#griffin said babie rights activated

[justoneofthoseghosts]

Hello! Here's some bonus content for Once Upon a December. This was originally going to be part of the last chapter but I was hitting a wall. Please enjoy the belated Christmas treat! ☺️🎄

Three years later

“What about this one?”

Matt turns towards the tree Sylvie was pointing to.  It was around six feet tall.  He tilts his head to the side, examining it.

“It could work,” he tells his wife.

“Do you think we can get it into the living room?”  Sylvie asks.

He laughs.  Last year, they agreed on a much larger tree except that when they got back to their house, they found that they couldn’t get it past the foyer.  They ended up having to saw off some of the branches and a bit of the base.

“I think so.  If not, we’ll bust out the circular saw again,” he mentions jokingly.

She rolls her eyes at him before shaking her head.

Buying a tree had been one of their many Christmas traditions since two years ago.  Decorating it was always fun, Matt had to admit.  Last year, Violet, Griffin and Ben helped out, turning their tree into a very interesting one to say the least.

It had character was what Sylvie said after the kids were done.

They do end up buying the handsome Douglas fir tree.  Matt thanks the guy as he helps load it onto the truck, cranking up the heat as they got int the cab of the truck.

When they get home, they start to unearth the bins of Christmas decorations.  Sylvie grins as she finds the first set of ornaments she bought Matt at the Christmas market, showing them to him.

“Maybe we can go back next week and see if they have more of these.  They’ll look great on the tree,” she tells him, holding up a wooden snowflake.

He grins at her.  Over the years, Sylvie’s love for Christmas never faded and she had somehow managed to influence Matt.  They took turns planning wonderful Christmas activities for each other - two years ago, on their first anniversary, Matt surprised her with a weekend ski trip to a resort in Wisconsin.  Sylvie got him little presents corresponding to the twelve days of Christmas in return. There were weird presents like a can of pears but Matt loved them all the same. He loved the idea so much that when he proposed last year, he took a page from her book, this time giving her gifts based on the song 'Santa Baby'. He had to admit, he looked forward to Christmas because of her and her unending enthusiasm.

Even as she jams a Santa hat on top of his head to match the pair of reindeer ears she just put on, gazing at him innocently.

“You want some hot chocolate?”  He asks.

She beams at him and his heart just soars.

It’s that God damn smile that gets him every single time.

“Of course I do,” she states, “your hot chocolate is the best in Chicago.”

She says it as if it’s a widely known fact but he’s happy nonetheless at her sweeping statement.  It’s a big compliment coming from Sylvie, who loved anything that had chocolate in it.

When he gets back from the kitchen, Sylvie’s made much work of organizing the bins, arranging them based on the contents - Christmas lights, Christmas balls, other ornaments.  There’s even a bin for Christmas stockings that Sylvie’s family had gotten them last year, one for the each of them.

He hands her a mug, which was also Christmas themed, of course.

“Thanks,” she says before taking a sip and sighing.

He grins, taking a sip from his own mug.

“Anything you need help with?”  Matt inquires, looking around the room.

“Can you hang the Christmas stockings please?”

There’s a twinkle in her eye, like she’s in on some secret he isn’t but he doesn’t question it nor does he question the fact that the stockings were usually hung last - right before they lit the fire and cuddled up on the couch watching one of Sylvie’s many favorite holiday movies.  He grabs the first stocking, hanging it on the hook over the fireplace before grabbing the other one and doing the same.  He’s about to close the bin but something red catches his eye.

He stares at it for what feels like ages because somehow his brain could not comprehend what he was seeing.

It’s a tiny sock, like those for babies.

But they didn’t have a baby yet.  They had been trying for a couple of months.

Did this mean what he thought it did?  He told her when she agreed to marry him that he was making all his dreams come true.  This one was like adding an annex to that dream, to the longstanding one he’s had since he could remember.

“You okay, hon?”  comes Sylvie’s sweet yet tentative voice, her hand on his shoulder.

He turns to face her, opening his mouth, waiting for words to form.

“I, uh, we -”

She patiently waits for him to get there, eyes bright, gnawing on her bottom lip.

“We’re having a baby?”  He finally manages to ask.

She nods slowly before confirming, “we’re having a baby.”

He launches himself at her, pulling her in for a fierce hug, spinning her around.  Her laughter is in his ear, musical almost.

“We’re having a baby,” he repeats in wonder.

“Merry Christmas, Matt.” she whispers, cupping his cheek tenderly.

He smiles back, “Merry Christmas, Sylvie.”

He sets her down, the two of them swaying, slow dancing in their living room while snow fell out side.

Matt holds Sylvie closer, still reeling from the news.

He glances outside, unable to keep himself from reminiscing about this cheerful paramedic who dropped by his firehouse.  He smiles at how far they’ve come.

To think, it all started one random day in December which turned out to be one to remember forever.

#brettsey #chicago fire #drabbles #bonus content #call it an epilogue of sorts #this fic was so fun to write #like the most fun I've had writing in awhile

[beehindblueeyes]

Hi! I have a random question, are there any general headcanons that are shared by the fan base that you like or dislike with the Shadow Boys?

How much time you got? Shekskskka

I’m not aware of to to many headcanons that are shared by the fandom. Most that are shared(that I’ve seen) are X reader related and I’ve already expressed it’s not really my deal. One’s that aren’t, that I’ve seen generally shared- I’m unfortunately not a fan of for the most part

Scaredy-cat Finney (honorary shadow boy)

Literally loathe this one. Not only does it babify him but it also actively goes against what we see of him in the movie? He’s a pretty fucking brave kid from what he faces at school and in the basement. How it takes him till the very last minute to fully break down and cry. “Tough kids” like Vance and Robin broke down like everyone else.

momma’s boy Vance

I have a complicated relationship with this one. I think he did have a good relationship with his Mom but the way people use it to? Basically ignore how he acts/who he is I’m not quite a fan of. I agree he has a softer side, we all do. But to strip away that anger? No. (Not to mention saying mommas boy has a negative connotation but I don’t think people realise?)

Pretty boy

Speaking of not realising the meaning behind phrases. Not a fan on this being used in ships, mainly brance. It was a insult!! It’s a very 2020s thing to use pretty in relation to a guy. But this is a me thing- I’m very time period oriented (like as a joke or huff moment sure but as a compliment/flirt? Not necessarily idk)

Two kinds of boys sort of bad

*cough*Reddie treatment *cough* I just… the way the fandom treats the boys a lot of the time doesn’t sit right with me. Like people have never met 13 year old boys before- they’re the most annoying people you met in your life and it’s just not coming across. They’re heavily babified by the fandom. Uber soft, Uber cry baby or clingy or gentle. I’m - im not a fan. God if anything they should be trying to hard to seem tough (Vance and robin demonstrate this. They are tough but they also heavily put on a act- mainly Vance) and then when people do make them “bad boy” it’s sort of missing the point/idea behind it. Idk people don’t right them like a bunch of young boys. It’s messy and not as marketable I guess

Sunshine/sunshine protector

See above.

Hyper modern ones

Like those headcanons that feel like they’re for a modern au but the Op doesn’t specify. I’ve already said but this is a personal thing as I really like time period and staying to it when it comes to my own work.

Ones I like-

I don’t want this post to be all negative or seem like I’m tearing peoples opinions apart so here’s a few I absolutely love.

Griffin is a menace

It makes me laugh I like it. I like the idea of him being the weird kid that ate paste or bit a kid over a game one time. (Arson and actual law breaking is a bit to far but I love weird kid griffin)

Finney was the one to braid Gwens hair

It’s just cute! I can imagine their dad getting frustrated and calling Finn in to try one morning before school not long after their mom died and Finn nails it. He did it ever since

The pinball machine is out of order after Vance’s death

Sad and makes me think. I like it as a symbolic thing like it just so happens to break down more so it on purpose but the idea of the shop keeper having quarters waiting for the next game never to happen ����

The grabber can’t cook. (Bonus)

#the black phone #black phone #the black phone 2022 #the black phone headcanon #finney blake #gwen blake #robin arellano #vance hopper #bruce yamada #griffin stagg #headcanons #fandomization #fandom issues #time period #rambling #the grabber #ghost boys #shadow kids

[salty-medley]

Winx Club - Controversy meme

( original made by https://www.deviantart.com/purfectprincessgirl/art/Winx-Club-Controversy-Meme-775394451 )

Favourite character: Darcy

Since the first season I always found her character interesting. First her look, most of the time a character with pants in Winx is a tomboy or a casual/active/sporty one while for Darcy it's very feminine and vintage. Her color scheme too. Then her contradictions, between having some feelings for Riven ( she's clearly shown as jealous toward Musa) and her original goal & attitude. She's not the total evil one like Icy or Stormy who at first live for chaos and power, she seems to be a bit more shy and nice. I'd really like to know more about her backstory.

Least fav character: Flora

World of Winx made me tolerating her a bit more but ... Ugh. She's way too sweet and boring. People tend to see her as a talented fairy, yet the fact she limits herself to vines and petals while she's called "fairy of nature" screams laziness and lack of talent for me. Flora is supposed to be the most powerful fairy after Bloom but still sucks in fights, and isn't that good for the rest. Adding to that she's insecure at a very annoying level.

Favourite villain: The Trix

In season 1 only. After that it's only by default. They were relentless, good strategists, able to made a whole dimension bow in front of them. While being only three ( eh, they summon the things, it depended on their energy, even Faragonda said it, Riven was a bit useless, just like Knut and the duck). They were only senior students at Cloud Tower, not a 100 years old demon like Valtor or Darkar.

Least fav villain: Kalshara & Brafilius

Was that duet meant to be a joke ? She looked cool at the start but after...

Most overrated: Bloom and Flora

I already said what I was thinking about Flora. Now Bloom.

Bloom was one of my fave characters in season 1. Determined, curious, willing to discover and learn, a good friend ( the fact she was ready to fight the three others just because she promised to help Flora for her exam in the swamp episode), just a normal person trying to fit in a very different place. She was also very brave and willing to help people in need WITHOUT looking like she's doing it for the camera. Her relationship with Sky wasn't my fave part, I always thought she'll have to apologize to Diaspro for that stupid fight, and be able to move one, with or without Sky. Unlike lot of people I sort of understand her running away to go home, when people are sad or live something like being humiliated in front of two or three whole schools and officials, the event being probably even broadcasted live in Magix too, after being sure that it was the witch who physically assault you since you're in that dimension. Heartbroken, lost, with weird dreams, far away from the only people she grew up with and who can't even come to help, realizing the guy she was seeing as a friend and potential love interest lied to her, and now humiliated in front of everyone... I think it's a valid reason when being a 16 years old to have a breakdown.

But Bloom in season 5, 6, 7 or 8? Please stop. Obnoxious, bossy, childish, insecure, cry baby and attention whore. What happened to the original Bloom ? Oh yeah, she get everything she dreamed of and now can't tolerate any obstacle.

Most underrated: Headmistress Griffin

I mean... She's an icon. I love her bickering with Faragonda, just like old friends. She's the healthy type of witch we should see more in the serie, the one who doesn't need to turn into a fairy to be good.

Plus, let me remind you that right after being freed from her prison she directly fought the Trix all by herself to allow the others to escape. She was a real threat for the Trix, it's the main reason why they imprison her instead of trying to eliminate her properly, better deal with her when having more powers and spells.

Also she's a total troll, fully enjoying the mess did by the Trix during the party in the start of the second movie. Just relatable. The only reason she's not in the "Favourite character" slot is that we don't have enough screentime for her compared to Darcy but it was very hard to pick only one.

Favourite season: Season 1

A classic. With an actual plot who was still enjoyable, nothing better than someone discovering a magical world and themselves. It gave me Harry Potter 1 feels and I live for that.

Plus they had personalities back then.

Least fav season: Season 7

Gosh it was boring!

And making a whole season related to animals while treating Roxy like that... Worst villains, worst transformation, worst season. Even season 6 seems enjoyable compared to that.

Favourite fairy form: magic/basic

No I won't call it "magic winx". Not every fairy is a winx, and there's tons of fairies having it before them. I think in the GBA games they called it pixie magic and it's way cuter.

Simple and efficient, I really like the fact they seemed more powerful in that form that in any other one. Just... Bloom breaking the ice and releasing that huge dragon. Did she ever do that again ? Nah. It was smaller and less powerful. A true shame she never used it again. Same for Musa's flute, Stella's scepter who mysteriously vanished while being a Solarian treasure.

Least fav fairy form: butterflix

Was that a contest of how they could make this season even worst than any other one..? If yes, I can confirm it's a success.

Favourite episode: S1 ep9 Betrayed

This episode has everything:

friendship drama ( Stella is a bitch, borderline bully)

teenage love drama

girl fight ( a simple slap but still lol)

prissy daddy's boy VS angry emo "I'm not like the other guys" teen

A real freaking street fight

Least fav episode: S3 ep18 Valtor's box

While this one is the start of one of my least fave couples: Aisha x Nabu. So you're gonna tell me they made Aisha a courageous and independent woman, who knows what she is willing to accept and all you can offer to her is a creep who stalk her, disrespect her and keep pushing her until she gave up to what he wants. This character and their relationship is poorly written. Aisha deserved better than ending with a creep chosen by her father, it's almost like if the wanted us to see forced marriages like a good thing. Stella's attitude was also disgusting, she could understand the situation Aisha was going through and just support her, encourage her to solve the problem instead of saying she could ask a guy what he thinks about it. Making someone uncomfortable seems to be her favourite hobby, it was already the case in season 1 with Musa, except she wasn't supposed to keep acting like that years after. That and the hideous rain outfits looking like a rainbow vomit when they finally had the occasion to make something less bright.

Favourite couple: ( non canon) Griselda x Wizgiz

I know it's a crack ship but as I'm not fond of any of the official couples I'll go with that one. Just check at Chocolatesmoothie's art https://www.deviantart.com/chocolatesmoothie/art/Smooth-Move-365780182

That's the type of interactions I want to see, not boring love at the first sight teens.

Least fav couple: Bloom x Sky

Where should I start ? Like everything with Bloom, it was good in season 1. But it became boring with the time. They're supposed to be engaged for a time now, and yet Sky's father still acting like if Bloom wasn't the hero of their dimension and a princess more powerful than him. That and Diaspro always in the middle, Sky unable to finally tell everyone to shut up, Bloom always crying but not ending this fail of a relationship... Gosh.

Just stop with them. Even Riven would be a better choice for her at this point.

Favourite sidekicks: Nereus & Tritannus

Do they count ? I take the lot.

Least fav sidekicks: the pixies

People will say that the selkies are worst BUT while the selkies can't bother you when you're not in the sea, these damn pixies will follow you everywhere. Between Scylla and Charybdis, I choose the less present one.

#winx club

[hootysblog]

Day 15 of the 31 day fan fiction challenge!

Halfway done with the challenge, so enjoy.

Invisible

"You never tell me about your old school."

Luz looks up from her homework. "Hmm?"

"You always talk about the human realm in relation to your mother, but you never tell me about schooling there,"Amity says.

"Where did this come from?"

"My mind wanders while doing easy work," Amity admits.

"Awww, and it wanders on me!" Luz gleefully says.

Amity chuckles. "Seriously, what's it like?"

"It's like any other school, Amity."

"But like do you have sport events or death defying activities?"

Luz laughs, "Yes we have sports, but not as violent as Grugby, but football is pretty close. And no death defying activities, unless you count giving oral reports in front of the class or making friends."

"Making friends count as death defying?" Amity asks.

Luz sits up. "For me, yeah."

"But you make friends easily here."

"Well humans are different in that sense."

"What do you mean?"

Luz sighs. "They're more, how do I say, judgemental in who they hang out with and who they pick on."

Amity looks at her. "They picked on you?"

Luz tenses up. "Yeah, all the time actually."

Amity gathers up the courage to ask her question. "Why would they pick on you Luz?"

Luz looks at her girlfriend and gives her a sad smile. "Almost anything I did. I was considered the "weird kid." I did a school project that involved a creating a griffin statue and it spat out spiders."

"You know they do that here right?"

"I KNOW. I was so excited when I saw that my first day here!" They both are laughing, but then Luz stops and gets quiet.

"But then I would do stupid stuff like ask someone out to a dance or a date with some over-the-top fashion."

"Why is that stupid?"

Luz tears up. "Because people don't do that. They give a cute card or just straight out ask them out, but me, I would do like a whole skit or something like that."

Amity gets up and sits by Luz. "Do you want to tell me something?"

Amity wraps her arm around Luz and Luz flops her head on Amity's shoulder. "This one girl I liked, Sarah was her name, was nice to me all the time. She was a cheerleader and popular. I also found out she like Azura like I did. One day, I got the courage to ask her out. I used the part from Azura 2 when Azura asked out one of the villagers."

"Oh yeah. I loved that part."

"Me too and I thought she would like it. So, after cheerleading practice, I did it. After I did the speech, she looked at me and said "You actually like Azura? That's a baby book." All of her teammates were there and started to make fun of me. They called me "Luzer", or even "Luzura the witch of losers." I ran away and I felt like I was invisible for the rest of the year because I didn't want to get picked on."

Amity is crying at Luz's story.

"But I came back next year and I kept my feelings invisible, but I brought back my personally. Oh people still made fun of me, but it didn't bother me. That went well until I came here." Luz feels Amity sniffle and looks up at her. "Amity, why are you crying?"

