#and used its tricks to defeat The Worst Wizard

[kylobith]

The Trick (Gale of Waterdeep x Tav)

Word count: 698

Ao3 link

In all his life, Gale never imagined undertaking such a difficult task. But he must.

‘Alright, that should do the trick.’

Drawing in a sharp breath, Gale furrows his brow and enters a state of deep concentration. Deep breaths help him soothe the loud thrumming of his heart as he attempts to keep calm. Of all his adventures, this seems to him the most perilous. Gnolls, drow, goblins and even gods tried to skin him alive, yet he never felt such discouragement. Still, he raises his hands before him, letting them hover there momentarily before allowing them to execute the task ahead.

His fingers busy themselves with nearly surgical precision, curving, hooking, and parting. They reach out, turn, flick and descend in clear motions. The crease on his forehead deepens while his brain is at work. Tav explained each step, and now he needs to remember them. Was it upward or downward? Could he still use the old tool, or would it mess everything up? How thorough did he have to be? Was the final ingredient added before or after the whole ordeal?

He should know. Tav was so comprehensible in her explanations. He already saw her at play, and the temptation to take his quill and paper out to write down the process was exhilarating, but she refused him. All she needed was his undivided attention, and much to her relief, he gave her just that.

But she is much more knowledgeable and skilled than he is. Not that this is an excuse at all, mind you. Yet he knows how important it is for him to learn in turn. Tav does not have to do everything herself all the time, and he would not have it anyway. They are in this together, after all. Not only is it a precious duty to take on, but it is something he knows will nurture their cherished bond. He is not merely helping, as many call it; he is doing what he was born to do. Nature's call, in a sense.

Once the worst is behind him, Gale seizes a new tool and wraps it around the squirming limbs he wishes would still for a second. Then, he steps backwards and reverts to something familiar, a spell he is used to casting.

‘Veni et iuva me!’

As he twirls his hands before him, a blinding light illuminates the room, brief yet intense. Then, amid the swirling shapes, a hand materialises, blue and see-through, its fingers fidgeting in anticipation. Awaiting Gale’s orders, it spins around to face him, nearly enquiring about his wishes. Concentrating on what is left of the process, he pictures it in his head, careful not to sever the connection between him and the hand by letting distractions cloud his instructions.

The hand surges forward and collects the dangerous weapon from the table, carrying it across the room. But as it endeavours to get rid of it, Tav peeks into the room and instantly notices it. She grumbles and waves towards the table before Gale.

‘Oh, come on, Gale, she's your daughter!’

Startled by the interruption, the wizard shrieks and the bond with the hand is ruptured. The hand vanishes into smoke, leaving the deadly weapon to crash onto the wooden floor, staining it. Gale whimpers in defeat, burying his face into his hands at the thought of having to clean it up afterwards. 

‘But it smells so bad, Tav!’ he cries out, glancing towards his partner while waving at the crushed nappy.

‘Don't you shame your little girl for what's natural!’

Tav steps inside and picks up the crying newborn from the changing table, cradling the child and covering its little head with kisses before taking a whiff of it. She will never tire of the aroma of her daughter's head, however insane this might sound to others.

Then, she faces Gale again with an eyebrow raised.

‘By the way, need I remind you how bad yours smelled after a night out? So get yourself together and change her nappies normally, mh?’

With this said, the new mother exits the room, cooing at the baby. Gale curses at himself under his breath as his gaze returns to the splattered goo on the floor.

‘Sometimes I really hate it when she's right.’

#gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #bg3 #baldurs gate #baldurs gate 3 #Baldur's Gate 3 #bg3 fanfiction #bg3 fanfic #bg3 fic #gale of waterdeep fanfiction #gale x tav #bg3 gale

[sylibane]

You had a normal upbringing, probably in a small farming village, a modest town with a few shops at biggest. You were raised a farmer or a herder or kitchen hand or baker or assistant in a little shop. You were raised by grandparents or an aunt and uncle or someone who knew the parents you never did, or only barely remember. Maybe you had a couple friends, or maybe you had none. You might not feel like you fit in with the normal people around you, because you’re a different kind of normal, a normal hero with a normal upbringing until a wizard or a princess or a magical creature shows up and whisks you away on an adventure, a blank page waiting for its glorious story. There have been a thousand heroes like you before, and a thousand more to come. Except…

Your magic manifested way earlier than it should have, enough that you became the town witch, either replacing one who suddenly died or filling a position that had never been taken before. You can’t go off on an adventure when you have a responsibility to your home.

Your adopted family knows what you are and have used you as their main source of income since you were small. Maybe even the whole town depends on you as a tourist attraction. By the time your destiny comes for you, you resent it so much you want nothing to do with it.

Everyone has been suspicious of what you really are since you were small, so you leaned into it. You didn’t manifest anything cool, so you took up stage tricks or learned magic to fill the gap.

You spent years preparing for your destiny. You know who it was who left you with your adoptive family and who will come for you, and you’ve followed their exploits through stories and rumors, working your hardest to be like them. But when you finally meet, they reject you. They’ve decided you actually weren’t the chosen one, they’ve concluded the source of your magic is evil instead of good, they can’t stand something about you, or you’re just not the bright-eyed innocent that they hoped to shape in their image. Whatever the reason, you’re without a mentor and without a clear path forward.

You learned of the prophecy connected to you prematurely, and the destiny laid before you will end badly for you, or for the people you care about, or force you to be someone who you’d hate to be. But if you know the conditions, maybe you can avert them and through fate off course.

Someone else took you first. Not a mentor who would teach you to save the world, but one who taught you to be a crafter or entertainer or scholar or merchant or criminal or any of the thousands of professions that make you less of a blank page.

Your destiny came with a tidy inheritance. It’s enough to hire a team of experienced adventurers to do the work for you. Hopefully, your patronage technically counts in defeating your destined nemesis.

Nobody ever came for you. No herald to tell you who you really are, no villain to burn down your home to spur you into adventure, no divine sign. You’ve spent your whole upbringing waiting for something that never came. Your only chance for a destiny may be to make one for yourself.

You didn’t live to fulfill that destiny. It wasn’t even act of evil, just an accident or illness. But your ghost lingers, and you must find and guide someone else to be who you couldn’t.

They’re not you. They’re your best friend. You know a destiny is coming for them and they won’t be able to handle it. But you could. You’re not just going to be their funny sidekick at best or one of the people who dies in their tragic backstory at worst. Maybe you have to fake a miracle or a birthmark. Maybe you have to fully take your friend’s identity. But whatever you do, you’re going to save your friend from their destiny by taking it upon yourself.

#writing #writing ideas #character ideas #writing prompt #idk what to call this #i was trying to find a way to play with the 'normal orphaned farmboy with secret destiny who's whisked off on an adventure' trope in fantas #and came up with too many ideas to do anything with #so throwing them at the internet to see if anyone else wants them #text heavy

[this-shining-night-on-krynn]

I love his resourcefulness but...

#dragonlance #raistlin majere #I posted this in the DL discord a few weeks ago #but it belongs on my blog too #raistlin #he kept that sleight of hand book with him the whole time #and used its tricks to defeat The Worst Wizard #who does that #what a nerd #memes

[pet-genius]

The Death Eaters as a Cult - Part 1

This is a very lightly edited old Reddit post, that I'll publish in parts because the whole thing is like 7000 words. Analyzing Voldemort, the DE and their dynamics, Dumbledore and Harry in comparison, and individual Death Eaters. Hope you like it!

Some say Voldemort is a cartoon villain, or wizard Hitler. I think he is very realistic, and that the focus on his political aspirations ignores interesting aspects of him. I cannot prove that JKR had cults in mind when she wrote Voldemort and his followers, but this is how I read them. It’s nearly impossible to define a cult, so, for the purpose hereof, I’m going with “a group dedicated to the worship of a person”. Many cult leaders in real life present themselves merely as “god’s voice” or “the messiah”, but Voldemort specifically didn’t bother to hide behind a power higher than himself.

Tom Riddle comes from humble beginnings, like many cult leaders - he’s raised in an orphanage. He already has delusions of grandeur, only in this case they’re not delusions, because he really is magic, which makes it all the more dangerous. Look how he reacted to discovering he was a wizard, and how Harry did.

Immediately following the revelation that Lily and James did not die in a car crash, and that Harry is famous, and that he survived an attempt at his life by the worst wizard in history:

Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He’d spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn’t they been turned into warty toads every time they’d tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he’d once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football?

“Hagrid,” he said quietly, “I think you must have made a mistake. I don’t think I can be a wizard.”

Heart-breaking. Harry doesn’t believe he can be special, he blames himself for the way he’s treated.

This is Tom Riddle:

“I know that you are not mad. Hogwarts is not a school for mad people. It is a school of magic.”

There was silence. Riddle had frozen, his face expressionless, but his eyes were flickering back and forth between each of Dumbledore’s, as though trying to catch one of them lying. “Magic?” he repeated in a whisper.

“That’s right,” said Dumbledore.

“It’s... it’s magic, what I can do?”

“What is it that you can do?”

“All sorts,” breathed Riddle. A flush of excitement was rising up his neck into his hollow cheeks; he looked fevered. “I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want them to do, without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want to.”

His legs were trembling. He stumbled forward and sat down on the bed again, staring at his hands, his head bowed as though in prayer.

“I knew I was different,” he whispered to his own quivering fingers. “I knew I was special. Always, I knew there was something.”

His megalomania and violent nature are already apparent, as is his preternatural control of his magic. It also hints at rudimentary legilimency.

Dumbledore spells out that young Tom Riddle equated magic with immortality and liked to collect trophies, and that Tom Riddle liked being special, as he resents the name Tom for being too common; he already lives behind a mask and only shows his true face in shock. This, and not Dumbledore’s magical prowess, is what always scared Tom. Voldemort knew Dumbledore knew what he was. That was the only tactical advantage Dumbledore had.

It’s also one of JKR’s strokes of brilliance: Dumbledore saw Tom for what Tom was, and others never did until it was too late, not because he was that clever, but because he knew from experience. Dumbledore had allowed himself to fall for a charismatic but heartless man before, and it took Ariana dying to slap him awake. Dumbledore knows good people can be led astray: It happened to him. It has nothing to do with intelligence or “goodness”. Gellert was able to give Albus exactly what Albus lacked, stuck at home taking care of Ariana: the promise of freedom and a bright future, and the companionship of an equal. Albus fell for it, despite warning signs that should have been obvious.

Later, we know Tom is chosen by a wand of yew and phoenix feather. Both yew and phoenix are associated with immortality; yew trees are very long-lived. Compare this to Harry’s wand, holly and phoenix feather: both these characters will experience death and rebirth, except Tom Riddle’s wand tree is yew, and Harry’s is holly.

From Wikipedia: “The Christian church commonly found it expedient to take over existing pre-Christian sacred sites for churches. It has also been suggested that yews were planted at religious sites as their long life was suggestive of eternity, or because, being toxic when ingested, they were seen as trees of death.” Also from Wikipedia: “Christians have identified a wealth of symbolism in the holly tree’s form. The sharpness of the leaves help to recall the crown of thorns worn by Jesus; the red berries serve as a reminder of the drops of blood that were shed for salvation; and the shape of the leaves, which resemble flames, can serve to reveal God's burning love for His people.”

The two orphans’ wildly different views of death are also apparent in their wand trees. Voldemort will murder to attain his goals; Harry will sacrifice himself. That the phoenix feather came from Fawkes is also meaningful - Dumbledore taught both magic in some capacity, but he never could defeat Voldemort, because they’re too alike. One of Harry’s advantages in this battle is the integrity of his soul, which cannot be compromised.

Next, Tom Riddle is sorted into Slytherin. For a child who is already prone to megalomania, the house values bring out the worst in him, and under Slughorn, he grows into a manipulative, cunning, ruthless young man. I’m not blaming Horace for Tom being a psychopath, but some of the particular ways his psychopathy manifested in seem to have been directly due to Slughorn’s influence. Slughorn is a blood-supremacist, who was convinced Tom must come from fine stock. Slughorn tests drinks for poison using house elves; Tom Riddle tests the effectiveness of his Horcrux’s protection on Kreacher. Slughorn emphasizes the importance of connections and outright praises Tom for knowing more than he needs to, and encourages an attitude of “it’s only wrong if you get caught.” But Slughorn, prejudiced and cunning as he is, is not violent - he is academically curious about Horcruxes, but he finds them repugnant. Tom’s heart is not so faint - at the point of asking Slughorn about Horcruxes, the diary is already a horcrux, and Tom has already murdered his father. This is how Dumbledore describes Tom’s original gang, who were the proto-Death Eaters:

As he moved up the school, he gathered about him a group of dedicated friends; I call them that, for want of a better term, although as I have already indicated, Riddle undoubtedly felt no affection for any of them. This group had a kind of dark glamour within the castle. They were a motley collection; a mixture of the weak seeking protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the thuggish gravitating toward a leader who could show them more refined forms of cruelty. In other words, they were the forerunners of the Death Eaters, and indeed some of them became the first Death Eaters after leaving Hogwarts. Rigidly controlled by Riddle, they were never detected in open wrongdoing, although their seven years at Hogwarts were marked by a number of nasty incidents to which they were never satisfactorily linked, the most serious of which was, of course, the opening of the Chamber of Secrets, which resulted in the death of a girl. As you know, Hagrid was wrongly accused of that crime.

Dumbledore explains what motivated people to join Tom: some were afraid, some ambitious, some cruel. He controlled his so-called friends, and already started framing others for his own crimes (Hagrid’s framing was followed by Morfin’s and Hokey the house elf’s).

This is followed by Tom’s attempt to become a teacher (Dumbledore spells out his motivations: He is attached to the school, he wants to study its magic, and he already wants to build himself an army). He is denied, oddly chooses to work for Borgin and Burkes, a choice fueled by the desire to trace down more items to make into Horcruxes. Through the memory of the meeting with Heptzibah Smith, we see that Tom was definitely charming when he needed to be, and knew how to make people feel good. He did not use magic to trick her into showing him her precious locket and cup: he used muggle manipulation - flattery, making an old and forlorn lady feel valuable, perhaps even flirting with her (she’s certainly flirting with him). He was pleasant enough that Ms. Smith eagerly looked forward to his visits - but as she showed him her treasures, he was caught off guard by hearing about his mother and how she sold the locket, and she saw him for what he was, although she quickly fell into denial. Sadly, she was murdered two days later.

Why rely on Horcruxes to gain immortality? Tom must have known about Nicholas Flamel and the Philosopher’s Stone, and the Horcruxes require someone else to perform the resurrection ritual. Either making the Stone is so hard that it would deter Tom (unlikely), or he already expected to rely on followers who would find him and revive him - he certainly seems to have expected his followers to have searched for him earlier. Maybe Horcruxes were appealing because they require murder. In any case, this is followed by the memory of Tom asking Dumbledore for the DADA job again, a decade later. Tom has spent a decade gathering followers, and he has already changed his name to Lord Voldemort. This is reminiscent of real life cult leader David Koresh, and the leaders of the Children of God, Aum Shinrikyo, etc. The meeting between Voldemort and Albus is interesting, because it’s clear that Dumbledore had tried to teach Tom about the power of love:

“The old argument,” he said softly. “But nothing I have seen in the world has supported your famous pronouncements that love is more powerful than my kind of magic, Dumbledore.”

