pidge stumbled out the bush "there you are," followed by a disgruntled Lance who turned and balked at the sight of the Galra Emperor.

"Oh, what the actual hell, man!" He gagged obnoxiously, covering his eyes.

Lotor exhaled in annoyance.

"Oh, hey Lotor" Hunk said as though said man wasn't just standing there dressed like a stripper. Pidge didn't even bat an eye choosing to turn a blind eye.

"I-uh-" she noticed the black paladin was nowhere to be seen "where's Shiro?" Pidge peered behind her and shrugged.

"I think he died again" Allura rubbed her temple, internally groaning. So much for a peaceful evening.

#lotura #lotura week 2020 #lotura week #lollura

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kinktae · 5 years

Text

camellia || pt. 2 (M)

Y/N is a strong-willed herbalist who knows exactly what she wants; she also happens to make some really good tea. Taehyung is a kind but rebellious prince who doesn’t really know what he wants but he knows that the commoner girl who makes fantastic tea can’t be this damn cute.

pairing: prince!taehyung x herbalist!reader

word count: 10k

genre: fluff, smut, prince au

warnings: the smut scene was meant to be a cute one but somehow it turned filthy and I accidentally made Tae into a raging dom oops

A/N: Header created by me! Inspired by one of my favorite animes ever: Snow White with the Red Hair.

CHAPTERS: 01 | 02

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PART TWO

Prince Taehyung was never a tea person. So imagine the castle staff's surprise when he began to request homemade tea every night from to room.

You remembered the first time a maid came and found you about the prince's request for your tea. You nodded politely back at her, but couldn't help the smile that crept onto your face.

Even when you arrived at the prince's door, tray in hand, your smile still didn't let up.

Night after night you made Taehyung tea, sitting at the foot of his bed as he always managed to convince you to stay and chat for a while. Taehyung spoke to you about anything and everything; he liked the way you spoke bluntly and didn't shrink yourself around him. Even when the tea was gone and the initial conversation had died, he'd find new things to talk about, no matter how unimportant, just because he liked the sound of your voice.

“What?” You asked one night, noticing that Taehyung had been staring at you for the past few minutes.

“Nothing. I just really like hearing you talk is all.” Taehyung confessed softly, causing you to glance down at your empty teacup, unable to meet his sincere eyes.

It was the small conversations like that one that would linger on your mind as you made your way down the castle halls, a soft tune falling from your lips.

You were grateful for your friendship with the prince; you had been at the castle for two months now and had yet to make many friends if any at all.

Taehyung had been the one to encourage you as you took the palace pharmacist entrance exam, which would ensure your spot in the castle. You passed with flying colors, and soon enough you found yourself in the position of court herbalist, a title held by only two other people in the palace, both of which you enjoyed working beside, even if neither was near your age.

Every day you worked diligently, spending hours in the greenhouse, notebook in hand as you took notice of any plants that weren't thriving or growing at expected rates. While it wasn't quite the herbal medicine you wanted to practice, you were grateful for whatever work you could get, as measuring stem diameter was still far more of interest to you than stitching up open wounds.

Although not surprised, your father wasn't entirely thrilled that you had taken up an herbalist position over a medicine one, so you had made it a point to do everything you did with enthusiasm with hopes that you could make him proud nevertheless.

"Have you seen the royal tea girl walking around lately?"

An unfamiliar voice swept out in front of you, the words catching you off guard as you halted your steps. Your eyebrows furrowed as you took silent steps forward, peering cautiously around the corner.

"Oh, poor thing, she's filthy."

Your stomach dropped as you watched a group of four women standing in a semi-circle, talking amongst themselves. You hadn’t seen them before, their faces albeit beautiful were unfamiliar. It was clear from their attire that they were noblewoman of some sort.

"Seriously, what does she do all day? Roll around in dirt?" A woman of golden hair scoffed, her curls bouncing slightly as she shook her head lightly.

"I could never imagine having to crawl through dirt all day. I know she's a commoner but has she really no shame as to parade around like that? I wouldn't be caught dead walking amongst royals with soil on my face!" Another spoke, her tan complexion complimenting the white of her teeth.

A round of cruel laugh fell over the group.

You should turn around. You should stop listening and turn around.

You placed a hand against the wall you were hiding against, fingers falling on top of the gold molding that decorated the inside of the palace walls.

"She's lucky her father is the head doctor. It’s the only reason she’s here, you know. She would've been thrown out the moment she started tracking dirt into the castle with those horrid boots of hers if it weren’t for him." The blonde spoke again through a laugh.

Taking a step back, you pulled your eyes away from the women. Your face burned and insides churned as you began to walk away.

You had never overheard anyone speak so ill of you so freely like that before. Is that what everyone at the castle thought of you? That you were nothing more than some dirt covered royal tea girl?

"Y/N?"

A voice called out from behind you, causing you to turn around mid-step.

"Fancy seeing you here." Taehyung grinned, having had just emerged from a room you had passed by.

"Oh, your highness. Forgive me, I didn't see you." You breathed out, not expecting to see the prince now of all people.

"Tae." He corrected.

You glanced around to make sure that the two of you were alone, "Sorry. Tae."

"Are you okay?" Taehyung frowned at your flustered state.

"Yes, why do you ask?"

"You're shaking."

You blinked at his words, swallowing dryly. He was right; your anxiety was off the charts. Did Taehyung think of you in the way those women spoke about you? You could hardly think clearly, all you knew was that you wanted to get as far away from everyone as soon as possible.

"I just..." You began, crossing your arms over your chest. "I overheard something I shouldn't have."

At your words, Taehyung's face fell, a glimmer of concern gracing his warm eyes. Immediately, regret flooded you. You shouldn't bother him with something as trivial as some women not liking you. The prince had far more pressing issues to worry about, you were sure.

"Actually, nevermind. I don't want to bother you. It's really not that important–"

"Y/N." Taehyung cut you off pointedly. "You can talk to me."

You pressed your lips together, eyes flickering away from his worried ones.

"There were some women talking amongst them themselves about me. How my clothes are always dirty–"

"You work with plants. You're an herbalist." Taehyung defended, an angry look on his face.

You let out a sigh, "Only because my father is the head doctor."

Taehyung blinked at you, obviously bewilderedly.

"What?"

"They said the only reason I'm here is because of my father. And honestly, Tae, they're right." You continued, voice breaking slightly as you spoke, your emotions catching up with you.

"What? Come on, you know that's not true." The prince reasoned causing you to shake your head.

"It is true!" You exclaimed, eyes watering.

"I don't belong here! I mean, I've always known that. I'm not poised or refined, not to mention I've been here for two months and every guard still looks at me as if I'm some threat to the crown. Even the cooking staff, every time I walk into the kitchen they look at me like I'm some peasant girl who is going to steal silverware or something!"