"Because I'm so sorry you had to go through that Luz. You didn't deserve all of that. And I'm crying too because that's how I treated Willow for all of those years and I feel horrible for doing that to her." Amity wraps Luz into a tight hug. Luz wants to speak, but Amity interrupts her.

"I'm sorry Luz. I shouldn't make this about me, this is about you."

"Amity, it's okay. And do you know why you're better than Sarah?"

She shakes her head no. "It's because of this, Amity. You're upset because you realize that you were a Sarah in someone else's life and you are trying to make it better for both of you. Sarah would never do that for me. She still refuses to talk to me because I'm not cool. And I'm okay with that. If someone that stuck up needs to make fun of people like me to feel better, go ahead because I know they're not going to get far in life."

Luz kisses her girlfriend's cheeks. "And I'm not invisible here like I was at home. Well except when I use my invisibility spell, then I'm invisible, but you get the picture right?"

Amity snorts at Luz's ramble. "You, Luz Noceda, can never be invisible. You always bright up a room as soon as you walk into it."

Luz smiles. "Well since you're down here, can you help me with this abomination question?"

"Of course."

Amity looks over the question, while Luz is staring at her. "I have the luckiest girlfriend in the world," Luz thinks. "Take that Sarah."

#lumity #the owl house

[drabbles-of-writing]

Necessary Needles

This is part of my Four Years AU

AO3

Masterpost

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 

The Boiling Isles, like any other place, had its own diseases. Some were unavoidable, like the bright maggots that lived at the Toes who gave you bright disease. Having your organs glow and shrivel up was not fun.

However, like any other place, they had ways to combat most diseases. Schools like Hexside required it. You can’t expect to deal with abominations, beasts, healing, multiple species of plants, and the occasional wayward potion and expect to come out completely clean.

So the worry of Luz having no papers or medical exams to speak of was bound to come up.

 ,

“We need to take her to a healer, Edalyn.” Lilith hissed, crossing her arms. “She’s human, she’s incredibly exposed to everything here.”

“Coming down with a little flu isn’t that big a deal,” Eda muttered, turning her head away and crossing her arms. “She’ll be fine in a few days.”

“She might, but what if it was worse?” Lilith persisted. “Hexside is looking for papers saying that she’s been vaccinated. They could kick her out!”

“Bump is a flexible guy,” Eda snapped. “Look,” She sighed, shoulders slumping. “It’s not that I disagree. Luz could get sick pretty easily. But like you said, she’s human. We don’t know how those vaccines are going to react to her.”

Lilith thought for a moment, pacing the living room. Luz had been sent to bed hours earlier after it’d been revealed she’d woken up with the Centipoodle Flu. Not typically deadly, unless you were very unlucky. But worrying all the same.

“Human biology isn’t all that different from witches, is it?” Lilith asked. “The shots are designed to fit a very broad section of witches, even half-demons can take those.”

“Well, she doesn’t have a bile sac, that’s a big difference.” Eda pointed out. “And…” She frowned.

“Actually, I think that’s the only issue.” She blinked. “I don’t think lack of fangs, rounded ears, and getting excited about hisses and growls do much.” She said.

“Her vocal cords must be different if she can’t hiss,” Lilith nodded. “But I doubt that will be a problem.”

“Okay, er, blood vessels or something?” Eda tried. “Those could be different. If she doesn’t have a bile sac, who knows what else she does or doesn’t have.”

“I really think it’ll be fine,” Lilith insisted. “I doubt that vaccines as modified as these will cause serious harm to Luz.”

“This isn’t a spell that’ll go away after a day, Lilith,” Eda growled, pacing around the living room table. 

Lilith flinched at the obvious reference and cleared her throat.

“As hard as it seems to believe, I do want Luz to be safe.” She said, carefully keeping her voice low. “I understand she means a lot to you. But it will only get worse if she’s left to the elements on her own.”

Eda glanced back, scowling with her ears laying back.

“I’ll think about it.” She finally said. “We’ll see how she is when she gets better.”

“Thank you, Edalyn.” Lilith sighed, the tension releasing from her shoulders.

“But if she gets them, I’m making you take her.” Eda added, pointing an accusing finger at her sister. “Which gives me more leverage to bully you if she hates you. Those things are painful.” She winced at the memory.

“Uh huh, of course.” Lilith nodded, mildly amused. “And because I can at least pretend I’m not a wanted criminal?”

“That too.” Eda agreed. “Also, if you kidnap Luz, it’s on sight.” She warned, eyes narrowing.

“Why in the world would I want to…?” Lilith began to question before Eda gave her a deadpan stare and she slowly shut her mouth again.

“Right, of course. How could I ever forget?” She sighed.

“Don’t worry, I’ll keep reminding you.” Eda said cheerfully.

“Oh, I’m well aware.”

  ,

Luz had been better within a few days. Still a bit sniffly, but otherwise no worse for wear. Eda had finally relented to letting her get vaccines, and true to her word, Lilith was the only one who took her.

Of course, disguises were hardly needed. It had only taken a year for everyone to recognize the residents of the Owl House on instinct alone. Though Lilith did make illusions to make sure the Emperor’s Coven wouldn’t come around.

And the sheer intimidation of her existence was enough to convince the healers to usher Luz away to get her shots that, in the humans opinion, looked a lot like leeches and hurt way more.

Aside from a somewhat numb arm full of leech bite-marks, Luz returned to the Owl House with no problems, despite Eda’s best efforts to prove otherwise.

Lilith, incredibly smug, said that really, the worst that would happen was that Luz would get sick for a bit and need checkup, but nothing more.

With that, Luz had gone to bed to read her books with King before passing out like she always did.

Eda could never push away a small lingering quiver of worry.

 ,

Eda was awoken at six in the morning to the sound of something, very loudly, crashing down the stairs.

And since she was used to interruptions like these, and heard plenty of muffled giggling and thumping after the fact, she wasn’t overly worried as she pulled herself out of her nest.

“Luz, did you sneak in a baby griffin again?” Eda called, walking down the hallway towards the stairs.

“Eda, Eda,” Luz’s giggling drifted from the bottom of the steps. “Eda I can feel colors.”

Eda paused for a brief moment, slowly processing what she heard her say.

Then she broke into a near-sprint as she stopped at the top of the stairs, spotting Luz in a tangle of limbs at the bottom, giggling like a madman.

Eda hurried down and pulled the kid up, checking for any broken bones or sprains, which thankfully there were none of.

“Eda, colors feel weird.” Luz whispered, looking up at the witch. “Really really weird. But also kinda cool?”

Eda sucked in a breath at the sight, letting go of Luz.

Her pupils were heavily contracted. Like she was staring right into a flashlight. While she spoke, her left pupil had suddenly expanded and began growing and shrinking at the speed of a broken lightbulb.

“Oh boy,” Eda breathed, worry creasing her brow. “Do you feel alright, kid?”

“Thirsty,” Luz said, her head slowly falling to the side before she jerked it back up again. “And excited! I don’t know why, but I am! Everything’s really bright but also not?” She said, looking around.

“Christ, I haven’t seen a trip like this since King ate moondust.” Eda murmured, running a hand through her hair and shaking her head.

“Hmm?” Luz hummed, clearly only half paying attention.

“Just, go sit on the couch, please.” Eda sighed. “I need to get Lilith.”

“Okay!” She said, overly cheerful.

And then she just stood there, blinking fish-eyed at Eda, still smiling.

“Uh, kid? Couch,” Eda said, pointing off towards the door to the living room.

“Oh, yeah,” Luz said, shaking her head and stumbling, slamming into the doorframe on the way out.

Eda watched Luz leave for a few seconds before growling and storming her way back up the stairs.

King had awoken from where he was in Luz’s room and sleepily poked his head out, half-awake.

“Keep an eye on Luz,” Eda instructed him as she walked by. “Don’t let her touch anything.”

“Oh, someones in trouble,” King sang before scampering out of Luz’s room.

“You bet she is,” Eda hissed, stopping in front of the makeshift storage room they had made into Lilith’s room.

She didn’t even bother to knock, she just threw the door open.

Lilith was already waking up from the noise, her hair a mess and rubbing at her eyes. She looked up, saw Eda furiously standing in the doorway, and let out a sigh.

She calmly picked up her glasses from an old table she’d made (Eda had insisted she get her glasses back since she had no reason not to use them anymore), put them on, and slowly stood up, mentally preparing herself.

“What happened this time?” She asked calmly.

“Luz! Luz is what happened!” Eda shouted. “If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve thought she’d snuck into the Night Market!”

“And by that you mean…?” Lilith asked slowly.

“She looks drugged, Lilith.” Eda hissed. “How long is this going to last, exactly?”

“I don’t know, I’m not a healer.” Lilith shrugged, clearly trying to hide an amused smile. “Let me see her, I’m sure it’s not that bad.”

“Don’t eat the glyphs, Luz!” King’s yelling from downstairs reached their ears. “Don’t--Luz that’s fire!”

Eda’s sneer grew and Lilith pointedly refused to meet her gaze.

Without a word, the sisters hurried down the stairs and into the living room, both mentally preparing to have to put something out.

Luz was in the process of eating a ripped up glyph, both pupils blown wide, blitzed out of her mind. King was stuck under one of her arms, holding the other end of the glyph he had probably been forced to rip to stop her from activating it.

“Eda, what happened to her?” King demanded, squirming in the human's grasp. “She thinks the glyphs are pancakes!”

Lilith snorted, stifling a laugh at the sight. Eda gave her sister a glare that would melt Emperor Belos himself, and her smile quickly fell.

“You’re right, you’re right, not funny.” She said matter-of-factly. “Did she wake up like this?” “I assume so,” Eda said, walking over to the girl and picking her up from under her arms. “She fell down the stairs and said she could feel colors.”

“These have a lot of colors,” Luz giggled, pulling the ripped glyph out of her mouth and waving her around.

“...alright,” Lilith said slowly, placing her hands together. “Clearly, the vaccines had more of a side effect on her than we thought.”

“Ya think?” Eda hissed, holding Luz upright as she looked around at everything, her eyes nearly entirely taken up by her pupil.

“On the plus side, I doubt this will be permanent.” Lilith continued. “Most of the vaccines given to her were ones that wear off over time.”

“How long, exactly?” Eda asked.

Lilith pressed her mouth together in a thin line, weighing her options.

“...about ten years?” She said, raising her hand and tilting it. “Sometimes five?”

“Lilith!”

“It’s probably just her body reacting to the small bits of illness and magic,” Lilith said quickly, mildly nervous. “It’ll get out of her system eventually, I’m sure.”

“And how long,” Eda grit her teeth together, grabbing Luz’s hood as she tried to wander off. “Do you think this’ll last?”

Lilith frowned, thinking for a moment.

“A week at worst,” She decided. “If nothing changes by then...we may have to ask in a favor or two.”

“You are so lucky Amity likes you,” Eda growled, pointing a finger at her sister. “Or I’d do worse than send you to Hooty.”

“I didn’t know this would happen!” Lilith defended. “I genuinely thought it would be okay! You think I want her like this?” She said, gesturing to the girl with her hand.

Eda knew very well she didn’t. Lilith could be uncaring and annoyed with practically everyone around her, but she knew better. And, well, even she had admitted that using a child as a shield that one time was a bad move.

And, besides, her apprentice, as far as she knew at least, was friends with Luz. So that automatically put her higher up on Lilith’s list than others.

Didn’t change that Luz was even crazier than normal now, though.

“You insisted on this, you fix it.” Eda finally decided, pulling Luz closer. “This is borderline disturbing, even for her.” She said, looking down at Luz’s glazed, but still happy, expression.

“I’ll do what I can,” Lilith promised. “In the meantime, let’s hope being a little delirious is the worst of our troubles.”

“Don’t jinx us, Lilith.”

 ,

“So, we’re basically on Luz-watch now?” Willow asked, eyeing Luz as she downed her fifth water bottle in an hour like a shot.

“We’re all on Luz watch,” Eda corrected. “Lilith is off trying to find something useful while we gotta sit here and hope she doesn’t do anything stupid.”

“Like being thirsty is a crime,” Luz huffed, her right eye half-lidded with a contracted pupil. 

“Fascinating,” Gus murmured, poking Luz’s cheek. “I never would’ve imagined something as simple as a few vaccines would cause such a severe reaction in humans.”

“Who knows? Maybe it’s just a Luz thing,” Willow suggested, holding her friend up as she started to heavily lean to the side.

The trio were all sitting on the floor in front of the couch in a semicircle. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think they were expecting Luz to start coughing up blood.

“There are lights everywhere,” Luz grinned, gazing with drooping eyes around the room. “They kinda hurt.” She said, her smile never falling as she squinted her eyes.

“You better not get worse,” Eda warned, crossing over to the kitchen. “You kids hungry? It’s still morning.”

“I had a snack on the way here,” Willow assured the witch.

“Has Luz eaten?” Gus wondered.

Luz stared at him blankly for a moment before Willow nudged her.

“Mm, not hungry,” Luz mumbled, her left pupil dilating for a moment before contracting to the same size as her other one.

“Are you sure you feel alright?” Willow inquired, frowning.

“Yes and no?” Luz squinted. “I’m like...feeling so great it’s uncomfortable. Does that make sense?” She asked, turning her head to her friend before almost falling over again.

“At least she can talk a bit better now,” Eda muttered, poking her head back into the room.

“Luz is going to get better, right?” Gus worried, peering over Luz.

Eda opened her mouth, shut it, thought about her words for a few moments, and inhaled deeply.

“Yeah, eventually.” She said, praying to the Titan she wasn’t lying. “We just don’t know when.”

“So does this mean I can study her?” Gus asked excitedly, eyes shining.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Willow said carefully, relenting to just always keeping an arm around Luz as she stared off into blissful space. “I doubt she’ll stay still.”

“I want to see what kind of symptoms she has,” Gus defended. “This is the only time I’ll ever get to know what some of our medicine does to humans!”

Eda flinched at the unintended reminder of Luz’s current situation. She was almost glad Luz could barely process any of the words being spoken around her, she was sure the human would’ve noticed as well.

“Just be careful with her, you hear?” Eda relented. “I’m not about to take her to a healer and risk this information making it to the Emperor’s Coven. A little studying will probably help us.”

“Yes!” Gus pumped a fist in the air and conjured himself a pencil and paper. “If anything, think of this as a recording of what’s going on. I doubt Luz will be able to remember all of this in clear detail.” He said, tapping his pencil on her head.

Luz jolted, looking towards Gus dumbly at the sudden touch.

“Hm, pencil isn’t very colorful.” She hummed.

“Where’s rich girl, anyway?” Eda asked, leaning in the kitchen door frame. “I thought she would’ve rushed over here.”

“She doesn’t even know this is happening.” Willow said. “You just called me and Gus, told us to hurry over, and then hung up.” She deadpanned. “We didn’t know the situation until we got here.”

“Eh, fair.” Eda nodded. “Poor girl would probably have a heart attack at the sight of her,” She gestured a hand to her apprentice.

“Amity would definitely have some choice words,” Gus agreed.

“Amity?” Luz suddenly perked her head up, looking around wildly like a puppy who’d been told they were getting a treat. “Amity’s here?”

Willow and Eda shared a knowing glance before turning back to the human.

“No, Luz, Amity isn’t here.” Willow said calmly.

Luz visibly drooped, disappointed. At least they knew she could still feel other emotions.

“Do you want me to call her?” Willow asked the girl.

Luz rose up again, excited. Gus was reminded of an emotional yo-yo.

“Great, more children,” Eda muttered. “You two are handling her inevitable panic.”

“Fair,” Willow nodded, pulling out her scroll. “Gus, take Luz for a minute.”

“Huh?” Gus looked up from taking notes just in time to get crushed by Luz falling over him.

Willow dialed Amity, ignoring the strangled cries of distress from Gus. She picked up on the third ring.

“Hey, Wills,” Amity crackled through the scroll.

“Amity!” Luz trilled happily, sitting up from where she was crushing Gus.

“Is that Luz?” Amity inquired.

“Yeah, we’re at the Owl House.” Willow explained, holding Luz back from tumbling over her by holding a hand against her face.

“I can breathe!” Gus gasped. “Hi, Amity!” Luz giggled.

“Hey, Luz,” Amity mumbled.

You could see Willow’s will to live leave her body. Eda gave up and went back into the kitchen to grab herself a snack.

“Luz is in a bit of a situation at the moment,” Willow said calmly. “Turns out our vaccines don’t clash well with her.”

“What? Is she okay?” Amity worried, and the sound of shuffling was heard from the other line.

“Yeah, just really blitzed out.” Willow assured. “She says she can feel colors and is excited to an uncomfortable extent.”

“Willow has a lot of calm colors,” Luz grinned, giving up trying to squish Willow and instead dropping her head onto her leg. “I like ‘em.”

“That...sounds concerning.” Amity said slowly. “I’m coming over.”

“We’ll be waiting,” Willow said, before hanging up.

“Yay! Amity’s coming!” Luz cheered, trying to raise herself to a sitting position and wincing. “Ow, too loud.”

“Too loud?” Gus repeated, trying to write something down. “What is?”

“Spoke too loud,” Luz whined, shutting her eyes.

“You...usually speak that loud when you're excited.” Willow raised a brow. “Are your ears alright?”

“Just round,” Luz snickered at her ‘joke,’ cracking open an eye. “Everything about me is round! Round ears, round fang teeth, round face,” She said, proceeding to squish one of her cheeks in her hand.

