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queenimmadolla · 1 year

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hi!! i’m not so sure if you’re still doing pennyverse or not, but you should do one where she’s a teenager doing teenager things! whatever you’d like as the plot :) i love your writing so much

This one hurt ngl, this is how i know I’m not one for kids cause having penny grow up was PAINFUL. Hope you enjoy it, though!

(Dad!Eddie Munson/Rockstar!Eddie Munson x Mom!Reader)

more dad!eddie and penny adventures can be found here.

summary: Your daughter Penny is now a teenager >:| and Eddie is not happy about it. warnings: mentions of recreational drug usage, lil bit of fatherly hurt a/n: the UNBELIEVABLY HOT edit of Eddie was crafted by @eddiemunsons-missingnipple, whose edits have me in a chokehold. perfect depiction of how I see older!eddie in the penny 'verse.

“Hey, mom?”

“Hmn?” You responded, halting the task of organizing everything for the night ahead.

“I wanted to ask you something,” Penny stated, nervously fidgeting with her fingers as she approached the kitchen island.

Her younger brother snickered, not bothering to glance up from his Game Boy—though he fully intended on listening to this play out—as she glared at him.

You smirked, finger tapping against the box of popcorn you’d been about to open. It was clear from both of their mannerisms, what she wanted to ask would probably garner a no from you. You decided to humor her anyway.

“Okay,” you nodded, gesturing for her to go on.

She huffed, fingers reaching up to twirl around one of her curls. In the last couple of years, Penny had obviously grown significantly. She was still a little shorter than you—probably wouldn’t end up ever being taller than you—and while bits of Eddie obviously poked through her features (his eyes, his mouth and expressions), she was looking more and more like you every day. At one point, it had reached an uncanny degree and creeped you out a little.

Despite her physical alterations, her personality stayed the same. A big daddy’s girl, with her attitude and mischievous ways matching her father’s, it being the reason why you told her no so often.

“Can I hang out with Maria and Shanti tonight? There’s this party and─”

“Ah, stop right there,” you interrupted, having heard enough to know where this was going. Over the years, the party scene had also changed. Especially since you no longer lived in Hawkins. After Corroded Coffin got picked up 10 years ago, Eddie was always traveling, on tour to open for one famous band or another. Two years after, they’d broken through mainstream heavy metal and shot to the top of the charts, starting their first official tour of their own.

It had proved surprisingly difficult, being the wife of a rockstar who was always coming and going for work but Eddie hadn’t been about to lose you, always making sure his family came first. Eventually, it just made sense to make the move to Los Angeles—though you only agreed on the basis you’d be moving to one of the more quiet regions, away from all the millionaire mansions. While your home was definitely more than anything you could have dreamed up, it was still rather humble compared to the homes in West Hollywood; exactly what you and Eddie wanted.

It was still LA, though, and you were wary of the parties thrown in the area. The drug scene here was a whole other ballpark. Keeping Penny away from alcohol and drugs was something you knew, realistically, you wouldn’t be able to do. Encourage her not to drink and do drugs? Sure, and you did. Actively and repeatedly. But you’d been smoking weed at her age and drinking, so you couldn’t be a hypocrite. And you didn’t want to ruin your relationship by being the domineering parent. If she was going to do these things (and, as a parent, you really hoped she wouldn’t) you wanted her to trust you, and know she could come to you about these things rather than having to sleep off a high at a strange home or wait out the alcohol until she was sober enough to see you like you had to do when you were a teenager.

Despite your hopes and wishes, Penny was going to be a teenager—whether you liked it or not—but above all, you wanted her to be safe.

“You know why I don’t like these parties─”

“Mom!” She groaned, frowning at the way this conversation was going. “You’ve got to trust me, I’m not gonna do anything. I just want to have fun with my friends. Please?”

Dammit. She used the trust card.

You sighed, actually mulling it over. You didn’t like it. You really didn’t like it. But you remembered asking your mom something similar once and being denied. Tired of being refused the right to be a teenager despite never being trouble for your parents, you’d snuck out that night and, ironically, considering said track record, almost got in trouble. The cops had gotten involved with the party, you hadn’t been able to drive so you ended up having to walk across town in the middle of the night to make it home.

You didn’t want her sneaking out. You were about to cave, when suddenly you remembered exactly what you were preparing for when she interrupted you and guilt began to set in.

“You can go─”

“YES!”

“—if you get your dad’s permission.”

Penny instantly deflated, slumping down onto the island countertop. “Actually, I was hoping you’d talk to him for me.”

You and Wayne locked eyes and snorted.

“Baby, I would do anything for you, but not that. Not today.”

“What’s not today?” Eddie asked as he leaned against the doorway, scratching at the short hairs of his beard.

“Yeah, what’s not today?” Came a little voice from his side. Maple was clinging to her daddy’s leg, her little blanket clutched in her free arm.

Eddie reached down to stroke a palm over her buzzed head (Maple liked to watch King of the Hill with him and when she saw Luanne with no hair, she’d bugged and bugged and bugged until you finally caved and she hadn’t wanted to grow it out since), raising an eyebrow as he waited to be filled in. You and Wayne exchanged glances before you went back to pulling out snacks and he focused back on the game in his hand.

Penny huffed again before facing her father and tried not to wince, “Dad, I wanted to hang out with my friends tonight.”

Eddie blinked.

“But it’s Sunday.”

“Yeah, we’re on winter break, remember?”

Oh, he remembered but that wasn’t what he was referring to. “Baby, it’s Sunday. New episode of The Simpsons.”

It might have been trivial to others, but Eddie enjoyed every single second he got to spend with his family. After Corroded Coffin’s latest tour ended in the fall, Eddie had made sure his schedule was cleared for the rest of the year—save for playing two shows with Metallica, you’d threatened him if he said no to the opportunity of playing with his all time favorite band—for family time. This was a vital piece of it for him. Ever since it started airing, before Corroded Coffin was ever known and when Penny was still in diapers, it became routine to sit down and watch the show together.

Penny would always keep track of the time, and five minutes before it was due to start, she’d be tugging him by the hand to the couch and climbing in his lap. You’d snuggle up to his side, and when you’d had Wayne, he’d get comfy in your lap. Whenever Eddie was home from tour, it was the same thing; something that kept him sane and happy.

And now Penny basically wanted to kill him. Hadn’t growing up been enough for her? She wanted to deprive him of his bonding time, too?

“I know,” came her hesitant reply as she lifted her shoulders.

His heart was breaking. Eddie’s gaze darted from her to you and back.

“Did your mom say it was okay?” He knew how you felt about her going out, hopefully you’d already said no and this was one of those ‘let me ask the other parent things’.

“Yeah.” Penny nodded, glancing over her shoulder at your back as you pretended to not hear every single word. It was like you and Eddie shared a heart, and you could very much feel his pain.

Eddie stared at her for a couple of moments, stared right into those big beautiful brown eyes of hers, his tongue pressing against his canine tooth.

He knows he’s supposed to see Penny, his 15 year old daughter, but he just sees his baby girl; his tiny little toddler in her overalls with her untamable curls going in every direction and remnants of a sticky treat smeared over fat-filled baby cheeks, who always wanted to be around him, be with him. That’s who he sees staring back up at him with wide, innocent eyes.

But that’s not her anymore, is it?

Eddie blinked, glancing away from her as he cleared his throat and tried to will the moisture from his eyes away even though he knew he’d get high and cry over this later.

“Uh, yeah. Sure, baby. You go have fun.”

“Thank you, daddy!” Penny rushed forward, mindful of Maple as she hugged Eddie. He held onto her for longer than was necessary but she had a feeling this was hard for him, and she still loved it when he held her so she let him.

Then she’d almost bound out of the kitchen before she whirled around on her heels and ran to hug you from behind, pressing a kiss to your cheek.

“Curfew.” You reminded her and she nodded in agreement, not willing to push her luck and moved onto her next target.

Penny sunk her hand into Wayne’s curls, shaking his head and laughing as she bobbed away in time to escape his swipe.

“Later, knucklehead.”

“Don’t touch me, beyotch.”

“WAYNE!” You and Eddie shouted while Penny just laughed and made a run for the front door before you and Eddie could change your minds.

“What? I say it to her all the time.” He shrugged and got off the island stool, making his way to the living room so you couldn’t yell at him. Wayne had grown over the years, too.

While he had started off looking like an exact replica of Penny, his features had changed a bit. He still resembled you quite a bit but he had his dad’s nose, eyes, chin and dimple, making the similarities nearly uncanny. Unlike his dad (though Eddie had recently cut his mane), Wayne liked to keep his hair short but was alike to Penny as he also had his dad’s personality and attitude, and then some.

Wayne had been diagnosed with autism in the past—had nothing to do with the circumstances of his birth—and while you’d been briefly concerned about how to raise him, it was clear he’d be just fine in life, he really only interacted with the world differently than others, lacked a filter but he was still a sweetheart. To anyone except his sisters, anyways but it was always playful. On multiple occasions you’d caught them all conked out together in the living room or each other's rooms.

Maple detached herself from Eddie to follow him and you listened to their commentary.

“What are you doing?”

“Nothing.”

“Why?”

“Because.”

“Because why?”

“Oh my god, Maple.”

“Is it because you’re autistic?”

“No, it’s not because—maybe it is, I don’t know, just—shush.”

You rolled your eyes and abandoned your task again in favor of comforting Eddie. He sagged into you as your arms curled around his waist.

“Honey, I’m gonna need a bowl to survive tonight.”

“I’ll pack you one,” you cooed, pressing a kiss to his pouty lips. “I know that must have been very hard for you.”

“The other two are gonna finish me off if they try to grow up.”

Almost an hour and a half later, in the midst of the episode, you got up to get a refill of popcorn and encountered Penny as she walked through the front door.

You hadn’t been expecting her back for at least another two hours.

“Hey, baby.” You approached her with a gentle tone, mom senses tingling. Penny looked nervous.

You were about to ask her what was wrong when she blurted out, “I got high, mom.”

Okay, you hadn’t been expecting that so you tried to school your shock. “Oh.”

“They were passing around a bong and I took a hit and I just wanted to come home.”

“Okay.” You could tell it was her first experience with it, thank fuck, and while you weren’t pleased she’d done it, you were happy she’d come back home when she was obviously freaking out and where she’d be able to sober up in a safe setting. “Why don’t you go upstairs and get into your pajamas? The episode is still going on, you can curl up on the couch with us if you want.”

She looked relieved and nodded before running upstairs to her room.

By the time you’d made more popcorn and returned to the den, Penny was back downstairs, in her PJs, and curled into Eddie’s free side, the side she’d always occupied. While Eddie had gotten over the majority of his blues by the time The Simpsons started, you could tell he was still a little sad.

Now, there wasn’t a trace of the emotion on his face, he looked perfectly content and happy as he beckoned you over to his other side, your spot and you went willingly.

Eddie pressed a kiss to your head as you resettled yourself, and relaxed further into the comfortable couch. The family of yellow cartoon characters held his attention for just a moment before his eyes did one last sweep.

Despite the open recliner and their bickering, Wayne and Maple—heads barely visible with all the blankets they were hogging—shared the love seat.

Penny looked relaxed—she seemed anxious when she’d come in to the den to join them and surprised the fuck out of Eddie—eyelids drooping as she cuddled right up to him.

Then his eyes fell on you. The lights from the television danced over your face, the perfect picture of peace as you rested your head on his shoulder, hand over his chest. Eddie wanted to kiss you so bad.

You always said that your shared life was Eddie’s doing but he knew the truth. You’d given him all of this.

For some strange reason, one he was very thankful for, you wanted him out of everyone in Hawkins. You’d married him, a loser who took three fucking years to graduate high school. You’d given him one child, then another and still encouraged him to pursue his dreams. He honestly hadn’t expected to play anywhere but in state. And when his band blew up, you still stayed by his side and gave him another baby. It wasn’t easy, he remembers the fights, the tears and every single trial thrown your way but the two of you had made it out on top with your family intact and stronger than ever.

Homer’s yelp of pain followed by his family’s laughter brought Eddie out of his contemplation and he joined in.

Yeah, this was the life.

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love-is-sourgrapes · 7 months

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☄. *. ⋆ BEHIND THE GOLDEN DOOR ੈ✩‧₊˚

CHAPTER 1

PAIRING: Yunjin x gn reader, Hyunjin x gn reader

GENRE: supernatural au, fluff, angst, creepy themes, romance

SUMMARY: You've been having dreams of two human-like people calling out to you behind a golden door. When you meet them in real life they are different but also extremely different to what you imagined. Now you are faced with a choice that could determine the trajectory of something huge, but are you able to. The choice, of what happens behind that door rests in your hands.

AN: First chapter of behind the golden door. i hope you like it. this basically introduces our characters. Will post updates once a week. Please reblog if you enjoy it

status - ongoing

word count - 0.9k

Masterlist || next

. • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

Don't open your eyes. He’s watching you. He knows where you are, you better run.

Don't open your eyes. She’s watching you. She knows where you are, you better run.

You woke up panicked, cold with sweat. That was way too realistic just to be a dream right? It was the 7th time this month that you woke up to voices telling you to run. All seven times, your dreams followed the same pattern. A mysterious light would guide you to the golden door. The door would swing open into darkness, where you would see two figures, one of a man and the other of a woman. One would turn to you and hum a strange tune, while the other would walk towards you whisper your name, and put their hand over your eyes. And then the voices would speak. The first two times, you barely caught a glimpse of their faces, but as time progressed everything felt more real. You could feel the floor beneath you as you walked. You could feel the cold gold door. And you could feel their breath on your face as they would say your name. This time you were able to properly see their face. You would know it was them if you saw them in real life.

The two people in your dreams were angelic, but you knew there was something wrong with them. There was something lying behind their brown eyes and you hoped you would never know what it was. You had never seen either of them in person and hoped that they would just stay in your dreams. The last thing you wanted was to see either of these people and have the weird things in your dreams come true. Because everyone knows how these go. It would turn your entire life over right when you were so close to achieving your goals. The dreams were getting way too realistic but you hoped they were false. But your luck, you could never know.

