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steddieas-shegoes · 3 months

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Steve and Eddie go through the whole adoption process in 1996, despite how difficult it was to find somewhere willing to help them at all and despite their conflicted feelings on adoption.

The way they saw it though, providing a loving home for a child who needed one was better than the alternative. Eddie had enough experience with temporary foster homes to know stability was better than constant moving and questionable foster parents.

They get a foster placement almost immediately, a six year old girl named Amelia. She’s quiet, but not in a way that worries them. She’s very focused, and enjoys going to school more than any regular children’s hobbies. Neither of them know what to do with that other than keep encouraging it.

She stays for months, months turn into a year, and the agency finally gives them the go ahead to complete the adoption process.

But they don’t do anything without talking to Amelia.

She’s happy there, her therapist signs off on it immediately and explains that Amelia has shown more personality development and less signs of trauma with them than she had even living at home. Not to mention they actually brought her to appointments, unlike her previous guardians.

To celebrate, they throw a party with all their friends and family and tell Amelia she can invite anyone from school she wants. She invites everyone.

Turns out their daughter is a social butterfly and is friends with everyone.

At the party, Eddie pulls out his guitar, plays a bunch of popular kid-friendly songs after a very scathing look from Steve as a reminder to behave.

Amelia walks over to him after a few songs, on a sugar high like he’d never seen on her before, and asks to play the guitar.

He’s hesitant, but not because he’s still protective of his guitars, more because he doesn’t want her to embarrass herself in front of her friends. Kids are cruel, even and especially at seven, and the last thing he wants is this to be the thing that kids talk about for the next ten years.

She sits on the couch and holds it, arranging her fingers…correctly. Eddie watches.

Steve is watching from across the room.

She starts strumming, very quietly at first, not as confident as she’d been a moment ago. And then she starts really playing.

It’s one of the songs Eddie wrote. He played it for the last four months nonstop as he perfected it, and she’d apparently been watching.

Eddie’s jaw is on the floor and he quickly looks over to Steve, who has a similar look of surprise on his face.

He doesn’t interrupt her. She makes it through the entire song.

She looks up.

“When did you learn to play guitar?” Eddie asks.

“When I was watching you.”

“But have you played before tonight?”

Amelia shook her head, looking down. “Didn’t wanna touch it without asking.”

Eddie pulls the guitar from her hands and sets it aside, then pulls her into his lap and hugs her. Steve sits down on the couch next to them, hand on her back.

“You can always ask, sweetie. And if you’re this interested and this natural, we can buy you your own guitar if you want. I didn’t think you were interested in playing.”

“I wanna be like you,” Amelia admitted against his shoulder.

Eddie was done for. He looked at Steve, half-panicked, trying not to cry in front of these people, but Steve wasn’t faring any better.

“Then we can go get you a guitar tomorrow. You can get your own picks, too. They might even have purple ones.”

“Can I have red? Like yours?”

“Of course, sweetie.”

It only took them two days after that to realize she could play by ear, just like Eddie.

And then it only took another day after that to realize she had taught herself to read music too.

They spent hours and hours every week playing together while Steve cooked dinner or checked her homework or just watched them.

When Eddie’s band decided to record another album and go on tour when Amelia was 12, Eddie insisted that she get to be on it.

She ended up helping write one of their songs, played on the track on the album, and with a lot of work, convinced Steve to let them homeschool her for the entire 8 months they’d be on tour so she could perform on stage with her dad.

“Can’t believe she’s not even genetically yours. Are you sure you didn’t have an affair?” Steve asked the night before they were leaving for Europe.

“When would I have had an affair? I came back to the tour bus or hotel with you every single night,” Eddie kissed him softly. “She’s amazing, huh?”

“She is. What happens when she wants to be a full blown rockstar like her dad too?”

“Then we make sure she’s protected and has good people around her like I have. She could be a rockstar easily. She’s got the talent and the presence,” Eddie smiled. “And she’s got me to make sure no one takes advantage of her. But she’s only 12. We’ve got time to worry about that later.”

“You’re bringing her onstage every single night all over the world for the next eight months, baby. I think later is now.”

Eddie sighed. “She’s gonna blow them all away. I’m proud of her. Let’s focus on that for now.”

And she did blow everyone away. The fans and the media had nothing but good things to say, and Steve didn’t have to go into overprotective mom mode at all until she was 15 and signing a record deal of her own.

But between Eddie and him, the entire industry knew better than to fuck with her or them.

They made rules, of course. School still came first, she still had required family events to be at, she still had regular friends at home. She wasn’t allowed at any parties, not even the events for award ceremonies.

But she didn’t really need those rules. She had no interest in parties or abandoning her friends or family, and she was a straight A student who still had hopes of getting into Brown for Journalism like her Aunt Nancy. She had a passion for music and wanted to share it, but not at the cost of the rest of her life.

And Eddie and Steve did everything they could to make sure she got to have everything. That’s what they’d promised her from day one.

#steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #headcanon #so adoption is complicated #and I won’t pretend that there are plenty of aspects of the system that are so fucked beyond repair #and this is not the time or place to talk about them #so don’t do that in the comments #you’ll get blocked tbh because we’re here in this specific space to have fun #that is all #steddie dads #also this isn’t how the industry works #this isn’t how the media works #the world is cruel to young performers #but we’re pretending #this is fiction

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the-travelling-witch · 29 days

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𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄

summary: the human custom of sharing clothes had been an unfamiliar one for jade, but he has always been a quick study

pairing: jade leech x gn! reader (both have graduated nrc, but a lot of this is reliving school memories)

warnings: fluff, implied smaller reader; i think it made more sense in my head but have it anyway bc i never wanna shut up about him, please applaud my restraint to not name this ‘boyfriend material’

twisted wonderland masterlist

It was true that wearing clothes was a foreign feeling when Jade first came to the shore all those years ago. But he had come to like the human custom, no matter how tedious it might seem at times. Not only did he realise the way one dressed held a lot of power in the way one was perceived by others, it had also served him in making some fond memories.

The ones he remembered most vividly, however, were those which featured you at the centre of them. Through various means, like the course they had attended or familiarising himself with different types of media above sea level, Jade had learnt that sharing clothes was a thing done between close friends or romantic partners, often being hailed as a sweet gesture and being positively received by characters and audiences alike. So when you had caught the eel’s interest, he had decided to see what the fuss was all about.

Despite his tendency to curate situations which would bring about whatever outcome he desired, the first time the opportunity arose had been a happy coincidence. That day, it had started raining cats and dogs right as the bell signalling lunch break rang. Luckily, Jade’s last class of the morning had been in the building the cafeteria was in, so he could watch in amusement as students swarmed towards the building with various forms of rain repellent keeping them dry- or not.

You had been one of the poor, unfortunate souls who had left their umbrella at the dorm that day, a point made abundantly clear by the way you had sprinted with your PE uniform jacket held over your head in a feeble attempt of shielding yourself. By the time you had made it into the dry hallway, your jacket had been absolutely drenched, the rest of your clothes not faring much better. Witnessing your predicament and seeing a chance to put his theory to the test, Jade had slinked over to your side.

“Oya, if I had known you were this fond of water, I would have invited you to the Coral Sea before,” the eel had said, startling you with his sudden appearance. Your reaction had only served for the polite smile on his lips to grow a tad bit wider. “Yet, here I was under the impression humans don’t like getting their clothes wet. Perhaps I have been wrong?”

“You know well enough this wasn’t intentional, so drop the oblivious act, Jade,” you had sighed, rustling through your backpack for something and subsequently taking your eyes off him. “So what do you want? If you’re trying to rope me into a deal over a little bit of rain, I’ll have to disappoint–”

Something warm and dry had landed on your shoulders then, your gaze landing on the black fabric draped over your form first and wandering back to the tall student afterwards. With your mouth parted, opening and closing in the search of something to say, you had borne a strong resemblance to a fish out of water.

“I heard humans get sick easily after walking in the rain,” Jade had mused, tugging at his vest and shirt to make sure they sat correctly without his blazer, “and we wouldn’t want that, would we?”

“What are you–” You had shaken your head, overcoming your initial confusion as you began shrugging the jacket back off your shoulders. At that point you had been sure he had some ulterior motive and you hadn’t felt like picking up any shifts at Mostro Lounge that week. “I can’t take this from you.”

“Oh, but you can,” he had insisted with a smile, a gloved hand landing on your shoulder to keep the clothing in place. “If you are worried about my health, I am most touched. However, us mers are used to the cold and therefore aren’t as prone to catching one.”

“That wasn’t really what I was concerned about,” you had mumbled, crossing your arms. “I’m more worried about whatever strings come attached with this thing.”

“You wound me. Do you really think I would abuse my fellow student’s misery for personal gain?” Despite his words, he had chuckled at your resolute ‘yes, you would’. The hand on your shoulder had pressed into your upper back then to bring you in closer in order to throw you off with the newfound proximity, disguised as shielding you from the throng of people heading to lunch. “If this is what stands in between you and caring for your health, how about this: In return for accepting my blazer, you accompany me to lunch? I’ll consider us even then, I promise.”

You had studied the vice housewarden more closely, yet, as usual, his expression did not give anything away. Just then a chilly breeze had blown through the corridor, making you tremble as you instinctively pulled the blazer tighter around your body.

“Fine, I’ll accept,” you had relented through chattering teeth.

“Wonderful,” the eel had beamed down at you before guiding you forward, still with his fingers splayed over your upper spine. Students had parted like the sea when they had seen the second year approaching and it was a welcome change of pace from having to fight your way into a spot in the queue.

By the time you had found a table, you had slipped your arms through the sleeves of Jade’s jacket to better hold your tray. And when you rolled up the excess fabric to properly use your cutlery, Jade finally realised why lending someone your clothes was a popular trope in various media.

To say the piece was ill-fitting was an obvious remark, with Jade easily being one of the tallest students around, you were practically drowning in his jacket. It had been eye-openingly endearing for him to say the least. And that was even without factoring in the expression on people’s faces when they realised whose clothes you had been wearing, the Octavinelle band around your left arm added to the context of the scene being a dead giveaway. Yes, as a born predator of the sea, a possessive side of him had revelled in the feeling of staking his claim over you in this way.

But he had shoved the notion down as you had asked him if he liked the food that day and how his morning had been. While he had been able to tell you were still a little wary, cautiously phrasing your responses at first, falling into a casual conversation with you was easy enough. When the anecdote of his brother doing something reckless again made you snort before laughing, he had filed it away as something he wanted to see and hear more of, especially when he was the cause for it.

Lunch had passed a little too fast for the moray’s liking but with one glance at his watch and then one at the still pouring rain, he had quickly devised a plan to monopolise your time to the fullest before returning to your classes.

“Allow me to walk you back to your dorm, so you can change before your next lesson,” Jade had smiled as he pulled out his umbrella, his arm hovering around your back as you had exited the cafeteria. “I assure you, this favour comes with no strings attached.”

Looking back at it years later, perhaps that last part had been a lie, though he was sure neither of you minded. Because after that rainy day, you had interacted more frequently with pleasantly changed feelings.

On Jade’s side of things, he had been more fascinated with you and your reactions than ever and the image of you swaddled in his clothes had managed to stir these newfound emotions in him. You, on the other side, had started considering him as more than a devious loan eel and allowed the normally tightly locked thoughts and feelings for him to come out of their confinement little by little.

After playing cat and mouse for a while, you had taken all your courage, grabbed Jade by the collar and confessed, not able to withstand the tension and anticipation any longer. Of course, he had reciprocated your feelings in teasing delight, which, as your relationship had become public, had easily catapulted you up the list of the school’s lunatics in the eyes of many. But you couldn’t have been happier and, the initial complexities of navigating a new relationship aside, Jade was a dream of a boyfriend if he wasn’t hellbent on prodding and poking you for his own amusement.

So it came as no surprise that, during your school years, you had spent a lot of time at each other’s dorms when Jade wasn’t dragging you up some mountain with him. At that point, you’d felt as comfortable in his room as in yours, even if half of it was shared with the sentient tornado that was Floyd, leaving one half to be pristine and the other opposingly messy.

Jade fondly remembered the day you had come over to study for your upcoming potionology exam, your own dorm room too loud to concentrate and hoping to rope the merman into helping you with your prep questions, especially as his brother had been absent from their room that evening. While many regarded him as the sly and conniving one in the relationship, Jade had to admit you were very good at playing your cards right to where he found it increasingly hard to deny you. Perhaps this cheekiness was one of the things that drew him to you.

Considering you had given up on studying in your room pretty much immediately and had only grabbed your books before marching over to Octavinelle, you had still been in uniform when you joined him at his desk. Ever observant, Jade had quickly noticed the way you subconsciously pulled at the clothes or squirmed in your seat trying to get comfortable.

So being the amazing and reliable boyfriend that he was, he had fished some comfortable loungewear out of his closet; he had initially bought it to round out his collection of essential clothing items, though frankly, he didn’t wear it much himself. With no plans to work at the Lounge that night, he had thought that it might be a good chance to give the comfy clothes another shot.

In retrospect, maybe he should thank your uncomfortable uniform.

When you had both changed into the loungewear, he had not only been amused by the way the shirt, which was a regular fit for him, engulfed your upper body or how you had rolled up the ends of his sweatpants. With some playful huffs at his teasing, you had gone back to work until you had finished writing your study notes, at which point you had relocated to his bed, Jade joining you soon after.

Sitting side by side, your boyfriend had taken to quizzing you to see how much you had retained until he had felt your head drop against his shoulder, which was the first time he had taken note of how late it had gotten. For a few moments he had done nothing but study the way your chest rose and fell with deep breaths, your slightly parted lips inviting him to trace his thumb over the curve of them in featherlight reverence. To think that he of all morays would ever be treated to such a peaceful fragment of mundanity, it had made a warmth tug at his heart the same way the waves rolled over the shore in a calming rhythm, which persisted to this day.