Tears fell freely down your cheeks but you couldn't stop your upset rambling

"And it's not like I'm doing anything useful here? I take inventory of plants. That's all I do! That's not helping anyone like I want to. The best thing I contribute to this castle is making stupid god damn tea."

At the sound of a broken sob leaving your lips, Taehyung pulled you into him, wrapping his arms around you.

You hardly had time to be embarrassed at his gesture as you buried your face into his chest. You weren't expecting this wave of emotions, but as Taehyung held you, you felt an overwhelming amount of catharsis fall over you.

You weren't a vulnerable person by any means, you'd rather internalize any insecurities you faced and deal with them privately. So to voice them out loud Taehyung had you feeling outrageously fragile.

Taehyung's hands wrapped around your shoulders, pulling you back. He ran a thumb over a wet cheek, beckoning you to meet his eyes.

"Even if your father got you here, it's you and your knowledge that passed that entrance exam and kept you here. Not him."

You opened your mouth to respond but the prince shushed you.

"I'm sorry the staff hasn't been kind to you. We haven't seen a new face in the palace in years, as you can probably tell by the lack of people our age. They're wary of you, and I'm sorry if they aren't treating you fairly." Taehyung took a breath as if trying to compose his thoughts.

"As for those women, were they staff or were they of nobility?"

You sniffed lightly, "Nobility. Or at least, they were dressed as if they were."

Taehyung scrunched up his nose in distaste, causing your curiosity to pique.

"Countesses." He scowled. "Some of them wives of Earls of neighboring kingdoms. Some of them of Counts. All of them wretched."

Your eyes widened at Taehyung's openly verbal disdain for the countesses. You suppose seeing as he outranked them, he could speak freely against them.

"They come to stay every once and a while. It's meant to encourage friendly relations between kingdoms but if you ask me they just come to pretend that they're more important than they actually are." Taehyung admitted causing a small giggle to escape your lips.

Taehyung stared at you fondly for a moment before speaking again.

"They gossip because they're bored and have nothing better to do. You are more than worthy of a to be here. Certainly more worthy than they are. Being born into nobility doesn't warrant significance. It's what you do with your nobility that matters. Otherwise, your title is meaningless."

For a moment, the two of you stared at each other, once again hit with the realization that despite everything that differentiated the two of you, at the end of the day, you were both more alike then you were different.

A smirk crept up onto the prince’s mouth.

“Are you busy? Would you want to go back to your village with me?”

You paused for a moment, staring back at the prince confusedly.

"Wha– Do you mean right now?" You blinked.

Taehyung nodded back at you enthusiastically.

"If you haven't anything else today, of course. I haven't spent much time there if I'm honest. Who better to give me a tour than someone who actually knows the area and the people? It's time to do something with my title. And I'd love it if you helped me."

Taehyung's words were so sincere and earnest that you found yourself growing warm under his excited stare.

"Of course, I'll help you. I'm done for the day, I just need to change into some clean clothes–"

"Great! I'll meet you at the stables in fifteen minutes?" He asked, sounding hurried.

You grinned, "Alright, see you then."

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It was on your ride back to your village, after Taehyung had lead Yeontan through a hidden path away from the castle that the prince finally confessed that he was meant to be attending a meeting later today. You were quick to scold him in light of his confession but couldn't argue with his defense that going out to see if he could help his people was a good alternative for the routine meeting the heads of royalty and staff usually had.

Unsurprisingly, traveling by horse still hadn't become easier since your first time on Yeontan two months ago. You held on as steadily as you could without hurting the horse or the prince, but you couldn't help but let out a small noise of fear every time Yeontan sped up to a canter, your body bouncing in rhythm to his movements.

Even as you reached your hometown, having had finally stopped at the local stables, with both feet on the ground, you still found yourself weak in the knees.

Taehyung had just finished speaking to the stableman about arranging Yeontan to stay here for the day as a royal horse would draw too much attention anywhere else and headed over to where you stood leaning against the wooden fence, looking weary.

"Why the long face?" He joked as he reached you, causing you to roll your eyes.

"Horse joke. Funny." You mused dryly as you retied your cloak tighter around your neck.

The prince gave you a cheeky grin as he reached for his own cloak, mimicking your actions.

"You really don't like riding horses, do you?"

"It's not my favorite activity." You admitted, beginning to lead the dark haired man into town.

"Really? I would've never guessed by your petrified squeals mid-ride and inability to stand immediately after." Taehyung smirked as he walked beside you.

You shoved your shoulder into his lightly causing him to laugh.

"You know, I could teach you how to ride if you'd like." He offered, causing you to turn to face him.

"Really? Wait... Are you sure that's a good idea?" You contemplated, flashing Taehyung a skeptical look.

He shrugged, "The reason you're scared of falling is a lack of trust in the horse and a lack of trust in yourself. Learning how to ride should help with that."

You let out a hum, stepping over a tree branch that was laid out in front of your path.

"I mean, yes. I'd love to at least try! Only if it isn't a bother, of course."

"Sure. I've got plenty of time to spare. It's not like I do much as prince anyway." Taehyung reminded you, somewhat bitterly.

You offered him a sympathetic smile, "That all changes today."

Taehyung and you were taking a more discrete way into the village. As a little girl, you used to take this path often, as it offered a more scenic route back home. You were a fan of nature from the start after all.

"I hear people." Taehyung said after a while, the two of you having had been walking in comfortable silence.

You could hear the excited chatter of your village's people from not too far ahead. And as the two of you walked out onto the pavement of the town you once called home, you couldn't help but smile.

"They're preparing for the summer festival!" You told Taehyung excitedly, eyes running over the busying bodies.

Women and men alike all brushed past one another, arms carrying brightly colors fabrics and other miscellaneous decorations. Children marched behind their parents happily, hands swinging at their sides in time to whatever song laid in their heads.

Taehyung said nothing, eyes wide as he took in the busy market and its people, trailing behind you as you walked.

You were headed toward your family’s old pharmacy. Back when both your family worked there, it served as both a clinic and pharmacy; your mother mainly in charge of pharmacy while your father also worked part-time treating injuries. When your mother passed away, your father reached out your family friend, Dhruv, to help out, along with putting you to work. With both you and your father now working at the castle, the pharmacy had fallen ownership to Dhruv and his family.

“It isn’t that much longer until we reach–”

You turned to speak to Taehyung, only to realize he wasn’t beside you.

You halted your steps, turning around in alarm, lifting up onto your toes to search for the prince’s dark locks.