You tried to stop thinking about it. You had to get ready for work, and you weren't going to be ready on time if you sat under the covers trying to analyse exactly what was happening in your sleep. You went to the bathroom, showered and freshened up and checked your schedule for the day immediately. You checked who you were photographing today. You were working for a magazine as one of the lead photographers. You were in quite a demand after a successful photoshoot and ad campaign with famous model Choi Yeonjun, whom you were lucky to become friends with. You both got along extremely well and met quite a few times after the set of shoots. He became your personal insider in the industry and you learned more than you should have because of him.

You were going to be working with a model by the name of Hyunjin and a singer by the name of Yunjin. Both of them were part of the same agency and he had been a part of a music video for her latest song so they were coming together. You didn't have any time to check who they were cause they had requested for just the night before. You planned on calling Yeonjun after everything was ready to see what his thoughts on them were. They all worked under the same agency, so he probably knew them.

You changed, grabbed something to eat and left for work with your equipment. You were feeling anxious for the day for some reason. That dream had left you unsettled and you were not to go to sleep anytime soon. You had to get them out of your head if you wanted to be able to work today.

You entered the building and went to the set to prepare it for the Hyunjin and Yunjin. It was a sort of mystical and angelic set with handcrafted wings waiting for them for today's set. It was the first of five shoots that you were going to have with them. They had three together and one alone each. The set was ready and there was half an hour to spare. You pulled out your phone and dialled Yeonjun.

"Wassup my famous photographer," he said when he picked up the call. You greeted him and then asked about Hyunjin and Yunjin. "Uh, um, well I personally think they are cool but there is also something really of about them. I guess you'll have to tell me what you think of them later." That did not help. It added to the unsettling feeling you had had all day. You said goodbye as you heard them walk in.

When you heard their voices, you froze. They sounded extremely familiar. The beautiful voices sent a chill down your back. They couldn't be the ones you heard in your dreams, could they? They probably weren't though, it was probably just your wild imagination because of your dreams.

Half an hour later, they were done with hair and makeup and were on the way to the main set where you would choose their outfits and help them start posing. You could hear people gushing at their supposed beauty and were waiting to see them. You were positive that this shoot was going to go well, but then you saw their face and your heart dropped. The same faces that consumed your mind were right in front of you.

“Hello, I’m Yunjin-” “and I’m Hyunjin.” “-When do we start?

. • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

if you are interested, reply to this post or send an ask to join the taglist. or you can join my permanent taglist if you like the rest of my work, you can join my taglist .　@wccycc .　

. • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆

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0tivez · 2 years

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JJK characters from most to least likely to prefer a clingy s/o

jjk characters with a clingy partner

note: thanks for the request anon! sorry for being late

characters: gojo, geto, nanami, toji, sukuna, yuuji, megumi, nobara, maki

warnings: none. fluff

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Ħ the ones that would prefer one Ħ

geto

⁜ my man literally started a cult cause he liked attention so much

⁜ he thrives off of people needing him

⁜ he will shame you, make fun of you, baby you for needing him so much. definitely the type to brush his s/o's teeth for them like he's that down bad for a clingy person

⁜ i mean i'm not clingy at all but i would forget how to drink water if he would help me with it ngl

⁜ definitely will call you "baby"

⁜ "my pretty little baby missed me?"

⁜ also likes spoiling you too

⁜ he likes his private time too. he also likes it when he leaves all your calls unanswered. he likes imagining how much you miss him when he's gone, how you contemplate on calling him one more time. he loves it when you open the phone with an instant "i miss you"

⁜ overall, he thrives off of your attention and neediness. he loves feeling like he's needed and necessary for someone to keep on living

yuuji

⁜ he's also clingy so this is the most perfect match

⁜ he would glue your hands together if he could. he probably could. he will do it one day

⁜ a big baby babying a smaller baby

⁜ constantly showers you with affectionate words, buys you tons of gifts, always makes you stay by his side

⁜ if he's off on a mission, he'll text you every hour to make sure you know he's safe and misses being with you

⁜ he's most calm when you're next to him. you're his safe place and he sleeps better when he can feel your heartbeat

⁜ he'll never get bored of you, so he would want you to be the same too so that you two can spend days together

maki

⁜ she's pretty overprotective, so keeping you by her side is probably the best option

⁜ will check up on you often

⁜ will get mad at you if you don't open her calls

⁜ i think she's just the clingy one lol so just like yuuji, she'll prefer someone that is also clingy

⁜ i'm torn between if she would like being checked up on a lot or would despise it

⁜ well at least even if she were to despise it, she would know you do it cause you care about her safety, since her clinginess comes from this too

megumi

⁜ surprising i know

⁜ he's a bit more like nanami on this situation. he will realize how much he enjoys the attention after a while

⁜ he likes feeling like he's needed. the first time you told him you miss him, he felt his heart beat faster than ever

Ħ the ones that wouldn't prefer one Ħ

gojo

⁜ it's fun to write a spoiled and needy reader with him but realistically, he would be very annoyed by a clingy person in general

⁜ gojo is secretive and private. i think (like many other people) his unserious persona is a mask to hide his cold and serious personality. shoko, nanami and yaga are probably the only people aware of this too

⁜ he's also an entp which is considered the most introverted extroverted personality, so he will need time to recharge

⁜ he's extremely busy and overseas a lot. being constantly showered with texts and calls would overwhelm him

⁜ i feel like he is the type of person that needs to miss someone to keep the love going. so, staying away from his business for a while is probably the best choice

⁜ strong and independent people will attract him. maybe not romantically at first, but he will definitely be intrigued

⁜ i mean, he's canonically a womanizer, so i can only imagine all the calls he receives daily from women he's hooked up with

⁜ yeah definitely the type to fall for someone not interested in him lol

nanami

⁜ he would be so embarrassed honestly

⁜ constantly having to reassure you that he's safe, that he misses you too

⁜ would hate having to always say no to you if he needs or even simply just wants to do something by himself

⁜ yeah this is just a big no for nanami

sukuna

⁜ "brat tamer" in the sheets, "arrogant asshole" in the streets

⁜ would he enjoy the neediness? absolutely. that will last 2 days most, 3 if you're like idk a literal goddess or something. like as in god kind of goddess, not gorgeous ykyk

⁜ he uses clingy people like toothpick

⁜ i don't know how else to explain this

⁜ he likes brats for sure. people that can challenge him

⁜ he's the ryomen sukuna i really don't know how else to explain this

nobara

⁜ even tho a clingy s/o would boost her ego, she would feel suffocated

⁜ she's 100% the type to degrade people for not knowing how to do stuff so she would be annoyed if you needed her help in every little thing

⁜ just, let her call you first. she will do it a lot anyways, it's not like y'all will never interact if you don't text first. give the girl some room to breathe

toji

⁜ type of person to disappear for a few days

⁜ whether you like it or not, you will have to stay out of his business to keep this relationship going

⁜ it will definitely be hard. toji is trustworthy, he will never cheat on someone he loves (and he only gets in relationships with people he's in love with. because other than those times, he avoids any kind of connection so he has to be so down for you)

⁜ it's easier said than done. of course, you wouldn't know this even if you trust him. so, he'll want (or fall for) someone that can take care of themselves and wait for him

⁜ though he's not as extreme as gojo. he would want a call or text every now and then to know you're still by his side

⁜ after a while, you will notice that he's the one that wants to do everything together

thanks for reading! remember, every like/comment/reblog is a kiss you give to me, on the mouth, sloppily but passionately (*/ω＼*)

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the-badger-mole · 11 months

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What are your thoughts on Azula redemption. Like if it was done properly and she got all the help she needed. Because honestly it's hard to find good Azula redemption takes without them being stans or something

I've talked about this before (here for instance), but I don't really think Azula needs the kind of redemption people seem to want for her. I think a transformative arc would fit her better. Like, yeah, she changes, but she's not necessarily redeemed through it. First of all, I don't think she'd ever be completely sorry about what she did, and I think that's a baseline requirement for a redemption arc.

Second, in my opinion, too many of these "redemption" arcs for Azula focus on her reconciling with everyone, and I just don't think that's realistic. I see her reconciling with Zuko and maybe Iroh, but beyond that, I don't see Ty Lee coming back (I actually like to think that she found her happiness far, far away from Caldera and the messiness of court). I could see Azula not wanting Mai back. Zuko's friends don't owe Azula anything either, so it bothers me a bit when I see stories that start with Azula being best friends with everyone with no explanation or acknowledgement of how odd it is. Especially when the stories are within a year or two after the war ends. The problem here is focusing so much on the trauma Azula went through, there's no focus on the trauma she caused. And she caused a lot.

Like, A LOT.

She contributed to Zuko's years long abuse, she controls Ty Lee through intimidation and forces her into service, she pimps Mai out to get Zuko in line (although, it seemed like Mai was into it, so this might be iffy?). Then there's everything she did to the Gaang. All of this before you dig into what she was like before she joined the hunt for Aang. This is my own personal theory, and not one I necessarily expect to see in fics, but I'm 100% sure Azula did a lot of damage even before she left the Fire Nation. Intentionally or not (and tbh, it probably wasn't intentional), it's pretty heavily implied in the show that Azula has a body count off screen, and those bodies were friendly fire (i.e. Azula has killed and injured people from the Fire Nation). Beyond that, Azula seemed to enjoy what she did. I know she was victim of abuse, but she was also an abuser. Just like a bully being abused at home doesn't automatically absolve them of being a bully, Azula has a lot to answer for. None of the people she harmed are required to welcome her in with open arms.

How I would approach a transformative arc for Azula would be to tell the story over a span of years- well into her adulthood, and probably into middle age. The only one from the original show she would have a firm relationship with is Zuko, and mostly because he insists on seeing her every so often. Katara, who is obviously married to him, would tolerate Azula for Zuko's sake, but things would be cold between them, and Katara would understandably want to keep her children at a distance. Iroh would forgive her, but wouldn't be super inclined to force a connection between him and his niece. He would support Zuko's efforts, though. Azula wouldn't live in Caldera. If she doesn't end up imprisoned after the war, I think she would end up semi-exiled to one of the outer islands of the Fire Nation. There she would build a new life for herself, and rediscover her humanity. She might come to regret more of her actions, but I think ultimately she'd end up absolving herself and not really care about making amends to anyone outside of Zuko (and maybe Iroh. Maybe).

Personally, I'm not super interested in punishing Azula, but I want there to be heavy consequences for her actions. I want the validity of people not wanting her in their lives to be acknowledged. I want to see how she navigates her life post war after losing everyone and everything. I want to see her carving out a place for herself that doesn't have much, if anything, to do with her life in Caldera. If she can make amends to one or two people from her past, that's fine, but it needs to take into consideration that she hurt them, and not just be them accepting her back because she "wasn't herself", because she was herself when she hurt them. I want Azula's redemption arc to be messy and imperfect and incomplete.

Well, either that, or I want to see her go full power trip and try to take power from her brother in an epic and tragic final battle between the siblings, because who doesn't like Shakespearean drama with elemental magic, amirite?

#atla #azula #azula's redemption arc #no one owes azula anything #and i think her next #THE YEAR OF CONTENT!!!!

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laurellerual · 1 year

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Realistically it's more helpful to use material written by George Martin to theorize about what's going to happen in his books, rather than books written by other people.

So where is the evidence that Gendry is prejudiced against wargs? He doesn't even know what they are. The only times Gendry has to deal with this side of Arya he seems to accept what she says to him without any problems or particular judgments:

She must have slept, though she never remembered closing her eyes. She dreamed a wolf was howling, and the sound was so terrible that it woke her at once. Arya sat up on her pallet with her heart thumping. "Hot Pie, wake up." She scrambled to her feet. "Woth, Gendry, didn't you hear?" She pulled on a boot. All around her, men and boys stirred and crawled from their pallets. "What's wrong?" Hot Pie asked. "Hear what?" Gendry wanted to know. "Arry had a bad dream," someone else said.

"You stay here with the horses," Arya said. "I'll get rid of him. Come quick when I call." Gendry knotted. Hot Pie said, "Hoot like an owl when you want us to come." "I'm not an owl," Arya said. "I'm a wolf. I'll howl”. […] When he stopped moving, she picked up the coin. Outside the walls of Harrenhal, a wolf howled long and loud. She lifted the bar, set it aside , and pulled open the heavy oak door. By the time Hot Pie and Gendry came up with the horses, the rain was falling hard. "You killed him!" Hot Pie gasped.

If there's one character in Arya's story who isn't obsessed with the supernatural, it's this guy. For example, he has already met the ghost of High Heart and had no particular reaction. When he witnessed the resurrection of Lord Beric, he merely acknowledged that the Red god probably exists and decided to join the Brotherhood. When Lady Stoneheart was resurrected the Brotherhood split but he decided to stay. Why would wargs be so inconceivable to a person who has seen a witch prophesy and two people resurrect before his eyes? If Gendry is prejudiced against the Old gods or magic he has never shown it.

First they are not her ancestors they are the Boltons' men, Robb's men, and Hoster Tully's men. These last two are the people Arya asks him to smith for. He has the right to have an opinion on them after the injustices he has seen them commit. However, he just watches her to see how she reacts to the news that her side is not has good as she tought.

Arya begins her journey in the Riverlands still convinced that "wolves don't eat babies" (to metaphorically quote her own words). Arya is wrong and it's a lesson she learns gradually. The very first step is when Mycah is killed and she realizes that her father's men don't give a damn about this injustice. But then along comes the Boltons, Robb's men, and Hoster's men… Post-Riverlands Arya no longer believes that “wolves don't eat babies”. Now she is a more mature and aware person.

Gendry remains with the Brotherhood even when their original mission is shelved because of Lady Stoneheart. Why? Because he doesn't have nowhere else to go? Yes. Because he is furious that the Freys killed an innocent girl, who was his friend? Probably.

But last we see him in AFFC he's not killing innocent Freys, he's protecting an orphanage. And I think it's interesting to note that when he had just met Arya he didn't care at all about protecting the children, in fact he was willing to abandon them to have a better chance of surviving. Wow character development.

Speaking of Brienne: the reader knows she is innocent. For the characters Brienne is the kingslayer's whore who goes around looking for the Stark girls with a Lannister red sword.