It had pained him to wake you again, so could get ready for bed, persuading you sweetly into staying the night. Though he regretted neither getting to see your half asleep face while you had brushed your teeth, nor how he had been able to pull you close to him under the covers, curling his arms around you as his fingers had wandered over the warmth of your skin under his clothes.

In the comfortable darkness of his room, you had exchanged hushed whispers and murmured confessions as you had settled in his embrace, lulled to sleep by the steady beating of his heart and the lips that had spelled promises of safety and adoration against your skin. And for Jade, tugged deep into the crevice of his heart, there had formed the image of a future where this domesticity was normality.

Years later, after graduation, Jade could proudly claim that this fantasy now lived at the forefront of his heart, that he could fall asleep and wake up to your body next to his, cradled by the allure of forever. After all, for no one but those closest to him would he be up with the rising sun to prepare breakfast, humming under his breath as he relived those memories. Though he considered all his efforts paid off when he heard you shuffle into the kitchen before two arms wrapped around his middle and your head leaned against his spine.

“Good morning to you too, pearl,” Jade chuckled as finished plating the eggs on two plates, then knowingly slid a fresh cup of coffee within your reach. “Did you sleep well?”

“I did, until someone decided to just leave me all by my lonesome,” you grumbled, detaching yourself from him so you could lean against the counter and take a sip of coffee, prepared perfectly to your liking. “I like seeing my beautiful husband’s face first thing in the morning but alas…”

As you stepped into his field of vision, Jade noticed you had chosen not to wear a piece of clothing of yours, but had instead plucked his black dress shirt from the chair he had draped it over the day prior. His dress shirt and nothing else. While it was long enough on you to hide what was for his eyes only, it still showed off the beautiful curve of your legs, ending tantalisingly around your thighs. The few buttons you had closed still displayed the sharp contrast between your collarbones and the softness of the skin peeking through below. It would be all too easy to slip the garment from your shoulder…

“That does seem rather unfair,” Jade agreed as he stepped in front of you, hands ghosting along the expanse of your thighs to rest at your waist, the look in his eyes reminding you of his origins and sending shivers of excitement down your spine. “If you allow me, I have a few ideas in mind on how to make it up to you.”

Within the blink of an eye, his hands had steeled their grip around your waist and lifted you to sit on the counter as he took the opportunity to stand between your legs. Then, with a gentleness which did not match the show of strength, he carefully cupped the back of your head in his palm and connected your lips in a kiss as light and soft as the golden rays bathing your kitchen in light. Your own hands busied themselves with tousling his bed head once again, slowly sliding his black lock behind his left ear as you parted from one another, like a painter putting the finishing strokes on their magnum opus.

“Hm, I might be able to be convinced about forgiving you,” you teased, the lovestruck look in your eyes mirroring his as you slung your arms over his shoulders and crossed them behind his neck in an effort to be even closer to him.

“I must be the luckiest man alive,” he mused, meaning every word of his playful response.

Yes, after living on land for so long, Jade had truly taken a liking to the human custom of wearing clothes and all the different possibilities it held. Then again, the fondness those memories held probably had nothing to do with the clothes at all.

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twisted wonderland: @savanaclaw1996 @honehbee42

#┊holly’s potions ೃ༄#twisted wonderland #x reader #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #twst fluff #twst jade #jade leech x reader #jade leech fluff #jade leech #disney twst #twst

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melehound · 10 months

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141 + König on your period!

Tw: blood, average period pains

Kyle “gaz” Garrick

The kind of guy to some SERIOUS research on periods and he’s very proud that he knows more than the average man about female anatomy definitely something he would brag about if he got the chance (Also educates his friends on it even if they don’t have girlfriends)

After doing extensive research on your cycle he feels prepared and asks you LOTS of questions “how heavy is your flow?” “What kind of tampons/pads do you use? Is there a brand you like the most?” “what do you crave?”

Definitely is the most educated of all the men (price is a close second)

Always is able to dodge your mood swings even if your pissed he is an expert at calming you down without even realizing it and he doesn’t get angry or frustrated often he’s notorious for being level headed and calm even in high tense situations

He tries to be attentive to you as much as he can and depending how long you two have been together he would slowly learn and memorize the things that make you feel better on your period

Simon “ghost” Riley

He had the common base knowledge of periods (blood, mood swings, cramping, etc)

But after having a few girlfriends he realized it was much more complicated than that. He realized that women can have lots of different symptoms on their period and having a heavy flow vs a light flow

He tries to support you emotionally and physically on your period he basically melts into you every time he sees you laying in bed. He crawls over to you and spoons you so he doesn’t disturb your comfortable position he so huge he basically incases you while you two are together

He loves when you lean on him to help you a bit, he has the house cleaned, the fridge full so can lay in bed all day and worry about nothing it makes him happy that you can depend on him

John price

Price has had his fare share of girlfriends in his life he is familiar with a woman’s monthly cycle and he treats it very casual

He’s your living heating pad, he’s so unbelievably warm. He just wants to hold you all day. He just loves taking care of you :,(

He is the most attentive man istg. When your emotional he gets emotional too, when you cry his eyes start to sting you bring out the crybaby in this full grown man so mood swings are the worst part for him.

But he tries to keep it together for you he cooks for you tries to ease your pain with ibuprofen and hot tea.

John “soap” mactavish

The most clueless out of all of them like he knows what a period is he isn’t completely clueless but he isn’t as educated as some of the other guys on the list

He’s just a little stupid when it comes to women he tries his hardest but he can’t help it

You have to remind him you can’t have sex on your period multiple times because he keeps forgetting

But after a few months he starts to track it on his phone so he can remind himself he definitely has all your period needs in his notes app

So when your talking to him about something you like he immediately gets out his phone and starts putting it in his notes

Definitely tries to baby you on your period but when he realized it pissed you off he stopped

König

He learn about periods at a young age (he was raised by a single mom idc) so he has a grasp fully on how painful and awful they are

He calls his mom and asks her how he can help you the most and after receiving some advice he goes to the store and gets you the main staples, tampons, pads, chocolate, heating pad, and ibuprofen.

He loves being close to you no matter what time of the month it is, if your watching a show so is he, if your taking a shower so is he, if your in the bathroom so is he, if your sleeping so is he. He doesn’t like leaving your side at all especially when your in pain

His mom taught him over the phone how to give proper back rubs (god bless his momma) that’s his secret weapon every time your angry at him and all else fails “liebling, would you like a massage..?”

((✿: If you don’t include Gaz in your 141 head cannons I will come for you 🌚 not proofread I wrote this two weeks ago))

#141 headcanons #könig x reader #john price #simon ghost riley x reader #cod x reader #johnny soap mctavish x reader #kyle gaz garrick

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messiahzzz · 19 days

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You’re one of the most annoying people on this site. And that really says A LOT because WOW! Shut the Fuck up about Gale wanting to be a father or not. He never says that he doesn’t want to be one. You projecting things onto him doesn’t make it Canon.

on a serious note: i’m certainly not the one that continuously brings up this topic unprompted. i personally really don’t understand the entire controversy around the topic or why fandom feels the need to rehash this conversation almost weekly. i truly believe that there’s nothing more of value to learn from it, to address, or add to it… yet fandom won’t let it rest.

to once again clarify: what i mean by “gale wanting to be a father isn’t canon” is that there is no evidence/neither hints anywhere in any of the dialogue that support the contrary. characters like h*lsin, w*ll and la*’zel have entire adoption subplots. all of them mention their children explicitly during the epilogue:

narrator: *your soul warms thinking of lily aurora ravengard, your adopted daughter. a treasure of a girl, found at the entrance of the open hand temple - one grey eye, one brown.* w*ll: ah, the girl could melt the staunchest heart. she might even have brought a smile to old withers' face! w*ll: but tonight is for us - and lily's only four months of age, besides. i promise, the temple will keep her in good care.

player: and our little hatchling? is he safe? la*'zel: of course. i have complete trust in our newest allies. xan is in fine hands tonight. la*'zel: what a wonder he is. he will be a fine warrior, if he chooses. or a poet, or an explorer, or a scholar.

h*lsin: being away from it... i cannot help but worry how they will fare in our absence. player: we'll be back before they know it. h*lsin: i hope so. the children shall miss their bedtime tale tonight - though perhaps i can glean a few new stories from our friends here, to make up for it.

even shad*wh*art has a line where she briefly mentions that children might be a possibility for her in the future.

shad*wh*art: and i get to see my parents almost every day - i need to make every moment with them count, after so much was stolen from us. but they're doing well, [...] shad*wh*art: who knows? perhaps they'll have grandchildren before long.

gale in comparison? he has none of that. he remains childfree during the entirety of the game + epilogue. in fact, his line in the epilogue that addresses the topic of grandkids is this one:

tara: this is why mrs. dekarios and i will be waiting an eternity more for grandchildren. nodecontext: self-pitying gale: psst! shoo, tara. nodecontext: shooing away tara like one would a naughty cat.

i already wrote a post about this entire discourse here [x] but to repeat myself once more: all of the dialogue that vaguely addresses the topic of children in any way in regards to gale are these snippets

player: gale… how would you feel about having another person in our relationship? gale: what, like a child? i’m not quite sure i’d consider myself father material, plus our current lifestyle isn’t exactly what i’d call settled…

gale, upon spotting oliver during their game of hide and seek: ah, i have you! just a shame i don’t want you.

gale treating the children the group comes across with respect isn’t an indicator either. this is a courtesy gale extends to everyone he meets. he’s a character that approves of a protagonist who systematically commits good deeds. whether it’s sparing animals, helping without compensation in mind, or aiding children. wanting children to be cared for… and you know… for them not to die is common etiquette that every adult should extend to a child in need. those are not “dad goals!!!” it’s quite literally just basic human decency. gale is genuinely kind and caring to everyone he meets, there is no reason why this also wouldn’t apply to children.

i often see fandom mention his encounter with mol at last light and how excited he is to talk to her. which i think greatly misinterprets the context of the scenario since he didn’t have much of a reaction to mol before either — gale is ecstatic about lanceboard. again evident by his reaction to the party finding the life-sized board during the wyrmway trials, and how he immediately offers to give tav pointers. explaining different approaches to them in enthusiastic detail if they allow him to. the man just really likes lanceboard… as well as being the smartest person in the room.

gale: ah, lanceboard! why, this might just be the highlight of our misadventures to date.

gale: lanceboard happens to be a game with which i have more than a passing familiarity. might i offer a suggestion? nodecontext: gale's a badass lanceboard player, anticipating showing off

if you want to headcanon your tav and gale raising a big family together that is more than fine and no one is stopping you. whatever you want to happen to these two after the storyline of the game is up to your respective fantasies. no one is policing you on what you should do with your own character. go wild and create whatever fan content you wish, no justification required.

yet once again, as there is no mention in canon anywhere — neither in the main game nor the epilogue — that this is something gale would ever want (whether that may mean immediately or somewhere down the line) gale wanting to be a father remains a headcanon. while gale being childfree is explicitly shown in the game, in strict comparison to other companions that either have children by the end of the game or voice the desire to (eventually) have them.

my personal preferences are of no relevance here whatsoever. i care about accurate and correct characterization and will point out inconsistencies/false information no matter the topic. i, for one, want to appreciate these characters in the way they're written, not how i ideally want them to be.

#also i can live with being annoying #at least i don’t go out of my way to send anon hate to random strangers on the internet #asks #it speaks #fandom discourse #dad!gale #bg3 #gale dekarios #bg3 meta #summed up: gale is for the cf crowd

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softpine · 10 months

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"So... How do you rate our chances of survival?" "I'm trying not to think about it."

↪ Until Dawn AU

you should be able to follow this even if you haven't played until dawn, but i'm not sure anyone will want to read this lmao. major spoiler warning if you do! also since you're not supposed to say the monsters name and it was a bastardization of native beliefs anyway, i'm just calling it "the creature".

anyway, here's how the frozen pines crew would fare in until dawn...

Danny purchases an abandoned hunting lodge in Blackwood Pines. He hasn't gotten a chance to stay there himself, but he allows Asa to bring his friends up for a weekend visit as long as they check in regularly. Unbeknownst to anyone, this lodge was closed down in the 80s after a teenager (Finn) disappeared, and the team sent to find him was found partially eaten in the woods. Finn's body was never recovered. He's said to haunt the lodge ever since, chasing away anyone brave enough to step foot inside.

The group arrives at the lodge just before sundown. Alisa reveals that she brought her Ouija board, so they all gather around to use it – except Austin and Elaine, who are annoyed because they'd been the last to arrive and the cable car had gotten stuck, meaning they'd had to walk all the way up the mountain. They just want to relax, not taunt spirits. Asa mentions that there's a cozy guest cabin down the path where they could be left alone. Austin jumps on the opportunity, but Elaine is reluctant to walk even further, especially now that it's dark. Stevie picks up on her anxiety and argues with Austin on her friend's behalf. ("Why did we come all the way out here if you two are just gonna go somewhere else and bang?") Matt tries to diffuse the situation, but it just makes Austin more annoyed. He says he's going to the cabin whether Elaine comes or not. Elaine rolls her eyes but eventually follows him, though she promises she'll call Stevie once they're safe in the cabin.

