#and the owl house sounds like it’s a lot like that except actually canon.

[pk2317]

On shipping "erasure" in fanwork

Might as well throw some of my thoughts together here, for easy reference later. For all 5 people who may read this. Right off the bat I'm going to admit that there will be a lot of caveats included, as opposed to absolute "truths". Also I'll be using the term "queer" to encompass LGBTQIA+, if that term is something that bothers you then just be aware of that. And “straight” (in quotes) generally refers to “straight-presenting”. I'll primarily be referencing The Owl House, just because it's a point of reference that I'm very familiar with the source material and the fandom.

I want to come out right from the beginning and state clearly that *ARTISTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO CREATE WHATEVER ARTWORK THEY WANT, AND INDIVIDUALS HAVE THE RIGHT TO CONSUME WHATEVER ARTWORK THEY WANT*. Fan art, fan fiction, whatever. This is NOT an attempt to police what others do or enjoy, or an invitation to harass anyone.

With that being said, when someone makes artwork, they make decisions on what to include, or not include, and it's not unreasonable to analyze these decisions and question why they were made. Especially when those decisions are counter to established "canon" aspects of the character(s).

Shipping is one of the biggest examples of this. When you boil it down, "shipping" is focusing two (or more) characters and their relationSHIP to each other. Generally, this is going to be a romantic (and/or physical) relationship, which may (or may not) be "canon". Shipping has always existed within fandom, and it's not an inherently bad thing. It's a form of character analysis - based on what we know about Character A and Character B, how might they interact in this specific situation, or what would it be like if they were attracted to each other?

In a largely heteronormative media landscape, this can (and often is) a vehicle to explore queer relationships that otherwise aren't (or at least aren't likely to be) depicted in the source material. But, as we (finally) start to get some explicitly, canonically queer characters, we start running into the issues of "erasure". This will *usually* come in the form of canonically lesbian characters being shipped with guys (for some reason, gay men being shipped with women doesn't seem to come up nearly as often - there's a whole tangent about sexism and misogyny there that I'm not even going into right now).

For a specific example, I'll go with Amity from TOH, who (not infrequently) gets shipped with Hunter. Now, I'm sure there are some people who are genuinely interested in this pairing, and their character arcs do have similarities that could provoke some interesting interactions. But - Amity is explicitly, canonically a lesbian, and (canonically) in a relationship with Luz (another woman). So, the majority of time when I see this pairing, the reasoning behind it usually boils down to one of three things:

Outright homophobia, to reject the canon, same-sex relationship between Luz and Amity (just because they don’t like seeing two women together)

Outright homophobia, to insist that Amity "should be with a man, instead"

Trolling, because it'll "trigger the snowflakes" (which is just homophobia with extra steps)

Of course, all of them will (conveniently) hide behind the excuse of it being "just an interesting pairing". (Some of the same issues arise with "Lunter" (Luz / Hunter), except that considering Luz is canonically bi, it actually is a more logical pairing. So that gets tied up in biphobia, which is {once again} an entirely separate tangent that I'm not addressing here.)

The other excuse that gets trotted out time and time again is "Everyone has always changed canonically straight characters into gay ones for shipping, and that isn't a problem, so why is this?" Which might sound "reasonable" on the surface, but is a near perfect example of a false equivalence for two reasons:

There are no "canonically straight" characters. I mean, *maybe*, but 99.99% of the time when a character has a canonically establish sexuality, it's not "straight". Just because someone may be visibly/textually attracted to just one or more people of the opposite sex, that doesn't in any way preclude them from being bisexual or pansexual. It's a very obvious display of heteronormativity to just assume everyone is straight by “default”, and no, it's not "just the same".

Even if it were, queer characters are *VASTLY* underrepresented in media. Yes, things are improving. Yes, we have more overtly, outwardly, explicitly, canonically queer characters (and relationships) being portrayed in all forms of media that we ever had historically, but it's still considerably outnumbered by "straight" (or at least straight-presenting) characters and relationships. When some shows (not all) have the "token gay character", that means that your average show is basically 0-1 queer characters. Not really great numbers. So let's say there's a show with 10 main characters, one of whom is queer and the rest are "straight". If we reimagine another one to be queer so we can ship them, there are still 80% "straight" characters on just this one show alone. Whereas if you reimagine the one queer character to be straight...it's not hard to see why a queer person might take offense at those decisions.

Let's take a look at The Owl House. This is one of the queerest shows targeted at a wide family audience. Most of the "main cast" (series regulars - I'll define this as being featured in the opening credits sequence) is queer in one form or another, either canonically or implied (in the show or by the crew). But let's take a look at the relationships of the characters. Among our main characters, there are three "canon" (explict or heavily implied) relationships:

Luz / Amity (queer F/F)

Eda / Raine (queer F/NB)

Hunter / Willow ("straight" M/F)

Yes, I know that neither character in the last one is straight, but their relationship is "straight", or straight-presenting. Still, 2/3 is good, right?

Now, let's extend it to all named characters that we see in a visible relationship, with a named partner, in the show:

Vee / Masha (queer F/NB)

Harvey / Gilbert Park (queer M/M)

Alador / Odalia Blight ("straight" M/F)

Dell / Gwendolyn Clawthorne ("straight" M/F)

Manny / Camila Noceda ("straight" M/F)

So, one of the queerest shows on television doesn't even break 50% of relationships being visibly queer. And this is the exception, not the rule, for visible representation. Most shows are vastly more skewed to straight, or straight-presenting, characters and relationships.

So, no, it's not "just the same". And that's why it's not at all unreasonable to see queer people be offended when, out of a plethora of "straight" characters and relationships to choose from, they feel the need to take one of the few visibly queer ones and make it "straight".

I do want to reiterate my first statement again, just to be extra clear. I do *NOT* believe in trying to police what people create, or consume. I will fervently defend artists to have that right, no matter how objectionable I may find their content (as long as it's appropriately tagged/categorized/labeled/etc.). Yes, this even applies to even more "problematic" ships (another tangent I won't go into here). I would like people to do some self-examination and make sure they are being honest with *why* they may be creating/consuming that content, and I absolutely expect it to be clearly labeled, but in no way am I going to try and prevent them from doing so on an individual level.

TL;DR - Make/consume whatever artwork you want, but be conscious of your motivations behind doing so, don't be surprised when it offends people, and don't try to rationalize it as being "the same" as putting "straight" characters into queer ships.

#shipping #erasure #analysis #the owl house #toh #lumity #raeda #huntlow #long post #sorry for the rant #seriously don’t harass artists #if you don’t want to see something then YOU block it #I’ll probably regret posting this #oh well #fanart #fanfic

[wildflowerwoodsworld]

Talk to me about my aus!

Okay, so, I have a lot of aus. And I mean a lot of aus, but I don't really talk about them, so I figured I'd make a list of the ones I have a lot worked out for, and you guys can ask me about the ones that sound interesting. (Several of these are currently planned to be YamiFin bc I can and I want to, but that might change)

The Cryptid'verse. My baby. This fic is the thing in this fandom that I'm the most proud of. The Black Bulls as cryptids. No ships.

The Villain'verse. Villain antihero Black Bulls. Currently YamiFin and MagnaLuck (minor).

Underwater Temple Time Loop. What it says on the tin. YamiFin.

Unnamed time travel fix it. Finral and Vanessa see the end of the world after Spade went wrong, and come back to try and fix it. FinVan.

Immortals au (Comparing Your Past To My Future). Um, so some people are immortal and other people have problems with people being immortal and are trying to kill them (that's a horrible summary, I'm sorry). YamiCharJack.

Reformation au. In which the nobles of the Clover Kingdom have a problem with the Bulls being, well, the Bulls, and campaign to have them "reformed". YamiFin (minor).

Asta out of time au. Instead of trying to kill Asta, Lucius removes him from the timestream and rewinds to the start of canon. The Bulls are left with dreams of what could have been as they fall further into mediocrity. No ships.

Failsafe au. When the Dark Triad are defeated, their failsafe activates and they are sent back ten years. They decide that the best thing to do is to round up the people who defeated them to make sure they can't do it again. Featuring the teenage captains and their shenanigans as they try to escape. No ships.

Dark au. Not quite sure how to describe this one briefly. Dark Triad out to conquer the world before they open the gates. No ships.

LOTR au. Slightly cracky LOTR/Hobbit au. YamiFin and YunoLang (plus other minor ships).

Gods au. Me playing around with turning the captains into a pantheon of gods that spiralled. YamiFin and YunoLang.

The Bulls House. The Owl House but with Black Clover characters. YamiFin.

Villain au. Another Villain Black Bulls au. YamiFin.

Villain GD. The Golden Dawn and the Midnight Sun are the same organisation. YamiFin.

YamiFin RomCom. Yami and Finral get cursed so they can't go too far away from each other without being in pain. Finral very quickly realises that what he thought was admiration isn't actually admiration. Yami is oblivious to his own internal monologue. YamiFin (obviously)

Banished Bulls au. Clover gets a new king who doesn't like how hard the Bulls are to control, so he banishes them to the no man's land between Clover and Spade. Everyone, that is, except Noelle and Finral. Noelle and Finral's journey to escape Clover and find their squad. Very minor ships.

Everybody Lives au. I have no way to sum this up quickly. Multi-generational, everyone lives, Ichika ends up in Clover. YamiCharJack, FinVan, JuliusZara and others TBD.

#black clover

[kalcifers-blog]

I'd like to know your head canons on JBM, plus, how would Marvin react when they figure out that homophobia/transphobia exists?

Starting off with Marv, they'd mostly be like "???????? H u h??" In response to that because it just doesn't sound real to them tbh. Like "it's literally none of their business why are they so mad??".

NOW FOR JBM HCS.

- Jackie's HOH/Partially deaf, and uses hearing aids, he developed hearing problems in his childhood (around age 10) and uses BSL (my newest version of JBM is British-Irish)

- Jackie is the youngest out of all the egos so to everyone (except Marvin) he's seen as the younger brother/son figure

- Jackie's powers are a direct result of IRIS experimenting with Anti-Matter. He doesn't know this but he was specifically chosen to one day be the person to put an end to Anti's reign, but the experimentation didn't go as planned and Jackie was essentially cast aside (some IRIS workers were genuinely considering killing him so their work isn't revealed to the public).

-Carrying on from the last note; Jackie's powers can look extremely similar to Anti's because of the fact that he was created with stopping Anti in mind- meaning he has things like teleportation(however it's only in short bursts, think Hunter from The Owl House), an unnatural endurance, super strength and a level of control over electrical fields. One of the side effects is that his powers can occasionally become unstable if not regulated properly.

- Another side effect is the fact that he can't exactly die? Since his powers directly correlate with Anti (yk the guy that's literally in a "dead" body 24/7) his "healing abilities" arent the fact that he's healing it's that his body naturally works on injuries faster- meaning it would take something that would kill him instantaneously for it to actually work- otherwise he will eventually come back from it (also the healing doesn't mean he can't get scars anymore, he still gets scars from any injury he attains) and yes he does still feel pain

- Ever since he completely cut ties with IRIS, he out right refuses to use his powers as much as he is physically able too, sometimes he's unable too due to the fact that they are tied to his well-being and can come out during outbursts or moments involving high levels of stress, anger etc.

- his eyes used to be grey before everything happened, now they're extremely bright blue- he doesn't exactly hate it but it still catches him off guard to see them sometimes

- Most of his "hero" work isn't technically the stereotypical stuff a hero would normally do- but it's still very important that he does. He very often goes to protests and volunteers at places wherever he can. He doesn't consider this hero work either, just stuff he wants to do to help out where he can

- The man is an extrovert to his core, he literally will be making friends literally anywhere and half the time the rest of the egos are just like- "what the fuck???" Because none of them are extroverts.

- I think Jackie took a lot longer than Marvin to fall for them than they did. Mostly because mans got horrid issues regarding to letting people seeing him be vulnerable, and it's only when Marvin makes it extremely clear that they're safe to be around that he ends up slowly falling for them. He also admires how they don't particularly care about anyone else's opinions and values taking care of themselves over conforming into what any society says you should be.

-this ones pretty obvious but Jackie is 100% punk

- his day job is being a freelance artist and guitarist in a punk band. He also part times as a bartender (THE MANS IS BUSY AS SHIT.)

-he obviously mains as a guitarist but he does also know how to play bass and drums (he's had to step in for his other band mates occasionally)

THATS ALL FOR NOW!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK!! Please feel free to send in asks for headcanon lists I love seeing them!!

#jacksepticeye #jse egos #jse #jacksepticeye egos #jackieboy man #marvelsepticeye #honey quartzs blog

[wangxianficfinder]

Fic Finder

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1. I’m looking for a fic that takes place post canon, and its Xicheng. From what I remember LXC is doing horrible in seclusion and JC secretly hides his bell when he visits one day. They become friends while LXC is still in seclusion and one day, after LXC precious gift from his parents break, JC goes missing. JL tracks JC through his clarity bell but finds it at LXC’s place. LXC goes on a journey to find JC and finds him injured but with a replacement for his precious gift he got from his father. A very clear but beautiful crystal I think? That’s all I remember. @youkaimeimi

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2. Hi! i hope you're having a great day!! this blog is everything to me and it makes my day and makes finding fics so easy!! thank you for the hard work ^^ I'm trying to find a wangxian time travel fic. i don't remember much except that there was this one scene in the library. wwx travelled back in time and was with lwj and thought he was the only one who travelled back until they're in the library and lwj asks wwx about lsz and wwx is shocked that lwj is from the future. thank you <3

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3. Hi!! I had a request for the next fic finder if you don't mind! I don't remember a lot that happened, but it was some kind of au fix it. The scene I remember the most was the banquet after the end of the war at nightless city. Jin guangyao greets lan xichen and acts really personable to him and lxc is actually really uncomfortable from it. I think it had a nielan side pairing but jgy didn't know or something? And so thought he had a chance with lxc? I think wwx comes to lxc's rescue at some point too during one of their conversations. I'm pretty sure the fic was complete and mainly wangxian but thats what I remember most about it 😅 any help finding it would be fantastic!

FOUND? unstoppable by netrixie (T, 149k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Eventual Happy Ending, Wolf-shifter WWX, Shapeshifters, Slow burn, Unreliable Narrator) sounds like a scene at the end

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4. hello!! for the next fic finder, i lost this fic in the middle of my bookmarks and can't find it anywhere, it's a time travel fic, wangxian both come to the past and get together early. the thing is when the betrothal letter is sent, jc and jfm get suspicious, bc wwx has been different since "meeting" lwj, and they think lwj is doing something to him. the thing is wwx is way older, so he doesn't go around making trouble as much, and spend his time with lwj. jc and jfm still dont believe it but alow the betrothal.

hi! i'm the #4 anon from the last fic finder, and sadly, its not that one(altough ive read "here with me", and its very good). the one im looking for its in the cloud recess study arc. hope this helps!!

NOT FOUND Here With Me by iamwish (T, 50k, WIP, WangXian, Time Travel Fix-It, wwx turns this into a no war!au, Canon-Typical Violence, Period-Typical Homophobia, Bad Parent YZY, POV Multiple, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, WWX Has PTSD, and also depression sometimes)

FOUND? And Time Is But a Paper Moon by sami (M, 139k, WangXian, Time travel, Hurt/comfort, Canon typical violence, Getting together, Everybody loves/Nobody dies)

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5. Hello everybody,

I've been looking desperately for 2 fics for some weeks now. A) The first one is modern AU. Wei ying is a nurse and when he drives to work he listens to lwj's radioprogram about classical music. They call a lot on the radio and i vividly remember wwx drivi g past an owl statue that looks like a dick. B) The second one is an areanged marriage au. It has something about courtshiprules in the title i think. Its also an abo. I think wwx was some kind of general and is married of to lwj bc jgs thi ks he'q to strong? Im not sure. Thank you for the hard work! @follyfallenflapdragon​

Hello! Nr5 here! Thank you for finding the 1st one! That was what i was looking for! About the second one, i remember a scene in which wwx and lwj are spending a heat together and have locked thelselves inside their house. One moment, a servant is bringing them food and lwj almosy kills him for coming to close. Jiang yanli tries next bc she is worried wwx is not eating and she is allowed to come closer. I hope this ringes a bell in somebody's mind! Thank you!

5A)

FOUND! Cantabile by MonocerosRex for captain_apostrophe (G, 2k, WangXian, Modern AU, Radio host LWJ, Fluff, Meet-Cute, Dialogue only, Swearing, Humor)

5B)

FOUND! Three Letters, Six Etiquettes by 2501987 (M, 24k, WangXian, XiCheng, Royalty AU, A/B/O Dynamics, Arranged Marriage, Angst and Humor, Idiots in Love, Eventual Romance, BAMF JYL, Family Feels, Awkward First Times, Bad Sex, Wedding Night, Domestic Fluff)

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6. hello dear mods and lifesavers!

thank you endlessly for the wonderful public service you're doing. i was wondering if you knew of this fic: modern au, where wwx, who disappeared and left everyone, randomly runs into nhs, gets drunk at the party they're at, and egged on by nhs drunk dials lwj to tell him he's the love of his life. after this wwx and lwj start talking a lot on the phone, and eventually wwx texts lwj his address so lwj can come.

other random details i can remember: nhs is married to jiang cheng and probably orchestrated this whole thing, wwx is friends with the wens now and works in a sex shop (i think together with wen ning?). thank you so much! @teresis​

FOUND! Love Don't Belong To Me by airinshaw (E, 28k, WangXian, Modern AU, Getting Together, Kissing, Intercrural Sex, Light Angst, Happy Ending, PTSD, Panic Attack, WWX's canonical self-esteem issues, Canonical Child Abuse, not as dark as the tags imply, Past Relationships mention)

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7. Hi mods! Do any of you remember that fic where lwj accidentally transfers back into time and everyone is "omg its QHJ" and wwx is like "Lan Zhan!!" I've already checked the time travel tag and I don't see it there....

FOUND? 💖From the Future for the Past by friedchickenlord (G, 27k, wangxian, time travel, fix-it, fluff & humor, happy ending, denial, pining, bullying ur younger self is in fact ok)

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8. hello! I'm looking for this fic where wwx is a footballer and lwj is a ballerina and wwx's footballl team comes to lwj's ballet school to learn ballet? I found the fic for the first time from you guys too. so i think you might know it.. Thank you in advance and keep up your great work!! <3

FOUND? varied my velocities by fantasiavii (E, 58k, WangXian, Modern AU, Ballerina LWJ, Football/Soccer player WWX, Enemies to Lovers, Top WWX/Bottom LWJ, Dom WWX, Angst with a happy ending, Internalized homophobia)

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9. Y’all I’m legit losing my mind trying to find this fic. It’s post canon and WWX is on a night hunt and the Lans come to help him. I think WWX was being haunted? Anyway the major point is that he had this box of letters he’d been writing and the ghosts basically sensed that he was lonely so they wouldn’t leave him. The juniors end up getting into the box at some point. I’m afraid it might’ve been deleted, but if anyone remembers it or has it downloaded I hope they’ll respond. Right now it feels like I made the whole thing up 😭

FOUND? the dock of the bay by Haysel deleted, but available on the Wayback Machine; the January 26, 2021 capture has all download formats except html

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10. Hello! I’ve been trying to find a specific fic I closed before saving, but I understand if you can’t find it since my memory is shoddy at the best of times. The fic was set during the sunshot campaign. Jiang Cheng was angry at Wei Wuxian and hit him with Zidian, and because wwx didn’t have his golden core anymore it stopped his heart/hurt him very badly. Wwx doesn’t die, but his core being gone Might have been revealed? That’s all the information I remember. Thank you for the help!

FOUND? these colours fade for you only by doodlebutt (T, 36k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Fluff, Angst with a Happy Ending, Everybody Lives, Golden Core Transfer Fix-It, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, bed sharing, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn)

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11. Hiya im looking for a fic that is untamed x among cross over where wei ying give his anti imposter healing meds to his brother and get infected and when they land lan zhan starts studying him, all i really remember is tentacles grow from his chest and he later names them and at the end lan zhan turns into an imposter with a long tongue. @trisketandpadquackie

FOUND! no innocent among us by ficwriter103, frostferox, lovingryuu (T, 72k, WangXian, Space AU, Tentacle Sex, Tentacle rape, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Body Horror, Alien Biology, Explicit Sexual Content, Graphic Depictions of Illness, Suicide Attempt, Switch WangXian)

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12. I'm looking for a fic I remember only one scene. It's a modern fic and there was a scene where LWJ & WWX were dining together. The food was very spicy and LWJ had a strong reaction for it, got like really overwhelmed.

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13. L-xiansheng and C-guniang? Perhaps someone out there can help me identify a fic (and this would’ve been a fairly early novel-compliant and post-canon one, circa 2019/20) in which WWX, under LWJ’s rigorous (and anxious) supervision, brings himself to the point of clinical death to experience what Inquiry sounds like.

FOUND! Inquiry, Reprise by EHyde (G, 1k, WangXian, Fluff)

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14. i lost a mdzs fic. All I remember is the wwx ended up in nie sect thinking he was a prisoner and jgy stole his letters and threatened jyl. He gets no letters so he thinks everyone he loved abandoned him.. Equally cos he's not replying they thing he's gone to the dark side. NHS gives him books ect and doesn't know wwx thinks he's not a guest. Tia if u know the name @eeeeeeeeeeeeagle

FOUND? Always walked a very thin line by tucuxi (T, 22k, WangXian, NHS & WWX, JYL & WWX, Depression, Anxiety Attacks, Canon Divergence, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Self-Worth Issues, Slow Burn, Oblivious WWX, Golden Core Reveal, WWX Has No Golden Core, Chronic Pain, Chronic Illness)

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15. Hello mojo, I was hoping you could help me find a fic. I dont remember the name and I have been looking for hours! All I remember is Wei Ying is about 5 years old, trying to save his parents but discover/witness Yu Ziyuan killing them. His uncle (on his father side), find him and take him to his kingdom/empire and explain about him being his fathers brother. I remember his father was taken away from home when they were attack and lost his memory. And he saves Madam Lan, (Time-travel, alte-univ)? @liznara

FOUND? Young Master Hua Ying by Mikaalpaca (T, 50k, WIP, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Time travel, Not Jiang Friendly, Immortal Cultivatiors, Massacre, Child murder, Child abuse, Revenge, Anger and Hatred)

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16. Hi, Thank you so much for this blog it js. Alofe saver! I am looking for a fic where Lan Qiren and Jin Zuxian visit the burial mounds and here the Wens stories from the camp. They confront the Jins about it and I know Jin Zixan forgets he branded some of the Wens. I cannot remember what it is called. Thank you

FOUND? ❤️Tragedy is Not the End by Hobbsy3 (T, 358k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Time Travel, Torture, Hurt/Comfort, Golden Core Reveal, Canon Divergence from Qiongqi Pass, Angst with a Happy Ending, mojo's post) chapter 13 is where lqr and jzx are listening to the wen if it helps

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17. Hello! I’m trying to find this fix where some rogue cultivators (I think) captures lwj and brings him to burial mounds as a gift for wax to get his favor? And they have lwj’s head covered so wax doesn’t know it’s him and after he finds out he goes crazy on those rogues. It wasn’t a long fic from what I remember. Also if you can can you reccomend more fics of the same kind where wwx goes crazy because someone hurt lwj? 😭

FOUND! I’m 99% sure this one is How to piss off the Yiling Laozu in one simple step! by Eicas (T, 3k, wangxian, kidnapping, hurt/comfort, pre-slash, hurt LWJ, mojo's bookmark)

SIMILAR Crimson Scars by ShootMeDead (T, 1k, wangxian, post-canon, protective WWX, YLLZ WWX, BAMF WWX, hurt/comfort, hurt LWJ, fluff & angst)

SIMILAR the field meets the wood by astronicht (T, 7k, WangXian, Post-Canon, BAMF WWX, slight whump, Ritualistic, Self Harm, Canon Era, Tang Dynasty style, Blood Loss, Blood and Injury, salt,  economics, [Podfic] the field meets the wood by semperfiona_podfic (semperfiona), [podfic] the field meets the wood by jellyfishfire, mojo's bookmark)

SIMILAR green flame, black flute, red ribbon by Fleetling (T, 3k, pre-wangxian, LJY pov, BAMF WWX, people will die violently for kidnapping the babies, hurt/comfort)

silk threads and precious metal by Sevidri (M, 5k, wangxian, hurt lan wangji, BAMF yiling lazou wei wuxian, mojo's post)

thrice as cruel by iliacquer (E, 15k, WIP, WangXian, BDSM, Switch WangXian, Kushiel's Legacy Fusion, Dubious Consent, Sex Work Courtesan LWJ, Submissive WWX, Dominant LWJ, Exhibitionism, Public Sex, Consensual Non-Consent, Canon-Typical Violence) warrior monk WWX saves courtesan LWJ from some abusive clients in Chapter 2

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18. Hello! So um I've been looking for this fic for the past 2 months and I've been through every relavant tag I could think of. If I remember correctly, it was a WIP. It is a canon-divergence after the fall of Lotus Pier. JC strangles WWX and leaves him there in the field. LWJ arrives and finds JC and JYL and asks them where is WWX. JC goes into hysterics and starts screaming about how WWX is dead because he killed him. LWJ goes to the field and has to conduct Inquiry to find WWX. There is a line that where WWX's spirit says his body is two li away. LWJ finds WWX's body and brings him back to the inn but orders all of the Lan disciples to not tell JC and to never let JC near WWX's room. But LWJ does inform JYL that WWX is alive though.