“Your round ‘cause your squishy,” Willow agreed, helping Luz sit up properly.

“Very squishy,” Luz agreed. “I am the squishiest.” She said seriously. “Is your vision normal?” Gus asked, cautiously leaning closer to his friend. “No more spots?”

“Mm, less so.” Luz said, staring off at nothing. “And I think the couch is alive,” She said calmly.

The friends looked at the couch, and upon seeing it wasn’t moving, turned back to Luz.

“There’s...nothing happening.” Willow said slowly. “I mean, it could be alive, but nothings happening right now.”

“Are you sure?” Luz frowned, squinting intensely at the couch. “I swear the cover is like...rippling.”

Gus looked to the couch, back to Luz, back to the couch, and then back to Luz again.

“So she’s getting hallucinations,” He said, writing it down. “Good to know.”

“She what?” Eda called back, confused.

King poked his head through the kitchen door, his tail flicking.

“Eda wants to know what you said,”

“We heard her.” Willow sighed.

“Hallucinations. Luz thinks the couch is moving,” Gus said, not even sparing a glance up from her notebook.

“Oh, did it wake up?” King asked sincerely. “Eda! I think the couch woke up again!”

“The couch is alive?” Willow squeaked, pulling Luz closer and scooching away from it.

“Ha! Knew it,” Luz weakly waved a fist. “I knew it had to be alive.”

Eda reappeared soon after, double-checking that the couch hadn’t woken up. Gus was about to tell her the same information he told King, but the sounds of Hooty shrieking at someone caught everyone's attention.

They couldn’t make out his words, but it was hard to miss his high-pitched voice. Eda walked to the front door and cracked it opening, fully expecting to see Lilith or some random kid trying to find the Owl House again.

Instead, she saw Amity, hissing with fangs bared and looked ready to punch Hooty in the face. Which was understandable, considering he was continuously bugging her.

“Someone was anxious to get here,” Eda chuckled, swinging open the door and crushing a small piece of Hooty’s body between the door and the wall.

Hooty squawked and started harping on Eda, complaining and turning his attention away from Amity.

“Oh, hey, Eda.” Amity said, calming down and smoothing her hair back.

Eda could visibly tell Amity was trying to not breathe in too deeply, sure-fire evidence at how fast she had rushed to the Owl House.

“In here,” Eda said, letting Amity inside before shutting the door on Hooty’s complaints.

“Hey, Amity.” Willow greeted numbly.

Luz, who had previously been laying against Willow’s shoulder, popped up at a speed that made Gus concerned that her neck might’ve cracked. 

“Hi, Ami!” Luz said cheerfully, her pupils immediately dilating so wide that you could barely see the whites of her eyes.

Amity paused, looking like she was about to be flattered before seeing the state Luz was in. She knit her brow together, clearly even more anxious as she hurried in, getting on her knees beside her friends.

“How long has she been like this?” She asked, hesitantly reaching out a hand before pulling back.

“Since this morning,” Gus said. “Eda said she’ll be fine.”

“That’s a relief,” Amity exhaled.

Eda mumbled something and slipped out of the living room. King was about to follow her before she spoke something quietly to him and left. 

Instead, the demon pouted and sat at the door leading to the staircase hallway, his arms crossed.

“Oooh, you’re really colorful,” Luz said, grabbing Amity’s outstretched hand and pulling it closer.

“I--huh?” Amity stuttered, blushing.

“It’s so pretty,” Luz whispered, sounding not all there as she pressed Amity’s hand to her cheek.

“Don’t pass out on us,” Willow teased the furiously red witch. “I’d hate for you to die at fifteen.”

“Don’t test me,” Amity growled.

“Can you feel these ‘colors’ with other people?” Gus questioned the human.

It took a few seconds for Luz to react but she eventually looked back up at Gus.

“Mmm, yeah,” She mumbled. “Eda’s are weird,” She enunciated, swaying slightly.

Willow slowly held a hand on her shoulder to stop her from toppling. If Luz noticed, she didn’t comment.

“So, she’s really high right now, is what I’m getting at.” Amity said, looking over Luz, who still refused to release her hand.

“Pretty much,” Willow nodded. “At least the vaccines gave her a happy-high. I don’t know if we could handle a panicky or angry Luz.”

“Where’s,” Luz slurred for a moment, her right pupil contracting. “Where’s my, my,” She struggled for a moment, clearly forgetting what she was trying to say.

“You alright there?” Gus asked, trying not to laugh.

“¿Cuál es la palabra para eso?” Luz muttered under her breath. “Capucha...gato...gato capucha…” 

“Is she speaking backwards or something?” Amity asked, alarmed.

“Oh, oh! Luz explained this to me once,” Gus said, perking up. “She said it was a human language...Spanish I think.”

“Hoodie!” Luz finally burst out before wincing and ducking her head, finally releasing Amity’s hand.

“Your hoodie?” Willow blinked. “Luz, you grew out of that four months ago.”

“Did someone say Hooty?”

Everyone groaned as the bird tube himself popped in through the window, happily chattering in his high voice.

“Did you guys miss me?” He yapped on.

Luz suddenly yelped and clapped her hands over her ears, doubling over into a ball. Her friends whirled back to her, startled.

“Is she still all weird?” Hooty continued, circling around them until his head was right by Luz. “Hi, Luz! Are you still being weird?”

Luz whimpered and curled into an even tighter ball, turning her head away from Hooty and squeezing her eyes shut.

“Quit it!” Amity snapped, shoving the birds face away. “You're scaring her!”

“Scaring?” Hooty repeated, though he did move back. “But I didn’t even do anything mentally scarring this time!”

King, who had fallen asleep at the door, was easily awoken by Hooty’s screeching. He noticed Amity pulling a balled-up Luz further away from Hooty, murderous intent in her gaze, and was quick to rush over.

“I’m awake! I’m awake! What happened?” He asked, skidding to a stop.

“I don’t know, but Hooty’s freaking out Luz.” Willow said, reaching out a hesitant hand to the girl.

“Hey! You! Shoo!” King snapped to the bird, waving his paws at him. “Don’t make me get Eda!”

“Alright, alright! Sheesh!” Hooty grumbled, slowly pulling himself back out the window. “I didn’t mean to do anything, gosh.” He muttered, frowning as he disappeared back to the front of the house.

“Luz?” Amity worried, looking down at the shaking girl halfway in her lap. “Luz? He’s gone now, it’s okay.”

Luz cracked open an eye, revealing it had contracted to a disturbingly small size. She slowly removed her hands from her ears and sat up, almost knocking her head into Amity’s chin.

“Are you alright?” Willow worried, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder.

“Loud,” Luz whined, rubbing at her ear.

“Should I call Eda?” King worried, coming up in front of Luz. “I should call Eda. Hey, Eda!” He shouted, turning his head away. “Eda!”

Luz hissed and jerked back, shutting her eyes and covering her ears again.

King jumped back and covered his mouth with his paws. Willow was quick to wrap her arm around Luz’s shoulders.

“I’m so sorry!” King exclaimed, immediately covering his mouth again when Luz’s flinch revealed he’d been too loud again. “Sorry, sorry,” He whispered, taking another step back.

“Luz?” Willow worried.

“Loud,” The human repeated, burying her head in Willow’s shoulder. “It’s loud.”

The other three all looked to each other with concern.

“But...Hooty and King always talk like that.” Amity said slowly. “It...it’s never bothered her before.”

“She must have gotten more sensitive to sound,” Gus said, his voice lowered. “Us talking normally must already be quite loud. And considering King and Hooty are naturally louder when they talk, she must think they’re screaming if they go so much as a few notes up.”

King sat on the floor, his paws still wrapped around his muzzle, his face full of horror and shame.

Rapid footsteps were heard coming down the stairs, and Eda was in the living room in a flash, holding her staff in one hand.

“What happened? Is everyone okay?” She asked, hurrying over.

“Luz is sensitive to sound,” Willow explained softly. “Hooty and King hurt her ears without meaning to, that’s all.”

“Great, another symptom.” Eda muttered, her staff vanishing in a flash of light. “How sensitive?”

“Anything higher than normal talking is painful,” Gus said, quickly writing it all down. “To her, it must sound like we’re already talking loud, but she’s putting up with it.”

Eda sighed and ran a hand down her face. Luz had recovered from King’s shout and peeled herself off of Willow, hands hovering by her ears in fear there would be another loud noise.

“I’m gonna go get Lilith,” She decided, watching Luz pitifully. “I need to know what else is going to happen to her.”

“What?” Luz blinked, looking around. “Why was everyone shouting?”

“Sorry,” King repeated again, shaking his head.

“You didn’t know,” Eda leaned down and ruffled the fur behind his head. “Luz, maybe you should go rest.”

“I’m not tired,” Luz said, becoming cheerful again. “Not at all! Hey, do you think I could climb the Knee and back?” She asked, turning to Willow. “I think I could do that.”

“Don’t,” Willow said, standing up and helping her friend off the floor. “We’ll stay with her.” She assured the older witch.

“I’d say don’t do anything stupid, but we all know that’s going to happen no matter what.” Eda said, crossing her arms. “Just don’t do something overly stupid.”

“Understood,” Amity nodded, scooping up King as she and Gus stood.

Luz paused before whirling her head around, nearly falling over at the force if Willow didn’t catch her in time.

“Ami?” Luz blinked blearily. “When did you get here?”

“This is going to be a long day,” Eda sighed, shoulders slumping with the weight of a sky.

“We’ll try to get through unscathed,” Gus said, glancing at Luz as she started staring at and inspecting her own hands, confused. 

“Key word; try.”

,

“I think I swallowed another light spell,” Luz groaned, face-down on her sleeping bag.

“You didn’t. We would’ve seen it.” Willow said, glancing back at the girl.

“I must’ve,” Luz muffled through the bag. “I feel like it.”

“Huh, so she’s hallucinating sensations, too.” Gus said, sitting cross-legged by the window and writing in another page of his notebook.

“Or she could just feel awful,” Amity pointed out, leaning against the wall behind Luz. “I certainly would, considering the state she’s already in.”

“Please don’t throw up like last time,” King begged, his voice barely above a whisper as he placed his paws on Luz’s arm. “That was disgusting.”

“Water,” Luz mumbled, raising a hand and grabbing at air. “Need water.”

Amity picked up the water bottle on the floor beside her and crawled over, placing it in Luz’s open hand.

“Humans can’t die from drinking too much water, right?” Gus asked, looking up from his notebook.

Luz looked up and tilted the water bottle, never raising her head off of the floor. She opened her mouth and let the water trickle out and into her mouth.

Her friends all watched her, mesmerized at the sight. Luz’s grip on the water bottle loosened after a few minutes and it fell and hit her in the face, causing her to hiss and water to spill.

Amity muttered before pulling Luz into a sitting position by her shoulders. The girl was still staring off blankly, like this outcome was completely out of the blue.

King came back with old clothes Eda never used and Willow mopped up the water with them, barely batting an eye.

“Aw,” Luz finally reacted, mournfully watching her forgotten water bottle which was now only a quarter-full. “My juice…”

“Luz, you're getting soaked.” Amity sighed, grabbing one of the unused shirts and dabbing at Luz’s shirt and face.

“Like it, it’s cold,” Luz said, though she did nothing to stop Amity.

“Cold? Are you feeling too warm?” Willow asked, glancing up.

“Uh,” Luz stared off for a moment. “Yope.”

“Yope?” Gus echoed.

“Nes? Yo? Noes? Sio? Ni?” Luz tried out a bunch of different words, often slurring them together.

“Luz, what are you saying?” Amity sighed, trying to get the worst of the water off her shirt now.

“What’s yes and no combined?” Luz questioned Gus. “You’re smart, you know.”

“Maybe?” Gus tried, raising a brow.

“Maybe?” Luz frowned. “How can you be ‘maybe’ smart?”

“You’re maybe too warm?” Willow reiterated.

“I’m like…” Luz spaced out for a moment before snapping back to reality, both her pupils at different levels of dilated. “Hot and cold?”

“That’s mildly troubling,” Gus spoke, flipping to a new page in his notebook.

“I feel like I have a weird fever,” Luz sniffled, blinking her eyes rapidly. “You know? You know like...like when you're so sick you're too extreme in both temperatures.”

“I think I had that once!” King raised his paw excitedly before quickly lowering back down when he saw Luz flinch at his voice. “I had frostbite on my fur after I ate a fire-twig. I couldn’t stop moving for like, three hours.”

“Mood,” Luz nodded solemnly.

“I’m...pretty sure that’s not an emotion…” King said slowly.

“So, do you want like, extra blankets?” Amity suggested.

“I want to die,” Luz whined, almost flopping over onto her face again before Amity grabbed the back of her shirt and held her up. “And everything smells like those weird street corners.”

“Smells fine to me,” WIllow said, laying the wet clothes on the ledge in front of the window. “Do you want to change into a non-wet shirt?”

“Oh,” Luz nodded after a few beats. “Yeah,” She said, grabbing the hem of her shirt and pulling up.

Amity, who had previously been tossing the damp cloth away, turned back around just in the nick of time.

“Not right now!” She squeaked, frantically grabbing Luz’s hands and forcing her to shove her shirt back down.

The other three whirled back to the girls, startled by the sudden noise.

“Ow,” Luz complained, removing her hands and rubbing at her ears. “Loud,”

“Sorry, sorry,” Amity whispered, jerking her hands back.

Her ears were pressed down, and she was a bright red from the tip of each ear.

Willow rolled her eyes but made no comment as she stood up and offered a hand to Luz. The human stared at it for a moment before Willow took the humans hand herself and helped her up.

“I’ll ask Eda if she has anything that’s not covered in dust,” Willow asked her, gazing around at Luz’s room. “Somehow, I doubt she keeps her clothes on the racks in here.”

“I,” Amity shook her head to clear it. “I think she has a chest in the room down the hallway.”

“I’ll check it out,” Willow nodded, keeping a hand on Luz’s shoulder and guiding her out of her room.

Thus leaving Amity, Gus and King to their own devices.

They all looked at each other.

“You wanna cut holes in Eda’s raggety clothes and stitch them together?” King asked casually. “Yeah I do!” Gus grinned, throwing his notebook and pencil aside.

“I’m picking the fabric,” Amity said matter-of-factly. “You guys will just make an unholy abomination.”

“Says the girl in the abomination track,”

,

“Maybe...if we split my head open...the pain will stop.”

“I’m not cracking your skull like an egg for a headache, Luz.”

“Do you think zombies would like that?” Luz asked, raising a hand in the air. “Would it be like scrambled eggs?” “That’s disgusting, Luz.”

“Not to the zombies,”

Luz was laying across the couch, her head hanging off the armrest, holding a warm washcloth against her forehead. Willow was sitting on the other end, with Gus perched on the armrest beside her. Amity was sitting on the floor in front of Luz with King in her lap, making sure she didn’t slide off the couch.

“Some guy did it once,” Luz continued, her eyes covered by the washcloth as she wildly waved her other hand around in the air. “Some god or something. Head split. Woman popped out. It was a whole thing.”

“Wait, really?” Gus gasped, eyes shining excitedly.

“Gus, she’s high.” Willow deadpanned. “I don’t think we can trust most things she’s saying right now.”

“It was a thing!” Luz insisted, trying to sit up and failing. “Learned ‘bout it...Big Z got a nerdy war daughter. Like…” She paused for a moment. “Like Amity, but a goddess.”

Amity made a few strangled choking sounds, and King glared up at her. Though he didn’t try to move out of her lap.

“I’m writing it down anyway,” Gus said, scribbling furiously.

“How’s the headache?” Willow asked.

“Killing me slowly,” Luz said, rolling her head to the side on the armrest so she was nearly falling off the couch. 

She moved the washcloth further up, revealing her pupils going off the fritz for a few moments before appearing to pulsate in size.

“I wanna run laps and then curl up on the floor,” Luz said, eyes glazing over in that way you knew she was focusing on nothing at all. “I wanna slam into something.”

“Wh...why?” Gus said slowly.

“No idea,” Luz shrugged, her voice sounding far too cheerful. “Maybe if I run into a wall I’ll start feeling normal. I should try that.” She said, beginning to sit up.

“Absolutely not,” Amity snapped, her voice a bit strained as she sat up and sharply pushed Luz back onto the couch. “You’re not getting any more brain damage today.”

“Eda told me she already fell down the last few steps on the stairs,” King piped up.

“Few?” Luz repeated, blinking. “I fell down all ‘em.”

There was a few seconds of silence where everyone soaked in her words.

“You fell down the entire flight of stairs?” Willow repeated. “Yeah?” Luz looked between her friends, perplexed. “What?”

“Didn’t that hurt?” Amity winced at the thought. “You’re lucky you didn’t break anything!”

“I didn’t feel a thing,” Luz shrugged, completely uncaring. “Felt like falling in a ball pit.”

“You fell down wooden stairs, and you felt nothing?” Willow gaped.

“Nope,” Luz smiled.

Her friends stared at her for a few moments, all in different states of concern.

“Oh, her pain tolerance shot up, too.” Gus spoke, breaking the silence. “Her ears and head must either be incredibly painful or they don’t work the same way.”

“I’ve never felt more terrified for Luz in my life,” Willow near-wheezed. “She could have a cracked bone right now and we wouldn’t even know.”