“Perhaps you have been looking in the wrong places,” suggested Dumbledore.

This did not help. Tom never learned - how could he? At 16, he was already a murderer - who could love him now for who he was? He could never be truly loved, and he could never truly love another, and he underestimated the power of love for his entire life, leading to his downfall - twice (were that it was so simple in real life).

Voldemort is trying to obfuscate the nature of the relationship, like all cults - they never admit this is what they are.

“I am glad to hear that you consider them friends,” said Dumbledore. “I was under the impression that they are more in the order of servants.”

“You are mistaken,” said Voldemort.

But LV can’t lie to Dumbledore, who changes the subject. He denies him the DADA job again, and the curse is placed on the job. LV’s ascent is due to begin in a few years. Hagrid tells the story:

Anyway, this — this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin’ fer followers. Got ’em, too — some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o’ his power, ’cause he was gettin’ himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn’t know who ter trust, didn’t dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches...

Voldemort isn’t just interested in immortality. He wants complete control. He wants everyone fearing him - even fearing his name. He has people isolated and distrustful, fearing for their lives.

But we know his reign of terror was dreadful - what I’m interested in is the way he treated his own followers. We know little about how he treated them in the first war, but we do have what Sirius had to say about Regulus’s fate:

From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. Well, you don’t just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It’s a lifetime of service or death.

We know the real story of Regulus’s disappearance, and it’s different. Kreacher tells us that Regulus died in the Horcrux cave - but more telling is that Regulus forbade Kreacher from telling his parents what had happened to him. Why did he feel the need to do that? This suggests that Regulus knew LV destroyed traitors’ families, which is a tactic used in cults and other abusive dynamics. We know LV would leverage Draco’s welfare against Lucius for his failure in the Department of Mysteries, too. We know also that instead of going to Dumbledore, or to his own brother, Regulus chose death – unless he was really dumb, and I don’t think he was, he must have been manipulated into believing that was his only option, or his world made no sense after his faith had shattered. So many people never readjust to life outside the cult.

Voldemort “dies” about two years after that, having successfully recruited about 400 followers (“the death eaters outnumbered us the Order 20:1” - Lupin). We can’t say if all these people were genuine Death Eaters or people who had been Imperiused or otherwise coerced, or allies like Narcissa, but that coercion is used to recruit shows that Voldemort did not take his own followers’ ambitions and wishes into account. People who use outright coercion don't suddenly draw the line at manipulation.

#death eaters #cult #death eater meta #voldemort #voldemort meta #harry potter #meta

[mrspillow]

Sorry (Jellal Fernandes x Reader)

"Hmm... strawberry cake..."

Suppressing a small laugh you turned your head to Erza, your best friend of childhood days that never seemed to miss the opportunity of shoving cake into her mouth.

You had seen the amounts of baked goods the redhead could swallow within minutes, not even speaking of hours, but when it came to strawberry cakes, it turned ridiculous.

"I do not know how you aren't fat already, Erza", you mused and put your chin onto your palm, still watching that food orgy of hers "But I guess that's okay, Ichiya likes your body just the way you are."

Even though she was wearing armor, you could see the shivers running down her spine and her face growing blue as she choked on that cake.

"Stop that", she didn't like being teased with a matter as serious as Ichiya, not even by you "You know exactly he gives me the chills every time."

You shrugged and turned back to the field inside of the Domus Flau arena in Krokus, watching the pair of wizards fight it out. Although you were no part of a guild, you were busy cheering on for Fairy Tail whenever they entered the field.

Yeah, sure, there were shouts of boos and the mocking of the other guilds but with Erza alone, they couldn't be any worse than the best.

You just knew it.

Even when the both of you were just kids and surely no force to reckon with, she wasn't just a surprisingly powerful mage but also kind and caring for those in her family. She was everything that made you change minds back then and you couldn't have been more grateful. It was only then that you realized just what exactly it was that you were doing and you felt so dirty the moment it became clear as day.

You snapped out of your stupor before it became obvious you were lightyears away and focused on the matches ahead of you.

Snatching the list from Gray's hands (who was too absorbed into fighting off Juvia - as always) to take a glimpse at the letters, you let out a sigh of defeat.

"Can I have a piece too?"

Just as you felt your eyes sliding shut, Natsu bumped into you, nearly making you fall over the handrails but at least, you were awake now.

"Is it finally over?" you leaned back and let out a yawn "Thank God!"

After all, you weren't that much into stuff like tournaments, Fairy Tail was basically the only reason for you to come into this cave of pent-up masses.

Nobody answered you, either tired as well or already on their way through the door and out of the arena, back to their sweet sweet home. You got up quickly and grabbed Erza (still next to you but with a very empty plate - you could only guess Mira had sacrificed her even more cakes) to get out.

It was just then that you noticed how far the sun has gone westwards making you suppress another yawn that made its way up. You got to go to bed soon enough anyway so no need to rush.

The way back out was surprisingly swift and without running into any hostile guilds (lucky you). So you were out before Natsu broke something or bumped into somebody.

"Let's go grab something to eat, (Y/N)? You coming?", you heard Gray's voice from behind you, making you turn around and give him a bright smile - only to decline.

"I'd love to, really, but there is that thing I need to get done yet. Don't worry, I'll be back soon, just start without me.", your voice was sweet enough that you nearly even betrayed yourself, if it hadn't been for that tiny tiny voice in your head.

Why don't you just tell them?

But you brushed it off without a second thought, no need to worry your friends about your self-made worries and troubles.

"Okay...", Erza didn't seem as convinced as you would've liked "You sure?"

A simple nod was enough to soothe her and so, you made your way back into town, taking a stroll through the streets devoid of people or friends. You were alone with your thoughts and the memories that came with them.

You sighed making eye contact with the horizon to take in the way the sun was drowning beneath these parts of bustling streets and places.

You hadn't missed the silence that came with the night for you had heard it over and over again in those sleepless nights.

It shamed you to this day that you hadn't noticed the way he was using you, cocooning you in soft and sweet words to make your finger bleed from hard work and your skin shining from the sweat and tears spilled for him. The worst part of it all was that damned silent voice within you, asking again and again if what you were doing was right.

How could you build weapons of mass destruction meant for thousands with a straight face?

How dared you think sacrificing people to a black wizard could be a way to achieve paradise?

How did you fail to notice that you would never be able to sleep after you were so willing to make these sacrifices more for him than for Zeref after all?

Who knew.

Did I know?

You wondered for years if maybe, just maybe, you had known what you were doing. You probably weren't even able to throw the cloak of ignorance over your shoulders to save yourself from the cold feeling of guilt.

Shame, shame on you.

You hated the way he made you feel so far away from everything like he had built a place away from the wars and the screams of the world, simply made for the two of you.

And again, you failed to notice how it was only the mist caught in between your fingers.

"(Y/N)?"

At first, you thought it was only the back of your mind, playing tricks on you by reviving past days and voices. But after some seconds, you had noticed the silhouette nearby and wondered if you had heard his voice.

Maybe you were going crazy.

At first, you noticed the dark blue hair, sticking out to spite the cloak it was put under, then that tattoo you would notice everywhere.

Jellal Fernandes.

Surprisingly enough, your panicking mind took it upon itself to react, stumping you with the bright - borderline hysterical - laugh that came out of your mouth.

You just couldn't help it. The way he appeared after decades with nothing to say but your name just about the moment you had wallowed in self-hate and guilt was just ridiculous.

Jellal stood quiet, not even his face gave away whatever irritated look he might have had, giving your laugh an untimely end. And that was just about what you needed to come back to your right set of mind.

"What are you doing here?" You didn't bother the biting hate in your voice or the way his shoulders slumped from your tone.

"I came because Erza told me you would be here.", he started when he had straightened again "She said it wouldn't be a good idea but I came because I wanted to speak to you."

You didn't trust the way this man looked so sad. You couldn't.

Not even enough to sit next to him when he scuffled over to the next bench and gestured for you to take a seat.

Not ever, not in a thousand years would you take that seat.

So you stood like a tree, unmoving and unwavering in your place, staring at him and ready to defend yourself by any means.

Would he try anything funny?

From the way, you knew him back then? Definitely.

Surprisingly though, he didn't try to press you into sitting down, instead starting to talk about whatever it was that lead him back to you.

"It took me a very long time to properly realize what had happened in the Tower of Heaven" he started "I did things in there that I never remembered to have said or done, horrible things. And when I remembered, it was like watching through the glass as someone else moved my body."

For the blink of an eye, his hand hovered over his head before he opted to pull down his hood and revealed the dark blue hair. Jellal sighed before he put his face in his hands for a few moments as if he was trying to get ahold of his last pieces of sanity.

"And when I understood what I had done, I felt so, so guilty. I tried to sacrifice hundreds - no, thousands of people, I manipulated you, Milliana, and the others to work for my cause. The worst of it all was the way I led you to believe in the lies I told you over and over again. I remember that look of adoration in your eyes and I misused it for these terrifying things."

The way he spoke of these sins the two of you committed so easily made you relive the shame of it over and over again. It was like your mind couldn't stop.

"I need to atone for these sins, for the things I did to you, and I wanted to start by telling you how sorry I am for the way I treated you and led you into believing these tales.

I do not ask for you to forgive me or to see beyond that, I came here to apologize because that is what you deserve."

For the first time since he started talking, he looked into your eyes as if waiting for your response and your mind came to an abrupt halt.

What exactly was it what you were feeling?

Hate?

Sadness?

Anger?

...No.

For the first time in forever, you could sympathize with him - that person who you had thought of as a monster for much longer than you wanted to admit. He had been taken advantage of and used to do whatever malicious things asked of him. He did not have a choice.

What did he feel like when he discovered how many people had been suffering under him? Was it sorrow? Betrayal? Shock? Or even anger?

And only when you were ready to answer was it that you too were looking into these dark eyes.

"I remember every damn word you spoke whenever you looked at me so fondly and I remember how you laughed at me for even believing in your farce. " you didn't try to cover up the bitterness sneaking in when you recalled your heart break into pieces just like that.

"And now that you are sitting in front of me, asking for forgiveness, I don't even feel the hate anymore." it had stilled to numbness in your heart, always there, but only with that hollow feeling, never leaving.

"I cannot forget", you further explained feeling unshed tears prick in your eyes "My memories have become a part of me and they will never leave again. A Sorry won't fix everything."

By then, two or three tears escaped over your face before you could wipe them away, not escaping Jellals gaze.

He turned to look at the ground for a few seconds, then he moved off the bench and cast a sad smile at you, only to walk away from you as if that was his clue to disappear back into the night.

Only when you understood where he going, you set into motion, reaching out for his hand.

"But..."

The blue-haired male revolved when he felt your hand in his, soft as in those memories he still held close. His eyes became wide at the side of your tearing and red eyes, paired with that tiny, hopeful smile directed at him.

"But... I won't give up on you."

His mouth carved up to mirror your smile as he squeezed your hand just like sunlight kissing your skin.

#fairy tail #jellal fernandes #jellal #jellal x reader #x reader #anime #writing #crime sorciere #reader insert #(y/n) #imagine

[saphirered]

Hello! What do you think it would be like if Essek had a fire genasi S/o, like they're normal really calm and collected unlike most fire genasi but the times they do get really general angry it's like watching a volcano erupt! (Maybe they got angry cause Essek got hurt by someone?) Thank you!

Essek is so caught up in his work he doesn’t even hear you enter his laboratory. Papers are strewn about, books opened, some flat, some propped agains anything and everything for better readability. The sound of the metal nib of a fine pen moving across paper, the only constant in the room besides the occasional mutter to himself.

You knock on the door. No response. You call out his name. Nothing. You think whatever Essek’s working on must be very important to have him be so unaware of his surroundings. You notice Essek’s in his robe, shoes and a shirt given the mostly exposed lower arms. Did he not get dressed in the morning? Or did he simply never go to sleep? You’re not sure. Could be both. Could be either.

Since he’s not responding you simply approach. You place a hand on his shoulder, slide it down over his chest as you kiss his temple. You look over the pages out in front of him as he slowly becomes aware of your presence, leaning into your kiss.

“What are you up to?” You ask softly recognising some of the spells as the schematics of healing magic and to a lesser extend regeneration. Essek must have noticed your confusion as he quickly pulls from your grasp, begins to gather the papers and pile them together, closing the books as he goes.

“Nothing of importance. I did not hear you enter.” Essek gets up leaning against the desk and faces you with a smile reaching for you and pulling you closer to the point you no longer have visual on any of the papers and books. He’s definitely hiding something.

“I knocked, and called your name. You seemed to be pretty caught up in whatever you were working on.” You try to look past him but the moment you do his hand finds its way to your cheek brushing his thumb over it lovingly.

“My apologies. Shall we go somewhere else? I think I’ve been crammed up in this study long enough for today. Perhaps some fresh air will suit us both?” Essek suggest with a somewhat nervous laugh. You smile back at him and give him a kiss. If he’s not going to talk, you’ll find out yourself and you’re prepared to use whatever you can to get to the bottom of this.

Reaching for the stack of papers behind him once they are securely in your grasp you break the kiss taking several steps back and leaf through the notes before he can get to you. So not just healing magic… herbology, physiology and anatomy, manual healing, treating injuries, medicine, recipes for concoctions, ointments and potions to cure anything from bruises to broken bones, wounds and burns.

“Why the sudden interest in the art of healing?” You frown as the pages are snatched from your grasp and the drow holds them behind his back with an unreadable expression, head held high; the same one he uses whenever he’s dealing with any kind of official and none casual business.

“A sudden interest. I found myself with time to spare and decided to spend it learning until your return. And since you’re here, there’s no need to continue.” You notice the nervous smile break through again leaving you more leery of Essek. If he’s gonna play this game you’ll play along but last you remembered chess is a two player game and you’re not about to be tricked into making a certain move by the wizard.

“You misunderstand. I’m not judging your ‘sudden interest’ nor questioning your reasonings for wishing to study healing. However, last I remember you were the one to tell me healing magic is not exactly within your capabilities. I’m just curious.” You take a step closer to Essek and he steps back. You take another and close enough to the desk he puts the stack of paper back where it was before he steps back in towards you.

“There are some very capable healers among my friends and you are an exceptional one. I simply wish to learn the deeper meanings to the abilities they have at their fingertips and gain a better understanding of it.” You smile at him innocently. Such a liar. Such. A. Liar. Half truth if we’re being technical but deception nonetheless.