Thank you for all the help that you do, I've scrolled through the entirety of this blog for fics to read and am currently on my second re-scroll, haha <3

FOUND? a star called sun by thelastdboy (E, 65k, WIP, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Heavy Angst, Self-Worth issues, Amputation, Situational Mutism, Slow burn, Angst with a happy ending)

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19. Looking for a fic which was a WWX wasn’t recognised au or something similar where LWJ says ‘I was nothing to him’ or something along those lines. Can’t remember if he was drunk or not.

afdjfld seems like I was mixing the fics together 😂😂😂 the first fic definitely has the scene but the tavern one is definitely from the second fic

hi! this isn't very helpful, but for #19 - i would like to ask op if these details also apply to the fic? - rogue cultivator 'wei zhan' who wears grey rescues mxy!wwx without recognizing him, and wwx decides to tag along, to lwj's irritation. wwx asks if he took yllz's name out of any relation/attachment to him and lwj says '^i was nothing to him'. wwx outs himself after they were attacked by a yao or smth, and lwj is hurt for a little.

FOUND! all i want is nothing more (than to hear you knocking at my door) by jojkees (saspa_melon) (G, 4k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Light Angst, Mutual Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Post Resurrection, Getting Together, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, LWJ Getting Drunk, POV WWX) if it's not this fic then i deffo haven't read the correct one 😅

FOUND! To Have Found You Early by Porceline Blue (E, 10k, WangXian, Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Case Fic, sort of anyways)

~*~

20. Hi guys! I’m trying to find a fic but I only remember one thing about it 🙈 LWJ was the god of devotion. Hopefully someone remembers that 😬

~*~

Thank you for all the suggestions~

#wangxian #mdzs #wangxian fic finder #wangxian fic search #the untamed #wangxianficfinder #long post

[icos-x]

Hello. I'm J. You may know me as @icos-3 here on tumblr or as ijacques on AO3. Or (more likely) you don't know me at all, in which case, hi.

This is my reading blog. This is where i reblog fandom stuff I find interesting. I'm not very creative with my reblogs, and often just want to boost something I like so that more people can hopefully see it. Please don't think my needless screaming is because it's bad. It actually means the opposite

Here are some fanfic/media recommendations:

Fanfics

All fanfics listed here are complete and can be read as standalone works.

Most of them I really enjoyed reading, have a ratio of above 1k words per chapter, and took me a few days to complete (Or, in the case of Mortified, almost two weeks)!

Format: Fanfic (link) - fandom (tags/descriptors) - short review

⭐I Just Wanna Be Somebody To Someone - Rise of the Guardians (Jack x Aster, Smut, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, bonding over loss) - great to read, one of my new favourites! Rated E for Extremely wholesome. And Explicit. This is the first smut fic I've read, okay?

Winter's Frost - Rise of the Guardians (Jack x Aster, mature subjects, Major Character Death, nonconsensual, mind control, true love's kiss, consensual, Fluff and Angst, mostly canon compliant, world building, book elements) - good read, the romance is good, but the end is a painful experience. If you want a happy end, don't read past chapter 17

Senses and a distinct lack of Sensibility - Rise of the Guardians (E. Aster Bunnymund centric, Jack x Aster, Mutual Pining, Aster is a dork, Slow Burn, Fluff and Angst, idiots in love) - great read, would describe as "the perfect fic doesn't exis- wait"

The Boy in the Tower - Rise of the Guardians (Jack Frost & E. Aster Bunnymund centric, Jack x Aster, Rapunzel AU, Jack is rapunzel in this case, Slow Burn, Romance, Child Abuse, Kidnapping, Happy Ending) - really good read, the romance isn't overbearing and feels natural and wholesome, but I wish there were more romantic scenes

The Last Grimwalker - The Owl House (Hunter centric, Grimwalker lore building, ex coven leaders as a plot device, mind control, post season 3, Hunter learns to let others help, Side crew centric, drug usage, potions as drugs, Hunter needs a hug, Cannon Compliant, as far as I could tell at least, except for one part, but that's spoiler territory) - good read, feels like watching an episode of the show at times, but the word "alas" is used a bit too frequently for my tastes

Face to Face - Danny Phantom (Double Danny, shattered soul, self acceptance, Identity Reveal, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, feels like watching an episode or 20, Ghost catcher as a plot device, world building) - good read, very wholesome

Intricacies of Us - The Owl House (Hunter & Darius, Darius is his father figure, adoption, trauma, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Angst) - good read

Echoes - Danny Phantom (Eldritch Danny, No One Knows, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Hazmat Suit) - good read

⭐A Snapping Sound - Danny Phantom (Mega Angst, Mystery, Horror, Murder Mystery, Major Character Death (and I mean MAJOR), old movie vibes, ghosts in a more traditional sense, great world building, unhappy-happy ending) - great to read, but man have I not yet recovered from this ending

Shift - Danny Phantom (Everyone Knows, first time meeting, Hurt/Comfort, some Angst, lots of swearing, some body horror, Guys in White as a plot device, Sam and her parents don't get along at all, satisfying cliffhanger ending) - a decent read, good ideas and plot

⭐Cooking Mama (Luigi) - Super Mario Bros (Kidnapping as a plot device, Luigi is a parental figure, lots of cooking, Fluff, Found Family, Slow Burn, Bowuigi, Bowser/Luigi, cozy vibes, lots of cooking) - great read

Infiltration of the Heart - Super Mario Bros (Kidnapping as a plot device, protective older brother Mario, peach is a little unlikeable imo, lots of fantasy politics, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Autistic Luigi, Ace Luigi, Bowser/Luigi, Luigi is a parental figure, Drama, Alcohol, Luigi gets character development, world building) - good read, romance feels a little forced, but it works imo

Mortified verse - Danny Phantom (Danny is a broken boy, Danny & Clockwork, Clockwork is a parental figure, MASSIVE world building, mega cannon divergence, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Ghost King Danny, space as a setting, Court Drama, Legal Setting, The Fentons get sued by ghosts, child abuse, Greek Myth, Body Horror, clones get more character) - really good read

⭐Something's Wrong With Danny Fenton - Danny Phantom (No One Knows, body horror, bullying, Penelope Spectra as a plot device, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, self hatred, Identity Reveal) - great read

Media

The media listed here does not comply with a standard of any kind. Some may be longer/shorter than others and may be complete or incomplete at the time of writing.

Duncan & Eddie by doginacafe (comic, webtoon, anthro animals, LGBT-centric, incomplete) - good read, great for when you need a wholesome distraction during a stressful time

#reading recommendations #fanfiction #my recs #my reading habits

[jennycalendar]

im probably gonna cave and find a way to watch the owl house soon tbh

#musings #i never talk about it here bc it’s not smth im actively writing for (yet) #but DIANAKKO. #and the owl house sounds like it’s a lot like that except actually canon.

[slimy-vore-bog]

(Un)Necessary Evil

Disclaimer: all my work is meant to be non-sexual N/SF/W interaction is not appreciated

Okay, so a few warnings for this story... I try to go into the topic of the fear of death as deeply as I can. It could be way worse, but just as a warning, if you’re not ready to be reminded of death at the moment, give this story a skip.

For the more casual stuff that’s usually uncomfortable for safe vore people: this story contains mentions of hard and fatal vore, but none happen.

Oh, and as always; this is an Owl House fic.

Actually this is a rewrite of this old story that I didn’t post to tags called A Betrayal of Trust (But a Necessary Evil)

The two are very different and this is definitely a better story.

Anyway, I should probably just get onto the story... Oh wait, this story is set before s2 ep2 Escaping Expulsion. And obviously post that a lot of stuff will change, but I don’t feel like creating an entire canon divergent AU

Ao3

Word Count: 14k

***

I wonder why Amity wants to see me now… Luz stood in the market place, looking around for her friend. We’re going to meet up later anyway. She spotted the green haired witch in the distance, feeling a burst of excitement. I guess I don’t mind seeing her one more time before later today! She grinned, before she waved for her. “Hey Amity, there you were!”

Luz stopped herself, just as she was about to run towards her. Something seemed… off about her. She looked sad, as she stared back at Luz. “You are Amity, right?” Luz suddenly felt embarrassed. Please tell me I didn’t mistake some random person for Amity.  

Luz didn’t know whether she should feel relieved or more worried, when her friend nodded.

Luz hesitated, before she decided to run up to her. “I almost thought you were somebody else!” She smiled brightly at her, but Amity didn’t look at her. “Um,” Luz felt a little awkward, “so, why’d you want to see me now, instead of later?”

Amity glanced up at her, before quickly looking down into her bag. “I wanted to give you something.” She fiddled around in it, seeming to get more miserable by the second. “It’s really important that you wear this later, okay?” Amity looked up into Luz’s eyes.

Luz felt a bit shocked by Amity’s seriousness about this. “Why? What do I have to wear?” Why would Amity force her to wear something? This is weird. She didn’t like feeling forced to do something.

Amity looked unsure, as she dropped the thing she was holding back in her bag. Her eyes flicked around, as she grabbed her own hand, nervously fidgeting with her fingers. “Well…” her eyes widened, as she grabbed the thing out of the bag. “Sorry, I focused on your first question!”

Luz watched, as she brought out a necklace with multiple yellow gemstones on it. “Woah!” Luz exclaimed, suddenly feeling like she had to study it closer. “Is it glowing?” The gemstones on it seemed to be giving off a dim yellow light from them. “What makes it glow? Is it a spell? Or are they magic rocks?” Luz brought her hand out to take it, before she remembered that wearing a mysterious glowing necklace sounded like a horrible idea. “But, wait, why do I have to wear it?”

Amity curled the chain around her fingers, glancing around again. “Well… uh…” she let it fall through her fingers down in her other hand, as her brow furrowed. “It’s…” she hesitated again, looking a bit more frustrated. “It’s just really important to me that you wear it, can’t you do it for me?” She held the necklace out to her.

Luz hesitated, “I don’t want to sound suspicious of you, but…” she trailed off unsurely. “It’s just…” She wrapped one of her hoodie strings around her finger. “Are you sure it’s safe? Where did you get it from?”

Amity looked even more frustrated. “I promise it’s safe, just take it already!”  

She held it out to her, and Luz reluctantly took it out of her hands. “Sorry…” Luz opened the clasp, putting the necklace on, feeling a tiny jolt run through her body. Luz didn’t understand how she could feel it, or what she felt, but she was pretty sure it had to have a strong spell in it. Or Amity had a really weird and unsettling way of pranking. “I just don’t get why it’s so important.”

Amity looked away from her again. “I’m sorry too… I don’t want-” She quickly glanced over at Luz, before she turned around. “I’m just sorry…” She began walking away, before she turned to look back at Luz one more time. “See you later…”

Luz didn’t know what to do, “Uh, yeah! See you!” She lifted her hand to wave, but Amity had already turned around.

The glow of her necklace caught her attention, as she looked down to the ground. She picked up the biggest gemstone between her fingers. She had to admit; it was a pretty necklace. I wonder what makes it glow like that? She held it up to her face, watching it in awe. It’s really cool. She did a little jump out of excitement. And it wasn’t actually bad!

She suddenly felt even worse about her distrust of Amity. I’ll apologize to her again later today…

She let go of the necklace, as she turned to head back to the Owl House.

¨¨

Luz hated waiting; being patient wasn’t exactly her strong suit… But that didn’t change the fact that there were still a few hours until she could see Amity again, and she couldn’t come up with anything to do. Maybe I can talk to King for a bit? She was pretty sure she had seen him napping on the couch, but he might have woken up.

She went downstairs to check, but he hadn’t.

Luz thought about waking him up, just to make up for the times he had accidentally done it to her, whenever he unconsciously poked her with his sharp horn. But she decided that was a little too mean of her. She carefully sat down on the other side of the couch, resting her chin on her hand, tapping her foot against the floor.

I wonder where the others are? She looked around the living room, but there wasn’t anybody else in there. Strange, Lilith is normally in here… She was starting to feel a little too restless. I’ll go look around.

¨¨

She looked around the house, both inside and out, but she couldn’t find anybody anywhere. Well, except for Hooty, but she didn’t really feel like talking to him. Ever. She shook her head, not wanting to think about all the weird stuff she had seen him do, before she sat down on the couch again. Maybe King knows where they went?

She watched the tiny demon for a few moments, trying to decide if she should wake him up or not, before his fur bristled along his tail. “Stop staring at me, creep…” He mumbled, barely opening his eyes. “That’s the sixth time I’ve caught you doing that.” The look in his eyes told her that he definitely knew there were the times he hadn’t caught her.

Luz flushed in embarrassment. “It’s not my fault you’re so cute!” She shook her head. “But that’s not why I’m staring.” She pulled her legs up on the couch, as King stretched. “Did Eda and Lilith say where they were going? I haven’t seen them since I left to meet Amity.”

King yawned, before his eyes widened in surprise and he got up. “What’s that?” He pointed to Luz’s necklace. “When did you get that?”

Luz fidgeted with the necklace, as soon as he pointed it out. “Amity gave it to me.”

King reached for the necklace, but Luz pulled away. “I wanna see it!”

Luz didn’t want him to touch it. It’s mine; Amity gave it to me. “You don’t use your hands-” she cut herself off, before King even made a face, “-paws, to see.” Luz wasn’t sure it was as wide of a statement in the demon realm as it was back in her own, already King having paws was different, but that didn’t change that he specifically didn’t.

King scowled, before he sat back down and crossed his arms. “Some demons do, you know…”

Luz let go of her necklace. “Well you don’t…” She thought a little about seeing with paws and hands. I guess blind people do that in a way? “And some humans do too, but that’s a blind thing.” She shifted around, before remembering that this wasn’t what she wanted to talk about. “But, I still want to know if you know where Eda went?”

King moved a paw up to his snout, as he thought. “I’m not sure… I think she might have gone to the market to get something?” He shrugged, “she left some time after you did, anyway.” Before Luz could even ask, he answered her next question. “Lilith went with her, if you were going to ask.”

Luz nodded. “So we’re home alone?” she crossed her legs, looking over at the door. “Well, except for Hooty, but he is the house…” Luz stared over at the door, expecting him to butt in, but Hooty had been a lot better behaved, since Lilith and him had become friends. “So, is there anything you want to do?”

King’s tail wagged. “Let’s watch something together!” he jumped up on his legs. “Something violent! With lots of blood! I think I know just where we can watch something like that!” He was already running to get the crystal ball, before Luz could make another suggestion.

¨¨

Luz didn’t care all that much about what she and King were watching, but she liked that he was having fun. It looked like it was a monster movie of some kind, not as bloody or bad as she was scared it would be, but still a tiny bit more violent than she liked. It was at least not as weird as some of the other movies she had watched.

One time, she had seen a movie about some weird creatures that ate people, but they were really a struggling family that could only live by doing that. She had no clue if it had been some sort of parody, comedy horror or meant to be a serious heartwarming family story, but whatever it was; it made her both curious enough to watch it all the way through and incredibly uncomfortable.

Luz realized she was zoning out slightly, as she registered King screaming to her side. “Yes! Devour them! KILL THEM ALL!” He leaned in on the table, wagging his tail, his eyes shining with excitement. “One day, I’ll be like that again…” he whispered in awe.

Luz shifted around in her seat, messing with her necklace. I wonder how long there is until I have to head to Amity’s house? She checked the time, but there was still over half an hour before she could leave and get there at a reasonable time. “When’s this going to be over? I have to visit Amity later.”

King glanced up at Luz. “I think it’s over soon.” He sat back down, with a little squeak. “Sorry I was blocking your view.”

Luz smiled down at him. “It’s fine, you’re even cuter when you’re excited about something!”

Luz grinned, as he glared up at her. “I’m NOT cute! I’m the King of demons, and I…” He trailed of as his gaze fell back on the crystal ball. “I’ll lecture you later.” He tried to look tougher, like the movie bored him, but Luz could see how his tail twitched and shifted as he tried not to wag it.

Luz shifted to lay on her stomach, watching the last of the movie with him.

¨¨

Just a few minutes after the movie ended, Eda and Lilith finally came home, but Luz didn’t have a lot of time to stick around and talk, because she suddenly realized she needed to check if she had anything she needed to bring with her.

Shoot, why did I not remember to check earlier? She sprinted upstairs, after a quick hi to Eda, to look for her bag.

She took some time to draw a couple emergency glyphs, just in case she got into trouble, making sure to bring her notepad and pen with her, if she happened to use them all up without being able to draw them on the ground either.

She took a few seconds to look at her necklace, before she headed back downstairs to say goodbye.

King didn’t like that she was leaving at all. “Why do you have to go?” He grabbed her leg, as she was about head out the door. “Can’t you just visit Amity tomorrow?”

Luz smiled down at him, lightly pushing him away, but he stood his ground. “Sorry, King, I promised Amity I’d come over today.” She patted his head, as he looked up at her with big begging eyes. “We can spend time together tomorrow, okay?”

King suddenly got a way more worried look in his eyes. “But what if there isn’t going to be a tomorrow?”  

Luz froze, shocked at what he was suggesting. “I don’t think you need to worry about that.” She picked him up in her arms, despite his slight protest. “Everything’s going to be fine! I’m prepared!” He squirmed, as she hugged him, before she put him back on the floor and brought her emergency glyphs out of her bag. “Look! I’m ready for anything!”

King stared up at Luz, not looking any more at ease. “But… What if something catches you off guard?” he looked back to the crystal ball, before he pointed to it. “I don’t want anything like that to happen to you, Luz!”

Luz felt uncomfortable looking back at the crystal ball, because she knew she probably couldn’t say that it was just a movie. “Like I said; everything is going to be fine!” She felt a bit antsy, realizing that she was wasting time discussing this with King. “And, again, I promised Amity I was coming over today.” She fidgeted with her bag, before continuing. “And I’ve made it this long without being eaten! I promise I’m going to come home safe.”

She crouched down to give King another hug, before she headed out the door. “Bye, guys!”

¨¨

Luz didn’t know what to do, as she stood in front of the door to the Blight Manor after having knocked. She had no clue what to expect, as she waited for someone to let her in.

She shifted from foot to foot in small bounces, as the door opened.

She took a step backwards, nearly falling off the steps, when she saw how infuriated Amity looked. “Woah! What’s wrong?” Did I come over too late? Or too early? Luz wasn’t sure she should come closer, as Amity stared her down, before looking at her necklace.

Luz yelped in surprise, when Amity grabbed her arm and forcefully pulled inside the house. “Ack! Amity! Stop! That hurts!” She didn’t listen, as she kept pulling on her, making Luz follow along just to lessen the pain. Despite that, her grip was still uncomfortably tight around her arm. “What’s going on?”

Luz tried to figure out what she could have done wrong to make Amity so angry at her, but she couldn’t think of anything. Is she taking her anger out on me, or is she angry at me? She couldn’t tell what was going on, but she knew that she didn’t want to see Amity like that. “Have I done something wrong?”  

Amity huffed, but she didn’t answer her question.

Luz still tried to figure out what Amity could possibly be mad at her for, as she followed her into the living room. Luz remembered that she needed to give a more thorough apology for her distrust of the necklace. “I’m really sorry about earlier.” Amity didn’t look at her as she spoke, “you know, with the necklace; I didn’t mean to make it sound like I didn’t trust you.”

Amity tightened her grip on Luz’s arm, before she suddenly let go of it, and shoved her down on the couch.  

Luz hit the couch, before quickly rolling back off it, staring up at Amity. “What was that fo-” Her eyes widened, as she cut herself off when she saw Amity forming a spell circle. “Wait, don’t!” But she barely got the words out, before Amity cast the spell.

Luz braced herself for something to hurt her, but nothing happened at all. She let out a sigh of relief. Amity is just messing with me. “Wow, you really scared me-” Luz’s eyes widened once again, as she realized that something had happened; she was shrinking, getting smaller by the second. What did Amity just do to me?!

Amity watched her with cold eyes, before she walked over and crouched down.

Luz hesitantly backed away, trying to figure out why Amity was acting the way she was. “Uhm…” her voice shook slightly, stopping her from speaking, as she glanced away. Her fear felt like it grew larger by each second that the giant, compared to her, girl watched her. “What did you do that for?” she asked, trying to stop her voice from showing how scared she felt. Her heart thudded quickly in her chest, as Amity kept the cold look in her eyes.

Amity leaned down closer, before poking her hard enough to knock her over. “You’re boring… Aren’t you going to run away or something? I thought you would be more exciting to catch…”

Luz watched her for a few seconds, before she got up on her feet again. “Catch?” She kept looking up at her, but she couldn’t figure out why Amity would want her to run. Whatever Amity was doing; she wasn’t sure she wanted to play along with it.

Amity sighed, rubbing her forehead. “Alright, let me put it simply…” Her hand suddenly slammed down in front of her, making Luz jump back with a shriek. “You run right now, and I might let you go if I can’t catch you within...” she paused to think, as Luz heart pounded even faster in her chest, “ten minutes.”

Amity stared at her with the same uncaring eyes, waiting for Luz to do something, but she couldn’t get her feet to move. She took a couple unsure steps back after a few seconds. Is this a game? It had to be; why else would Amity be acting like that? Maybe it’s just a weird way to welcome guests here? But that didn’t make much sense.

Amity tapped her fingers against the floor in impatience, snapping Luz out of her thoughts. “I’m only giving you a few more seconds to try and get away, human.” She shifted her fingers to reach out after her, but she stopped before wrapping them around her. “This is getting really boring… Aren’t you at least going to yell at me?”

Luz stared at the fingers that had almost closed around her, not knowing what Amity was getting at. “I don’t get it!” she shouted, squeezing her eyes shut. “I don’t get what’s happening!”

Amity pushed her down on the floor, pinning her down roughly with only a couple fingers. “I’m giving you a chance to escape!” Luz still didn’t understand, as she looked up at Amity. She felt her press down harder on her shoulders, making her gasp in pain. “Or, I guess, was.”

Luz let out a pained wheeze, as Amity’s fingers wrapped around her, almost feeling like Amity was trying to crush her to death. “Stop! That hurts!”

Amity scowled down at her, but she loosened her grip slightly. “Oh, poor you.” She scoffed, before she opened her fist up to grab Luz’s bag, before she even had a chance to try and take it back from her. “As if it wasn’t on purpose…” she mumbled under her breath. “Didn’t realize you were that stupid.”

Luz stared up at Amity in disbelief. “I’m not stupid!” What is going on with her? “I want to know why you’re hurting me!”

Amity glared at Luz intensely. “Can you be quiet? I need to focus on something.” She lifted her up to her mouth and grabbed the back of her shirt between her teeth.

Luz felt a strong chill go up her spine, as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. She tried to keep her shirt from pressing in on her throat, but it barely helped. What the hell is Amity doing? She gasped for breath, as she squirmed to try and loosen the pressure on her neck.

She looked at her bag, as Amity emptied it into her hand. Another rush of fear went through her, as she realized that she had barely had any ways of defending herself against Amity. She tried to kick Amity’s chin, but she couldn’t hit anything from where she was. “Don’t-” She coughed, shifting her grip on her shirt slightly, “-don’t take my stuff!”

An exhausted breath blew down onto her from Amity’s nose, before she put the pen and notepad down in the bag and shook the glyphs off her hand.

Luz watched, as her hand moved up to grab her again, kicking it as soon as it was in reach. “Let me go!” She only realized her poor wording, as Amity let out a small laugh through her nose, and opened her mouth slightly. “Wait, no! Not like that!” Luz let out a terrified cry, bracing herself for the fall, but Amity grabbed her again without dropping her.

Luz felt Amity’s tongue slurp up against her neck, before she was lowered down.

Luz couldn’t believe what Amity just did, as she shifted her head to try to process the feeling of drool that lathered her neck. Did she just lick me? She definitely did. Why did she do that? Luz felt another strong chill run through her body. “Why did you lick me?”

Amity’s eyes were just as unkind as before, when she turned Luz around to stare at her. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

Luz cowered, as the bad feeling she had grew worse. “Please don’t hurt me…” she whispered quietly. She had a growing worry that this was going the exact way she expected getting licked by a person big enough to eat her in a single bite would go. I shouldn’t have promised anything to King… she realized, trying to stop the burning feeling in her eyes, not wanting to cry. I have to be wrong; Amity would never do that. But signs weren’t very promising.

Amity scowled down at Luz, before she shifted her gaze away from her. She didn’t say anything else, as she began looking around from something in the house.

Amity found her way to what looked like a dining room, where what had to be her mom was standing. Luz felt Amity shift her grip on her to dangle her from her fingers. “She was way too easy to catch… I even offered her a chance to get away, but, apparently, humans aren’t smart enough to take a chance to survive.”

Luz tried to look back at Amity, but she couldn’t quite see her, as the feeling of dread grew. “Survive?” She knew Amity was obviously hinting at eating her, but that didn’t mean she was being serious about doing it. She wouldn’t really do that, would she? “What do you mean?” She couldn’t actually want to kill her. Her thoughts spun in her head, as she tried make sense of it. She wouldn’t!  

Amity turned her around, raising an eyebrow. “Are you sure you’re not stupid?” She shook Luz, making her cry out in distress, as she felt like she was going to slip out between her fingers. “I thought you had already caught on.” She shifted her grip to let Luz sit in her hand. “I think it’s pretty obvious what I’m going to do, but I guess a human like you would be too dumb to understand?”

Luz tried to get up on her feet, but Amity didn’t give her a chance, as she was pinned down by her thumb. She stared up at Amity, still trying to figure out if she was serious. “I’m not dumb!” She squirmed underneath her thumb, but she held on too tightly for Luz to do anything. “I just don’t know why you would do this!”

Amity rolled her eyes in annoyance. “Yeah, sure, but isn’t it still pretty obvious?” She glared down at her, as she continued. “I don’t care about you.”