Your eyes flickered back in forth in panic before they locked onto Taehyung’s concerned ones, standing a few feet back. You opened your mouth to call his name out in relief, but stopped yourself, realizing that even if no one knew what the prince looked like, screaming out his name in the middle of a busy market still probably wasn’t the smartest of ideas.

“Thought I lost you there for a second.” You sighed once Taehyung was in earshot.

“Sorry! I got distracted by everything that’s going on.” He apologized with a lopsided grin as he finally reached you.

You rolled your eyes, a small smirk on your lips, “Gosh, you’re like an excited little kid. You’d better shape up or I’ll make you hold my hand.”

At your words, Taehyung’s eyes widened in surprise, “Hold your hand?”

Immediately, you realized how what you had just said could be misconstrued. You let out a nervous laugh, arms waving in front of you dismissively.

"N-Not in a romantic sense, of course! I just meant so you wouldn't keep falling behind. It’s what mothers do with children that wander! I– Sorry, that was a really stupid joke, just pretend like I didn't say anything–"

Your rambling was cut off by the feeling of Taehyung's large hand intertwining with yours, leaving you speechless.

“I don’t mind if you don’t." He grinned lopsidedly, squeezing his warm hand around yours.

A small noise of agreement left your throat as you turned away from the prince's twinkling eyes. Your face burned and your heart raced. He had taken it so easily, it threw you entirely off guard, and just to occupy your muddled mind, you began to point out the different shops and sellers of the market. Taehyung listened and responded attentively, for which you were grateful. Anything to keep his mind off how clammy your hand was with his holding it.

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“Dhruv!” You exclaimed excitedly as you stepped into the pharmacy, hand slipping from Taehyung’s.

The familiar man perked up at the sound of your voice, eyes widening in surprise as he took you in.

“Hey, look who came back!” Dhruv mused to himself, slipping out from behind the counter to wrap you up in a hug.

For the two years you lived in the village without your father, Dhruv had served as a father figure to you, helping you adjust to life on your own, not to mention helping you with boy troubles when your father couldn’t.

Taehyung watched in curiosity, leaning back against a wall by the pharmacy front door.

“You back for good?” Dhruv asked as the two of you pulled apart, causing you to laugh.

“Not quite. I came back to buy some seeds.”

The man and you continued to talk as he made his way back behind the counter, taking your order as he asked you questions about your new castle life.

“And who is Mr. Tall, Dark, and Handsome that you came in with?” Dhruv asked you, eyes flickering behind you. You looked over your shoulder to see Taehyung looking slightly out of place as if he wasn’t sure what to do.

“Come over here.” You beckoned him through a laugh.

Taehyung flashed you a sheepish look, moving to walk over to you.

“Forgive me, I didn’t want to interrupt the reunion.” He apologized, offering a charming smile.

“Nonsense! I’m tired of Y/N’s old face anyway, new faces are much more exciting.” Dhruv chuckled causing you to let out an offended laugh.

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m… Tae.” The prince introduced after slight deliberation. Dhruv made no reaction towards the nickname, clearly not connecting the stranger Tae as the prince Taehyung.

“Dhruv.” The pharmacist greeted.

Dhruv turned towards you, “Well, I’d offer you some of your favorite tea like we used to have every morning but I’m afraid there’s been a bit of a water shortage throughout the village lately.”

At his words, both you and Taehyung perked up in interest.

“Water shortage? We’ve never had a water shortage before have we?” You asked, eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Oh, it’s been a while since the last one. Been about a month now.” The man sighed.

You could feel Taehyung physically tense at his words.

“Ah, no worries though. We just gotta get through the summer and things should go back to normal I think. Why don’t I run back and get you those seeds you asked for. On the house, of course.”

You let out a noise in surprise, “Oh please, Dhruv, no. Let me pay you–”

“Hush. You’re like family to me at this point. Besides I’m already moving so you can’t fight it.” The man mused, slipping into the back of the store with a wave.

“That man, I swear.” You shook your head with a huff.

“Twenty four.” Taehyung muttered to himself, causing you to look over at him.

“Pardon?”

Taehyung met your eyes, a small frown on his lips.

“If my family knew about this I would’ve heard about the water shortage by now. We have twenty-four fountains at the palace that spew water 24/7. I’ve been doing nothing while a whole village of my people has been going on thirsty. We don’t need that water, they do…” Taehyung gesturing towards where Dhruv had disappeared.

Taking in Taehyung’s bothered expression, you placed a hand onto his cheek as you offered him a sympathetic look in an effort to comfort him.

“That’s not your fault and you know it’s not. If the royal family didn’t know then there was no way you could have known.” You cooed softly.

Taehyung’s eyes met yours gently as he placed his hand over yours gratefully.

“Here we are!” Dhruv reemerged from the storage room, causing Taehyung and you to jump apart.

Taehyung’s face red and your voice shaking from being caught in such an intimate gesture, you accepted the seeds from Dhruv, thanking him profusely after he once again refused your money.

The three of you made small talk for a few minutes before Dhruv walked over towards another customer that had walked in. For a moment, Taehyung and you stood in front of the counter silently, as you looked down at what you were just given.

At the feeling of eyes aimed in his direction, Taehyung looked over to the pharmacy’s window only to see a man standing outside it, eyeing Y/N unabashedly.

"Y/N," Taehyung began lowly, causing you to look up at him, "there is a man staring at you from outside as if he's seen a ghost."

You turn towards the window in confusion, only to see the familiar face of your former lover.

"Oh shit." You breathed, looking away quickly.

"Who is he?" Taehyung pondered.

"My ex-boyfriend."

The chime of the door opening caused you to curse as it meant he had entered to greet you.

“Y/N!” The familiar voice called out, causing you to look up and greet the young man with a sheepish smile.

“Jungkook! How are you?” You greeted back, walking over to him.

Taehyung stayed leaning against the counter, eyeing the man called Jungkook skeptically, even more so when he wrapped his arms around you.

“I haven’t seen you in forever. I heard you’re living at the castle now?” Jungkook said as he broke the embrace.

“I am.” You nodded politely.

“I had to find out through Dhruv, you know. I came over here one day and he said you left.”

You flinched at his words, knowing that he would bring that up, “Ah, well. It all happened so suddenly. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.”

In all honesty, you had made it a point not to tell Jungkook goodbye. Although the break up was somewhat clean, it was quite apparent that Jungkook still harbored feelings for you as he never left you alone. You wanted to avoid the dramatic reaction from him to the news of you leaving to live at the castle.

“So you’re working for your father then? That’s fantastic.” He enthused.

“Oh, well, no.” You told him.

“Oh? What, did you not cut it out as a nurse?” Jungkook joked, causing you to frown slightly.