“I’ll be fine,” Luz waved a hand. “Mamás a doctor, I know things...many things.”

“I know Eda is a lot of things, but I doubt she’s a doctor, whatever that is.” Gus said, confused as he looked up.

Everyone froze. Gus realized who Luz was talking about a moment too late.

Luz squinted and stared down at the couch, washcloth slowly sliding off her head. Her left pupil expanded before slowly shrinking. She looked like she was trying to reboot her brain, and swayed slightly.

“Hey, Luz!” Amity quickly sat up, giving her friend a nervous smile. “You wanna dress up King in that weird patchwork shirt we made?”

“Uh, yes,” Luz went right back to smiling.

A silent sigh of relief swept through the room.

“How could you?” King cried, lowering his voice a second into his outburst. “Haven’t you tortured me enough?”

“It was a cupcake, King.” Amity said, standing and scooping up King in her arms.

“And you crushed it mercilessly!” 

Willow glanced back at Gus, who’s ears were flicked back. He was staring at his notebook, looking like a toddler who’d been caught trying to steal food from the counter.

“Sorry,” He whispered when he caught Willow’s look. “I wasn’t paying attention…”

“It’s alright,” Willow sighed, watching as King squirmed in Amity’s hold and Luz tried to sit up. “We’re all trying to get used to it.”

“King, c’mere,” Luz cooed, putting her hands on the armrest and trying to pull herself up.

Before promptly losing her grip and falling face-first off the couch.

“Are you okay?” Amity worried.

“Feeling nothin’,” Luz said, giving a thumbs up as she raised her head. “Never better.”

Amity cringed back at the sight, and King made an ‘ew’ noise, curling closer in the witches arms.

“She gave herself a black eye, didn’t she?” Willow sighed.

“Yeah…”

“Titan save us, she’s not gonna last a week.”

,

“Oh don’t cha dare look back, just keep ya eyes on me, I said ya holding back, she said shut up and dance with me,”

The quintet were all sitting around the kitchen table. It was well past noon, too late for lunch but too early for dinner. But King had gotten hungry and so everyone had eaten at what Luz had called ‘dinunch’ or ‘lunner.’

Well, everyone aside from Luz. She vehemently refused to eat anything. So she’d resorted to laying upside down on her chair, her head on the floor, and singing some human song nobody at the table knew.

“This woman is my destiny, she said oooooh, shut up and dance with me!”

“I’m going to lose it,” Gus whispered, staring at the table with the gaze of centuries of pain.

“Ha! Luz it,” Luz giggled. “McLuz it. Puns,” 

“Shouldn’t Eda be back with Lilith by now?” Willow asked the demon sitting on the table by Luz’s chair.

“Eh, she may have just started studying at the library with her.” King shrugged. “Or they’re busting themselves out of prison, either is plausible.”

“We were victims of the night,” Luz continued humming. “The chemical, physical, kryptonite.”

“At least she’s not whining about headaches,” Amity shrugged.

“Helpless to the bass and the fading light, oh we were bound to get together, bound to get together,” Luz tilted her head while on the floor, eyes closed.

“For your sake, I hope you don’t remember today all that well,” Willow said, rubbing her temples. “Luz, are you keeping that ice on your eye?”

“She took my arm!” Luz trilled, though it was no louder than regular talking. “Don’t know how it happened, we hit the floor and she saaaaaaid,”

“Luz,” Willow repeated.

“Oh don’t cha dare look back, just keep ya eyes on me, I said you’re holdin’ back, she said--”

“Luz,” Amity said, peering under the table.

Luz paused, blinking open her eyes and holding them on Amity. One of her hands was splayed out by her head, loosely holding a wet towel with no ice in it.

“What happened to the ice?” Amity sighed.

“Huh?” Luz blinked, her pupils fritzing out for a moment. “Oh, I ate ‘em.”

“You ate four cubes of ice?” Willow cried, standing up suddenly. “Why? Why in the world…?”

“Wanted to see what it’d taste like.” Luz said earnestly. “Tasted bad,”

“Then why’d you eat all four?” Gus raised a brow, also peering under the table.

Luz looked at him blankly.

“Shut up and dance with me!” She went right on singing. “This woman is my destiny, she said oooooh,”

Everyone at the table couldn’t look more tired. Willow sighed and got up to get more ice for Luz’s black eye, which had swollen to the point where it could only open halfway. 

“Okay, you’re making me nervous from that position, please sit up,” Amity said, getting up from her chair and standing by Luz, who was still singing on.

“A backless dress and some beat up sneaks,” Luz sang. “My discotheque, Juliet, teenage dream! I felt in in my chest as she looked at me,”

Amity gave Gus and King a look of utter pain and confusion before crouching down by the human, snapping her fingers to get her attention.

Luz jolted to attention and rolled her head to the side, looking up at Amity.

Her pupils dilated wide before one flickered slightly smaller.

“Can you get up?” Amity asked her.

Luz opened her mouth to reply before slowly shutting it again. She did this a few more times before turning her head to the side and avoiding the witches gaze.

Amity sighed and resigned to helping her up herself. She picked up Luz’s feet and took them off of the back of the chair, setting them to the side at a very awkward angle, considering Luz refused to move.

“Lost my place,” Luz mumbled.

For a second Amity thought she was complaining about her current position being shifted, but as her friend started singing again, she knew she couldn’t care less.

“She took my arm, I don’t know how it happened,” She hummed. “We took the floor and she saaaaaaid,”

Amity leaned down and took Luz’s hands, pulling her up. She was now facing off the side of the chair, finally sitting in a normal position.

Luz looked up to her, blinking innocently. One pupil contracted and she broke into a goofy grin.

“Take me home tonight,” She sang on, keeping a hold on Amity’s hands and trying to pull herself to a standing position. “I don’t want to let you go till we see the light.”

Amity stepped back, unconsciously helping to keep Luz standing, watching her in confusion. She glanced at the others, but Gus wasn’t paying much attention, just glad Luz wasn’t singing the same lines over and over again. King barely spared them a glance, much more interested in notes Gus was looking over.

“Take me home tonight,” Luz grinned, pulling Amity’s hands back till she was nearly nose-to-nose with the girl.

It likely would’ve been a lot more romantic if Luz’s eye wasn’t swollen and black. Plus her pupils that were still fluctuating.

“Listen honey,” Luz chanted. “Just like Ronnie said,”

Amity slowly drew her head back, beginning to flush brightly. Luz giggled and gave her a lopsided smile.

“Luz...Luz what are you--”

“Be my little baaaaaaaby,” She snickered, placing her head on Amity’s shoulder and continuing to give short laughs.

“Luz?” Amity stuttered, trying to get her hands out of Luz’s grip. “Listen, you--” She swallowed. “You need to sit back down…”

“Is everything okay?” Willow asked, appearing with more cubes of ice wrapped up in a washcloth.

“Oh don’t you dare look back!” Luz suddenly shot back, snatching Amity’s arms and tugging her along. “Just keep your eyes on me!” 

She misjudged the distance between her and the table, smacking her back into and crumbling to the floor, not as steady on her feet as everyone thought.

The back of her head hit the table as she fell. She didn’t make any noise of pain, simply toppled over and landed on the floor before roughly sitting back and knocking against the table leg, looking dazed.

“Luz!” Amity cried.

Gus and King jerked up as Willow rushed over, crouching by Luz along with Amity. 

Luz still looked almost to be in a state of shock, but it was hard to tell from how her head turned and pupils contracted. Willow reached out and turned her head to inspect the damage.

“Yeah, it’s bleeding.” Willow winced. 

“How much?” Gus asked, peering over the table.

“Uh,” Willow pulled her hand back, revealing Luz’s blood coating it.

Amity sucked in a breath and her eyes went wide. She quickly turned Luz’s head to see for herself as Gus and King hurried around to them.

She couldn’t tell where the cut was under Luz’s hair that she was beginning to grow out, but it was bleeding rapidly. A large patch of her hair was dark red with blood gushing out.

“Call Eda, call Eda!” Gus exclaimed as King rushed to Luz, worrying over her.

“Call the healers!” King insisted over the witch.

Luz winced and covered her ears, whimpering at their frantic shouting. Willow quickly pulled out her scroll and began dialing Eda, clearly just as freaked out as the others.

Amity was in a state of shock. She was sitting on her knees at Luz’s side, just staring at the blood beginning to trickle down Luz’s hair and onto her neck. Her pupils were slitted into thin lines, and her breathing had become heavy.

Luz opened her eyes, but kept her hands over her ears because of the shouting. She gave her friends a hurt look before noticing the stilled fear on Amity’s face.

She frowned and nudged Amity’s leg with her foot. When the witch didn’t respond, she turned to King, who was sitting closest to her, and nudged his back with the same foot.

King turned, and everyone's shouting paused.

“Guys?” Luz said, one eye dilating as the back of her shirt grew soaked with blood. “I think something’s wrong with Amity...”

,

Lilith sat on the couch, looking over as many medical papers she could. She finally wore her glasses, and she had notes lay strewn about on the coffee table. She was exhausted, and words were beginning to blur together.

It was almost one in the morning, but she couldn’t stop yet.

After a study session and quick escape from Kikimora yesterday, Eda had been called and informed by panicked teenagers that Luz had hit her head on the table and was heavily bleeding on the floor. Lilith didn’t think Eda could get that scared in such a short amount of time, but you learn something new every day.

Thankfully, Luz had turned out fine. Her head injury wasn’t all that serious, it just turns out humans bleed more from head wounds than witches.

But considering that in just a few hours Luz had managed to get said head injury, a black eye, and traumatize her friends, Eda was quick to shoo them away.

Lilith hated the pained expression plastered to Amity’s face.

She couldn’t be mad at Eda, not really. Her little sister was scared for Luz, and who wouldn’t be? Having to deal with three more kids was far from her to-do list.

Luz had been patched up by very concerned healers, leaving Lilith to insist that, no, they had not drugged a child, she was just having a bad reaction to vaccines.

Her friends had come back the second day, but Luz was on constant surveillance watch by them and Eda alike. Not much had changed from the first day, though Luz had somehow managed to get her head stuck in a cardboard cylinder.

She was glad when they left before dinner. The constant terror flashing in Amity’s eyes worried her beyond belief.

Technically speaking, Lilith supposed, it was the third day now. But she was too busy focusing on finding anything useful to dwell on it.

She heard creaking steps and didn’t bother to glance up. It was probably Edalyn. She was awake at all hours and was probably off to grab a snack.

She heard heavy footsteps and eventually something flopping down at the edge of the coffee table.

A moment later, a head was placed on it.

Lilith looked up then.

Luz was sitting on her knees at the end of the table, her chin resting on the end with her arms loosely dragging in the floor. She had bandages around her black eye and head, and, according to her, making her look like ‘a pirate.’”

“Luz?” Lilith blinked, setting down her pen. “What are you doing up?”

“Not tired,” Luz said, her eyes turning to the witch.

Her right pupil expanded, nearly taking up all the color in her eye.

“Well, you should try to sleep,” Lilith said simply. “I have tea to help calm you down, if you want.”

“Nah,” Luz said, looking back to the papers. “Whatcha doing?”

Lilith, already tired and not thinking completely straight, decided it wouldn’t be such a bad idea to humor the human.

“Studying,” She said simply. “To help you.”

“You are?” Luz perked up, raising her head off the table. 

“Um, yes?” Lilith raised a brow. “I have been for a while now. Did you not know?” “Nobody told me!” Luz shook her head, placing her hands on the table and holding herself up. “You found a lot on the human...human thingies,” She commented, gazing at the papers.

Lilith suddenly understood, and she felt a twinge in her chest. She decided not to think about it for too long.

“Oh, no, no, I’m not studying for that.” She explained. “I’m studying how to make you feel better, not the human realm.”

Luz’s smile instantly fell. She slumped onto her elbows and glomily lay her cheek on the table.

“Oh,” She said sadly, letting out a sigh. “Okay,”

Lilith frowned, her chest suddenly feeling just a bit hollower. She thought she must’ve been feeling the weight of her exhaustion, but she was quick to realize the real issue.

Lilith sighed dramatically and ran a hand through her hair.

Great Titan, she’d begun to truly care, hadn’t she?

She bit her lip and glanced back at Luz, who was still sorrowfully staring at her papers, her pupil now contracted to half the size of a dime.

“But,” She said cautiously, catching Luz’s attention. “I suppose I could help you with that...once you feel better, of course.”

“You will?” Luz shot up again like a rocket. “Thank you!” She smiled.

Lilith gave a small smile and chuckled.

“You’re going to regret all that happened these last few days when you gain control of yourself again,” She said, going back to flipping through the pages of a medical book she found. “I know I would.”

“Why?” Luz asked, tiling her head curiously.

“Wh--Luz, even you must realize you’d never be like this in your normal state.” Lilith said matter-of-factly. “You hate me, remember?”

Luz stared at her blankly for a moment. She crossed her arms on the table and rested on them, giving her an innocent look.

“No I don’t,”

Lilith paused. She slowly glanced over to the girl, confused.

“You do,” She said firmly. “In case you forgot, I used you to lure Eda to the Emperor’s Coven and could’ve gotten you seriously hurt.”

“You did?” Luz asked, before realization dawned on her. “Oh yeah! You did,” She chuckled. “I used to have nightmares about that.” She said casually.

Lilith flinched and turned away, focusing her attention on the paper she’d read over and over again.

There was a stretched silence for a few moments. Lilith thought Luz had fallen asleep, but she was still staring at her.

“Don’t hate cha,” Luz said again, her pupil flickering. “Ya no, al menos,” She mumbled.

“And why’s that?” Lilith sighed. “If you’d care to enlighten me,”

“You try,” Luz said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I mean, I definitely have favorites,” She said, turning her head on her arms. “But you’re off the hate-list. Hate file. Hate...paper.” She stuck out her tongue.

“Luz, with all due respect, I’m finding that hard to believe.” Lilith said simply. “You’re in a deleriated state, and I don’t trust your words at the moment.”

“I know stuff!” Luz shot back, glaring.

“What’s six times three?” Lilith asked.

Luz stared at her for a moment. She looked down at her fingers and began quietly counting on them.

“...twenty-three?” She suggested hesitantly.

Lilith gave her a deadpan stare before sighing and setting aside another paper.

“My point still stands,”

“But I don’t,” Luz whined, pounting.

“Not to be unappreciative, but Eda is far more deserving of you than I ever will be.” Lilith said simply, ears flicking back.

“Eda’s not perfect,” Luz muttered. “She made me break into the crema...the...tori...prison.” Luz muttered. “Prison break.”

“She made you break into the crematorium?” Lilith jerked up.

“First day,” Luz grinned, raising a finger. “For a...a lil crown.” 

She suddenly lit up, happily facing Lilith.

“Hey, hey,” She started giggling. “Did you, did you know Warden Wrath,” She could barely hold back her laughs. “Wrath had a crush on Eda?”

Lilith’s eyebrows raised, and she searched Luz’s face with hesitant interest.

“I did not…” She said slowly. 

“It was weird,” Luz giggled. “And, and she forgot my name!” She said gleefully. “Had to remind her who I was.”

“She did?” Lilith said, slowly setting her pen down.

“And she laughed at me,” Luz added, resting her chin on the table as she thought. “And told me to dig through trash. And almost killed me while cursed.”

Lilith visibly flinched, turning away. She had never heard that Eda transformed while Luz was stuck in the house with her. 

How Luz made it out unscathed, she wished she knew.

“And she made me cheat at the covention,” Luz continued rattling off. “And Eda swapped our bodies because...petty I think. And made me shove moss up my nose. And she sold some of my old stuff,”

Luz visibly frowned slightly at that one.

“And she taunted me by saying I was fragile. And a bunch of other things,” She continued, her pupil spazzing for a moment. She visibly winced before it calmed to enveloping half her eye.

“That’s...quite a bit.” Lilith said slowly. 

“Yeah,” Luz nodded, before placing her hands on the table again and raising herself up.

“But I still love her,” She said cheerfully. “She did good things, too.”

“Oh, I’ve heard about those, you don’t need to list them.” Lilith quickly assured the kid. “Eda boasts about her accomplishments all the time.”

Luz smiled and began messing with the pen Lilith left on the table, rolling it around as her eye followed it.

“You’ve done good, too.” She said quietly. “I like that you try,” She said sincerely, looking up. “I try.”

Lilith watched the girl for a moment. She offered the tiniest of smiles and glanced down at her hands, looking them over.

“Thank you,” She said quietly, holding her hands close. “I...I appreciate it.”

Luz ditched the pen and held herself up higher, looking proud.

“And if I’m honest, I’d almost think you weren’t as affected as we thought,” Lilith raised a brow in amusement. “Are you sure your not actually high?”

Luz blinked at her, tilting her head in confusion and frowning. She looked down, then looked back to Lilith.

“I’m on the floor,” She said.

“...never mind.” Lilith sighed, shaking her head. “You’re a wonder, Luz, you know that?”

Luz puffed out her chest with pride and brought a hand to it. She was about to say something, but she had been resting all her weight on her hands, and with one removed, she promptly slipped and cracked her chin against the coffee table.

“Are you alright?” Lilith exclaimed as Luz groaned and held her chin, falling onto the carpeted floor. “Ow,” Luz whined.

Lilith muttered under her breath and took off her glasses. She got up and walked over to Luz, helping the girl to her feet.