“Well then, I would leave you to your studies but I have missed you, Essek.” You kiss his cheek snaking one arm around his waist. You can see the panic in his eyes. Normally he’d happily indulge, return your affections without even a second of doubt. He pulls the robe around his torso a little closer as your free hand dances up his chest and over his shoulder.

The moment you reach his shoulder he grits his teeth, jaw tightening holding back a a whimper or a gasp as his entire posture freezes up. You quickly remove your hand and look at him worried. Essek gives you a look of defeat as you put a bit more space between the two of you, allowing you to move freely.

“Essek…” You all but threaten as you reach for the neckline of the robe. He has half the mind to stop you but refrains from doing so with a sigh as you push the fabric aside.

His shoulder and upper arm seem very much bruised, the bone slightly out of place. Seeing it continues over the top of his shoulder you turn him around inspecting his back too. Two deep cuts, luckily no longer bleeding mare the back of his shoulder. The injuries agitated, left untreated. Essek sighs deeply as you gasp at the sight.

“What happened?” You go over the outline of the open wounds, careful not to touch.

“Let’s just say the Martinet Daleth did not appreciate my comments on his personal relations very much.” Essek grits his teeth as you accidentally brush over a particularly painful area. You bite your lower lip keeping yourself from making a snarky remark but can’t prevent yourself from feeling the threads of control slip. How could he have done something so stupid? He’s aware how powerful those people are, not only that, in the position he is in, being less than friendly will not do him well in any circumstance when he doesn’t have any leverage anymore.

“Have you gone mad?!” That may have come out a little less… calm than you had hoped it would. Deciding to focus on the now and not all the things you may want to say, shout or scream, or actions you may want to take, you instead focus on healing the worst. You make sure the wounds are clean before they close up, reset the bone in the right position and allow the bruises to fade.

As your magic sets in and begins to work its wonders Essek lets out a breath of relief, rubbing at his priorly injured shoulder testing its movability. Nothing remains of the injuries and you’re able to contain the fire feel burning within your chest and throat. You take a few deep breaths as Essek thanks you.

Brushing Essek off, knowing the way well enough, you head for the component pantry. Essek follows behind you calling after you but out of fear of blowing up in his face you keep going and ignore him. You go over the shelves grabbing jars and vials as you go. You had to channel your anger somewhere so if this was going to be it, then so it be.

You had worked very hard to keep your own fury contained when it arose. You’re usually calm and collected even in the most dire of situations, but when someone comes for your friends, let alone lover, you will put the burning fires of the Nine Hells to shame, living up to the ‘hell hath no fury’ expression. It’s also a side you prefer to keep away from your loved ones if it can be avoided.

Normally a few deep breaths, counting to ten and another few deep breaths would do. In the rare cases that didn’t work you’d try occupying yourself with something else entirely. But now… you’re slipping. You can feel the rage burning within, so to the components you turn.

You pick up another vial inspecting it and Essek interrupts placing himself between you and your already gathered components.

“I don’t know what you’re planning but please, don’t do anything you’ll come to regret.” Essek practically begs. He takes the vial from your hand but drops it immediately, hissing in pain. The vial shatters as he waves his hand as if to cool it down. You push past him, gather the components and throw them into a sack as you leave the pantry. Essek quickly follows behind still clutching his hand to cool it down.

“Where are you going?” You stop, put on the most composed look you can and turn around to face him.

“I’m going to murder the leader of an infamous order of magic users. Now if you will excuse me, enjoy the rest of your day.” Words like poison. No more anger, just pure unrestrained hatred. You turn back around and continue your way towards the front door. You clench your fists feeling the burning heat gather within your palms.

“Don’t do anything stupid! You’ll get yourself killed!” Essek shouts after you but you keep walking. He calls your name. “Do not do anything stupid!” He repeats. You stop in your tracks feeling as if something inside of you just snaps. The last thread of your composure perhaps.

“Don’t do anything stupid? Anything stupid he says!” You throw your hands in the air.

“Like how you didn’t do anything completely and utterly stupid when you did what you did? How you lied to so many people, were the one responsible for so many terrible things. Or how you made choices ignoring the consequences of your actions?” You shout back, the ground beneath your feet’s temperature starts rising to the point where you are scorching the fine carpet beneath. Admittedly, your words are a low blow.

“You know what I meant!” Essek retorts getting closer to you, his frustrations also clear.

“Oh, I know what you meant but let’s no longer pretend you’re the only one you care about suffering from the consequences of your actions. Can you for just a moment just open your eyes and realise you have so many people around you who love you and would go to the ends of the earth for you. Can you just understand that when someone hurts you and threatens your livelihood, your life, that maybe that doesn’t sit well with me?” Unclenching your fists embers drift to the floor leaving more holes in the carpet.

“Why do you have to be so stupid!” Scorching heat radiates in the hallway as a brief rush of flame passes through the space like burning oil. Essek is quick enough to float and avoid the fire, but you watch it spread.

Essek’s face softens as he quickly puts the fire out. He goes to place his hand on your arm but feeling the heat of your skin before even making contact, he’s forced to refrain and his hand falls back to the side. He’s never seen you quite so driven by hatred and anger. It scares him in a way. He’s not afraid of you. He trusts you. But he is afraid that letting you go off on your own so driven by those negative emotions, allowing them to fester and grow, will not do anyone good, least of all you. He worries for your wellbeing, just like you have for his plenty of times before.

“I know I may have a hard time coming to terms with others’ affections towards me and may have made some stupid decisions but I beg of you, please, do not walk into a lions’ den unprepared carrying bait around your neck.” While the fury still burns in your eyes and your skin is still much hotter to the touch than it should be Essek is able to grasp your hand without burning himself.

“I must ask you to refrain from brutally murdering the Martinet… for now. His time will come, just as those who are loyal to him. Just not yet.” Essek strokes your cheek as your eyes soften, expression saddening.

“They hurt you still.” The words come out almost like a cry of frustration and sadness. Whether that be because of what had happened to Essek or from losing control like that you’re not one hundred percent sure but you guess the latter.

“They did, and I assume they will be a thorn in my side just a bit longer but, if that means I’ll have you at my side to eventually deal with them, I feel more comfortable for it, no matter how much I would love to see you set their pretentious ship ablaze, in retaliation, you yourself said, calculated moves are a necessity, especially now.” Essek had already made his peace with this, he only hopes you would see the same. Wrapping your arms around him hiding your face in his chest you compose yourself in a silent thank you as he returns your embrace, holding you until you pull back enough to see his face.

“I’m so sorry.” You whisper looking at the scorch marks all over. “I didn’t mean to… I never-”

“You have nothing to be sorry for. Everyone breaks at some point. You’ve been there for me plenty of times. I’m glad I get to return the favour, regardless of the circumstances.” Essek looks around already mentally making a list of what to get replaced and what to get repaired.

“You can be quite intimidating in your fury.” He smiles at you and you raise an eyebrow.

“I guess…” You feel regretful for the damages done.

“I might have use for that in the future if you’d be willing.” You give Essek a look of disapproval.

“What? I would love to see you do this, in some other places with less than friendly people, who you’ve already deemed deserving of your wrath.” Essek laughs.

“So I can repay you for this? I can do that. But only in the most dire situations.” You poke an accusing finger at his chest laughing with him. You give him quick kiss.

“At least it was not my library, or the study.” Essek sighs as you gawk and swat his arm jokingly.

“Rude! But yes. Because I can see you being the one in a fiery rage should anyone ever damage your precious books.”

#critical role x reader #critrole x reader #critical role #mighty nein x reader #essek x reader #essek thelyss x reader #mighty nein

[teamxdark]

I still want to post anything at all so. Here's the first unedited chapter of SatCK.

Also, once it's done, would people rather it all be posted at once, or a chapter a day? Let me know!

The clouds loomed low, obscuring the sun and showering the world in gray as a lone raven landed on the bones of a long-dead animal. He tapped his beak to the skull, as though to test the hardiness of the material, his eyes flashing with what might have been a sense of superiority before he looked back at the empty dirt path that cut through the grass and took off into the air.

The path did not remain empty for long; a girl ran along it just a moment later, her long purple cloak drawn closely over herself and her boots kicking up dust as she ran. In her hands, she clutched a staff tightly to her chest, which heaved with exertion as the girl kept running, occasionally glancing over her shoulder to see if she was being followed.

At first, everything looked peaceful and devoid of life behind her, and her shoulders relaxed just a fraction.

Then, from the endless gray that covered the land, dark creatures spawned from the shadows, transforming from dark spots with glowing magenta eyes to massive beasts of all kinds, both landbound and flying, burly and nimble, and all clad in faded, heavy armor while wielding great blades that glinted dully, even with the lack of sunlight.

The girl stopped as she realized that she was trapped, while from a nearby tree, the raven watched calmly. As the monstrous warriors surrounded the girl from all sides, the bird took flight, swooping high up into air before dropping down, and in the blink of an eye, he transformed.

One minute, there was a raven in the air. The next moment, a pair of black metal boots touched the earth, and the imposing figure of a man in heavy armor stood at full height before the frightened girl. He approached her, drawing his blade, his eyes glowing through the slits in his helmet as he approached, promising death. In the air, thick with tension, his voice cut through, clear and full of malice.

“This is the end for you and your treason. I will see to that myself.”

The girl’s hands trembled as they fumbled with her staff, then steadied themselves with a great show of effort. The girl took a deep breath, forcing down her nerves, and struck the ground with the magical artifact, summoning forth its magical properties as she began to chant, summoning a blue light all around her that had the armored beasts recoiling and the man with the sword halting in his tracks.

That was all she needed to finish her spell.

“O brave knight, swift as the wind! Heed my call!” she implored, looking up at the sky as though the answer to her troubles would fall before her. From all around her, the cyan light glowed bright, until it exploded upwards, a column of magical might, piercing through the clouds and striking the heavens, leaving a sole spot of light in the otherwise gloomy sky.

And something did, indeed, fall down to her, and it fell with a scream that cut itself short as the being, a blue hedgehog, faceplanted in the dirt road.

This wasn’t what Sonic had been expecting out of today.

He lifted his face, shaking away the gravel, and scrambled to his feet, scampering forward until he caught one chilidog that, like him, fell from above, and then leapt in the other direction to catch the second one just before it hit the ground. Sonic sighed in relief, bringing himself back to his feet and taking a look around.

“Hey… where am I?”

The sound of footstep behind him prompted him to turn around, and he saw the girl approach him, her eyes widening and her lips parting as she looked upon him. For a second, no words came from her, but she appeared to find her tongue quickly. “Being from a distant world, forgive my abrupt summons!” She knelt beside him, still shaking from her run, and slid her hood down, revealing delicate features and long, pointed ears.

That’s not something you see every day on a human…

Movement from over her shoulder distracted Sonic from the girl’s unusual ears, prompting him to look over at the group of beasts in armor, which were beginning to encroach upon them. Sonic took a look behind him, beholding the armored man who stood stock-still, beholding him without a word, his shadowy aura growing thick around him.

Sonic let out a chuckle, quickly finishing off one of the chilidogs in his hands. It didn’t seem like he would be having lunch with Amy after all, but he couldn’t let such a delicacy go to waste. Making a mental note to apologize to his friend once this was over and maybe reschedule the whole thing, Sonic tossed the second chilidog to his other hand, spinning it idly around as he spoke to the girl. “Oh, I get it,” he reassured her. “No problem! I’m used to stuff like this!”

Enemies all around? Overwhelming sense of dread? Tension in the air so thick you could choke on it?

He was called in to fight and rescue this girl, he was sure of it.

With a grin, he threw his snack up high into the air and dashed off, leaving behind a gust of wind as powerful as a shockwave. He vaguely heard the girl gasp as he ran through the cluster of armored enemies, creating another shockwave that, to his surprise, made them evaporate without any more fuss. Sonic pushed the surprise away 一 there was bound to be a reason why, and it wasn’t like he had to know it now or anything 一 and refocused on returning to his spot, catching the chilidog before it was anywhere close to the ground.

He glanced back at the girl, who was staring at him with open astonishment, her hand in front of her mouth and her eyes wide. Sonic allowed himself a small, self-satisfied smirk at demonstrating his abilities so cleanly, then turned back toward the last enemy, the armored man, who still hadn’t moved from his spot and was still staring at him.

Sonic began spinning his snack around again. “Don’t forget to blink,” he taunted, and finally, the man moved, bringing his sword 一 a bright, golden blade that didn’t match his dark getup at all 一 up and before him. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen a face like yours,” the man said, pointing the tip of the blade at Sonic.

“Yeah, I’m not surprised. You’ve got all that armor in front of your eyes! How about I knock it away and you can get a real good look--”

“No, you mustn’t!”

A hand grabbed tightly over his arm, stunning him enough that he fumbled with his free hand and sent his chilidog tumbling to the ground. Sonic looked from his ruined treat to the girl who stopped him as she swung her staff before them both, causing a vortex of dirt and wind to surround them. As Sonic felt himself begin to get pulled away, he reached out a hand to his fallen treat and the final enemy that he had yet to even try to defeat, but it was all in vain. The armored man charged forward, but his sword only struck empty air.

The man cursed under his breath, turning away from the vanishing point and walking a few paces away, crushing the chilidog underneath one of his boots without a second thought. “She’s slipped away from me again,” he growled, the dark aura around him growing stronger. “And now she has an ally of the worst kind…”

The man kicked at the ground, wiping some of the remains of meat and beans away as he did so, and wasted no more time in jumping into the air and transforming back into a raven, shedding a single feather as he soared away, over hills and valleys, clearing a town and swooping over the outer wall of a magnificent castle, landing before five people standing in wait, clad in polished, presentable armor. He transformed back into his true form, and all five knelt before him, bowing their heads without hesitation.

My knights...

For just a moment, the man’s gaze swept over the five before him, something akin to pride sparking deep within him, before the feeling extinguished itself as quickly as it came, leaving nothing but coldness in its wake.

“She’s escaped me again, but I shall continue to give chase,” he informed them, seeing a few ears perk up as he spoke. “At this point, I cannot stand another day knowing that she evades me. Spread out, and slay her on sight. I no longer care if it is by my hand or not.”

Five heads nodded, still bowed, and the man felt satisfied until he remembered the other important piece of information.

“She has recruited an ally, a magical warrior. You will know him when you see him. Do not fall for his tricks, and slay him as well. Mercy is not an option. We have no time to lose.”

With that, the man turned away and leapt into the air again, transforming back into a bird to continue his search, while behind him, the five lifted their heads and got to their feet.

“That was vague,” one spoke; a green hawk with two fanned blades.

“Hush, Brother,” another one said; a purple cat wielding a rapier. “Our king has much to handle and no time to spare. It is our duty to help shoulder his burdens as best as we can.”

“I apologize, Percival,” a third one piped up; a pale gray hedgehog with long spines, “but I must agree with Lamorak. We do not know what this ‘magical warrior’ of hers looks like!”