Luz suddenly burst out laughing. Something about the way she said it didn’t sound like she meant it. It sounded way too exaggerated. “What are you talking about?” She couldn’t stop laughing at the idea of Amity not caring about her. “We’re friends!” Just the thought that Amity would hurt her seemed completely absurd the more she considered it. “We’ve been friends for a long time, when did you suddenly start hating me again?”

Amity got even angrier, glancing over at her mom, as Luz spoke. “That doesn’t matter!” She pressed her thumb harder into Luz’s chest, making her let out a pained wheeze again. “What matters is that I don’t like you, and I’m going to make sure that I never have to see you ever again.”

Luz wriggled underneath her thumb, trying to process everything that was happening. She can’t mean that! “W-wait, no!” She already knew how Amity was going to solve this. “We can figure this out another way!” Luz looked around as she gasped for breath, while she tried to think. Is Amity seriously going to kill me? “I’m trying to find way back to my mom! Maybe-” Luz hesitated, before she made her decision. “What if I stay there? In the human realm?”

Amity kept scowling down at her, but Luz could swear she saw a glimpse of surprise in her eyes, before she looked over at her mom with a slightly hopeful expression.

Luz immediately put the pieces together, but that didn’t make her situation any less terrifying. Is Amity’s mom making her kill me? She decided to keep her mouth shut, until her mom made a decision. Please let me go home… She suddenly felt even more powerless in Amity’s grasp, knowing that her life could be ended by a single decision that neither she or Amity had a say in.

Amity looked back down at Luz, clearly realizing that she had noticed her odd behavior, as she her expression changed back to a glare hurriedly, before her necklace lit up.

Luz looked at it unsurely, waiting for either Amity or her mom to say anything. Don’t kill me… She couldn’t help squeezing her eyes shut, as she waited to know if she was going to make it out alive or not. Please decide to let me go… she begged inside her head once again.

Amity huffed, and Luz’s hair stood on end, as she realized what that meant. “No, you said you’re still trying to find a way back and that would take way too long.” Luz pulled her legs closer to her body, as she gave Amity a pleading look. “Besides, I don’t have the patience to see your face around anymore.” She shifted her around in her hands with malicious smile. “And I think killing you would be much more satisfying.”

Luz realized she had to come up with something to convince her mom to change her mind. “Amity, please, don’t!” She looked around, trying to collect her thoughts. What did I want to say? “I- You-” It was about Amity. “You don’t actually want to kill me; I know it!” She pointed her thumb where Amity had looked earlier. “It’s her, your mom! She wants to kill me! I saw the way you looked over at her!”

Amity squeezed her eyes shut in a scared wince, before she tried to play it off. “Why do you have to be so annoying about this?” She shifted her grip to dangle Luz from her fingers again. “You know you can’t do anything about this, right? Even- I mean-” Amity stammered slightly. “Ugh! I’m just going to get this over with!”

Amity opened her mouth as wide as she could, finally letting the fact that Amity was serious about killing her sink in.

“Wait!” She tried to grab onto her fingers, while kicking against Amity’s hand. “No, please! There has to be something I can do to change your mind!” But Amity didn’t hesitate, as she lowered Luz into her mouth. “Or your mom’s mind!” She writhed around, trying to get a look at her, but she couldn’t even catch a glimpse. “Mrs. Blight, please, stop this!”  

But her mother didn’t say or do anything to call it off.

The bare part of her legs rested against Amity’s tongue, as she closed her mouth around Luz’s waist. I have to do something now! “We can figure something out, or-” Luz felt that she was sliding deeper into Amity’s mouth, despite her desperate attempts to push herself back out. “Please, I-” Luz sucked in a breath, as she felt tears burning in her eyes once again, “-I don’t want to die!”

Amity opened her mouth a little wider around her again, using her tongue to drag her in. “Amity! Stop! Please!” This isn’t happening! This couldn’t be happening. She tried to grab onto Amity’s lip, but she couldn’t even reach anymore, let alone hold on. This isn’t happening!

“Amity! Spit me out right now!” She tried to kick herself back out of Amity’s mouth, but she shut it around her, before she even had a chance.  

“This isn’t funny at all!” It had to be a cruel joke, or a nightmare. It had to be. She couldn’t die here; she couldn’t die yet. This isn’t happening! She choked on her own sob, as she begged Amity to stop. “Ple-please!”

But Amity still didn’t listen to her.

Luz tried to back away from Amity’s throat, but she couldn’t get a proper grip on anything inside her mouth. Maybe if I kick her throat, she’ll spit me out? Anything was worth a shot at this point. She gave her a full force kick in the back of her throat.

Just as Luz had hoped, Amity immediately retched and spat her back out into her hands. But Luz instantly realized that there wasn’t anywhere to go from there. Okay, so I have another shot at changing her mom’s mind, that could work! Luz spun around to face her, but something about the look she was giving Amity told her there was nothing she could do. I have to try again.  

She tried to gather her thoughts, but all except the desperate pleas for her life escaped her. Shoot, what do I say? Luz stared at Amity’s mom, as Amity stopped gagging behind her.

Luz turned back around. “Amity, please, you don’t have to do this!” There had to be another way to convince her… What hadn’t she tried? “I promised King I would come back home today!”  

She looked up into Amity’s eyes, hoping to convince her to let her go. Luz immediately began talking, trying to stall her fate, despite the lack of any sort of pity in her eyes.

“I said that we could spend tomorrow together, but he said there might not be a tomorrow, and I tried to comfort him-” her eyes flicked around, trying to look as scared as she felt, “but if I really don’t have a tomorrow, then King and I will never spend it together!”

Luz hoped that her listening to her stream of panicked words meant that she was considering trying to change her mom’s mind. She continued trying to stall. “What’s your mom’s name?” She turned back around to face her. “What’s your name?” she shouted at her, but she didn’t respond, only getting out of her line of vision. “Please! Stop this!” she cried out again, as her eyes searched for her in vain. “I need to get back! I have to come home!”

She felt Amity lift her up and turn her around and Luz stared up at her with tear-filled eyes. The look in Amity’s eyes was bored more than anything, as she spoke, “do you really think you’re going to be changing my mind on this?” She sighed deeply. “Because I’ve planned this for a while and I’m not going to back down over some begging and crying.”

Luz racked her brain for anything that could save her, but she didn’t know what else she could do. She tried to stall again, hoping Amity would hear her out. “What about the time…” It didn’t matter what she talked about, as long as she talked. “Or I mean, what about the Azura books? If you kill me, you won’t have anybody to talk with you about them!”

Amity scowled at Luz. “Don’t remind me of that!” She squeezed Luz tightly, before she continued. “You just kept talking and talking and talking!” The look her eyes soften for a second, before she caught herself. “I never got a word in! Do you have any idea of how annoying it was?” She sighed once more. “I’m tired of this...” She opened her mouth back up again.

Luz immediately tried to squirm out of her grasp. “Stop!” She put her hands out in front of her, once again trying to grab onto something before she was shoved into Amity’s mouth. There has to be something I can do! But it was useless and, deeper down, she did know that.

Her eyes flicked around, as she tried to come up with something. Could I make her gag again? Maybe Amity will get tired of it eventually and… Luz didn’t even have to finish the thought, before she realized that wouldn’t work. Amity could easily bite her in half or just crush her arms or legs between her teeth. A sharp prickling feeling went up her spine, as she felt like the hair on her neck stood up. I can’t get out.

She suddenly became much more aware of everything around her, as she realized that now really was the moment she was going to die.

Everything felt fake, as a surreal feeling spread through her body, making every muscle in it tense. Her heart was beating, but it didn’t feel like her heart. She was breathing, but her lungs didn’t feel like they were hers. She had thoughts, but they didn’t feel like they came from her own head.

She shook her head, as she felt like vomiting. No, no, this is just a weird dream, a really scary, terrifying, nightmare, I’m going to wake up soon… But then why could she feel the saliva from Amity’s mouth making her clothes stick to her skin? I’m not going to die! I can’t! She clenched her fists tighter, digging her nails into her palms to feel something, as she shivered all over from the horrid realization she was having. She let out a small cry, wanting the feeling out of her body.

It couldn’t be possible that she would actually die; she couldn’t die. I can’t die! It doesn’t make sense! I can’t! Those were the only thoughts that echoed in her mind, as she tried to process what was happening. She wasn’t supposed to die; if she died, then what would happen to her? To the person she was? She heaved for breath, before whimpering, as she felt like an intruder in her own body. I can’t die!  

Luz let out the loudest scream she could muster, trying to feel like she was in control of the body she was in, before she dug her nails into Amity’s tongue. She knew her voice would come out hoarse, even before she screamed again, “SPIT ME OUT!” The words raked her throat, as she screamed them as loud as she could.

She pressed against the back of her tongue with as much force as she could, before she was pinned to the roof of Amity’s mouth.  

She wriggled against it, trying to maneuver her arms to make Amity gag another way. I’m not going to die in here! She hesitated for a few seconds, before she pressed her arms into Amity’s throat. She couldn’t put as much force into it, as her kick, or even just when she pressed down, but it was enough for her soon-to-be murderer to let her back out.

At least for a second, before she was quickly shoved back inside. This was exactly the scenario she had dreaded. She couldn’t keep stalling her death; Amity wasn’t using anywhere near the amount of energy Luz was. This couldn’t keep going forever.

Amity pinned Luz against her palate once again, letting her struggle uselessly for even longer.

Luz could feel herself starting to feel a slight bit weaker, as she tried to do the same thing she had done just before. But this time she didn’t get a chance to press against Amity’s throat, as she let her fall back to the front of her mouth, before she could reach.

She felt her feet hit Amity’s teeth, before Amity opened her mouth slightly and forced her leg in between them.

Luz squeezed her eyes shut tightly, realizing that Amity was going to be done playing with her soon. She’s going to bite my leg off! Luz tried to pull it out from between her teeth, but it didn’t do anything. Please don’t do this… It couldn’t be that much longer, before she decided to kill her.

But biting her leg off wasn’t what Amity had in mind, as she shifted Luz’s head in between her molars instead. Luz tried recoil, despite knowing she couldn’t do anything but wait for Amity to crush her skull. She didn’t think to send out any sort of last thoughts, as she focused on trying to shut out the unbearable pain she would feel in just a few seconds.

But Amity changed her mind once again, shifting her back on her tongue.

Luz was starting to wish that Amity would just get it over with already, instead of playing with her like she kept doing. I can’t get out… She had tried everything now, but none of it had worked. She went limp, before she tried one last time to get Amity to spare her life. “Am-” she coughed, as she realized just how sore her throat was from screaming. “-Amity, please, I can’t die yet!” She felt tears build up in her eyes once again, but she didn’t try to hold them back anymore.

Luz tensed up immediately, as she felt herself slide towards Amity’s throat. Amity is going to swallow me whole! She squirmed, before she was pinned in place again. “Amity!” This was one of the worst ways she could decide to kill her. “Sto-” she choked on her voice again in the middle of her word, “-stop! Please, at least make it a quick death!”

But it did nothing to convince her, as she was squeezed down into her throat.

Luz tried to make her gag again, but Amity swallowed her down way too quickly for her to do anything. She kicked the back of her palate, but even though Amity’s body clearly wanted her to cough her back up; she still quickly swallowed again to let Luz slide farther down into her throat.

Luz cried out in distress, as she was squeezed and shoved farther down by the second. She tried to clear her head of thoughts, not wanting to think about how soon she was going to die. She wasn’t ready to die in anyway at all. I can’t die… But she knew that wasn’t true; everybody had to die. I don’t want to die… She didn’t want to die yet, and especially not the gruesome way she was about to.

She whimpered, as trying to wriggle back up, but she knew there was no way she was making it out again. I never got to see my mom again… Every ounce of guilt she had felt since she had pretended to be at camp hit her at once. She cried even harder, letting out a wail, as she wished she had told her something, anything, about where she was. She’s never going to know what happened to me...

Luz could feel when the stomach opened up beneath her, and she squeezed her eyes even more shut, as she slid into the pool of acid at the bottom.

She quickly got out of it, but she knew it wouldn’t make much of a difference. I’m… She could barely finish the thought, but she knew she had to face sooner or later. I’m not getting out of here… She let her shoulders untense, knowing there was nothing she could do but wait for death. Maybe it won’t be as scary as it sounds…

But she knew she didn’t really believe that.

~

Amity felt Luz stop moving inside her stomach, but she didn’t worry, knowing she was going to be alright. She looked up into the smug face of her mother, glaring at her. Wipe that annoying smile off your face! Her mother hadn’t won; she had. Or at least as much as she could win, when she had, hopefully, broken Luz’s trust in her completely. She looked down at her stomach, holding a hand over it. Please don’t still trust me after this…

Her mom’s eyes nearly looked like they sparkled, as Amity hurried to lower her hand down. Shoot, I’m making this worse for Luz… Her mother touched the gem around her own neck, as her voice rung in her head like it had done so many times. “Mittens, you still seem pretty affectionate with the human, are you sure you can stay away from her?”

Amity nodded, as she felt anger bubble up inside her. I would do anything to keep Luz safe. Even if it meant never seeing her again. Though, the fact that her mom still wore that smug smile worried her. Am I missing something? Her skin prickled, as she knew there had to be something she wasn’t thinking off. Was there a loophole she hadn’t consider? How did the deal go again?

She thought back to what had been said. ‘If you can convince Luz that you’re trying to kill her, we won’t do anything to her ourselves.’

Amity’s eyes widened, as she realized exactly why her mom wore that smile, but she kept her face away from her. Stay calm, I can’t let her know that I’ve figured out her trick. If she knew she figured it out; she wasn’t going to get a chance to make a plan to save Luz from her.

She stretched casually, trying to look more tired than she was. “I think I’m going relax in my room for a while…” she hoped she could be more convincing than she was before. “I’ll come back… later?” She shot her mom an unsure look, trying to ask when she needed to let Luz out. That’s what I would have done before I guessed it, right? “When would be a good time?”

Her mom did look a bit suspicious of her, but not a worrying amount. “Come back in half an hour.”

Amity wasn’t sure she should chance a glare at her mom, despite knowing that she would have done it otherwise. I don’t want to risk anything… She would let her think she still thought she had won by ignoring her, as she walked past her.

~

Luz stared in confusion at the yellow tinted walls that were pulsing around her, realizing that something was off. Even if there was still enough air for her inside Amity’s stomach; she definitely should be feeling at least some itching, if not unbearably painful burning, by now.

She looked down at the bare part of her legs, but the skin didn’t seem irritated at all, despite her lower half having been in the acid the entire time she had been inside Amity’s stomach, because she hadn’t been able to get completely out of it.

Luz didn’t understand what was going on, but she had a feeling Amity had a reason for not telling her that.

She looked up where she had first entered her stomach, wishing she could get back out. She put her necklace in under her hoodie, letting the space around her darken. It was a lot more pleasant, when she didn’t have to look at the pulsing moving walls that she thought was going to kill her just a moment ago.

She closed her eyes, letting herself calm down. The thought that she was going to die eventually, even if not now, still lingered in her body, making her feel like she wasn’t really herself. But at least I don’t have to die right now. She tried to comfort herself with the thought, but thinking about the fact that she had to die at some point still left her with the hollow feeling of her body not being hers.

She pulled the necklace back out, realizing she needed a distraction from her thoughts. Or at least something to do with her hands, so she could squash down the feeling of needing to do something.

She watched the flickering effect the light gained, as she fiddled with the gems. It started to feel a little less scary, when she focused on the light and necklace in her hands, instead of her surroundings, thoughts or feelings. She could deal with her existential dread later… when she figured out how to stop feeling like herself when she thought about the fact that her life would eventually be over.

She took a shaky breath, trying once again to calm down.

~

Amity paced around her room, trying to figure out how to handle everything. How am I going to get Luz back to the Owl House? She couldn’t picture a way that would work. Mom has to be keeping an eye on me, in case I decide to run away… Amity paused in her pace. Is it obvious that I’m going to run away? She thought about it, but she quickly realized if her mom saw or heard her head out, she would immediately get caught.

She sat down, trying to form a better plan. My only back up plan can’t just be to restrain her, while I run… She had to come up with something better, but she knew she had limited time. How am I going to do this? She placed her head into her hands, gritting her teeth in frustration.

She rubbed her face, trying to come up with something else. What if I wait until I’m supposed to let Luz back out, but then I run away? It almost sounded easier, but she might as well use some of the surprise from running way now instead. It might have worked, if Ed and Em were home to help. But, obviously, her mother didn’t want anybody interrupting her traumatizing of Luz. Or, rather, her murder. Why did I ever agree to this? It should have been so obvious that this plan wasn’t going to work. What made me think mom would even keep her word? She knew how her mom was.

Amity wished she had just been smart enough to avoid this. Luz could have saved herself, if I just warned her… She squeezed her eyes shut, letting herself cry. I could have helped her! Amity knew that she shouldn’t dwell on the past, that was something she couldn’t change, but she couldn’t see how she was going to get out of the situation her stupid, absolutely terribly, mistake had brought her in.

Amity had to wipe the tears from her face not long after. I have to at least apologize to Luz… Her shoulders tensed, as she thought about having to tell her that she had pretty much gotten her killed. I’ll try to make it more optimistic... She didn’t know how to make it sound like that, but she could give it a shot. “Luz?”

~

The necklace thumped against her chest, as she let go of it, when she heard her name. She felt a sudden burst of anger, kicking Amity’s stomach with as much force as she could. She quickly calmed down after that, realizing that it wasn’t Amity fault that this happened. Maybe partly, she didn’t try to stop her mom, but I shouldn’t take my anger out on her…

But before she could apologize; Amity spoke again. “I deserved that.” Luz waited for a few seconds, before Amity continued. “But I wanted to say sorry, and that you were right about everything… Somewhat?” Luz wasn’t sure if she should say anything yet, but Amity seemed to be done, as she didn’t say anything after making a few noises while thinking.

Luz wasn’t exactly sure what to say. “Uh… Okay?” She didn’t really want to be talking with Amity, her voice still felt uncomfortable to hear. “But, uhm… If I’m not going to die in here; you’re going to let me out soon, right?” Luz didn’t want to spend a second longer than she needed to inside Amity’s stomach.

She heard the rush of air in Amity’s lungs, as she took a deep breath. “About that…” Luz felt like her skin was crawling, as she waited for Amity to say something horrible. “I might have messed up a little more than I thought, and my mom does want you dead.”

Luz immediately sprang up in a panic, or attempted to, but she just splashed down into acids again as she slipped. “You’re still going to kill me?!” She tried to climb backwards, as one of the ways that Amity could still kill her popped into her mind. She’s going to drown me! “No, please, I-” But Amity quickly interrupted.

“No, no, Luz, I’m not going to let her get her way!” Amity’s heart had sped up too, as she hurried to get her words out. “I would never let anyone or anything hurt you; no matter what.” Luz noticed she took a breath, after she had stopped her writhing.  

Luz tried to process her words, but they… didn’t make any sense. Something in the way she said it made her think there much more to them than what she let on. She tried to think back to before Amity had lied to her about how much she hated her, but she still couldn’t figure out what made Amity care about her that much. No matter what... her mind repeated the tone that Amity had used. Maybe I’m putting too much meaning in it?

Amity continued, snapping her out of her thoughts. “But I was trying to say that she still wants you dead, so I need to find a way to get you back to the Owl House.” She let out a sigh. “The problem is that I’m stuck in my room…”

Luz let herself relax again. “First of all; don’t phrase stuff like that ever.” She pointed a finger at Amity, despite knowing she couldn’t see her. “But secondly… I don’t really know what to do either.” Luz gave herself some time to think. “Uh… Maybe you could…” Nothing popped into her mind immediately that wasn’t obvious. But maybe the simplest option could work? “Do you think you could beat your parents in a fight? If you had to?”

Amity went quiet, and Luz listened curiously for her response. “What do you mean? Do you want me to fight my parents?”

“No, I mean, if you had to, if you were caught?” Luz knew that Amity had to have thought about this, but she was pretty sure it could work. “And if you can’t, what are they going to do?” Luz’s confident feeling grew, as she thought about it more. “They can’t get to me, as long as I’m in here!”

It was silent above her, as Amity thought.

Luz stared up hopefully, excited that Amity seemed to be considering the idea. It could really work! She tried to squash down her feeling of being clever, waiting to hear what Amity thought of it.

“You’re right…” Luz waited, hoping she would go through with the idea. “But what if they have a way to make me throw up?”

Luz deflated, not having thought about that. “Well… Do you think they do?” She gave it a few more seconds of thought. “Why would they have a way to make you throw up? Doesn’t that sound weird?” Luz tried to come up with anything that could help them out of this awful situation they had ended up in. “And how else are we going to get out of this? I can’t think of anything else…”

Amity went quiet, clearly trying to think of something. “I don’t know…” She breathed out, as her heart sped up again. “I guess it’s the only thing that sounds doable…”

¨¨

Luz had to wait with growing worry, as Amity moved around the house.

She kept her hands around her necklace and it helped her calm down slightly. The chain felt comforting, as she ran her fingers along it. Stay calm… She didn’t want to freak out too much, despite knowing that both her and Amity were incredibly worried. She can do this.

She could hear Amity’s heart beat faster than her own, but not by much.

She wished she could help out, but there wasn’t a lot she could do, even if she was back outside and her regular size. I would probably just be easier to kill… Not to mention the fact that she was still completely defenseless. Luz gripped her necklace anxiously, as she thought back to Amity taking her bag. What did Amity do to my bag?

It wasn’t that she was too worried about the bag; she didn’t have anything really important and irreplaceable with her, but she still didn’t want to have lost it. She did have a few of her favorite patches and pins on it and it would suck to lose them. So technically something irreplaceable, if she never got back to her mom, but nothing really important important.

She let go of the necklace, deciding to watch the walls around her for a bit. It made her own stomach churn, as she thought about what happened. It was gross to think that Amity could do that. She hadn’t had that hard of a time swallowing her down, despite how much she had tried to get her to gag.

She tried to stop the uncomfortable feeling she got from thinking about it. Amity is keeping me safe. She reminded herself once again. I’m safer in here than out there. If she was out there; Amity’s mom could get to her way more easily.

Luz wasn’t sure how long she spent thinking about all her different worries, but apparently long enough for Amity to make it out of her house, as the bigger girl told her exactly that in a voice a little louder than a whisper.

It was quiet again after that, except for her much louder and more strained breathing.

¨¨ ~

By the time Amity reached the Owl House; she could barely get her legs to move anymore. Maybe I should have taken it just a tiny bit slower… Her parents hadn’t even seen her run away, as far as she knew. But the thought that they had been after her had made it impossible for her to slow down.

She stared over at the house, feeling unsure about what to do. Should she explain any of what had happened, or keep it a secret? I think I’m going to start by letting Luz out… She wished she had thought about an easier way to make herself throw up suddenly. It can’t be that hard… she thought, remembering how easily Luz had made her gag. But maybe it’s harder to do it myself…  

Amity shook her head, realizing she was overthinking it way too much.

She looked down at her stomach, feeling an uncomfortable shiver go up her body as she thought about what she had done. I’m so stupid… “I’m going to let you out now.”

¨¨ ~

Luz yelped in surprise, as she fell out of Amity’s mouth, but her fall was slightly broken by the soft-ish leaves on the ground. And despite falling the relatively tall height that she had; it barely hurt.

She still groaned, immediately having to squeeze her eyes shut at the still bright light outside. I didn’t realize it was so dark in there... She had thought that the light from her necklace was a lot stronger. She felt dizzy, as she hesitantly opened her eyes back up again.

She heard Amity shuffle backwards retching again, but it didn’t sound like anything else was coming out.

Luz got up on her feet, grimacing as she saw Amity’s face. That does not look fun... She didn’t want to say anything, before Amity was done dry heaving.

Amity swallowed loudly, letting out an exhausted noise. “I’m so sorry,” she started, swallowing sickly again, “I really hope you’re okay after all this...” Amity sat up clenching her hands tight. “I didn’t think any of this through... ” She squeezed her eyes shut, and a couple tears rolled down her face.

Luz didn’t want to say that everything was fine; it wasn’t. But she also didn’t think Amity needed to feel that horrible about it. “Well... The worst part was really realizing that I was going to die, so it’s not really your fault?” Luz dug her foot in under one of leaves next to her, trying to lift it with her foot. “I mean, unless you’re a god of death?” she tried to joke with a hesitant smile.

Amity grimaced, as she clearly tried not to smile back. “It’s not funny...” Her grimace quickly turned sad, as she looked down at Luz. “I know how much I scared you.”

Luz stood awkwardly, not knowing what to do to make Amity stop worrying about it. “I don’t really want to talk about this right now.” It was true, but she was mostly hoping to distract Amity. “Also... Could you maybe turn me back to normal?”

Amity snapped up. “Right! Sorry,” she apologized, but she didn’t turn her back immediately, fishing around in the bag she had with her, before she brought out Luz’s bag. “Here.” She stood back up, before casting the spell.

Luz closed her eyes, as she grew back to normal, finding a little too weird to watch how everything changed back to how it was before.  

When she opened them again; everything seemed much more familiar.  

A lot more real.  

Without even registering her emotions properly; everything blurred with tears.

Luz couldn’t even get a word out, despite wanting to tell Amity that it wasn’t her fault that she broke down. Don't think it’s your fault! Luz’s thoughts screamed between the terrifying jolts of constant reminding that she was going to die and having no way of knowing what would or wouldn’t happen afterwards. Don’t get upset too!

She looked over at Amity, seeing how distressed she looked too, and managed to speak up. “It’s not your fault.” She blinked, letting more tears fall freely. “I’m not scared of you!” She wiped her tears away, even though they were still coming. “We should get inside... I just need to talk with Eda.”

Luz watched Amity, but she didn’t move any closer towards the Owl House.