There wasn’t anything wrong with Jungkook really. You broke up with him simply because you realized you really didn’t harbor any romantic feelings towards him. His constant dismissal in your interest for herbology certainly did help with the breakup, however. He, like your father, always tried to encourage you into going into medicine, despite your constant reminders that you much rather study herbalism rather than anatomy.

“No, actually, I have no interest in becoming a nurse. I work as a court herbalist.” You corrected him politely albeit with a slight edge to your tone.

Having had sensed some tension between your and Jungkook’s interaction, Taehyung made his way over to you.

You jumped slightly as a hand intertwined itself with yours, but you relaxed as you realized it was just Taehyung.

“Hello. I don’t believe we’ve met.” Taehyung interjected boldly, causing Jungkook’s expression to harden slightly.

“No, I don’t believe we have.” Jungkook replied dryly, eyes flickering towards your intertwined hands momentarily.

“I’m Tae.”

“Jungkook.” The younger man nodded back. "Are you two–"

"Together? Yes." Taehyung cut Jungkook off, flashing him a smile that didn't meet his eyes.

"Oh," Jungkook responded, noticeably uncomfortable, "do you live at the palace, too?"

Taehyung nodded easily, "I do."

"Ah, so that's how you two met then. Are you an… herbalist as well?"

You turned to look at Taehyung, also curious as to what he might reply.

Taehyung held your eyes for a split second before turning back to Jungkook.

"I work under the prince actually." He lied smoothly.

"Damn. I couldn't imagine waiting on someone's beck and call. Much less some stuck-up prince."

"Oh yeah, it's awful. He's a real asshole." Taehyung mused, causing you to snort.

Taehyung and you shared a knowing look, finding humor in the entire situation.

Jungkook nodded as if he figured as much before offering Taehyung a tight-lipped smile.

"Well, I'm sure Y/N is trying to show you all around the village so I won't keep you both any longer." Jungkook cleared his throat. "It was good to see you again, Y/N."

"Likewise." You told him with a small smile.

Jungkook turned towards Taehyung and after an awkward beat of silence, offered him a polite nod before slipping out of the pharmacy.

Taehyung's eyes narrowed immediately, "I don't like him."

You let out a laugh.

"Jungkook is harmless. Kind of insufferable, but mainly harmless."

"Any chance you have some sort of natural laxative on you that'll make him shit himself for days that we can offer him before we head back?"

"Sorry to disappoint, but I don't make it a habit to carry poisons around with me." You rolled your eyes, a grin present.

"Shame." Taehyung teased, brushing his shoulder into yours jokingly.

Consequently, the prince’s eyes fall onto his hand, and his cheeks pinked as he realized he was still holding your hand. He let go immediately.

"Sorry." He apologized, clearing his throat awkwardly.

Holding your hand felt oddly natural and up until now, he had forgotten entirely that your hand was in his.

To his surprise, you bit down onto your lip, moving to take his hand into yours.

"Don't be. After all, we’re together, remember?” You teased, referring to how Taehyung had lied about you and him being a couple to ward off Jungkook. “I have a feeling we're going to have to use that cover more than once today."

Taehyung felt a weird feeling of elation run through him. He liked the idea that he could hold your hand freely, if only for today.

Instead of expressing that, however, he raised an eyebrow up dramatically.

"How many exes do you have?" He accused, jokingly.

You rolled your eyes.

"That’s not what I meant. Couples attract less attention, you know. Public displays of affection make people uncomfortable. You saw how Jungkook quickly left after he saw us holding hands." You told him.

"Hmm. I suppose you have a point." He offered, before throwing you a skeptical glare. "You still didn't answer my question."

You gave him a pointed look, despite the fact that the sides of your mouth tugged upwards.

"Come on." You sang, tugging your boyfriend for the day out the door.

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The sun had just begun to set on your small town; just as well as you and Taehyung had grown tired from your afternoon adventure. You had taken him everywhere you thought he might enjoy: the springs, the farmhouse, the local theatre, your old house. And as the two of you walked down the cobbled stone of the now significantly less crowded market, you reminisced on your day and planned your next journey.

“We could go to Tanbarun next!” Taehyung offered excitedly. “There’s an elderly lady who always offers me bread and milk whenever she sees me.”

“I’ve never been to Tanbarun.” You confessed, excited at the prospect of traveling out of your small village.

To your surprise, Taehyung grabbed your hand and spun you around, causing you to let out an elated giggle.

“They’ve got the best gardens, Y/N. I can’t wait for you to see them, you’ll drool all over yourself.” The prince teased, clearly in a playful mood.

You rolled your eyes at what he was suggesting.

“While the thought of new plants and flowers excite me, I will not be drooling.” You defended, as you walked past two men that were headed in the opposite direction of you and Taehyung.

“...royal guard.”

The words flew past your ears so fleetingly that you almost swore you had imagined it, but you turned towards the conversing men that had walked past you regardless.

“What’s wrong?” Taehyung’s voice rang out from behind you, confused as to why you had turned around.

“I think they said something about seeing a royal guard?” You told him, eyeing the backs of the men as they walked.

“What?” Taehyung’s turned back at the direction the men had come from.

“Shit.”

You didn’t even have the chance to turn around to see what the prince was referring to when his hand found yours and he began to tug you forward, back down the way you had just come from.

“Woah– What’s happened?” You exclaimed, causing Taehyung to sent you a panicked ‘We have to go.’

You struggled to keep up with his pace and didn’t even register the sound of horse feet trailing somewhere behind you.

Glancing over your shoulder, you let out at a gasp at the sight of a royal guard perched upon a white horse, the royal family’s crest printed on the side of the horse rug. The horse trotted forward as the guard’s eyes rolled over the market, clearly haven’t seen Taehyung yet.

The guards were no doubt sent out for him by now, his absence at the meeting serving as proof of his disappearance.

You turned back around, heart pounding. You didn’t want Taehyung to get in trouble; you shouldn’t have agreed to sneak out with him in the first place, the least you could do is help him get back home unnoticed.

“There!” You pointed towards the small alleyway just up ahead to the right of you. If you remembered correctly, there was a dumpster tucked away that you both could hide behind. It wasn’t an ideal situation but it was the only one you could come up with given your circumstances.

You pull Taehyung into the alleyway by the hand and nearly curse again once you saw that the small alleyway was not only a dead end but was empty of anything you could possibly hide behind.

Heart in your throat, you poked your head out to view the main road.

“Dammit, dammit, dammit.” You chanted at the sight of the royal guard only a couple feet away.

You bit down onto your lip.

It was pointless; the guard was going to peer into the alleyway and see Taehyung and you standing here helplessly.