I wait for evidences that Gendry doesn't accept Arya as she is. But only if they come from ASOIAF books. And no, the fact that Gendry thinks highborns unfairly exploit lowborns isn't proof, because Arya totally agrees with him. Simply he knew it 'already 'cause he's lived in poverty all his life, but Arya has only recently experienced this so she need some time to process what is her role as a lady in this.

I don't know what 'meat boy' means.

#arya stark #gendry #gendry waters #gendrya #arya x gendry

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mr-deblob · 4 months

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Hear me out on this: I honestly think Kairi could be the main playable character in Kingdom Hearts 4

Or at least a significant playable one.

I know that it sounds ridiculous to entertain the idea, especially with how badly she's been sidelined for the past 20 years. But taking into account the structure of mainline games and the current locations of our characters, it starts to look likely for both narrative and game design purposes.

Sora and Riku are stuck in Quadratum

First things first- there's no way in hell Nomura's letting Riku rescue Sora in the beginning hours of KH4. They definitely won't just hop back to the Realm of Light when they find each other. He might make questionable plot decisions, but he's not gonna pass up a chance to torture the two of them even more, especially since *something's* going on with Yozora and the Master of Masters.

In a GameInformer interview he gave, he was asked about how much time we'd spend in Quadratum.

I think it will be a pretty good amount of time since it is set as the initial base within the game. You spend time there and then go to different worlds and then go back there. Because the graphics are more realistic this time around, I feel like there’s more of a realistic daily life aspect to Sora’s life. You can see him go in and out of his room and spend time there. I feel like players will get to see more of the day-to-day routines he goes through.

It sounds like Quadratum will act more like an interlude between worlds, where the developments that happen in the Realm of Light (or wherever else) will cause more troubles to pop in the city. We've already seen Sora fighting a giant Heartless(?) that just showed up out of nowhere. There might be more events like that, or even encounters with the mysterious figures staring down from the rooftops. And when nothing's threatening the world, Sora might simply be living daily life with Strelitzia.

I'm uncertain on how much we'll actually get on the nature of Quadratum since it is just Tokyo, but part of me is feeling like the story beats will be more important than the setting on this side.

Kairi can have a blank-slate start

I'm sure everyone who picked Kairi in that final fight was a bit surprised by how aggressive it was. A strike raid teleport and a barrage of light flooding the battlefield were amazing to see in her first time in the spotlight. We know she can fight, so wouldn't those skills carry over to her next game?

But she's been asleep for a whole year to have her memories explored. They could easily explain the loss of former skills. Besides, the reasons for Sora always resetting to Level 1 are basically on the same scale. If you wanted more reasoning, then maybe Aqua's training is having her develop her own fighting style from scratch. It's very obvious she's trying to emulate Sora in her stance.

We also know that Kairi has her own unique combat pose. They've shown it to us at least twice in DDD and the KH3 opening, but we've never seen her actively using it in-game AFAIK. It sure would be an opportune moment to have her adopt it to signify her becoming her own person independent of Sora and Riku.

If the training time with Aqua seems like it would be too short to warrant Kairi going off on her own, keep in mind that we don't know how much time disparity there is between Quadratum and the RoL It could be synched up or be off by weeks, even months, more than enough to get her through the fundamentals.

Also, a mini-timeskip would give Nomura the chance to give the Destiny Trio new designs again. How Riku gets a new outfit and hairstyle while looking for Sora, I don't know, but he already pushed him through the Shadow Barber Shop. He can probably come up with something.

We still gotta have different Keyblades

Straight-up the title of this section. It's incredibly unlikely that Nomura would cut these, but as before, it's equally unlikely that Sora will get out of Quadratum into the RoL. Disney worlds are confirmed, and unless all of them are entirely new, I don't think there's a satisfying way to justify why he couldn't get help from the inhabitants, try to get off-world, or at least get in touch with someone if he still has his Gummiphone.

So if anyone else could go around to these worlds and collect these keychains, Kairi seems like a good candidate for that.

"But what about Destiny's Embrace?" Fair point. It's still got sentimental value to her and has familiarity. They wouldn't just dump it entirely.

However, I believe (and earnestly hope) that Kairi finally gets meaningful character development now. There's so much we could delve into (and we will later), but her current goal of growing stronger seemingly stems from a desire to determine her fate. For so long she's been carried by the tides of chance, waiting for what will happen rather than actively reaching towards her goals. In the end, it brought her down the path that led to Sora's disappearance, so she can't keep placing her faith in destiny.

Kairi might temporarily retire Destiny's Embrace, or perhaps her new mindset will trigger something in her Keyblade. We've seen that with Riku and the Way to the Dawn. It might be a more basic Keyblade like Braveheart, or she could end up wielding an iteration of the Kingdom Key to represent herself starting anew. Hell, maybe Sora fighting in her place in MoM passed it on to her, or she manifests it from her memories.

It'd be a convenient way to keep giving out new keychains while still making it feel like Sora experienced actual consequences for his misuse of the Power of Waking. They could even have Sora gain access to them through Kairi. His temporary possession of her at the end of MoM could be used as an in-universe way to hand-off the main PoV in a natural-feeling way, and she might be able to send him manifestations of the keychains as memories or something else that could cross over to Quadratum.

Masters and Maleficent will go wild

The KH3 ending brought back the Lost Masters through some unexplained mechanic. It also implies that they'll be the main antagonists of the new arc, but they're currently in the Realm of Light. I don't know how much Sora could do from the other side of reality. Not to mention Maleficent making even more schemes.

So the Keyblade wielders and their allies will have to defend against them and whatever other enemies crop up in their wake. But why would Kairi be the one pursuing their main goal? Why not Master Aqua, or at least one of the battle-hardened wielders?

Depending on the numbers, it'd be easy to say the other wielders are busy defending the worlds from the new threats, that they're spread too thin to take up whatever role Kairi would theoretically take. Maybe her status as a Princess of Heart could come up as another reason why it'd have to be her.

In any case, whatever Luxu has in that mysterious box spells bad news. The fact that there are going to be five ancient Keyblade Masters carrying out the Master of Masters' plan spells catastrophic news. Perhaps the missing Master Ava could work from the shadows to stymie them or to help Kairi on her quest.

Also, the Heartless are still gonna be wreaking havoc even if the Masters aren't. That will practically always be true, especially now that Xehanort's not controlling them all. Maleficent is going to do what Maleficent does best and use this to her advantage. With all these potential villains in the RoL, someone's gotta take care of them.

New worlds can develop Kairi further

Now that KH3 is finished and out of development hell, they're now free to consider new Disney properties, even those beyond 2014. And there's quite a few that could easily be connected to Kairi's desire to grow beyond her past and choose her own path:

Moana - Island girls who want to seize their destinies to see what lies beyond everyday life, both struggling with self-doubt. Also have grandmas who know more than they let on.

Coco - How memories connect us, that we can be together in heart when apart, the pains of love and separation. Fighting for your dream even when you're alone.

Encanto - Especially heavy exploration of breaking from the roles others place on us and that we take on, acknowledging and expressing emotions we hide from others.

Brave - "If you had the chance to change your fate, would ya?" Besides that, accepting that people can grow apart, that we each take our own paths, that it doesn't need to break our bonds.

WALL-E - Be open to change, don't let familiarity keep you stuck. Trust in the future, trust in yourself, break through the limits of your past. Go on even when all seems lost.

Frozen 2 - Self-determination and independence, grieving what has been lost, righting the wrongs of the past. Pain is a fact of life, do not let your fear of it keep you from doing what is necessary.

There's likely other films that could fit or other themes of these movies that parallel with Kairi, but these are rife with potential. Plus, the trend of female protagonists with little to no romantic storylines could let Kairi be perceived as more than Sora's love interest or someone to be saved.

Kairi is finally free to change

I don't think it's controversial to say that Nomura really mishandled Kairi's role in the series up til now. She's been stuck in character limbo, and even if we know more stuff *about* her since KH1, we haven't really gotten much *from* her. She's never had enough focus to really showcase her inner world, but I don't think it's due to disinterest on Nomura's part. Instead, I think that it was a result of very poor planning of her arc and his weakness at indirect characterization.

From the start, he probably had an idea of where he wanted to take Kairi's character. He must've, at minimum, pinned down the major strokes of her backstory involving Radiant Garden given the brief mention of her not remembering her home and the flashback with her grandma in KH1. KH2 and BBS both manage to flesh her out a bit more, and even her portrayal in the first game seemed to hint at something going on beneath her surface. Even so, she still outwardly appears as the same cheerful, kind, caring girl from the beginning of the series. I don't think Nomura decided to completely rip those seeds of growth from her character, but he has at least stifled them up til now.

In comparison to all the other main and supporting characters in KH, Kairi is noticeably lacking in any major character insights. From what I've seen, even people who dislike how the female cast is written can tell that the story is practically avoiding any chances for Kairi to verbalize her emotions. The conversations we do get with her almost always shift focus to the other person's feelings. If it does focus on her, the thoughts she does express tend to explore her relationships with other people instead of letting us know more about Kairi herself. As to why he'd make this writing choice with her, there's two possible answers beyond him just not wanting to deal with her.

The first is that he's trying to characterize her through her lack of characterization, that she's a people-pleaser who tends to put others' needs and wants before her own. We've already seen shades of this in KH1 on the dock and when Sora tells her to stay behind in Traverse Town.

In the former, it comes across as her trying to convince herself to go along with the plan about the raft, telling herself that she's ready to go wherever and holding onto the idea that she can always come back to Destiny Islands. Even so, you can hear a hesitation and uncertainty in those words. The only parts where she lets her fears bleed through are when she tells Sora not to change and arguably when she jokes about just the two of them taking the raft. Kairi tests the waters to see if Sora would be willing to go along with her alone before backing down. I don't think she'd actually go through with it, she's not that type of person. I can't say for certain that she hasn't entertained the thought, even if only half-seriously, but it's clear that she said it to avoid her thoughts on how Riku's changed. Kairi doesn't want to show Sora her doubts, especially when they're so close to setting sail. The only assurance she allows herself is asking Sora not to change, to stay her familiar friend, before shifting to expressing apparent excitement at setting sail.

When Sora and Kairi make their promise with the Wayfinder, she's afraid of how their friendship with Riku will have changed if he comes back. Still, she's willing to go help save Riku after seeing Sora's resolve to do so. When he tells her no, she pushes back, telling him that they have to stick together. She only starts to relent when Sora tells her that they won't be alone even if they're apart, then gives up entirely when he says she'd be in his way. Her laugh almost seems like an automatic response to cope with the hurt that statement would naturally provoke. Before he goes, she makes a compromise between their wants, getting Sora to promise that he'll return her Wayfinder to her- that he'll come back after everything's done. Then she tells him that she's always with him wherever he goes, taking Sora's statement and using it to reassure herself more than him. She doesn't want to inconvenience the ones she cares for, so she changes herself, adapting to their desires and opinions to ease any friction between them.

The other answer would be that Nomura's plan for her required her to retain her starting character traits until certain conditions were fulfilled. From where we are in the story, I'd wager that he she needed to be separated from Sora and Riku and for her to gain a meaningful motivation get stronger, at least according to Nomura's standards. The first half of that has been true for almost the entire series, as sad as it is, but we've only just now fulfilled the second. It's possible that he underestimated how long he would need to keep Kairi relatively unchanged for whatever he had planned in the future, causing her to be a static character for all this time.

Now, she's had to confront her fears head-on, needed to acknowledge the feelings of weakness and inferiority getting shattered by Xehanort gave her. It's Xehanort's fault that Sora disappeared, but she might partly blame herself for needing to be rescued rather than saving herself. Her tendencies of staying out of everyone's way and going along with their plans wasn't enough to keep Sora out of harm's way, to protect him. That failure can drive her to grow strong, to realize that valuing herself doesn't mean having to devalue others, that caring for yourself is an act of kindness for those who care about you.

I will acknowledge that even if these answers are accurate, reasonable intentions still don't excuse a sloppy execution. Nomura has skill in weaving a character's motivation into their actions and personality to add depth. However, he often relies on the characters voicing these out loud instead of letting the audience draw their own conclusions from what's presented. While this works well-enough for the series, it means that any indirect characterization he tries to do often ends up falling flat. Aqua at the Keyblade Graveyard is the biggest example of this. It's clear now that her time in the Realm of Darkness left her with some serious PTSD and that the massive storm of Heartless caused her to freeze up at the sight, but the way it was shown pre-Re:Mind ended up frustrating more people with her inaction instead of having them understand why she didn't act.

I'd argue the same thing's been happening with Kairi throughout the series up until now. A character like Kairi isn't inclined to express their unfiltered thoughts, leaving her to rely on indirect characterization to be fleshed out. Combine that with a weakness at subtle storytelling and a severe lack of focus and screentime, and you'll leave your audience almost nothing to discern about her character without close examination. Not to mention, any frustrations or disappointments or boredom regarding her character would only serve to make people even less willing to engage with her, especially stretched out over two decades.

Hopefully, Nomura feels free to put his plans regarding Kairi into motion now that she's gained the space for agency beyond Sora and Riku. I even think Nomura himself is aware of his struggles with nuanced character writing, something he hopes to fix. If you haven't heard, he brought on Akiko Ishibashi, the writer for Neo: The World Ends with You, to help write KH4. Anyone whose played that game can tell you about the amount of depth and complexity the cast of that game had, and her ability to transform one-dimensional archetypes into fully-realized people. I have little doubt that she'll breathe new life into the world of Kingdom Hearts, and I think that we'll see the start of this change through Kairi first and foremost.

In the future

This all sounds like wishful thinking, and it is, but I hope that it's not entirely unfounded. I'm mainly making this before any major trailers drop because, if this does happen, I can't imagine them hiding it for too long.

Maybe Nomura will finally give Kairi the screentime she deserves, and if he doesn't... well, guess we'll go through even more years of rightful disappointment in Nomura's handling of her.

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 4 #kh #kh4 #kh4 speculation #kairi #kh kairi #kingdom hearts theory #kh meta #character analysis #character writing #fan theory #speculation #game theory #akiko ishibashi #tetsuya nomura #please please please Nomura #don't prove me wrong here #let us know you care about Kairi

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extasiswings · 2 years

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Do you think it is indeed a choice that means something, or do we buddie shippers just need to start thinking that maybe it won't be happening? I really really hope you are right, but if they keep keeping them apart this whole first half of the season, I just wonder if we need to start being realistic? However why would they start the season with that kitchen scene then... I'm sorry this sounds negative and it is def not, I'm still hopeful, I just wonder if other people feel like this :)

Very simply: yes, it’s a deliberate choice, and not only is it not a cause for concern it’s necessary and should be exactly what leads to Buddie canon.