“At least you can feel pain again,” She murmured. “Come on, let’s get you to bed.”

Luz didn’t respond, but she allowed the witch to guide her out of the living room, still whimpering about the pain. 

Lilith had gotten to the bottom of the stairs when Luz leaned against her side, holding her arms. Lilith looked down at her before wrapping an arm around the girl and gently leading her up the stairs.

Her studying could wait.

,

“Des-pa-cito,” 

“Day three into Luz’s descent into madness,” Gus droned over Luz’s singing. “And I’ve lost my will to continue on.”

“Quiero respirar tu cuello despacito,” Luz sang deliriously, though at least she seemed to be having fun.

The friends were all sitting on the living room floor, with Eda and King messing with some glyphs on the couch.

“Where’s Lilith?” Amity wondered, eyeing Luz, who was laying on her back on the floor.

“Holed up in her room studying on something,” Eda waved her hand casually. “Don’t know, don’t particularly care. Unless it's useful to us right now.”

“Deja que te diga cosas al oído,” Luz hummed. “Para que te acuerdes si no estás conmigo.”

“When Luz said she was going to distract herself from her headache, I wasn’t expecting this.” Willow said calmly, already glazed over from three days of putting up with this.

“It’s not that much different from yesterday,” Amity insisted.

“Des-pa-cito!”

The green-haired witches expression, however, proved that she was tired of dealing with Luz’s shenanigans as well.

“Quiero desnundar--” 

Luz suddenly cut herself off, staring at the ceiling. Amity glanced over, noticing a crimson on Luz’s face as her unbandaged pupil contracted.

“Luz?” Amity asked.

“Nope, not saying that.” Luz said, still staring at the ceiling.

Amity raised a brow and glanced at her friends. They only gave her clueless shrugs. Not like any of them knew Spanish.

“I’m too hungry to put up with this,” Eda grumbled, getting up from the couch and ditching the fire glyph she was trying to draw. “You kids want lunch?”

“It’s three PM?” Gus said, glancing up.

“Time is an illusion and so are you,” Eda responded, walking by the kids. “You hungry or not?”

“I am,” King said, scampering after her.

“A bit,” Amity nodded, standing up. “C’mon, Luz.”

“Not hungry,” Luz said simply, turning her head to watch as her friends all got up.

“I know for a fact you haven’t had lunch today,” Eda said, stopping and looking back. “You gotta eat, Luz.”

“I’m just not hungry,” Luz whined. “Wake up not hungry, stay not hungry.”

Eda frowned as Amity offered a hand and helped Luz to her feet.

“Didn’t wake up hungry?” Eda repeated. “Did you eat breakfast?”

“No,” Luz said bluntly. “Wasn’t hungry.”

“Luz!” Willow scolded.

“What? I’m not!” Luz huffed, crossing her arms.

“Luz, when was the last time you ate?” Eda sighed.

Luz paused. She scrunched up her face for a moment before beginning to mutter and count on her fingers.

You could see the fear spike through everyone in the room.

“Uh, not yesterday,” Luz mumbled. “Not...yesterday-yesterday…”

“You haven’t eaten anything in over three days?” Gus exclaimed.

“Ow,” Luz grumbled, pointing to her ears before her pupil contracted. “But...yeah, think so. Wasn’t hungry,” She shrugged like it was no big deal.

“Oh you’ve gotta be kidding me,” Eda groaned, disturbed. “Come on, Luz, you’re eating something.”

“But-”

“No buts!” Eda snapped, grabbing the back of the girls shirt and tugging her into the kitchen. “You not feeling hungry in three days is the most worrying thing you’ve said. The no-pain thing is definitely second.”

“I swear we thought she ate before and that’s why she wasn’t hungry,” Gus said, hurriedly following after.

“Not your fault, I should’ve paid more attention.” Eda shrugged, dumping Luz into the kitchen chair where she pouted. “Add that to the list of vaccine symptoms.”

“No wonder she keeps falling over,” Willow murmured, casually shoving Luz back into her seat when she tried to get up. “I would too, if I was functioning on no food.”

“Shouldn’t she have gotten better by now?” Amity asked, pacing on the opposite side of the island counter. “Eda, when did you say she’ll get better?” “I…” Eda paused, one hand on the fridge door as she thought. “...a week. A week at most.” She said, glancing back. “We’ll be seeing progress between now and the end of this week, I promise.”

She almost winced at her own lie. Which was a rare sight for the con-artist.

“I’m fine,” Luz grumbled, slumping onto the table. “I’ve had worse,”

“While you weren’t inebriated, Luz.” Amity deadpanned. “It’s one thing when you get yourself into trouble on your own, this is worse.”

“Dramatic,” Luz muttered, but didn’t comment further.

“Willow, you're the strongest, right?” Eda asked, turning and placing a bowl of leftover meat chunks on the table.

“Yeah?” Willow blinked. “Why?”

“Hold her down,” She instructed the witch. “Because she will fight back.”

Willow didn’t react for the first few moments, allowing Eda’s words to sink in for Luz. She started to shoot up and make a break for it, but Willow quickly snapped out of it and shoved the human back into her seat with little difficulty.

Luz flailed and even tried to bite Willow, but it did practically nothing. A sharp shoulder squeeze at the human wincing and obediently sitting still.

“Is this...common?” Gus inquired.

“No, not really.” Eda shook her head. “I just figured since Luz was having such an aversion to eating for three days, she probably wouldn’t be inclined to now just because we asked nicely.”

Luz tried to mimic a hiss as Eda set down the bowl in front of her. Gus giggled at the sight, since it was more like her saying the word hiss than the actual noise witches made.

“Every day, I lose more of my sanity in this house,” Amity said, stepping away as Luz tried to struggle again and Eda searched for a fork.

“Welcome to the club, kid.”

,

Luz had been sent to bed three hours earlier. 

It was the end of the third day.

Eda, for some reason, was wide awake.

This wasn’t out of the blue. She was usually up at odd hours due to her curse. She felt less inclined to do so now, but thirty-year-old habits die hard.

She figured she woke up on her own, so she got up to get a snack like usual, and to check on Luz in her room.

But when she left her own room and looked down the hallway, she saw that Luz’s door was wide open.

Panic seized her for a brief moment before she forced herself to calm down. An open door didn’t mean anything, get yourself together.

Eda poked her head inside Luz’s room and looked around. Sure enough, her sleeping bag was left abandoned, and the human was nowhere to be seen.

Her first thought was Lilith. Nothing specific at all, just that Lilith was responsible.

She shook her head and looked back towards Lilith’s ‘room.’ The light was still on.

She opened the door a crack, seeing Lilith was sitting on the floor, ready to pass out. She had books and papers strewn out before her, half of them medical, the other half everything on humans and their realm she could find. Eda knew Luz and Gus had already read through those before.

She felt the tiniest twinge of guilt at the immediate blame before silently shutting the door.

Maybe Luz had just gone for a snack, like her. It wasn’t too unusual for her to creep out at midnight.

Granted, she wasn’t on the verge of toppling over at every step those last times.

Eda walked down the stairs and looked around. She checked every room, seeing no trace of the human anywhere, her anxiety growing by the minute.

She pulled out a fire glyph and lit the candles around the kitchen, forcibly keeping her breathing normal.

“Hello?”

Eda perked at the sound of the girl's voice and pricked her ears up. She saw that the back door was wide open, explaining why Hooty hadn’t noticed anything. He was asleep at this point, anyway.

She could see the outline of someone standing well outside the house, nearly at the treeline.

“Luz!” Eda called, rushing out the door. “What are you doing out here, kid?”

Luz whirled around, eyes wide and scared.

The bandage around her head was gone, revealing the injury on her head was at nasty cotting phase. Her eye was still dark and swollen, but she could open it far better than before. The healing glyphs had sped up the process, while they had been on.

“Luz?” Eda slowed, coming to a stop a few meters from the girl, the kitchen light from the house giving her a shadow that stretched out right towards Luz.

“It...it’s her,” Luz said, slowly turning her head back around to face the forest. “I can hear her.”

“Hear who?” Eda said, taking a step closer. 

“Listen,” Luz said simply.

So, Eda did. She angled her ears to listen towards the forest, silent and still.

The only sound that greeted her was the wind through the trees.

“There it is!” Luz suddenly perked up. “That’s her!”

There hadn’t been a sound.

Eda knew her hearing was well more developed than Luz’s, all witches ears were. So the fact that Luz claimed to be hearing something even she couldn’t was...concerning.

“Kid, I can’t hear anything.” Eda shook her head.

“You’re not listening,” Luz huffed, her left pupil dilating. “It’s her! She’s somewhere out here, I know it!” She said, looking around.

“Who?” Eda demanded. “Who can you hear? What are you talking about?”

“My mamá,” Luz said, still scanning the treeline. “I can hear her.”

Oh.

Eda felt a painful twist in her chest. For a moment, she thought her gem was acting up, but it was still the same inky black as before.

“Luz,” Eda started gently, walking closer to the girl. “Your mother’s not here.”

“Yes she is, I hear her.” Luz said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I think you need your ears checked. She’s somewhere out there, I just need to--”

Eda grabbed Luz’s shoulder and she whirled around, startled. Her eyes flickered and spazzed, reflecting Eda’s face before shrinking again.

“That’s not her,” Eda said softly, looking down at the girl. “You’re hallucinating again, kiddo.” She said sorrowfully. “There’s nobody there.”

Luz looked up at the witch, her brows knitting together in a frown. She suddenly jerked back to the forest, head raised.

“But I hear her…” She said quietly, a crack lacing her voice.

“I know you do,” Eda said, wrapping an arm around the teens shoulders. “But there’s no way that can be her. She’s back in the human realm, remember?”

Luz stared up at Eda with wide, searching eyes. She looked back to the forest, her body tense. Eda knew that look and tightened her hold around Luz’s shoulders, her hand placed just below Luz’s collarbone.

“Mamá!” Luz shouted, straining against Eda’s hold. “Mamá! I’m here!” She cried, raising a hand to grab Eda’s, but she didn’t try to pull her off.

Eda realized that the shouting must’ve been torture to Luz’s ears. She could even see the human wince every time she shouted. And yet, she kept calling.

Luz waited, listening intently. Eda sighed and gently tried to pull the human back.

“She’s not there. She would’ve heard you.” She said. 

“She must be stuck,” Luz insisted. “Mamá!”

“Luz,” Eda breathed. “Please, she’s not--”

“She has to be!” Luz persisted, straining again. “She...she has to be...I can hear her…”

The girl looked back at Eda, tears shining in her eyes and already beginning to roll down her cheeks.

Eda’s ears pressed back and she let out a breath, drawing up her other hand to gently grab Luz’s arm, her expression full of sorrow.

“I’m sorry, Luz.” She said softly. “I’m so sorry, but that’s not her.”

Luz sniffled and hiccuped. She opened her mouth to shout more, but all that came out was a strangled gasp. She quickly closed her mouth again, shutting her eyes as tears freely rolled down her cheeks.

The girl turned and buried her face in the crook of Eda’s arm, her hands tightly clutching Eda’s dress as she tried and failed to muffle her sobs.

Eda enveloped the girl in a hug, feeling every shake her body gave as she wailed. The human flinched at every loud noise she made, but was unable to stop it.

Eda offered hushed whispers, holding the girl up and placing a hand on the back of her head. She stared off into the trees, only being greeted by the empty shadows.

The only sound now was Luz’s cries.

The witch, keeping her arms around Luz, began to guide her back to the house. Luz stayed clinging to her side, her face streaked with tears.

It was awkward maneuvering around her, but she didn’t complain.

Luz’s sobs had quieted to choked cries by the time Eda stepped inside, shutting the door behind her.

She debated trying to turn off the lights, since she couldn’t rely on her magic to do that for her, but she decided to let the candles burn themselves out instead.

“Can you walk, kid?” Eda asked the girl.

Luz sniffled and nodded, slowly peeling herself off of Eda’s side.

“Come on, let’s hit the hay, eh?” She offered, nudging the girl in front of her. “When’s the last time we got a good night's rest, am I right?” She said, trying a half-hearted joke.

Luz paused at that, wiping at her eyes as she thought.

“I don’t think I’ve slept the last two days,” Luz said, glancing back.

Eda stared at her, praying that the girl was joking. And as hard it was to take Luz seriously with one pupil blown wide and the other taking up her entire iris, she knew very well she wasn’t joking.

“Great Titan, kid,” Eda sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Alright, my nest. Someone has to keep an eye on you.”

Luz nodded and began to climb the stairs, holding her hands together to try and stop their shaking. Eda stayed right behind her, fearfully shifting every time she saw the girl sway slightly.

Eda caught Lilith’s door quickly shutting when they made it up the stairs. She wasn’t surprised, Luz hadn’t necessarily been quiet.

Luz stumbled down the hallway, Eda hovering right behind her. She looked away for a moment to look at Lilith’s closed door, noting that the lights were off now.

She heard a thud.

Eda spun around, tensing.

Luz had fallen mid-step, crashing onto the floor in a heap. In a flash, Eda was at her side and pulling her up, terrified something bad had happened.

Instead, she was greeted by Luz’s soft snores.

“Of course,” Eda sighed, scooping her up into her arms. “Just my luck you’d pass out before we even got to my room.” She muttered.

Effortlessly, she carried the human to her room and kicked the door shut behind her. She lay Luz in her nest, leaning her head on the edge to keep it propped up.

Eda searched her room for a moment before finding the spare gauzes and healing glyphs she kept for emergencies. It was awkward trying to wrap up Luz’s head, but she managed and placed two healing glyphs on her, one over her eye and the other on the back of her head.

She searched her nest for a moment before pulling out an old blanket she rarely used. She wrapped it around Luz and lay her back down before slipping into her nest beside her.

Luz twitched in her sleep, but aside from that, she didn’t stir.

Eda lay on her stomach, her head squished against the edge of the nest. She glanced at Luz beside her before wrapping one arm around her, keeping the girl close.

“I’m sorry, kid.” Eda sighed quietly. “You never deserved any of this.”

All that greeted her was deafening silence.

,

“Are you sure you feel fine?” Gus asked for the eighth time that morning.

“Yes, Gus,” Luz sighed. “I swear that I am completely conscious now.”

“Guess your prediction was right,” Eda mumbled to Lilith, standing off to the side from the group. “Been a week, and she’s nearly normal again.”

“Thank goodness!” King breathed, slumping over Luz’s crossed leg. “I couldn’t handle being smothered by you again.”

“Sorry,” Luz winced, giving a sheepish smile. “I take it I…” She raised a hand and felt at her eye, which, while less swollen, was still noticeable. “Caused a bit of trouble?” She guessed shyly.

“Your hallucinations weren’t fun,” Willow nodded. “Or your unending thirst for every water bottle you could find.”

“And your refusal to eat and sleep,” Eda added.

Luz rubbed the back of her neck, hunching her shoulders and offering nervous smiles.

“Sorry, guys.”

“Don’t worry, it’s not your fault.” Amity assured her. 

Eda casted a sideways glare at Lilith, who looked away and held her hands behind her back.

“At least you’ll get to freely move around the beast keeping track now,” Willow added. “Viney will appreciate the help, I’m sure.”

“Oh, yeah!” Luz perked up. “No more sick day excuses!” She pumped a fist.

“Which means you’re helping out with the trash slugs now,” Eda reminded with a grin. “Because now you don’t have excuses.”

“Getting vaccines doesn’t mean she’s immune to all sickness, Edalyn.” Lilith grit her teeth and sent a glare towards her sister.

“Yeah, but she won’t get, like, ones that’ll kill her.” Eda waved a hand casually.

“Aw,” Luz slumped.

“A moment of silence for Luz.” Willow said solemnly. 

“Do you wanna read about what happened?” Gus asked excitedly, already pulling out his notebook.

“Am I going to regret it if I do?” Luz turned to Amity.

“Fifty-fifty,” Amity tilted her hand. “I’d skip the part with the broken window and dumpster-diving.”

“And the kitchen incident?” Willow added, giving Amity a smug look.

Amity gave a guttural growl and lowered her ears.

“I’m already worried,” Luz said, anxiously glancing between her friends.

“How about we hold off on the trip down memory lane?” Lilith said, walking around and slowly pushing down Gus’s notebook that he was pulling out. “Luz, aside from the usual symptoms, is anything different?” She questioned the girl.

“Uh,” Luz frowned and thought for a moment. “A mild headache is normal, right?”

“Yeah, you got those all the time.” King nodded.

Luz hummed and thought, tapping her fingers on the carpet before perking up.

“Oh, I think I’ve got a better pain tolerance now.”

“I thought that faded?” Amity exclaimed, panicked. 

“That was an issue?” Luz blinked. “I mean, it’s not that bad. I kinda fell down the stairs earlier but all I got was a regular bruise instead of a small gash like three weeks ago.”

“You really need to fix the stairs if this is a common issue,” Lilith turned to Eda.

“Oh, that’s not as bad.” Willow relaxed. “Your pain tolerance used to be so high that when you cut your head you didn’t feel a thing.”

Luz gave Willow a wide-eyed, very concerned look.

“Wasn’t fun,” Amity shook her head, shuttering.

“Yeah, no, my tolerance is nowhere near that high.” Luz assured them. “And I can sort of feel the magic from my glyphs? I dunno, it’s hard to describe.”

“Probably the magic the vaccines had,” Eda shrugged. “That might last a while longer.”