“Y/N, it’s okay. This is my problem, not yours. I’ll tell them I made you go with me.” The prince told you, eyebrows furrowed.

If Taehyung was trying to comfort you, it was pointless as the sound of a horse just seconds away from approaching had all your attention.

Suddenly, an idea entered your mind and before you could think to second guess it, you yanked Taehyung’s hood over his head and pulled him into you, your lips finding his.

Taehyung froze in place, a small noise of surprise erupting from the back of his throat.

You pressed your eyes shut, focusing on what you could hear. At the sound of the guard beside you, you wrapped an arm around his neck, hoping to imitate a couple intertwined in an intimate embrace.

Taehyung placed a hand on your waist, still completely dumbfounded, and at the sound of the guard riding past the two of you, you finally pull away.

Your eyes meet Taehyung’s immediately. They mirrored yours; wide and in disbelief, as if neither of you could believe what you had just done.

“I…I just remembered how public displays of affection make people uncomfortable. Um, my thought process was that if he saw us kissing and couldn’t see who you were then he’d just look away and keep going.” You rambled, voice shaking slightly as what you had done finally hit you. “S-Sorry.”

Taehyung just nodded at you silently, muttering a small thank you as his entire face turned bright red.

The journey back to the castle was a painful one, both unable to take your mind off the unexpected kiss. Awkward attempts of small talk plagued the ride back and you wanted to bury yourself into the ground.

When you finally arrived back at the castle and exchanged your uncomfortable goodbyes, you nearly ran towards your room, burying your face into your pillow as you replayed the moment over and over, crippling embarrassment overtaking you.

And when nighttime finally rolled around and Taehyung requested tea, you sent a maid over in your place, choosing to avoid the very face that was burned etched permanently into your mind.

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

A week had passed since you last spoke to the prince. You had managed to avoid him for the most part, still unable to face him after what you had pulled back in the village. You threw yourself into work, the distraction serving as solace for your flustered heart.

It wasn’t until after your kiss did you realize you held feelings for Taehyung. Speaking to him, holding his hand, everything felt natural when you were with him. He made you feel good about yourself and you wanted so deeply for him to feel the same way about himself. You believed in him blindly and you couldn’t even focus on how foolish you were to fall for a prince with the memory of his lips against yours still haunting you.

You let out a frustrated sigh, your footsteps echoing across the corridor as you walked across it.

You were in a terrible mood; word of your excursion with the prince had somehow made it way across the castle, and you had once again overheard those nasty Countesses speaking about you.

“Did you hear what she’s done now?”

“She took Prince Taehyung back to her village on some secret rendezvous.”

“Not just the royal tea girl is she? Now she’s become the prince’s royal bed warmer.”

Their condescending tones lingered on your mind and you grew angrier as time went by. You had walked away before you heard anymore, but the damage was done. You had taken Taehyung out to the village so that he could learn about one of the places in his kingdom so that he could help it. Not that the Countesses would care about that. It didn’t matter what you did, the people of this castle would always look down on you.

A hand wrapping around your wrist pulled you from your thoughts, and you turned around to meet Taehyung’s worried eyes.

He had been on his way to the royal infirmary to speak to your father when he saw you walking. He had called your name multiple times, but the distracted look on your face told him you hadn’t even registered his calls.

He knew you had been avoiding him, no doubt in response to feeling embarrassment over what happened in that alleyway. But a week had passed and he couldn’t go another day without speaking to you. If he had done something to upset you, then he wanted to fix it.

“What?” You snapped, too caught up in your anger to watch your tone.

“Woah… I just wanted to say hello. We haven’t spoken in a week…” Taehyung defended, raising his arms up as if to show he meant no harm. “Is something wrong?”

You let out a breath. You didn’t want to talk to Taehyung if you were being honest. You were too annoyed by what the countesses had said to think about your shared kiss, but it was still frustrating to see the face of the man you liked, knowing he didn’t like you back.

“Nothing.” You huffed, “Just some snarky comment made by the Countesses. Again.”

“What did they say?”

You stared at him for a moment, contemplating whether or not to tell him.

You let out a scoff as you replayed their conversation in your head.

“They assumed I was… They called me your royal bed warmer.” You said with a deep frown, your anger bubbling within you with every word you spoke.

Taehyung’s eyes widened in surprise, “The royal what?”

“Apparently you and I going out to see your kingdom constitutes into me whoring it out for you.” You huffed.

“For nobility, they sure aren't ladylike.” Taehyung joked, hoping to make you laugh. It proved pointless, however, as your sour mood didn't ease up.

“They're so contradictory. They always stress that I’m the royal tea girl, that I'm just some commoner. If that's the case then what business does a prince have sleeping with me?” You exclaimed with a flail of your arms.

“Y/N.” The prince tried.

“I get that they’re in the court but what do they gain from kicking me down? I’m already below them in rank, which is so important to them as it's all they talk about. Bunch of royal bitches!”

“Y/N, relax.” Taehyung laughed, causing you to scowl.

“I am relaxed!” You snapped, crossing your arms over your chest.

Taehyung took a step towards you, eyes fixated on the unrelenting pout you wore.

“Why do you care what they think anyway?” He inquired, his hands pulling at your crossed arms.

Your arms fell to your sides and your eyes widened as Taehyung’s large hands ran down the lengths of your arms before intertwining his hands with yours.

“I-I don’t.” You countered, voice high as his sudden gesture caught you off guard. Your eyes flickered to focus on the wall behind Taehyung, away from the prince’s unwavering stare.

“Really? Kind of sounds like you do.” He teased and you could hear the smirk he wore just by his tone. Your eyes snapped back to meet his.

“Why do you care if I care? You’re meant to be on my side.” You pouted despite knowing how childish you sounded.

Taehyung raised his eyebrows in amusement, dragging a thumb over the top of one of the hands he held.

“Am I?”

“Y-Yes. It’s what friends do.” Your voice felt weak. Having Taehyung this close to you, touching you as if it was something as casual as breathing was laboring your own.

And as if your heart wasn’t struggling enough to pump oxygen throughout your body, it nearly stopped all together the moment Taehyung leaned into you.

Wait... was he going to kiss you?!

A single thump of your heart was the last thing you heard before you pressed your eyes shut, your body shrinking slightly.

“I thought you were just my bed warmer.” Taehyung’s warm voice purred into your ear, causing your eyes to fling open in surprise.

You pulled your hands back from Taehyung’s grip, pressing them against the laughing prince’s chest and you pushed him away from you.

You let out a small noise of disdain, hands clutched against your chest. Your heart ran a mile a minute, and you couldn’t come up with a reply if you wanted to.

“I’m sorry.” Taehyung laughed, clearly amused at your reaction.