This season kicked off by throwing down a gauntlet that Buck is missing what is right in front of his face (a conversation that took place while he was literally looking at Eddie and Christopher and cooking for them like a whole-ass husband), that he’s searching for happiness in the wrong places because he can’t see what he already has (or thinks he can’t have it). They proceeded to send him off on a journey about fatherhood specifically (but only the illusion of it—donor, not dad) because of the Diaz Boys of it all, because Eddie and Buck still haven’t talked about the shooting, haven’t talked about the will, and are very much not on the same page about Buck’s actual role in Christopher’s life (aka to Eddie, Buck is Christopher’s other dad, to Buck, he’s only a contingency plan if Eddie dies).

Similarly, we also just got a giant flashing neon sign with Tomorrow—Henren’s queer love story (with shooting parallels galore), in which both of them ended up with a life and new dreams that looked nothing like what either of them originally intended or expected for themselves. The trajectory is LOUD.

The separation of arcs is simply because Buck and Eddie are different characters and because their arcs need to be a little bit separate right now while they’re both figuring things out. It’s partly to increase the dramatic tension and draw it out, but also partly for practical reasons. On one hand, there’s the fact that this is an ensemble show and they have other stories they’re telling and other characters—so they laid the groundwork, pivoted over to Hen for a few episodes, and now they’re pivoting back. On the other, there are legitimate plot and character reasons why they haven’t been involved in what we’ve seen so far (which, to be clear, is really just Animal Instincts). Buck is keeping this a secret deliberately. He went to Hen instead of Eddie deliberately—on a character level, because she has some experience with IVF etc and is a good friend, but also because this is not something he can talk to Eddie about. (By contrast, Eddie wanted Buck to be involved in his issue with Chris—Buck’s his co-parent, Buck is always involved, but Buck was the one pulling away and not letting himself get involved).

Eddie’s going to find out about the sperm donor thing. Probably in the very next episode (Cursed). As far as we can tell, he’s going to be the main (perhaps the only) significant person in Buck’s life to be involved in this storyline directly going forward (since Jen said Maddie hasn’t been involved with it at all). Which makes sense, because they’re on a collision course regarding all things shooting/will/Christopher/feelings-related. So they’re not separated entirely.

If I’m right, Eddie’s going to feel some kinda way about it. And Buck will feel some kinda way about Eddie reacting to it. And that’s what will set the stage for where we’re going in “What’s Your Fantasy?” With “Uncle” Buck babysitting (again, explicitly not being a parent) left once again to think about what he really wants in his life, while Eddie is going through a parenting first with Christopher (and Carla) in a scenario that is a perfect opening for them to circle back to what exactly Carla meant when she told him to follow his heart/what (who) Eddie’s heart really wants.

I strongly suspect we will have a canon confirmation of one form or another (because what it means to “go canon” is entirely subjective to everyone but whether that’s a kiss, some sort of confirmation of feelings (to a third party or otherwise), or whatever is all the same to me) by the midseason or very shortly thereafter, but they won’t actually get together officially until late in 6B (or the finale itself because Buck babygirl we have GOT to get you back in therapy)—which would be very S2 Madney of them. Regardless though, it’s happening. Everything they’re doing points to it happening. We are only 1/3 of the way through the season and this is a season-long arc—just be patient and enjoy the ride, because it’s shaping up to be some damn good storytelling.

#chapel talks #ask #anonymous

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fairyqueentitana · 1 year

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Let's talk about Harry Potter shall we

First of all, I would like to make it clear that I do not condone hateful language, if you disagree with me fine but you can do so respectfully this means you don't accuse me of lying or call me names. If you do I will delete your comment and block you I have no time for that.

Albus Dumbledore is both a villain and a hero.

Our lovely headmaster is a master manipulator and while he cares for the greater good of the society I don't think he cares for the greater good of individuals. We all know of his relationship with Grindelwald but the loss he suffered due to the different paths they choose to take in life. I can see the headmaster as a protector but at the same time, he fashions himself to be all-knowing while holding back critical information. The Horcruxes were vile but I'm sure if he had asked in the right places for help he would have known how to remove it from Harry.

He set the boy up to die and manipulated Harry on several occasions. I also want to ask WHY DID HE NOT GIVE BACK THE INVISIBILITY CLOAK? Honestly, I have so many questions about the reasons behind this man's decisions.

Ron Weasley in the movie is not the best friend or boyfriend.

I don't care who you ship with these two however realistically speaking these two would not work. While the book Ron is a much better friend than the movie Ron and has more lines than the movie ron. He is not the ideal friend or boyfriend to anyone he has a nasty habit of abandoning Harry the Goblet of Fire and deathly hallows two. For those of you who are ready to blame the Horcrux shut up. If it were Hermione who left y'all would be up in arms.

Ron may support Harry in his battles and occasionally in his worst times but he is quick to anger and jealousy but rather lazy and sometimes downright cruel.

When it comes to his relationship with Hermione I personally see it as wasteful or a high school love that fades after a year or two probably less. Hermione is ambitious, hardworking and quite determined she is intelligent and fierce. Ron however while he is smart (when he wants to be) lacks ambition and is lazy unless it's something he likes and he does not understand Hermione much.

They Lack shared interests other than magic and Harry the two are very different but they share a trauma bond right. Also, does anyone notice that Ron is quicker to find fault with Hermione than positive things? At least he admits she is scary but brilliant.

Molly Weasley is either too controlling or really dumb.

First of all her response to the bars on the windows and Harry barely being fed bothers me what kind of parent says that. Second of all that woman is not supportive of Fred and George at all and it irritates me. I know that they are identical twins but I have been around identical twins and can easily tell them apart these are your sons lady.

She harps and harps about a ministry job but Charlie is a dragon tamer in Romania and Bill is a curse breaker in Eygpt. The fact two of her eldest sons found their jobs far far away from her says something. THE HOWLERS yall that is cruel just because you have to does not mean you should use it. Embarrassing your kids like that is never okay.

Her lack of respect for Sirius in his own home, when it pertains to his own godson, is disgusting. She acts like she is Harry's mother and while she may be seen as a surrogate she is not his godmother or guardian. While Sirius is a fugitive he is Harry's godfather she did not have any right to treat him as she did.

Her behaviour in the goblet of fire to Hermione before Harry opened his mouth. If it was because she thought Hermione was manipulating or hurting Harry the first thing she should have done was ask Harry about the article and not treat Hermione like that. If this was about Ron and his "feelings" for Hermione then she needs to keep that to herself nobody is obligated to date and marry anyone cause they have a crush on them.

Hermione Granger is often placed on a pedestal

Hermione like every character in this show is flawed as she grows she learns but she has some bad behaviours. She puts books and education before her own individuality and in the first book is a bit of a bossy snob that slowly changes over time. She follows authority without a thought too much for anyone's liking but that also changes but ummm y'all Hermione is dangerous she kept a woman in a jar, convinced Harry and Ron to drug and hide their year mates and then pretend to be them while providing the means to do so.

She uses a spell on a student to help Ron get on the team. Her hitting Draco is a thing of legend but Hermione is definitely not a goody two shoes. What scares me about that is that she hides this side of her behind her bookworm nice girl mask. Only Harry and Ron get to see how cruel and protective Hermione could be.

Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter bother me,

Everyone loves them and that's nice but umm she could pass as his sister. She is literally Lily Evans if she liked Quidditch and was a pureblood when I picked up on the distinction I wanted to vomit. Her description and Lily's are very similar with minor changes honestly this relationship bothers me.

Draco Malfoy was a bigot and racist but he also deserved a chance that is all I am saying on the Draco front.

#harry potter #hermione granger #ron weasley #harry potter rant #harry deserves better #Hermione deserves better #manipulative dumbledore #molly weasley mild bashing #molly weasley #fred and george

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lawain-dimensional-heroes · 7 months

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Drabble: Figuring it out (Project Sekai timeline drabble)

While the three Vocaloids were walking through this Sekai as they were aware of, Maroon had been observing the surrounding for anything unusual. Anything...Unstable.

So far nothing bad seemed to happen, which is good as that indicates this bubble dimension seemed stable. But how it is fueled is something else, so he decided to sit on the nearest bench and calmly mediated, trying to sense any unique energy signatures and strangely enough there's nothing he could feel aside from the aura's he can sense from the other two aura users wandering around.

"...Now that's odd. There's gotta be something fueling this place."

He was scratching his chin, remembering that his father said that this dimension wasn't fueled by normal means. This would mean that it's more magical than he originally thought it'd be. Unless...

"..."

Maroon, with a heavy sigh decided to grab his phone and called his father.

"...Hey dad, so this bubble dimensions you talked about. Can I check another one real quickly? If possible one that's less crowded than this? I need to confirm something real quickly."

It was a quick and short conversation that ended up with Maroon heading back to the realm between dimensions, where his father resided. There the two had a small talk about what he experienced about the dimension thus far, causing his father to nod.

"...So you have a similar thought as I have." Zephyr responds, which his son nodded. With that, Zephyr opened a dimension gate for Maroon to enter.

"...The dimension you'll be going to is more chaotic than the one you've been through at first. It was close to bursting, but I've temporarily stopped it by linking my energy source to it's. There's no danger still, but you'll see what I mean."

"Right.." Maroon looked at the throat of the portal, before looking back at his father as he had an idea. "Dad--" Maroon spoke up, "Can you bring Tsukine along to this dimension? She might be a big help uncovering what these worlds are all about."

Zephyr nodded, causing his son to nod back and go through the portal.

Once through, Maroon noticed the state of the dimension it is in. Chaotic was definitely something to describe. It seemed like a world that is of European origin by the looks of the architecture, but it seemed incomplete, a potential mess. Gears were peeking through the parts where the floor wasn't there and there also seems to be buildings upside down in the sky.

The floating merry-go-round from the other bubble dimension was odd enough yet realistic. This clearly showed that whatever this dimension is running on isn't on normal logic-- probably due to the energy source the dimension is-- or was fueled by.

"..."

He looked around the building he was currently inside and noticed unfinished paintings, books, even empty notes. After a while he noticed the sheets of paper were music sheets, he started to organize these. If not for the person who's sheets it originally was made by, then at least for someone who might want to pick it up. The books that were unorganized he sorted it in order-- or at least he's trying to. As for the floor, he uses a bit of alchemy to build the tiles so the place would be without holes.

Once he was finished, he stretched a bit and looked at the more organized room. It was still a bit dusty, but it wasn't as cluttered and or chaotic as it was. While there is still a big gap where the wall should be, he felt like he could do it another time if he had that opportunity.

"Having fun helping others out?"

A familiar voice of the pinkette and Magical girl Johou Tsukine could be heard. A chuckle came from Maroon as he looked at her direction with a grin on his face.

"Well, you know me, I prefer a tidy room than a messy room." He responds as he gave the other a high five as a greeting. "This world's a mess-- you can see that, right? How long have you been here anyway?"

"...Maybe it's that way for a reason." Tsukine responds. "Do you know the story of Alice in Wonderland, right? Did you know that the story was about Alice's dreams, right?"

"...Yeah, but isn't that different from what this is?" Maroon responds, raising his eyebrow at what she said. "I know this dimension, including another one I've been in a few minutes ago isn't fueled by normal means. Or are you hinting at the fact that these dimensions are fueled by dreams?"

"That's one possibility," Tsukine responded with a nod. "But looking at the world's atmosphere and the unfinished creative work it seems like there's a possibility that it's something emotional-- feeling. Which is exactly what I'm feeling throughout this whole world."

"..Emotions and dreams, huh..."

Maroon had started to ponder. Dreams-- or even imagination itself for that matter can vary greatly, he was aware of that. As he looked through the now organized sheets of paper, he decided to take a closer look. The world, the books, art, music sheets-- they all seem to share a theme... All of this seemed unfinished as if the people didn't have what it took to continue it, for what reason he did not know, but it wasn't something he was going to dwell on-- he's got something else to focus on.

"...If that's the case that means these that these bubble dimensions don't last long, or eats the person's dream or feelings, like a flame burning the candle away. In other words.." He looked through the gap where the wall should be, not finishing the sentence, but the hint of it was probably clear enough to know what he was trying to say.

The two stare once again at the chaotic scenery, letting the general atmosphere of the place and the information they knew sink in...

"...Tsukine--" Maroon spoke up. "Do you think that maybe, just maybe, worlds like these are something we could think up of? Where our own thoughts, feelings and dreams can create worlds?"

"...You're seeing it with your own eyes," Tsukine responds, with a calmer tone as the somberness of the world is sinking in her mind. "There's a likelihood that at some point that you might make a new world by accident. Whether it's a world as chaotic as this or not is up to your imagination."

She couldn't help but rub her own arms to try and keep herself warm before looking at the blonde male once more.

"..Shall we get going? This place is dreary."

"..."

Maroon nodded before speaking up.

"...Give me a second, I need to do one more thing. Stand back Tsukine."

After a second of processing her throughs, she nodded before she gave him some space to do what he needed to do.

With that, he created a small concentrated ball of fire, before throwing it through the gap and high up in the sky, before the flame hovered above the city's center and turning into a big flame that burned in the sky, forever burning.

"...If this world's theme is unfinished work, then I'd like to set my mark of this world here as this flame that hopefully guides them metaphorically to their destination or to steer them to the path the want to walk to once more."

Silence came from the both of them, before with a nod to the both of them, they decided to head back to the realm between dimensions.

During their way to there, Maroon spoke up to Tsukine once more. "Say, since you've already helped me out here, I hope it's fine if I can ask if you want tot tag along. The dimension me and the others are going to is one where there's an amusement park and a circus by the looks of it. Who knows, you might have some fun there while you're at it too."

"...Who knows. I'll check in on it first for a few minutes before making my decision."