“More likely than not, he will be travelling with her,” yet another spat; a black hedgehog with red streaks in his fur. “If we find one, we will almost certainly find the other, and even if we don’t, our king has made it clear that we will know him when we see him. Now, let us depart.”

“But must we?” the final one asked; a red echidna with two axe-like swords. “She is the Royal Wizard, after all!”

The black hedgehog’s head snapped over, his voice taking a hard edge as he spoke. “She was the Royal Wizard, and in any case, the king’s orders are absolute, Gawain.”

“Yes, but--”

“We have been given our task,” the gray hedgehog said, walking up between them both. “If he demands that they be slain, then slain they shall be.”

This seemed to pacify the black hedgehog, who nodded once before racing off, with the gray hedgehog close behind. The one named Gawain heaved a sigh as the one named Percival approached him. “Without loyalty to the king, we are nothing,” she reminded him sternly, though the next second she looked off to the horizon, where the hedgehogs had become little more than specks. “Still, the king… he has changed,” she murmured, much softer and thoughtful. “And this kingdom…”

“That would be putting it lightly,” the one called Lamorak scoffed, nudging Percival with his shoulder, much to her annoyance. “I need no magical gifts to see that there are troubling times ahead of us. However, there is not much else for us to do.”

“Only our jobs, and to trust our king’s judgement,” Gawain finished the thought, looking at one of his blades with a resigned slump to his shoulders. “Very well. I shall not be the one to disappoint him.”

Yet even with those words, the unease did not leave the knights as they left the castle walls in search for their targets.

#Smash speaks. #Sonic and the Cursed King.

[harmonyandco]

Hermione Granger has had a horrible time of it at Hogwarts. Not that she’d rather go back to her emotionally neglectful parents, but ever since she was Sorted by that wretched old Hat, she’s been tormented by those jealous of her sheer intelligence and work ethic, just like she was before, especially the Purebloods who lord it over the school. Draco Malfoy and Ronald Weasley have been the absolute worst: one the favorite student of sadistic Potions Master Severus Snape even though he can barely stop gloating long enough to use any of the curses he’s been taught, the other the star Wizard’s Chess player and would-be Quidditch Captain even though he has very little real flying skill or power, both now Prefects despite their utter lack of suitability for the roles and eager to become Head Boy, almost as eager as they are to put uppity Mudbloods like her in their place. Don’t even get her started on that Harry James Potter, son of power couple James and Lily Potter, godson of notorious playboy Sirius Black, star Seeker and favorite to become Captain, and Golden Boy of the Purebloods! Even his twin sister, Rose Lilian, is nothing but trouble! Neither of them have ever lifted a finger to help her; not even the few students she could almost call friends have done a thing about the endless torment, not that they have any real power anyway. Worse yet, she keeps hearing all these absurd rumors about her and Harry being a couple; as if she’d ever bother with a boy who so clearly hates her, especially when Ronald’s sister Ginevra is obviously going to marry him for his money! No, she’ll never give him so much as a second glance! Enter two new professors for her fifth year: a young married couple, Jimmy and Jane Evans, taking over the DADA and Transfiguration posts respectively. Anyone has to be better than the last fraud who held the former post, and with Professor McGonagall getting on in years, she could use a replacement for the latter post so she can focus fully on her duties as Deputy Headmistress. The couple are private to the point of being mysterious, but their credentials are impeccable and they quickly win over the students, especially those shameless rebels Fred and George Weasley, though the other teachers are surprised at how harshly they punish the bullies, regardless of wealth or blood status or anything else of that nature. Snape is apoplectic when they make an example of Draco for his torment of Hermione, but even he’s nothing next to the fury of Molly Weasley when her precious Ronniekins gets caught red-handed trying to use a love potion on Rose and is promptly introduced to the true meaning of pain. How dare these two nobodies challenge the rightful order of the wizarding world! Who do they think they are?! Well, in point of fact, Jimmy and Jane Evans know exactly who they are: Harry and Hermione Potter, OUR Harry and Hermione. In their world, Harry woke up from the delusion of the epilogue to realize he was actually being held captive inside the Resurrection Stone, which had fed him illusions and lies to trick him into letting Voldemort kill him, then to make him think Dumbledore and Snape were the secret heroes giving him the means to defeat the Dark Lord; in truth, they and Molly had bespelled and potioned him and Hermione into staying apart and going along with the plan, its true goal to let Dumbledore steal the credit for killing Voldemort so his legend would never be surpassed, though his cursed hand did prevent him from being alive to see it through. Hermione’s raw anguish at seeing Hagrid carry Harry’s dead body out of the Forbidden Forest broke through her brainwashing and reached Harry through the prison around his soul. He fought his way back to life just in time to stop Voldemort from killing her, then proceeded to finish him off despite Ron never having destroyed the cup Horcrux like he claimed; the redhead had Imperiused Hermione, her mental defenses weakened by the spells and potions, to go along with his deception to make himself look like a hero. Once Hermione was free and Harry had killed Voldemort for good, letting Neville do the honors of destroying Nagini and the cup (Harry himself was never a Horcrux, despite what Snape’s memories claimed), she blasted Ron with all her rage, leaving him a bloody smear on the ground. Molly and Ginny went beyond rage and tried to kill them both, forcing them to flee into the castle as the Death Eaters decimated the defenders. Luna and Neville, their only surviving friends, led them to a secret room holding the last artifact left over from the destroyed Room of Requirement: a cabinet imbued with the power to take them across dimensions. They were loathe to leave despite everything, but the question became moot when Snape, who’d tricked Voldemort and faked his own death, swept in and killed both Luna and Neville, vowing to take over the Death Eaters and rule Britain as the new Dark Lord, with Harry and Hermione as the first victims of his sick projects. They jumped into the cabinet just before he could capture them, and it promptly became obvious why no one had used it in living memory; it overloaded and exploded with the force of a massive nuke, destroying Hogwarts and much of the surrounding environment, killing everyone there and leaving what remained of that world in utter disarray. Still, it worked, dropping them two years ago in this other universe where Tom Marvolo Riddle, rather than become the maniacal Lord Voldemort, found a subtler, more legitimate way to power: become Minister for Life and enact a series of laws designed to bring the Muggleborns entirely under his sway. He convinced Dumbledore to be his ally rather than his enemy, though neither truly trusts the other, and now Hogwarts has embraced its corruption, becoming a fertile ground for resentment and hatred. However, Harry and Hermione, alias Jimmy and Jane, soon learn that the Harry of this world isn’t what Hermione believes him to be. He and Rose are actually double agents, trained by their parents, Sirius, Remus Lupin, and Amelia Bones, all of whom are working to destroy Riddle’s evil regime from within, with the two teenagers working in secret to stop as many bullies from getting away with their crimes as they humanly can; more to the point, he’s revolted by Ginny and very interested in Hermione, but every time he tries to befriend or even date her, something happens to ruin it, and afterward, she shows only greater disdain for him. Thanks to their positions as professors, Jimmy and Jane are able to unravel the terrible truth: Harry is being repeatedly sabotaged and Hermione Obliviated by Minister Riddle’s agents, who have no intention of letting the Golden Boy sully himself with a Mudblood, but who dare not simply kill her; Riddle has plans for her and all the other Muggleborns who show promising talents. Alas, exposing the deception and getting Hermione to realize she’s had it all wrong about Harry and Rose is only the first of many challenges our heroes must face if they’re to have any hope of saving their new home from the darkness and bringing it into a golden age of freedom and prosperity.

#submission #harmony prompt #harmony

[kjmhj0429995486]

Perhaps a small winwin and kun college au?

okay this took me forever to get around to oops! hahahha this is honestly way too many words for nothing to really happen but I had fun writing it. would love to maybe continue this eventually!

tinder!au i guess??

kun despised the idea of dating apps. absolutely hated it. he always criticized the vanity and impermanence of meeting people online and stood by his ground that you could only find the perfect match in person. when kun created a tinder account under the influence of a few drinks and some very resilient friends on a friday night in, he still hated dating apps, but he’d admit now that maybe he was being a little early to judge.

kun wasn’t like his friends. ten lived for nights out and meeting new people and kissing boys he’d only just met. in a similar vein, lucas was always in a relationship, whether it being a fling that lasts a few weeks before he gets bored or one of his longer, more emotional engagements, kun has never known the man without someone on his arm. but kun was different. since they started college over three years ago now, he’d only kissed a handful of boys, maybe a girl or two in the beginning, and he’d only been in two relationships, both pretty long term relative to his friends. with the last one ending nearly a year ago, he couldn’t help but feel a little lonely; however, it wasn’t until the alcohol settled into his veins as he listened to stories of his friends’ most recent passionate endeavors during their guys’ night that he expressed this to anyone else.

“oh my god and then afterwards, he literally just, left me there. on the couch, naked. he didn’t even leave a blanket for me,” ten was a few shots in, speaking dramatically and drawing the most genuine reactions from his tipsy bestfriends as he spoke. “but oh my GOD did I even care after what that man had just done to me.”

kun never understood the hookup culture that his friends subscribed to, but he was happy for them; and they knew that, even if his snide remarks came off a little judgy. “i really can’t believe the situations you get yourself into sometimes,” kun laughed, shaking his head in disbelief. “like you really can’t tell me it was worth getting treated that way to have sex with someone you’ll never see again.”

“kun,” ten began, placing his hands on kun’s shoulders and looking him in the eye, feigning as much seriousness as he could muster in his current state. “you really really need to get laid already,” this made kun immediately roll his eyes and laugh softly in ten’s face. “actually you don’t even have to fuck him right away, but like you could really use a cute boy in your life, man,” he ended with a slight seriousness that hit home more than he would’ve expected. kun knew exactly why ten was saying what he was saying. obvious to his friends, he’d been really stressed lately with midterms and club activities and whatever else he managed to find to keep himself busy enough to not have time to worry about how he felt so incomplete; about how much better all the stressful things in his life would be if someone else was there to experience them with him.

“wait wait wait,” lucas intergected, his normal deep voice even more boisterous with the drinks in his system. “you should make a tinder.”

at this, ten’s eyes widened and he immediately perked up with the biggest smile on his face.

“absolutely not.” kun intended to shut this conversation down before the boys got any stupid ideas in their heads. he was a little late.

“kun pleaseeeee?” ten begged with full on puppy dog eyes. “you never know, the love of your life might be on there right now.”

kun pulled away from the grip ten still had on his shoulders and raised his eyebrows at his friends in an attempt to get his seriousness through their heads. “no way. you guys know how i feel about dating apps. i will happily wait a thousand years for the right man to meet me face to face if that’s what it takes.”

lucas was not convinced. “dude you haven’t had a boyfriend in months. literally all you do when you’re not with us is study. obviously that’s not making you any progress soulmate wise so like.. what’s the harm in giving it a go?”

neither was ten. “exactly. kun you deserve to find someone, you really do. worst case scenario you go on a couple of bad dates and we have something to laugh about, best case scenario you find someone you think you can fall in love with,” kun softens, just a bit, at the sincerity of ten’s words. for a second that is. “and yeah most of them suck but i promise there’s some high quality, top notch men on there if you look hard enough. trust me, i’ve found a couple myself,” he adds with a quick wink. when kun’s scowl returns to his face ten reverts to his previous tactic: puppy dog eyes. “pleassssse kun. you know we really just want the best for you.”

kun sighs, rolling his eyes begrudgingly at his defeat. “i can’t believe i’m saying this out loud but i guess i have been kind of lonely lately,” he begins, catching his friends’ hopeful attention. “not in like a sad kind of way but maybe in a ‘this would be better with someone else’ kind of way.”

that was enough for lucas to grab kun’s phone from its place on the coffee table and download the app before kun even had time to protest.

-

“awww he’s kinda cute.” ten said, clicking to view the full profile of a boy just a year younger than kun.

“he’s holding a dead fish.”

“you know what they say, the bigger the dead fish the bigger his...”

“literally no one has ever said that.”

“ugh fine. next.”

kun went to bed that night disappointed about to his expectations, if not a little more.

-

it wasn’t until three days later when kun was laying in bed after a busy school day that he even remembered he had downloaded the stupid app a few nights prior. after a brief battle between his strong opinions towards the dumb application sitting almost mockingly on his home screen and his skeptical curiosity, he unlocked his phone and opened the neglected app, the latter obviously winning out.

kun spent a few minutes swiping. he clicked each individual profile to get as solid of a read as he could on each guy before making his decision with a careful consideration, something he had definitely never seen either of friends apply to their tinder boy sprees. left. left. left. kun was growing ever more frustrated, none of the boys striking a chord with him. perhaps he was being a bit harsh with his standards but he really truly felt that he couldn’t see himself in a relationship with any of these men. left. left. left again. and that’s when he stopped. almost instinctively swiping on the next boy before a picture loaded before his eyes that made him rethink every criticism he had ever given his friends or their dumb app. this one was cute. more than cute. kun never really understood what the phrase “boyish charm” meant, but he knew this boy had it. he was beautiful in such an understated way. not aggressively attractive by conventional standards, but gorgeous and delicate and handsome in a way that kun thinks he could stare at for hours.

with a breath of fresh air, kun finally swiped right. he felt a brief wave of something akin to panic, or maybe excitement, wash over him when a screen he had yet to see appeared. “it’s a match! sicheng likes you too,” the screen read. kun couldn’t help the small smile that appeared on his face for a split second before he forced it into a scowl, unhappy that he had fallen into the trap of these dumb apps. soon after, kun put his phone down and went to bed. he hated the lingering curiosity about the boy that he knew nothing about, but let himself indulge in his own imagination for just a little while before falling asleep to the thought of having someone to call his.

-

the next day was busy for kun. between his four classes and studying for his upcoming midterms, he hadn’t even had a second to consider swiping mindlessly through tinder or messaging the single boy he had deemed worthy of his swipe. that was, until he was sat outside the dining hall, letting himself enjoy a few free minutes to eat dinner with ten and lucas. amidst lucas’ downward spiral into the stress of his classes and how much work he has to do, kun’s phone buzzes. he doesn’t want to be as distracted as he is from his friends’ problems by the notification his phone lights up with, but he can’t seem to fight the curiosity of what the tiny words that read “sicheng sent you a new message.” would reveal. kun decides to wait until he can give his full attention to the weird little crush that’s already begun brewing on the total stranger living in his phone. he locks his phone and puts it in his pocket before returning his attention to the people in his life he knows are actually real.