“Cool,” Luz grinned. “Oh, and my vision feels weird sometimes, but I think I’ll be fine after a few hours.”

“Yeah, that's normal. Your eyes acted up a lot.” Gus nodded. “It was really funny, your entire eye would be just black.”

“...human pupils can’t dilate that much.” Luz said, concern lacing her tone.

“They can now,” Eda snickered. “With the,” She broke off in a fit of giggles. “The power of witch drugs.”

“I’m going to admit,” King raised his head. “Now I’m curious what actual drugs would do to you.”

“You have drugs in the Isles?” Luz exclaimed. “Like, illegal ones?”

“Course we do,” Eda chuckled. “You can find them at the Night Market for, what, ten snails?”

“That’s the cheap ones.” Lilith corrected. “The very illegal ones go for fifty or more.”

“And you know this because…?”

Lilith stiffened and cast a fearful glance at the children all watching her expectantly. Aside from Amity, who looked very worried.

“...I used to catch a lot of people selling at the Night Market,” Lilith said, crossing her arms. “It’s hard not to take notice of how much they were going for.”

“Plot twist of the century, ex-coven leader Lilith Clawthorne snorts fairy dust.” Eda giggled. “Oh how the masses would love that.”

“Edalyn!” Lilith gasped.

“Am I wrong?”

“And this is our cue to leave,” Luz whispered to her friends as the sisters began their daily bickering.

Her friends didn’t argue, they just quickly got up and shuffled towards the door. Willow carried King with them in her arms like a football, much to his silent complaints.

Luz opened the door and guided her friends out, quitey shutting out the arguing sisters.

“Hi, guys!” Hooty chirped.

Luz winced and pulled away, rubbing at her ears.

“Ow,” She muttered.

“Are your ears still sensitive?” Amity worried, shooting Hooty a glare that made him shut up.

“Only a little,” Luz offered a smile, stepping away from the front door. “Anyway, what did I miss while I was out of it?”

“Nothing much,” Gus said, beginning to walk off as the rest followed. “Aside from, like, a ton of homework.” “I expect nothing less,” Luz muttered, pain etched into her face.

“You want me to ask Principal Bump to loosen up on you for a bit?” Amity asked.

“Teachers pet privilege,” Willow whispered under her breath.

“I heard that!” Amity snapped.

“Just a little,” Luz nodded. “I’m still emotionally recovering from being basically unconscious for a week.”

“I still have the notes if you want to read them,” Gus said, slowly pulling out his notebook again.

“On one hand, yes,” Luz said. “But on the other hand, I’m scared of what I’ll find.”

“It’s mostly just filled with you falling over a lot and singing random songs on repeat.” Willow shrugged.

“I have all of them stuck in my head at the same time and I can’t get them out,” Amity whispered, looking horror-stricken.

Luz chuckled nervously, rubbing along the edges of her black eye.

“You know, I think I’m glad I don’t remember much.”

#THIS IS SO LONG JESUS CHRIST HELP ME #drabble post #my writing #the owl houes #toh #four years au #luz noceda #luz #amity blight #amity #eda clawthorne #eda #owl mom #lilith clawthorne #lilith #gus porter #gus #willow park #willow #king #hooty #writing #angst #fluff #crack #tw drugs #tw hallucinations #IM SO TIRED I DID IT #sick luz

[loveafterthefact]

Love After the Fact Chapter 80: Pulled From Orbit

As two empires threaten to fall, Lance and Keith part ways

Hot Take: the paladin armor actually kinda sucks and my children deserve better

First  Previous  Next

Despite his insistence that Keith act like, well, like someone who is pregnant, Lance is not at all surprised when the Galra pulls a Marmoran suit of armor out of the bottom of his old chest from Daibazaal. He doesn’t even protest. He’ll take anything at this point.

“Listen to me.” Lance comes up behind him as he finishes dressing, gently draws the gold and amber comb from Keith’s hair, replacing it with a set of black pins. BleepBloop watches from the ladder to the loft. “Whatever happens next, I love you, and I love your people, too.”

“What happens if we must choose between your people and mine?”

Lance inhales sharply, gripping Keith’s shoulders tight. “Raze the current rule to the ground and start our own allied regime?”

Keith works up a smile. “Yes, let’s. You can rule by my side. I’ll allow it.”

Lance doesn't manage a smile, but his eyes soften for a moment, that warrior's gaze faltering in a surge of fondness.

Keith eyes their profile in the mirror, watches Lance’s hands travel down to his fingertips, up to his waist as he lays his scaled cheek on his shoulder. It’s the first time they’ve seen each other in armor, the first time their sharpest edges are in bold.

Lance’s armor is as fine as anything, white metal inlaid with his token deep, bright blue. A breastplate, greaves and boots, bracers, all made of metal plates. Instead of a plackart, cuisses, and other minor plates, Lance has scale and fine mail, and Keith notices that the pauldrons are made of many small, reinforced plates to allow more flexibility in the shoulders. More than suitable for someone with a mixed fighting style. And, of course, beneath all that is a flight suit, air tight and climate controlled the moment Lance’ helmet locks into place.

The contrast, the incongruity between them has never been more apparent, Keith’s dark, minimalist armor casting a shadow over his mate's starbright form. Lance is armed like a hero, and Keith looks like a thief in the night. He’s okay with that, happy to be underestimated. A small man with a knife and a secret skillset is far more dangerous than a big man with a large sword. The growing wolf at his side only adds to their disparity.

He is Lance’s thorn, his last resort.

“Your Majesties.” Adam steps into the room, face grim. “King Alfor has summoned you to the Situation Room.”

Keith nods, clasps Lance’s hand, laces their fingers together. He will have to let go far too soon for his liking. The Altean prince snatches up his helmet, rushing after Adam, wolf at their heels.

The situation room is dark, lit only by a large, round holotable and the pale blue accent lights on peoples' armor. There are screens hovering over the table, lit up with interfaces, statistics, and control panels. Alfor is waiting for them. All of the lines in his face are chasms, his eyes glowing a dim, pale blue. It strikes Keith suddenly how washed out Alfor’s quintessence is, how little person is in the man. He wonders who the king might have been, had he been allowed.

“Boys. I know you expect to be sent away, lives preserved. But I offer you the option to stay, and act as leaders in my stead. Of all the things I have prepared for, I am not prepared for this.”

“Neither are we,” Lance confesses. Keith grips his hand tighter, trying to regulate himself. He can’t afford to lose it now. “But I will stay, and do what I can.”

Silence, only for a moment, before Keith realizes that they’re waiting for him. “My place is here, with our peoples. It always has been.”

Alfor nods. “Tell us what you know.”

Keith’s eyes finally register other faces, Iverson, glaring at him. Griffin, surprisingly not glaring at him. “We received a message from my mother. She says that the Imperial Compound is under attack, and that rebel forces are heading for Altea.”

“You don’t seem very surprised.” Iverson’s tone is more than a little accusing. Some of the other high-ranking military members seem to share his disposition. Keith ignored them. He's used to the prejudice by now, and there are more pressing concerns.

“We’ve been aware of unrest on Daibazaal for some time. Weight discrepancies in shipping containers, people going missing, a sudden increase in deserters. Emperor Zarkon dismissed said deserters, saying that it was to be expected following the unwelcome alliance with Altea. It’s unclear if he knows anything about the shipping containers.”

“So the emperor’s allegiances are unclear?” Griffin asks.

“Yes,” Lance sighs. “As are Honerva’s.”

Pidge’s face appears on screen. “Hey, I have something to contribute to that. Not that I’ve been eavesdropping or anything.”

“What do you have for us, Pidge?” Alfor leans on the holotable, gaze severe.

“So remember how Lotor helped me hack into his medical records for reasons?”

“Yeeees?” Lance frowns, not sure he wants to have this conversation with everyone else in the room. But it’s hardly the time for tiptoeing. “Why? What did you find?”

“Turns out Honerva’s been experimenting on Lotor his entire life. See, as a result of his hybrid status -at least, that’s what I’m assuming- Lotor can only absorb quintessence, not redistribute it. It looks like Honerva was trying to artificially recreate that power. She keeps referencing this… thing. The Komar Experiment-”

“Oh, that’s not good,” Keith mutters. Under everyone’s gaze, Keith takes a steadying breath. He’s starting to feel queasy, like adrenaline or simply time has cut through the antinausea medication. He strokes Wolf's head with his free hand. “The word ‘Komar’ doesn’t directly translate into Common or Altean, but it means, ‘large breath that takes’. It um, it’s like the first breath a baby takes, or like after you break the surface of water after near drowning. It’s Galran folklore that-” He swallows saliva, skin feeling hot. “-that when someone takes a lifegiving breath, another life ends.”

Adam slips something into his palm: a small pill. He dry swallows quickly, in the wake of what he’s just suggested.

“Are you implying,” Iverson growls. “That Honerva experimented on her son in order to invent some device that absorbs quintessence?”

Alfor falls into a chair, eyes glassy. “Honerva is perhaps the greatest inventor I have ever known. Lotor is thirty-two years old. She’s had more than enough time if this is what she’s been up to.”

"Her notes are... specific. Lotor has been surprisingly unattached to his parents, despite his Galra blood," Pidge murmurs. "I would not be surprised if it's a result of the invasive procedures he was subjected to in infancy. Trauma he doesn't even remember. Honerva would put him in situations with the intention to cause distress in order to activate him limited alchemical abilities so she could study him. She would neglect, frighten, and even harm him in order to get the desired reaction."

“And that's horrible. Truly. But we don’t know that’s what she’s up to right now,” Lance cuts in. “What we do know, is that the Imperial Compound is under attack, meaning that these attackers staging a coup. If they succeed, they’ll come for us next. According to our sources, ships are already on their way here.”

“So we have a planet to defend, a coup to stop, a prince, princess, and consort to rescue, and possibly a horrifying weapon of unknown size to find and destroy. One that could, for all we know, be capable of draining our entire planet and others,” Griffin summarized. “How the quiznak do we do this?”

Silence. Keith takes in a deep, slightly-less-nauseous breath. “We split up. Lance will go to Daibazaal, rally the citizens, and take Daibazaal back from the rebels. I will stay here, and lead the defense.”

“Shouldn’t it be the other way around?” Griffin mutters.

“No, he’s right. Lance will go to Daibazaal, and I will go with him. We will determine who is in the right, and join their side. He and I will rally the civilians, form a small team, and find a way to infiltrate the Compound.” Alfor gets to his feet. “Keith, rally your men. Defend this planet, and its people. But if we should fall, you are to escape by any means necessary. Do you understand?”

Keith can feel the eyes of everyone in the room, soldiers, analysts, Adam, Lance. Waiting for his answer, putting two and two together, realizing exactly what’s at stake.

“I understand. My life, by any means necessary.”

“I will stay with him, and watch his back,” Adam declares.

Keith nods, turns to Griffin. “The battalion will meet in the courtyard. They have three dobashes to form up.”

“They already are,” the aubergine-scaled Altean says, dark blue eyes hard. “We are ready, and await your orders.”

Keith nods. “Have someone ready a ship. We’re putting King Alfor and Crown Prince Lancel on the ground in Daibazaal, just outside the Compound. Lance, rally the people, follow their lead. Trust them to know which side to be on. They want peace, just as we do.”

“I know, beloved.” Lance squeezes his hand. Keith hadn’t realized he was still holding it. The Altean heaves in a great breath, forces a smile. “Will you come see me off?”

“Nothing short of death would stop me,” Keith promises.

The royals and their entourage sprint through the halls toward the courtyard where a small craft shaped like an arrowhead is already waiting. Alfor climbs right in, datapad in hand. Lance lets go of Keith’s hand, ready to board. He pulls Adam into a brief, strong hug. “Take care of yourself, and him.”

“Always, your Majesty.”

Keith notices a dangerous shine in the attendant’s eye, a kind of terror he himself is feeling. He says nothing, not even as he watches Adam’s body tremble. Adam is fearful, but ready. No matter what lies ahead.

Keith is not ready. He snatches at Lance’s arm, fingers pressing into the armor of his suit. Those blue and pink eyes he loves so much find his immediately, strangely open, ready to see anything and everything all at once.

Lance’s face is not without fear, body humming with quintessence, red and blue hovering over his form, shimmering in his eyes. The prince smiles, paper-thin. He removes his circlet, hands it to Keith. “I won’t need this where I’m going.”

Keith tosses the circlet aside, where it skitters over the ground. He pulls Lance to him, kisses him soundly, fingers in white hair, sliding over the scale at Lance’s waist. A single twist of their tongues, all they have time for, and he pulls away, noses touching.

“No matter what, I am so, so proud of you. I am proud to be your mate… Please-” He gulps. “Please come home to me, if you can.”

“Beloved…” Lance presses their foreheads together, brushes thumbs over Keith’s cheekbones. “Not even death could keep me away.”

Keith takes in one last deep breath, rubs his cheek into the gloved palm of Lance’s hand, a very subtle way of letting the other Galra know this man is his. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Lance pulls away, eyes not leaving Keith’s face for a long moment. Then he leans up, whispers in Keith’s ear, “You, and little one. With all my heart.”

And maybe Keith knows that’s not true, that if it came down to him or Atlea, Lance would choose Altea. But Keith would make him, agree with him, even though he knows it would break Lance to do it.

The prince puts on a crooked smile, kisses Keith’s cheek one last time before he puts on his helmet and turns away, following his father into the craft.

Keith watches as they lift off, just until they’re out of sight, before he turns to Griffin. “You’re going to follow my orders, and you’re going to like it, or you’re going to get the fuck out of my way, understood?”

Griffin nods, letting his visor drop down over his face. Iverson just sighs. “What’s our move then?”

“Order the civilians to go into lockdown. Any former or current soldiers who have a weapon should stand by in case of attack. Send a runner into the lowlands. Then we assign pilots to the MFE crafts. I want a squadron, broken into four flights of six. Initiate land defense and mobilize drones-”

A screeching flare of light, and a tower at the corner of the courtyard explodes.

“Brace yourselves.” Keith’s eyes find a pinprick in the swath of blue sky. He pulls his hood up, mask sliding down to cover his face, sealing his suit. “This will not be an easy fight.”

“We stand with you,” Adam murmurs, taking a polearm from a passing soldier. Each end is armed with a wicked, barbed glaive.

Keith draws his knife, feeling the blade shift in his hand. He doesn’t know who these people are -hopefully- but he will rip apart every last one of them.

Whatever it takes.

Lance stares out the front window, despairing at the sight before him. An armada of Galra ships, painted with strange symbols.

“Can you read that?” Alfor murmurs, clearly putting a lot of faith in their cloaking technology.

“It says, ‘The Fire of Purification’.”

“Oh, wonderful. We’re dealing with elitist thugs. My absolute favorite,” the king growls. Lance licks his lips, apprehensive. “Here, I want you to have this.”

Lance stares at the strange weapon his father is offering him. White, black, and his own special shade of blue, the weapon seems like two halves of a hand guard with a handle in between. “What is it?”

“I call it a bayard. It will shift into whatever you need it to, whenever you need it, and is absorbed and stored in your armor just like your shield.” Alfor inhales, holds his breath until they’ve slipped past the armada. “It will serve you well. You won’t waste time juggling weapons.”

A stretch of silence, and Alfor murmurs, "I wanted to wish you happy birthday earlier. I have an actual gift for you, if we ever get the chance."

Lance nods, drops his sword, bow and quiver, knowing he might never see any of them again. “Did you- Have you called Dad?”

“I sent him a message… He sends his love.”

“Just a message?” Lance asks. “That’s- That’s all you need? That’s all you’re giving him?”

The king takes a deep breath. “Your dad… He’s been prepared for anything for a very long time. Whatever happens this quintant, he is ready for it.”

Lance finds himself a bit envious of that, that his parents have had centaphoebs together to reconcile with what it means to be part of a colonialist empire. Of what it means to be a warring planet. Even if they’d started the day they met, he and Keith would not have been prepared. They haven't even been married haven't known each other a full decaphoeb.

Down on the ground, Lance can see fire, people running, rubble in the streets. Whoever the aggressor is, it’s clear that they are his enemy. He gives his bayard blade a good swing, flips the blade in his hand, only for it to morph into a bow in his hand, and arrow made of light already knocked.

“Father? Are you ready for this?”

“I’m about to go to Daibazaal to rescue them from an apparently elitist regime and possibly kill my only surviving friend. I am not at all ready for this.” The ship enters the atmosphere in a blaze of heat, effectively giving them away as they look for a place to land. “Are you ready?”

Lance gulps. “No. I know these people. I broke bread with these people. I defended them from a monster, I’ve watched their children, cooked them food. And now, I might be about to kill them.”

“And somewhere down there,” Alfor murmurs, searching for a place to land, “is a Galra thinking the same thing about their kin, and possibly about you.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“It wasn’t meant to.” Their craft begins losing altitude. “It doesn’t matter what happens next, son. We all lose today.”

That much, Lance thinks as the craft settles just outside of town, is very true.