Amity spoke hesitantly. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

Luz would have shrugged, but she was too upset. “It’s fine; Eda has probably done more questionable things than this.” Amity still looked a little unsure. “Amity, it’s alright; I’ll make sure they won’t get mad at you.”

Amity slowly nodded, before they both headed inside.

~

She still didn’t believe that Luz wasn’t upset with her. I shouldn’t be here... She felt like her back prickled uncomfortably, as she stood stiffly a few steps inside the house.

Luz had immediately gone to embrace Eda, crying into her shoulder. The older witch seemed to be very uncomfortable, but she also looked ready for letting Luz cry for as long as she needed.

Amity took a step back, hoping nobody would notice her. I could see if I could stay at the library for the night... She was pretty sure she could convince Malphas to let her stay if she told him about her situation with her parents. Or I could work a little harder if I need to. That could make up for it. I need to go now if I want to make it.

She carefully turned around to head back out the door, still trying to make herself as unnoticeable as possible.

But, of course, she was noticed this time. “Amity?”

The voice immediately caught her attention, as she noticed Lilith on the couch with Hooty by her side. “Lilith?” She decided that leaving wasn’t an option anymore, now where she had been noticed. “What are you doing here?”

She threw out her hands, “I could ask you the same thing; I thought Luz was just supposed to visit you,” she looked over at Luz and Eda, gesturing to Luz, “so how did things go so wrong that this happened to her?”

Amity shuffled her feet slightly. “I think I’m going to let Luz explain some of it first... But it’s my fault it happened.”

Luz immediately butted in. “No, it’s not-” she sniffled, before she continued, “-there was no way-” she breathed in deeply, as she whimpered and hugged Eda tighter, “-it wouldn’t have happened sooner or later...”

Amity took a second to think about it. “You are really only upset about the-” She wasn’t quick to catch herself before she said a little more than she needed. “-about death?” If she had to be completely honest; she thought that Luz was lying to her about that to make her feel better. Unless she thought I would pretend to want to kill her? But that was ridiculous.

Luz nodded, before she let go of Eda, “it’s really really scary to think about dying...” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m so so scared and I don’t know how to stop feeling like this!” She immediately wrapped her arms around Eda again, almost looking like she was trying to crush her, but Eda still let her hold on.

Eda waited until Luz let go of her again. “Luz, I don’t really know what to tell you.” She took a deep breath, before she continued. “The only thing you can really do is try to forget about it and then when the moment comes... all you can hope is that you’ll be ready for it.” She gently patted Luz on her shoulder. “But we can talk about this after you take a shower, alright? I need to get changed now too.”

Luz nodded, not looking the least bit comforted, before she left for the bathroom and Eda went to get a change of clothes.

King had been eerily silent as all this went down, staring after Luz as she left, before he leaped off the couch to stare down Amity. “What did you do to our Luz? You said that this was your fault!”

Amity felt uncomfortable, as the tiny demon tried to interrogate her. “It’s hard to explain... I really don’t want to do it without Luz.” She grasped the sleeve of her dress between her fingers. “And Eda needs to know what happened too.”

King scowled at her. “She smells like vomit; how much is there to explain about that? When did she get eaten and why didn’t you help her?”

Amity suddenly focused a lot harder on the grim taste of puke in her mouth. I need to rinse my mouth with some water. She realized that she was also incredibly thirsty after her run. “I told you Eda needs to know too and Luz needs to be here.” She turned to Lilith hesitantly. “I know it’s a little weird for me to ask for something right now, but where can I get something to drink?”

¨¨ ~

When Luz came back from her shower Amity looked twice as uncomfortable as she had before with everybody staring at her. Oh gosh, how am I going to explain what happened? She didn’t want them to think Amity was a bad person. “Hey,” she called shyly, trying to take the attention off Amity. “I’m feeling a bit better now.”

She went into the living room, standing next to Amity to hopefully make her feel less awful about what she did. She didn’t have bad intentions with what she did. “Sooo...” Luz began hesitantly, “I guess you guys want to know what happened?”

King scowled at Amity, but Luz was quick to step in. “It’s not her fault.” But she hesitated again. “Not entirely anyway... It’s...” Luz realized she had no clue why Amity’s mom did any of what she did. “Actually, what happened back at your place? Why would your mom ever make you do something like that?”

Amity took a deep breath, “I don’t know...” She rubbed her arm, looking down to the floor. “I just know that it doesn’t really surprise me that much...” She sighed, before she talked about the other part of what had happened. “But what happened was that... My mom told me that if I didn’t...” She stopped, taking a step in behind Luz. “I know I shouldn’t have done it! But she told me that if I wanted Luz to live, I needed to convince her that I wanted her dead.”

Luz looked back at Amity, recalling her wince when she had told her that she figured out her mom was the one behind it. That was why she got scared... Luz carefully brushed her hand against Amity’s arm, making her flinch. “Sorry!” she quickly apologized. I guess she wouldn’t like a hug. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Amity nodded, refusing to look at Luz, before she continued. “But it turns out that it was a trick... She was going to kill Luz either way, and I was stupid and fell for it and now...” She looked at Luz briefly with confusion in her eyes, before she trailed of completely.

Luz desperately wanted to give Amity a hug, but she didn’t seem like something like that would help her. “So... Did your mom tell you to pretend like you were going to kill me a specific way or did you decide that?” Luz really hoped that it wasn’t Amity’s own choice, despite it technically having helped save her life.

Amity looked disgusted. “My mom... She pretty much planned the entire thing... Except for the... The uh...” She suddenly looked even more ashamed of herself, “... fake escape... I mean, I was pretty sure ten minutes was enough to catch you, but I wouldn’t have let you go.”

King interrupted their explanation. “I feel like you two are leaving out A LOT of stuff, because I’m just getting more and more confused.”

Both Amity and Luz looked over at each other, before Amity spoke, “my mom told me I had to pretend to kill Luz by swallowing her alive. That’s why she came home drenched and smelling like vomit.”

Luz jolted up, realizing she forgot to apologize to her mentor for running her clothes. “I’m sorry about your dress, Eda! I didn’t think about how gross I was.” It had completely slipped her mind, despite how sour she had smelled, even without thinking of how slimy she had been.

Eda quickly dismissed it, “don’t apologize about that; it’s been through worse.” She shrugged, “besides, I was thinking of getting rid of it soon.”

Luz looked around the room, but there still seemed to be some confusion. “Uh... Maybe it’s better if we tell them everything that happened.”

¨¨

By the end of it all, Luz felt completely exhausted and scared, having had to relive the moment again. “I think I’m going to go to bed early...” She tried to shake her head to wake up a little, but it didn’t work.

Eda immediately shook her head, “nope, not before you’ve gotten something to eat.”

Luz felt sick at the thought of food. “No thanks, I don’t think I can eat anything.” Her appetite was completely gone and it wasn’t just from the thought of what had happened to her. The idea of eating felt pointless after realizing she was going to die. “I just want to go to bed...” she said, despite her stomach hurting from a lack of food.

Eda didn’t back down. “I get that it’s uncomfortable, but you have to eat something.” She got up from her seat. “Get something to drink and I’m going to make you something.”

Luz decided it was no use protesting.

¨¨

She sat awkwardly and sipped her glass of water. Drinking without any appetite wasn’t easy either, but it did help slightly. She was getting a bit more open to getting something to eat, but mostly to stop the nausea she was getting from her stomach trying to break down nothing.

Amity looked over at her, before she spoke, “so, I’m going to be staying here, right? Or should I be going back home?”

Luz stared at Amity in disbelief. “What do you think?! Obviously, you’re staying here for the night!” She was not letting Amity go home to her parents. At least not for the night.

Amity looked away again. “But what if they only get more upset with me?”

“Then you’re staying here another day,” she replied, carefully putting a hand on top of Amity’s, hoping to comfort her. “Amity, I’m not letting you get anywhere near them, if you’re still scared of them.”

Amity pushed Luz’s hand away, before going silent.

¨¨ ~

Amity watched as Luz headed upstairs to go to bed after she had gotten something to eat, leaving her alone in a room full of people she barely knew anything about.

She decided not to speak to them, looking down into her hands.

Her nail polish looked like it was flaking off in some areas, and she picked at it to distract herself from the awkwardness that hung in the air. What do I do? She had no clue where she was supposed to sleep or if they had enough food for an extra person to stay there. I really want something to eat... She thought, but she would never ask for it, if the others weren’t going to offer. They would probably hate me for it... How was she ever supposed to eat again after she had done what she did?

She scratched a relatively big chunk of paint off, before she stopped to look around at the others. The only one staring at her was King, who was giving her a death glare.

She looked back down to her nails, continuing to scratch at them. “I’m mad at me too, you know...” she said quietly to King. “I really wish I had never done any of what I did.” She rubbed the back of her hand gently, wishing she could go back to before any of it had happened.

King huffed. “Yeah right! You’re just saying that so we don’t get mad at you.” He jumped off the place he was sitting to stare challengingly up at Amity. “Well, I’m still going to be mad at you, so it’s not going to work.”

She shrugged half-heartedly. “That’s okay... I wish you were angrier with me.” She lowered her hand back down. “I mean... I deserve it, don’t I? But Luz isn’t mad at me, even though she really should be...” Amity decided to let a few of her trapped thoughts out. “I don’t understand why she doesn’t hate me for what I did. Or why you guys are letting me stay.” She grabbed her own hand, crushing it as hard as she could. “I don’t deserve it.”

King seemed startled by her, taking a few steps back. “Oh, you really do feel bad...” He ducked his head slightly, before he jumped back to where he sat before, now watching her with a bit harder to read expression. “Well, then I don’t really care, as long as you don’t try to hurt Luz.” He continued to watch her, but he didn’t seem as angry anymore.

Amity looked back at him for another second, only getting more confused. Why don’t they hate me? Maybe she didn’t have to worry about them not wanting her to stay over? But she still felt horrible about what she had done.

She got off the couch, but didn’t know where she wanted to go. “Is there an empty room I could stay in? I need some time alone...”

~

Luz lay in her sleeping bag, tears running down her face. Her mind kept spinning in circles whenever she tried to calm her thoughts about death. As soon as she got to ‘you might feel ready for it when it happens’ it spun back around to the beginning of ‘I’m going to die’. She couldn’t sleep with her thoughts going like that on repeat.

She shuffled around, lying on her side instead. Maybe it’ll be easier to deal with tomorrow. That was her hope anyway, but she knew it wasn’t going to help this time. It normally helps, but this is much worse, she thought, but still tried to relax her body. Take a deep breath...

She did as she told herself, letting it out with a bit of trouble, before she wiped off her tears. Her tiredness seemed to be coming back again after she did that, and she did her best to keep her eyes closed, until she eventually fell asleep.

¨¨ ~

Amity first got back out of the room when she got called for dinner. And she had completely lots her appetite by that time.

She still felt absolutely miserable, but at least she hadn’t been stared at the entire time.

She only took a few small bites, despite her probably needing much more than she felt like eating.

The room was filled with the same awkward silence, as she sat with the others, herself mostly drinking water while the others ate.

Just eat a bit more... She told herself. She knew it wasn’t good that she wasn’t eating, since she hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast to make sure that she wasn’t going to suffocate Luz in food on accident. Or even just let her sit in it. But she couldn’t make herself eat more than another small bite.

She looked up at Eda before quickly turning her head away again. “Thanks for letting me stay over.”

Eda shook her head, “it’s not that big a deal. Though I should probably have gotten a little more when I was out...” She looked like she was thinking about something, before she shook her head lightly again. “I’m just thinking out loud, no need to worry.”

Amity had already begun to worry, but she tried to shove the feeling down.

She forced herself to take another bite, but she was pretty sure she couldn’t eat another bite after that. “So... Where am I supposed to sleep?” she finally asked.

King mumbled something under his breath that Amity just barely caught, “nowhere near Luz that’s for sure...” Amity sure wasn’t going to object to that.

Eda shrugged again. “As long as it’s not taking already, I don’t care.”

¨¨

Amity ended up getting some pillows for herself and sleeping on the floor, because she was too ashamed to do anything else.

¨¨ ~

When Luz woke up; she didn’t feel nearly as bad as she thought she would. Her worrying about death had left her mind after her full night of sleep. At least for that moment.

She quickly got ready and headed downstairs to check if anybody else were up yet.

Checking the living room, she noticed that Amity had fallen asleep in the middle of the floor and was still sleeping. Luz raised an eyebrow, immediately becoming concerned. That doesn’t look comfortable... Not that it’s much more comfortable sleeping in a sleeping bag for so long. She almost decided to wake Amity up to get her somewhere more comfortable, before she realized it was a little late for that.

She walked around the house for a bit, finding all the others were still sleeping. I guess I did go to bed a little early... What had it been? 6 PM maybe? But there was also some time where she kept tossing and turning trying to fall asleep despite her scary thoughts.

She shook her head quickly. Don’t think about that, she reminded herself. Especially not when you don’t have anybody to talk to. But they were slowly creeping back in and she could feel her pulse rising. I’m not having this happen right after I wake up, she thought stubbornly at herself.

She looked back over at Amity, quickly deciding that she needed someone to talk to and woke her up, even if it was a little selfish.

~

Amity had woken up to someone trudging around the house, but she tried to ignore it and go back to sleep. At least until she felt someone touch her shoulder. “Hey Amity...”

She tiredly raised her head up to look at Luz. She immediately perked up a little more, realizing she probably had terrible bedhead. Every emotion she had about Luz in the past weeks mixed together at once, and she could only respond by lying back down again and apologizing. “Sorry.”

Luz let out a small uncomfortable laugh. “Seriously, stop apologizing, I’m trying to forget what happened right now.” She put a hand on her back, making Amity feel even more conflicted. “Besides, I think you missed a ‘good morning’.”

Amity couldn’t stop herself from smiling. “So did you,” she replied, making Luz look a little sheepish, “but good morning.” She sat up, trying to rub some of the sleep crust out of her eyes. “Why did you wake me up?” She was pretty sure it couldn’t be that late. “What’s the time?”

Her friend shrugged. “Dunno.” She also rubbed her eyes slightly, before she continued. “But I know why I woke you up.” Luz sat down next to her. “I just want to talk a little bit... I’m feeling a little off.” She rubbed her arm nervously. “So... How’d you sleep?”

Amity was pretty sure she knew what she meant by feeling off, but it was clear Luz didn’t like talking about it. “Poorly.” She could feel how stiff her body was. “But I didn’t know where else to sleep... And I was maybe being a little dramatic yesterday...” She would definitely have chosen to sleep on the couch now.

Luz tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

Amity looked away, not wanting to touch on the subject, if Luz didn’t want to talk about it. “It doesn’t really matter.” She paused, thinking her decision over. Maybe I should tell Luz about how I felt yesterday. “Or, well... If you’re uncomfortable talking about yesterday it doesn’t matter.”

Luz gave a slight nod. “Oh...” Her brow furrowed. “So why did you sleep on the floor?”

Amity scratched the back of her head awkwardly. “I didn’t feel like I deserved a better place to sleep.”

Immediately Luz’s eyes turned sad, and Amity moved away. “Amity, I’m alright, you don’t need to keep being so harsh on yourself.”

Amity kept herself from saying anything, despite her thoughts screaming that Luz was supposed to hate her now. It doesn’t make any sense... she thought, looking over at Luz, before she finally said something. “It feels like you should hate me now.”

Luz got a much more sympathetic look in her eyes, before she gave a small smile. “I know how that feels.” She let out a tiny laugh, looking like she was about to say something before she bit it back. She thought over her words, before she continued. “I feel like that about the smallest things sometimes.”

Amity had to take a second to think about it. “But what I did was so much worse.”

Luz moved a bit closer to her. “Yeah, obviously? But I already told you that I’m alright.” She sighed. “You don’t need to worry about me.” Luz scratched her hand slightly, as she looked at her. “I know it sounds a bit out of nowhere, but would you like a hug?”

Amity had to give it a few seconds of thought, before she nodded.

She unsurely let herself hug Luz back, leaning into her. It felt nice to be held like that, and hold onto someone after all that had happened. Just knowing that she still had someone she could consider a real friend helped a lot. Though the thought that Luz was just a friend did make her feel a little sad, she felt like it was enough for her in that moment.

Amity was the first to try to pull away, but Luz held on a little longer, making Amity hug her back again. It felt like Luz also needed the hug a lot.

Eventually both of them let go, and Amity could see that Luz was about to cry again. Amity hesitated unsurely, before gently took Luz’s hand in hers, like Luz had tried to do for her the other day.

Immediately Luz tightened her grip around her fingers, making Amity wince, but she let Luz clutch onto her hand. If it makes her feel better I can stand it for a bit. It didn’t hurt that much; it just surprised her a little.

Luz loosened her grip slightly, as she looked at Amity. “It’s so- scary...” she sobbed, immediately tightening her grip again. “I just can’t imagine the fact that it’s all going to be over... That one day I won’t be here anymore.” Luz squeezed her eyes shut, gasping for breath. “One day my mom is going to die, and what if I never make it home to see her again?”

Amity didn’t know what to say. “I think you will.” Luz gripped her hand even tighter. “I don’t think I get your feelings about death, but if you really want to make it home; you can do it.”

Luz looked down at her own hand. “I wish things could be like this forever... But with my mom here.” She let go of Amity’s hand, looking into her eyes. “Then everyone could be here with me and none of us would have to die...” She sniffled quietly. “But I know that’s stupid to think.”

Amity looked at Luz, hating that she couldn’t do anything to make her feel better. She wanted to tell her that everything was going to be okay, but she couldn’t say that. Luz was worried about death, something that was inevitable. She took a deep breath. “I’m going to be here for you as long as you need.”

Luz managed a weak smile, but didn’t say anything else.

They sat like that for a while, before Luz spoke up again. “You mean a lot to me, you know?”

“I do?” questioned Amity, not sure what to think about it. “Even after what I did?”

Luz nodded, “it does make me feel a little strange... But I’m happy that you’re here with me.” She shifted the way she was sitting slightly. “I don’t want to be weird, but... It makes me feel really... warm and fuzzy when I think about you.”

Amity stared at Luz, before she pushed the thought she was having away. “It’s not weird, except for your childish wording” she teased slightly, while trying not to get too hopeful. “And I’m happy to be here with you too.” She decided she would shift the topic a tiny bit away. “And I get what you mean with this feeling strange... It’s confusing to sit here with you, after what I did.”

Luz fiddled with her hands, looking like she wanted to ask something. “Uhm...” she started, before her voice fell away again and she had to start over. “Do you feel the same way about me? Even with the childish wording?” Amity could tell that Luz meant exactly what she had thought.

Amity nearly choked on her own breath in surprise. Her voice caught in her throat, forcing her to nod instead. I have to be dreaming. There was no way that Luz had just asked her that.

Both of them went completely silent, not knowing what to say to each other.

Hesitantly Amity deciding to reach out for her hand again and Luz took it. For some reason it felt a lot different from how they had held hands just before. And it wasn’t just the lack of her fingers being crushed.

As Amity looked up into Luz’s eyes; she noticed her smile had a bit of sadness to it. Immediately her own smile faded. “I wish I could do something to make you feel better...”

Luz bowed her head slightly. “I’m just happy you’re here with me.”

That would have to be good enough for both of them.

***

That’s the end! Thanks for reading! If you liked it, please leave a like! I love seeing that people like my stories! :3

Have a fantastic day/night! <3

#safe vore #sfw vore #non-fatal vore #gt vore #T0H vore

[thecrimsonjaguar]

A Short List of Adventure Time AUs

So I got a google doc of adventure time aus I’ve made over the past two or three years. Here are some of my favorites (and also the ones I came back to and edited)

If you’ve got ideas for an au or ideas to add onto the preexisting ones I’ve got here, please tell me! I’m always up for some au discussion. 

1.) Jermaine AU: Jermaine comes to live at the treehouse after his house blows up. This, unlike canon, happens rather early in season 3. The rest of the series mainly stays the same, except this time there's three brothers instead of two. He's a kinda anxious dude with demon hunting expertise and a painting hobby. He sometimes wonders if he made Dad disappointed by letting all his work explode. Finn and Jake help him out, and he helps them. Despite this, Jermaine is the only one with a brain, and Finn and Jake share exactly one (1) braincell that they trade every so often. Jermaine is tired. (Jermaine is the only one who tries to clean regularly, and he's also the one to keep Neptr, Ancient Psychic Tandem War Elephant, and a few others company. He's a bit of real wisdom the early series Finn and Jake needed.

2.) Melted Ice AU: Mid season two, IK is hit with something that de-ages him. He turns six. Maybe this mystery de-aging thing blows up the top of the ice mountain, who knows. Maybe he wakes up in the snow, with no memory of how he got there or why. No memory of the last one thousand years. Finn and Jake don't know about his backstory since that happens in season three. Simon is carried by a snowman out of the ice kingdom where he breaks down in the plains. Finn, of course, finds him and is ecstatic to meet another human. Completely missing the fact that this small child is, in fact, the Ice King, Finn declares to help this boy no matter what. That promise soon becomes difficult when people hear about the second human in Ooo, and whatever effect that's keeping him young starts to wear off. (Marceline comes to visit and has a heart attack)

3.) Adventure Falls AU: AT x GF baybee!! Seventeen year old Stanley Pines hops on the Stan O' War and sets sail when he's kicked out. Unfortunately, that boat is nowhere near sea worthy, and all it takes for him to go overboard is one sudden (magical) storm. But, miraculously, Stan doesn't die. He washes up on Ooo, the island of misfits. Where there's daddy issues galore and punching things and getting gold is a legitimate career. He's found on the shore by none other than Finn, who asks if he's okay and if a dungeon adventure would soothe his worries. Stan accepts, because that sounds awesome, and they maybe date. For the next ten years, Stanley is a professional hero. He travels with Finn, he lives in a tower with tons of gold, he's respected, adored, and has made a family for himself. Ooo has a habit of forcing traumatic therapy onto to people, so Stan gets (read: is forced) to work his issues out. And then, somehow, he gets a postcard from his brother.

4.) Young Pups AU: Jake's kids grow up fast- but not that fast. He stays with lady for a few episodes being Dad and when the Pups are old enough, go visit Finn and Jermaine. Also Jermaine is there when the pups are born that always bothered me in canon like what the fuck. This whole AU results in Jake the Dad being a better father than in canon, because he actually has time to make mistakes and learn from them. He sometimes shapeshifts into one of those baby carriers but suited for five kids instead of one. Finn and Jermaine fight for best uncle privileges. Finn is considerably more awesome but Jermaine's got magic junk and juicy stories about Jake. So far the votes are: FINN: Jake Jr, T.V.  JERMAINE: Kim Kil Whan, Charlie. Viola remains undecided.

4.) Evilgreen AU: Evergreen was evil. His idea to make the crown to stop the comet was actually a cover story to take control of all the elements and freeze everything. Of course the same thing happens here as it did in canon, Gunther gets the crown and wishes to *be* evergreen. This is bad. Very bad, so bad in fact, that things get FUnKy. A couple eons later, Simon gets the crown as per canon, and then things start to slide downhill. Since the crown is significantly worse, Simon tries to get rid of it. No amount of magic pull is going to get him to put on the eldritch hat. It teleports back. When things go to shit, the crown tells him he's got two options: He can either live, or he can live unwillingly. This all coalesces in super angst and mild horror as Simon has to fight off evil urges and somehow keep both he and Marceline safe. Things start looking up, though, when he summons Hunson Abadeer.

5.) Nightmare Therapy AU: Simon, now himself post canon, has some funky nightmares. Problem is: he's due for a visit from the cosmic owl due to some mystical bureaucratic bs. If that were to happen, Simon's dreams of Golb and Orgalorg and the world ending and everyone dying and maze would come true, without the veil of metaphoric junk dreams are known for (also due to bureaucratic bs). So, Simon gets a dream therapist. An OC, probably, that would fight off his nightmares when they came and talk to him about his issues.

6.) High School AU: Except they're all still magic and crap. Finn's a jock that's part of the LDnD club(Literally Dungeons and Dragons), Jake's got a job at a pancake place and hosts the Card Wars clubs on Wednesdays, Jermaine's in college and their parents were still detectives/demon hunters. PB is preppy/nerdy girl with weird fucking family and is absolutely a mad scientist. Marceline is still a demon/vamp (vampire biker gang, they all died, deaths pending) and her uncle is Simon. Simon is a history teacher whose ex wife might be an eldritch abomination (the students wonder, but there are no answers)((simon says cryptic things every so often that are the subject of much ridicule, but he's a nice guy)). Ooo High has all of the AT characters in some shape or form. Tree trunks is the lunchlady, Mr Pig is a janitor. Lemongrab is just there. LSP(Q?) is a teacher because that's hilarious. Hunson is dead along with Marceline's mom because fuck hunson. Magic Man is a hobo that snuck onto campus and can't be chased off (his brother is the superintendent, Glob). there's a lot more but that's for a different word doc.

7.) Back to the Future AU: So PB fucks around with time travel, right? For science. She gets sent back in time a thousand years, before the war. Now, she's a pink lady who can shoot jelly beans from her hands, of course needs to lay low. And of course she needs to get home, but she's in a Futurama situation where she only has one type of time machine; the one that can go into the past. Not to mention her own time machine got busted on her way there, so she's double screwed. But, she remembers something. There is an individual (two, actually) that knows about time travel in this time period. She knows him, and he's likely to help her if she plays her card right. She needs to find Simon and get back to her own time, preferably without dooming herself in the process. (perhaps she tries to steal the notes Simon has, and Simon's completely oblivious, except Betty can smell trouble from a mile away and immediately notices some pink woman trying to steal books and she goes ham. Perhaps she goes ham in such a way that Simon doesn't notice. Perhaps this goes on for seven acts.)