-

back in his dorm, kun immediately flops onto his bed. he scrolls aimlessly through twitter and instagram before finally landing back where he was last night. knowing that he has a ton of studying to do before bed, he clicks on the messages tab and indulges himself, maybe for a little longer than he means to.

kun: hmmm maybe if i deem you worthy

sicheng: and how do i obtain your approval oh great magician?

kun: well for starters

kun: you’re really cute so that gets your foot in the door

sicheng: 😳

kun: but it’s gonna take a little more than that unfortunately

sicheng: i can dance

sicheng: does that help?

sicheng: ooh and i have a dog

sicheng: but he lives with my parents :(

sicheng: or i can show you my anime figurine collection it’s pretty impressive

kun: haha honestly?

kun: i think you just might be worthy of two magic tricks😂

sicheng: you mean to tell me you know more than one magic trick????

sicheng: wait

sicheng: are you a wizard?

kun: not last i checked

kun: but i guess you’ll be happy to know that i actually know like

kun: 10 magic tricks

sicheng: whaaaaaat

sicheng: lol what point in your life did you not have any friends?

kun: middle school😔

kun: but it’s okay i came out stronger

sicheng: so now you have friends AND know magic?

sicheng: AND you’re hot??

sicheng: sounds kinda op to me

kun: well i’d say all of those are only kind of true

sicheng: i’m still impressed

kun: thank you

sicheng: ✌︎('ω'✌︎ )

kun absolutely hated the stupid smile that wouldn’t leave has face as he read back the boy’s replies. but, as he continued to slowly learn bits and pieces of the boy that didn’t exist to him until last night through conversation that came way more easily than he ever would’ve imagined, kun decides that maybe something special really could come from this after all.

#thank you for the request omg #winkun #winwin #dong sicheng #qian kun #kun #wayv #wayv drabbles #wayvfic #nct #tinder!au #me #college!au

[thegoldofyourheart]

The Gold of Your Heart Chapter 8

Word count: 2706

Pairings: Romantic Roceit

Warnings: Violence

First | <== Previous | Next ==> | Masterpost

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Returning to the Imagination felt like breathing flavored air. Deceit thought it novel and settled into a more comfortable position on Roman’s shoulders. The woods they entered didn’t change, and made Deceit wonder if there was a fixed point of entry like the Subconscious or if Roman choose where to appear. He could ask Remus but that would lead to a conversation Deceit would rather avoid.

Roman’s steed nickered in the distance, and Deceit found himself wondering if time passed different there as well. So much to learn before he could even think of putting together a plan. He knew that he had to know everything before starting one, or it could all fall apart with a snap of Roman’s finger. So much power, Deceit felt heady just thinking about it.

“Hey there, Lady,” Roman greeted, reaching a hand out. The horse nickered again and trotted over, butting at Roman’s hand. Well, if Deceit needed any proof that things were different here that would be it. Horses were bastards and that was that. Only a fake one would be so well behaved if someone cooed at them like Roman was doing.

“How’s my beautiful Lady doing anyways? Running strong, I bet, huh. Showing all those stallions that gender doesn’t matter, aren’t you? Gonna outrun them all and win all the lady horses for yourself.” Roman ran his hand along her flank and grinned. “Queer pride, girl, queer pride.”

Deceit snickered. Lady tossed her mane, and Roman grinned even wider at her. He leaned forward against her bulk.

“You both want to go on an adventure?” he whispered. Deceit mourned his inability to blink again; Lady pranced in her spot. The ground around them rumbled without actually moving and Deceit felt unnerved. The distant roar that cut through the air didn’t help. Roman’s eyes sparkled in a way that Deceit knew all too well. Excited and cocky.

Roman swung up onto Lady, a hand on Deceit to keep him steady. Along the horizon, Deceit recognized the wings that had to belong to Hecate cutting across the sky before diving down at something. 

“First Adventure,” Roman winked down at him, and Deceit felt his unease grow. “Mark that one down for the history books.” His voice dropped, from casual to something closer to the tone he used when acting. “Come, Lady! It seems the Dragon Witch is up to her old tricks and we must set out to stop her once more!”

Deceit felt lost as Lady broke into a gallop. She ate away at the trail that Roman had walked not that long ago with Deceit, and it felt like moments before they broke through the tree line. They barreled down towards Anton’s town and Deceit felt his jaw drop open. Flames and smoke hung heavy in the air, and there in the middle of it all, Anton flew above the scene cackling.

His robe snapped and shifted behind him in the wind. One of his hands pointed at one of the buildings still standing and it burst into flames. Deceit wondered if Roman had flipped the world on its head. Anton’s cackle drifted through the breeze, malicious and dark.

“I come bearing news of my Mistress!” Anton shouted. “The Great Dragon Witch has decided to bless this land with her presence! Bow to her and be spared! Or rebel and learn of her power!”

“Halt!” Roman shouted back, pulling Lady to a neat stop at the edge of the town. He drew his sword in a smooth motion and pointed it up at Anton. Scattered cries came from the fleeing villagers, relief and hope in their voices.

“The Prince!”

“Prince Roman’s come to save us!”

“The Prince will defeat them!”

“You are trespassing on this glorious land!”  Roman declared, “Surrender now to the laws of the land and its justice, or face the wrath of my sword!”

Anton threw his head back, and Deceit began to think that cackling was all he knew how to do. A snicker would spice things up. Or maybe a leer. Either way, some part of him felt offended that this was the sort of villains that Roman compared him too. He had more class than that.

“Fool! You truly think that you can defeat one such as I with a mere stick? My magic comes from my Mistress herself and her power is matched by none!” Anton swooped down closer to them. “I will defeat you and our power will spread across this land like a plague!”

Anton pointed in their direction and Deceit’s heart leapt to his throat. Fuck head-on confrontations, Deceit thought they should retreat and find the proper weaknesses before engaging. Roman on the other hand, clearly felt differently, spurring Lady into motion.

Deceit hissed a warning as Roman ducked under the ball of flames that flew over his head. Deceit could feel the heat of the flames as they passed. He swallowed thickly. Discorporation wasn’t the worst thing that could happen to them but it was unpleasant and led to a backlog of things they needed to do. Deceit preferred to avoid it when possible.

Roman swung his sword. Anton rose back up into the air, his robe fluttering as Roman’s sword brushed past it. Deceit wanted to say that he guessed that would happen, but that required unlodging his stomach from his throat. It wasn’t like anyone could tell what he felt or what he said anyways. He could panic all he wanted without losing face, seeing as he didn’t have one that could express that. Ha!

“Fool!” Anton yelled again. He swept his hand to the side, and the side of the building closest to them rumbled ominously. Deceit wondered why he wasn’t surprised as it collapsed towards them. No, he was more surprised at the way Lady charged at the wall opposite of it. She planted her hooves on it, and pushed off of it. They flew through the air for a split second.

Deceit hated his life.

Lady landed gracefully for all that Deceit could feel the impact rattle through his fangs. Anton flew back and away from them. Roman and Lady followed. Because of course they did. Deceit bit back a whimper.

He kept his eyes glued to Anton. Roman didn’t seem to notice the simple upward flick of a finger that Anton executed. Deceit didn’t think. He threw his whole weight to the side, tugging on Roman’s neck. Roman yelped, his body jerking with the action. His hands pulled on Lady’s reigns and she skittered to the side.

Just barely missing the spike of earth that shot up next to them.

Roman’s eyes widened, and Deceit breathed heavily. God, that was close. Lady found her hooves again and took off after the cackling Anton once more.

“How can you ever hope to beat me if you can’t reach me, Prince Roman?” Anton taunted. He tossed another fireball, one that Lady swerved around easily. “You are helpless against me! Nothing but a weak hero who will fail like all others before you!”

Deceit felt a growl in the back of his throat.

“Steady, Anthony,” Roman murmured, his eyes on Anton. Good, Roman wasn’t a complete idiot when it came to battle. Deceit longed to shift again, to dive at the threat with bared talons and beak opened in a scream. “Lady.” Roman pressed a hand to her neck and she nickered, tossing her mane.

Deceit’s eyes widened as Roman carefully, stood up in his stirrups. Shakily, his eyes on the villain above them as he kept his balance through what had to have been experience. Deceit glanced down at Lady. Her eyes were locked on the porch of the house in front of them, and Deceit swore that his heart stopped. 

He took a moment to concede that he had a good run, but they were all going to die now. 

Lady planted her hooves on the stairs. She propelled herself upwards and landed on the roof of the porch. She leaped into the air once more. In the same moment, Roman jumped. If he had a voice, Deceit liked to think he would have managed to swallow his scream. It wasn’t likely but denial was his thing.

They flew through the air, and time felt suspended. Roman reached out. His hand wrapped around Anton’s ankle. Deceit caught sight of Anton’s wide eyes before they all came crashing back down to the ground. 

Deceit landed hard. He slid away from Roman, scales scraping along the asphalt. He wasted a moment to curse Roman for wanting to mix modern and medieval. Pain radiated along his whole body. He could just… stay here. No need to move. Roman could deal with whatever the hell he had caused. It had sounded like he’d done it before.

Deceit groaned to himself. God, Roman had almost died twice already. Who was he kidding thinking that Roman could deal with something like this? His idea to get the flying wizard down was to throw himself at him. They were going to be lucky if Roman survived a week of this.

He shifted. A knife of pain cut through his side. He hissed as he turned to see what had happened to Roman. He could hear Lady’s hoofbeats in the distance. Roman lay not too far from him, struggling to push himself to his arms. Anton lay in a heap just past him. Deceit hissed, baring his fangs. 

A danger to Roman was a danger to Thomas. Deceit dealt with dangers. He knew just what to do with this one. 

He pushed his way towards Roman, who coughed and managed to make it to his knees. Nothing looked broken, and Deceit blamed Roman’s insane luck. Bruises and a couple of scrapes after that stunt seemed almost impossible. Though they were where impossible thrived, so perhaps it wasn’t that strange. Down that path of thought lay the idea that Roman knew more about what he was doing than it seemed, and that was a little too much for Deceit to contemplate at the moment. 

He wound around Roman’s ankles to double check that his ride home hadn’t crippled himself. Roman smiled down at him, the corners of his mouth tinged with pain. Good. If he was fine Deceit could do his job. Anton groaned and Deceit’s eyes snapped to him.

Years ago, Virgil had once told him that his eyes became truly frightening when he focused. Supposedly, they almost seemed to glow, the light catching off of the gold if he tilted his head just right. Deceit had learned how to drain the emotions from them, leaving just the chilling emptiness that helped him do his job.

Of course, it could have just been Virgil and his drama.

He hissed, quiet and low as he made his way towards Anton. He had been wrong about the Construct. No one loyal would have done this sort of thing to the person they cared about. His lips peeled back to let the light of the sun reflect off of his fangs. The other Sides had gone soft, weak, easily hurt. Deceit would make sure that never happened. 

Anton barely pushed himself up to his elbows as Deceit approached. Deceit could see the pain in his expression, the way blood drained out of his face as he caught sight of the snake approaching him. Good. Deceit’s hiss grew louder, and his muscles bunched underneath him. Antagonist. Betrayal had to have been written into his blood.

Deceit lunged. His jaw opened wide and his fangs ready. Venom in his glands begged to be used.

“Anthony!” 

Roman’s hands gripped him just behind his head, yanking him back before he could do his job. His hiss turned vicious and angry. He thrashed in Roman’s grip. Roman might believe in Anton, might think that he could be saved or converted or had a good reason for what he did. It was all rot. It was always all rotten to the core and there was nothing to be done.

Better to end it than to risk it.

“Anthony! Tony, calm down!” Roman’s grip on him slipped just slightly and Deceit jerked towards Anton. The Construct’s flinch tasted delicious. “Hey. Hey!” Roman’s grip tightened, not enough to truly injure him but a warning all the same. “Everything’s fine, Tony!”

It wasn’t but Deceit would make sure it was. “Yaaaaay,” Remy’s flat voice cut through the air. “The Great Prince Roman has saved us. However shall we, like, repay him?” 

Deceit settled slowly in Roman’s hold. He turned to stare at Remy. Remy didn’t glare at him, but he still managed to send a general feeling of disdain in his direction. If Deceit didn’t hate his guts, he would have contemplated asking him how he managed that.

“Oh, I know,” Remy said, just as flat. He sounded more like he was reading from a script than celebrating Roman’s “victory.” He took a step closer. Deceit hissed at him, a warning not to get closer. Roman discorporating was one thing. Remy ending up hurt meant death. “I shall offer my, like, invaluable wisdom to his quest.”

He tilted his head down to stare at Roman from over his sunglasses.

“Wisdom, like, did Daddy inform the newest child what exactly is going on?”

Deceit’s unease bled into confusion. They knew what was going on? There was an explanation beyond Anton living up to his name? He glanced up at Roman, irritation joining his confusion as the tips of Roman’s ears turned a dull red.

He mumbled something. Anton sighed. Remy leaned closer.

“Sorry, missed that, Daddy-o. Could you repeat it?”

“I said!” Roman took a deep breath, “I thought it would have been funner if Anthony thought it was real?”

Anton groaned again, the sound coming from somewhere truly and deeply tested. Remy pinched the bridge of his nose as Roman shrugged and meet Remy’s eyes with a challenge. Deceit felt confusion fall away and understanding settle into its place. An act. It was all an act. 

“And what?” Anton closed his eyes, reaching up to rub at his temples, “Would you have done if he truly did something to hurt someone?”

“Anthony wouldn’t do that!”

Yes, he would.

“Yes, he would,” Remy said. He took another step closer. His posture softening just slightly. “Come on Roman, he looked, like, about ready to tear out Anton’s throat. You can’t throw someone into something that seems dangerous and, like, expect them to bare their throat and stomach.”

God, Deceit hated how right he was.

“Fine,” Roman muttered. He sulked for a moment, before looking down at Deceit. “Sorry, Tony.”

Remy tapped his foot. Roman sighed, visibly gritting his teeth. “Sorry, Anton.” Lady nudged at his shoulder. Deceit figured the only thing keeping him from throwing his hands in the air was the fact he still held Deceit. “Fine. Fine! Sorry Lady, and Remy, and everyone.”

Remy snickered.

“You let your horse, like, boss you around, so sure, whatever, apology accepted or something.”

“I’m a little shaken but it’s fine, Roman,” Anton said, standing up with a grin. He winced. “Though I will need a bit to get over you dragging me back down. I think I’m going to be bruised for weeks.”

Roman sniffed, tilting his head up. His hold on Deceit tightened. 

“I already apologized. And! I won, like I said I would! You still haven’t managed to beat me!”

Anton chuckled, nudging Roman with his shoulder as he walked past. 

“Naw, not yet, but I will, just you wait. Have fun with the rest of your Quest, Roman. Hecate has some fun things planned for you!” Deceit watched as Anton limped off into the town. The flames around them slowly died down and Deceit didn’t resist as Roman settled him around his shoulders once more.

“Sooooo,” Roman said hesitantly.

“Yeah, no, I’m, like, coming with after both of those stunts,” Remy cut him off. Deceit hated that he agreed. A sane man with a voice would be nice. He stopped and reconsidered. An almost sane man with an actual voice would be nice. 

“Fair enough,” Roman said, and ran a hand down Lady’s flank. He grinned at them all. “Onwards?”