#drabble #prism dragon | maroon #1st generation magical girl | Tsukine #A colorful stage | Project Sekai Timeline

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moonbeambucky · 2 years

Text

A Whole New World (Part 2)

Pairing: Genie!Bucky Barnes x Reader Word Count: 3778 Warnings: fluff, brief mention of cancer

Summary: Three wishes open up a whole new world of opportunities to a girl looking for a home but finds love along the way.

A/N: Remember this is an Aladdin AU set in a royal modern world with magic. Feedback is always appreciated!

PART 1 | A WHOLE NEW WORLD MASTERLIST

Bucky heard the loud grumbles coming from Y/N’s stomach. “You could wish for some food you know?”

She scoffed. “And waste a wish? No way.”

There was a lot Y/N could do with her wishes but she didn’t know where to start. She could wish for a house but then what, she’d still have to pay for it or does the house come fully paid off? And what house? Can Bucky create a house and stick it anywhere or would she be kicking someone out of a home they already lived in? If he was able to create a house that magically existed without causing concern within Midgard’s zoning laws then she’d probably need a job, which set off the next round of questions that she began to ask Bucky about.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, tired of her endless questions. “They’re wishes Y/N, it’s magic, there’s no room for logic here.”

She sighed, her shoulders rounding as she slouched. Turning towards him she asked, “What would you wish for?”

“Me?” Bucky had never been asked that before. In fact this is the most he’s ever spoken to a keeper of the gauntlet in all his time as a genie.

He was used to hearing their commands, barking orders that he was to execute immediately. It was never about him but what he could do and they used him; used their three wishes and passed him along to the next person, and the next and the next but never has anyone asked Bucky what his wish would be.

He smiled though it didn’t quite reach his eyes and Y/N could see the emotions he was struggling with. “Me? Well, I’d wish for freedom.”

“You’re a prisoner,” she stated, her eyes softening as she realized his limitations.

Bucky nodded. “I have phenomenal cosmic power. I could wipe out half the universe in a snap of my fingers but I really can’t do much of anything without someone telling me.” He sunk a little lower, and with a soft yearning he said, “I want a real life. There’s a whole new world out there that I want to see. I want...” he paused for a moment, letting out a heavy sigh. “I want to find love. Find that one person that I would move mountains for, even without my powers.”

“I’ll do it.” Bucky lifted his gaze to meet her eyes, his vision unsteady with the tears that brimmed his own. “I’ll set you free,” she said proudly.

He laughed, tipping his head back so the tears could dissipate, swiping away a stray that fell down his cheek. “Yeah okay,” he said unconvinced. “No one gives up wishes, ever.”

She put her hand on his shoulder, feeling the cold metal on her palms. “Bucky, I mean it. I’ll set you free. You deserve to live a life of your own.”

Y/N may have good intentions but people are greedy, he’s seen it countless times. He’s not going to hold his breath, just because Bucky can create miracles for others doesn’t mean he’ll ever get one of his own.

“Have you chosen a wish?”

She shook her head slightly as she answered, “Not yet but I have a question. So realistically, I’m supposed to walk around wearing a giant metal glove? Who the hell designed this thing?! You couldn’t have come from a lamp or something?”

“First off, it’s a gauntlet not a glove, and second, are you going to be this way the whole time?”

An incredulous look settled firmly on Y/N’s face. “What way?”

“You know,” Bucky motioned with his hands, “Questioning everything, asking me so many things.”

“Does it bother you?” Bucky nodded his head. “Too bad.” Y/N’s whole face scrunched into a proud smile and all Bucky could do was sigh.

“Someone could easily swipe this glo- gauntlet from me and if they do that then I can’t wish for your freedom, so…”

Once again, Bucky pinched the bridge of his nose, an action he figured he would soon be very familiar with. “You’re going to complain if I don’t do anything about this, right?”

Y/N answered with an affirmative nod, her lips pulling into the slightest smirk as she did. Bucky groaned, waving his hands, turning the gauntlet into a miniaturized version. It was about two inches tall now and on a chain she could easily wear around her neck.

She put it on, staring at the glove and Bucky could just tell she was about to ask a question. He answered her before she could, letting her know to restore the glove’s size all she had to do was stick her finger into it.

“Thanks,” she said, tucking it into her shirt.

They walked back towards Midgard but before anyone could see him Bucky needed to change his appearance. In a flash of smoke he was wearing a bright blue shirt that brought out the color of his eyes with long sleeves that hid his metal arm and a glove to cover his hand. Y/N wasn’t sure why he didn’t change that too, but maybe he couldn’t. The gauntlet was his prison and he was marked by an unmistakable chain.

Though she was much further out from where she first met the guys she took the job with, she was still on the lookout just in case. They probably would be happy to learn she hadn’t died but the fact that she was alive means she might tell someone that they had left her for dead.

They walked down a busy street, passing an open fruit stand and swiftly Y/N grabbed two apples. Bucky smirked when he saw her biting into one of them. She offered him the other but he declined. He barely remembered what an apple tasted like but now was not the time for that. Y/N was nearly done with the first one and he wouldn’t deny her the sustenance she clearly needed.

Of all the people to find a genie, Bucky was happy that Y/N did, knowing that if she used her wishes properly (and considering she didn’t blow through them instantly like most people) then she would be able to get exactly what she needs to live a better life.

“Was that good?” Bucky asked, watching her work on the fruit until just the core remained.

“Yeah not bad, not enough though. I could go for something else… mmm like lasagna! They have the best lasagna in the palace.” She was practically drooling, with cheesy pasta shaped hearts in her eyes, licking her lips as she dreamed about Sam’s cooking again.

Bucky stopped walking and Y/N had taken a few steps ahead without him before she turned back. His face was full of confusion, wondering if he had her all wrong. “When did you go to the palace?”

She told him her story with Sam and how he helped her after the palace guards had been so unkind. “If I were the prince I wouldn’t take those meals for granted.”

Y/N sighed, tossing what was left of the fruit in the garbage on the corner of the street, wondering how she’s going to get her next meal. She thinks of her situation and the many people that have also ended up the same and it bothered her.

It bothered her enough to stomp back towards Bucky, who did his best to hide the growing smile on his face as she began to vent to him. He couldn’t help it, even though she was upset he couldn’t stop staring at the way she scrunched her nose or how her lips pouted in between her thoughts.

“If I was the prince I’d do a lot more than he’s doing to help,” she huffed.

Bucky jolted himself alert when she said that. “Why don’t you become the Queen?” Y/N looked at him incredulously.

His suggestion for a wish sounded nice in theory but she wasn’t sold on the idea. If she becomes Queen of Midgard then what happens to Queen Sarah and Prince Steve? Would everyone just assume she’s been their Queen all along? And then there’s another big issue, “I don’t know the first thing about ruling!”

She would surely ruin the Kingdom faster than she could help it if she became Queen and that’s not what she wanted. Bucky understood her and deep inside he feels his heart growing warmer at her declaration. The people he’s previously dealt with would have jumped on the chance to rule– and they have. Bucky has seen the devastation caused by mad men with power.

“Okay, how about this…” Bucky said, getting her attention. “What if I make you a princess? You can marry Prince Steve and then rule by his side. So what do you say?”

It was a promising offer, one that took the burden off her completely. She would have influence to help and protect Midgard and she’d start by firing the current Royal Guard who mistreated the citizens.

“Okay but on one condition. If Prince Steve is going to marry me it has to be done through his own will.” Bucky tried to protest, saying there was no guarantee that she would win his affections but Y/N was fine with that. It would be bad enough to lie about her lineage but she wasn’t going to force someone into loving her. “Deal?”

Bucky nodded. It’s not like he can go against a wish anyway. With an enthusiastic smile spread across her face Y/N declared her first wish, “Bucky, I wish to become a Princess!”

“One Princess, coming up!”

“Prince Steven, we’ve received word of another visiting Princess,” the Majordomo announced. “The Queen wishes you to be properly dressed for her arrival.”

As the door shut Steve let out a heavy breath, his shoulders slumped as he sat on his bed, throwing himself back a bit dramatically. He stared at the intricate detailing of the ceiling, his eyes following the carved design along the wooden beams to distract his mind momentarily.

He was tired of meeting princesses, tired of entertaining them, practically pulling teeth to have a conversation that lasted more than a few sentences. It was draining and with every princess that’s come and gone he’s lost more of his patience making it a real struggle to remember to be cordial.

Sadly though he made a promise to his mother, to find true love and be married. He wanted that, hoping she’ll be able to hold on until that day though each day that passes Steve loses hope. Queen Sarah had been taken ill last year and the diagnosis came back as cancer. She’s been fighting it as best as she could but the doctors have given her less than a year.

Steve wanted to fulfill his mother’s wish so with reluctance he dressed in his best suit, slowly trudged to the outer court and awaited the arrival of another stranger who he’s more than certain will not steal his heart.

The large doors opened to reveal a sleek black Bentley adorned with small flags, the colors of which Steve could not quite make out from where he was standing. A row of Royal Guards flanked him and Prince Steve stood at further attention with his arms clasped behind his back.

A man got out from the other side, dressed in a sharp black suit with his long hair tied back into a respectable knot at the base of his neck. He walked around to the other side of the car, opening the door with a gloved hand. Steve paid no attention to that and set his sights instead to the beautiful woman who the man offered a hand for help out of the car.

Steve was struck right away by her smile, as bright and cheerful as it was demure. She wore a bright blue peacoat, the main color of Midgard’s flag which he took as a sign of respect. Heels lifted her by a few inches and she held a modest clutch in her hand.

A man in a formal uniform stood to the side of the Prince announcing, “I present to you, His Royal Highness, Prince Steven of the Kingdom of Midgard.”

Y/N curtsied in front of the Prince and Bucky took his place off to the side to announce her. “May I present Princess Y/N of the Kingdom of N’Dyanajoans.”

She froze for a moment, a panicked flame burning in her eyes as she realized what Bucky had said, wishing she had gone over the details with him earlier.

“Welcome Princess Y/N,” Prince Steve said, placing a kiss to the top of her hand. “I hope you find your stay in the Kingdom of Midgard most enjoyable.”

“Thank you Prince Steven, you are too kind. May I introduce my Royal Advisor– ” Once again Y/N froze. She couldn’t call him Bucky, that sounded too informal. She debated making up a name for him as he did for her fictional kingdom but Bucky stepped up to introduce himself.

“Sir James Barnes, your Highness,” he interjected, bowing before the Prince.

Prince Steve nodded his head to attendants waiting on the sidelines. “They will show you to your rooms and please do not hesitate to ask if you may be in need of something. Princess Y/N, if you are not too tired from your journey I would ask if you would accompany me for a walk through our gardens before sunset.”

Steve had taken this same stroll with the many other Princesses he had recently met, an action so routine now he could tell by the time they walked past the roses bushes if there was a spark between them. Still he is courteous and she thanked him, accepting his offer.

“I look forward to seeing you later Princess,” Steve said, nodding his head before taking his leave.

Attendants took their belongings from the trunk of the car, several suitcases filled with beautiful clothes Y/N has only ever dreamed about. The wish to become a princess was worth it for those alone. Once they were left to themselves she locked the door, kicked off the heels and turned herself towards Bucky, mouth hanging open in shock.

“N’Dyanajoans? Seriously?”

Bucky laughed nervously, “What?”

“You made me the Princess of Indiana Jones!? What the hell kind of Kingdom is that?”

“I have no idea, I still don’t know what that is.”

Y/N sat on the edge of the bed and buried her face in her hands, groaning with frustration. She felt the dip in the mattress as Bucky sat down beside her.

“Hey, it’s fine, I promise. You wanted to be a princess so the reality stone took care of that. As far as everyone knows N’Dyanajoans is a real place and they’ve known it all their lives. Whatever you say it is they’ll believe you.”

She turned her head to face him and Bucky hated the way her lips pulled into a worrisome frown. “I don’t think I can do this.”

Bucky lifted his arm for her to rest her head more comfortably against him, whispering that she would do just fine. “I’ve only known you for a few days and I think you’re great. If Prince Steve can’t see that then he’s stupid.”

Her lips tugged into a smile, “Shh. Don’t let them hear you say that. His guards wouldn’t hesitate to attack you.”

“I’d like to see them try,” Bucky whispered lower, and he knew Y/N heard him when he felt her chuckle against him.

Y/N sat up and wrapped her arms around Bucky, relaxing against him as she thanked him for easing her fears.

Prince Steve came knocking not long after. Y/N had changed into a modest dress that hit beside her knees and the sleeves were an appropriate length just above her elbows. The gauntlet was tucked safely beneath her neckline with only the chain peeking out. Steve offered his arm and she took it, allowing him to guide her through the palace as they headed to the gardens.

“How are things in N’Dyanajoans?” Steve asked.

“Oh, quite well thank you. And in Midgard?” Steve gave a generic answer that did not sit well with Y/N. Things might be well for some of Midgard’s citizens but not all. “Your Highness?”

“Please call me Steve.”

She paused for a moment to formulate her sentence before speaking. “Steve, I only ask because I must be honest with you. On our way to Midgard I couldn’t help but notice there were quite a lot of people on the streets who were…”

“Homeless, I know,” he finished her sentence with a heavy sigh. “We’ve made many efforts to help our citizens, it’s why we expanded the shelter. In fact my own executive chef Sam volunteers there weekly.”

Y/N smiled hearing Sam’s name. He was a good man, and she almost wanted to tell the Prince about the kindness he showed her.

“If I may, I believe you should visit the shelter yourself. I know from experience- in my Kingdom,” she quickly added, “that there was a lot more going on beneath the surface. People did not want to stay there because they didn’t feel safe.”

“What would you have me do?”

She stopped walking, letting go of his arm so she could explain. “Find ways to make the shelter seem like less of a prison. You need to encourage people to come in and get help. I would hire counselors and mental health advocates, have job placement services. Anything would help as opposed to nothing. Without a solid support system to improve their lives people are going to never get off the streets.”

Steve could have been offended and he knows if his mother’s advisor heard Princess Y/N speaking to him this way he would certainly be upset but Steve was a man who could handle constructive criticism and he appreciated her help and her honesty. It was clear that this was a passion of Princess Y/N and he’d like to know more about the work she’s done for the homeless people of her kingdom. He passes the rose bush feeling surprisingly delighted for the first time.