8.) Bread and Butter AU: Bella Noche during the episode Betty creates a huge black cube that engulfs all of Wizard City. This box acts as a cage and prevents Wizards from escaping the magic purge. Simon is unable to bring Betty back from the past, and he's fading fast. In a desperate attempt to stop things from escalating, Simon chugs a bottle of anti-magic like a fucking god. He gets through the cube that surrounds Bella Noche and knocks their lights out. He passes out, and when he comes to, the anti-magic he consumed as merged with him. This is because of a simple rule: Magic sticks to magic, anti-magic sticks to anti-magic. And since humans have always had just a little bit of anti -magic present within them, humans and anti-magic go together like bread and butter (badumtish) ((I have actually written a fanfic about this, you can find it here))

9.) Swapped AU: Through various shenanigans Ice King's and Magic Man's powers gets swapped. These shenanigans somehow land them in space as well. This happens before Magic Man's trial. The swapping of their powers results in Simon getting his memory back. It also gives Magic Man the Ice Crown, unfortunately for him though, it seems to hate him. Simon's glad to back, but quickly realizes one issue: He's still crazy. So the pair try to make it back to Ooo. MM needs his powers to swap himself with some other shmuck so he doesn't croak when his trial comes, but Simon's made it clear he isn't giving his powers up without a fight. The pair starts off rocky, neither trusting the other, but space trouble forces them to work together. Simon's a nice enough guy he wouldn't leave someone to die and MM really needs Simon alive so it works out. A weird friendship forms, and they learn get along. Just a couple of crazy space wizards. Then the crown is destroyed. MM is freed from the crown's control, and he's freed from magic. He gets his sanity back, just in time for his trial.

that’s all I’ve got for now!

#at #adventure time #adventure time au #adventure time aus #Finn the Human #finn #jake the dog #jake #marceline #princess bubblegum #pb #simon petrikov #betty grof #ice king #magic man #au #aus

[ramblesanddragons]

I posted 1,404 times in 2021

308 posts created (22%)

1096 posts reblogged (78%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 3.6 posts.

I added 1,044 tags in 2021

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Longest Tag: 111 characters

#i’m rebloging this one because the last person’s bio says occasionally erin hunter and i just lost my damn mind

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Look I have been on this site since 2011. I will admit I enjoy it. I actually do. However I will not put a dime of my money anywhere near this blue hell site.

Take the Survey and tell them exactly how bad of an idea this is. 

Maybe us openly saying this is the only bearable social media site left was not a good idea. Our bad. Wont do it again.

235 notes • Posted 2021-07-21 21:40:28 GMT

#4

Let me talk about this screenshot for a second.

1. Insert leg day joke here.

2. This is one of my favorite visual gags in the show. “Oh he’s just reading a mystery book.” Except he’s not and is indeed a plot twist. Or one half of one anyway. I love whoever thought of that gag.

3. This is where my head canon that Stan likes to read comes from. Maybe he struggled with reading in school but like a lot of adults he found enjoyment in books when he could read what he wanted. Also libraries are one of the few places a homeless guy can be for a few hours without having to pay anything.

247 notes • Posted 2021-04-10 20:40:40 GMT

#3

Throwing this out there because I don’t think I’ll write it but it’s a fun idea. Stan probably could have been a decent actor. If he had tried Hollywood out before diving deep into criminal stuff I could see him being like Harrison Ford.

So he becomes successful and is decently happy and stuff. Maybe even reconnects with his family and Ford a little bit. They’re distant but Ford comes to the whatever you want to call Star Wars premieres.

Does that change the portal incident? Maybe? Trying to balance being a big Hollywood star while helping your brother fight a demon sounds like a “wacky comedy” waiting to happen with some dark undertones.

Or maybe the portal incident still happens so now Stan has to figure out what to do from there. He’s too big of a name to disappear so he fakes Ford’s death and opens a small movie studio in Gravity Falls. He retires from acting to become a director and makes his income from creating B horror and sci fi movies like he used to watch with Ford as a kid. Sometimes casting real cryptids! (He earns accolades for the costumes and make up.)

Ford comes back and is still mad Stan “mocks his work” but softens over time as he listens to people rave about how Stan’s movies have inspired them to study anomalies. Dipper included.

Idk this idea is up for adoption if someone wants it.

385 notes • Posted 2021-07-17 14:55:53 GMT

#2

In my expert opinion* Dipper and Mabel turn 22 today and meanwhile Stan and Ford found the fountain of youth on their travels and stopped aging at 59. The kids caught on about 3 years ago or so. They’ll keep it secret though they’re happy to have their grunkles around as long as possible.

399 notes • Posted 2021-08-31 22:14:23 GMT

#1

There’s a Problem in Animation

So putting aside the theories and hype for a minute the fact that they cut Season 3 of The Owl House from 10-20 episodes down to 3 is frustrating.

Now Disney isn’t the only one guilty of this. (I’m looking at you HBO) Lately things with their TV animation has been crazy. Between whatever happened with Ducktales and we all know the Amphibia issue this shouldn’t come as a shock. Alex Hirsch ended Gravity Falls after two seasons but that was because he was finished telling the story. It was his choice. Apparently Disney took that as “Hey things can be wildly popular and we don’t even have to give the show more than two seasons!” There’s no hate on Alex btw this is all Disney’s doing.

Luckily we have a chance to engage with the higher ups than we ever have before. Between Twitter (for all it’s faults it’s direct) and other social media we can let how we feel be known. And I’m thankful we can engage with creators too. I don’t think anyone outside of “the industry” knew what was going on with their favorite shows back in ye olden days. Now we can get insights.

My favorite example of “the industry” being dumb is Critical Role. They wanted to make an animated episode and pitched it around. Everyone said no. So they went to Kickstarter and broke all the records. We care about creators not the producers who are so afraid of new content and bold they don’t take many chances and on the ones they do they throttle them to fit whatever they deem the standards are. I wish we could just kick start all the good things but I know that doesn’t always work and making stuff costs money.  Although if Dana did do that for her next project I would toss all the money at it.

My point...we need to let Disney and other producers know we’re paying attention. Dana mentioned writing a letter so by God I wrote one. Basically asking “WTF is your problem” but politely...ish.If you too want to write a letter the best place I’ve found it here: https://disneynow.com/feedback

Pick TV program Related or General Feedback. It didn’t seem to have a word limit so go forth and let them know how much you love The Owl House and other shows. Maybe it’s gotten to the point where we have to start bugging the hell out of the big wigs.

TLDR: You can go to this link here (https://disneynow.com/feedback) to tell Disney that The Owl House should have a full season 3 or let them know how you feel about how they’re treating their other shows on top of using twitter.

1149 notes • Posted 2021-05-18 00:19:58 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #unsurprisingly #a lot of gravity falls

[stupid-stew]

me but i decide who dies

amphibia true colors spoiler warning! this is about the owl house but i talk about a big part of the episode so like AH

ALSO MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH TOH WARNING! not a fic, just that's the whole point of what this is so like be warned.

ok, marcy kind of died. yes at least her body has been more or less preserved, idk how alive that makes her, but i'm counting that as an on screen death. reason? getting impaled with a massive flaming sword kills you like 99% of the time, exception being possibly marcy. but what does the on screen death in amphibia have to do with the owl house? soooo much, at least to me.

i would love an on screen death of a major character in the owl house at some point, i think it could add a lot to the series and give a new depth to the characters, but there are some exceptions to the rule

personally, the people that are off limits for dying are lilith, amity, luz, and belos. everyone else is fair game.

lilith is my personal fave, but that's not why i don't want her dead. a big part of season 2 is probably going to have to do with lilith, her involvement in the coven, but also her redemption. i know some people also don't like the use of the word redemption here, just go with it for the sake of the argument. as a part of said redemption, she has to be alive. killing of a character as a way for them to pay for their mistakes is literally so dumb, i hate it, and i refuse to let it happen to her. that level of self sacrifice shouldn't be a part of her journey.

amity, i really hate to be that person, but since we don't really know all that much about her character, this is mostly about her representation. amity is a kid, she has so much character development ahead of her, but if true colors showed us anything it's that no matter how young you are, you can still get impaled. i would love to see more of her and her growth as a witch, season 2 intro gives me really high hopes for her, but since lumity is most likely going to become full canon sometime in the next couple seasons, killing her off would eliminate that, and no more lesbian characters dying off because all they are is expendable representation, dana terrace would never i just fell like it had to be said. no i do not like amity just because of the representation she provides, but i think killing her would be a big mistake for that reason.

luz, she's our protagonist, this is her story, she started it, killing her off would be interesting but i feel like it would ultimately end the story. she really is the centerpiece of the show, though i might let up on this stance if it happens in the last episode of season 3.

belos, this is weird. i don't want him to die, he's such a good villain, and his corruption will live on without him, killing him achieves nothing at all really. that being said, him getting stripped of his powers and imprisoned? i can live with that.

i could sit here and explain who should die and who shouldn't and go through each character, but that's kind of lame and i feel like anyone who read this far doesn't want to read all of that, so i'll just tell you who i think should be the one to die.

eda.

i love eda with all my heart, i really really do, but just think about it. she's such an impact on everyone, she's really important to the series, and her dying leaves a lot of opportunities for a lot of growth in some very prominent characters.

yes my favorite category is angst, but it provides me with thoughts.

if eda died, luz would be wrecked. it would allow us to see her mourning the loss of a family member while being separated from another, and it would give her that revenge aspect we only really saw in ybos with her smashing the crystal ball with lilith's face on it. it would give luz a chance to openly experience some emotions we haven't ever really seen from her, we know she would do anything for eda, but if she has eda taken away from her, in front of her, sheeesh.

and luz is a big impact on everyone else, seeing all luz's friends around her have to deal with not only the loss of someone who hopefully becomes very important to them this season, but also the experience of seeing someone they love and care about dealing with it on another level? it could reveal a lot about them, and some characters more than others. especially king, he cares about eda and luz, and we don't really know much about how king and eda met, but he does consider her family, and luz is someone he loves, so him not only suffering the loss of eda but seeing luz going through the same thing could provide a lot of things particularly for his character.

and also lilith. her sister dying? after she spent all that time trying to get her back? after learning how much pain she had caused during her now shortened life time? and now being stuck without eda, probably having to fill in her role for a lot of other characters? it could add another layer to her that we hadn't really seen before. this isn't because i'm like trying to further traumatize lilith, but because eda's role in her life is an important factor here and it needs to be considered.

but if it happens, when?

i think around the end of season 2 would be ideal, but that's just given what we know so far. season 2 is going to be epic, i can feel it in my bones, and i want eda to play a large part in that, which is hard for her to do if she dies. like i said, she's a really important character, and i mean like not to be a copycat but i really think it should happen in a similar way to marcy's "death". by that i mean, there should be a battle, and someone (preferably belos in this situation) comes up and kills her from behind while she's talking to someone. it shouldn't be similar to marcy's situation exactly, but i think that sort of sudden oh shit she just died is perfect for eda's character so far.

even given what little we do know about eda's role in season 2, hopefully with gwendolyn showing up in her life, doing whatever it is that she does and causing strain, it adds a new dynamic to eda, with her having the mother figure inserted suddenly into her life instead of being the mother figure for someone else. and i probably sound like a hypocrite with the whole "no killing characters major development", but if she dies towards the end of season 2, she gets a lot of chances to grow as a character and prove it, especially with how massive her role in the series has been so far.

also, if it happened end of season 2, imagine season 3, hit the ground full sprinting and have the remaining characters take those 44 minute episodes to process and react.

this is obviously really dependent on what actually goes down in season 2 when it starts airing, and seeing as how all we have to go on so far is the episode synopses for the first quarter of season 2, this is really just my personal opinion, but i do think it would be really interesting, even if they have to pull something similar to marcy where everyone just thinks she's dead for a while, i'm totally for that too. it's really just about her place in everyone else's lives and how it would effect the series, i think she's the best choice.

#the owl house #eda clawthorne #luz noceda #lilith clawthorne

[fandoms4enternity]

My The Owl House Theory

My theory: Camila’s Importance To The Story

- Perhaps the owl house is like those stories where the mom had some crazy fantastical past (this time its not connected to her family like other stories) MAYBE she did really visit the boiling isles when she was younger. And thats why she’s pushing Luz so far into whats “normal” so normal thats its boring. Who sends their 14 year child to a camp about taxes and radio JUST because they’re child is a little out of the ORDINARY?? To me kinda sounds like she’s stretching it too much. Just my opinion. -I think it’d also be a fun contradictory element to Luz’s fear being her mom finding out about the boiling isles. - AND why does the emperor want the portal to the human realm? He didn’t want it destroyed and he didn't wanna take it over. What if he’s trying to get Camila??? -Did ya’ll see the picture of Eda and someone else who was covered. the round glasses? Now think about some of the early ideas that were released? The round glasses. Luz was gonna have some princessy dress (for grom I suppose) AND she had round glasses (I just thought of this connection now too). Camila has glasses. No they aren’t round but she could’ve chnanged the shape of her glasses. I almost did. -And the theory about The Good Witch Azura being REAL, YOO. And I heard it was confirmed that the girl with Eda in the photo HAD GREEN HAIR. Isn't that ironic??? Hecate has red hair and Azura has green hair. Eda HAD Red hair. What if Camila HAD green hair. What if she was a magical girl and somehow had the magic to change her hair color? or maybe it's a wig? who knows? - Maybe Eda’s disgust for the seemingly fairytale book its her being annoyed that they took their lives and made it into entertainment.Perhaps thats actually why she’s so quick to burn it. or maybe she’s angry at the past because of more than just her curse?? -Not to mention though those on the Boiling isles who are somewhat surprised to see a human, they also know that humans exist and they’re quick to accept her as someone who is just there. To me personally it does not seem like she is the first human they’ve seen. +Long story short I think or want the theory to be canon that: Camila and Eda knew each other earlier on. Something happened and somewhere the emperor was involved in whatever happened It was so crazy and maybe so traumatizing that when Camila saw her daughter wasn’t growing out of how much she liked the weirdness and witches the most, she felt she needed to direct Luz in the opposite direction SO MUCh that she tried sending her to the most boring camp i‘ve ever heard of in hopes Luz would leave witches behind. -As for those letters tho. I honestly have no idea but if the theory I wrote about is true I don't think its weird that Camila might not be suspicious. She may have never experienced something like this when she went. Someone is hiding behind the scenes sending her these letters. The thing she should be suspicious about is the crossed out “Lus” that on its own without this theory. Canonically thats weird. And I don't think the person who is sending the letters is the emperor since he clearly doesn’t have a way too. Maybe it is Eda now that I think about this theory. She is the only one we know who had a connection to the human realm. But if it was her, the letters would now stop coming. So we’ll see. Also I think Camila has been chillin cause she was able to text her daughter and she didn't expect Luz to lie but now those texts wont be going through cause the portal destroyed. So we will see what happens. Anyways if Im wrong about Camila and her past with the Boiling isles, someone PLEASE make this a fan fiction or better yet make a comic or fan art based off it. I WANT THIS TO BE CANON SO BAD. ONE MORE thing, I AM NOT saying that Camilia is a witch or that Luz is a witch. But what if Camila was actually the first human who could do magic but no one really knew except for perhaps Eda ann The Emperor somehow. I do NOT want them to be witches. I like the different races a lot. I feel it has a lot of impact on the story. OH And this is NOT me saying Luz is a chosen one. None of that either. I think the theory of Eda purposley trying to lure Luz could very well be true but we’ll see next year!

[sasorikigai]

OTP Ask Meme || @paindealt​ || accepting 

1. Who wakes up first?

Hanzo, simply because he doesn’t wake up first, but he has high propensity to completely forgo sleep (he likes to take catnaps during the days) and watch Kuai Liang sleep or being occupied in productivity - reading, painting, meditating, doing chores, etc. 

2. Who wants to stay in bed just a little longer?

Neither, for they are remarkably disciplined and dedicated to their clans and they are punctual individuals. Unless Hanzo beseeches Kuai - for such circumstance occurs seldomly that he’s actually able to get a good night’s sleep with such abundance of nightmares and night terrors, and even panic attacks, then they will most likely stay in bed for a bit longer. 

3. Who takes longer getting ready?

Hanzo, by the slightest margin, because of his hair - even when Hanzo’s accustomed to comb his hair out and properly tie it in a bun atop his head, the process could get rather tedious, as he has luscious straight hair.  

4. When they can’t sleep, what do they do?

Remain entangled and naked, facing all the realities and verities of their existence and talking about their bliss of growth, the splendor of action, the common dreams and aspirations of their respective clans. They are not overly promiscuous and sexual to begin with, as they both have low to normal sex drives, but they do enjoy revelling in their bodies - all the imperfections, scars, their sculpted forms, every hill and valley of their impressions and such. 

5. Who falls asleep while watching a movie?

Most likely Hanzo, unless he’s entirely engrossed by the storyline and the characters in the movie, he will simply regard it as a white noise that will lull him to sleep. 

6. Who falls asleep last, watching the other with a small affectionate smile?

More frequently Hanzo, watching Kuai Liang sleep chases away all the self-isolation, unexplainable loneliness and warms his heart up. The solitude as the world reduce to only two of them becomes an escape from the pandemonium in a world that never could

7. Who comes up with the cheesy pick-up lines?

Kuai Liang, ever the dorky pun-master. That will either get him Hanzo’s glaring stare or his snorting laugh (provided that it’s actually funny). 

8. Who gets extremely competitive playing Mario Kart?

Hanzo, not only is he extremely competitive, but when in mood, he could be such a sore loser. He’s the one that crashes his car so many times due to road rage. He literally lits himself up in smoldering blaze next to Kuai Liang. Modern Hanzo even worse, because he already engages in motorcycle racing as one of his hobbies and this is only pouring gasoline onto his temper. 

9. Who accidentally pushes a door instead of pulling?

Hanzo, this is the reason Shirai Ryu Compounds have sliding doors. JK. He’s sensible and attentive enough to pay attention to such a thing, but there are moments when his hazy and sleep-addled attention slips and Kuai has to direct and guide him properly. The same goes for the modern Hanzo, as he could be clumsy and rather out of his normal self especially in the early mornings. 

10. Who sets the other’s ringtone to something loud and obnoxious behind their back?

In modern verse, definitely Kuai. Most likely for Hanzo’s alarm in the morning or during the night when he’s assigned a graveyard shift, but Hanzo gets extremely irate and agitated in the morning. 

11. Who rearranges the bookshelf/DVD shelf in alphabetical order?

Both in their canon verses are rather meticulous and organized. Kuai most likely more than Hanzo, because I headcanon him that he keeps Lin Kuei Archives with the utmost care - they are all scribed by hand as he absolutely detests and distrusts technology - and almost appear anal to those who are deemed messy and unorganized. Neither in their modern verses, as they both prefer what I call a ‘chaotic mess.’ Their personal space isn’t a pigsty per say, but there would be neat clutters everywhere, scattered throughout their rooms. 

12. Who does the hands-over-the-eyes “Guess Who” thing?

Kuai. Especially when Hanzo’s immensely occupied with his work in front of the laptop and with abundance of paperworks; either to make his ‘father’ take a damned break, or just simply wanting attention. I can definitely imagine them being outside their house - going to the library, book cafes, etc. to just break the mundane boredom of being stuck in the house when Hanzo works from home - and Kuai attempting to pull pranks and/or just being a mischievous son. 

13. Who points out a dog when they see one?

HANZO HASASHI, your ever-lonesome, touch-starved and animal-loving father. Even when he didn’t have a pet in his youth, there were so many stray dogs and cats around Shirai Ryu Compounds and he especially has fondness for the cats, because they are just like him. 

14. Who’s prone to road rage?

In the modern verse, it’s Hanzo. He has been caught by fellow officers when he was speeding (of course, they all let him get off with a warning), and not even that will slow him down; especially when he’s on his motorcycle. 

15. Who’s prone to wearing socks indoor (or to sleep)?

Neither in their canon verses, but Kuai in their modern verse. 

16. Who reminds the other to put on sunscreen before going to the beach (or pool)?

Hanzo reminds Kuai, 1000000% times, because Kuai and the Sun don’t get along. Hanzo rarely gets sunburned, as he tans remarkably. Kuai on the other hand... needs to cover himself up with all that he could in order to prevent him from literally burning in red. 

17. Who carries all the important documents while traveling?

Neither; whether in canon or other verses, they would never risk losing anything profound and substantial that could be used against them. Especially modern Hanzo, intimately knowing the risks involving identity thefts, frauds, blackmailing, etc that could get them in trouble, urges Kuai Liang almost every day to keep them either in the safe or leave them with him. 

18. Who gets the window seat?

Neither of them are picky when window/aisle seats are considered, but since window seats are more comfortable in long flights and he likes to move around a lot especially in long-hour flights, Hanzo would most likely let Kuai have it. 

19. Who puts their cold hands/feet on the other?

Kuai Liang. Because he’s the one with the cold hands and feet. 

20. What do they argue about the most?

I don’t think they will argue that much, if not, at all, unless it’s Scorpion and Revenant Sub-Zero. Scorpion can be unnervingly merciless, acerbic and ruthless with his words, even towards the Revenant, whom he accepts as his most treasured company and ally, but nevertheless, his words will hurt Kuai Liang, because they are meant to hurt. Except that, I really don’t see them arguing much in their canonical interactions, and maybe in modern verse, it happens more frequently because Hanzo could come across as exceedingly protective and worried. 

21. Who’s clumsier?

They have their moments, but Hanzo’s more of the sleep-deprived one with barrage of issues that would occasionally prevent him from carrying out his routine without having thoughts of suicide and other harmful actions, he may come across more lethargic and uncoordinated. Kuai Liang will immediately pick it up, even though he may not say anything much. 

22. Who texts more often?

Hanzo in their modern verse. He is not a nagging father per say, but he does make the most attempts to try to connect with Kuai Liang, despite his hard-set habits and their generational gap. 

23. Who is better with kids?

Hanzo, simply he has been a father before all the shitshow of his life took its place and he’s still yearning that long-lost fatherhood to become a tangible, fluid reality. Even with Takeda Takahashi present in his life, there’s that hollow void in his heart that couldn’t be filled. 

24. Who’s the better cook?

Hanzo by far; regardless of their verses, he’s used to being in the caretaker’s position and enjoys the process of not only exploring, but developing his culinary skills. Both canonical and modern Hanzo will most likely use Kuai as his unintentional guinea pig, and knowing Kuai doesn’t like heavily pungent and spicy foods, he will try his best to make accommodations to satisfy both of their dissimilar palate. 

25. Who mistakes salt for sugar?

KUAI LIANG. This man cannot cook for the life of him. Does he burn water on the stove? 

26. Who puts the fork in the microwave?

Neither, but a sleepy Hanzo at 3am would. 

27. Who cooks at 2 in the morning?

Modern Hanzo Hasashi. This man will push his body even beyond his limitation just to get his work done. Him being such an excessive workaholic helps him to disengage all the unsavory thoughts. 

28. Who lets the microwave play the loud beeping sound at 1 a.m.?

Depends on who has the gnawing appetite in the wee hours of the morning, because in their modern verse, I can definitely see that they both are perpetual night owls and they will skip eating lunch and/or dinner either one is not present to cook or buy groceries (Hanzo seldomly does and will almost always opt out on delivery or takeouts) and they are too enraptured in their work. They have such one-tunnel vision when they are in their concentration, so most often, it would be both of them sharing leftovers. 

29. Who licks the spoon when they’re baking brownies?

Neither. Hanzo doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth and Kuai Liang can’t cook nor bake shit. Maybe Kuai attempts one of those microwavable brownies with chocolate powder. The only thing he has to do is to pour milk in it and microwave it for a couple of minutes, but he may even struggle with that..... It’s cooking. 

30. Who likes doing the dishes

Canon Hanzo finds chores somehow therapeutic. Doing them gets his mind off of things and he’s more or less used to the repetition. It keeps his mind grounded and anchored to reality. 

31. Who has bigger cravings? What are they?

Again, entirely depends on their moods. Kuai Liang will have an occasional sweet craving that Hanzo will never fathom to understand, but he tries to accommodate his lover / his adopted son as best as he could - bringing sweets from work, stopping by the bakery or cafe to just satiate Kuai’s addiction, etc. - Hanzo cannot be helped when he’s depressed with alcohol - his preference being sake in canon and other strong liquors like vodka and whiskey, although canon Hanzo seldomly gets drunk for the sake of intoxicating himself, because he knows the consequences, and alcohol being a depressant. Modern Hanzo doesn’t give one single fuck as long as it doesn’t hinder his work ethics. 

32. Who remembers what the other one always orders at a restaurant?

Hanzo, regardless of verses, will come up with a mental list of what Kuai likes and doesn’t like. While he could be poetic and eloquent with words, he attempts to be observant and perceptive with such things. After all, he is a ninja who HAS to acquaint and familiarize with not only his surroundings, but finding out about individual(s) as well. He will also attempt to emulate the dish personally, adding in some personal touches. 

33. How do they eat ice cream? What’s their favorite flavors?

Hanzo doesn’t much care for ice cream either, but the only flavor he likes is matcha. He doesn’t do the lick and swirl thing most people do with ice cream; he will just bite off from the top, as if he was eating a granola bar. Prefers it without any toppings, and will eat it either in a cup or in a waffle cones. Kuai likes the sweet flavors, most likely fruit-based, and put all the sprinkles, marshmallows and fruit syrups all over his ice cream. 