As they're walking, Austin apologizes for getting angry and Elaine forgives him. They make it to the cabin without incident, but when she tries to call Stevie, she realizes she lost her phone. She wants to go back to the lodge, but Austin convinces her to stay and they'll look for her phone in the morning. This part follows the events of the game closely, ie. Austin starts a fire and they talk for a while. They start kissing and undressing, but are interrupted by a loud crash through the window: Elaine's phone. She thinks Matt and Stevie (but mostly Matt) followed them to play a prank on them. She flips out, yells at them from the porch, storms back inside, and... gets yanked through the window and is dragged away screaming. Austin grabs the gun off the wall and chases after her. POSSIBLE DEATH #1: If Austin takes too long, Elaine could have her throat ripped out by the creature. If Austin is fast enough, he'll follow her screams through the mines, finding her injured but alive. As he reaches out to grab her, the elevator shaft falls and she disappears from view. Either way, Austin will believe Elaine is dead. Stunned, he searches for who or what took her. He heads for the abandoned sanatorium in the distance, unaware of the horrors that await him.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group is finally using the Ouija board. Finn isn't responding with the planchette, but he's scaring them in other ways: making the lights flicker, random sounds come from the vents, and making himself appear in their vision for just long enough to think they've imagined it. Everyone gets scared, except Asa, who finds it intriguing. He goes upstairs on his own and tries to talk to Finn with compassion rather than morbid curiosity, but Finn isn't ready to hear it and he continues to scare everyone. Stevie is the most worried, especially because it's been a few hours without word from Elaine. She wants to go check on her at the guest cabin. Matt thinks this is weird and codependent, but after enough convincing, he agrees to go with her.

When they find the guest cabin, they see broken glass and blood everywhere, with the door wide open and the gun missing. They follow the footsteps until they reach a cliff. Matt knows he can safely climb down it because of his experience in parkour, but Stevie won't be able to. He tells her to use the nearby radio tower to call a ranger for help while he goes to find Elaine and Austin. Here, he has the option of giving Stevie his swiss army knife, or keeping it for himself. He makes his way down into the mines, until there's no more snow, thus no footprints to follow. That's when he hears Elaine screaming. POSSIBLE DEATH #2: Matt rushes to help her, but the screams were only the creature mimicking her voice. He's strung up by his neck and dragged deeper into the mine. If he still has his knife, he can cut the rope and survive. If he gave it to Stevie earlier, he will be defenseless and die. Either way, he or his body will remain trapped in the mines.

Stevie finds the radio tower. She successfully calls for help, but the ranger says they'll only be able to send a rescue team when the snowstorm subsides at dawn. She waits for Matt inside the tower, but he never shows. If Matt is still alive, his shoe will be tossed through the window, landing at Stevie's feet. If he's already dead, his decapitated head will be thrown inside. In both cases, Stevie is horrified and scrambles to call the ranger again to stress the urgency of the situation, but before she can reach it, the tower starts to collapse. She holds on for as long as she can. The tower crashes to the ground, trapping Stevie in between bits of mangled metal. If Matt had given her the swiss army knife earlier, she can use it to shatter a window and climb out safely. If she doesn't have the knife, she has to kick the window out, hurting her ankle. She decides she's done being a hero and starts running/crawling towards the lodge, bawling her eyes out.

Cut to Asa, unbothered, taking a bubble bath in the jacuzzi tub. Finn is leaving him alone, because even he knows there's a time and place for haunting people. Instead, he's focusing on scaring the shit out of Jada and Alisa, who have been wandering around the lodge searching for clues about its history. The basement is filled with animal carcasses in various stages of being skinned or stuffed that were never cleared out after the hunting lodge was abandoned. Jada starts to feel sick, but Alisa is fascinated and wants to keep going. Finn continues to scare them, getting more and more agitated the further the girls explore. He screams at them to get out, but they don't listen. Eventually, he becomes fully corporeal and begs them to leave, but Alisa notices that he's trying to prevent them from entering a small door at the very end of the basement. Naturally, she has to enter that door. She pushes past Finn and steps inside, though nothing could have prepared her for what she sees: A decomposed human body, mostly just bones, curled up in the corner of the room. He's wearing the same clothes as the ghost. She realizes the missing teen didn't die out in the wilderness on a hunting trip – he was killed by someone in the lodge.

Asa hears the girls screaming and hurriedly gets dressed (no anti-gravity towel for him, thank you), but in his haste to find them, he trips down the stairs and scratches up his face. He doesn't know what's going on and he's just plain scared, so he can't help but start crying. This is what makes Finn realize he doesn't want to hurt anyone and he doesn't want to be alone anymore; he wants these people to survive. He helps Asa stand up, which surprises both of them, because he didn't think he was capable of moving things in his environment without being angry. He says Jada and Alisa ran outside and he'll help Asa find them.

Austin flees the sanatorium, which was crawling with monsters and wolves (he was nice to Wolfie, don't worry). He catches up to Stevie in the woods. She sees a gnarly bite mark on his shoulder but thinks nothing of it, because she has no idea about the creatures and assumes it was some wild animal. If her ankle is hurt, Austin helps her walk and Stevie feels compelled to apologize for generally being rude to him. She doesn't hate him, she just worries about her best friend. Austin understands, but then he has to break the news that Elaine is dead. Stevie tells him Matt is dead too. (either, both, or neither could still be alive at this point, but they are always presumed dead). Stevie flat out refuses to believe that Elaine died, while Austin is defeated and believes they're all going to die tonight so there's no point looking for their bodies. Regardless of what Austin says, Stevie will leave him and go after Elaine herself. Austin continues towards the lodge.

Austin runs into Jada and Alisa next, who are stumbling out of the lodge, terrified. He yells at them to go inside. ("Whatever you think you saw in there doesn't hold a fucking candle to what I've seen out there.") They go back inside and lock themselves in a room with a weapons cache. Austin tells them everything he learned in the sanatorium – the forgotten miners who resorted to cannibalism, the monsters they became, and how the news covered up the massacre they caused. He says Elaine and Matt are dead because of these creatures, and Stevie will likely be dead because she ran off on her own. Jada wants to at least find Asa and let him into the safe room with them, but Austin says he's probably dead too (no one knows that Finn is watching out for Asa now). He teaches Jada and Alisa how to shoot a gun. It's while he's doing this that Alisa notices the bite on his neck. For an hour now, Austin has been stressing that these creatures were human once, but they became infected, dangerous and deadly, and he never mentioned that he'd been bitten by one. She screams for Jada to look at it, but Austin is quicker – he grabs Alisa tightly, covering her mouth. Jada is still holding the gun Austin taught her how to use. Even with a hand over her mouth, Alisa can be heard begging her to shoot him. Jada trains it at his forehead and... POSSIBLE DEATH #3: Jada can shoot Austin. If she does, Alisa will thank Jada for saving her life, and says that if they make it out of here alive, she'll tell everyone she did it in self defense. If Jada can't bear to shoot him, Austin will throw Alisa to the ground and run away.

But he doesn't get far. Right there in the living room, two creatures hang from the ceiling sculpture. Austin slows to a stop, holding his breath. It's nearly impossible for anyone to die here, as Finn will save them by creating a noisy distraction. Finn himself is only a visage, so he can't be harmed by the creatures which angrily circle the lodge for their prey. He suggests the only way to escape is by causing a gas leak and exploding the lodge with the monsters inside. POSSIBLE DEATH #4 & 5: If Jada shot Austin, then no one will be able to warn Asa that there are still people in the lodge, therefore Jada and Alisa will die of smoke inhalation in the weapons room. If Austin is alive, he does warn Asa (despite his anger about nearly being shot), and Asa instructs Finn to help the girls escape first. This leaves Asa (and Austin, if he's still alive), vulnerable to the creatures, meaning POSSIBLE DEATH #6 & 7: Asa and/or Austin can fail a don't move section and die. In the event that Asa dies, Finn becomes enraged and lights the fire himself, blowing up the lodge immediately and killing everyone inside, including the humans. If only Austin dies, Finn feels that he has failed, but he still makes sure Jada, Alisa, and Asa are out of the lodge before starting the fire.

Stevie hears the explosion and runs faster towards the mines, terrified at the idea of all her friends being dead. Elaine can't be dead too. POSSIBLE DEATH #8: If neither Elaine nor Matt is alive, Stevie will automatically be killed here, because she still isn't aware of the creatures in the mines and has no idea she needs to stay quiet and not move. But if either (or both) Elaine and Matt are still alive, Stevie finds them in the mines. All of them are in bad shape now, but they're thankful Stevie came back. They have to move very slowly. When they reach the edge of the mine, so close they can see the moonlight from the cracks, they're cornered by a creature. POSSIBLE DEATH #9, 10, & 11: If Stevie runs, she will die. If Stevie hides with Elaine/Matt and fails, Elaine/Matt will die. If she succeeds, they all survive. They stumble out of the mine just as the sun starts to rise over the horizon, the sound of rescue helicopters growing louder.

Much later, after the dust has settled, police recover Finn's body and lay him to rest. The investigation into his death has only just begun, but Finn isn't concerned. Because for the first time in as long as he can remember, he has a companion... In life or in death.

THE END.

please do let me know if you read this whole thing because you're officially my new best friend :') there's a ton more choices and branching pathways i thought about, but i figured this was already insane enough, so i tried to keep it simple fjksjds

#here's how to read the stats: the white vertical lines indicate the baseline normal #the blue line indicates how that stat has changed throughout the night due to the choices you make #i refuse to be embarrassed about making this <- she said with embarrassment #asa mayfield #stevie donovan #finn atwood #elaine nguyen #jada carey #alisa #austin #matt #bloopers

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faeryarchives · 4 months

Note

I have no idea if your requests are open or not so I apologize if they're closed 😭🫶

But could I request the octatrio with a fischl reader (female if possible ♡)

I love the octatrio sm rn and I rarely see any works with them so I just had to request

hi hi anon of course! do you think they would accidentally create an elemental reaction whenever floyd pokes oz 🧐

octavinelle with a fischl-like female reader!

a mysterious girl called "prinzessin der verurteilung" travels with oz, a night raven. through her unique abilities, eccentric character, and hard work, she has become a rising star among the guild's investigators, earning all the recognition. and yet she still fares mostly on her own

༉‧₊˚. azul ashengrotto

you were an unpredictable and quite eccentric person! its true that you have a quite different way of talking from others but it made you stand out!

"you dare to call my familiar and grim as monsters?! you must prepare your self, because it is time for retribution!"

"where did you get that bow?!"

"mein fraülein, if i dare to say so - that isn't one of your lines. but thank you for defending me."

your achievements in the school mainly were praiseworthy, azul knew for a fact that you were a strong one that he didn't want to come across with

until you got roped into the octavinelle issue and instead of looking at him with disdain - you were even willing to help him out?! maybe those rumors about you were true at all

as being someone who will willingly go out their way to help others in your own way, even if you come out harsh

what bothered azul most was how you were quick to intervene his plans as well as helping him with his problems

"why are we walking around school? where is oz?" "my dear familiar is taking his good rest. as for the reason of walking around - well i heard from a little bird that you are having a hard time on something. would you like to accept her majesty's help?"

surely and slowly, he was beginning to see right through you, even without oz's interpretation and to be honest? you weren't so difficult to understand at all

the most likely to spoil you rottens by letting you do as you please whenever you went to go visit their dorm

"didn't you mention before that you like reading? you can borrow some of my books here because it just so happens that i am an avid reader myself!" "...! i-i never thought that you were keeping that in mind, thank you azul."

as time goes by, the bad rumors surrounding you gradually dissipative → students will think twice of talking shit about you because this comes as a package deal for being friends with the octavinelle dorm leader.

༉‧₊˚. jade leech

"one is aware that fate has brought me into this path. hm-hm, may the glory of the prinzessin bring light to this wicked world." "oh my, how bold of you to address our world as such!"

true, jade couldn't really understand how you were able to say such things in front of the whole school and shrug it off

he is the type of friend that would take his time to sit down and listen for you for hours and even ask some questions about your previous adventures

"you met your evil twin?" "it was more like a shadow version of me, and oz here decided it was fun to leave me for her." "*gasp* i take full offense to that!" "oh my god, the prinzessin's most beloved familiar is a traitor."

jade knew for a fact that you were entirely different from the octatrio so he tries to steer you away from trouble as much as possible but with your friends and sometimes even floyd, maybe sometimes are not just possible

don't tell the other two but if you would pick someone trust the most to see you behind your act - it would be jade

knowing how observant he is, you wouldn't be surprised if he had seen through you already but you trust him enough and that's all you need

"hmm, this is troubling..."

"what seems to be the problem?"

"it looks like one of the students broke the contract and went hiding among his peers."

"that sounds like a problem, but no worries we can assist you."

color him surprise after seeing your investigation skills 😮 the task that should've took a day to complete got immediately solved less than half a day

and your fighting skills are extraordinary! from that day on, you would get extra allowance every time the octatrio need your help

while you seem capable of yourself, jade took it as his and floyd's responsibility to look after you because you were still kinda an airhead

"(name)..."

"i forgot the stove was still on..."

as you hail into their world as an outsider, he will do his best to provide you the best experience until you bring the glory of the prinzessin among them - after all, that is what friends for

༉‧₊˚. floyd leech

you are such an interesting fishie! or are you a bird? did you just turn into a bird? can you teach him that too?

it was like he finally met someone on the sam wavelength because floyd surprisingly went along with your act - taking the role as your confidant

"ne, ne (name) - can oz talk to other birds?"

"my dear ozzie?"

"'cuz if he can talk in human language can he understand animal language or he is just built different?"

if you think that sometimes you can't understand yourself, you couldn't understand floyd even more!

each of his random question just made you wonder your whole existence because this man will text you at 2 am asking "what would you call a male ladybug?"