#Sanders Sides #Roceit #Roman Sanders #Deceit Sanders #Remy Sanders #Anton Sanders #violence

[sserpente]

Mischief and Ice (Chapter 2)

Synopsis: Thanos’ cruel attempt to wipe out half of the universe failed and the titan is dead; but his actions came with grave consequences. Tears and cracks in the universe, all across space and time formed wormholes within the nine realms and beyond, giving old enemies a vicious opportunity to strike again. When the Jötuns invade Earth and the Avengers assemble to defend the planet once again, it is the help of none other than the former war criminal Loki they are reliant upon to drive the icy warriors back to their own realm. But then the God of Mischief encounters a young woman abandoned in the cold—your body mangled and altered with Jötun blood, a lab rat to the Frost Giants. He decides to take you with him and nurse you back to health, unable to comprehend the confusing affection he begins to harbour for you.

Find all chapters on my masterlist!

Stepping through a make-shift portal was hardly a problem, travelling by Tesseract or Bifrost had proven to be a lot more draining. The challenge was to put up with all the hostile glares the Avengers shot him like daggers when they caught sight of him, following suit after Thor.

He had to admit, Strange was skilled—he conceded him talent, yet he was hardly impressed. After all, he had been doing this for centuries. Last time, the mortal wizard had merely caught him off guard. Loki would not let that happen again.

“So… Frost Giants,” Thor began with a forced smile, sitting down on the chair reserved for him during meetings almost as if he had never left the compound. Loki simply stood, clasping his hands behind his back. There was no reason to get comfortable around these people. Especially Tony looked like he was going to shoot him any moment and Doctor Strange, joining the group at the table after the portal snapped shut behind him, steered clear of the God of Mischief anyway, fuelling the other’s suspicion even further.

“It’s good to see you, Point Break. But why the hell did you bring Reindeer Games?” Tony interrupted him harshly.

Loki only smirked as he lifted his arms in false defeat. Infuriating them had amused him then and it still amused him now. Nothing was ever going to change about this. He was not fond of his own past, and the reputation his own family had besieged him with. There was nothing to be proud of, not really. But, he had begun to come to terms with it. So what was wrong about having a little fun? A malicious smile worked wonders to hide a wounded and tainted heart.

“Look, Loki is…” Thor hesitated. Why did he hesitate? The world knew by now he was not really Asgardian. The God of Mischief sighed. “He knows the Jötuns a lot better than I do.”

Tony opened his mouth to protest, followed by Natasha raising an eyebrow at him.

“Right… next thing we know he sets them against us.”

This time, Loki actually chuckled quietly, almost surprised by himself. He had fought so much in the last couple of years, survived quarrels with his brother, won against the Goddess of Death and lastly, helped to kill the titan who had scarred him for life… and there was absolutely no reason for him to still bother with all the people who had slashed his vulnerable heart not so long ago; not then and not now. Still… that did not mean he could not vex them when it felt like cooling medicine down his throat.

“You are not quite wrong, Agent Romanoff.” His blue glance wandered over to Thor who watched his every movement with widened eyes.

“What are you saying?” He roared.

“I am the rightful king of Jötunheim.”

The entire room fell silent. One could practically hear them all trying to digest what he had just said. Eventually, Thor spoke up again, leaning against the table in the process.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He stated dryly.

“A long time ago, we have tried your method. Do you recall how your blind lust for battle ended?” He paused, his wicked grin widening. “Brother… do you not trust me?”

Bruce scoffed. “That’s a trick question, right?”

Oh, it was. Never trust the God of Mischief. Loki was curious as to what it would feel like to be trusted for once, yet he felt no desire whatsoever to make up with the self-proclaimed superheroes.

“Perhaps it is about time I claim the throne.”

“Okay.” Tony spat. “What’s your plan? If it involves killing or any kind of narcissistic self-glorification, I’m going to kick you all the way back to Norway myself.”

Sighing, Loki rolled his eyes. Stark was the one talking.

“Please… enlighten me. Have you got a plan? Your metal armour will be entirely useless against the Jötuns, Stark, they would freeze the parts within mere seconds. What is your strategy?”

Steve was the only one willing to reply. Morally, the soldier out of time was perhaps the only one thinking rationally when it came to him. He could not exactly say that he liked him but at the very least, Loki was able to tolerate him.

“We should be headed to Norway right now. If they attack, without us the people will stand no chance.”

“Then what?” Loki probed, clearly unimpressed. “What about the places they have already taken? You are suggesting what has been on Thor’s mind since he first laid hand on his hammer—to hurl yourself into battle and strike where they will be at their strongest. The Jötuns will send their fiercest warriors to Norway, rest assured Asgard will defend it but their leaders… their leaders will hide, cowardly, in the background.”

“How would you know?” Tony snapped. In response, the God of Mischief turned straight to Thor.

“Laufey ruled Jötunheim for decades. The Frost Giants would not take kindly in leaders and commanders changing their utmost principles. I watched them for a long time, learned how they operate, remember? They do not like surprises.”

Bruce raised his eyebrows, crossing his arms with a thoughtful expression. “So what do you suggest?”

“I suggest we take the war where we want it to be.”

They have abandoned their palace and they left me behind to die. Was it mercy… or was it a worse fate they had tossed you into? You had run out of edibles two days ago. Covered in frost bites, bruises and other injuries but most importantly half frozen, you were surprised you still managed to melt the ice between your hands to drink some water.

No. Death would be mercy and yet, you did not want to perish. If only you had listened to your brother.

Come home early, he had said. Mum’s making supper, he had said. You didn’t know whether they were still alive. Your mum suffered from an incurable illness. She was weak, bed-ridden for the most part but she loved cooking more than anything in this world. Whenever she felt energised enough, she would prepare gorgeous and delicious meals for you all.

You should have come so you would be together now. You should have screamed at your boss and insisted on leaving. It wasn’t like you were getting paid for all the extra hours he forced on you… but you still needed the money on your bank account every month, if anything to pay your mother’s medical bills—you couldn’t risk getting fired.

What had happened to the rest of the country, you did not know. Iceland was fairly small compared to other places, the chances there was help on the way were ridiculously little. Maybe they were all dead. Maybe you had gotten lucky.

You scoffed, your breath blowing white fog into the cold air around you. Your will to live was strong but you had long bent to the Frost Giant’s cruel rules, learnt not to try and run away or lash out and fight back. Compared to them, you were tiny, fragile.

The worst part, however, had not been when they had impaled you with their ice cold cocks and filled you with their chilly seed, not the many bruises they had inflicted on you and not how they had made you bathe in a tub full of cold water and ice as a punishment or simply for their amusement but the many times they had injected you with their blood, watching you wither away.

They had told you many things—but they had never told you why they would attempt to break your body. Instead… they had simply done it.

It was short of a miracle you were not dead yet but if no one found you soon, then you would be.

Tony cursed quietly, earning himself a half-hearted scolding from Steve as he flew over the ocean, leading the quinjet to its first destination—Iceland. Natasha had been forced to switch off the routing signals. There was no need to give away their position, after all. What they had on their side was the element of surprise. That, and Loki’s ridiculous but unfortunately also very plausible plan.

Who was he to trust the one man who had caused his PTSD?

Once they had gotten suited up and ready to leave, for none of them wanted to lose any more time, he had stopped Loki with a scowl, grabbing his upper arm. The God of Mischief’s growl had been deadly.

“Why are you doing this, really?” Tony had inquired quietly. “Helping us, I mean. Surely not from the kindness of your heart…?”

Loki had had the audacity to smile—maliciously.

He trusted Thor—and if Thor believed that taking Loki on a mission and putting their lives into his hands was a good idea… he sighed. Loki had hoodwinked, betrayed and fooled his own brother quite a few times. No… it was still a bad idea and he doubted that he would make it out alive without having to kill Loki slowly at some point.

“What exactly are we looking for, Reindeer Games?” He started languidly after they had landed. Natasha was loading her guns—silent clicks echoing through the ice cold air—Bucky was adjusting his metal arm, Steve was fixing his shield and even Thor’s lightnings crackled through his new weapon. They all expected a fight upon their arrival and they were not entirely wrong.

The Frost Giants had left traces. It was almost beautiful. The rivers, houses, bushes, trees and streets, everything was frozen and glittering and glistening in the weak sunlight. Loki knew they must have established themselves a little empire and now abandoned it to hunt their next big prize.

“Look around you,” he explained impatiently. “Does this look like a battlefield to you? It is not. Mortals are no match for Jötuns and they knew this. Anything that is made of ice and moves—kill it. What we are searching for are their headquarters. A place for them to hide while the lower among them do the dirty work.” It did not sound much different from how Odin had ruled. Loki suppressed a scoff. It was a trait the dead king had passed on to his only biological son. He, Loki, was the brains, Thor was only the muscles. Some things would never change…

“So what do we do?” Wanda’s voice cut through the air, her Eastern European accent heavier than usual. He had by now noticed it did so whenever she was upset or nervous. Nothing Loki should be worried about as long as she kept her powers in control.

“We split up.” Thor announced loudly before Loki had a chance to reply. But yes. Working in solitude was what the God of Mischief had learned to prefer when the only person he could ever truly rely on was himself. Besides, upon an encounter with another Jötun, he would not have to dread turning all blue and monstrous in front of the Avengers—they mistrusted him as is.

There were no castles in Iceland, not really. But the God of Mischief, knowing exactly what to pay attention to, soon found what he was looking for. It was an old ruin, a former farm house—and it was the perfect place for starting an icy kingdom. The first of many places to find Jötun guards, councillors or even one of their leaders.

“I found something,” he announced dryly, still getting used to the little headset device that enabled him to communicate with the Avengers. “Stay where you are, I am going in first.”

“Hold on a second, Reindeer Games. What’s your location?”

But he had already turned the annoying piece of electronics off. It would only distract him, especially if he was forced to listen to Stark’s dull voice. Rolling his eyes, he approached the frozen farm house and pushed open the door, not even flinching when his skin made contact with the ice cold doorknob. Then, he stepped inside.

A/N: And so it begins...

If you enjoyed this chapter, would you consider buying me a coffee for the next? I’d appreciate your support so much! kofi.com/sserpente (or hit the ‘Support me’ button on my blog!)

#mischief and ice #loki #loki imagine #loki x you #loki x reader #loki fanfiction #loki laufeyson #loki laufeyson imagine #loki laufeyson x you #loki laufeyson x reader #loki laufeyson fanfiction #loki odinson #loki odinson imagine #loki odinson x you #loki odinson x reader #loki odinson fanfiction #thor #thor imagine #thor fanfiction #the avengers #the avengers fanfiction #avengers infinity war #avengers infinity war imagine #the avengers imagine #avengers infinity war fanfiction #avengers endgame #avengers endgame imagine #avengers endgame fanfiction #infinity war #infinity war imagine

[part-time-adventurer]

Five go to Red Larch - Day 4, Part 2

It wasn't meant to end like this...

Nobody could have known how the day would end, not when it started in such a surreal and almost comical way.

Three strangely-dressed zombies awaited our heroes. Three undead mummers acting out a silent play; one in a dress and thickly-painted makeup, one dressed as a bear, one in jester's motley. What the actual f--

Strange or not, they were performing rather than attacking, which has to count for something, right? It was looking strange, nightmare fuel for weeks, but it was survivable. The trick, they decided somewhat belatedly, was not to touch anything. Poking, prodding, looting; these things anger the dead. Tip-toeing carefully past should be safe. Sitting quietly to watch the play? Brilliant idea! It was all going so well. Right up until Twatt decided to walk backstage, anyway.

Combat began, injuries were incurred, Rain missed the ending to the play; sadness all around really.

With nothing better to do, the party moved onward. Two passages opened, but they'd decided right-turns were more dangerous than left and chose the left-hand... gap in the wall. The place really doesn't have doors or clear passages, so it's a case of following the openings big enough to squeeze through and left felt lucky to them.

There stood the Lord of Lance rock, a greasy man with unwashed hair and a bad smell around him. Not diseased as he had claimed, but you still wouldn't want to get too close. As they approached, he was stitching some limbs back onto a corpse, no doubt preparing it for work in his strange 'mansion' in the caves. For all that he was not taking care of himself, the room was very clean. Even the bodyparts had been neatly arranged in their own baskets for later reattachment.

Like the unimaginative peasants they were, the party decided to attack the self-proclaimed Lord of Lance Rock. No decorum, no respect. Like the fine lord he was, the gentleman withdrew into another part of the cave while his minions handled the dirty work.

"Tsk...such a coward," commented Roza.

"Not a coward, just too noble to fight idiots. Nobles fight with armies, not their own hands. Peasants..."

Skeletons make far better soldiers than wizards anyway, so he left with a simple instruction to his risen warriors: "Shoot the mouthy lizard first!"

Four shortbows creaked as the skeleton archers drew back their arm-bones and loosed arrows in the direction of Roza the mouthy lizard. All but one missed or were turned aside by her armour. Twatt charged toward the skeletons, but was too far away to strike. Feng, meanwhile, let fly a crossbow bolt which killed one of the undead archers outright.

As Rain and Roza went to cover, the bard was left staring in wonder.

"Did... did that... did I actually do something!?" Feng asked in wonder. "I DID SOMETHING USEFUL! Wow! No wonder you guys are all hooked on battles and bashing!"

The combat continued, Twatt trading blows with the skeletons who were now forced to draw their swords, while arrows and bolts flew. More skeletons fell as the wizard cast a quick spell and disappeared.This time it was Roza's turn to show her skill and she shot the final skeleton with a crossbow bolt which took it's head clean off.

The Lord of Lance Rock had retreated and it was time to chase him down.

The passage continued toward the north and so the party, though battered and weary, pressed on. A strange glowing orb awaited them and so too did a bizarre sigil. That might be something we encounter again later on...

Opening combat, the Lord of Lance rock stepped out from behind a tapestry and let fly a trio of magic missiles. It's not much, but each bolt weakened the party just a little more. The third missile struck Rain and knocked her to the ground, turning the 4 on 1 battle into 3 on 1. Twatt responded with a powerful axe-blow before the wizard could respond, but respond he did; a draining blow, a vampiric touch if you will, lashed out now that Twatt was in striking range and things went from bad to worse; the warrior was knocked unconscious and the necromancer was healed by this magical attack.

Two members dying, Roza leapt into action. She had exhausted her magic for the day, but lashed out with her trusty mace instead. A good hit, but still not enough to fell such a powerful user of necromantic energy. Things looked bad as the souls of both dying heroes seemed to critically fail in their attempts to stay with their bodies.

From the shadows, like some kind of feline deus ex machina came Elegant button. The roguish kitty knelt down to stabilise Rain despite having no real grasp of medicine or human anatomy, but luck was on Rain's side and the tabaxi's basic first-aid was enough to keep body and soul together.

"Do your worst, coward," taunted Roza, spitting blood onto his robes. Though gravely wounded, she would not allow the necromancer to finish off his victims while she still drew breath.