34. Do they go on dates? What are they like?

In their canonical setting, their ‘dates’ are limited to the confines of their clans, as it always has been their priority. They would most likely spar, exercise and meditate together, spend some intimate moments in their private quarters - copulations, cuddling, reading and painting and sculpting, pursuing their hobbies whenever they can - eating supper and drinking tea - Hanzo doing the cooking, Kuai preparing the tea - and in their rarest outings, perhaps going out to the nearest town for a dinner and strolling around the towns, introducing each other’s culture to them. 

35. What do they smell when they smell amortentia?

Hanzo: saturated pine and evergreen of the Lin Kuei forest, cool, crisp and minty scent of Kuai Liang’s breath and the severe, yet welcoming damp earth and petrichor. 

Kuai: charred dust, rust and copper, burning oak and maple, cherry blossoms, incense, sandalwood and musk, the salty trail of Hanzo’s sweat, iron and steel of Hanzo’s katana. 

36. Which one is the secret snuggler?

Kuai Liang. Hanzo being a snuggler is not a secret, as he prefers to be the big spoon and the initiator about 95% of the times. Kuai’s gestures and initiations are careful, gentle and meek, but nevertheless, immensely appreciated. 

37. Which one offers their jacket to the other when they complain they feel cold?

Neither. Not that both will ever complain about the cold, but in the modern verse, Hanzo will never be reluctant to give up his jacket if Kuai shivers in the cold. 

38. Who reaches for the other one’s hand while driving?

Hanzo, regardless of situations, corporeal gestures are immensely important and pivotal in his relationship and the kind of relationship - platonic or romantic/sexual. Modern Kuai will reach for Hanzo’s arm and hand when he’s behind, embracing Hanzo from the back. 

39. Who leaves little notes in the other one’s lunch? (Bonus: What does it say?)

Not that Hanzo will pack lunch for Kuai every single day, but when he does cook for Kuai, he will leave something short and sweet in Kuai’s language (Chinese, obviously Chinese and Japanese share many characters, despite phonetic difference). It would say something like “藕断丝连,” which means “Although the lotus root may be cut, its fibered threads are still connected.” Signifying that their friendship survived adversity and obviously connoting that it has become something more in their shared time spent together. 

40. Who is the most affectionate?

It’s hard to compare, because they both are very reciprocative of each other’s affections to their fullest. At the first glance, Hanzo may come across as more affectionate, because he’s more used to initiating and giving gestures and words of love and appreciation. He’s also used to being in such relationship more than Kuai, who has never been a romantic/sexual relationship that deals a lot with gestures that are not meant to bring harm and suffering. 

41. Who is the big spoon/little spoon?

 Most often, it’s Hanzo being the big spoon, as his arms would be wound around Kuai’s midsection and around his neck (Hanzo’s arm being Kuai’s pillow), or Hanzo on his back with Kuai’s head on Hanzo’s upper arm. They don’t mind switching things around, either during sleep or when Hanzo starts to have an onslaught of nightmares and night terrors. 

42. What is their favorite feature of their partner?

Hanzo: Kuai’s eyes. Even when Kuai’s more of the phlegmatic, collected and calm one, he knows that such embedded emotions spill forth from those oceanic sapphire eyes. He likes to look at them, stare at them, drown in them and just appreciate the depth they can offer. 

Kuai: Hanzo’s arms; they are well-sculpted and hard like tempered steel. Hanzo obviously relies heavily on his upper body strength in kombat, and his build shows - while Kuai has more mass, Hanzo’s muscles are more finely chiseled. He also appreciates Hanzo’s lips; they are full and swollen, and absolutely kissable. 

43. What is the first thing that changes when they realize they have feelings for the other?

They have really deep, baritone, gravelly (Hanzo’s) and hard voices that could come across as ruthless and harsh; but when they talk about each other, the timbre of their voices will soften, and there would be less polished intimidation and aggression embedded on their eyes. 

44. What are their nicknames for each other?

Hanzo: beloved, dearest, ice bear. 

Kuai: love, beloved, hearth 

45. Who worries the most? Over what?

Even though they are two of the most capable Protectors of Earthrealm, there is an underlying concern of their safety and sustenance. They both have faced death and risen again, but they both know the chronology they have shared between them as Shirai Ryu and Lin Kuei rivalry reached its apex hadn’t been merciful and kind. Through their shared enemies now, they would do their best to protect each other from dying in battle. 

Modern Hanzo would worry that Kuai will descend towards the life of criminality and sins, because of his traumatic abuse and violence he had to endure before being adopted to Hanzo. There is a fundamental yearning to see Kuai follow the footsteps of his legacy, as Hanzo too, had been a lawbreaker and misfit and had redeemed himself to become a better person.  

46. Who initiates kisses?

Hanzo 100% at the beginning, but Kuai attempts his best to initiate and reciprocate Hanzo’s more natural engagement. 

47. Who says I love you first? How did it happen?

Happened to randomly slip from Hanzo’s mouth during their walks. While he feared rejection and unreciprocated feelings, Hanzo would have taken the risk at least to admit the truth of his feelings, which had been both carnal, visceral, emotionally coalesced and linked. Essentially he was feeling that Kuai was his soulmate; for he possessed so many qualities Harumi used to have - a gentle strength, a strong, mature mind that would secure and anchor him, and would have seen him both at low and high, crossing each other’s paths so many times. 

48. Who tells their friends/family about their relationship first?

Neither, not that they have families to tell. All the other acquaintances, friends and allegiances catch up on their relationship through observing and prediction. They are more or less bound to know each other and they are by far from being engaged in gossips 

49. What do they do when they’re away from each other?

Hanzo will either draw or paint him on mulberry paper or in his sketchpad, bound in Japanese style (that he would always keep in his private quarters). He would sketch Kuai’s portrait, or do expressive croquis when circumstance allows him. Kuai often sculpts Hanzo in ice and and ponder upon the day when Hanzo gifted him the headband he wears. 

50. Who gets overwhelmed by small acts of kindness?

Kuai, because he is still adjusting to non-threatening and vicious gestures and acts, and especially when Hanzo takes him into the utmost consideration by indulging his needs and desires. 

#✗ obsessive cathartic (headcanon) #✗ the ineffable testimony of spawned hellfire (scorpion) #✗ bone-deep chill of despair (sub-zero) #✗ seeking reconciliation with his own humanity (iii) #✗ you are an equal amongst deceivers (iii) #✗ ugly syllables of conjured vindictive crimson (modern au) #(I'VE DONE IT OMFG) #(tw long post) #paindealt

[idratherstayslytherin]

Re-writing the story I once wrote, but not really

Some of you may remember my fic “The Feelings We Can’t Let Go”.

It began as a head canon, then the lovely person on tumblr wrote the more put together version of it. We decided to write the fic together. It was going well until university and UK fucked me over. During this whole madness my co-writer disappeared from tumblr and I can’t contact her. I have tried it many times. She didn’t reply. I started writing the fic myself determined to finish it, but my life is hell rn and I don’t have the time to write the two last chapters. I do have the outline and hopefully after i start earning money and start actually getting better mentally and studying and money wise, I’ll finish it. For now I went back to the first version of the headcanon I made  with my co-writer and noticed A LOT OF GRAMMAR mistakes as well as some things that weren’t making sense. I wanted to re write this kind of first chapter, so I did. I added a lot of new text, fixed all the mistakes that I could see and ta da! There you have it. You have to be happy with just this until I have the time to finish this damn fic. I want it to be enjoyable, but also make sense, maybe even help people with their own problems, I want it to seem real and I want it to be a lovely love story. I’m a romantic shoot me. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy it! Let me know what you think of it <3 I love reading your comments. Also if any artist wants to idk make a fanart of my work now or after I finish this damn fic and have a beta read  it , then feel free to do so. Okay, I’m talking way too much, just STFU Ola, no one wants to listen to you rumble :D 

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Harry felt like he should have wanted to go back to Hogwarts. Even worse, he knew he should go back there. But he just couldn’t convince himself, not even with Hermione and Ginny returning. Then again, Ron wasn’t going back either, and he didn’t even feel guilty about it, not even after Hermione talked to him about the importance of learning and getting the best possible results in their NEWTs. He got a bit of yelling too, but Hermione directed most of it at Ron, leaving Harry to deal with an angry and sad Ginny, who wanted him to go back.

But there they were on the first of September at King’s Cross station saying their goodbyes and waving after the Hogwarts Express before apparating back to Grimmauld Place. Ron had no intentions of spending the year at the Burrow, it was too far away from London, and he wanted to help George out at Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes in Diagon Alley. He also admitted that he couldn’t really deal with his parents’ grief, and Harry was more than happy to offer him accommodation, not only because Ron was his best mate, but he really needed the company. Grimmauld Place might have looked a lot less gloomy since they renovated it, spending all June and most of July sorting and chucking out old furniture and artefacts, knocking down some of the walls (this being the only way of getting rid of the horrible yelling portrait of Sirius’ mother), and painting the rest in brighter shades, the house was still way too big for one person.

Soon, having turned Hogwarts down, Harry found himself obliged to decide on what he wanted to do with his life or at least the foreseeable future. Of course everyone expected him to become an auror, it seemed like the most obvious choice, but despite admittedly being interested in the job back in their fifth year, he wasn’t sure anymore if he wanted to go along with it. He might have defeated Voldemort, but was that really what he was destined to do all his life? Hunt down dark wizards?

He decided on meeting with Kingsley to discuss further possibilities. After getting detailed information about all of jobs he recommended to Harry, and spending three days straight going through the descriptions, forms and books he got, he was sure he would either want to become an Unspeakable or a Curse-breaker. He would have been happy to dive back into his books and papers to choose one of the two jobs. However Ron was already complaining about the whole house being littered with the papers; how Harry did nothing except sit on the couch, read and compare and read and compare; so Harry decided to give himself some time to consider his choice, meanwhile enjoying his freedom.

Do you seriously want to be an Unspeakable?" Ron asked, his mouth full. This was the only part of the last few days he was enjoying, the takeaway they had every evening. "You can never shut up about what you are doing. Do you really think you could go without telling anyone anything about your job?"

"Probably not." Harry shrugged, picking up another slice of pizza. "Though I guess I’ll have to, and it will be worth it.

"C’mon, Curse-breaking seems much more interesting. I’d go with that without hesitation."

"Well then why don’t you? And let me become who I want to be?" Harry snapped. He ate the last bit of pizza, and wiped his hands. " Sorry I didn’t mean that, I’m tired. " He apologised as soon as he realised Ron said nothing that should have angered him. He rubbed his eyes.

"Hardly surprising, you barley slept these past few days, mate, seriously. Just forget about this job thing for a while, it isn’t going to do you any good. Besides, it’s not like you have to start work instantly, you have enough money to live happily for the rest of your life."

"I did sleep last night." Harry protested, deciding not to comment on the money part, as what Ron said was true, he did have a vault full of money. His friend didn’t, and even though he offered to help them, they never accepted it. What he also didn’t mention was that even though he did get a bit of sleep, he kept waking up from nightmares, and if it hadn’t been for the coffee he had every two hours, he would have nodded off halfway through the day.  The nightmares, and pretty much everything else connected to the war were one of those topics they avoided. It sometimes resulted in uncomfortable silences, Harry agreed that it was better this way.

"I wonder who else from our year is going back to school." Ron said, changing the topic. "I know Neville decided to do the auror training. And Seamus isn’t going back either, he said something about opening some pub in Diagon."

"I think I heard Dean was going back."

"Oh yeah I heard that too. And Padma and Parvati. I don’t know about anyone else though."

"Me neither. I only know that most of the Slytherins aren’t returning, a lot of them got house arrests with their parents and stuff like that."

"Malfoy?"

"House arrest, in France. But I think he will be taking NEWTs."

"He deserves to rot in Azkaban with his father" Ron scowled.

"He isn’t that bad. I mean he did save my life once" Harry said, though he didn’t sound too sure about it. He might not have despised him as much as he did before, but it was still Malfoy.

"Yeah, and then you saved his, so don’t get any funny ideas of owing him or anything" Ron told him, making Harry grin, Ron knew him more than anyone else. He did feel like he owed Malfoy, a bit at least, but he guessed that speaking in his favour at the trials made them equal.

"Alright" Harry laughed. He vanished the empty pizza boxes, and stood up, yawning. "I’m tired, let’s pack it in for the day."

"I second that" Ron stood up as well, and the two friends made their way upstairs to their bedrooms, Ron in one of the guest ones, Harry sleeping in Sirius’s old room.

Days passed, Harry visited Kingsley once again, then spent another day reading before eventually deciding on Curse-breaking, which seemed ideal for him except for one small thing: he needed an Exceeds Expectations in Potions. Which was impossible to say the least with his skill and knowledge. So he went to the Ministry again, and consulted with several people before agreeing to let them find him a tutor.

He ended up spending a week doing whatever he wanted, before he got any news on the matter. He visited Ron and George; he went to Muggle London; he started repainting Sirius’s old motorbike that Arthur fixed for him, leaving the finishing touches for Harry. He also sat around at home, waiting for Ginny’s face to appear in the fireplace, so she could tell him about school, and he could tell her how much he missed her. He also thought about who will be chosen as his tutor. Was it going to be some weird old Potions master like Slughorn or someone distant and cold, but really talented and intelligent like Snape, or maybe just someone of his age, who was better at the subject than him? The Ministry owl arrived on Friday, with the name and address of his tutor. But something was wrong, the address was somewhere in France. And the name was Draco Lucius Malfoy.

"Are you kidding me? Malfoy?"  Ron asked horrified, when he read through the letter Harry shoved into his face as soon as he got home that evening. "Don’t tell me there isn’t anyone else in the whole wizarding world who could help you in Potions. Why did they have to choose that git?"

"I have no idea" Harry sighed. "But it’s not just that. Why France? Why can’t it be someone here in London? I don’t speak French, I don’t know anyone there, it just doesn’t make any sense."

"Can’t you ask the Ministry to find you someone else?"

"Already tried. But apparently Malfoy is the best solution, as we know each other, and we would both benefit from it."

"Both benefit from it?! How would you both benefit from it? What would Malfoy benefit from it? You are lucky to actually learn something if you don’t get killed, but how can he benefit from it?"

"Search me" Harry rolled his eyes.

"When are you leaving?"

"I have a Portkey for next Wednesday."

"Wednesday? But that’s less than a week!"

"I know, but I guess I’ll just have to do it, no matter what."

"This sucks, mate."

"I know. If I don’t get an O after this, I swear I’ll be using some Unforgivables on some people."

The next few days passed quickly, way too quickly in Harry’s opinion, and soon he found himself at the Ministry, looking at the corkscrew on the table, his belongings in his pocket, all shrunken.

"Here goes nothing" he muttered, before taking hold of the charmed corkscrew, and letting it transport him in only a few seconds to his destination: a little French town.

From what he saw on his walk to the Malfoys’ place (Kingsley thought it would be safer for him to arrive outside the town for whatever reason), he thought it could have been England, the small cottages were no different from those they had back there. The one Malfoy and Narcissa were living in was just like the others, a simple Muggle house. The Ministry told him that he would be staying there in a spare bedroom made for him with the help of the expansion charm, until he mastered the needed level of potionmaking, practising in Malfoy's lab. Apart from this, all he knew was that Narcissa had a Muggle job helping out at a clothes shop in the town, and Draco also worked a bit from home, neither of them allowed to leave the boundaries the Ministry had set, and neither of them possessing a wand.

Narcissa greeted him when he arrived, looking as pale and tired as ever, and much to Harry’s surprise wearing a simple blouse and jeans, something he never thought he’d see her in. She showed him around the house before retreating to the living room where she was sorting through some papers, telling him that Malfoy was in his room, and that he should make himself comfortable in the his bedroom. Harry thanked her, and did as she suggested, unpacking, and quickly Flooing Ron and Ginny before lying down, hoping for a decent night’s sleep, not only so he would have all the energy he needed for next day to face Malfoy, but because he would have felt extremely embarrassed if he had woken up screaming from his nightmares like he did sometimes. Then again, a simple muffliato charm should do for the latter.

Next day he woke up feeling surprisingly fresh and well-rested, that didn't mean he was ready to study Potions. With Malfoy. In France. When he could have been at home, spending time with his friends, or just enjoying his freedom.

But then he reminded himself he needed this to get the job he wanted, so gritting his teeth, he headed downstairs to where Narcissa said the lab was, where his old nemesis was already waiting for him.

"Malfoy" he greeted him, sitting down at the table looking around. The walls were filled with shelves of books and tiny bottles, each of them full of liquids of different colours, labelled neatly. The work space however, was empty except for two cauldrons and a copy of a simple Potions schoolbook. Harry's eyes shifted towards Malfoy, who looked pretty much the same as he did the last time Harry saw him, apart from his white-blonde hair being longer, the strands escaping his elegant hair. He also seemed much thinner, Harry noticed, he must have lost at least 20 pounds, it made the boy's features much sharper and angled than they were before.

"Potter." he nodded, restraining himself from scowling, sitting down opposite to Harry. "So, I’ve heard the Chosen One may not be as perfect as everyone thought so. Problems with Potions? Seriously?"

"Shut up Malfoy!" Harry snapped. He wasn’t expecting any different, but it still angered him that the other boy was already getting under his skin.

"Whatever, Potter." Malfoy shrugged. "But then don’t expect to get anything better than a D." He smirked.

"Fine." Harry said angrily.  "Just shut up about other things and let’s get on with it.  I get it, I won’t pass the stupid exam without the help of perfect Draco Malfoy, who is the best Ministry-recommended tutor in the whole Wizarding world, but we’d make better progress if you actually started explaining things" he snarled.

For a moment Harry thought this would be the end, and Malfoy would stalk out, but after glaring at each other, the blonde broke the eye contact and opened the course book without any further ado, and started explaining everything, starting from the very basics. Harry soon found, that even though he would never admit it to anyone else, Malfoy was a good teacher. He cleared up some things Harry previously didn't understand; and apart from the snarky comments, he was almost patient. Well he did snap and start shouting and swearing when Harry messed up a potion even after trying several times, but still. He was way better than what Harry had expected.

Soon they developed a daily routine which consisted of going down to have breakfast on their own, avoiding each other; having a short, theoretical lesson in the morning; having lunch on their own; a longer practical lesson in the afternoon; spending time on their own; then having dinner on their own, except for when Narcissa insisted that they should sit together, which usually resulted in glares and uncomfortable silences.

But Harry was definitely improving at potions, and after all, that was what mattered. As two weeks passed, and October was drawing nearer, Harry found himself tired of arguing with Malfoy, and the other boy must have felt the same way, because all of a sudden the nasty remarks were gone, and they were actually capable of spending time in one room without wanting to kill one another. This definitely was an improvement. Malfoy would actually compliment him if he did something right, and Harry would smile at him. They didn’t try so hard to avoid each other in the time between the lessons, but actually greeted each other, and sometimes even stopped to have short conversations. Nothing too serious or deep, only little things, but this was already much better, Harry realised that Malfoy’s company was actually quite alright sometimes, now that they weren’t constantly arguing.

Weeks passed, and Harry was getting used to living there, and as now he felt more comfortable around the Malfoys, he decided it was time to change some things. He started going for walks around the town and the countryside. He spent a bit more time with Malfoy, they stayed in the lab every so often after the lessons and just talked. One evening Harry even asked Narcissa if he could cook something. They have been eating takeaway pretty much everyday, and Harry didn’t mind it, but after over a month, he had to admit it, it was getting a little repeatable, and he was craving a home-made meal.

Narcissa was surprised, but happy to let Harry work in the kitchen, so after making a quick supply run to the shop around the corner to get all the ingredients he needed for the curry, his favourite dish, he occupied the kitchen.

As he started heating the oil and chopping up the onions, the unmistakable smell of cooking filled his nose, he realised how much he missed it. Cooking was one of those things the Dursleys made him do, but he didn’t really mind it when he was making food for himself or his friends, and after seven years at Hogwarts without cooking, he enjoyed experimenting with all kinds of recipes that he learned from Muggle cook books.

He had started dicing the meat when he grew aware of someone watching him. As he looked up, he saw Malfoy standing in the doorway, watching him.

"You know, it’s not too polite to stare" he said, smirking at the boy. "And do try to be more secretive if you want to look at me." He added, grinning as he saw Malfoy blush, which was definitely something he hadn’t expected to see. Ever. But now that he did, he couldn't stop laughing, making the blonde boy blush even harder, his normally pale face was a deep shade of red. "You should see your face now!" he choked out, holding onto the counter as he tried to calm down, suppressing the laughter that was bubbling in his stomach. Malfoy just stood by the door, glaring at him, his face still flushed. "I’m just messing with you, no need to plan my death" he said with a shy grin as he finally stopped laughing, and went back to chopping the meat, but still keeping one eye on the other boy.

"I wasn’t. I never did. Plan your death, I mean." Malfoy said quietly. Harry looked up and saw that the boy's face was serious. Harry swallowed thickly and nodded, not knowing what to say, so he just kept staring at him, green eyes locked onto the pair of grey ones.

"So, do you want me to show you how to cook?" Harry broke the silence, moving to one side so Malfoy had his space at the counter, offering the boy a little smile. The blonde boy hesitated, running one hand through his hair, and chewing on his bottom lip, which caught Harry’s attention for some reason, he couldn’t explain, he looked away embarrassed, afraid of being caught staring. Malfoy made his way over to the counter. Harry carried on cutting up the meat, giving the other boy smaller tasks, explaining why he did things the way he did, and within half an hour the spicy scent of the simmering curry was filling the room. After tidying up, Harry sat down on one of the chairs, fanning himself with a piece of newspaper that was laying on the dining table, his gaze fluttering to the other boy, who was pouring himself a glass of water, before leaning back onto the counter, flushed, but this time from the heat of the cooking, the top two buttons of his shirt undone, his hair messy and curly from the vapour, making the lines of his face look softer. Harry didn't even know why he thought of that, shaking his head, he stood up, and started setting the table.

"So where did you learn how to cook?" Malfoy asked him, his tone genuinely curious, something Harry still wasn’t completely used to.

"The Dursleys, you know, my foster parents made me cook for them, so I had to, but I actually always enjoyed it a bit." He shrugged.

"They made you cook for them?" Malfoy asked, sounding horrified.

"That wasn’t the worst part. I had to do all the cleaning too, I could never go anywhere. I had to pretend that I didn’t exist whenever they had guests over, and I lived in the broom closet until I was eleven."

"You lived in the broom closet?!" The blonde boy echoed, his voice raised. Harry nodded.  "That’s even worse than how we used to treat our house-elves. At least they had proper bedrooms."

Harry just shrugged again, and went to serve the dinner without a word, he didn’t understand why Malfoy was so shocked by how the Dursleys have treated him, or why he cared at all. Dinner passed quietly, apart from Narcissa complimenting Harry on the curry, but otherwise they ate in a silence. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, it was just strange. He noticed Malfoy looking at him few times, but he always looked away when Harry caught him staring. When they finished eating, Harry did the washing up by magic, not wanting to spend the rest of the evening scrubbing pans, something Draco watched almost in awe, telling Harry his wand was taken by the Ministry, and how he missed using magic, how strange doing everything manually was.

They carried on talking, and walked up the stairs together, but when they stopped on the landing, instead of parting ways, Malfoy asked Harry whether he could explain Muggle technology to him, and Harry was happy to do that, so he followed the other boy into his bedroom. He was surprised to see that the room wasn’t much different from the one he was staying in, except for having more books and other bits of things. But the walls were plain white, the bed wasn’t the posh four-poster he was expecting, and wasn’t covered in Slytherin green sheets with silver lining. It was just a simple bedroom.

"What were you expecting, Potter?" Draco smirked, and Harry realised he must have been staring in shock.  "This isn’t Malfoy Manor."

"I don’t know. I just thought it would be more like you."

"More like me? And what’s that like?"

"Well definitely not this" Harry said, gesturing around the room.

"Oh and you know me so well that you are positive that I loved Malfoy Manor and now couldn’t stand living somewhere that wasn’t green and grey and silver and black and full of snake-patterns" Draco snorted.

"That’s not what I… oh never mind" Harry rolled his eyes, already feeling irritated with Malfoy, but also himself for thinking that they could actually spend time together properly, without things like this. He was on the verge of walking back to his own bedroom, when he noticed that Malfoy wasn’t glaring at him, he was smirking. Harry sighed, and flopped down onto the bed next to the boy, and started telling him how toasters and TVs and computers worked. He actually enjoyed it more than he thought he would, and he was surprised to see that Malfoy wasn’t being difficult, but genuinely curious and interested, and would listen to Harry’s explanations without interrupting, only showering him with questions afterwards, a fascinated smile spreading over his face, Harry thought that Malfoy was much nicer this way, smiling, friendly, patient and interested in almost a childlike way.

They made this a regular thing, often making breakfast or dinner together, and spending hours before going to sleep talking about Muggle things, and sometimes bringing up other topics as well, and Harry realised he was starting to enjoy Malfoy’s company.

Harry was also improving in Potions, he was now able to make quite a lot of decent ones, and Malfoy was almost proud of him. However then he accidentally burned the cauldron down, causing the blonde boy to give him silent treatment and avoid him after yelling at him about being irresponsible and hopeless.

But after a day of ignoring each other they called truce, and went back to doing things together. This was when Harry realised actually how much time they spent together, and how he talked to Ron or Hermione and Ginny less and less, calling the girls late that evening, feeling guilty. Hermione told him about the lessons, and asked him questions about potions, she was happy with his progress, reminding him again how important it was, and that he needed to carry on. She then left Harry to talk to Ginny privately. They talked about school mostly, and how they missed each other, and how Harry had to go home for Christmas, because Ginny couldn’t go any longer without talking to him properly, face to face, or kissing him, or touching him, and before saying goodbye, Ginny pulled her shirt up, teasing Harry, saying all kinds of dirty words she could think of, leaving the boy with a hard-on. He was too embarrassed to wank, being separated from Malfoy by only one thin wall.