"If peanut butter wasn’t called peanut butter, what would it be called?" "for the love of everything, floyd it is 2 am..." "yeah? so what would it be called though?"

being with floyd is like being hit with an uno reverse card and honestly - you were having fun!

it was like you were relieving your childhood with the eel and with his random outburst it motivates you to be more open about yourself

from time to time it was funny to see him trying to chase after oz, trying to ask your familiar over and over again if he could do the same thing

"i am afraid it would not be possible." "but we haven't even tried it out yet?" "why are you wrapping your hands around m- no, no, no we are not going into the water!"

news flash, they did. 😭

anyways! he adores you and oz and never fails to give you your daily hugs

as said before - floyd sometimes gets you in trouble by breaking rules and getting involve in the punishment but hey! some times its okay to let loose but not just too much.

still, you friendship may be a little unexpected to others and floyd knows that you are similar yet also different from each other but he will try to make your stay more bearable than letting you suffer all alone

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lovelyyandereaddictionpoint · 1 year

Note

Imagine being Ruggie sister who somehow got in to night raven as a student and everything progress on and them as a Ramshackle perfect due to them being a kind person like Tanjiro and strong yet but of a nerd liked Deku with a unique magic of growing plants

What's more she a home maker due to them living in the slums ( like meding clothes, cooking, fixing things as she can, using home remedies when sick and help their bother with the kids at home ) with Ruggie and too working hard to get out of there as they wanted to be a doctor

Let's say due to their genuine kindness Leona, Malleus, Idia, Jamal, Carter and Riddle have a unhealthy obsession crush with Ruggie sister who doesn't share the same romantic feeling and only sees them as a friend

Ruggie's Little Sister Reader | Yandere Twisted Wonderland

Perfectly built for Ramshackle, you happily take to it despite your brother’s insistence you stay next to him in Savvannaclaw. But you’ve never been one to listen to your big brother and you can definitely handle it. You probably fare better than the original in terms of dealing with Night Raven. Because you know how to sweet up boys with mean attitudes, maybe a little too well:

Leona Kingscholar

“Look herbivore, don’t try to boss me-”

“Who’re you calling herbivore!? I’m talking to you, about this lazy cat behavior!”

“Lazy cat-”

“(Y/n) please–”

“No Ruggie, you baby him far too much! I’m stepping in!”

He at first really hates you

Like really

You do all the things Ruggie does just not for him

In fact you make him do things that make him tired

It’s a pain

But for whatever reason he’s getting especially happy when you praise him

Only for you

He’s violent with anyone who comments on the work you have him doing

Its the only reason he keeps in your good graces and thats enough for him

“I’m proud of you, Leona! Now come I’ve cooked up some fillet mignon and it has your name on it!”

“It better. I’m never doing my own laundry again.”

“Hahaha yes you will.”

Ruggie is nervous about this but appreciates you picking up the slack

It sometimes bothers him how much time his employer starts spending with you

But he’s not too worried Leona understands his desire to protect you

“Huh?! You got him to do that?! What should I expect, you are my little sister.”

“Don’t act like I’m not the cooler one of us two.”

Malleus Draconia

“Ah horn-dude, I was just looking for you.”

“Horn-dude? And you were looking for me?”

“Yeah I was thinking of adding some gardenias, and maybe some vines for decoration. I wanted your opinion since you like coming by here so often.”

“The vines would pertain to a more beautifully abandoned image…but that might just be my preference.”

“Oh thanks so much, Horns!”

His crush is so obvious

Talking about you often to his guards and mentor

And whenever anyone goes to talk to him he finds some odd way to incorporate you into the conversation

Trust me its weird for everyone when he starts talking about you during potions when their dissecting magical creatures

he can’t stop trying to talk to you

But he usually ends up just staring at you from the distance

Waiting until your instincts pick up on his presence

And your forced to invite him to join whatever your doing

“Ah! Horns didn’t see you over there! Do you want in? We’re making paper flowers for the festival want to join?”

“I would love to!”

“What?! Horns?! (Y/n) why are you lettinghimjoin giving him more paper!? I know what I’m doing!”

“Sure you do.”

Ruggie’s scared out of his mind

How did you get mixed up with this overpowered monster

He can’t do too much now without knowing he’s going to die

But if it means saving you from certain doom aka Malleus Draconia it might be worth it

Idia Shroud

“Alright that’s enough!”

“W-what?!”

“No more games before you finish cleaning your room! Ortho and I can help but–”

“Actually (Y/n)-san, I recently pulled up a study that states letting children clean their own rules helps instill better habits when their adults!”

“Ortho!?”

“Oh great idea! Well we’ll be just outside! Come on Ortho let’s plan out our cosplay!”

“Yes!”

“G-guys?!”

He hates that you mother him

But he absolutely loves it when you mother him

He cries about being in the dreaded friendzone kidzone

But boy does he love the way you pat his head or let him cuddle into your chest

He loves the food you make during marathons

Or how you’ll let yourself be distracted by the games you really like

He gets drastic if you spend too long out of his reach

So he sets up cameras+

So he takes any opportunity to speak with you

So he puts others in horrifying accidents

“Heeheh by the time I’m done you’ll be the best girl-gamer in the space. And then it’ll be a given for you to never leave the ultimate guy-gamer!”

“Ewww keep my sister out of your nerd schemes!”

“Eeep! An enemy has appeared!”

Ruggie thinks he’s a nerd with no game

But nonetheless he knows Idia’s smart but not street smart

“Hishishsishi can’t set the trap if you don’t have the button! Hardly even noticed me swiping his gadget.”

Jamil Viper

“I appreciate the help, (Y/n).”

“Of course, you’re always running yourself ragged…I wanted to do something for you.”

“...I really appreciate the lunches you’ve made for me…it’s been a while since I’ve eaten a meal by someone else.” “Well just give me a call I don’t mind cooking for you or lending a hand.”

He’s smitten nbyond comprehension

Now going out of his way to hypnotize anyone else into a corner when it comes to talking to you

Its the least he does out of retaliation

He knows all his flirting and hints go right over your head

But your still cute

Until you do get it he’s pulling the rug out from any and all competitors

“Hey (Y/n), why don’t you join me in the kitchen? Maybe, show me how you made those potato crisps?”

“Sure, Jamil I’d love to!”

“Ah ah! Not without me you’re not!”

Ruggie knows Jamil’s like him but smarter

Sly and sneaky

Powers aside Ruggie’s sure Jamil’s problematic for your safety

“Don’t think for a second, I’ll let you have them! I'm not that fond of snakes!”

Carter Diamond

“Wah~(Y/n) you’re so photogenic! Will you pose for me one more time?”

“Well alright. If it’ll make you happy.”

“It’ll make me more than happy!” He loves how oblivious you are

He absolutely hates it+

But your just so cute

He guesses he can forgive it

And hey while your learning the ropes he’s more than happy to keep you close

“Hey hey don’t forget to keep up our streak!”

“Streak?”

“Yeah we’ve been sharing our photos throughout the day of what we’re doing.”

“Yup! It’s a great way to keep track of her!”

“Ick-!”

Ruggie knows he’s slippery

When it comes to tailing him Cater’s good at giving the slip

“Not on my watch. I’m not giving you the chance, to trick my baby sister.”

Riddle Rosehearts

“That’s entirely unreasonable, I’m not doing that!”

“Grrr (Y/n) these are the rules I thought you would respect that.”

“And I thought you would know to relax!”

He thinks your sweet but totally unreasonable

So he guesses you both have something to learn from each other

You more than him obviously

While he doesn’t think highly of your brother he knows your different

And you belong to him

He’s not going to take ‘no’ for an answer

If this is a battle of wills he’d win it

Even if that means subjecting your bad influences to being beheaded

“Riddle! You can't just put that collar on my brother like that!”

“Yeah I’m not even apart of your dorm!”

“Don’t be mad at me for enforcing rules. I know you know the very least of the rules. It shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that your brother just doesn’t measure up. Which means you should leave him before he drags you down.”

Ruggie is peeved that such a prick is after his sister

But he’s not worried

He’s definitely not cool enough to keep your attention

Not to mention he’s so easy to anger

It’ll be fun to rile him up

“Hishishishi so mad oh so fast! You’ll barely survive dating them if your this easy.”

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cranetreegang · 1 year

Text

Close Call - Ominis x FemReader

Summary: Ominis is on the way to meet his love as she returns from Hogsmeade, but things don't go according to plan.

Music to Enjoy: Symphony No.6 In F Major, Op. 68, Pastoral; IV. Thunderstorm, Storm

Word Count: ~1,700 words

****SPOILER WARNING DO NO READ UNLESS YOU'VE COMPLETED LIKE THE LAST QUESTS OF THE GAME****

Warnings: Peeps getting nay nay'd (aka diagnosed with dead)

Read my other Ominis Fics Here

--------------------------------

Ominis briskly walks through the Central Hall on his way to the North Exit. He has a faint smile on his lips as he moves his way past chattering students and steps over scattered books and papers strewn about on the marble floor. His mind strays to various thoughts - hearing everyone worrying about their upcoming O.W.L’s reminds him of how much they need to study. He hopes he’ll have time with her this afternoon to study together and the idea makes him smile. He senses someone approaching him - their purposeful footsteps heading right towards him - and he turns his head towards the oncoming student.

“Ah! Ominis.” Natty’s familiar voice gives him a slight pause as he angles his head towards her.

“Natty. Faring well, I hope.” Ominis continues towards his destination while Natty walks beside him.

“I am. I hope you are as well, my friend.” Natty’s smile can be heard clearly and Ominis gives a slight grin in response.

As they climb down the stairs, Natty asks, “Speaking of friends, have you seen her? I have something important I must speak to her about.”

Ominis smirks, “I’m afraid I haven’t ‘seen’ her.” Before Natty can stammer out an apology, he continues, “But, I know where she is. It’s where I’m heading to now. She should be coming back from Hogsmeade soon. Something about going to Ollivanders for an errand. She was rather vague before she left.”

“I’m surprised you did not accompany her. You two are hardly seen without the other.” Natty teases, her cheeks still warm from his earlier comment.

He has a faint smile as he says, “We’re not joined at the hip. We do have our own lives.” His smile fades as he adds, “Which is why I could not accompany her, as I was busy dealing with a matter of my own. And she insisted it wouldn’t take long.”

He’s opening the solid, wood door outside when he freezes in place. His limbs are locked and dread squeezes his chest. Despite the gentle breeze fluttering in his face, he feels like the air around him has all but dissipated. He’s not sure why this sudden sense of doom has pressed down upon him and he waves his wand around to find the source of this peril. With only students wandering around the lawn, his anxiety doesn’t quell, but rises drastically. Why… is he feeling this?

“Ominis?” Natty questions - a frown consuming her as she takes in his wide-eye’d, panicked expression.

“She’s in danger.” He whispers in realization. These horrible, dreadful feelings were coming from her.

He flares their magic-bond as he sprints forward, whipping his wand to where Hogsmeade is - only to find her magical aura not there. He comes to a halt, his boots skidding against the gravel. His breathing picks up as he spins himself around until he finds her faint, pulsing light in the distance. She’s far. Too far to run there - if he were to make it in time.

“What is happening? She’s in trouble? H-How do you know such a thing?” Natty manages to get in front of Ominis and he scowls at her.

“I don’t have time to explain. I need to get to her. Now.” Ominis tries to shove his way past, but Natty keeps a firm stance and keeps Ominis in place.

“We can go. Together.” Natty glances at the students flying slowly around on brooms. “Come on.”

Ominis grimaces, but follows after Natty.

Natty runs over to the flying class broom stand and snatches one. She gets on the broom - struggling to find a decent gripping - and Ominis doesn’t hesitate to take a seat behind her.

“Hey!” A student shouts, but Natty takes to the sky before she can be stopped.

“Where do we need to go?” Natty wonders.

“This way. And hurry.” Ominis points his wand in front of Natty - his worries starting to settle now that they were flying towards her.

Natty is not nearly as quick as his love is on a broom, but it’s faster than him. He tries to reach out to her - letting her know they’re coming and to hang on, but he’s not sure if she can notice. His heart is beating rapidly in time with hers and his hands tremble with adrenaline.

Please. Just hang on. I’m coming.

They fly over the forest and as they get closer, Ominis can feel her distress growing stronger. He can sense her fear and desperation.

He grits his teeth, “Natty, faster!”

Natty lowers herself and they pick up speed, but it doesn’t feel nearly enough. They finally spot her on the ground, surrounded by Ashwinders in the heart of a ruined estate. Crackling spells and curses reach his ears and his heart all but plummets to his gut. Ominis curses under his breath and readies his wand. Natty is hovering just above the ground, about to land, when Ominis jumps off, sprinting towards her.

He can hear her fighting fiercely, her wand moving fluidly as she dodges spells and curses alike. He knows he needs to get to her quickly, to help her fend off the attackers. But the Ashwinders are strong and they keep coming, overwhelming her with their numbers.

“Depulso!” Ominis casts a powerful spell that knocks several of the Ashwinders back. She gasps, flooding Ominis with relief as her eyes land on him.

“Ominis," she whispers as he joins her side, with Natty finally catching up and joining them as well.

“We are with you, my friend!” Natty grins towards her - a look of determination and ferocity which matches her own. The Ashwinders gather themselves and begin their attack once again.

He shields her from the onslaught of curses. They all fight together, their spells colliding with those of the attackers. The battle is intense, and for a moment Ominis fears they might not make it out alive.

A man appears before her and yells, “Avada Kedavra!”

The spell makes him freeze and it’s like he’s been dunked into ice. She doesn’t move out of the way and instead counters with a powerful spell of her own. Their magic collides in a deafening shockwave and they’re locked in a stalemate. Pulling himself out of his dread, Ominis turns his attention to the other Ashwinders, keeping them off of her as she fights for her life. Ominis and Natty deflect and counter, dwindling the Ashwinders one by one.

But then, a bright light fills the air, and the Ashwinders are thrown back by an explosion of crackling, magical energy. A thunderous clap rings in their ears. Natty glances at Ominis in shock - both of them panting as they examine the area to ensure they were alone. The Ashwinders that do remain, run away - disappearing into the surrounding forest in terror.

Ominis turns to find her.

She stands there, strong and resolute, her wand raised as she surveys the scene. He feels the light touch of ash landing on him and he can taste the raw magic lingering in the air - electrifying his skin. Ominis can sense the exhaustion within her, but also the unwavering tenacity. She turns to face him and they’re both staring at one another - his wand filling his mind with her bright aura.

He moves to her, whispering her name as he embraces her. She gasps at how tightly he holds her before she holds him just as fiercely back. He closes his eyes and buries himself into the crook of her shoulder. The connection radiates warmly between them and it feels like all is well.