With a mocking laugh, the Lord of Lance rock summoned lightning around his fist and thrust it past her defences. The world went dark for the third member of the adventuring party as she lost consciousness. Now only an overwhelmed bard and a cat-folk rogue more used to striking from concealment remained standing.

Across the room, Twatt let out a final sigh and succumbed to the death-magics which had ravaged his body. His killer's back straightened as the power of death drew a small part of the now-dead warrior's soul into him, rejuvenating the spell-caster. And this was not to be the final insult; he had died to a powerful necromancer, after all.

Feng let loose a crossbow bolt and Button pounced across the room to thrust his rapier at the evildoer, but neither wound could prevent his next spell. Bound together by the lingering magics that had killed the warrior, the Lord of Lance Rock did not even have to approach the corpse of his victim, simply to utter a single word: "Rise!" With a sickening sound, Twatt's flesh began to split and a skeletal warrior thrust one arm free of its fleshy prison.

The two remaining warriors, fearing all was lost, threw themselves into the combat, shooting and stabbing because it was all that they knew to do in their rage and grief. Overwhelmed by this sudden all-out attack, Button's rapier found the wizard's heart at the same time a bolt from the bard's crossbow slammed through one eye. A black flame engulfed the figure even as he began to fall, obliterating flesh and robes until they might nearly have never existed.

The Lord of Lance Rock fell, defeated at last, but at what cost?

On the floor was the bloody skeleton of Twatt the half-orc fighter, the body destroyed and the living essence tainted by the dark magics which had tried to raise him as an undead servant. Even if the party could have afforded the valuable diamonds needed for a resurrection, those raised as undead were beyond such magics.

Almost on reflex, the adventurers collected the carefully-stacked coins and gems which littered the room's alcoves. They pocketed the wand of magical missiles they found, they pondered the magical driftglobe lighting the room, but their hearts were not in the fight any more.

It wasn't meant to end like this...

#Five go to Red Larch #Five against the Elemental Evil

[razieltwelve]

Partners (RWBY AU Snippet)

Once upon a time, Yang had dreamed of being able to transform into a dragon. Reality, however, had shown that being able to turn into a dragon wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. A lot of the time, it was actually pretty horrible. 

Whenever she went anywhere, she had to worry about would-be heroes trying to win fame by defeating her. Most of them got the message after a little bit of mangling and some singeing, but some of them had proven to be incredibly (some would say stupidly) stubborn. 

Then there was all the shrieking and wailing that went on whenever she stopped at a village. It didn’t matter that she was perfectly happy to hand over some money for a cow or two to snack on. All villagers saw was a dragon, and the ones that didn’t run away screaming at the top of their lungs went after her with stakes and pitchforks. It was actually kind of sad. Stabbing her with a pitchfork wasn’t going to do anything except break the pitchfork, and most villagers needed their pitchforks to make a living or to drive off real villains like the occasional vampire or non-law-abiding werewolf.

And then there were the wizards who were obsessed with enslaving her and bending her to their will. She dealt with at least one of those a month although she had recently invited a dozen of them to do their worst. It had taken her about five minutes to incinerate the lot of them, so hopefully, she wouldn’t have to deal with anymore of that silliness for at least a year or so. It turned out that wizards were highly flammable and somewhat vulnerable to being clawed or bitten.

But as troublesome as turning into a dragon could be, it did have its perks. Normally, being caught in pouring rain would have been a fairly miserable experience, but dragons had nothing to worry about. Her fire kept her warm no matter how cold it was, and her scales were more than adequate for standing up to the rain. All she needed was a nice hill to rest against, and she’d be set. Flying in rain was fine, but being struck by lightning sucked. It wasn’t like the lightning could kill her, but falling out of the sky was not something she enjoyed.

Alas, being a dragon also meant she was bereft of company. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. A family of enterprising squirrels had decided to take shelter in the shadow she cast after a bolt of lightning had destroyed their tree. They would probably go look for a new tree once the weather died down, but they’d apparently realised that if she wasn’t going to eat them, then being near her was their best option since all of their predators had decided to give her a wide, wide birth. Sadly, though, squirrels did not make for good conversation partners.

Her musing were interrupted when the squirrels began to cast furtive looks around before scampering up her side and glaring in the direction of a bush. Yang’s eyes narrowed, and she reached out with her senses. Like most shape shifters, she could sense when another shape shifter was close. Interesting. Flame kindled in her jaws. If this newcomer was peaceful, she wouldn’t mind talking to them. But if they wanted to make trouble, there weren’t many things more dangerous than a giant, flying, fire-breathing reptile with impenetrable scales and claws and teeth that could tear through the walls of a castle.

Her concerns evaporated a moment later as the other shape shifter stepped into view… as a cute, cuddly black cat that looked absolutely miserable since it was completely and utterly drenched from the rain.

Yang gave a low rumble of greeting. One of the first things she’d learned as a dragon was how to project her thoughts and read the thoughts of others. It was an essential skill since dragons couldn’t really use language in the normal way and roaring at people had a tendency to terrify them, which was usually not helpful. She’d even given one poor fellow a heart attack while asking for directions.

The rain sucks, huh? Yang projected.

The black cat startled for a moment before stopping and staring. Evidently, the other shape shifter had been so intent on finding shelter that she’d somehow managed to miss the giant golden dragon draped over the hillside. Please, don’t eat me.

Yang gave the draconic equivalent of a laugh, and the squirrels made angry sounds as her shoulder shook with mirth. She wasn’t about to eat a fellow shape shifter for no reason, and it wasn’t like a cat would even suffice for a meal anyway. Given how big Yang was as a dragon, anything smaller than a cow was basically finger food. Don’t worry about it. Are you looking for shelter? Yang gestured with her wing. It was every bit as good as a proper roof given its size.

The cat eyed her warily for a moment before making a decision. Do you mind if I stick around? I can only change into a cat, and this weather...

It’s not exactly good for cats, is it? Yang nodded. Sure. Stick around. I could use someone to talk to.

The cat settled under Yang’s wing before moving over to lean against Yang’s side. Like most dragons, Yang radiated warmth. The squirrels gave the cat a suspicious look before settling back under Yang’s wing, albeit as far away from the cat as possible. Thanks. I’m Blake.

I’m Yang. So… why are you wandering around as a cat? A human form would be more convenient in this weather.

Blake huffed. I can’t change back. One of my… enemies did something to me, and now, I’m stuck as a cat.

Well, that sucks. Yang leaned over and peered at Blake. How long have you been stuck as a cat?

About a week. Blake shuddered. I’ve almost been eaten four times, and I just managed to escape the house of some crazy person who wouldn’t let me leave.

Yang scratched her own belly with one gigantic claw. You can stick with me if you want. I’m about to head home, and there’s a good chance someone in my family can help you. My uncle knows more about shape shifting than almost anyone.

Are you sure? Blake made a face. Aren’t you worried about me tricking you or something?

Blake, I’m a one-hundred-and-fifty-feet-long dragon. If you try to stab me in the back, I will laugh very loudly before setting you on fire and eating you.

Blake grimaced. When you put it that way… point taken. She paused. But how do I know I can trust you?

Blake, if I wanted to eat you, you’d be eaten. Like I said, I’m a dragon.

X     X     X

A few days later…

Ruby looked up from the cow she’d been in the middle of eating. A very pretty - but very angry - young woman with pale hair and blue eyes was pointing a crossbow at her.

“Unhand my cow, cretin!”

Ruby dropped the cow and opened her mouth to explain. What she wanted to say was: I am so sorry. I was really hungry, and I promise I will pay for the cow. Alas, as she was currently in her werewolf form, the only sound that came out was: “GRAAARGH!”

“So be it, vile fiend. I, Weiss Schnee, Scion of the House of Schnee shall defeat you.” 

Since Ruby had no intention of being shot by a crossbow, she did the first thing she could think of. She slapped the crossbow out of Weiss’s hands. Again, she wanted to say something. In this case: Could you please not point your crossbow at me? Once again, however, she’d forgotten that she was still in her werewolf form. What came out of her mouth was: “RAAAAAARGH!”

Naturally, because Ruby’s luck had never been stellar, that was when Weiss’s sister arrived. Seeing a large werewolf knock the crossbow out of her sister’s hand before roaring, Winter came to the only logical conclusion. Clearly, the werewolf was a foul beast intent on devouring her sister alive.

“Begone, fiend!” Winter cried, levelling her own crossbow at Ruby as Weiss scrambled to draw her sword. “For you now face two daughters of the House of Schnee! Call upon whatever allies you wish, no evil can withstand our combined might!”

Ruby was seriously considering beating a tactical retreat - because as pretty as the two women were, they were heavily armed - when she caught sight of a most welcome shape in the sky.

“Distract it,” Winter ordered Weiss as she tried to move into Ruby’s blind spot. “This werewolf might be big, but we should be able to defeat it if we work…”

Winter fell silent as a massive shadow fell over the area. Weiss followed her gaze and gave a small, panicked squeak of horror as a huge golden dragon landed behind the werewolf. There was a black cat perched on one of its shoulders and a family of squirrels on the other.

Were you two pointing weapons at my little sister? The dragon growled. Because that would make me very mad.

It was at that point that Weiss did the only thing she could think of that might get them out of the situation alive. She lowered her sword and nudged the half-eaten cow toward the werewolf. “Please, forgive us for interrupting your meal. My sister and I will just be on our way and…”

Weiss and Winter’s attempt to retreat came to an abrupt end as the dragon’s long, serpentine tail flicked out to tear a gash in the earth behind them. How kind of you. But lunch is so much better with company. You’ll stay and talk, won’t you?

X     X     X

Author’s Notes

Dragons, werewolves, cats, squirrels, who knows what’ll happen next. Let me know if you’d like to see this snippet continue.

You can find me on fanfiction.net, AO3, and Amazon.

#rwby #fanfiction #yang xiao long #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #winter schnee

[cartoonfangirl1218]

Song of the Sirenas drabble

Originally I was going to post this for Eleteo week but alas, I procrastinated and did nothing. But I finished it now. It’s just a little spin of Mateo seeing Elena’s necklace in the water after Shuriki blasts her from the float in the beginning of the Song of Sirenas. Hope you enjoy. 

Mateo stared at the lone piece of ripped fabric hanging by the wooden planks of the parade float. He scanned desperately in the waters for a signs of recent disturbance or a motionless body but there was nothing. The water was perfectly clear and you could see the bright sand underneath looking just as warm as the ones on the shores. The necklace Elena had been wearing glittered and sparkled as the sun hit its jewels. Mockingly bright and beautiful.

His stomach took a dive as his heart clenched while simultaneously pounded a rapid tattoo. He could barely hear anything with his hot blood rushing through his ears. He tried to tell himself not to panic but that was all he could do as he stood there frozen by the dock.

Elena was missing. They had come to the dock to find her float empty and the guards saying they had no clue where she had gone. Gabe has immediately surmised that the villains had split up as a distraction and someone else had met Elena with an ambush.

The rest of the group had immediately left the premises to go scour the area but Mateo had hardly heard the Captain of the Guard’s directions. He had saw that little scrap of dress and that necklace sparkling on the ocean floor and his mind knew what had happened.

Thousands of thoughts jumbled in his head to join with the pounding migraine and fear taking over his usually rational mind. How could he have been so stupid as to go after the Delgados and be distracted by the confetti. Splitting up was the oldest trick in the book yet they all fell for it like idiots. Who knows where the Delgados could have taken Elena? What if Shuriki already found her? What if Elena was....

His heart clenched harder and Mateo let out a sob.

What if Elena was dead?

Tears flowed uncheck down Mateo’s cheeks as he let his thoughts give way to the worst.

Not Elena. Elena couldn’t be dead.

What would they do without her? She was their only hope, their bright shining light against Shuriki. She was the only one who had the magical power and strength to go against the evil wielder of the Scepter of Night and-

And Elena’s death meant so much more than just losing their queen.

Elena gone.

How could they go on without her bright energy and her enthusiasm for life. They way she would find the positive side to things and how she always tried to help others to their true potential.

Mateo particularly appreciated her for that trait. She was the one who pulled him from the dark depths of his basement after eleven long years of loneliness and isolation. She believed in him when no one else had or cared for him and his magic. With her by his side, he had accomplished things he never would have been brave enough to do before like face off against Fiero and embrace his role as a royal wizard.

And here, he once again failed her.

A world without Elena, Mateo didn’t want to live in that world.

Mateo slowly sank to his knees, cradling his head in his hands as a salty tear dripped off his nose into the water below.

No sound came out from him. He felt frozen and silent in this horrible nightmare.

What would they do without their feisty brave queen.

Feisty, and brave- Mateo’s mind somehow slowed to cling to those two words. Elena was feisty and brave. Is.

He couldn’t lose hope like this. Elena wouldn’t do that. Didn’t she just say when she came back from Vallestrella that sometimes you had to move forward in order to lose the nightmares of your past?

Well he was going to move forward. He was going to be hopeful as Elena always is. Elena always found an out of the box way to figure things out. Surely she did something similar when she faced off those despicable villains. There was a chance she was alive. She was equipped with the skills and the ability to do so.

And if there was an off chance that she did perish?

Mateo took a deep shuddery breath and forced himself to stand up despite the weight that still pressed against him from his shoulders.

He used his tamborita to summon the necklace from the water and clutched it in his hands, repeating a vow that he had made after the events of the Sunflower Festival.

He was going to do right by Princess Elena. He would not be a fool that the villains played with to hurt her. Not anymore. He was going to take action and defeat those murderers that were the antithesis of everything Elena worked for.

That was his promise to her. 

#elena of avalor #elena castillo flores #mateo de alva #angst #my fanfic #song of the sirenas #my fanfiction

[oscar-isaacs-number-one-bitch]

“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” Movie Review

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the 9th film in the widely beloved Harry Potter universe and the second of its prequels after 2015’s Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. In this installment, Eddie Redmayne is back as Newt Scamander, a former student of Hogwarts and author of the in-universe textbook which for which the first of these prequel films was titled. In this film, he’s tasked by a young Albus Dumbledore (here played by Jude Law) with going to Paris to find the child Credence (Ezra Miller), who was a problem in the last movie due to his insane and unstable power, because he’s the only one who could conceivably defeat Dumbledore in order to make the wizards rule over humankind forever, a plot all set in motion by Grindelwald (Johnny Depp), who escapes prison and sets out to also find Credence to this end. And if all of that sounds overlong and needlessly convoluted, I’m not even going to begin going into the issue of Credence’s genealogy, a plot point apparently so important, they center the entire reason he could defeat Dumbledore around that very mystery. Oh, and Nagini is here too, I guess.