You turned your burning face away from the giggling prince, hardly hearing his boisterous laughs through the sound of your heart pounding in your ears.

You thought he was going to kiss you. Of course, he wasn’t going to kiss you. Why would he want to kiss you?

Embarrassment sunk into you as you realized how foolish you were to think that Taehyung might like you like that.

You turned on your heel, quickly walking away from the dark-haired prince.

“Y/N? Woah, I’m sorry. I was just teasing.” You heard Taehyung say, accompanied quickly by footsteps behind you.

“It wasn’t funny.” You deadpanned, continuing forwards, tears forming in your eyes. You heard Taehyung freeze, his footsteps silencing as he stood in place silently, watching you walk away.

As embarrassed as you were, it was the fact that you had wanted Taehyung to kiss you that hurt. It was foolish– you were foolish. Falling for a prince when you were no more than a servant was so incredibly stupid. You didn’t know how you had let it happen, but you knew that you knew better.

You made your way to your room, cheeks wet from your tears. You swiped them away angrily. ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

"Father, do you have any band-aids on you before I go bother the nurses?" You started, slipping into your father's office.

You took a seat on his desk, a habit of yours he didn't appreciate very much.

Your father let out a sigh, looking up from the newspaper he had been reading before you barged into his office.

"White medicine cabinet, third drawer." He told you from his seat, eyeing the area of his desk you were perched upon as if to tell you to get up.

"Thank you!" You sang, hopping down onto your feet.

You were in a great mood today. Your last exchange with Taehyung was two days ago and had left you feeling sad and trapped within the palace, where you could run into him at any moment.

So this morning, you took it upon yourself to travel back into the village, this time to shop and spend time with the people there you cared about. Your mood was instantly lifted, the sun was out and warmed your skin deliciously, and it had really put things into perspective for you.

Everything you were upset about, the kiss, the Countesses, Taehyung, none of that couldn't be overlooked. The kiss would eventually become something you'd look back on and laugh at. The Countesses didn't take away from the fact that you were still at the royal castle studying under brilliant herbalists and you were working in a field you loved.

And as for the heart-wrenching feelings towards the prince that you carried... well, you could at least be grateful for the relationship you had with him, even if it was solely platonic.

Well, being that the two of you were even still friends that is...

Pulling the drawer open, you pulled out a band-aid. As pathetic as it sounded, you had accidentally given yourself a stupidly deep paper cut. Thankfully, you had some anti-bacterial cream on you when it happened, but seeing as you were going to need to use your hands the remainder of the day, you wanted to cover the wound.

As you wrapped it around your finger, you couldn't help but notice that the one medical bed your father's office held was hidden by the privacy curtains that hung around it.

You frowned.

"Why are the curtains drawn together?" You inquired.

As far as you know, the curtains were only used whenever someone was using the bed and being examined. But seeing as your father was sat at his desk reading a newspaper, you were fairly certain that wasn't the case.

"Oh... No reason." Your father told you, his tone entirely unconvincing.

You hummed, holding your father's eyes challengingly.

"Leave it." He warned as if reading your mind.

"Too late, my curiosity has been piqued." You shrugged moving toward the curtain.

"Y/N–"

A pair of panicked eyes met yours as you pulled back the white material of the curtain.

"Tae?" You said out loud, your head tilting in confusion.

"Doc," Taehyung whined, head turning towards your father, "what happened to not letting anyone know I was here?"

The doctor merely shrugged, "Not my fault I have the world's most inquisitive daughter."

"This is a good thing. Y/N told me the two of you are friends, she can keep you company and keep watch as I go and get some dinner." He continued, standing up from his chair.

At your father's words, you cringed slightly. You didn't need Taehyung knowing you spoke about him to your father.

You could feel Taehyung staring at you, and you made it a point not to look at him.

"You don't mind, do you?" Your father asked, causing you to open your mouth to speak, only to shut it again.

Ideally, no you didn't want to be left alone with Taehyung, but you supposed it was about time to make amends with him.

"Of course not."

Your father gave you a grateful nod, "I leave him in your capable hands then."

And with that, Taehyung and you were left alone. Silence ran over you both for few moments before you cleared your throat.

"Why are you hiding in my father's office?" You began, hoping to strike up a conversation.

Taehyung flashed you a guilty look, "There are some people here that my father wants me to meet so I begged your father to let me hide here instead."

"I thought you weren't going to avoid your prince duties?" You teased lightly.

He scrunched up his nose at you.

"More like avoiding my father's poor attempts of matchmaking." Taehyung huffed, causing your heart to pang slightly. You smiled despite it.

“You look nice– Your hair, I mean.” He clarified quickly, in case it made you uncomfortable. Your hair was pulled back into braids and he could see the pretty flowers that had been intertwined into them. You looked beautiful. Your skin looked radiant from a day out in the sun and your lips wore some kind of pink tint he hadn’t seen you wear before.

You offered him a small smile.

“Oh. Thank you. Some girls in the village did it for me.” You explained, rubbing your thumb

Taehyung gave an impressed nod.

“I heard what you did. Getting the king to agree to cut off the water that fed the castle ground fountains and redirecting it to the village, I mean. The villagers told me and they're all very grateful to you.” You continued, biting down onto your lip. Taehyung’s eyes fell to your mouth for just a moment before he looked back up to flash you a smile.

“I would’ve never been able to help them if it weren’t for you.” He told you earnestly and you couldn’t help but return his smile back at him.

Suddenly his smile dropped, a serious expression coming over him.

“I miss you.” He spoke through a blush, catching you off guard.

“Tae–” You began.

“I miss talking to you and spending time with you. I miss you getting all flustered when I tease you and I miss being able to make you laugh. I miss the way you have to take a few moments to recover every time you ride Yeontan because you don’t handle heights well. I miss seeing you covered in dirt almost every time I see you. I miss having you by my side.” Taehyung took a shaky breath, wiping his sweaty palms onto his pants. “Also... I suck at making tea.”

You knew he was being sincere and candid, but his last words took you by surprise and before you knew it you were laughing. Taehyung stared at you cautiously, unsure of what to make of your response.

“I’m... sorry.” You apologized through laughter, feeling bad for laughing at him but god, he was so endearing.

“I really put my feelings out there, you know. You laughing at me is incredibly ego damaging.” Taehyung huffed before a chuckle of his own broke through his lips.

And for a lovely moment, the two of you stood together laughing, the happy atmosphere almost tangible.

“I missed you too.” You told him shyly causing Taehyung’s heart to skip a beat.

Taehyung grinned, “Any chance you know of a ‘Thank god we're friends again' tea that you’d be willing to share with me tonight?”