“Did they hurt you? Are you alright?” He pulls away and is feeling over her arms with pinched brows.

“You… came for me?” She whispers in incredulousness.

Her mind still can’t believe he’s here. How did he… Her eyes go over to Natty, who’s looking around at the Ashwinders strewn about the ruins with amazement.

“Of course. I-, why wouldn’t I?” He cups both of her cheeks and she’s in disbelief at how brave he is. She presses her forehead to his with a heavy exhale.

“You came for me.” She smiles.

The relief in him is palpable as he strokes both of her cheeks with his thumbs. His misty gray eyes are soft and her knees nearly buckle at the sight.

“I’m okay. Thanks to you.” She whispers then frowns. She pulls away from him enough to bring out a rectangular box and she holds it between them. Ominis lowers his hands away from her as she opens the box for him.

Ominis’ fingers skim over the contents and he feels a wand. His features harden. There’s a strong determination within her and his sightless gaze tries to meet hers.

"I have to go now," she whispers. "It's time." She tucks the box back into her robes.

He swallows down the lump in his throat. They’ve spoken of this before, but it always seemed so far away. Now it’s here… and she has to go. And face a most harrowing threat. He brings her into a tight embrace once more - tempted to keep her here, and safe - and she whimpers at the longing he can’t keep at bay.

“I’ll be waiting for your return,” he whispers. “So, please don’t keep me waiting for too long.”

She lets out a sharp laugh that nearly sounds like a cry. He parts enough to slam his lips against hers in a greedy kiss. Like a parched man, she lets him drink his fill of her - searing this feeling into her mind. All the things they want to say are exchanged between them in their heated kiss. He lets her go with a soft sigh and a longing gaze. She takes several steps away from him, unable to break away from his wanting stare. She mounts her broom and she glances between him and Natty. She gives them a sure nod then takes off towards Hogwarts.

His fists clench - wishing nothing more than to be with her. But, he knows he can’t. She is the one that has to determine the fate of the wizarding world. He watches as her light goes further and further from him, his heart full of hope and fear. He knows she’ll be alright. She will fight with everything she has. His throat tightens at the thought of that not being enough. Natty comes next to him, wordlessly placing a hand on his shoulder. He turns to Natty, his eyes filled with tears.

"See. We are not always together," he whispers, his voice barely audible. "But, I'll be waiting for her. No matter what.”

--------------------

AN: originally, i just had Ominis and Natty coming in after MC defeated Rookwood, but then I realized that I can do whatever I want and decided to have them help out MC. Also, wow yeah I really am just rushing to get to my most excited fic which involves a Boggart... >:)

We're nearing the end!! I have these last few fics lined up:

After Ranrok Battle Scene

Her Dealing with Ancient Magic Trauma Pt 1 and Pt 2

Then... 7th Year shall BEGIN!

Been a wild journey and hope to see y'all on the next one B)

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shangrila11 · 6 months

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Aftermath // Toma Vrbada/ Smoke (Mortal Kombat 1) x Dragon! listener

Spoiler warning! Mild spoilers for Tomas' ending!

"Enjoy the rest of your evening."

After thanking the four Earthrealm champions, you and Liu Kang left Madam Bo's teahouse, smiling at each other. Behind you, the champions batering about who would be paying the bill could be heard.

"It seems like Earthrealm is in capable hands," you remarked.

"Indeed, my friend," the fire god agreed. "Come, let's go lend Kuai Liang and Tomas our aid."

"Of course," you nodded. A fond smile made its way to your lips as you thought about Smoke. Among the brothers, you were the closest to him. He was friendly, kind and had a strong sense of justice.

"Your soft spot for Tomas is showing, (Y/N)," Liu Kang commented, a hint of mirth in his voice and eyes.

"Pardon me. I can't help it. As Johnny aptly put it, he's got the wholesome sidekick thing down cold, " you replied, doing your best impression of the movie star. But your expression soon became concerned. "Speaking of Tomas, I'm worried that he will not be welcoming towards you since, well..." Liu Kang quirked an eyebrow in amusement at your impression before gently patting your shoulder.

"There's no need to worry, (Y/N). I will try to speak to him later," he assured you. You nodded, deciding to trust his words. Together, the two of you headed to the portal en route to the location of the Shirai Ryu.

The two of you were welcomed by Kuai Liang, Harumi and Tomas when you stepped out of the portal. However, as expected, while still polite, Smoke's expression hardened a little as he greeted Liu Kang. You cast the fire god a concerned look but remembering his words, you turned your attention to the Shirai Ryu's grandmaster and his partner.

"Congratulations on your marriage, Kuai Liang and Harumi," you smiled warmly. The two of them were meant for each other and you couldn't be happier for your friend. Liu Kang, too, congratulated the two of them.

"Thank you, Lord Liu Kang, (Y/N)," Kuai Liang and Harumi smiled.

"So how is the new clan coming along?" you asked. The three clan members' face fell.

"Unfortunately, we weren't able to find any suitable initiates," Harumi sighed.

"A lot of people are uncertain about joining our clan since we're new. Besides, the skills and attitudes of some of them could use some work," Kuai Liang added.

"We have nothing against people without much skill but with the Lin Kuei being formidable, we need people who are skilled or learn fast," Tomas explained.

"Not to worry, Tomas. Now that we're here, we can help the Shirai Ryu find more members," you offered him an encouraging smile, patting his shoulder reassuringly. Smoke sent you a grateful look.

"(Y/N)'s right. Where have you search for initiates already?" Liu Kang asked. Scorpion answered his question, with Harumi and Smoke adding any other locations he had missed. Liu Kang nodded, thanking the three of them for the information.

"I suggest we split up and look in areas that haven't been covered," he proposed. Everyone voiced their agreement. After discussing where each of you would go, Kuai Liang and his wife left, leaving you, Liu Kang and Smoke. Earthrealm's protector turned towards the young ninja. "Tomas, may I have a word with you in private?" Said male frowned but nodded. You watched as the two of them walked to a quieter place. Silently hoping for the best, you departed as well.

Unfortunately, your search didn't bore fruit. Scorpion and Harumi didn't fare any better. After asking the Shirai Ryu's grandmaster if you could use one of the clan's rooms and obtaining his approval, you headed to the room to meditate. You closed your eyes and took slow, deep breaths, placing all your attention on your breathing.

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

"Hey, (Y/N). Brother told me you went to meditate and so I came to find you here. Sorry for interuptting," Tomas greeted as he entered the room. Because of his talk with Liu Kang, he had finished his search later and had only just returned.

"There is no need to apologise. You know I always welcome your presence," you smiled warmly.

"Right," the young man laughed, pink dusting his cheeks. You asked how did his seach go, to which he responded with a shake of his head, saying that he, too, didn't have much luck.

"It's alright. I'm sure we'll find suitable canditates," you comforted him. You hesitated for a moment before cautiously asking, "What about your talk with Liu Kang?"

"It was ok. Lord Liu Kang tried to explain his actions but I'm still not sure if I can forgive him," Smoke replied, clenching his fists. "All this time, I have viewed him as a close ally and friend. But then I learnt that he used to be the Time Keeper, making him the one who made me an orphan. I just... feel so betrayed."

"I understand," you patted his shoulder. "I care a great deal about the both of you so I sincerely hope you and Liu Kang can work this out."

"Alright. I... I will try," the young ninja promised. A smile lit up your features.

"Good," you nodded. "What say we have a spar?"

"Sounds good. After all that has happened, I could really blow off some steam," the Czech man agreed eagerly. "Besides, it would be an honour to fight a legendary being such as yourself."

"Flattery won't make me go any easier on you, Tomas," you teased, your eyes twinkling.

"I know," he grinned. The two of you assumed a fighting stance before Tomas made the first move. He unleashed a kick at you but you quickly moved back. You launched a jet of water at him, knocking him back. You took this opportunity to throw a few water-coated punches at him. You were about to punch him again when Tomas disappeared in a puff of smoke. You created rings of water around your body, anticipating his next move. The male reappeared, preparing to strike with his kunai. You reflexively reshaped your water rings into a shield. You were pushed back as Smoke became more aggressive with his strikes. You morphed your water shield into a jet of water again, pushing him back. You performed a sweeping kick, causing Tomas to fall down.

"Do you yield?" you grinned truiphantly, panting.

"Yes," he huffed. You extended a hand to him and he grabbed it without missing a beat. You carefully lifted him up.

"That was a fruitful spar," you commented. "Your skills have certainly improved."

"Thank you," Smoke replied, flushing. You smiled. However, your expression soon concerned when you noticed some bruises on his body.

"Apologies. Did I hurt you too badly?" you asked. Tomas assured you that it was alright. After all, one tended to get injured from sparring.

"Here. Allow me to heal you," you offered. Tomas thanked you to which you replied with a smile, saying that it was your pleasure. You gently placed a hand on his injuries and worked your magic. The young ninja stared at you.

"What is it?" you asked.

"Oh, nothing much. I just... think that your horns are pretty. Can touch your them?" he replied, embarassment evident on his features.

"Sure, once I'm done healing you," you smiled.

After healing the last of Smoke's injuries, the two of you found a place to sit down. Tomas cautiously touched your horns, making you shiver.

"Did I do something wrong?" he asked, concerned.

"Fret not. You did not do anything wrong. It feels nice, actually," you assured him. The young man nodded and continued, this time more confidently. You leaned into the touch, closing your eyes in contentment. The two of you stayed like that for a while until you backed away.

"I have to get going. Liu Kang and I have other things to attend to," you said.

"Alright. See you around. I -- I mean we -- will always welcome you," he replied. A smile adorned your features.

"See you."

(Picture does not belong to me. Taken from windowscentral website)

#smoke #mortal kombat #x reader #fluff #mortal kombat 1 #mk1 x reader #reader insert #oneshot #tomas vrbada #smoke mortal kombat #tomas x reader

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sassylovermongerbear · 7 months

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Wednesday Addams never experienced love. She's seen it with her parents (too much of it) but she never experienced it herself.

She throught that she may like Tyler because people told her not because she truly liked him.

From the very beginning she said over and over again how she didn't care about him (or Xavier) and how she only talked to him because he was useful to her. He had a car and knows the place more than she. But because she was spending time with him (out of necessity) everyone assumed she liked him, he even gaslight her into thinking there was something between them when she never show any interest in him. She completely disregard his feelings and never truly cared.

But you know who's feeling she always cared about from the very beginning? Enid.

Enid is the only one she listen to. She actively tries to make her happy and when she fucked up she did everything to make it up to her. She wore the snood, the catsuit, she apologized to thing AND she threaten to hurt Ajax if he hurts her.

In her own special way she always care for the wolf and let her get aways with so much shit that she wouldn't take from others, like the surprise party for her birthday.

Because Enid is the only one that truly care about Wednesday too and take time to understand how she is without trying to change her, like every body else.

The only other person she show any type of care for is Eugene cause he reminds her of her brother.

It's obvious that she love her family but the way she interact with Enid is very different of the way she interact with her family or Eugene so we know that she doesn't care about her the same way but she is not any less caring for it, it's just different.

But because she never experienced love before, other than in a platonic sens with her family, she doesn't see the difference. Wednesday didn't have friends before nevermore either, even less a best friend, so she doesn't know how she's supposed to feel for her best friend.

As much as she would like to believe that she's above it, Wednesday still feel pair pressure and that's why she went for Tyler, thinking that's what she should do. Everyone around her thought she should, plus after everything he did for her (even if she doesn't owe him anything for agreeing to help. Which he still gaslight her to believe she does) he "almost died helping" her and Wednesday is fare from selfish, no Addams is, so she let herself be convince that she did like him and she should give him a chance because she doesn't know what love feel like.

She doesn't relise yet that love is wanting to make the other happy, to be comfortable enough around someone else to let your walls done, to be their for eachother, save eachother. Everything she already feel and do with her roommate.

But because Enid is so different from her Wednesday can't even consider it being a possiblity. It's not the fact that Endi is the girl, that s the last of her worries but Enid is just so colorful and full of life, the complete opposite to Wednesday dark and deathly attitude, that it just doesn't make sens to her.

Every time she through about her future hoping to never succumb to the family cruse she still considered the possibility of it, of course she did, she always think about all the possibility but every time she thought about it she was certian that she would end up with someone like her. Not someone that pass out at the sight of blood, that listen to pop music at full volume and dance around the room while singing loudly, someone who absolutely love physical touch and it being her love language.

It doesn't make sens to Wednesday so she doesn't think about it because in her mind it's impossible and yet she definitely is in love with Enid Sinclair.

And after the blood moon and seeing Enid turn into a werewolf and beat the shit out of Tyler to save her. Wednesday saw an other side of Enid she never throught she would see. A tall, strong beast covered in blood. That s when she realise that they may not be so different and she starts to question her feeling for her friend.

#wednesday #wednesday x enid #wenclair #enid sinclair #netflix #tyler galpin #wednesday addams #the addams family

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darling-i-read-it · 1 year

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The Laboratory

STARS Office Final Part - *Choose your own ending edition!*

(Part 1) (Part 2)

Albert Wesker x fem!reader, Chris Redfield x fem!reader

Word Count, all together: 4k

Warnings: canon level violence, wesker being very possessive, spoilers for re1, betrayal (lemme know if there’s any more I don’t mention!)

Author’s Note: What can I say, I’m a sucker for choose your own endings. I hope it works with the vibe, I never know how well they’re going to be received! I just couldn’t in the right mind pick between these two, even though Chris is my favorite. Wesker is just too alluring and ‘i’d kill everyone for you’ vibes which is sooooo. I hope you guys enjoy!

Tagging: @zedonna, @sillyladycolor, @orphic-musings, @mothxmoons

I don’t own these characters. They belong to author/director/creator

(not my gif)

The mansion led to a residence, which led to the mansion, which led to tunnels which led to a lab. The never ending twisting and turning of hallways became overwhelming and exhausting. If you didn’t have Wesker, you would’ve been lost ages ago. He seemed to remain clear headed.