He parted ways with her again so she could get ready for dinner, and Y/N couldn’t wait to gush to Bucky about how it went.

“If anything I hope I’ve given him something to think about, even if things between us don’t go any further.”

That was all she really wanted anyway, to establish a permanent resolution to help homeless people. This wasn’t a solution a wish could solve as Bucky told her. The gauntlet, particularly the soul stone, is partially sentient and had she wished for something like that it might solve the homeless problem in a way she didn’t intend and Bucky might have a lot more company in his otherworldly resting place. Appealing to Prince Steve was the best way to get this message across and she’s happy to have done that.

Bucky joined Y/N to the formal dinner where Prince Steve regretfully announced his mother the Queen would not be joining them. She thinks about her second wish; she could cure the Queen’s cancer but would that be fair? The Queen was not young in age and if given the choice to rid the cancer from her or a child she believes that she would choose the latter. What about the rest of the world? She could choose to eliminate cancer altogether but again she doesn’t know what hidden consequences that would truly mean.

“The Queen sends her regards,” an older man with dusty blond hair proclaimed as he walked into the dining hall.

Steve introduced him as Sir Alexander Pierce, the Royal Advisor and she and Bucky greeted him accordingly. He sat across from Y/N and she couldn’t help but feel him staring at her all throughout the night.

When she caught his eyes she gave him a friendly smile and she noted his was not quite as kind. Perhaps it was the wrinkles around his lips that soured his face or maybe he was doing his job, being observant to provide intel to the Queen about the visiting Princess.

Dinner was served in four courses, each one more delicious than the last. “I’ll give your compliments to Sam,” Prince Steve insisted, nodding towards a footman who removed the plates as they were finished.

Y/N noticed the way Sir Alexander had gone quiet at the mention of Sam’s name and the several attempts he made to shift the conversation away from him but Steve never gave in. Perhaps Sir Alexander upheld antiquated beliefs about fraternizing with the staff but Steve was not ashamed of him. She found it endearing, the more Sir Alexander tried to change the topic the more Steve kept bringing him back into the conversation, going on about how close they’ve always been.

When dinner ended, Steve asked if Y/N would once again join him for a walk. She nodded to Bucky, maintaining a reserved smile though he could see in her eyes how excited she was.

“I must say Princess, I admire your courage in speaking to me so candidly about the shelter. Before dinner I spoke with Sam and he agreed. The crown has failed its citizens by not taking action and it’s something I intend to change.”

“I’m quite pleased to hear that Your Highness.”

Steve stopped to face Y/N, moonlight sparkled in her eyes and her soft smile made his cheeks grow warm. His palm cupped the soft skin of her cheek as Steve spoke softly, “I told you…” His lips hovered above hers and she felt the breath of his words tickle her skin as he murmured, “...please call me Steve.”

He looked to her for approval, found in a quick nod of her head. His lips were feather soft against hers, stealing the breath from her lungs with his gentle touch. Steve walked her back towards her room but was called away before they could make it there completely. Y/N understood and she insisted she knew where she was going to be able to make it the rest of the way.

Steve kissed the top of her hand as he bid her goodnight and Y/N held back a smile so big she thought she would burst. She floated back towards her room, she must have because she doesn’t remember any step that carried her, not when she felt as light as air. It wasn’t until she ran into someone and like a sharp pin to a balloon she came crashing down.

Sam stood in front of her with thick arms crossed over his chest. “We need to talk.”

PART 3

#bucky x reader #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes au #genie!bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x you

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bcbdrums · 1 year

Note

Do you ever wonder if Kim ever felt guilty about kicking Shego into that electric tower? Even if she did survive it? What you said about Shego still recovering from that incident really opened my eyes to why she took a backseat to evil schemes. Do you suppose she’ll bring it up to Ron when he starts to feel guilty about those alien deaths.

i mean.... given the look on kim's face, that narrowed-eyes smirk... i don't think she felt guilty at all. and considering how often she and ron blew up lairs and just left... without any concern for henchmen who may be inside, or the villains themselves... the amounts of time she left drakgo to an untimely fate, such as that blimp crashing after she trapped shego's hand in the side, or times she left them in water to drown... countless explosions... she and ron even joke about leaving one lair intact, i think in graduation (@midnightcaptions correct me if i'm wrong). so....no. no, i don't think she felt guilty.

i know real-world, kim's expression is to make her look cool and fierce in that moment of victory. and i know in...suspending our disbelief cartoon world, we're supposed to think nobody ever gets hurt in these lair destructions. but realistically... we know that just wouldn't be the case.

do i think kim is cruel? no. naive and ignorant? probably. i think part of her may not have even cared if the villains got hurt...unless she were to see it firsthand. if she saw the damage done, the hurt caused... then i think she'd feel remorse. but that shot we get in so the drama of drakken and a bloodied shego being taken away, that's not enough to jar kim into realizing she should be more careful. only if she sees the consequences firsthand would she feel guilty, in my opinion.

as to shego... it's never occurred to me that fear of injury and caution may have caused her to take a step back from evil for awhile. i think she just wanted her freedom. both from prison, and to decide who she works for and when, in her own time. nothing against drakken per se, just...shego is the type of person who needs to be in control.

i think kim and ron both have some growing up to do before they'll feel guilty for the damage they've caused, but ron will definitely feel it first. and...probably ron would be the one to bring up the incident to kim, and make her realize she'd done harm.

"I mean, sure she recovered, KP, but didn't you lose sleep after kicking Shego into that electrical tower?" "......"

i can see kim thinking about it for the first time then. maybe such conversations are some of their first steps from growing out of carefree/careless teens into responsible adults.

and, as my mind is ever-focused on drakgo, i can see shego resenting kim even more after that incident and caring even less what happens to her/how much harm comes to her. hope this all helps answer your musings there!

#queued post #ask answer #kim possible #ron stoppable #shego #drakken #drakgo #drakken x shego #kim x ron #kimron #kim/ron #kimxron

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tuiyla · 1 year

Note

ok! so i'm curious- what do you think is going to happen with bela and eric? i feel like they'll definitely get back together because it's TV, but how do you think it'll go down?

Oh I wouldn't be so sure they're getting back together, Sex Lives feels like a TV show that'd be more than happy to shake things up. Even if they do eventually get back together, which to be clear I see the chance of, I sure hope it won't feel like it happens just because it's meant to.

I don't think there's a realistic chance of Bela and Eric getting back together this season. We have two episodes left and Bela has a looot of growing to do. Eric was right in everything he said to her in episode 7. Bela needs to look in herself, take responsibility, get her self-image in order and only then can she genuinely apologize to Eric.

Not to mention, some time needs to pass by until Eric will even be open to that apology. He's currently hurting and he needs time and distance away from the relationship. Ideally, we'd have Bela be confronted with her mistakes and root causes at the end of season 2 and start down on a path of growth. And then we'd better get season 3 where I imagine them bumping into each other by chance and Bela taking the second chance at a proper apology. But this time it would really only be for Eric, not to protect her own feelings. And she'd leave him with that, even without needing for him to say that he forgives her. That moment of maturity would make Eric think and be open to letting Bela back into his life. Not romantically or sexually, at first. They need to take baby steps and re-establish trust.

I think any new relationship they start without that slow and careful process is doomed to fail again. I hope the writers will consider that and not have them get back together out of nowhere at the end of season 2. Bela needs time with herself now and ideally I'd love to see the girls each bring out a different chance for growth for her. Bela already kinda understood things and herself more in the Priya situation, putting her personal pride aside to preserve a relationship important to her. So that's the path she needs to go down on. She has lots and lots of reflecting to do.

I honestly think Bela's attempt at an apology just made things worse with Eric because it made him realize how much she wasn't prioritizing him, and how not right with herself she was. So she needs to work on all that, then apologize, then rebuild any sort of relationship with Eric.

Out of the all the girls' previous relationships, this is probably the one the most worth saving. I'd also say Whitney and Canaan still have a shot and that wasn't as big of a mistake in the first place, but we'll see what happens there. Nico has like no chance of returning anyway so not much to talk about with Kimberly there. And we know Alicia is coming back, but that's the one where I'm lowkey really hoping an actual reunion won't be happening,

#some food for thought #i just really think bela needs to be single rn #she simply /has to/ work on herself #only then can we talk about eric again #bela malhotra #belaeric #what's eric's surname lol #tslocg asks #tslocg #the sex lives of college girls

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autumnalwalker · 1 year

Text

Empty Names - 13 - Open Office

Author's Note: Returning from hiatus and (hopefully) getting back on a regular update schedule. I said it would be up in April and I technically made it. That said, given that chapters have been about twice as long lately than when I started, I'm going to be shooting for every-other-Saturday instead of weekly. Starting off this next block of POV cycling with Lacuna again as the guildhall office is now officially open for business and she finally gets to play mad scientist. See the tags for more spoiler-y commentary in the tags. Wordcount: 7,071 Content Warnings: Gender dysphoria. Internalized transphobia. Anxiety. Allusions to organ harvesting. Scummy corporate practices. Memory alteration. A panic attack. Brief mention of a character fully disrobing (but no details described). The indescribable pain of abruptly and forcibly rearranging every atom in a person's body.

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Lacuna’s second alarm of the morning - set to go off ten minutes after the first one - is beeping. She estimates it’s been doing that for at least five minutes now but hasn’t opened her eyes to check her phone yet. Stopping that second alarm would require her to get out of bed and cross the room to press the button on top of the small plastic digital clock, and she hasn’t been able to muster the will to do that yet. It’s not that she’s too tired - really, honest, she’s gotten better about that this past year and slept pretty well last night, for real - it’s that she’s too busy beating herself up over a days-old minor conversational foible that no one else probably even remembers but for some stupid reason was the first thing that crawled into her brain upon waking up this morning.

And so, minor distracting thoughts about turning off the annoying beeping or that she needs to stop doing this to herself aside, the question she keeps looping around is this:

Why was she afraid to say that she’s trans in front of Glassheart?

The obvious answer is that she wants new people (people in general really, but she figures it’s more realistic with new people) to think of her as simply a “woman” and not a “trans woman.” The problem is that’s an awful answer and she feels like an awful, stupid person for thinking it. It’s bad enough that she keeps catching herself almost mentally phrasing it as “real woman.”

She knows that this is the sort of internalized transphobia that her therapist would tell her - on top of the myriad of mundane problems with that kind of thinking - is causing her autogenesis to hold back her transition efforts. But isn’t that the whole point? To want to be accepted without a qualifying adjective attached? She needs to stop using that excuse. The thing to do is just think of it as a simple factual descriptor instead of as a qualifier. As long as she’s doing the latter she’s either putting down other trans people or singling herself out as being somehow uniquely lesser, and both of those options are messed up and she’s a terrible person for thinking them who doesn’t deserve to get what she wants. But that’s an irrational thing that’s wrong and she needs to stop thinking too. And she knows that. She knows all of that. She knows what she needs to do. She’s had this whole conversation more times than she cares to count, both with her therapist and in her own head and that’s the real frustrating part. That for whatever stupid reason she can’t just simply make herself do what she knows she needs to do.

What she needs to do is get out of bed, turn off the alarm clock, eat something, get dressed, brush her teeth, and get on with her day.

And what’s even with Glassheart anyway? It’s not fair that he’s (as far as she’s been able to tell) cis but passes femme better than she does. And he’s so smooth and effortless about it. Even exhausted and sopping wet from the rain he looked better than she does on her best days. And, yeah, “passing” is kind of nonsense and reinforces traditional gender norms and all that stuff, but again, isn’t the goal for people to see you the way you want to see yourself?

It’s so stupid.

She’s so stupid for continuing to just lie here while the alarm keeps going off.

She goes through the whole conversation with herself in her head another time but with slightly different wording and still no answers or conclusions.

The alarm clock gives up on beeping. The whole reason she bought that thing and put it over there was so that she wouldn’t do what she’s doing right now. It worked for a while but then she got used to it. And she can’t change the alarm noise to something she’s less used to because she bought the cheapest model she could find. Then again, she’s theoretically getting paid again so she can probably afford to get a better one. But then what to do with this one? Throwing it out feels wasteful. One more piece of plastic junk polluting the planet. Not that it’s even a drop in the bucket compared to corporate industrial pollution and - No. No, no, no. She’s not letting herself get on the environmental spiral this morning.

She does another loop of beating herself up for being awkward in a conversation instead.

Her phone beeps. A text, not an alarm.

She rolls over to check it and winces at the way the stubble that’s grown back overnight scrapes across her pillowcase despite the past few years of hormones, lasers, electrified needles, and even some alchemical solutions. So stupid. Autogenesis should be a barely-dreamed-of blessing (and apparently is for most people in her position), but instead she’s worse off than if she’d never gone Backstage and stuck with mundane solutions all because she’s both too insecure and one of the “lucky” people who just happen to be particularly susceptible to its influence.

Why is she like this?

She flips the phone over on her nightstand and reads the text.

Ready to head out?

That’s enough to jolt her out of her loop and far past the point of wakefulness into the realm of spiking heart rate and shaking limbs.

She’d gotten so stuck in her head she forgot what day it is.

Trembling, she taps out a reply.

15 minutes.

Sorry.

Twenty-five minutes later Lacuna has gargled some mouthwash, shaved, dressed (pants today), flipped her mattress over to retrieve the box she’s still a little afraid to think about too hard from the hole she’d cut into the mattress’s underside, slung a messenger bag over her shoulder (like a purse but big enough for a laptop, she enjoys telling herself every time), stepped outside, fumbled with her keys due to trying to lock the door in a hurry, and is now descending the stairwell panting “Sorry, sorry, sorry,” over and over again until she reaches where Eris stands waiting at the bottom.

Eris hands her a protein bar without comment.

She gives a sheepish “Thanks” as she unwraps it while they walk. She thinks of the taste as her penance for not getting out of bed sooner. How Eris eats these things she’ll never know. Probably without having mouthwash still coating her tongue. Or does she only buy them specifically to hand to her at times like this? Oh goddess, Lacuna hopes not.

“Late night?” Eris asks after Lacuna’s managed to choke down half the bar.

“Rough morning.”

“The usual?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, I’m still on for dinner Thursday, assuming we don’t end up out on a mission. Got a new place in mind you might like.”