#LoveAftertheFact #LAtF #klance #galtean au #altean lance #galra keith #adashi #altean adam #galra shiro #Voltron legendary defender #vld

[shaonsim]

This or that

Tagged by the wonderful, supportive @a-confusedmess whom I love very much. Thank you so much for thinking of me ❤️

sage green or baby blue [ although I love both, there is something very attractive about sage green. It is a sophisticated color, but unlike baby blue, it is not too soft, so that's why I chose it ]

moon or stars [ how do you expect me to choose from these? It depends on my mood, I guess, but usually, both of these are so beautiful, I just - ]

paperback or hardback [ don't have enough opinions to choose one over the other ]

piercing or tattoos [I already have an ear piercing (for both ears, left and right), hopefully a nose piercing in the near future. At one point, I had wanted a tattoo, but now I don't (I am moody like that). But if I ever feel like getting a tattoo, it will be a long strip on my ankle, like an anklet 😍]

drawing or writing [ I cannot draw, not even if my life depends on it. I enjoy drawing, but I can't ]

saturn or jupiter [ don't have enough opinions to choose one over the other ]

line without a hook or mr loverman [ don’t know, don’t care ]

ancient greece or ancient egypt [ I feel the same about both  ]

prague or amsterdam [ don't have enough opinions to choose one over the other ]

dark academia or light academia [ dark academia aesthetics because the architecture and designs involved are more intricate, the edits/photo sets have better colouring and I live for those - exaggeration, but I do like the darker aesthetics ]

indie aesthetic or cottagecore [reserving judgement because I don't know anything about the first, but cottagecore is pretty cute, with flowers and gardens and flower crowns]

stargazing or late night drives [ stargazing because that is safer and I like having the wind nuzzle me while I stare at the sky and my surroundings and completely ignore the stars twinkling above, but late night drives are cool. If I ever came out of my shell, or felt safe and comfortable going on late night drives, then yes, definitely, I'll go. I'll go and I'll have fun ]

strawberries or watermelons [ I never had strawberries, so maybe I shouldn't choose, but there is something amazing about the juicy, watery, refreshing flesh of a watermelon ]

rings or necklaces [ jewellery, yes ]

extrovert or introvert [ enough said ]

dragons or griffins [ *insert the both? Both gif* ]

ocean or mountains [ aesthetically? Both. But physically I am better for beaches. Not only am I lazy, but I am very clumsy. Besides, I like the feel of having water between my toes. It tickles. ]

silver or gold [ jewellery? Gold. Eyeshadow? Rarely will I wear either shade, but gold. Nail polish? You guessed it, gold. But !!! I do love silver, I love silver a lot. So I am going to choose both of these. I have already broken the rules to fit my needs, what is one more EXCEPTION? ]

dawn or dusk [ dusk because it is beautiful, mysterious, and because I get to see it more often. But I love the idea of dawn, the aesthetics, and on rare occasions when I get to experience dawn, I love it. So yeah, I chose both of them ]

creative or free spirit [ is there a difference between the two? Maybe, maybe not, but I see them as one and the same, so there you go ]

early bird or night owl [ night owl all the way, although there is a charm in being an early bird. Maybe one day in the distant future ]

cook or bake [ Hah! Not going to choose, nope. I love both activities. Baking is a bit more precise, you need to follow the measurements to the T and that is stressful, but I love it. The focus required, the no nonsense vibe - fantastic ]

dagger or sword [ sharp blades? Ornate handles? Purely for aesthetic purposes, I love both ]

#;tag games #;aam pata jora jora tag games

[annoyinglyjovialbird]

Voltron: Next Generation

A Portentous Warning: I

Word Count: 2994

A/N: May Allura have blessed you all with a happy and safe new year!

"Schedule has been finalized," Shiro announced, using his robotic arm as a console to the large screen in the Coeus's bridge. To his right and in Liz and Cake's chairs were the former Paladins. To his left, the current Paladins were either sitting in their chair or on the step next to them. Kova was leaning on the banister around her console, looking bored. 

"Yay," Caleb said unenthusiastically, earning him a punch to the knee from Liz. 

"Starting today, the adults will take over breakfast and dinner shifts every other day. The teens will have a lunch shift today, then switch off tomorrow." The incredibly detailed schedule was, well, incredibly detailed. The adults, marked as solidly blue, were boxed in until lunchtime, where the teens, marked as red, were boxed in. Small spaces of purple showed the shift change between the two groups. Kova scoffed as she looked it over, a small smile on her face. 

"Colonel, I mean no disrespect," Liz began. "But—"

"Why shifts?" Pidge asked, earning her a glare from the Green Paladin. "Why not full days?" 

"Shiro, I'm gonna be honest," Hunk said. "This is stupid." Shiro stared at the teens, who were either smiling or laughing softly. "They're doing a great job already." 

"Hunk!" Keith and Pidge stared at him. 

"What?" 

"Chef Garrett, the concern is," Kova said, meeting Keith's eyes. "We're just kids." Her smile rivaled Keith's glare. 

"Permission to continue?" Liz asked, looking at the Shirogane teens. Both nodded before she looked back to their dad.

"Granted. What's on your mind?" 

"Colonel, what if they have the whole day today, and we can have the whole day tomorrow?" Shiro pouted for only a second but changed the schedule accordingly. The schedule had one day solidly blue, the other solidly red, with purple outlining sleep schedules. Kenny, marked by an ugly brown, had a separate schedule with varying shades of green and khaki in various time slots. 

"Uh, Colonel, I'm gonna need a color code chart for that." Speak of the devil. Kenny had arrived. He was cleaning his glasses with the hem of his shirt, so he was squinting to look at the screen. Even half-blind, he could see the random colors on the screen. 

"You're late." Shiro was annoyed. 

"You're brown." Kova was bored again. 

"Sorry, I had to give Vatos a bath," Kenny said, putting his glasses back on. "And why?" 

"Yellow looks white and orange looks red, probably." Kova shrugged, lolling her head to stare at Shiro. He was muttering something about the teen being a know-it-all, but took down the screen and sent it to the consoles. 

"Jax, I need you to take Blue and Yellow on another recon," Shiro said, approaching the podium. Kova stood straight at the nickname, looking straight ahead. "Ken will take over from there." 

"Yes, sir." Kova nodded her head and turned to Allie and Cake. "Let's go." The two stood from their seats, gone before the former Paladins could ask why. 

"Griffin, Sec, you're on babysitting duty." 

"Yes, Colonel." 

"Hooray." 

"Sec." 

"Going!" As Caleb lazily left the bridge, Shiro turned to the other adults. 

"Keith, you can take Caleb's chair," Shiro said, smiling. "Let me show you how to run the ship." 

————————

"Y'know, I never expected to be out here again," Cake said, looking at the stars from the stray meteorite he found himself on. The stars were either too bright or too dim, but there was no denying they were there. 

"What?" Kova replied. "Cutting and harvesting scrap metal?" She was about two levels above Cake's head, using her bayard to bat a small piece out of her way. Many of the pieces were unusable, too small to have a purpose. 

"No." Cake jumped from the meteorite to a large sheet of twisted metal. "I was raised on my Balmera until I was, like, ten." 

"The stars certainly look different." Allie's voice was almost wistful. She was leaning on a tall post, splintered in half so it could rest under Allie's elbow. 

"Aw, homesick babies." 

"C'mon, Cap." Cake found a steep decline in the twisted metal. "You can't say you don't miss Earth."  

"I'm also a trained soldier, Cake." Kova watched Cake slide down the piece from above, smiling. "I put others over myself." 

"You weren't always," Kenny said, breaking through the silence. "You were a little kid with hopes and dreams."

"Yeah, forever ago."

"If you weren't a soldier, what would you be?" Allie had managed to find Cake nearly falling into space, only to jump onto a nearby rock. "I never asked my question." Silence followed. Cake managed to climb onto the small rock, giving Allie a thumbs up. She shook her head in response. 

"I don't know," Kova said, her voice almost a whisper. "An astrologist, maybe? Maybe a farmer."

"C'mon, Kova." 

"I'm serious!" Kova continued to absentmindedly bat away space junk. "I don't know how I did, but I lived in spite, and I don't plan on stopping." 

"Ouch." Kenny teased, smiling. "That hurt my feelings." 

"Why do you live in spite?" Pidge asked. Kova jumped at the voice, but she opened up her arm piece to show where her voice had echoed. Only the bridge on the Coeus showed any connection between the trio and the crew onboard. 

"Nice to see you figured out the connections," Kova said, deactivating her bayard and jumping to a level below. "Now if you can figure out suit tracking." 

"What?" Kova smiled proudly at Pidge's confusion, landing on a twisted piece of scrap metal harmlessly. "The suits don't have tracking." 

"They do now." 

"How's the recon going?" Hunk asked, interrupting the fight that was sure to break out between Kova and Pidge. 

"Wonderfully." Kova looked around the trash nebula the trio was in. "We have found absolutely nothing." 

"Nothing?" 

"Nothing. Everything is either too small or too big." Kova had jumped off another ledge, landing next to Allie with Cake just within eyesight. "Clear to return?" 

"Y—" Hunk began to say when Shiro cut him off with a headshake. 

"You're cleared. Return to your Lions." Kenny gave the order, returning to adjusting something in the engine room. It hadn't been fifteen minutes when Kova came back online. 

"Uh, sending a transmission to the Coeus." The four adults watched as the massive screen came on, showing a video feed from the Black Lion. Three figures were approaching the Lions, and fast. Silver in color, they were about twelve feet tall with handguns, literal handguns, brandished. "Oh, no." 

"Activating particle barrier!" Kenny said, slamming a button. "Five minutes to activation and counting." 

"Do you need the other Lions' assistance?" 

"Negative. We got this." Kova closed the transmission channel and stared at the three bots. "On me, split. Ready?" The other two Paladins nodded, readying themselves as a united front. The bots were feet away when Kova's signal came. "Split!" The Black Lion ducked down, letting the centermost bot fly overhead. The Blue Lion darted up and to the left, nicking the bot's flat head. Yellow took a unique approach, ramming its head into the bot at full-force. 

"Not what she meant!" 

"Not what I meant!" The girls shouted at the same time, preparing themselves to take another attack from their attackers. 

"Well, now we have two to deal with." Allie's bot had made a quick turn, following Blue. Allie, in a panic, had ordered her Lion to attack. Blue did that. Blue raised its tail until it was over its head and fired a shot, causing the bot to explode. 

"I have a laser tail?!" Allie exclaimed, looking over her systems. 

Amateurs, Keith thought but said nothing. 

"On me!" The other two Lions converged, with Black activating its dual-sided jaw blade. As the last bot sped towards the three Lions, the Lions once again split, with the blade cutting through the bot in a clean cut. It exploded as the Black Lion deactivated its jaw blade. 

"What were those?" Pidge asked. 

"Warning shots," Kova answered, turning on transmissions from the Lion to the Coeus. "Coeus, review for trackers." 

"I got it," Shiro said when Pidge turned to him for help. From her screen, she took note of what Shiro opened to scan the Lions with. The Black Lion had a tracker on its right hind leg. The Yellow Lion had one on its forehead. The Blue Lion had one on its tail, but unlike the others that glowed green, the tracker on Blue showed red. The laser must have rendered it inactive. "Two green on Yellow and Black. One red on Blue." 

"Quiznack." Kova motioned the Lion to rest away from the Coeus. "We'll wait for the barrier to deactivate. Until then, we'll remove the trackers." 

Eventually, the particle barrier deactivated itself, the teens got rid of the trackers, and they were able to continue sailing through space.  

———————

"I'm very upset." It was all Curtis said. The teens looked on with matching looks of 'What are you doing to do about it?' while the adults looked at Curtis like he was a savior of some sort. It was the first weekly meeting all of the Paladins, former and current, were able to attend. 

"Kids, I don't think I need to remind you what happened the last time you were responsible for a toddler." 

"We gave him a bath! He was fine!" 

"You didn't do the laundry." Curtis rolled his eyes, meeting Shiro's. "Takashi."

"It was the best idea at the time," Shiro said, stepping between Kova and Curtis. "And besides, we're working on a plan." 

"It better be a good one." He muttered, shaking his head. "Keith, Pidge, and Hunk. It's good to see you all alive." 

"Alive." 

"I read your reports over the past few weeks. May I say, Kova, you're getting better at notes." A silent fist pump came from Kova as Curtis continued. "Wish you would've told me about the prisoners sooner, but at least we know now." 

"What's going on at the Garrison?" Kova asked. Curtis's face fell, glancing over the faces looking at him. The five teens were the first front of the defense. They had to know. 

"Well, besides every student at the Garrison making speculations as to who has which Lion, the LDP preparing for war, the council demanding to know why we're repairing an abandoned sub-floor, and Cyrus on school break," Curtis shrugged. "There isn't much to tell."

"The LDP is what?" Kova demanded. Caleb stood from his chair. The other teens either straightened their backs or widened their eyes. Kenny had walked in after laying Vatos down for a nap. 

"But only Captain Holt has that authority!" Kenny said, descending the staircase to be in full view of the small drone that served as a camera. 

"And both Commander and Captain Holt had given the order, based on the declaration." 

"What declaration?" Kova said again, eyes hard. Curtis sighed, pulling out his phone. He pulled up a video and showed it to the teens. 

Yorak, in all his evil glory, stood in the middle of the frame. His dark hair was slicked back, showing off the long scars on his cheeks. His eyes flickered dangerously as a smirk grew across his face. His dark armor was on full display, showing off the violet Y in the middle of his chest plate. Soldiers stood behind him, guns in hand. Then he spoke. 

"My name is Yorak, and I am Emperor of the Fire of Purification. You may remember my sabotaged transmission from before with my pesky younger sister deciding to rebel. No matter. This is an official declaration of war. My sister chose her side. So will I. I will take and claim every planet in the galaxy until every planet is purged from the hate and distrust my fellow hybrids have had to suffer and endure over the past thirty years. If the only way to purify it is to burn every village, city, and planet to the ground, I will not hesitate to do so. You've seen what I've done to the Unilu space mall. I can and will do worse. Your move, Voltron." He said the last word with a mocking tone. Every word sent Kova's blood boiling and chills down her spine. 

"Woah, that's your bad guy?" 

"Sister?" Pidge asked. “Who’s his sister?” She had turned around to stare at Kova, who had stood straight like a pin. 

“He’s delusional,” Keith said, noticing Kova’s change in demeanor. He placed his hands on Pidge’s shoulders. “It’s okay.” 

"Alright, before someone kills someone," Curtis said, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "The Holts gave the order. The LDP is preparing for war, but they've been given orders to shut their mouths or immediate expulsion." 

"You sure know how to threaten teenagers, Commander," Liz said, slouching on the step. 

"I had a lot of practice." Curtis stretched his arms, yawning. He shook his head and returned to the crew of the Coeus. "I can't order the LDP to stop without telling the Holts about you guys. As far as they know, Kenny is in space with you guys lightyears away and trying to return to Earth." 

"Commander, what about access to files?" 

"Only those who know what files were opened when are allowed to look in those files," Curtis said sternly. "The original crew of the Coeus was given authorization and only the current Paladins and Kenny are authorized to look in the files. Am I clear?" 

"Yes, Commander." The teens sat straight if they weren’t before as they spoke. 

"Wait, so we're going to be told who the enemy is and that's it?" Hunk  looked up at Curtis, hoping for more. 

"Yes," Curtis nodded his head. "I'm sorry, Hunk, but until you return to Earth, I can't reinstate your clearance. Besides, the Paladins can give you everything you need without disclosing classified information." 

"Is that all?" Shiro asked. Curtis nodded his head, said his goodbyes and the transmission ended. "Kova, go blow off some steam. Caleb, supervise." 

"Can I kidnap Liz and Cake for the engine room?" Kenny asked Shiro. He nodded, and Kenny led the way with Liz and Cake on his heels. 

"Allie, grab your first-aid kit. Kova might need it." Allie nodded her head, head bowed as she left the bridge. 

“What happened before we got here?” Pidge asked. Shiro took a heavy breath. With his robotic arm, Shiro opened the last transmission. 

Yorak stood behind a railing, wearing an armoured suit similar to the one in his latest transmission, with a billowing cape magically attached to his shoulders. His voice bordered on jovial, proud of what he had done. Over his shoulder, Kova looked shocked and angry. Her light brown eyes flicked across the room she was in before zeroing in on Yorak talking. Behind her, likely holding her hands together, was a light purple alien. He’d could’ve been mistaken for Galra if it wasn’t for the fluffy dark turquoise hair coming from his head. His ears were pointed, lined with matching fur and pink inner ears. Aquamarine irises followed something off-screen, and when his turn came, he stepped forward to reveal his outfit. It matched Yorak’s, with the exception of the cape. Kova took the opportunity to shove the two aside, make her own statement, and cut the feed. 

Before anyone could speak their thoughts into words, Shiro switched the video to a live camera feed from the training room below. 

Kova had removed her lavender sweater, throwing it in a far alcove. Only her dark head of hair was visible, but from the way her arms were moving and the way her braid moved, she was angry. Yelling something. She pointedly glared at the balcony where Caleb was setting up a bot. A bot, maybe as tall as her, fell to the floor, activating itself. Before it fully turned on, it took an angry spinning kick to the head. It fell on its back, slowly standing up. In an onslaught of beatings, the training bot took hit after hit from Kova, until there was nowhere else it could go. Another bot appeared on the floor, brandishing a sword. It approached Kova from behind, sword raised. With one last punch to the first bot's face, Kova spun around with a blade in her hand. A long curved sword came from Kova's bayard. With both hands on the hilt, Kova pushed the bot back until it was far enough to let her swing. With one swing, Kova freed the bot from its movement mechanism. It didn't have legs, but rather a large wheel that righted itself when the bot fell over. 