Wesker intended to lose you at every turn. It would be easier to see how you would fare on your own but he just couldn’t help himself. Keeping you around was entertaining, as was it beneficial to him. He didn’t want to die in here without ever knowing which of the team made it out. With you he had an extra pair of eyes and a fierce protector. It was something he liked about you. You had the natural instinct of a knight but without the dumbness to protect just anyone. He had a feeling that if it were Barry in his place instead, then you wouldn’t jump in front of the fire you did for him. Was it because your feelings had manifested into something real? Or just because you liked him more than others? Because you had worked together for months and gotten used to each other's weaknesses?

So much to contemplate. How could he let you go?

Even as the two of you descended into the labs, he knew that you were going to stick with him most of the way through this. He had some things he had to finish on his own, people he needed to subdue and cameras to check, but otherwise, he could keep you.

Wesker had to admit, if you died in here, he would be vastly disappointed. Perhaps even a little sad.

Neither of you had seen anyone since you met up. The twisting layout of the residence only left room for large spiders and fast zombies. No Chris, Rebecca, Barry or Jill. You were starting to worry more as you continued, glad you had someone by your side. You couldn’t imagine going at this alone. With only your fear as your friend, there would have been more room for weakness.

Though there was evidence of others as you passed. A dead girl, deformed in the tunnels. That could have been any member of the team, not just the zombies.

The elevator doors opened slowly. You emerged into a vast sterile area, one that seemed so different from the courtyard you had just left. Below the mansion the entire time was this, a place where things had been tested and disregarded.

“How could no one know this was happening?” you questioned as you stepped out. Wesker followed close behind. He had to leave you, as soon as possible. As soon as it made sense for you two to be separated.

“You’d be surprised what people can cover up,” he hummed under his breath. You gave him a look as you stepped forward, not as warily as you should have. Turning the corner was one of the undead, swinging their arms forward at you. Wesker pushed you aside, taking the brunt of the attack before shooting it through its brain. You stumbled into the wall, breathing heavily. It felt like you had been breathing heavily for hours on end.

As the zombie fell you came to terms with a now familiar subject; your own mortality.

“Thank you,” you muttered.

“Be more diligent.”

“Yes sir.” He gave you a brief look, your words so akin to when you were teasing him with the professionalism. You were completely serious now. He helped you stand up straight, hands lingering on each other. “Are you okay? I don’t think I’ve even asked that, through all of this.” He nodded once.

“Never better.” His words came out cynical but smooth. You had no idea how he remained so calm in situations so dire. You wanted to scream and cry and hit the walls. But you had signed up for this. You were his best soldier. You let him go.

“Do you still have that MO disk?” he nodded, handing it to you. “Thanks.” You cleared your throat. “And I know you work better alone. Thank you for letting me tag along.”

“You’re my best sharp shooter. I’m better off with you,” he promised. It was the truth.

Your movement slowed as you carefully walked from corner to corner. He let you lead and suggest things, your brain working a hundred miles a minute. He didn’t protest when you found the slide filter or put in the code to watch it.

It was better you learned now then before you saw Tyrant.

“There’s got to be a code on this thing. Why would they go to such great lengths to hide it?” you murmured. He let you click through it until you landed on a picture that he was in. Your eyes scanned over it carefully and you froze.

Your back was to Wesker. You turned to look at him with incredibly naive eyes.

“Why are you on the Umbrella slide filter?” you questioned. He looked down at you and you could almost see pity in his gaze.

“You know why.”

You had been wondering why he wasn’t taking the initiative. You were used to him leading, in everything, not just missions. You weren’t used to leading him around like he was lost and unsure what to do. He could see the information reeling behind your mind.

“Did you know that this…”

“Did I know Vickers was going to chicken out? No. I didn’t lie to you.”

“That’s not what I was going to ask.” Your voice hardened. It was at that moment he knew you would make it. If he had any doubts they were smoothed over by the venom in your voice. “Did you know that we were going to end up here? In this mansion? With these…these things?”

“I can’t say I was oblivious.”

You knew he was going to continue to be cagey.

“Why? Why not just kill us and get it over with?”

“That’s not the end goal here.”

“Then what is it, Wesker?” Had he been playing the long game? Had it all been fake? He could see the questions over your eyes, the doubt of your own emotions.

“Umbrella intended to use the data from skilled recruits to build better weapons. Intends, might be a better word.” He tilted his head. “You can’t pretend you didn’t guess.”

You wanted to say you had. You wanted to argue that you had always known but you had no inkling that he was anything but a naturally cold man.

“So what was real? You being the STARS Captain was all for show to get us here?” He knew that wasn’t the question you wanted the answer to. You wanted to know if he had used you. Feeding your worry so it crossed over everyone was like you, to avoid direct pain.

“I never intended to become close with you. That wasn’t part of this.” You didn’t protest that he hadn’t answered your question. You both knew what you were asking.

“Are they dead?”

“I don’t know.”

“How do I know you aren’t lying to me now?”

“I never intended to lie to you.” He took a step forward, possessiveness in his step. You took a step away from him. He raised his chin, reading your body language.

“I can’t do this right now.” Your mind had overloaded with memories, reevaluating each one. You didn’t want to tell him to go so you stumbled back and out the door. You couldn’t be in the same room as him for much longer. You weren’t sure what you would do. Was he justified? No. But was he the same man you had always known?

You walked down the stairs, holding onto the railing. You had gotten the last MO disk and were now able to see what was in the cell. You had to focus on getting out of here, you had to hope that not all of your friends had died.

Wesker had betrayed you. He had betrayed you all.

Why didn’t you feel more contempt for him?

You walked through a tight hallway and then down some stairs to the cell. You took a deep breath as you rounded a corner to one cell door.

“Hello?”

Your eyes went wide.

“Chris?!” You put your hands against the cell bars. He was on the other side in dim lighting. “What are you doing in there?”

“You’re alive?” he breathed. “I thought you died in the mansion from the snake bite!”

“I thought you died trying to get me the serum!” You grabbed his hands through the bars.

“I thought I was too late. I thought I let you die,” he said frantically. You shook your head. You wanted to tell him about Wesker but right then you were too busy being happy to see him. You looked down, fumbling with the keys you had picked up from various locations.

“One of these has to get you out.” He nodded, backing up. You tried various ones until finally, the door opened. You let out a sigh of relief, throwing your arms around him. “Thank God.”

“Barry locked me in here,” he whispered. “We have to watch out for him.” You backed up, still holding him but able to see his face.

“Wesker is working with Umbrella.” His face went dark.

“I knew there was something wrong with him.” You scoffed, shaking your head.

“We have to go. I saw an elevator down the hall, I think I fixed it.” He nodded once, looking forward.

“Have you seen Jill or Rebecca?” he asked. You shook your head solemnly.

“We’ll send help.”

“We were the help.” He had that intense look on his face. Not a lot going on behind his eyes, just revenge and determination.

“I can’t believe Wesker and Barry…” he murmured. You started forward.

“Me neither.” Though that wasn’t exactly true.

CHRIS'S ENDING

WESKER'S ENDING

#albert wesker x reader #albert wesker x fem!reader #chris redfield x reader #chris redfield x fem!reader #albert wesker x reader x chris redfield #albert wesker x fem!reader x chris redfield #resident evil imagines #resident evil fanfiction

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eldritch-elrics · 5 months

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had a whole discussion with friends the other day about which video game characters would be able to survive in the world of dark souls and it was really fun and silly but currently i am smashing my two fixations together to consider in depth: how does olimar fare.

let's assume olimar is roughly the size of a normal person. he's got a couple things for him & against him just on his own:

for:

he's pretty fast. he can run around a bunch without needing to worry about stamina

assuming he's isekai'd into dark souls following the completion of pikmin 2, his space suit gives him resistance to fire and electricity

also assuming he's gone through pikmin 2, he can punch. i guess.

because he is very observant, i think he would be good at learning enemies' attacks and capabilities

against:

limited mobility other than running. can't jump and can't dodge. this is pretty big

presumably no skill wielding a sword or other weapons. also a big deal

i'm gonna say that if olimar didn't have pikmin with him, he would not survive dark souls. however. the pikmin change everything

i think we can assume pikmin mechanics would work the same. there's a whole lot of corpses in dark souls; i don't see any reason why those couldn't be fed to the onion to grow more pikmin. also, the enemies and bosses are built to fend off attacks from weapons or magic. i don't think they'd be ready for pikmin clinging onto them and bashing them!

olimar would certainly have to keep his distance from the enemies/bosses. he's definitely not used to being attacked with swords and such! however, i think he could get creative... maybe he could use bows to launch the pikmin farther than he could throw them? many possibilities...

finally. it would be really funny if chosen undead!olimar was basically just leafling/bad ending!olimar. because, well. technically he didn't die for real in the crash, but it would be so funny if restoring humanity meant "stop being a leafling"

#my post #pikmin #dark souls

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throneofsapphics · 9 months

Note

hello! absolutely love your writing, and i have a request. could you write a dorian havilliard x female reader one shot where the reader is a waitress who is nice and kind and always joking around and it’s after the war and dorian is learning to be happy again and it’s kind of a falling in love montage from dorians pov, please? i’m sorry for all the instructions, but i have this very detailed scenario in my head and i lack the writing skills to make it real. thank you!!

ps: sorry for the rant, and sorry if i accidentally sent a request twice!

tuesdays

Dorian x f!Reader

Summary: Dorian lives a second life, every tuesday.

Warnings: nightmares, not proofread

A/N: thank you for the request and don't be for the instructions! this was so cute. I hope I did your vision justice!

Dorian liked to shift, alter his features enough he was unrecognizable and spend time in his city. Time where nobody was gawking, where he could stroll the streets of rifthold, and feel almost normal.

He found himself drawn to a particular cafe. It wasn’t fancy or formal, run by a family - he recognized the names as some of the rebels Chaol used to work with.

Every tuesday, he’d make his way down there at noon. Right when he knew she would be working. It hadn’t started that way, originally he just enjoyed the tea and pastries. He still enjoyed them, of course, but her presence made everything sweeter. The laughter, the casual jokes, and utter comfort of knowing he’s being treated like a regular citizen of Rifthold.

“Where do you go, every tuesday?” Chaol asked him. He knows his friend has wanted to, for weeks now.

“Out,” Dorian replied mildly. Chaol raised an eyebrow but he wasn’t ready to share this part of his life yet.

He watched her make her way over, laughing and balancing a star on one arm, asking a woman how her mother was faring. Another about her new baby, cooing at the small figure in her arms.

“Back again?” She teased, approaching his table. He grinned at her. The same greeting, each time. He loved it. Dorian almost flinched at that word, echoing in his mind.

“Of course,” he recovered smoothly, “I’d never miss the chance to try one of your mother’s new creations.” Every tuesday, they would roll out something new. A trial run, and if successful, it would reappear the next week.

“I’d be sad if you did,” she smiled, a small laugh escaping her lips. He saw how her eyes lit up, shining with pure joy. No visible shadows haunting her. Were there any? He wanted to know.

“Are you alright?” He blinked, refocusing his vision to see her worrying her bottom lip. “You spaced out for a bit there.”

“Sorry,” he cleared his throat. “I’ll take your pick.”

The slight worry left her eyes. “As expected,” she winked before making her way back across the room.

Darkness enveloped him, pressing in on all sides as an unintelligible voice hissed at him. Then - a soft laugh and a hand. He held on, letting it tug him out of the darkness.

Dorian shot up in his bed, his heart pounding out of his chest. He knew exactly who that laugh belonged to.

Six weeks later, she slid into the booth across from him. His eyebrows rose in surprise. For the first time, he was late - nearly an hour, held up by some obnoxious courtiers.

“I thought you weren’t coming,” she admitted, a sheepish smile on her face.

“I’d never miss our date,” Dorian replied without thinking and watched as her cheeks reddened, knowing his were doing the same.

“Well,” she glanced at the clock. “I’m off at noon tomorrow, if you’d like to take me on a real date.”

“I’d love to,” he didn’t hesitate, and watched her pulse flutter.

Dorian had never really taken someone on a date, he realized, with some horror. This was a bad idea for a thousand reasons - all of which he could and would dismiss.

They strolled through the markets, he brought flowers from the castle gardens - those were interesting to sneak out, and ate fried fish by the docks. He watched how the sun glinted against her hair, the smooth curve of her neck, the blue shade of her tunic - a blue that would perfectly match his natural eyes.

One date became the second, and then a third. She wrung her hands together anxiously. SHe never hid her emotions - never tried to, always wore her heart on her sleeve. Something he loved about her. Loved. That word kept popping up in his mind, over and over.

“I figured out your little secret,” she cast him a sly smile. His stomach dropped, throat growing tight.

“Pardon,” he choked. She sucked her lips inwards before pressing them in a tight line.

“You can change your appearance somehow. Your eyes aren’t always the same shade of green.

Relief and a smidgen of disappointment flooded through him. If she’d figured it out on her own, this might have been easier. Did that make him a coward? He’d think about it later. “I’m flattered you spend so much time studying my eyes,” he deflected.

Her entire body seemed to flush.

Dorian puzzled, for weeks, over how to tell her. How to tell the woman he was slowly falling … in love with who he really is. Preparing himself to accept whatever reaction there would be - anger, fear, rejection. He prepared for the worst.

The darkness, the nightmares still came but there was always a soft laugh or a hand to lead him out. Always hers.

They sat on a lush green hill, overlooking the city. A beautiful, serene, secluded space he scoped out in Raven form a few days before.

It took him nearly half an hour to build up the courage, to tell and show her who he really is. Well, his true name and appearance. In veiled terms, he’d told her of his past, and she told him of hers. For all intents and purposes, he was more of himself with her than almost anyone else.