“Thursday?”

“First week of the month.”

Right. First Thursday of every month. Therapy day. Followed by a night out with enough distraction so she can do anything other than keep thinking about herself for a few hours. That’s been the routine for the past couple of years now. Had been anyway.

“Yeah. About that. I might’ve… Well. I, uh, canceled. The appointment, I mean. Well, appointments, like, all of them. Until further notice.”

Eris gives her a look that she can feel without needing to raise her eyes to meet her.

“It’s just that the last several have all been rehashing the same thing over and over and it doesn’t make sense to keep going if nothing’s changed and it’s not like I’ve been legally able to talk about the stuff bothering me most anyway but I do plan to start going back eventually but it’s just that with the not having a job thing money’s been a concern and this new one came as a surprise so starting things back up slipped my mind and I don’t know what our schedule’s going to be like now but don’t worry I do definitely plan to go again and I’m doing the rambling justification excuse thing again aren’t I?” She takes a breath. “Sorry.”

“Huh, that sucks,” Eris commiserates after a moment’s consideration. “Didn’t realize RevaTech stiffed you that bad on the severance package.”

Relief that that’s the part her friend chose to comment on briefly washes over Lacuna before curdling into awkwardness over the observation’s inaccuracy. Thankfully they’re coming up on the abandoned lot serving as the bridge to Crossherd, giving her an excuse to go quiet for a minute.

“About that,” she speaks up once the sounds of city streets signal that they’ve passed into the pocket dimension and it’s time to start walking again. “It was actually something like five years’ pay up front. Combination of what they paid our team for the company buyout and compensation for the exit contracts, I think. I just. Spent it all.”

“You spent it all.”

“Yes?”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Err…”

“You are the most irrationally frugal person I know, how in God’s name did you spend five years’ pay in a couple of months?”

“I’m not that bad.”

“Lacuna. Sis. Bestie. Favorite neighbor of mine. I had to talk you into buying a frickin’ bed instead of continuing to sleep on a patched air mattress while you were on a paratech engineer’s salary because you said it seemed like a waste to replace something that was technically getting the job done.”

“And my back thanks you for that.”

“But seriously, are you okay? You didn’t get in debt to the mob or something when I wasn’t looking did you? Do I need to break someone’s legs to get your money back?”

“What? No! Well, technically there was a kind of sketchy guy that might’ve been mob-adjacent that I took out a short-term loan from, but I paid him back in full three days later, so no debts. No leg breaking. You’re joking about the leg breaking, right?”

“I had been, but you’re not exactly making me worry less here, sis.” Eris massages her forehead and lets go of a deep breath while they round a corner. “Please tell me that you at least didn’t put up anything metaphysical as collateral.”

“No, nothing like that,” Lacuna says. “Not even I’m naïve enough not to get involved in anything like that. I promise you, it’s fine. Account’s closed, no lingering strings attached.”

She figures Eris doesn’t need to hear about the detail of how if she’d been late on the payment interest would have included an eyeball and a few parts she was hoping to get rid of anyway. Besides, with everything having gone as planned she would’ve been able to regrow the eye if it had come to that. Eventually. Probably.

Between Eris’s concerned staring at Lacuna and Lacuna’s sheepish staring at her own feet the two of them nearly walk right past the ivy-covered brick alleyway that’s their bridge out of the city.

“Anyway,” Lacuna says so as to not think about the bridge transit and thereby accidentally stop it from working, “I was actually planning on telling you and the others what I spent that money on later today. It’s related to the NDA contract though, so if I’m going to risk attempting to talk about it I’d rather just do it the one time in front of everyone.”

Eris puts an arm around Lacuna’s shoulder as they step out from in between two garden walls and onto a sun-dappled, tree-lined street some seven hundred miles from their apartment complex.

“Hey,” Eris says, “you don’t need to justify yourself to me, ever. You say you’re fine, I trust you. Maybe a little concerned, but impressed too considering the parts of Crossherd you would’ve had to go to for something like that. Just, maaaybe give me a heads up the next time you go walking into the realized platonic ideal of a big city’s shady underbelly.”

“It was kind of a spur of the moment thing that I didn’t really think I’d do until it was done, but yeah. Definitely want you by my side if I ever go back. Not that I ever want to.”

It had been a spur of the moment decision by Lacuna’s standards anyway. Meaning it was conceived in the middle of the night during a bout of insomnia, refined over days of frantic paranet searches filtered through an excessive number of proxy networks, and executed over the course of fifty-nine hours while under the influence of more caffeine and energy drinks than she’d previously consumed in her life.

In hindsight, she’s not sure if this is a sign that she needs to stop making life-changing decisions while sleep-deprived or an indication that she should do it more often.

“Hey, the place looks nice after the renovations,” Eris says a couple minutes later as they turn another street corner and their destination comes into view.

“Still looks more like a bed and breakfast than an office to me,” Lacuna says. “All old-timey with those big windows and the fancy porch stretching around it. It’s even got a tower balcony thing.”

“It’s called Queen Anne style and the phrase you’re looking for is ‘widow’s walk.’ I think it fits the adventurers’ guild vibe better than some modern downtown block would.”

“Don’t let Bridgewood hear you say that. He might send it through a second round of renovations.”

Eris laughs. “Speaking of Sully…” she says, nodding in the direction of the trio standing just inside the white picket fence surrounding the building’s small lawn before waving and calling out “Yo! We’re here!”

“Hey,” Road waves back as Lacuna and Eris approach down the block. “You’re right on time. Ashan just finished his inspection of the property’s wards.”

“Indeed,” Glassheart says with a nod toward them before turning back to Bridgewood. “As I was saying, your contractors do impressive work. The perception filter should more than suffice for redirecting anyone without prior Backstage exposure and the underlying structure of the kinetic barrier is unusually stable for being on a command word toggle.”

“I should hope so,” Sullivan lilts, “I spared no expense.”

“That said, I have concerns about some of the retaliatory measures on the mid-layer defenses being overkill. Intent detection is notoriously fickle and I have no wish to see one of our potential clients arriving in distress only to be exsanguinated upon setting foot on the lawn.”

Lacuna pauses mid-step, one foot on the concrete sidewalk and the other hovering midair just past the fence line.

“It’s fine, just look,” Bridgewood insists before grabbing Lacuna’s wrist and pulling her over the property line, twirling her around him despite the height difference, and letting her go to stumble backwards until Road catches and steadies her.

“See?” Bridgewood preens while gesturing to Eris. “Muscles here looks about ready to pummel me and yet all of her blood is still in her body.”

“Keep pulling shit like that and we’ll see how long we can say the same for you,” Eris says.

“Oh, I’m afraid that ship has long since sailed, but you -”

Road coughs pointedly, eliciting a put-upon sigh from Bridgewood.

“But you have my apologies, the both of you. I recall now that you requested a warning in the future before engaging in practical japery, and you have my word that I will endeavor to do so in the future.”

It is perhaps the third least sincere-sounding apology Lacuna has ever received.

“All the same,” Ashan cuts back in, “I would like to make my own modifications and additions to these wards in the future.”

“But of course. What’s the point of having a wizard on staff if you’re not going to let him do his job? But enough of that, there’s a tour to be had and work to be done afterward. My friend,” Bridgewood says with a nod to Road, “I believe it’s your place to do the honors.”

Road nods back, lets go of the now-less-dizzy Lacuna and stands in front of the porch steps.

“Everyone, as of today we are officially,” they sweep their arm in an arc over their head to gesture to the blue-and-white painted sign hanging from the awning above, “the Lonely Walk Outreach Agency! I’m proud to count all of you as founding members. All of you have done genuine good and made a difference over the past several days, not just with the initial mission, but with the aftermath; whether that’s been helping care for the rescuees,” a look to Eris and Glassheart, “handling the politics of getting them all back home,” a gesture to Bridgewood, “or readying our website and finding leads on the next group of people in need of our help,” a nod to Lacuna, “and I hope you’re all as excited as I am to keep making that kind of difference moving forward.”

Nice as it is to be included in that, Lacuna can’t quite shake the feeling that it’s a polite exaggeration of her contributions. The website’s still a barebones work in progress, albeit a functional one that no longer looks like it was put together by a thirteen-year-old who just discovered animated GIFs. As for the so-called leads, those were just a bunch of forum posts and tabloid articles that she’d sorted out from the list of resources Bridgewood had given her and then passed back to him and Road for further investigation. Strangely, one of those tabloids had seemed oddly familiar. She pushes the errant train of thought back down to keep listening to Road’s speech.

“Now, while I’m told that for legal reasons I’m supposed to call the building behind me our ‘office’ and not our ‘guildhall’ I think you all know by now the intent and spirit behind this venture. As such, I’d like to do at least a little something to commemorate the occasion before we go in.” They pull out a phone. “A group photo of our founding party to hang on the wall. Or, as Sullivan tells me it’s called when you use a phone for it, a ‘group selfie’.”

*******

By the time the tour leaves the gym, Lacuna’s barely listening to Road and Bridgewood. Or was it a dojo? There’d been regular exercise equipment, sure, but also a rack of blunted medieval practice weapons and some mention of sparring. Something about Eris wanting to try to swordfight Road sometime. And then the gym/dojo/room-she-never-intends-to-make-much-use-of was attached to a small armory’s worth of real weapons, both modern and archaic. Given how excited Eris was to see it, Lacuna assumes that was part of her equipment requests just as much as the gym.

The garage with the armored van was apparently Eris’s request too. Exactly how anyone’s supposed to get it out of an underground pocket dimension constructed beneath a bed and breakfast with no garage of its own, Lacuna’s not sure. She was too busy nervously adjusting the strap on her messenger bag and fretting about how she’s going to tell everyone about the box she shoved in there alongside her new laptop. How much of it seeming to get heavier was her shoulder getting tired and how much was just the mental weight of it?

They’re backtracking down the main corridor now, past the medical bay with its autodoc suite imported from off-world. Another room she hopes not to ever need to spend time in. They stop at a door they’d skipped earlier, across the hall from the breakroom that had struck her as redundant given the fully functioning amenities of the bed and breakfast upstairs. Apparently the building had held some sentimental value to Bridgewood’s wife so he’d left fully intact save for converting the basement into a series of metal corridors that would have looked more at home on a movie set of a spaceship than the sort of adventurers’ guildhall that Road kept trying to imply. At least the carpet makes it feel less stark. It occurs to her belatedly that she’s missed the opportunity for a joke with Eris about the basement being bigger on the inside.

The sound of her name jolts Lacuna back to awareness of the here and now.

“Sorrywhatwasthat?” she gasps in response. She was doing it again, wasn’t she? Letting her mind ramble on distracted to keep from thinking about imminent unpleasantness.

Bridgewood starts to open his mouth but it’s Road that speaks up first.

“This next room’s mostly for you after all. Seems right that you get to go in first.”

Mostly for her? Why would there - Oh, right. That’s the whole reason she brought the cube with her this morning in the first place.

She shuffles away from Eris’s side over to the door, trying not to let herself get her hopes up too much for what’s in the room beyond. Is that tremble in her hand as she reaches for the touchpad on the doorframe due to anticipation or because everyone’s watching her right now? Or was the protein bar just not enough for breakfast? Probably all three and that’s not the point right now get it together.

In her rush to make herself stop hesitating she runs into the door while it’s still sliding open.

What she finds on the other side once the pain-induced spots clear from her vision is enough to make her forget about her sore forehead and probably-bruised knee.

Immediately to her left is a glass wall through which rows of servers with alternating electronic and organic hardware mounts. The bundles of wires coming off them are a dream of cable management and the chill of the cooling system is palpable from several feet away as Lacuna wanders into the more immediately accessible half of the room, eyes wide at the sight of two separate workstations with more monitors than she knows what to do with. The corner of her mouth begins to twitch upward as she examines the wall of 3D printers. She reaches out to touch one of the cases of printer feedstock before snapping her hand back, not quite willing to trust herself with handling something as valuable as powdered gold. Her expression is properly classifiable as a smile - if a mildly manic one - once she starts reading the warning labels on the laser engraving stations. By the time she’s running her hands over the shelf of drones of various sizes and modes of locomotion and throwing open cabinets full of parts she’s openly grinning. Stopping just short of the frosted glass double-doors on the far end of the room, she turns around to look at the others, notices the small, purple-blossomed, potted tree she’d missed earlier beneath a sunlamp next to one of the computer desks, and bursts into laughter. The laughter redoubles when she spots the white labcoat hanging on a hook by the door she came in from.

“Between your equipment request and the way you got on with Jero the other day I had a feeling you were planning on playing mad scientist,” Bridgewood chimes, “I figured you may as well look the part.”

“You did it,” Lacuna says once she manages to catch her breath, “you actually did it! It’s even all configured and installed the way I outlined. How much did this all - nevermind, I don’t want to know.”

“I may be deserving of no small number of disparaging epithets,” Bridgewood says, “but when I say I’m going to do something I do it.”

Lacuna slowly shakes her head, still in disbelief that things actually went according to plan when the plan had such an obvious gaping hole.

“So that room at the end…”

“See for yourself.”

It’s all Lacuna can do to keep from running to the double doors at the end of the lab. Her lab. Unlike every other door in this place however, the panel on the doorframe only seems to change the opacity of the glass doors.

“Allow me,” Bridgewood says as he strolls up behind her and presses a big red button situated above the electronic panel.

The doors slide open to reveal a very large, very empty, very white room room.

“The walls, floor, and ceiling all function as screens,” Bridgewood explains as the others catch up to peer through the open doorway. “Projectors, cameras, microphones, speakers, and arcane spectrometers are built into the corners. All of it blast proof. All as specified, plus my own addition of a cleaning system.”

“Blast proof?” Eris asks.

“Would you like a demonstration?” Bridgewood asks in return.

In any other circumstance Lacuna would be put off by that smirk of his. Instead, not so much against her better judgment as in temporary absence of it, she says “Yes!”

“Well then, fire in the hole,” he says casually, now holding something dark and round that hadn’t been there a moment ago with one hand and pulling a piece off of it with the other.

By the time the sound of the pin clinking on the floor reaches Lacuna’s ears, Eris is already standing between her and the door that the grenade was just gently tossed through.