You stared at the prince for a moment. The way he smiled up at you from his seat took your breath away still, just like it always did. His smile felt like the summer and it warmed you from head to toe.

You let yourself bask in it for a few seconds longer before grinning mischievously at him.

“It just so happens I do.”

┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

"Of all the tea's you've made me, this has to be my favorite." Taehyung told you, taking another sip from his cup before grimacing slightly.

You laughed at his gesture, contrasting with his words. You felt slightly tipsy, a consequence of the alcohol you had mixed in with the chamomile tea.

"I'm serious!" He defended causing you to roll your eyes.

"Mixing the alcohol with tea was kind of a spur of the moment decision. Just say you hate it like I do."

“Hey, I happen to like gin. It tastes like Christmas trees.” Taehyung grinned. You raised an eyebrow, laughing softly.

“Have you eaten a Christmas tree before?” You inquired, grabbing both of your teacups off the bed and placing it onto the tea tray you had placed on Taehyung’s nightstand. You weren't going to force him to drink any more of the atrocious concoction, you decide as you grab the bottle of gin you had brought with you. You handed him the bottle.

“No.” He shrugged, taking a swig of gin. He handed you back the bottle eagerly, bringing a hand to wipe at his mouth.

You took your own sip, grimacing slightly as the alcohol made it’s way down your throat.

The familiar feeling of Taehyung's stare burning against your skin washed over you.

"You're doing that thing again."

"What thing?" He blinked at you.

"The thing where you stare at me wordlessly." You reminded him.

Taehyung shrugged, "I like looking at you. Looking at you is like looking at everything that is good and right in the world."

"Wha– Are you drunk?" You laughed, taken aback at his words.

"Getting there." He confessed through a cheesy smile.

It was strange. How on paper an irresponsible prince and a headstrong herbalist seemed like an odd match, but sat on Taehyung's bed, exchanging gin induced laughter, it all seemed to make perfect sense to you.

“Mm,” Taehyung said suddenly, a hand resting on his cheek.

“Everything okay?” You asked, blinking curiously.

“I'm warm.” He said.

You frowned, “Bad warm?”

"No. Drunk warm."

"Oh, yes! Gin will make you warm.” You nodded. “Tea, too!”

You had reached the point where conversations hardly held anything of substance, not that either minded.

“Are you warm?” Taehyung inquired out loud, almost as if to himself.

Before you could think to respond, one of his hands found your face, his palm cupping your cheek.

“You feel hot, Y/N.” Taehyung exclaimed with wide eyes.

Your heart skipped a beat, as your feelings for Taehyung suddenly hit you once again. Your eyes fell to the bed you both sat on, his large hand caressing your cheek not helping you out temperature wise.

“You were warm that day, too.” Taehyung hummed, causing you to look up at him in confusion.

“Huh?” You responded intelligently, unable to think past the feeling of his thumb stroking your cheek.

“The day you kissed me. You were warm that day too.”

All words left your throat. Your heart was beating so loudly that you feared Taehyung might be able to hear it if he listened closely enough.

And to your surprise, Taehyung leaned into you, before pausing in front of your face, embarrassingly close. The hand that was once on your cheek fell down to your neck loosely as he moved.

“Tae?” You questioned. You weren't sure if it was the alcohol or Taehyung’s proximity but you felt dizzy and flushed.

No response came from the prince as his mouth found yours, the soft warm flesh of his lips stilling you.

You placed a hand against Taehyung's thigh, holding onto the limb to steady you.

"Sorry." He apologized as his mouth broke away from yours, only to kiss you again.

A small noise left the back of your throat in response, reeling in the feeling. But before you could think to deepen the kiss, Taehyung pulled away.

“I miss you. But I don't miss being just friends. Fuck, it isn’t enough anymore.” He breathed. Leaning over, he pressed an opened mouth kiss onto your neck.

You let out a gasp, hands reaching out to grip onto the sides of his shirt.

His mouth was gentle, showering your exposed flesh with adoring kisses.

There was so much you wanted to say, yet you struggled to formulate a single word as he pressed his hot tongue against your neck.

Taehyung could hear your pounding heart against his mouth and the small whine you let out only spurred him on more.

“Hot.” Was all you could muster up as a response. Taehyung pulled away from your neck in confusion.

“Y-Your tongue, I mean. It’s hot.” You muttered embarrassedly, not meaning to cause Taehyung to stop.

“Bad hot?” Taehyung said with a tilt of his head, mimicking the question you had asked him just a few minutes ago.

You shook your head ‘no’ rapidly, eager to fix the mistake you had made. Your reservations lowered by the alcohol in your system and with the memory of Taehyung’s tongue spurring you on, you pressed your mouth to the prince’s.

Taehyung was quick to push you back onto the length of his bed, situating himself in between your legs.

His tongue found yours finally and you almost moaned at the feeling. It moved against yours sinfully and you knew you were ruined, wrapping your legs around his hips, inviting him to roll them into you.

“Wait, wait,” Taehyung said through a heavy breath, having had broken the kiss. You frowned at his words, choosing instead to run your fingers through his dark hair that you liked so much and bring his mouth back onto yours.

Taehyung let out a growl, hand finding your jaw as he gave in to your desires and kissed you the way you wanted him to. His teeth had found purchase onto your swollen bottom lip when he pulled away once more.

You let out a whine. You didn't mean to be this needy but you couldn't help it now that the two of you had gotten this far. You lifted your head to kiss him once again, but this time Taehyung lifted entirely off you, sitting back on his heels, your legs on either side of him.

“No, baby, this isn’t how I want to have you. I don’t want to fuck you in some drunken spur of the moment thing.” He shook his head as if to clear it.

You couldn’t help but pout at his words.

“Don’t look at me like that.” He sighed.

“Like what?” You sulked.

“Like I’m some sort of monster for denying you sex.”

You tut your tongue, “‘It’s ‘cause you are.”

And then Taehyung leaned over and kissed you, not because he intended to fuck you, but because you were so damn cute that he would lose his damn mind if he didn’t.

You took advantage of his moment of weakness, wrapping an arm around him to pull him into you so you could deepen the kiss.

Taehyung let out a dark chuckle at your feeble attempts to seduce him. He broke the kiss, his hand coming up to fiddle with the button of your blouse.

"Hmm,” he hummed lowly, “you’re desperate for my cock, aren’t you?”

It was as if some sort of switch had been flipped, the usually light-hearted prince's aura suddenly grown dominant and commanding.

You let out a small groan at his words, taken aback by how much your body had reacted to his words.

Taehyung didn’t miss your reaction, however, his eyes darkening as they peered down at you through his dark bangs.

“Take your shirt off.” He demanded, his tone authoritative.

You complied quickly, your underwear dampening embarrassingly at his shift in mood.