She watched him, studying his true form for a few minutes before a mischievous glint crossed her eyes. “It’s about time.”

“You knew?” He gaped.

“I knew.” She confirmed.

In that moment, Dorian decided he’d make her his Queen.

#dorian havilliard x y/n #dorian havilliard x reader #throne of glass x reader #throne of glass fic #throne of glass imagine

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queenlucythevaliant · 7 months

Text

Clad in Justice and Worth

Written for the Inklings Challenge 2023 (@inklings-challenge). Inspired by the lives of Jeanne d'Albret and Marguerite de Navarre, although numerous liberties have been taken with the history in the name of introducing fantastical elements and telling a good story. The anglicization of names (Jeanne to Joan and Marguerite to Margaret) is meant to reflect the fictionalization of these figures.

The heat was unbearable, and it would grow only hotter as they descended into the lowlands. It was fortunate, Joan decided, that Navarre was a mountain country. It was temperate, even cold there in September. It would be sweltering by the sea.

The greater issue ought to have been the presence of Monluc, who would cut Joan’s party off at the Garonne River most like. The soldiers with whom she traveled were fierce, but Monluc had an entire division at the Garrone. Joan would be a prisoner of war if Providence did not see her through. Henry, perhaps, might suffer worse. He might be married to a Catholic princess.

Yet Joan was accustomed to peril. She had cut her teeth on it. Her first act as queen, some twenty years ago, had been to orchestrate the defense of her kingdom, and she was accustomed to slipping through nets and past assassins. The same could not be said of the infernal heat, which assaulted her without respite. Joan wore sensible travel clothing, but the layers of her skirts were always heavy with sweat. A perpetual tightness sat in her chest, the remnant of an old bout with consumption, and however much she coughed it would not leave.

All the same, it would not do to seem less than strong, so she hid the coughing whenever she could. The hovering of her aides was an irritant and she often wished she could just dismiss them all.

“How fare you in the heat, Majesty?”

“I have war in my gut, Clemont,” Joan snapped. “Worry not for me. If you must pester someone, pester Henry.”

He nodded, chastened. “A messenger is here from Navarre. Sent, I suspect, to induce you to return hence.”

“I would not listen to his birdcalls.”

“Young Henry said much the same.”

Joan stuffed down her irritation that Clemont had gone to Henry before he’d come to her. She was still queen, even if her son was rapidly nearing his majority. “Tell him that if the Huguenot leaders are to be plucked, I think it better that we all go together. Tell him that I would rather my son and I stand with our brothers than await soldiers and assassins in our little kingdom.”

Her aide gave a stiff nod. “At once, your Majesty.”

She would breathe easier when they reached the host at La Rochelle. Yet then, there would be more and greater work to do. There would be war, and Joan would be at the head of it.

When she awoke in the night, Joan knew at once that something was awry. It was cool. Gone was the blistering heat that had plagued them all day. Perhaps one of the kidnapping plots had finally succeeded.

Certainly, it seemed that way. She was in a cell, cool and dank and no more than six paces square. And yet—how strange! —the door was open.

Rising unsteadily to her feet, Joan crept towards the shaft of moonlight that fell through it. She glanced about for guards, but saw only a single prisoner in dirty clothes standing just beyond the threshold. He was blinking rapidly, as though the very existence of light bewildered him. Then, as Joan watched, he crept forward towards the gate of the jailhouse and out into the free air beyond. Joan listened for a long moment, trying to hear if there was any commotion at the prisoner’s emergence. When she could perceive none, she followed him out into the cool night air.

A lantern blazed. “Come quickly,” a voice hissed. “Our friend the Princess is waiting.”

The prisoner answered in a voice too quiet for Joan to hear. Then, quite suddenly, she heard his companion say, “Who is it that there behind you?”

The prisoner turned round, and Joan’s fingers itched towards her hidden knife. But much to her astonishment, he exclaimed, “Why, it is the lady herself! Margaret!”

But Joan had no opportunity to reply. Voices sounded outside her pavilion and she awoke to the oppressive heat of the day before. Coughing hard, Joan rolled ungracefully from her bed and tried to put away the grasping tendrils of her dream.

“The river is dry, Majesty” her attendant informed her as soon as she emerged from her pavilion, arrayed once again in sensible riding clothes. “The heat has devoured it. We can bypass Monluc without trouble, I deem.”

“Well then,” Joan replied, stifling another cough. “Glory to God for the heat.”

They did indeed pass Monluc the next day, within three fingers of his nose. Joan celebrated with Henry and the rest, yet all the while her mind was half taken up with her dream from the night before. Never, in all her life, had her mind conjured so vivid a sensory illusion. It had really felt cool in that jail cell, and the moonlight beyond it had been silver and true. Stranger still, the prisoner and his accomplice had called Joan by her mother’s name.

Joan had known her mother only a little. At the age of five, she had been detained at the French court while her mother returned to Navarre. This was largely on account of her mother’s religious convictions. Margaret of Angoulême had meddled too closely with Protestantism, so her brother the king had seen fit to deprive her of her daughter and raise her a Catholic princess.

His successor had likewise stolen Henry from Joan, for despite the king’s best efforts she was as Protestant as her mother. Yet unlike Margaret, Joan had gone back for her child. Two years ago, she had secretly swept Henry away from Paris on horseback. She’d galloped the horses nearly to death, but she’d gotten him to the armed force waiting at the border, and then at last home to Navarre. Sometimes, Joan wondered why her own mother had not gone to such lengths to rescue her. But Margaret’s best weapons had been tears, it was said, and tears could not do the work of sharp swords.

The Navarre party arrived at La Rochelle just before dusk on the twenty-eighth of September. The heat had faltered a little, to everyone’s great relief, but the air by the sea was still heavy with moisture. The tightness in Joan’s chest persisted.

“There will be much celebration now that you have come, Your Majesty,” said the boy seeing to her accommodations. “There’s talk of giving you the key to the city, and more besides.”

Sure enough, Joan was greeted with applause when she entered the Huguenot council. “I and my son are here to promote the success of our great cause or to share in its disaster,” she said when the council quieted. “I have been reproached for leaving my lands open to invasion by Spain, but I put my confidence in God who will not suffer a hair of our heads to perish. How could I stay while my fellow believers were being massacred? To let a man drown is to commit murder.”

Sometimes it seemed that the men only played at war. The Duke of Conde, who led the Huguenot forces, treated it as a game of chivalry between gentlemen. Others, like Monluc, regarded it as a business; the mercenaries he hired robbed and raped and brutalized, and though be bemoaned the cruelty he did nothing to curtail it.

There were sixty-thousand refugees pouring into the city. Joan was not playing at war. When she rose in the mornings, she put poultices on her chest, then went to her office after breaking her fast. There was much to do. She administered the city, attended councils of war, and advised the synod. In addition, she was still queen of Navarre, and was required to govern her own kingdom from afar.

In the afternoons, she often met with Beza to discuss matters of the church, or else with Conde, to discuss military matters. Joan worked on the city’s fortifications, and in the evenings she would ride out to observe them. Henry often joined her on these rides; he was learning the art of war, and he seemed to have a knack for it.

“A knack is not sufficient,” Joan told him. “Anyone can learn to fortify a port. I have learned, and I am a woman.”

“I know it is not sufficient,” the boy replied. “I must commit myself entirely to the cause of our people, and of Our Lord. Is that not what you were going to tell me?”

“Ah, Henry, you know me too well. I am glad of it. I am glad to see you bear with strength the great and terrible charge which sits upon your shoulders.”

“How can I help being strong? I have you for a mother.”

At night, Joan fell into bed too exhausted for dreams.

Yet one night, she woke once again to find her chest loose and her breathing comfortable. She stood in a hallway which she recognized at once. She was at the Château de Fontainebleau, the place of her birth, just beyond the door to the king’s private chambers.

“Oh please, Francis, please. You cannot really mean to send him to the stake!” The voice on the other side of the door was female, and it did not belong to the queen.

A heavy sigh answered it. “I mean to do just that, ma mignonne. He is a damned heretic, and a rabble-rouser besides. Now, sister, don’t cry. If there’s one thing I cannot bear, it is your weeping.”

At those words, a surge of giddiness, like lightning, came over Joan’s whole body. It was her own mother speaking to the king. She was but a few steps away and they were separated only by a single wooden door.

“He is my friend, Francis. Do you say I should not weep for my friends?”

A loud harumph. “A strange thing, Margaret. Your own companions told me that you have never met the man.”

“Does such a triviality preclude friendship? He is my brother in Our Lord.”

“And I am your true brother, and your king besides.”

“And as you are my brother—” here, Margaret’s voice cracked with overburdening emotion. She was crying again, Joan was certain. “As you are my brother, you must grant me this boon. Do not harm those I love, Francis.”

The king did not respond, so Joan drew nearer to the door. A minute later, she leapt backwards when it opened. There stood her mother, not old and sick as Joan had last seen her twenty years before, but younger even than Joan herself.

“If you’ve time to stand about listening at doors, then you are not otherwise employed,” Margaret said, wiping her tears from her face with the back of her hand. “I am going to visit a friend. You shall accompany me.”

Looking down at herself, Joan realized that her mother must have mistaken her for one of Fountainbleu’s many ladies-in-waiting. She was in her night clothes, which was really a simple day dress such as a woman might wear to a provincial market. Joan did not sleep in anything which would hinder her from acting immediately, should the city be attacked in the middle of the night.

“As you wish, Majesty,” Joan replied with a curtsey. Margaret raised an eyebrow, and instantly Joan corrected herself: “Your Highness.”

Margaret stopped at her own rooms to wrap herself in a plain, hooded cloak. “What is your name?” she asked.

“Joan, your Highness.”

“Well, Joan. As penance for eavesdropping, you shall keep your own counsel with regards to our errand. Is that clear?”

“Yes, your Highness,” Joan replied stiffly. Any fool could see what friend Margaret intended to visit, and Joan wished she could think of a way to cut through the pretense.

When Margaret arrived at the jail with Joan in tow, the warden greeted her almost like a friend. “You are here to see the heretic, Princess? Shall I fetch you a chair?”

“Yes, Phillip. And a lantern, if you would.”

The cell was nearly identical to the one which Joan had dreamed on the road to La Rochelle. Inside sat a man with sparse gray hair covering his chin. Margaret’s chair was placed just outside the cell, but she brushed past it. She handed the lantern to Joan and knelt down in the cell beside the prisoner.

“I was told that I had a secret friend in the court,” he said. “I see now that she is an angel.”

“No angel, monsieur Faber. I am Margaret, and this is my lady, Joan. I have come to see to your welfare, as best I am able.”

Now, Margaret’s hood fell back, and all at once she looked every inch the Princess of France. Yet her voice was small and choked when she said, “Will you do me the honor of praying with me?”

Margaret was already on her knees, but she lowered herself further. She rested one hand lightly on Faber’s knee, and after a moment, he took it. Her eyes fluttered closed. In the dim light, Joan thought she saw tears starting down her mother’s cheek.

When she woke in the morning, Joan could still remember her mother’s face. There were tears in her hazelnut eyes, and a weeping quiver in her voice.

Winter came, and Joan’s coughing grew worse. There was blood in it now, and occasionally bits of feathery flesh that got caught in her throat and made her gag. She hid it in her handkerchief.

“Winter battles are ugly,” Conde remarked one morning as Christmas was drawing near. “If the enemy is anything like gentlemen, they will not attack until spring. And yet, I think, we must stand at readiness.”

“By all means,” Joan replied. “Anything less than readiness would be negligence.”

Conde chuckled, not unkindly. “For all your strength and skill, madame, it is obvious that you were not bred for command. No force can be always at readiness. It would kill the men as surely as the sword. ‘Tis not negligence to celebrate the birth of Our Lord, for instance.”

Joan nodded curtly, but did not reply.

As the new year began, the city was increasingly on edge. There was frequent unrest among the refugees, and the soldiers Joan met when she rode the fortifications nearly always remarked that an attack would come soon.

Then, as February melted into March, word came from Admiral Coligny that his position along the Guirlande Stream had been compromised. The Catholic vanguard was swift approaching, and more Huguenot forces were needed. By the time word reached Joan in the form of a breathless young page outside her office, Conde was already assembling the cavalry. Joan made for the Navarre quarter at once, as fast as her lungs and her skirts would let her.

The battle was an unmitigated disaster. The Huguenots arrived late, and in insufficient numbers. Their horses were scattered and their infantry routed, and the bulk of their force was forced back to Cognac to regroup. As wounded came pouring in, Joan went to the surgical tents to make herself useful.

The commander La Noue’s left arm had been shattered and required amputation. Steeling herself, Joan thought of Margaret’s tearstained cheeks as she knelt beside Faber. “Commander La Noue,” she murmured, “Would it comfort you if I held your other hand?”

“That it would, Your Majesty,” the commander replied. So, as the surgeon brandished his saw, Joan gripped the commander’s hand tight and began to pray. She let go only once, to cover her mouth as she hacked blood into her palm. It blended in easily with the carnage of the field hospital.

Yet it was not till after the battle was over that Joan learned the worst of it. “His Grace, General Conde is dead,” her captain told her in her tent that evening. “He was unseated in the battle. They took him captive, and then they shot him. Unarmed and under guard! Why, as I speak these words, they are parading his corpse through the streets of Jarnac.”

“So much for chivalry,” murmured Joan, trying to ignore the memories of Conde’s pleasant face chuckling, calling her skilled and strong.

“We will need to find another Prince of the Blood to champion our cause,” her captain continued. “Else the army will crumble. If there’s to be any hope for Protestantism in France, we had better produce one with haste. Admiral Coligny will not serve. He’s tried to rally the men, to no avail. In fact, he has bid me request that you make an attempt on the morn.”

“Henry will lead.”

“Henry? Why, he’s only a boy!”