As strong arms wrap around her and protectively push her down Lacuna barely glimpses Bridgewood slapping the big red button. The sound of the doors sliding shut is immediately drowned out by a muffled FWOOMP that she feels more than hears, accompanied by a bright flash dimmed by the re-frosted windows.

“Before anyone says anything, that was requested and I gave adequate warning this time.”

A series of mechanical humming noises activate and go silent in quick succession and once she and Eris disentangle she can see that the glass doors have returned to full transparency. The testing chamber beyond is pristine. Not the slightest hint of scorch mark or shrapnel scratch.

“As advertised,” Bridgewood states.

Eris shoots him a glare but otherwise remains silent. She gives Lacuna’s shoulder a light squeeze before letting go.

“This is all very impressive, I am sure,” Glassheart says, speaking up for the first time since entering the office basement, “but what precisely is it?”

Oh right. That.

“It’s… I,” Lacuna stumbles over the words she’s been trying not to think about all morning, “well, I suppose I do owe you all. An explanation, I mean. For this and about other stuff.”

Everyone’s staring at her again. Glassheart with curiosity, Eris with concern, Bridgewood with bemusement (or is that hunger?), and Road with the same small, encouraging smile as ever. She focuses on that last one. Of course everyone’s staring at her. That’s a normal thing people do when someone’s speaking. No need to get worked up about it. But they’re all so close. It’s getting hot, crowded around the doorway like this.

“Hey, um, do you mind if I sit down for this?” She asks while pointing with both index fingers at the workstation desks. “I’m going to go sit down.” It’s an effort not to go into another round of mentally berating herself for the awkward transition from standing at one end of the lab to slumping into the swiveling ergonomic chair at the other end.

She doesn’t make the mistake of looking back up at everyone when she starts her explanation in earnest. The messenger bag on her lap and the ominous, wonderful box still hidden inside is enough to occupy the space in front of her eyes without really being seen for now.

“So, RevaTech, right? Big paratech firm trying to get a monopoly on development by simply buying everyone else out when they’re on the verge of something big? My last job before this was on one of those teams that got bought out. I, well, I guess you could say I didn’t take it real well. On the one hand I was invested - like really invested - in the project we were all working on, partly because it actually seemed like I was actually doing something good and worthwhile with my life and skills for once, and partly for… personal reasons.

“On the other hand, the more I thought about it the less I could stomach the idea of working for RevaTech. Like, just on principle, screw big corporations, am I right? And then in this case specifically you’ve got all the rumors that almost definitely aren’t just that about all the sketchy stuff they get up to. And that’s outside of just outright having a weapons research division and that’s just not something I even wanted to even indirectly support.

“So I left. I left and on the way out they made me sign contracts. Nondisclosure and noncompete agreements, geas-enforced and magically bound to my Name, so I couldn’t even talk about my work much less attempt to recreate it. That’s why I’ve been… evasive. About certain things.”

Lacuna lifts her gaze slightly, still not really looking at anyone - not truly looking at anything at all, really - but hopefully it’s enough to not be rude. They’re all technically in her field of vision right now. That’s what eye contact means, right? That’s what you’re supposed to do in serious discussions, isn’t it? Make eye contact? She’s just splitting it up among four people at once.

“So how did you get around those limitations?” Glassheart asks. “It is obvious enough that both whatever you did at the end of the mission the other day and our current environs are tied back to your old work.”

There it is then. No more room to keep putting off trying to say something. Now if only Lacuna’s throat weren’t so tight when she tries to form the words. She attempts to swallow but can’t quite seem to remember how to make her muscles move in the right way for that. Is this it? Is the contract triggering and choking her? It hasn’t before, but then again she’d always tried to just imply things, hadn’t she? And what she did through the phones was just pre-compiled files she’d saved before signing the contract, not actually creating anything new. That could be how it works, right? The more she’s thought of it the less she’s been able to remember and the more she’s sure her memory was being messed with as she was reading the contract. But now that Ashan said that, he obviously knows what she was working on which means the others know now which means she’s officially in breach now. That’s why she can’t breathe now isn’t it? That’s why her head hurts. That’s why she’s dizzy. That’s why everything’s going blurry. That’s why her fingers and lips are tingling. Oh goddess, she can’t breathe. She can’t breathe. She can’t breathe. She’s going to -

“Breathe.”

Lacuna blinks at the whisper. Road’s there in front of her now, crouched down to be eye level with her. Leaning in close. Their hand on hers. Their face filling her field of view.

Road breathes in.

Lacuna breathes in.

Road holds the breath.

Lacuna holds the breath.

Road breathes out.

Lacuna breathes out.

Right. Breathing. The throat tightening’s just a panic symptom. Just like every other time she’s thought it was the contract. She should know better by now, but here she is making a scene and wasting everyone’s time and making it all about her and her problems because she’s immature and selfish and -

“Breathe.”

Lacuna breathes.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.”

“I should get on with it.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I think I want to.”

“Okay then.”

Road stands up but stays next to her. She’s suddenly aware of the fact that everyone’s staring at her again. It’s not quite so painful this time. It seems like it ought to be. But why should it be? Eris and Road are here. There’s nowhere that could ever be safer. No one she feels safer with.

Having a wizard on hand if something does happen doesn’t hurt either.

“Sorry,” she starts, realizes she’s still whispering, and then tries again. “Got a little stuck in my own head there. Happens sometimes. Thought it was the contract thing but it was a false alarm. Obviously. Because I found a loophole. Probably. Right now’s my first time really pushing it to try to test it so I’m nervous so I’m rambling again sorry about that just. Give me. A second.”

One more deep breath and she dives in.

“So. Loopholes. I don’t know a lot about nominal magic but I’d done a little bit of reading up on it for personal reasons and then tried to refresh myself on the topic when I knew the contracts were going to be a thing. Point is, I signed and swore the magic part of it with my deadname, hoping it would be me enough to let the contract seal but not me enough to be enforceable. Magically anyway. Legally, yeah, I’m still probably in trouble.”

“Clever,” Bridgewood says. “That’s the sort of trick you can only get away with once though. Twice if you’re very lucky. More than that and you risk acknowledging it as a Name of yours once again and you’ll get any bindings you’d been avoiding that way snapping back on you at once.”

“Thanks for the warning?”

“I speak from experience.” His tone seems genuinely sympathetic for once. Lacuna finds it disconcerting.

“Anyway,” she continues, “that’s the loophole. As for what my work actually was, we were developing a system that could automate and accelerate ritual casting via AI assistance.” She winces in anticipation of the now unequivocally broken contract’s punishment.

But nothing happens.

Nothing happened. She talked about her work and nothing happened. All the fear and paranoia of the past few months was pointless. Everything’s gone exactly as planned. She’s free. She doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry so she just goes limp in the chair, head lolling backwards staring at the ceiling and arms limply dangling.

“You okay sis?” Eris’s voice. Distant.

Laughing wins out over crying.

“Yes. Ohhh… you have no idea how much yes. ‘Okay’ doesn’t even begin.”

“As relieved as I’m sure you are right now, I do ever so hope you’re not telling me that I spent a small fortune on this lab so that you can try to recreate the work that a dozen people spent half a decade on from scratch.” Bridgewood’s voice. Barely registers. He’s done his research though. She’s too busy with her own calculations right now.

“Of course not.” Lacuna lazily pulls out the bone-white cube from her messenger bag while still staring at the ceiling. “Long story short, I spent my own small fortune on this before signing the contracts and backed up the entire project on it. Glyph libraries, machine learning models, trained neural nets, pre-compiled ritual sequences, user interfaces, projector firmware, simulation programs, hundreds of hours of my own voice for synthesis sampling, the whole shebang. It’s definitely the most illegal thing I’ve ever done. This drive is just storage though, no processing power, which is why I needed all this.” She waves an arm in the general direction of the servers and laughs again. “Give me a couple days and I can get the whole thing up and running enough to make what I did with Eris’s phone look like child’s play.”

She could probably do it overnight if she starts now and doesn’t sleep. She should sleep though. She already knows she won’t.

She laughs again. ‘Playing mad scientist’ huh? Yes, she could probably do that.

*******

It’s nearly midnight by the time Lacuna convinces Eris to leave her for the night. She wants to keep working a little more and there’s a whole bed and breakfast upstairs for her to sleep in instead of walking all the way home.

It’s been a long day and she’s still wired.

Once the tour was finished Road had filled them in on the next mission they had lined up. It was a haunted house. The lingering ghost of someone who died on the property not liking the new owner. Pretty bog standard stuff from the way Road explained it, but still a person in need all the same.

Once again, Lacuna had stayed behind to monitor communication feeds while Road, Eris, and Ashan went into the field. Bridgewood apparently had his own separate mission that he’d be off on his own for quite a while on. Something about following up on the cause of the dragon shipwreck. Honestly, Lacuna hadn’t been fully paying attention. Too busy running through a mental checklist of installation procedures.

And, once again, there really wasn’t anything for Lacuna to do to actually be useful. The headset cameras were able to see the ghost, so that was cool, but Ashan already had a spell for revealing it ready to go anyway. So mostly Lacuna just watched while he and Road set up a binding circle and Eris escorted the owner outside to keep him from getting pelted with furniture and cutlery. Then once the ghost was bound, Road sat down and talked to it until it calmed down and they were able to convince it to move on.

It all would have been very exciting and fascinating to witness if Lacuna hadn’t been so distracted. As it was, it seemed obvious that the others all had things well enough in hand that her remote presence was truly superfluous so she started multitasking with getting the AI ritual systems up and running. Some part of her knows she’ll be hating herself for that later, but that voice is easy to ignore right now.

The one part that got her to fully stop and pay full attention was when Road turned off their headset to talk to the house’s owner at the end. From the bits and pieces that Eris and Ashan’s mics picked up from a distance, she could have sworn it was nearly word for word the same speech he’d given her after saving her. That hurt a surprising amount to realize, so she threw herself back into her work right away. This guy took the amnestic though.

Once everyone got back they had that celebratory dinner Road had wanted to have after the first mission. Lacuna excused herself from the upstairs dining right the first chance she got to go back downstairs. Another thing she knows she’ll regret later once the excitement wears off. She really should get to know Ashan better. That’s twice now she’s had dinner with him and basically ignored him the whole time due to being too distracted.

How’d that happen? He's so cool, and also a wizard, and she’s about to be… well not a wizard or even a real mage, but something closer to one than she ever would have dreamed a few years ago.

Maybe on more even footing she’ll be less tongue-tied around him.

But it’s midnight now and the installation is still underway. Another twenty minutes to finish getting the program suite to recognize the testing chamber hardware and she’ll call it a night.

*******

It’s just past three in the morning when the ritual simulation completes. All results within expected ranges. Just like the last three dozen times she ran it with minor variations before leaving her old job. Before she lost the chance to ever try running it for real because she couldn’t work up the courage.

But she has that chance again now and she’s taking it. The part of her mind that would know this is a bad idea and would tell her to sleep before attempting anything has succumbed to exhaustion hours ago now. Now she’s simply running on pure hype over her plan having worked flawlessly, relief that an opportunity she thought she lost forever coming back around, and an unkeepable promise to herself.

She sets the timer on the ritual activation and runs to the testing chamber. A moment or two of hesitation born from a lifetime of ingrained shames and insecurities almost stops her from leaving her clothes at the door. Stopping in the center of the testing chamber with the doors closed behind her, she spends the remaining minutes of the countdown focusing her mind on the target outcome of the ritual. The AI assistance might perfectly draw all the circles and do all the chanting for her, but the magic still requires a living will behind it to function.

The countdown completes and the testing chamber plunges into utter darkness. Six near-fractal glyph cycles snap into blazing existence. Ceiling, walls, floors all covered. All convening on her.

A voice begins playing over the speakers. Her voice. Sampled and rearranged into syllables her fleshy mouth could never hope to make and sped up a thousand fold.

The ritual begins.

*******

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*******

Lacuna lies curled on the blank white floor of the testing chamber, whimpering and tear-stained.

*******

It’s not quite five in the morning when Lacuna picks herself back up, slides her clothes back on, and calmly walks back to her workstation to analyze the test results.

Duration of ritual: Twenty-nine seconds.

Duration of subsequent transmutation: Seventeen seconds.

Duration spent huddled on the floor overwhelmed by the mere memory of pure agony: One hour, forty-one minutes, thirteen seconds.

In retrospect, the flaw in the procedure is obvious. One of the very first things Road told her was that small changes compounded over time are more effective than instantaneous full body transmutations. Technically the ritual itself worked exactly as intended; it’s her body that rejected it.

Autogenesis again. Holding her back as always. But also the single-word secret that Jero had whispered directly into her mind. If she could only decipher what xe meant by that and circumvent the phenomenon somehow.

At any rate, this is still all useful data that’s been gathered tonight. No, - she checks the clock again - gathered this morning.

Lacuna looks at the face in the paused video on the screen one last time. Her face. The one she sees in the mirror when she’s dreaming. True, it’s distorted from screaming in pain, but it’s still hers in a way that her face in the waking world has never been before. It’s progress at long last.

She deletes the recording and sets the workstation to sleep mode. No point in worrying the others with the sight of that.

A smile creeps across her face as she exits the lab and makes her way upstairs to at least pretend to sleep in a bed before the sun comes up.

Today’s been a good day.

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#writing #original fiction #urban fantasy #web novel #WIP #Writeblr #Empty Names #serial fiction #writing practice #writers on tumblr #creative writing #literature #prose #writers #novel #fantasy #fiction #my writing #emptynameswriting #The idea of trans people breaking Name-based magic due to their deadnames holding no power over them #was one of the first concepts I came up with that I wanted to include in this story.#Consequently it's sort of 1/4 of the reason for the story's title.#The other big three being:#The literal meaning of Lacuna's name #Road's ontological weirdness #The metaphysical/philosophical concept of “empty names”#Admittedly that last one was a happy accident after I'd already 90% decided on the title but it fit pretty well so I rolled with it.#The name “Lonely Walk Outreach Agency” is one half a reference to the widow's walk on top of the building (Sullivan's kind of a widower)#and one half a reference to Greenday's “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” (especially in the context of Road being the founder)#I'd meant to add more detail to the line about the building having had sentimental value to Bridgewood's wife but it didn't fit the flow

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