At the sight of your pretty white bra, Taehyung visibly shifted, his cock growing increasingly uncomfortable tucked away in his clothes.

“So fucking beautiful.” He sighed, voice low and smooth, fingertips trailing down the outer side of one of your thighs.

“Please touch me.” You whimpered, causing Taehyung’s eyes to snap back onto your face, a smirk pulling at his lips.

“Who knew my pretty little girl was such a pretty little slut?”

“Tae…” You protested, unable to meet his eyes for any longer.

“I know, baby. I know.” He cooed, as his leaned over and pulled your bra up over your breasts.

A soft noise slipped through your lips as his wrapped his around your soft bud, his hot tongue taking its time to torture it. His other hand found your other breast, thumb rolling over the nipple in a pattern at mimicked his tongue.

Unable to hold back for any longer, you rolled your hips up to his, and to your utter relief, he met your motions, his hard cock pressing against your drenched center deliciously.

“Oh, fuck.” You purred as he rutted himself against your panty clad clit, causing you to grip onto his back, trying desperately not to dig your nails into him.

Your nipple was released with a soft ‘pop’ and before you could register what had happened, Taehyung ran his hot tongue along the side of your neck.

“Wanna fuck you so bad. Fuck, I bet you feel amazing.”

“P-Please.” You begged, a low whine emerging from the base of your throat, your hips still meeting every rut of Taehyung’s desperately. It was bliss but it was momentary and all you could think about was what it would feel like to have his hot, thick cock sinking into you and rocking into you with the same ardor he held now.

Taehyung took the skin of your neck between his teeth, letting out a noise of disapproval.

“Oh, you’re not getting my cock, baby. No matter how much you need and beg for it.”

Your eyes widened. He wasn’t going to fuck you?

God, you could burst into tears right now. He had you so wound up and you couldn't even fathom not getting the release you so desperately needed.

“Spread your legs for me.” Taehyung said, pressing a final kiss against the base your neck.

Face warm, you complied, pulling your legs apart.

You could feel the fabric that was slick with your arousal move against your most intimate area slightly as you moved, and you bit down onto your bottom lip from letting out an embarrassing noise.

Taehyung was quick to move, running two fingers down the length of your inner thigh.

You flinched as he ran his fingers across the wet fabric of your panties, pressing into the fabric in a way that had you bucking your hips up.

"Fuck, no teasing." You cried, pressing your eyes shut as his thumb found your aching clit.

His mouth had once again found your breast as if he wasn't able to get enough of you.

And when he finally slipped his hand into your panties, you couldn't stop the whimper that rolled off your tongue.

His long digits toyed with your wet center, his middle finger teasing your entrance.

"You're fucking soaked. You need my fingers fucking into you? Don’t you?"

He was cruel. Even if he wasn't going fuck you like you wanted, he wanted to hear you beg for him. He liked the idea that you were dependent on him, that he was the only one who could give you what you wanted.

"Yes, god, yes I need your fingers!" You cried out, unable to register your embarrassment thanks to the feeling of Taehyung's long finger sinking into you.

Your hips moved on their own according, meeting Taehyung's motions messily.

You had assumed Taehyung was well versed when it came to affairs of the sexual kind. He was constantly escaping into the arms of his kingdom, there had to be more than a couple of instances where those arms became more than just figurative ones. So for him to be seen in his element during this kind of activity didn’t surprise you.

But this was ridiculous; he read your body like a damn book, rolling his fingers deep and hard into you only to pull back when you grew too close to your release.

High pitched whines and profanities left your mouth and you could feel your sanity slipping away as Taehyung edged you mercilessly.

Every time you opened your mouth to protest, he silenced you with his own mouth, kissing you hotly and nulling your thoughts.

His thumb rolled over your clit, the sensation nearly pushing you to the edge, but once again, he pulled away just before you could cum.

"Tae, please. No more. I can't– I need to cum." You sobbed, thighs and voice trembling.

Taehyung pressed a kiss down on your chest, enjoying the obscene sounds that came from where he was finger fucking you.

His eyes met you teary ones, "Hmm, I'll let you cum under one condition."

"God, anything!" You hissed, a loud moan escaping you.

"Go out with me." He smirked, adding in another finger.

You nearly asked Taehyung to repeat himself, unable to believe what he had just said. Was he joking?

At the feeling of Taehyung his fingers up inside you, your back arched, breath robbed from you momentarily.

"Are you, ah fuck, serious?" You frowned, hand wrapping around the wrist of that hand that was the source of your agony. You wanted to punch him. If agreeing to go out with him was what you need in order for him to let you cum than you would have agreed to it yesterday.

"Mhm." He mused.

"Tae–" Your response cut off by a moan. "Fuck... yes, I'll go out with you."

Taehyung's thumb once again found your poor abused clit, not holding back in pressure like he had been before. He spared you no warning, his fingers once again curling up into you in a way that had you choking on your own sob. Your mouth fell ajar slightly as your eyes shut, your release finally blinding you.

You came with Taehyung's name on your tongue, small sounds of sobs following as you legs quivering in the aftermath of your release.

Once your orgasm had let down, you let out a hollow breath, blinking harshly as your vision returned to you spottily.

You had never cum that hard and you were still trying to make sense of it all; you hardly registered the sound of Taehyung trying to comfort you.

"Are you okay? Was that okay?" Taehyung asked you again as he pressed multiple chaste kisses to your cheek.

You attempted to pull yourself up onto your elbows, still breathing hard.

"You're a little shit." You finally spoke, sending an exhausted glare Taehyung's way.

Taehyung let out a laugh as he kissed you lightly.

You sighed at the feeling, and despite the turmoil you had just gone through, you found yourself trying to deepen the kiss, thoroughly addicted to the taste of him.

"Hold on." He chuckled, breaking the kiss. "I was serious earlier. I don't want this to be a spur of the moment thing. Forgiving me for the old-fashioned, but I am a prince and I should be courting you before I do something like that again. And I want you to agree because you want to, not just because the situation calls for it but because you like me. Because I like you, Y/N. A lot."

You couldn't help but fawn over the suddenly blushing prince, a complete contrast to the Taehyung that held you from your orgasm just moments ago.

"I like you, too." You confessed shyly.

A brilliant smile fell across Taehyung's face at your words, causing your heart to soar.

"So, you'll go out with me?" He questioned excitedly.

You giggled, "Yes, I'll go out with you."

"Oh, thank god. Guess that means I can stop pretending to like tea now."

You let out a surprise scoff, "Excuse you!"

Taehyung flashed you a cheeky grin as he moved to push you back against the bed, muttering an apology as he kissed you once again, a smile on both your faces.

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