Joan shook her head. “He is nearly a man, Captain, and he’s a keen knack for military matters. He trained with Conde himself, and he saw to the fortification of La Rochelle at my side. He is strong, which matters most of all. If it’s a Prince of the Blood the army requires, Henry will serve.”

“As you say, Majesty,” said her captain with a bow. “But it’s not me you will have to convince.”

Joan settled in for a sleepless night. Her captain was correct that she would need to persuade the Huguenot forces well, if they were to swear themselves to Henry. So, she would speak. Joan would rally their courage, and then she would present them with her son and see if they would follow him.

Page after page she wrote, none of it any good. Eloquence alone would not suffice; Joan’s words had to burn in men’s chests. She needed such words as she had never spoken before, and she needed them by morning.

By three o’clock, Joan’s pages were painted with blood. Her lungs were tearing themselves to shreds in her chest, and the proof was there on the paper beside all her insufficient words. She almost hated herself then. Now, when circumstance required of her greater strength than ever before, all Joan’s frame was weakness and frailty.

An hour later, she fell asleep.

When Joan’s eyes fluttered open, she knew at once where she was. Why, these were her own rooms at home in Navarre! Sunlight flooded through her own open windows and drew ladders of light across Joan’s very own floor. Her bed sat in the corner, curtains open. Her dressing room and closet were just there, and her own writing desk—

There was a figure at Joan’s writing desk. Margaret. She looked up.

“My Joan,” she said. It started as a sigh, but it turned into a sob by the end. “My very own Joan, all grown up. How tired you look.”

The words seemed larger than themselves somehow. They were Truth and Beauty in capital letters, illuminated red and gold. Something in Joan’s chest seized; something other than her lungs.

“How do you know me, mother?”

“How could I not? I have been parted from you of late, yet your face is more precious to me than all the kingdoms of the earth.”

“Oh.” And then, because she could not think of anything else to say, Joan asked, “What were you writing, before I came in?”’

“Poetry.” Joan made a noise in her throat. “You disapprove?” asked her mother.

“No, not at all. Would that I had time for such sweet pursuits. I have worn myself out this night writing a war speech. It cannot be poetry, mother. It must be wine. It must–” then, without preamble, Joan collapsed into a fit of coughing. At once, her mother was on her feet, handkerchief in hand. She pressed it to Joan’s mouth, all the while rubbing circles on her back as she coughed and gagged. When the handkerchief came away at last, it was stained red.

“What a courageous woman you are,” Margaret whispered into her hair. “Words like wine for the soldiers, and yourself spitting blood. Will you wear pearls or armor when you address them?”

“I will address them on horseback in the field,” answered Joan with a rasp. “I would have them see my strength.”

Her mother’s dark eyes flickered then. Margaret looked at her daughter, come miraculously home to her against the will of the king and the very flow of time itself. She was not a large woman, but she held herself well. She stood brave and tall, though no one had asked it of her.

Her own dear daughter did not have time for poetry. Margaret regretted that small fact so much that it came welling up in her eyes. “And what of your weakness, child? Will you let anyone see that?”

Joan reached out and caught her mother’s tears. Her fingertips were harder than Margaret’s were. They scratched across the sensitive skin below her eyes.

“Did I not meet you like this once before? You are the same Joan who came with me to the jail in Paris once. I did not know you then. I had not yet borne you.”

“Yes, the very same. We visited a Monsieur Faber, I believe. What became of that poor man?”

Margaret sighed. She crossed back over to the desk to fall back into her seat, and in a smaller voice she said, “My brother released him, for a time. And then, when I was next absent from Paris, he was arrested again and sent to the stake before I could return.”

“I saw you save another man, once. I do not know his name. How many prisoners did you save, mother?”

“Many. Not near enough. Not as many as those with whom I wept by lantern light.”

“Did the weeping do any good, I wonder.”

“Those who lived were saved by weeping. Those who died may have been comforted by it. It was the only thing I could give them, and so I must believe that Our Lord made good use of it.”

Joan shook her head. She almost wanted to cry too, then. The feeling surprised her. Joan detested crying.

“All those men freed from prison, yet you never came for me. Why?”

“Francis was determined. A choice between following Christ and keeping you near was no choice at all, though it broke my heart to make it.”

If Joan shut her eyes, she could still remember the terror of the night she had rescued Henry. “You could have come with soldiers. You could have stolen me away in the night.”

Margaret did not answer. The tears came faster now and her fair, queenly skin blossomed red. So many years would pass between the dear little girl she’d left in Paris and the stalwart woman now before her. She did not have time for poetry, but if Margaret had been allowed to keep her that would have been different. Joan should have had every poem under the sun.

“Will you read it?” she asked, taking the parchment from her desk and pressing it into her daughter’s hands. “Will you grant me that boon?”

Slowly, almost numbly, Joan nodded. To Margaret’s surprise, she read aloud.

“God has predestined His own

That they should be sons and heirs.

Drawn by gentle constraint

A zeal consuming is theirs.

They shall inherit the earth

Clad in justice and worth.”

“Clad in justice and worth,” she repeated, handing back the parchment. “It’s a good poem.”

“It isn’t finished,” replied her mother.

Joan laughed. “Neither is my speech. It must be almost morning now.”

As loving arms closed around her again, Joan wished to God that she could remain in Navarre with her mother. She knew that she and Margaret did not share a heart: her mother was tender like Joan could never be. Yet all the same, she wanted to believe that they had been forged by the same Christian hope and conviction. She wanted to believe that she, Joan, could free the prisoners too.

She shut her eyes against her mother’s shoulder. When she opened them, she was back in her tent, with morning sun streaming in.

She came before the army mounted on a horse with Henry beside her. Her words were like wine when she spoke.

“When I, the queen, hope still, is it for you to fear? Because Conde is dead, is all therefore lost? Does our cause cease to be just and holy? No; God, who has already rescued you from perils innumerable, has raised up brothers-in-arms to succeed Conde.

Soldiers, I offer you everything in my power to bestow–my dominions, my treasures, my life, and that which is dearer to me than all, my son. I make here a solemn oath before you all, and you know me too well to doubt my word: I swear to defend to my last sigh the holy cause which now unites us, which is that of honor and truth.”

When she finished speaking, Joan coughed red into her hands. There was quiet for a long moment, and then a loud hurrah! went up along the lines. Joan looked out at the soldiers, and from the front she saw her mother standing there, with tears in her eyes.

#inklingschallenge #inklings challenge #team tolkien #genre: time travel #theme: visiting the imprisoned #with a tiny little hint of #theme: visiting the sick #story: complete #so i like to read about the reformation in october when i can #when the teams were announced i was burning through a book on the women of the reformation and these two really reached out and grabbed me #Jeanne in particular. i was like 'it is so insane that this person is not more widely known.'#Protestantism has its very own badass Jeanne/Joan. as far as i'm concerned she should be as famous as Joan of Arc #so that was the basis for this story #somewhere along the line it evolved into a study on different kinds of feminine power #and also illness worked itself in there. go me #anyway. hopefully my catholic friends will give me a shot here in spite of the protestantism inherant in the premise #i didn't necessarily mean to go with something this strongly protestant as a result of the Catholic works of mercy themes #but i'm rather tickled that it worked out that way #on the other hand i know that i have people following me that know way more about the French Wars of Religion and the Huguenots than i do #hopefully there's enough verisimilitude here that it won't irritate you when i inevitably get things wrong #i think that covers all my bases #i am still not 100% content with how this turned out but i am at least happy enough to post it #and get in right under the wire. it's a couple hours before midnight still in my time zone #pontifications and creations #leah stories #i enjoy being a girl #the unquenchable fire

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cloudcountry · 1 year

Text

i've got you!

Genre/Tropes: No notable ones.

Summary: Kalim throws a party to celebrate your new relationship without considering the repercussions.

Author's Comments: I love him so much? If you couldn't tell this was more of a vent piece because I know he'd be great at comforting people and as someone with social anxiety!! Idk how I'd fare at one of his parties tbvh yikes /lh

~~~~~

“Could you come over to Scarabia later tonight?” Kalim asked, eyes shining as he grabbed your hands.

“Why? Do you want to study or something?” you asked, squeezing his hands as he bounced on the balls of his feet.

“No! I want to throw a party in honor of us getting together! I’ve liked you forever and I’m just so excited that this is finally happening! Like, I’m finally with you! I can hardly believe it!” he laughed loudly, pulling you into a hug that nearly broke your spine.

“Okay. You don’t invite too many people, okay?” you agreed, watching him nod enthusiastically with a stuttering heart.

“Of course! Thank you thank you thank you!” Kalim planted a big smooch right on your cheek before he ran into his next class, leaving you flustered in the middle of the hallway.

That’s how you ended up here, in the same Scarabia dining hall you’d been in many times before, this time with even more people now that your friends and the entire dorm were invited. You were having fun at first, especially with Kalim doting on you. Now that you were officially dating the Housewarden, Grim was spared the cracker treatment now that it had been passed onto you. Kalim kept passing dish after dish after dish for you to try, all with a beaming smile. They were all phenomenal, a true testament to how good Jamil’s cooking was. You were so anxious about coming to the party beforehand—so anxious, in fact, that’d you seriously considered not going in favor of staying back at Ramshackle Dorm. It was only when Kalim showed up to your dorm on his flying carpet, wearing his dorm uniform that you made up your mind. He was gentle and understanding as you explained your situation and why you weren’t exactly ready yet, even going so far as to ask if the party needed to be postponed.

“I could tell something was wrong when I saw you peeking out the window like that...usually you pull the curtain completely aside, but that time you were hiding most of your face. I’m glad it’s not because you’re in any danger though I wish you weren’t feeling anxious about this either.” he mused, tapping his chin thoughtfully, “I can help you get ready! I’m sure Jamil wouldn’t mind if we were a bit late.”

You were about to make a comment about how Jamil would probably be worried about him, but Kalim had already made up his mind.

“Yeah! Come on, I’ll help you get ready.” he yanked you into Ramshackle, rattling off a bunch of outfit ideas that you’d worn around him that he liked.

You just let him pull you along, your stomach twisting in knots as he put together outfits he thought you might like. Wracking your brain for the best possible outfits so you’d make a good first impression, you picked the one you like best and Kalim bolted out of the room to let you change. Once you were finished, he helped you with the jewelry you selected to go with the outfit, and even pinned a brilliant red flower pin in your hair. He kissed your cheek once he was done and then you were off.

You brushed your fingers over the flower pin, wondering how luxurious it was. Kalim had already spared no expense with this party of his, the decorations and food somehow more expensive looking than they’d ever been before. You knew his intentions were to make you feel important, but it only made you feel like you needed to act more proper. Did you put your form down wrong? When was the right time to eat? Did people think your posture was weird? No one was even paying attention to you besides Kalim, your friends, and Jamil as he occasionally exited the kitchen to make sure you were doing already.

You had a feeling he’d already picked up on most of your thoughts.

“Are you alright?” he murmured, setting down the refill you’d asked for.

Speak of the devil. You felt really guilty asking him for things, but he’d assured you that it was no problem. It’s what he was there for, he said. You wished you could hide away in the kitchen for a little while.

The room only seemed to be getting louder as Kalim stood up upon seeing your friends, rattling off some speech to them about how the two of you got together. Normally, you would have found this sweet, but the world was starting to spin around you at the added noise. He was holding your hand tightly and you could feel it getting sweaty, and it was only when you squeezed him tightly that he looked over at you. The conversation with your friends was immediately dropped upon seeing the expression on your face.

“I want to get away for a bit. Please.” you said, taking your hand out of his and sitting there awkwardly.

You hoped that didn’t offend him.

“Oh! Of course, would you like me to walk with you? I’ll take you to Jamil! The kitchen is nice and quiet so I think that would help.” he beamed, offering you his hand again when he stood up, “Nobody will even notice we’re gone, don’t worry. No one is looking at you.”

Relief surged through you at his reassurance. Once you were standing next to him, he placed his hand on your lower back and slowly pressed you in the right direction. His other hand had grabbed yours and was rubbing comforting circles on the burning skin.

You didn’t say anything until you made it out into the hall.

“I’m sorry.” you apologized almost immediately, “I’m sure you’ve put so much time and effort into this and it looked so beautiful but knowing it was all for me was a bit overwhelming. I’m sorry. I’ll try to be a little better next time.”

“What are you talking about? Even I get overwhelmed sometimes.” Kalim’s brow furrowed with worry, “So you don’t have to apologize, okay? I could tell you were nervous at Ramshackle so I’ve been keeping an eye on you, but I’m glad you told me.”

“Did...did you at least have fun?” you asked, unable to meet his gaze.

Am I fun to be around?

“Of course I had fun! I got to watch you try the desserts Jamil makes, and I got to see you eat a ton of dishes from my childhood, and you even tried my favorite coconut milk! I had a lot of fun with you.” he pressed a kiss to your forehead, patting your shoulder affectionately, “I’m happy you came here with me but you never have to. If it’s ever too intense, we can always hang out at Ramshackle. Or we can ride with Carpet! The possibilities are endless!”

You pulled him into your chest, hugging Kalim tightly. He hugged you back, giggling as he swayed on the spot.

“Thank you for telling me you were uncomfortable.” he murmured, kissing both of your cheeks with a smile, “Now let’s go check on Jamil! Once we’re done with that, I can take you into the sky and we can go to Ramshackle! I hope Grim will be happy to see me, maybe I should bring him some tuna...”

“You should.” you replied softly as Kalim began tugging you along again, nodding enthusiastically at your approval.

“One order of tuna and kisses for Grim and the Ramshackle Prefect!” he beamed, turning to face you once again.

Before you could ask what he was doing, Kalim kissed your forehead again.

“I’ve got you, Prefect. I’ll always catch you when you fall!”

#auburn's fics <3 #twisted wonderland x reader #twst x reader #kalim al asim x reader #kalim x reader #kalim fluff #gotta love writing about my mental health #kalim's so <3333 #convinced he would solve all my problems /j

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