He kept thinking about Ginny, even though he didn’t call her for some time, thinking how things would be when they both got back home. Will they get married straight away? Will they have kids? And if yes, how many? He missed her, a lot, but he had to admit, these thoughts were scaring him slightly. He knew Ron and Hermione were planning on getting married and moving in together when Hermione graduated, but Harry wasn’t sure if he could imagine himself settling down already and becoming a father.

In the end he found himself in the lab, as he did quite often for some time now, deciding it was the best time to practice, trying to make some dreamless sleep for himself, but failing, which meant he could only hope for a decent night’s sleep without nightmares, even though he knew it was unlikely.

He did seem to have less nightmares than before, but now when he did, they were the worst ever, and he would wake up screaming, and couldn’t go back to sleep properly afterwards, and would be stressed and irritable all day. He just really hoped Malfoy never heard him screaming, embarrassed even by the thought of it. One night he felt two unfamiliar firm hands shaking him awake, and a voice, unsure yet steady telling him to breathe, and how it only had been a dream, and finally when Harry was calm enough, handing him a vial of dreamless sleep, he thought he never could have been more thankful, even though he was indeed extremely embarrassed.

Malfoy gave him dreamless sleep and that was all that mattered, because he slept until 1 PM next day, and when he woke up, he feels much better than other mornings, except for the sadness and anger that lingered from the nightmare, but he was used to that. He didn’t even want to get up from bed, he wanted to just stay there and disappear, somehow slip into nonexistence. It was mostly on the days after his nightmares, but sometimes even on just ordinary days, that he thought of what it would have been like to stay dead. He knew some people would have missed him, but with the Horcrux in him destroyed, the world didn’t need him anymore. And it wasn’t bad, it didn’t hurt at all, Sirius had been right, he didn’t feel anything. It didn’t really feel like being dead. It didn’t feel like anything to be honest. But he came back, even though he wasn’t sure he should have.

He decided to go and tell Malfoy that he wasn’t in the mood to study, but he didn’t find the boy in his bedroom or the lab or anywhere else. Or at least anywhere he was expecting to find him, he realised why as he entered the kitchen, there stood Malfoy he was cooking something by the stove, it smelt amazing. The smell of cinnamon mixed with apples and something sweet filled Harry's nose.

"Hi." he said quietly, stopping in the doorway.

"Hey," Malfoy looked up to greet him. "You look like shit" he informed him. Harry snorted. He didn’t need Malfoy to tell him that. He felt like shit.  "I’m making you food. Sit."

"What?  Harry looked up at him, shocked, unsure if he heard him right. Malfoy was making him breakfast. Malfoy. For him. How did this even happen? And why?

"Can’t you ever do just one thing you’re asked for?" The blonde boy asked, rolling his eyes. "Are you really that much of a rebel?" He asked, as he watched Harry sit down, still dazed, he smiled. His voice was softer than the usual, and Harry couldn't understand why. He continued to stare at the blonde boy in complete shock, until the latter lets out a soft chuckle, and told him to stop staring at him with his mouth open. Harry felt his cheeks grow warm in embarrassment, and he mumbled something Malfoy couldn't quite make sense of. Harry dropped his gaze to the table, and toyed with the spoon. He runhis hand through his hair which was messier than usual, he didn’t even try to comb it as he was planning to go back to bed. He felt Malfoy's eyes on him. Harry turned his head to meet the blonde boy's gaze just as Malfoy turned away.

Malfoy sat down opposite to Harry, handing him his breakfast and a cup of coffee, he himself only drinking tea.

They sat in silence, the blonde watching Harry eat.

"We don’t have to study today" he said, breaking the silence. Harry just nodded, still confused by the boy’s kindness, and carried on eating.  As he finished, he watched Malfoy sipping his tea, gazing out of the window. He looked different, Harry thought, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on the difference, the only thing he noticed was that his hair was messier than usual. That couldn’t have made such a big difference, it was more than that. It was something about his whole face, all of his features. But mostly his eyes. His eyes were definitely different, no longer cold and distant, but almost soft. Harry watched his eyes fixed on the garden outside, the shape of the window reflected in the sliver greyness. The practically white eyelashes around his eyes. His pale, porcelain-like skin. The pointiness of his nose. The pinkness of his lips, that for once weren’t frowning. His perfect jawline. The way his shoulder length hair fell onto his shoulders. Harry thought he was beautiful. He felt weird had just thought that, but as he continued to look at the boy, he couldn’t help but admit it. He also couldn't help but notice how his heart was hammering in his chest. He tore his gaze away from the boy and looked back down at the table. What was wrong with him? Why was he finding Malfoy attractive? He swallowed hard, allowing himself another glance at the boy. He noticed the longing in his eyes, the sadness on his face, and he realised, Malfoy must be missing being outdoors. Of course he must miss being outside! He had been in the house arrest for over a year.

Harry couldn't stop thinking how terrible it must be, not being able to go out, and within a minute the idea pops in his mind. He stood up abruptly and told Malfoy he’d be back in a sec. He rushed up to the bedroom and called Kingsley on the Floo, begging him to allow Malfoy leave the house with him, explaining what a great teacher he was, and telling the Minister that he trusted him. He didn’t actually realise all of this before he said it out loud, but it was true. He trusted Malfoy, especially after he gave Harry dreamless sleep and made him breakfast. He deserved something good. Harry was really pleased with himself when Kingsley permitted him to open the doors and go somewhere with Malfoy. He had to make him a promise that he’d look out for the blonde and would be careful, which Harry promised he would. He quickly packed few things and rushed back down to the kitchen.

Malfoy looked up startled as Harry re-entered the kitchen, his expression soon turning to shock, as Harry told him to get up because they were going out.

"What do you mean ‘out’?" He asked, looking at Harry in confusion.

"I talked to Kingsley" Harry shrugged, as if it was nothing, already making his way to the door, unlocking it, and casting several counter spells that would let Draco out as well. The blonde boy followed him, still shocked and surprised, but as he stepped outside and inhaled the fresh air and felt the breeze tug at his hair, he just closed his eyes and let a smile spread across his face. Gosh, how he had missed this. Harry stood looking at him, smiling, thinking how gorgeous Malfoy looked with the strands of blonde hair flowing around his face. No. He wasn’t gorgeous, Harry thought, feeling angry with himself, feeling like his thoughts were betraying him.

"There’s a beach a few miles from here" Draco spoke up.

"Are you suggesting we go there?" Harry asked, snapping out of his thoughts.

"thought that was obvious" Draco smirked, and Harry grinned at him as they set off. They walked in silence, until Draco spoke again.  "Thanks. For taking me out." He said quietly. Harry looked up at him.  "And everything" the boy carried on.  "Testifying for my mother. Saving my life in that room."

Harry didn’t say anything for a few moments. The situation was so strange, Malfoy sounded so honest and so vulnerable, and he just didn’t quite know what to say.

"I did what I thought had to be done." He said in the end.  "And… I never thought you deserved Azkaban." He added after a pause, avoiding Malfoy’s eyes. "You saved me too, at the Manor."

"I should have done more" the blonde boy whispered.  "I was a coward. I still am. I should have helped." The words spilled out of Draco, no louder than the wind whistling in their ears, and if Harry hadn’t seen his lips moving, he wouldn’t have believed that he heard what he heard. He watched the boy’s face, noticing the way his eyes were shining, tears flooding them. "I deserved all they planned for me at the trial. You should have left me there, but I guess you can’t stop yourself from saving people’s lives, even if you hate them." He said, a sad smile on his face, Harry found it heart wrenching. He swallowed thickly, once again lost for words. He wanted to tell him that it wasn’t true, that he didn’t deserve to be punished, that he didn’t hate him. He wanted to squeeze his hand and tell him it was okay. But he didn’t, instead he kept quiet, and carried on walking.

Neither of them said anything on the rest of the way to the beach. It was quite a long walk, they both stopped to catch their breaths as they arrived at the end of the cliff from where the carved steps led down to the beach. Harry had been going out for strolls around the area, but he felt a little exhausted after the walk, and Draco, who had been indoors for ages was clutching his side, but it was definitely worth it.

The view was beautiful, the sun was just starting to set, tainting the sky pink and orange, the warm light reflecting on the surface of the water, the white cliffs and the pale sand on the shore making the picture perfect. It was breezy, but not too much, just enough to ripple the surface of the ocean and to catch in their hair.

They made their way down to the beach, Harry spread out the blankets he brought with him, before sitting down, Malfoy following him, they sat down, watching the sky together.

"I miss Sirius." Harry suddenly blurted out, not even knowing why he said it, regretting it immediately.

"Your godfather?" Malfoy asked, not looking at him, messing around with a stick he found in the sand. Harry nodded, and lied back on the blanket.

"He and Remus were the only people who made me feel like-" He took sharp intake of breath. "-like I still had a piece of my parents with me" he sighed. He didn’t know why he was telling Malfoy this, but he couldn't stop himself. As the blonde boy seemed genuinely curious, Harry carried on talking, telling him about third year, how he met Sirius, and about Peter Pettigrew, and the Marauders Map, and about the Order of the Phoenix, and everything Sirius told him about his parents. Malfoy listened intensely, asking questions every so often, being very careful not to cross the boundaries.

"I’m sorry they aren’t around anymore." Malfoy simply said when Harry stopped talking. He tilted his head to the side, looking at Malfoy’s face, studying his expression, but he couldn't see anything except for honesty and sadness, and something slightly even like an affection. He felt like crying, but he didn't want to cry in front of the other boy. He knew he should feel angry, after all if Malfoy hadn’t let the Death Eaters into Hogwarts, if his father hadn’t been there at the Department of Mysteries, Sirius and Remus could still be have been alive, but that’s too many ‘if’s. Harry thought of asking Malfoy what his intentions actually were, or something, but he chose to keep silent.

"I’m going swimming" he announced after laying around for a while, he stood up, already taking his shirt off.

"Are you crazy? It must be minus twenty down there°C!" Draco exclaimed, sitting up.

"Yeah, sure, minus two hundred." Harry chuckled. "Chill Malfoy ." Harry rolled his eyes, shucking his jeans as well, making his way to the water, ignoring the feeling of the other boy’s eyes on him.

"Come back here you prat, I don't fancy being framed for your death. It’s dark and it’s cold and you will drown. We can come back here tomorrow and then you can do whatever you want." Malfoy called after him, making Harry laugh.

"If you are so worried about me, come with me" he snorted, stepping into the water, leaning down and splashing it over his body, before carrying on walking deeper into the water. He was in knee-deep when Malfoy caught up with him, stopping at the side of the water. Harry went in even deeper, looking back and shooting a grin at Malfoy. "You better take that shirt off if you want to rescue me when I drown."

The blonde boy just stood there shaking his head as Harry carried on, the water was now up to his shoulders. He couldn't help but laugh as he looked at the fully clothed Malfoy standing on the beach, and suddenly an idea crossed his mind. What if he faked drowning? Would Malfoy really rush to rescue him? He grinned in anticipation, before going in a bit deeper, and pretending to drown, yelling for help, and sure enough, the blonde was there beside him within seconds, his hands around Harry’s waist.

"You idiot" Malfoy said angrily, letting go of Harry when the brunette burst out laughing.

"And you said I’m the one with a saving people's lives-problem." Harry choked out, still shaking from laughter, clutching his stomach with his arms.

"You’re such an imbecile! We could have both lost our footing! I thought you were really drowning." he sneered, and splashed Harry with water. The other boy splashed him back immediately, still laughing, and soon enough Draco was laughing too. They were splashing each other madly, trying to get away from one another, making their way to the beach.

"Scared?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow as they reached the dry land, still breathless from laughing, clutching each other.

"You wish."  Draco smirked, and chased Harry back to the blankets, ending up on top of Harry, kneeling between the boy’s legs, holding his hands down above his head. "Feeling defeated, Potter? Did I just defeat the Great Harry Potter?

"As if I’d let you." Harry said, wrapping his legs around Malfoy's waist. He knocked the boy over, straddling him, with a triumphant grin, which died down as soon as their eyes met. Until now, Harry didn’t quite realise how close they were, only a few inches between their faces. He was starting to feel uncomfortable, and dropped his gaze, but if anything, this made things worse, as he found himself staring at Malfoy’s chest, his white shirt sticking to his body, the wetness making it almost see-through, the boy’s lean muscles and his hardened nipples visible to Harry, making him blush. What was wrong with him? It was the third time that day that he found the boy extremely attractive.

"Potter…" Malfoy spoke up, sounding a little embarrassed, as he shifted underneath him. Harry didn't get it for a moment, but then he realises he had an unmistakable hardness in his pants, and it was pressing right into the blonde boy’s thigh.

"Shit, I’m sorry, I just…" he stammered, as he stood up as fast as he could.

"Stop, it’s okay. It’s a normal reaction, I guess, I mean you’ve been away from your girlfriend, and…" Malfoy trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished, avoiding looking at Harry, who was also avoiding looking anywhere near the other boy.  "Let’s go home. Or do you want me to go and you can just stay here, think of your lovely girlfriend, jerk off, and meet me back at the house" Draco said, picking their stuff up, his words making Harry blush even harder.

"I’m… I’ll be alright" Harry managed to say. Malfoy snorts.

"For Merlin’s sake, just stay here, and follow me back when you-" "fuck, just take care of yourself, Potter!" With that said, Malfoy was already turning his back to Harry.

"You are wet. You’ll catch a cold." Harry said desperately, not wanting to make this situation any awkward, which he probably was doing anyway.

"Well then cast a drying charm on me, will you?!" Malfoy looked angry. Why was he like that? He was sneering at Harry, Harry felt like they were back at Hogwarts and Malfoy was about to make one of his snarky comments that always boiled Harry's blood. "You are the one with a wand, you arse!" He rolled his eyes and let out an annoyed huff. "if you are so concerned about my health then do it." he snapped, and Harry obeyed. As soon as he did, the blonde haired boy turned around and left in a rush without saying another word. What was wrong with him? Why did he get so pricky about all of this?!

He left Harry there on the beach. On his own. With a bulge in his pants. Still painfully pressing to his trousers.

He tried to think of Ginny, he really did, but he couldn’t help it, his thoughts drifted back to earlier that day, Malfoy’s hair flowing in the breeze, and Harry remembered how much he wanted to run his hands through it. The closeness of the boy made his body shiver, his angular face, his soft silver eyes, his flat yet arousing chest… oh Merlin, he felt like he could melt away just thinking of him, however weird it is, and however guilty he felt about not thinking of Ginny. What the fresh hell?! Malfoy was a boy! Harry wasn't gay for crying out loud! How the hell was he getting of to the thoughts of Malfoy?

The next few days passed in their usual routine, making breakfast together, Potions theory, having lunch together, brewing, making dinner together, and talking about Muggle things until it’s time for bed. Neither of them mentioned the day at the beach, and Harry was thankful for that, but he couldn’t stop thinking back to that very day, and what it felt like to be that close to Malfoy. He kept thinking back, and would often get distracted from doing whatever he was just by looking at Malfoy, or listening the way he talked about Potions, with such enthusiasm, or the excitement on his face when he showed Harry a book on Muggle things and told him how he finally understood how something worked, and it dawned on him, that he was growing more and more attracted to him.

It wasn’t just his looks that made Harry want to press the other boy to the wall and snog him senseless, though he didn’t even try to deny how his soft platinum hair and silver eyes drove him crazy, but it was his whole personality. The way he was nice to Harry now, always, but still kept teasing him, and Harry would tease back, and sometimes it occurred him that it felt almost like they were flirting or something. Or how patient and serious he could be as a teacher. Or how clever and intelligent he was, almost like Hermione, but in a different way. Or how he enjoyed just small things, like walking out into the garden when the sun was shining, or finding a new book among his mother’s belongings that he could read, or a nice meal they made together. How honest he could be sometimes. How passionate he would get if he was talking about something that was important to him. How similar his sense of humour was to Harry’s. He felt like they could be friends, like actual friends, who would stay in contact and have fun together even when they weren’t locked up in a small cottage in France together to study Potions. But real friends. And maybe even more, because Harry wanted to touch him again, to feel his soft skin, or his silky looking hair. Malfoy was driving Harry crazy, and he couldn’t do anything about it.

After another week or so Draco told him that he was doing well enough to pass his NEWTs easily, and they decided to go down to the beach once again, before Christmas. They spent the whole day there, taking a basket of food, they swam, but only a bit because the water was much colder by now, they talked and laughed and talked even more, about school, about their childhoods, about Quidditch, anything they thought of. Harry couldn't imagine his life without the blonde boy by now. He thought of how hard it will be for him to leave this bastard. How hard will it be to say goodbye to all their memories. Forget about all that they have accomplished and of course, about the whole attraction thing. Harry didn't even know if maybe he allowed himself do what his mind, and other parts of his body, told him to do, then would he discover something about himself. He found his mind drifting off to this idea while he stared at the blonde looking up to the sky.

As the sky grew darker, covered in thousands of sparkling spots, bright and shining like diamonds, scattered all over the sheet of the night, they lay back on their blankets, and Malfoy started to point the constellations out to Harry, saving his favourite one, his own one, the dragon for last. His voice proud as he told the boy next to him which one it was, which Harry found adorable, and returned the boy’s smirk with a grin of his own. Their eyes met for longer than they have ever held each other's gaze. It was like looking at the other's soul through them, finally seeing the real version of the person they never got the chance to get to know better. Harry wanted to kiss Malfoy. He wanted to throw his arms around the boy and press their lips together. He didn't. Whether it was because he was scared of what would happen if he did or he was scared of what he would become if he made this move. Harry turned his face towards the ground. The moment was ruined.

Sometime after staying quiet for a while, they started to talk about more serious things, and Malfoy told Harry how he didn’t want to kill Dumbledore, and how he only realised then that his parents were wrong, and how all he wanted before was to make his father proud. How he did everything afterwards just so Voldemort wouldn’t kill his parents. How terrible it was to let the Death Eaters into Hogwarts, but how he had no other choice if he wanted his parents to live. What it was like to live at Malfoy Manor with the Dark Lord. How he wanted to just apparate somewhere where no one knew him and there were no expectations he had to live up to, no war, no pain, no suffering. How he felt like a coward but still didn’t do anything.

Harry saw the tears shining on Malfoy's cheeks, in the moonlight, as he got to the end of his story, and without thinking, he wrapped his arm around the boy, pulling him close to himself. Malfoy instantly pulled back as if Harry's touch burned him. He mumbled something about not wanting to be pitied and knowing that he was a coward and a bad person but he wanted to change, and Harry didn’t know what to say, so he just sat there beside him.

Later they lay down on their blankets, and fell asleep next to each other under the starry sky.

When Harry woke up, to the first rays of sunshine stroking his skin, he found himself wrapped around Malfoy's arms, their bodies pressed together. He stayed in those arms for a while, enjoying the warmth that came from Draco's, not Malfoy's, body. Oh how much he wanted to stay here forever and just breath this air, go for long walks, talk to Draco, discover himself, get away from all the stress that England and people there caused him. But he couldn't do it. He felt too obligated to be the man everyone expected him to be. He couldn't just disappear and stay here with the blonde. It would be mad. Besides, he had his friends in England, his girlfriend, probably soon to be wife. He wanted to have a family and a job that he enjoyed, the job that would make him feel more human than just the Savour of Wizarding World. He had to go back home, no matter how much his heart was begging him to stay here and try losing himself in the unknown, something that didn't feel quite possible and normal, in something that was as exciting as scary. Just trying to be happy without all the shit that was going to await for him in London. Harry got up from under the blanket and Draco's arms carefully, making sure he wouldn’t wake the other boy up. He conjured a piece of parchment and a quill, with a deep sigh he started writing a letter. He knew he wasn’t the best with words, especially when they were goodbyes, and writing it all down helped, he could say all the things he could never say face to face. He could thank Draco and promise him he’d talk to Kingsley and find a way for him to come back to England. At least that's what Harry wanted. If he couldn't stay here he wanted to hold on to this unexpected friendship in any way he could. He wrote how he’d wait for Draco, and would want to see him, when he did come back to WIzarding World where Harry would be. Harry realised how much he's going to miss Draco, his smile, his snaky comments, the lessons with him, their midnight or morning walks to the beach, their inside jokes, their conversations, Draco's eyes that at some point became everything Harry could think of, just Draco Malfoy in general, still the same git, but trying to become better.

Harry rolled up his blanket and put it back into the basket along with all of the other scattered bits, and put the letter on top. He looked down  at the boy below him, and leaned in, pressing a soft kiss onto his cheek, feeling the soft skin underneath his lips and smelling the scent he will never be able to get out of his mind, he didn't realise when a warm tear run down his cheek. He shook himself from the trans he was in. Before he got up to his feet and head back to Malfoy's house and then the town to take his Portkey back to London, he took one last look at Draco sleeping peacefully on the beach, Harry once again couldn't breath. If he never again got the chance to see this idiot, he didn't know if he would ever feel understood and complete as much as he did in Draco's presence. He could only hope for the best.

////////////////

Read Chapter Two HERE

#drarry #drarry fic #drarry head canon #head canon #my fic #first chapter #re writting stuf #wip #fic #ao3 #feelings we can't let go #drarry squad #harry potter #draco malfoy

[tmae3114]

Tell us about the AUs. all of them.

Friend, that is a lot of AUs.

But okay!!

I won’t go immensely in-depth because a) that’d take forever and b) I want to do separate posts and drawings and stuff for a bunch of these

Okay, so, going in the order that I mentioned them in the tags:

(whoops this is going under a cut because It Got Long)

The Pokemon AU

More of a fusion than strictly an AU, I guess, because it’s pretty much “canon, but there are pokemon”.

I’ve determined full teams for the whole ‘crew, along with the genders, levels, abilities, natures, and movesets of all of their pokemon. I got… really into it. I went way too detailed with their teams. I even know what kind of pokeball each of their pokemon are in. I’m in the process of nicknaming them. I’ve also got scatterings of backstory for how they came to have each of the pokemon in their teams!

For now, I’ll tell you what their teams are, along with the nicknames and such of their pokemon. More in-depth stuff (such as aforementioned abilities and movesets and also the backstories) should probably be saved for a different post.

Diath:

“Cath” - Klefki - ♂

Ninjask - ♀

Scyther - ♀

Liepard - ♂

“Dawnguide” - Absol - ♀ 

“Gutter” - Aegislash - ♂

The pattern I went with for nicknaming Diath’s pokemon is based off of the one thing we’ve seen him name in canon - Moonsplinter. So the nicknames for his pokemon, when I eventually come up with them, will be two nouns put together into a name that connects what was named to someone or something important to him. Cath and Gutter are exceptions to the pattern because they were gift pokemon and came with the names (…sort of, in Cath’s case).

Evelyn:

“Morning Glory” - Rapidash - ♀ 

“Periwinkle” - Lycanroc (Midnight Forme) - ♀ 

“Thistleberry” - Eevee - ♂ 

“Sunflower” - Larvesta - ♀ 

“Jonquil” - Solrock - N/A 

“Juniper” - Pichu - ♀

The pattern I went with for nicknaming Evelyn’s pokemon started with Morning Glory and Juniper - I figured that since Evelyn showed a predilection towards plant names in canon, it was as good a theme as any to run with. Thistleberry is the closest to breaking that pattern, since I’ve been unable to find out if that’s actually a real plant (I’ve found thimbleberries but not thistleberries, so I feel like they might be a fantasy thing) in which case you could argue that he was named for Evelyn’s favourite pie. The reasoning for Sunflower should be obvious, a jonquil is a kind of flower similar to a daffodil which sort of resembles a sun in shape, and periwinkles mean “early friendship” in flower language, and Evie sure does make friends fast.

Jonquil may or may not mean “I desire a return of affection” in flower language but sshhhh, that was unintentional

Strix:

“Fuzzywuzz” - Venomoth - ♂

“Waffles” - Ursaring - ♀ 

Mismagius - ♀ 

“Stinky Junior” - Garbodor - ♀ 

“Clothy McClothface” - Banette - ♀ 

“Stinky” - Alolan Rattata - ♂

I don’t think I really need to explain the pattern/theme for naming Strix’s pokemon because, well, *gestures at canon* I just tried to follow the existing naming patterns.

Paultin:

“Palpatine” - Malamar - ♂ 

Exploud- ♂ 

“Charlotte” - Chatot - ♀ 

Gengar - ♂ 

“Peter” - Baltoy  - ♂ 

Alolan Marowak- ♀

I don’t strictly have a naming pattern for Paultin, wildcard that he is. I’ve just been operating on a general rule of “regular real life name that sounds fitting” (a la him naming Simon) or “reference”.

The Superhero AU

You are getting far less information about this one because it’s going to be getting posts of its own when I finally get the drawings for it finished - I’m going to do character profiles and everything.

The basic premise is a vaguely-modern-era-ish Waterdeep (in a vaguely-modern-era-ish Faerun) has a lot of superheroes running around and the Wafflecrew happens to be one of the teams that call the city home. Diath, Strix, Evelyn and Paultin are all doing the secret identity thing and there will be shenanigans involving those because, well, here’s the thing:

The Wafflecrew is a superhero team who’s members keep their identities secret even from each other, mostly because they haven’t been together as a team for very long yet.

Diath, Strix, Evelyn, and Paultin, however, are a group of friends who happen to share a flat. Who are all trying very hard not to let on to their friends that they’re a superhero.

So. Shenanigans.

(Well, except for Diath and Strix. They know about each other’s secret identities)

I won’t tell you everyone’s codenames, though, because ~character profiles~ :3c

The Daemon AU

This one is more loosely defined than the others, to be honest. I will say, straight up, that I have never read His Dark Materials and don’t have any particular intent to, because I’ve read enough excerpts to know I could never get through it. But the concept of daemons is really cool and fun and I’ve read a ton of daemon aus and I feel no shame in yoinking the concept for an au despite never having read the source material.