I enjoyed the first Fantastic Beasts fine enough; it wasn’t exactly the same quality as when the Harry Potter series reached its greatest heights, but I put it about on par with the more subpar entries in that superior franchise. The characters were fun, the lead had conviction, the beasts (though not fantastic) begot a lot of enjoyment, and the additions of Dan Folger and Alison Sudol easily made up the largest highlights of the film. It’s a shame, then, that writer J.K. Rowling has opted to not only entirely abandon any sense of true narrative or plot mechanics, but all but ignore entirely that this movie even needs a story in the first place. The sad thing is, the lack of a general plot progression right up until the very end isn’t even one of the most frustrating things about the movie. What’s truly upsetting is how many opportunities it takes to go out of its own way to show you THIS thing from Harry Potter, and THIS thing from Harry Potter, and THAT name from Harry Potter, until you’re so worn down with Harry Potter references you just wish Rowling had never written the first of these movies.

To get the positives out of the way first, there’s one line that Jacob Kawolski says that actually made me laugh, the performances are all mostly fine still (even though I wrack my brain daily to find out why on God’s green earth Warner Bros is still putting Johnny Depp in anything given that one of their flagship characters movies stars his ex-wife he used to beat, Amber Heard), the visual effects are mostly pretty good…mostly…and David Yates still hasn’t lost touch when it comes to directing a big budget effects blockbuster in terms of how he moves the camera. On the shots where the camera doesn’t move? That’s a different story.

No, that’s it. Those are the only positives I can find to this movie. Luckily they’re positive enough that the film isn’t intolerable, but it only barely avoids being perhaps the worst franchise prequel since X-Men Origins: Wolverine. To even begin to start in on the negatives would nearly constitute having to get up onto a podium in front of every movie theater in America and warn you about how disappointed you’re likely going to be if you have a competent sense of filmmaking mechanics or structure or have ever seen a decent film in your life (and aren’t going to be someone who bends over backwards to praise Rowling’s writing this movie just because she wrote a now-iconic book series a while ago). From the start, the film introduces a minorly interesting idea for this universe and then not only never revisits that old trick again, but essentially makes it the one crime Grindelwald commits for the entire movie, and I’m not exaggerating – “the crimes of Grindelwald” has exactly 0 to do with the actual plot of the film, which (as we’ve discussed) there’s barely any of. And come to think of it, neither do the “fantastic beasts” these films are supposed to be about. There are a total of essentially two (2) new creatures you actually remember that pop up in this installment, and only one of them is an actual creature, whereas the other is a large dragon that’s made of fire but is only the result of a spell, having no physical incarnation in this universe for it to come from or go back to.

This would all be forgivable as a simple mistitling if the plot was at least interesting, but what of the plot there is moves at a snail’s pace while the audience not only has to jump through so many different lore and legend hoops to understand what’s going on (which there’s basically no source for because no books have been written), but is left way too bored to even care that they’re confused about any of it. By the time we actually get to the climax of the movie, Newt and Tina (Katherine Waterson from the last movie) have only just resolved an issue where Tina was mad at him because of a misprinted news article (no, really) and we’re thrown right into an exposition shouting match between all the movie’s important characters. Yes, the first time the movie shows any sort of momentum, right towards the end, it stops cold in its tracks for an overly complicated exposition shouting match between two characters about a backstory to another character that doesn’t end up matter at all.

The largest weakness of this movie, however, is that it abandons its characters and any development they might receive in order to just lay out stuff about the Harry Potter universe for the audience to look at. It’s essentially the Solo of this universe, only Solo did this sort of thing with a lot more style. Sure, retroactively making the series a little more diverse by making Voldemort’s pet snake a Korean woman this whole time is a decent idea in concept I guess, but not once you actually start to parse out the pieces of it or what it represents, not that any of that matters because the character has zero effect on the overall story and is just boring, disposable, and entirely unnecessary. And speaking of things being unnecessary, while I was happy to see him back since he’s the only fun character in either of these movies now, the return of Jacob and Queenie is not only totally random and brushed over in terms of what it would mean (breaking the rules of the last movie) to get there, it’s so bizarrely handled that one wonders what about the actual execution of it made it necessary for them to do it that way.

In fact, all of the characters are worse this time around. Newt used to be charming, but now he’s just a bumbling oaf with no convictions about anything, Tina’s annoying “mister Scamander” routine is back, and Alison Sudol (the best part of the last movie) looks like she dropped some acid right before every single take and they just filmed what happened after. Oh, and did I mention there’s a major twist at the end? Cause there is, and if you’ve been paying attention, it’s gonna piss you off too, because not only is it a complete betrayal of one of the universe’s most beloved characters, it never, not once, comes up in the part of these stories where it would have mattered in even the slightest bit.

Guys, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is bad, but only in the way a big budget blockbuster set in one of the most beloved movie universes of all time can be. Sure, there is one funny line, most of the performances work fine, and there are a few charming moments overall, but that doesn’t make much difference. It will have its defenders I’m sure, just as the Star Wars prequels do, and there are some interesting elements to it, but none of those elements add up to anything compelling, and when Rowling finally does get around to one compelling thing, it doesn’t matter and it betrays a character she wrote! It’s boring, dreary (the whole thing seemingly takes place at night or under cloud cover), it begs you so hard to take it seriously as “the dark one” that you just get annoyed, and it’s so stuffed full of exposition and backstory that doesn’t matter that I’m practically begging them to just stop the Hogwarts express here cause I wanna get off of it. If you’re ever browsing my movie shelf, don’t look for this one, cause it won’t be there. The magic is gone.

I’m giving “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” a 5/10.

#Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald #Movie Review #The Friendly Film Fan #Fantastic Beasts #Fantastic Beasts The Crimes of Grindelwald #Fantastic Beasts 2 #Fantastic Beasts II #Eddie Redmayne #Jude Law #Johnny Depp #Ezra Miller #Katherine Waterson #Alison Sudol #Dan Folger #Callum Turner #Cornell John #zoe kravitz #Carmen Ejogo #Movie #Film #Review #Harry Potter #HP #HP Universe #HPU #Harry Potter Universe #Potterverse #J.K. Rowling #David Yates

[sieben9]

“and they lived…” impressions

{Quick request to anyone reading: I’m watching OUaT for the first time, and I want to avoid spoilers. So, if you want to discuss something spoilery, I’d be grateful if you could start a new post for that. Thank you!}

You know. Season finales tend to do a number on me. Show finales, turns out, are even worse.

Or better. Depends on how you want to look at it.

Shouting of various kinds under the cut. And spoilers of various kinds. Also, everybody should watch Wonderland, it’s straight-up excellent.

Ho. Ly. Crap.

This was fantastic. Like, I didn’t have much time to watch this episode, and I thought “well, maybe I can watch ten minutes now to take off the edge of the cliffhanger and watch the rest tomorrow” and nope, I absolutely could not. I mean… how do I love this finale. Let me count the ways:

We have symmetrical storytelling.

We have a thematically appropriate defeat of the villain.

and with a Disney mythology gag thrown in there, as well

We have some tragedy…

…but not pointless tragedy.

We have True Love’s Kiss!

<TLK>

And we have all the Happily Ever After.

Just all of it. This is so good. In thirteen episodes, these characters have been through so much bullshit, and now their story ends in what I’d almost call a “maximally happy” way. (With one exception. I’m getting to that later.)

Apart from all that, we had a zombie army, grand speeches, hilarious banter, and some quality Rabbit Family content. I love it. It’s wonderful. Absolutely no pun intended.

“And this is where Cyrus’s spleen fell out!” —actual dialogue, no joke necessary

Alright, since I could spend the entire evening gushing about this show, I’ll try and narrow it down a bit to maybe two or three things that were The Best:

Amara’s swan song and the defeat of Jafar, the conclusion to Ana’s and Will’s story, and the Happilogue, which is absolutely a word and you cannot convince me otherwise.

Amara’s part in the finale was both awesome and heartbreaking. Because she knew, right from the first moment, that she was going to die soon. If they said it oud loud, I must have missed it, but it was still pretty clear that the moment she returned the water to the well, she’d die herself. (And Cyrus seemed to suspect something, at least. Him grabbing her hand wasn’t “no, what are you doing”, it was more “wait, I’m not ready to let you go” and yes, I cried.) She knew she wouldn’t live to actually be Alice’s mother-in-law, and she was trying to find out as much as possible about this woman her son wanted to spend his life with. And she clearly liked what she saw. (Which proves she has functioning eyes, but never mind that.) Like I said. It was sweet.

Some special love to the resurrection scene. Mostly because of Mrs. Rabbit’s “Well, if you’re going to do it that way…”, because that’s honestly some good composure when someone is violating the laws of reality on your living room floor.

And, of course, there was the whole scene at the well.

is it just me or is there an awful lot of water imagery in this show?

::sad noises:: Look, I knew it was coming, but that doesn’t mean I was happy about it. Still, the way they defeated Jafar was pretty amazing. Not only was it a clever plan that utilised Jafar’s own hubris/overconfidence, it also contained a nice little Disney-mythology nod (Jafar becoming a genie) and had Alice at her most badass, even though—or maybe especially because—she wasn’t hitting people with a sharp thing at a time.

facing the realms’ most powerful wizard with nothing but a cocky grin. Will would be so proud.

Although, in maybe one of the better instances of having your penny and your bun, Alice still got to do the dramatic Speech to the Troops™, neatly juxtaposed with Jafar’s. I’m not complaining, mind. “Alice the Action Hero” is an important facet of her character, and comparing her and Jafar this directly made for good groundwork before going into the final act.

And when they came back to the palace and Cyrus’s brother asked if it had been “all for nothing” and he replied “no, it was for everything”? Dead. I was dead. If the rest of the episode hadn’t slain me, that would have been the moment. Goodbye, cruel world, and all that.

So, what was the bit that actually murdered me, you ask?

Well, take a wild guess.

God. These two. Just… everything about them, especially this episode, because even after the big damn kiss last episode, there was still some amazing emotional payoff to be had.

The whole Scarlet Queen sequence, I have to say, kind of stole the show from Alice’s earlier defiant declaration that not even Jafar changing the past could ever destroy her love for Cyrus, maybe because it… didn’t happen. If there’s one thing I can fault this episode for (well, one other thing; please see below), it’s that Jafar never went through with his threat, instead just turning to Ana for answers.

Oh, this also answers my question: yup, Jafar does just like to see people in pain. Especially Will, for some bizarre reason, though I suppose that’s just because Will is completely at his mercy and can’t really fight back

Still, enough complaining, because overall, I loved this storyline. And Will got to summarise their relationship in this beautiful, earnest, and completely heartbroken speech.

“You had real love once, and you know it’s not that simple. Love is messy. It means arguing and making up and laughing and crying and struggling, and sometimes it doesn’t seem worth it. But it is. And at the end, when you’re in love, no matter what happens, you forgive each other. I forgive you, Ana, for what you did to me. Because I love you. And if there’s any part of you that has a shred of love left for me, then please, help us.”

And more than just summarising their relationship, it’s also one of the best “takes” on True Love this show has ever provided, as well as a short version of Will’s own arc. He was rightfully angry at Ana for what she did to him, and he was just as right in forgiving her. And he knows that. I also love how this little speech is set up, because Will tries to distract Ana with some ridiculous and very transparent trick before, and when it doesn’t work, he immediately starts pouring his heart out. And obviously part of that is because he has a heart to pour out, but I think a larger aspect is that… well, the worst thing possible has already happened to him. He’s seen Ana die and wasn’t able to save her. No point beating around the bush, is there?

And that little “yup, she’s back” on his part was all kinds of adorable.

Now, I’m not 100% happy with Ana’s second resurrection, mostly because Nyx giving out the water wasn’t on-screen. It’s emphatically not a deus-ex-machina, because the properties of the water were well-established, and we’d seen the wrong use of it already bring down punishment twice, so showing the stuff work as intended was only fair. But it still felt a little out of nowhere and could have easily been fixed with a thirty-second extra scene. I suppose it was a time-issue, and it didn’t really hurt the story, so I’m hardly going to complain, though. These two have suffered enough. They certainly deserve an “easy” out for once.

One thing was left unresolved, though, and it will just bug me to the end of time.

Hey. Hey, writers. Writers? You gotta get her out of there. Listen. Listen. You can’t just leave her there! She wanted to be free! She wanted to stop being a monster, how can you just leave her there?

Somebody fix this, or so help me, I’m gonna do it myself.

Leaving the unhappy monster behind… the Happilogue!

OK. Look. I’m… ambivalent on big, cheesy weddings, for several reasons, but I will freely admit that this one was set up well, and executed in a way I can absolutely get behind. Because while Alice and Cyrus never complained about their unquiet life of adventure—after all, they were together, so what more could they want?—it was established early on that Alice never wanted anything so much as a stable home where she was welcome and loved. They always wanted to settle down, and now, after being through hell together (as the Rabbit very aptly noted), they finally get to do that. It’s good! I like it! And I love  that the wedding was as weird as you would expect from two people who came from two completely different worlds, fell in love in a third, fought to protect that world and came out of the whole thing with lifelong friends everywhere.

And all in all, I am very glad the show took the time to show all of the characters in this happy moment. They’ve been through a lot, and so has the viewer, and watching them like this is like a chance to exhale. It’s good now. They made it.

Oh, and for some more crying:

OK, I wasn’t completely sure about this one at first, because Alice’s father realising that his dream was so much more than that could have been such an amazing on-screen moment, but I also get the need to keep up momentum (generally speaking, the defeat of the bad guy, reconciliation with the relationship character, achieving the story goal, and bringing down the curtain should happen in as quick a succession as possible), and this was still a beautiful moment. Not only that they’ve reconciled, but also that Alice’s father still recognises how badly he fucked up, and how much effort it was for Alice to forgive him. The “it was all a dream” reveal was an excellent bit of storytelling, and could have used its own conflict resolution, but I still adore this little scene for showing the result of their reconciliation.

And then there were the goodbyes.

so many tears. and in the show, too.

I don’t even have that much to say, except that I loved to see how cordial they all were with each other, how Ana made clear that this wasn’t forever, and they would see each other again, soon, and…

“Hold on to your heart this time.” “You hold on to yours” —these two goobers, clearly not talking about the hearts in their chests

This. So much this. From the first perfunctory “alright, goodbye then” hug to Alice running after Will and barrelling into him, because they are one of the most important people in each other’s lives, and they’ve been through so much together, and just… ::happy sigh:: Have I mentioned that I adore their friendship? Because it’s really, really good.

The actual epilogue was very sweet, but almost unnecessary. We already knew these two would live happily, and possibly ever after, but seeing what became of Will and Ana, and that Alice really does still visit Wonderland from time to time, was a nice bonus. Also worth it for this precious little bean:

It’s weird. On the one hand I can’t believe this show is over, because I really don’t want it to be, but on the other, it’s been such a wonderfully concise, well-crafted storyline that I also absolutely can believe it. So, just as a closing note, thanks to everyone who got me into watching this. It was (pun fully intended) wonderful.

#ouat #ouat wonderland #and they lived... #sieben watches ouatiwl #sieben talks #this show is excellent and everyone should watch it #i'm not kidding #if you can get your hands on the episodes: #DO SO