Evelyn’s daemon is a Norwegian Forest Cat named Carwyn, Paultin’s is a lyrebird named Leto, Strix’s is a Barred Owl named Cináed, and Diath’s… well, if you were to ask him, he’d tell you that his daemon is a very shy house spider named Perdita. The thing is, nobody’s ever actually seen her…

Diath may or may not be in a Special Situation in this AU thanks to the whole ancient-soul-that-Shemeshka-has-part-of circumstance

The Class Swap AU

This one!! Is one that I love!! a lot!! And also one that I fully intend to give its own post with art.

It started with me realising that Mason Marthain existing presented the perfect Backstory Butterfly to play with things a little and justify Evelyn being a rogue in a class swap AU. From there, I just kept playing with their backstories to see what there was that could be tugged on to shift them to one of each other’s classes. Ultimately, my class swap AU stands as such:

Evelyn Marthain, a swashbuckler rogue. Inspired by a slightly different family member, in this universe, Evelyn decided at a young age that rather than follow in her father’s footsteps, she wanted to follow in her uncle’s. Thus, rather than training at the Spires and taking on the mantle of a paladin, she apprenticed on her Uncle’s ship throughout her childhood, and eventually became a rogue.

Diath Woodrow, an oath of devotion paladin. A childhood on the streets went just a little bit differently for Diath, this time around. After a paladin caught him preventing another street kid from pickpocketing, he got taken in by the Church of Selune and found a calling that appealed to his sense of duty and his desire for adventure at the same time. (How does the oath of devotion’s call to obey just authority mix with being chaotic good, you might ask? Well, how does one define “just” authority? In Class Swap!Diath’s case, as soon as someone abuses their power, their authority is no longer just)

Paultin Seppa, a wild magic sorceror. Paultin honestly doesn’t know where his powers came from. They’ve been at the tips of his fingers for as long as he can remember. It probably has something to do with the big swath of his childhood that he can’t remember but he’s not particularly bothered with trying to figure it out. (The thing is, a panicking, traumatised child, very much going into shock, tearing through the mists of Barovia and out of Ravenloft, all on his own and without parental supervision for the very first time, has so much potential to go wrong. He stumbled through a few less than hospitable places before he ended up on the Prime Material)

Strix, a college of glamour bard. Her years in the Feywild were harsh and this time it wasn’t Baba Yaga whose care she stumbled into. She learned a lot, living amongst the fey, and not least amongst that was how a silver tongue, with words carefully chosen and used, is a magic all of its own and also a very dangerous weapon.

I can’t say anything about the two AUs I’m currently writing fics for because spoilers~ so just know that They Exist

The Star Wars AU is extremely conceptual. It features aspiring Jedi Knight Evelyn Marthain, an Alderaanian human raised in the Coruscant Jedi Temple, travelling musician Paultin Seppa, a human of mysterious origin who has an even more mysterious knowledge of the Force, given that he seemingly has no connection to any known Force sects, galactic treasure hunter/archaeologist Diath Woodrow, a human from Coronet City on Corellia, whose heritage may-or-may-not have originated on a certain planet starting with ‘M’, and Strix, a force-sensitive woman of indeterminate species (at first glance, you might think zabrak, but zabraks don’t have tails. They also usually don’t have hair but it’s not like hybrids are completely an unknown possibility… the thing is, if she’s a hybrid, there’s no way she’s a hybrid of just two)

The RWBY AU is Exactly What It Says On The Tin. It’s just an AU where the Wafflecrew are in Remnant. They comprise Team DEPS (”Deeps”) and all I’ve really figured out is their weapons and semblances and tbh, as an AU, it’s probably not going much further than that.

I had a Lot of fun with their semblances, though.

#dice camera action #dca #dca au #YEAH THIS IS ME /NOT/ GOING IN-DEPTH #I AM INCAPABLE OF BREVITY IT SEEMS #feel free to ask more about the AUs that I haven't labeled as getting their own posts! #I love talking about my AUs!! #anon #ask #THANK YOU FOR ASKING ABOUT MY AUS

[obsessedauthorchan-blog]

Akaashi Protection Squad - BokuAka - Oneshot Wednesday

AO3 | Wattpad | FanFiction

Rating: General Audiences Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply Category: M/M Fandom: Haikyuu!! Relationship: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou Characters: Bokuto Koutarou Akaashi Keiji Additional Tags: Cute, Getting Together, First Kiss, Bokuto saves the day, Bad guys are bad, bokuto beats them up, love that guy - Freeform, knight in shining armor, Princess - Freeform, knight saves the princess, bokuto is the knight, akaashi is the princess, except its not an au, its canon-verse, Canon Compliant, at least as far as i know, Bokuaka - Freeform, i love these two so much you guys, Fluff, Bandaids, Owls, bokuto tries to play doctor, it doesn't go that well, bokuto knows nothing about playing nurse, akaashi is actually pretty good at it though Language: English

Summary:

Bokuto gets stuck at school after practice, so when he gets out he tries to catch up to Akaashi. He doesn't like what he finds when he gets there.

But then he saves the day, so that's cool. Who knew Bokuto was such a badass?

(Me and Akaashi knew, btw)

Story:

Bokuto was walking home alone. It sucked.

Bokuto never had to walk home alone. Having Akaashi for a neighbor meant that he always got to walk home with his best friend.

Unfortunately Bokuto had been held back after practice (Captain stuff, he's a very important person, you know), so Akaashi walked on ahead and Bokuto was left behind. It's very sad.

By the time Bokuto was set free, Akaashi had a good 20 minutes on him. They lived about half an hour away from the school, so Bokuto, ever the optimist, figured that if he ran as fast as he could, he could probably catch up to walk with Akaashi for the last minute or so (Akaashi was a slow walker when Bokuto wasn't there to keep pace to). To Bokuto, a minute or so of walking with akaashi was worth the run, even though he was already super tired from practice, so as soon as he was out of the building he was dashing off.

He expected to see Akaashi in 9 minutes, 8 minimum.

He saw Akaashi in 5. And Bokuto was not happy about what else he saw.

Akaashi was not alone. He had left the school alone, and he was supposed to be alone the whole way back to his house, unless Bokuto caught up to him. But Akaashi wasn't alone. He was surrounded by a group, a group of people that Bokuto did not recognize. A group of guys who all looked suspiciously too old to be high school students, or even really college students.

They did not look friendly, either.

As he got closer, he could overhear parts of the conversation. "Come on, kid," one of the men was saying. "Don't be disrespectful to your elders." Bokuto stopped moving toward Akaashi, waiting to see how the scenario played out before getting involved. Normally, Bokuto would just charge on in, but he knew Akaashi could handle himself.

It was hard to hear, but Bokuto could just make out Akaashi's reply. "It is not disrespectful to refuse to give a stranger your money. Now, if you'll excuse me," Akaashi nodded a bow and turned away. He didn't get two steps before the same guy from the group grabbed his elbow, stopping him in his tracks and pulling him back, almost into his chest.

"Hey now, kid, if you won't pay us with money, you'll have to pay us with something else..." Akaashi didnt turn to face him. The man's body was blocking most of Bokuto's view of Akaashi, and he wasn't happy about it. He could just barely make out the man slipping his other hand over Akaashi's shoulder.

Bokuto's blood boiled.

As he started walking again (screw Akaashi handling this himself, Bokuto couldn't take it any longer), he heard Akaashi's even reply. "I'm sorry, but I'm meeting someone, so I can't."

The guy spun Akaashi around to face him. "Meeting someone? And who might that be?"

Just as Bokuto was about to speak up, having reached the group by now, Akaashi looked over the man's shoulder and made eye contact with Bokuto. With the smallest of smirks, the kind Akaashi only wore during games when he was setting a toss to Bokuto that he knew for certain their opponents couldn't block, Akaashi nodded in Bokuto's direction. "I'm meeting him."

The guy looked over his shoulder, letting go of Akaashi in the process. "Who the hell are-"

Bokuto punched him in the nose before he could finish his sentence.

The rest of the group practically erupted in outrage. Two different guys grabbed him on each side, but Bokuto shrugged them off and punched another one. In between punches, kicks, and dodging attacks, Bokuto managed to see that Akaashi had slipped away, standing a safe distance away from the brawl.

Bokuto fought with a wicked grin, thinking 'This ought'a show them not to mess with my best friend." The guys he was fighting managed to land a few hits here and there, but Bokuto was winning by a landslide.

It wasn't long, less than a minute, before Bokuto had won the fight and all the guys were either unconscious or wallowing on the ground like babies. Bokuto stood in the center of them all, hands on his hips and his chest puffed out in pride. He protected Akaashi. He saved him.

He practically skipped over to Akaashi, a wide smile on his lips and a joyous pride gleaming in his eyes. "Akaashiii! Wasn't that awesome? I'm so great, aren't I? I'm the best best friend ever, hey, hey, hey!"

Akaashi nodded, allowing himself a small grin. "Yes, Bokuto-san, that was very awesome. Well done."

Bokuto smiled, but he saw that Akaashi was holding his arm, the one that guy had grabbed, slightly akimbo, as if it was hurt. "Akaashi, are you okay?" The other boy nodded, but Bokuto didn't believe him. He scooped him up into his arms bridal style, and Akaashi made a quiet sound of protest, wrapping his arms tightly around Bokuto's neck.

"Bokuto-san, let me down."

Bokuto shook his head. "No way, Akaashi! You're hurt! That guy hurt you. I have to get you cleaned up."

Akaashi raised one of his immaculate eyebrows dubiously, probably in reference to the black eye Bokuto was no doubt sporting at the moment. Still, despite in no way looking happy with the situation, he didn't continue to protest. He simply heaved a silent sigh and settled in for the ride.

Bokuto walked quickly, but he did his best to keep his arms steady. He was really tired from practice and from running to catch up to Akaashi and then from fighting all those guys, but he was never too tired for Akaashi.

Thanks to the awesomeness of Bokuto's thighs (volleyball, amiright?), Bokuto was able to power-walk the rest of the way in just under 12 minutes. By the time he got to Akaashi's house (Bokuto's was closer, but he had siblings and a stay at home mom, whereas Akaashi was an only child and his parents worked a lot, and he didn't want anyone to interrupt his tending to Akaashi's wounds or to ask a bunch of questions), his arms were burning, but he didn't really mind. He wouldn't even set Akaashi down to let him unlock and open the front door. Once they were inside, Bokuto carried him all the way to the bathroom and set him down to get the first aid kit. "Sit down, Akaashi. Don't worry, I'll take good care of you!"

Akaashi huffed, but he did as he was told. Bokuto set the first aid kit on the sink counter and knelt down in front of Akaashi. He gently, very gently, pushed the sleeve on Akaashi's shirt up until his elbow as exposed. It was faint, but there was slight bruising on his elbow about the same size as finger tips. Bokuto let out a small sound in the back of the throat in displeasure. "He hurt you." He traced his fingers lightly over the bruises.

"And you hurt him back, Bokuto-san. His injuries were a lot worse than a bruised elbow."

Bokuto rolled his eyes. "But Akaaaashi! He was the bad guy! The people who do the bad thing are supposed to get hurt more. Innocent people aren't supposed to get hurt at all!"

The corner of Akaashi's lips quirked up. "I suppose you have a point, Bokuto-san. But I don't think the knight in shining armor is supposed to have a black eye like yours."

Bokuto raised a hand up to his eye and winced slightly as he prodded the tender flesh. "It's the knight's honor to be wounded when saving his princes- I mean, when, uh, defending! When defending the honor of the, um... other knight!"

Akaashi chuckled quietly and pulled Bokuto's hand away from his bruised eye, replacing it with his own. "It's okay, Bokuto-san. You can call me your princess. I don't mind."

Bokuto's eyes went wide, and he grinned maniacally. "Really?! Akaashi, are you sure you'll be my princess?" Akaashi nodded, giving him a look of fond amusement. "Hey, hey, hey!"

Bokuto didn't stop grinning, even when Akaashi rolled his eyes.  Bokuto suddenly snapped to attention. "I was supposed to be tending to your wounds, Akaashi! You distracted me!"

"How did I distract you, Bokuto-san?" There was no irritation in his voice. Just pure entertainment.

"You were- and I was- Well, you're just so pretty, Akaashi, it's not fair! Calling me your knight in shining armor and saying you'll be my princess is very distracting!" Bokuto crossed his arms and looked away in indignation.

"Oh, of course. You're right, Bokuto-san. I apologize."

Bokuto looked at him out of the corner of his eye, suspicion evident in his expression. When he had decided he believed Akaashi, to an extent, he turned back to look at him but didn't uncross his arms. "I still get to be your knight though, right?"

Akaashi chuckled again. Bokuto liked that sound. "Yes, Bokuto-san. You still get to be my knight." When Bokuto uncrossed his arms, Akaashi grabbed his wrists. "And I'll still be your princess." Then Akaashi leaned forward and pressed a gentle kiss to the tender flesh under Bokuto's bruised eye. "Thank you for saving me, Bokuto-san," he whispered, and Bokuto shivered at the feeling of Akaashi's breath hitting his black eye. His eyes were wide and he was frozen, trying to wrap his brain around the fact that Akaashi had just kissed him. Akaashi quirked an eyebrow at his surprised expression. "What is it, Bokuto-san? The knight always gets a kiss when he saves the princess."

Bokuto blinked a couple times. He opened his mouth, paused, closed it, and then opened it again. This time sound came out. A very loud sound. "AKAAAASHIII!" Bokuto leaped forward, cupping Akaashi's cheeks and pulling him into a sweet kiss. Akaashi made a sound of surprise before melting a little and setting his hands on Bokuto's shoulders. The kiss only lasted a few seconds before Bokuto reluctantly pulled away with a smile. "The princess is supposed to kiss the knight on the lips, Akaashi!"

Akaashi smiled, a true, wide smile that actually showed his pretty white teeth. "Oh, right. How could I forget?"

Bokuto shrugged and kissed Akaashi again. Akaashi rolled his eyes with a huff of laughter. "Come on, Bokuto-san, I have to clean that cut on your eyebrow."

Bokuto hadn't even noticed it. "But I have to tend to your wounds, Akaashi, that's how it works!"

Akaashi shook his head in resignation. "Okay, but I'll tend to your wounds after, alright?"

Bokuto nodded and got to work.

 Two hours later, the two were sitting on the floor in Akaashi's room, lazily kissing while avoiding their homework. Bokuto's cut and bruises had all been tended to, and Akaashi had a owl-covered BandAid on his elbow. On the bruise. That wasn't bleeding. And therefore didn't need a BandAid.

(Yes, Akaashi buys owl-covered BandAids because they remind him of Bokuto. So what?)

AO3 | Wattpad | FanFiction

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[sheminecrafts]

Niantic’s Harry Potter: Wizards Unite is a sorcerous smorgasbord for the Pokémon GO generation

Niantic’s follow-up to the absurdly popular Pokémon GO, the long-awaited Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, has one major drawback: unlike its predecessor, you can’t explain it in a single sentence. There’s so much to do in this game that it may repel some casual players — but while its depths of systems and collectibles may be nigh endless, don’t worry: you still basically just walk around doing wizard and witch stuff.

I got to spend a short time playing the game at Niantic’s office in San Francisco, and while they didn’t reveal all their secrets, I saw enough to convince me that HP:WU (I await a catchier nickname, like PoGO) will be a huge time sink for any Harry Potter fan and will probably convert or cannibalize many players from GO.

If you were worried this would be a slapdash cash-in effort like some of the HP tie-ins we’ve seen… don’t be. This is legit. Rowling isn’t involved, and the voice actors are sound-alikes, but still legit.

And just to get some of the major facts out of the way before we move on: it’s coming out sometime in 2019 (I’d guess before Summer but they wouldn’t say), in 17 languages (listed at bottom; actual countries where it’ll be offered unknown), there’s no wand accessory yet (I asked and they all looked nervous), minimum specs are reasonable and AR is optional, and it’s free but there are in-app purchases.

So what is this game? While it would be misleading to say it’s just HP:GO, the similarities are deep. But there’s a lot more going on. Perhaps I’d best summarize it in bullet point form before I embark on the many details. In HP:WU you:

Walk around a wizarding-themed version of the real world looking for locations at which to resupply and “foundables” to encounter

Dispel, battle, or otherwise deal with the “confoundable” associated with these

Earn reward items from encounters and for entering foundables in your registry

Use reward items to level up in various professions, brew potions, and battle alongside others at “fortresses”

Find rare foundables that advance the overall plot of why this is all happening anyway

So let’s take that piece by piece.

(By the way: The few images I have here were provided by Niantic and Portkey Games, the studio under WB Games who co-developed the game; I actually saw much more than what the shots show, so if something I describe isn’t illustrated directly, don’t worry — it’s in there.)

Walkable Wizarding World

Yes, this was the only image of the map we got.

“For Harry Potter fans, the line between the real world and the wizarding world is paper thin,” said WB Games’s Jonathan Knight. So they wanted to make it seem like, as with the pervasive hidden nooks and secrets of the HP world, “magic is all around you.”

The plot that enables all this is that, in a post-Deathly Hallows HP world, a macguffin event has caused magical items and creatures to appear all over the muggle world, threatening to expose the existence of magic; Witches and wizards are being recruited to track these things down and deal with them.

Conveniently, the event snatched these things and people from all throughout history and the world, laying them down willy-nilly — so you’re just as likely to find Fleur Delacoeur as Hermione Granger, or a young Dumbledore as an old one.

As a member of the SOS squad (enforcing the “Statute Of Secrecy” mandating separation between the magic and muggle worlds, you know), you’re tasked with tracking down these various things wherever they appear and reporting back to the ministry.

The map is, like in Pokémon GO, where you’ll be spending most of your time.

As before, it reflects the streets and features nearby: streets, parks, landmarks, and so on. It’s decidedly busier this time, however, both with gameplay elements and set dressing. Brooms and owls zip overhead, potion ingredients clutter the ground around you, and locations to visit sprinkle every block. (Although I’d hoped they’d use the Marauder’s Map aesthetic, they were probably right not to: it would probably get old fast.)

You interact with these locations as you would spin Pokéstops in GO, with “inns” and “greenhouses” giving you a semi-randomized reward every time (and starting a 5-minute cooldown). Encounters and ingredients pop up like Pokémon did, appearing semi-randomly but with some tendencies or affinities — for example, you’re more likely to find school-related foundables by actual schools, and so on. These places are helpfully noted by a little flag that highlights the affected area, such as: “Golden Gate Park – you’ll encounter more magical creatures here.”

The equivalent to lures are “dark detectors,” which will cause encounters to pop up with more frequency around the location you attach it to — and you can stack them! These will no doubt be a popular purchase.

One nice touch: when you move quickly, your character flies on a broom. No more “running” along the highway. That always did bug me.

Of course you’ll also be able to customize your appearance, and you even get to make a (non-public) “wizarding passport” complete with a moving photo you can outfit with various AR props. Your Hogwarts house is just something you select and which has no gameplay effect — for now.

Swish and flick

When you tap an encounter, you enter an AR minigame where you may, for instance, have to cast a spell to free Buckbeak the gryphon from a magical ball and chain, or defeat a monster threatening a character from the books.

You do this generally by tracing a shape with your finger on the screen to cast a spell. You don’t get to choose the spell, unfortunately, it’s built into the encounter. The more accurate and quick your trace is, the better the power of the spell — a bit like throw quality in Pokémon.

It’s similar in combat except you’ll also have to quickly cast protego when the enemy attacks you. That’s right, there are hostiles in this game! And although you can’t “die,” running out of stamina will fail the encounter or mission. More combat options open up later, though, as you’ll see. Encounters also vary in difficulty, which can be determined from the map or within the encounter — you may find some foes or rescues are beyond your power until you pump up a bit (or quaff a potion).

There are other little twists on the formula, though — the team said they have over 100 unique encounters, all fully realized in AR. And although you can only interact with them from a sweet spot that appears on the ground in AR, you can take your time to walk around or closely inspect the scene.

Foundables and confoundables and the other 20 things

There are a ton of these little pages.

Everything you’ll encounter is a foundable, and falls under one of numerous categories: magic zoology, dark arts, oddities, magical games and sports, Hogwarts, and so on.

And every foundable is listed in a sort of sticker book you’ll fill in bit by bit as you encounter them. Free Buckbeak however many times and it’ll be fully filled in, giving you various bonuses and, perhaps more importantly, the ability to take AR photos with the creature or character in question.

The creatures and characters range from common to very rare, of course, and you’ll need to get dozens of the former to fill in the book, but only one or a handful for certain plot-related items. They only shared the bare bones of the story, which will be revealed through in-game text and events, but a “deep, multi-year narrative arc” is promised. You can probably expect new foundables and ingredients and such to be added regularly.

One detail I found highly compelling was that weather, time of day, and even astral phenomena like moon phase will affect what you encounter. So for instance, werewolves may only come out on the full moon, while certain potion ingredients only appear (or appear more) when it’s raining, or in the evening. This kind of real-world involvement is something I’ve always appreciated and one that Niantic’s games are uniquely suited to take advantage of.

Potions will be necessary for healing and buffing yourself and others, so you’ll want to collect ingredients all the time; you mix them in a sub-screen, and can follow recipes or try your luck making something new.

One very cool thing they showed off that doesn’t really show well in images is a Portkey — you know, the objects in HP that transport you from here to there. It’s not exactly a canon treatment in the game, as they create portals instead, but it makes for a great AR experience. You put the portal down and literally step through it, then look around at a new scene (for instance, Ollivander’s shop or Dumbledore’s office) in which you can find items or presumably encounter monsters and other stuff. Portkey “Portmanteaus” are a bit like egg incubators in that you charge them up by walking, and can find or buy more powerful ones.

Min-maxing managed

What perhaps surprised me most in the team’s presentation of the various systems of the game was the extent of the stats and professions. There are three “professions,” they explained: auror, magical zoologist, and professor (“if you’re a bit of a goody-goody” — I resent that).

I figured these would be a bit like a play style bonus — one gives you more combat prowess, another is better for taming creatures, and so on. Boy, is there a lot more to it than that!

First of all, you should know that you have stats in this game. And not weird hidden ones or a relatively meaningless one like your trainer level in Pokémon GO. No, you have a straight-up stat screen filled with all kinds of stuff.

And your profession isn’t just a bonus or special ability — it’s a whole skill tree, and one to rival those of many a “serious” RPG.

As in many other games, some nodes are simple things like an increase in stamina or spell power — some you can even upgrade several times to increase the effect. But others are entirely new abilities you’ll be able to use in various circumstances. I probed through a bunch in my limited time and found things that, for instance, healed allies, debuffed enemies, improved potion effectiveness, etc. These are definitely going to have a significant effect on gameplay.

You can advance in any of the professions you want, however you want, though of course the further you progress down a tree, the more powerful abilities you unlock. You do this with tokens you earn from encounters, leveling, and challenges, so you get a steady trickle. It should take a good while to fill these out, though no doubt we’ll have some real tiresome types who’ll do it in a week.

Fortress of Jollitude

(It’s a portmanteau of solitude and jolly cooperation, because this is the teamplay part… let me have my fun.)

The last major aspect of the game is Fortresses. These are a bit like Gyms from Pokémon GO, in that they are multiplayer focused, but for now they’re strictly player vs enemy.

Fortresses are large, obvious locations on the map where you and up to four other players can join battle against a host of enemies in order to receive rare foundables and other rewards. How it works is that you and whoever else wants to play get within range of the Fortress and tap it. (They didn’t provide any images of one, inside or out, but you can see the roof of one just at the top left of the paw circle in the map image above.)

You’ll then have a chance to join up with others by presenting a special item called a runestone. You’ll be getting these from normal encounters now and then or a few other sources, and there are 10 different kinds with multiple rarities — and depending on which you use, or which combination your team presents, the Fortress will have any of a variety of challenges and encounter types. (I only saw combat.)

This is where the combat complexity comes in, because all the enemies are presented to all the players at once, and you can take on whichever you choose. Have you leveled your magical creature taming? You better take on that hippogriff. Do extra damage against human foes? You’re on Death Eater duty. Stocked up on spells that hinder opponents or heal allies? You can use them from the select screen in real time, for instance if your friend is about to be knocked flat by a high-level Dementor and needs a hand.

I only got to test a small amount of this, but the possibilities for actual strategy and team synergy were very exciting, especially compared to the extended slugfests of Pokémon GO raids.

“Your forever Harry Potter game”

That’s how the team described Wizards Unite, and although a small-screen experience will never equal the immersion or magic (so to speak) of the cinema or the richness of the books, this does look like a dandy game and it will certainly be a heck of a time sink for countless players worldwide.

I only got to see a few minutes of the game in person, so there are parts I missed and parts that weren’t being shown; for instance, your Hogwarts house will likely figure later in multiplayer games, and more abilities are on the way.

I worry a bit that the simplicity and casual serendipity that defined Pokémon GO have been abandoned for a level of complexity that may be daunting for some. Yet at the same time I worry that the grind of collecting however many Buckbeaks you need to complete a page of the registry isn’t as satisfying as catching (and grinding up) a dozen Charmanders to power up your favorite ‘mon. And the AR experiences so far exhibit much visual variety but (that I saw) didn’t differ much from one another except in the trace you had to draw.

But there’s a great deal here and a great deal to like. It’s new, it’s fun, and it’s HP. I know I’m going to be playing.

(Lastly, the game will be released in the following languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Brazilian and European Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Danish, Turkish, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Japenese, Korean, and Latin American Spanish.)

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