"Fast, ruthless, smart," Hunk counted on his fingers. "No wonder he thinks she’s his sister.”

“He called her out,” Pidge said. Shiro turned to face his friends. “I’d be mad, too.”

“It doesn’t help that she’s half-Galra,” Keith said, watching Shiro nod his head as he deactivated the screen. “Yorak’s threat made the division real.”

“Follow the other hybrids,” Keith said. “Or follow your destiny.” 

"Poor kid." Hunk shook his head. As the weight of the mission ahead of the teens finally sank in, Shiro hoped, prayed to Allura, that Keith and Pidge would get it. Their little girl wasn't so little anymore. No. She was currently showing her temper against poor bots who hadn't done a thing to her. 

It took almost an hour, but Kova ran out of steam. Her knuckles were bruised and bloody, hands still curled into fists. Her hands shook as Allie tried to apply disinfectant. She had never seen Kova so angry. The other Paladins were having dinner while Allie tended to Kova's wounds. Kova took deep breaths as she tried not to flinch, wince, and open her fists. [:D]

"Do you," Allie said softly. "Do you want to talk about it?" Her bright blue eyes briefly met Kova's amber ones. As Kova's eyes darted back to her lap, she nodded her head. 

“He called me out,” Kova said. “You know what it’s like for hybrids right now. Follow the hybrid leader of Voltron or follow the hybrid of the Fire. It’s a choice no one wants to make.” Allie waited, letting the words come to Kova. No words came. 

"That doesn't explain why you were angry." Her voice was soft. Kova's hands had unfurled themselves, letting Allie better treat them. Kova looked up at Allie again, sorting through her thoughts. 

Why was she angry? There was no time to answer as the Coeus shook. 

#voltron: next generation #vng #vld #keith kogane #pidge holt #commander holt #emperor yorak #tj #kenny kogane #kovalia shirogane #caleb shirogane #liz griffin #cake garrett #hunk garrett #allie smythe #angry bean #war threat #last episode #portentous is ominious #my randomizer insisted #word of the day is portentous #good luck #see you sunday

[hiuythn]

sorry to ask, but i saw u shared hc for the sick anon, im going thru a rough patch and ur fic rly cheered me up. Can i get some hcs as well?

this is how keith asks lance to marry him:

so we all know how from the beginning, from the moment things got resolved at the end of tnahp, that keith’s been upfront about never leaving lance. everyone knows he’s going to put a ring on that. he’s said it to lance’s face. “what else am i gonna do with you?”

it’s not until six years later that he actually does anything though. mostly bc of the war and the aftermath.

the team are in a meeting with the coalition, boring stuff, routine stuff, and the mind link is closed, bc sometimes keith and lance need breaks. he’s lucky that it was, though, because what happens next in his mind would’ve been enough to make lance fall out of his seat and ruin the meeting and coran would’ve killed them both lmao

lance is paying attention even though he looks just as bored as keith. diligent, as always. he’s even got a holoscreen projected, taking lazy notes. there are faint little sketches of the coalition members and the team. one is of shiro, snoring, comical Zs above his head. keith bites down on his cheek.

lance is twirling the pen in his left hand.

keith looks at that and thinks, loud and clear, there should be a ring on his finger.

he sits back.

huh.

it should be a surprise, he decides after a quiet minute. lance deserves that. it should be at the right moment, the right words, the right place. it should be soft and genuine and such a sweet shock that it takes lance seconds to reply. it should make his blue eyes fill with tears, it should make him curl into a ball before keith, who’ll still be kneeling, ring box open and laughing at him because wow, that’s nice reaction, lance. it should be a proposal so perfect that it makes lance kind of mad, makes him shove keith, makes him pout that frustrated-loving-happy pout.

(bros, as a gay, this is kind of really fucking gay)

keith spends the rest of the meeting laying out proposal plans. lance gets exasperated when he finds out keith remembers nothing of the meeting. “dude, you--tell me again, who’s the leader of voltron, here?” “it’s allura.” “....okay, but who flies bl--”

and some people might ask, what’s the point, if you’re already levertan-married? if you’ve mind-linked and basically achieved the pinnacle of ‘joining hands in holy matrimony’?

keith’s answer would probably be something like ‘fuck off, i love him that’s why’

(ngl that’s hella romantic. no? just me?)

the long answer is that he knows lance is a romantic. that he really likes gestures of affection, that his face gets all rosy and he always tries to bite back his smiles, and he gets so pleased and flustered and also adorably angry every time keith does anything for him. keith’s in love with that. he goes absolutely dumb over making lance happy, he’s fucking obsessed with it. every neuron in keith’s stupid head is devoted to lance like 24/7.

(it’s a given that lance is the same, if not worse. how tf do they get anything done?)

plus, levertan-married doesn’t really mean the same as human-married.

so keith--somehow--manages to pull off thinking up proposal plans without closing the link, without lance knowing--maybe bc his thoughts are purposefully fragmented like ‘white chocolate? milk?’ or ‘speakers? mic?’ or ‘beach sand feels sandy’ and yes it sounds absolutely dumb but it’s clever because after a while lance tunes it out. though, at the beginning, it really fucking worried him because it sounded like keith was having a stroke LMAO

over the next couple months, keith steadily puts his plan together: get the ring, figure out what to say, speak to allura about detouring to earth for some r&r, speak to shiro about not fucking things up for keith because i know you’ll do that somehow shiro no are you serious of course you would you’re evil do you even remember that time i said no to inviting people for my fourteenth birthday and you did it anyway even though i was looking forward to just playing video games for the whole day??? i had to deal with james griffin in my goddamn house you ass--

the day keith asks, everything--surprisingly--goes really well? like suspiciously so. like keith’s really glad but he’s itching to reach for his knife by the end of it, bc he was prepared for shiro to have done sth by now. 

but nah, keith and lance have a lovely day hanging out, doing activities keith planned and things lance spontaneously suggests. the weather is a perfect breezy, sunny day. when the sun sets they wordlessly head for the beach. lance chases keith though the surf. they throw clumps of wet sand at each other. keith hoists lance in his arms, listening to him yell as keith spins them around. lance picks him up and tosses him into the shallows, that fucking jerk. lance gets keith to forgive him. lance gives keith his shirt, goes half-naked for keith’s shivering form. ‘i’m going to get a cold,’ lance says. ‘and i’m not?’ keith snorts. they walk down the beach and lance tells him stories, pointing to this rock or that spot and saying oh i broke my arm there or dude i saved a baby turtle from a seagull that day and keith soaks it all up like he’s the sand and lance is the ocean waves, coming back to him every time.

lance hops onto a rock, demonstrating to keith how he used to pretend he was a sea prince looking for mermaids. the winds play with his hair, the setting sun brushing golden against his bare chest and the grin on his lips. like this, he’s a foot or two taller than keith.

keith gets down on one knee.

it’s lance’s fault that the ring box is damp, but he’s lucky this thing is olkari-made, because when keith opens it up, the ring shines just as bright as lance. almost as bright. it tries its best but keith really only has eyes for his soulmate.

keith says:

every day, i want to choose you. every day, i want to get to choose you. every day, growing up like i did, was spent learning what i needed to live, what food or drink or mantra was needed to make it another day alone. my body forced to me to focus on its needs, on the bare essentials. if i went a month without a caring touch, it didn’t matter, because it hadn’t killed me yet.

before i fell for you, i don’t think i knew what it meant to want. i never had a chance to think about it, a second to indulge. if i wanted a home, a family, it was a weakness, a distraction, and i couldn’t let myself admit it. so i never learned to want.

the only other thing that comes closest to what i feel for you is probably flying. it’s that addiction to diving through the clouds, it’s free-falling, it’s soaring with my heart in my throat. and even then, even now that i know you, it doesn’t quite compare. it’s a poor substitute.

in this world we exist in, where some force out there knows exactly what we need, who we need, it’s kind of a miracle that i still got to choose you. i’m glad i got the moments where it hurt to think of you, because i wanted you so bad i couldn’t stand not having you. i’m glad i got to slowly realize that you were everything to me, on my own time. it was my own conclusion, my own resolution to love you because you were you, and not because you were someone i was supposed to love. the universe kind of tricked us, but i think she meant well.

and now i know, that even in a world where soulmates didn’t exist....i know i’d still want you.

i want to want you, every day. i want to wake up wanting you, every day, fall asleep wanting you every night. i want to leave for missions wanting you, want to stay behind watching you go, wanting you to return faster than you can. i want you to want me, too. i want a ring on our fingers, reminding me that you do, that you feel the same and you always will.

i want to marry you, lance mcclain.

will you marry me?

#klance #tnahp #tiwlll #fuck what the fuck #what the actual fuck that's so romantic #can someone check my head for me i think keith possessed me #holy god #ummmmm #i don't know how to explain this i've literally never been in love sjdfhksdjf #????????????????? #anon i hope this helps you!!!!! ily 💖💖💖 #ask #my writing #y'all i really think i need an exorcist.... #keith [reaching thru 15 dimensions to wrap his hands around my neck and wring it]: #tell them why i love lance kogane-mcclain!!!!! tell them!!! fuck!! #Anonymous

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

Thecodontosaurus antiquus

By Scott Reid 

Etymology: Reptile with Teeth in Sockets

First Described By: Lydekker, 1890

Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Bagualosauria

Status: Extinct

Time and Place: Between 208 and 201 million years ago, in the Rhaetian age of the Late Triassic 

Thecodontosaurus is known from the Magnesian Conglomerate Formation, the Microlestes Quarry, and the Tytherington Quarry of Southwestern England 

Physical Description: Thecodontosaurus was a small “prosauropod” - the informal group of the dinosaurs more closely related to sauropods than to other dinosaurs, but aren’t sauropods themselves. These dinosaurs, while rather plain on the outside, are notable in a few ways - the biggest ones being that they are the most common dinosaurs of the Triassic, and that they show the evolutionary path from “generic dinosaur” to “giant behemoth sauropod”. Thecodontosaurus falls on the earlier end of that scale, being a small, bipedal, lightweight animal. It was only about two meters long, and less than a meter high at the hips. It had a fairly short neck with a larger head on the end than is seen in later sauropodomorphs (where necks got longer, but heads got smaller); it had many small, leaf-shaped teeth in its mouth, and large eyes in its skull. It had long and narrow hands, with very short front limbs and longer hind limbs; its tail was especially long, longer than the rest of the body put together. Some individuals were smaller than others, probably because they lived on a separate island and experienced insular dwarfism. Given its extremely small size - only weighing 11 kilograms - it was covered in fluffy protofeathers to aid in thermoregulation. 

By Slate Weasel 

Diet: With the serrated leaf-shaped teeth, Thecodontosaurus was definitely an herbivore, and a low browser at that. This is significant, because Prosauropods started out as Carnivores, and then transitioned to herbivory; Thecodontosaurus was, thus, well into that transition.

Behavior: Thecodontosaurus was probably a fairly social animal, having been found in decent numbers in concentrated locations. As such, small flocks of these dinosaurs would probably have roamed the coastline and scrub-caves. They would have probably had to be at least somewhat skittish, really only having their own speed to get away from predators. They also would have been quite active and warm-blooded. Thecodontosaurus would probably have spent most of its time eating, but it also probably took care of its own young and brought food back to the babies. 

By José Carlos Cortés 

Ecosystem: Thecodontosaurus lived during an interesting time in Earth’s History - the Rhaetian Age, though right before the Triassic extinction and probably the best time to look at how the unique life of the Jurassic managed to slip through said event, is not well-represented in the fossil record. Thus, Thecodontosaurus and its environs are, while sparse, uniquely important in terms of understanding the transition of Mesozoic life. This was a series of small islands called the Mendip Archipelago, filled with mosses, cycads, and algae, with frequent caves lining the environment. As such, many kinds of fish were especially common here, including the weird Palaeonisciforms, sharks, and more ray-finned fish. Some early almost-mammals were also present, such as Kuehneotherium and Thomasia, as well as Eozostorodon. There were many other reptiles as well, though very few were dinosaurs; many were just lizardy-things. There was the mysterious Palaeosaurus, the phytosaur Rileya, and the Rhynchocephalian Diphydontosaurus. As for other dinosaurs, there may have been theropods to prey on Thecodontosaurus, but its only major dinosaur neighbor seems to have been another prosauropod, Asylosaurus. 

By Ripley Cook 

Other: Thecodontosaurus, in addition to being an important step in the sequence from basic dinosaurs to the sauropods, is a notable discovery for being one of the first dinosaurs found. It was actually the fifth (non-avian) dinosaur named, after Megalosaurus, Iguanodon, Streptospondylus, and Hylaeosaurus. It has, thus, been used as the name of many dinosaurs around the world, but very few of these finds are actually Thecodontosaurus.

~ By Meig Dickson

Sources under the Cut 

Apaldetti, C., R. N. Martinez, O. A. Alcober and D. Pol. 2011. A new basal sauropodomorph (Dinosauria: Saurischia) from Quebrada del Barro Formation (Marayes-El Carrizal Basin), Northwestern Argentina. PLoS ONE 6(11):e26964:1-19

Benton, M. J., L. Juul, G.W. Storrs and P.M. Galton, 2000, "Anatomy and systematics of the prosauropod dinosaur Thecodontosaurus antiquus from the upper Triassic of southwest England", Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 20(1): 77-108

Galton, P. M. 2007. Notes on the remains of archosaurian reptiles, mostly basal sauropodomorph dinosaurs, from the 1834 fissure fill (Rhaetian, Upper Triassic) at Clifton in Bristol, southwest England. Revue de Paléobiologie 26(2):505-591.

Galton, P.M., Yates, A.M., & Kermack, D. (2007). "Pantydraco n. gen. for Thecodontosaurus caducus Yates, 2003, a basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Upper Triassic or Lower Jurassic of South Wales, UK". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abh., 243: 119-125

Griffin, C. T., and S. J. Nesbitt. 2016. The femoral ontogeny and long bone histology of the Middle Triassic (?late Anisian) dinosauriform Asilisaurus kongwe and implications for the growth of early dinosaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 36(3):e1111224:1-22

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Yates, A. M. (2003). "A new species of the primitive dinosaur Thecodontosaurus (Saurischia: Sauropodomorpha) and its implications for the systematics of early dinosaurs". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 1(1): 1-42

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#Thecodontosaurus antiquus #Thecodontosaurus #Prosauropod #Sauropodomorph #Dinosaur #Prehistoric Life #Paleontology #Prehistory #Palaeoblr #Factfile #Mesozoic Monday #Dinosaurs #Eurasia #Triassic #Herbivore #biology #a dinosaur a day #a-dinosaur-a-day #dinosaur of the day #dinosaur-of-the-day #science #nature

[bloomingnightskty]

They fought slavery, prejudice, and injustice — and changed the face of medicine in America. They invented modern blood-banking, served in the highest ranks of the U.S. government, and much more. In honor of Black History Month, read the inspiring stories of 10 pioneering black physicians.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler, MD (1831 — 1895)

In 1864, after years as a nurse, Rebecca Lee Crumpler became the first black woman in the United States to receive an MD degree. She earned that distinction at the New England Female Medical College in Boston, Massachusetts — where she also was the institution’s only black graduate. After the Civil War, Crumpler moved to Richmond, Virginia, where she worked with other black doctors who were caring for formerly enslaved people in the Freedmen’s Bureau. While she faced sexism and other forms of harassment, Crumpler ultimately found the experience transformative. "I returned to my former home, Boston, where I entered into the work with renewed vigor, practicing outside, and receiving children in the house for treatment; regardless, in a measure, of remuneration," she wrote.

Crumpler also wrote A Book of Medical Discourses: In Two Parts. Published in 1883, the book addresses children’s and women’s health and is written for “mothers, nurses, and all who may desire to mitigate the afflictions of the human race.”

Note: No photos of Rebecca Lee Crumpler are known to exist.

James McCune Smith, MD (1813 — 1865)

James McCune Smith, MD, was a man of firsts. In 1837, he became the first black American to receive a medical degree — although he had to enroll at the University of Glasgow Medical School because of racist admissions practices at U.S. medical schools. And that was far from his only groundbreaking accomplishment. He was also the first black person to own and operate a pharmacy in the United States and the first black physician to be published in U.S. medical journals.

Smith used his writing talents to challenge shoddy science, including racist notions of African-Americans. Most notably, he debunked such theories in Thomas Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia. Smith was a staunch abolitionist and friend of Frederick Douglass. He contributed to Douglass’ newspaper and wrote the introduction to his book, My Bondage and My Freedom.

Leonidas Harris Berry, MD (1902 — 1995)

Even as a renowned gastroenterologist, Leonidas Harris Berry, MD, faced racism in the workplace. Berry was the first black doctor on staff at the Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, in 1946, but he had to fight for an attending position there for years. “I have spent many years of crushing disappointment at the threshold of opportunity,” he wrote to the hospital’s trustee board committee in his final plea, “keeping my lamps trimmed and bright for a bride that never came.” He was finally named to the attending staff in 1963 and remained a senior attending physician for the rest of his medical career.

In the 1950s, Berry chaired a Chicago commission that worked to make hospitals more inclusive for black physicians and to increase facilities in underserved parts of the city. But his dedication to equity reached far beyond the clinical setting: He was active in a civil rights group called the United Front that provided protection, monetary support, and other assistance to black residents of Cairo, Illinois, who had been victims of racist attacks. In 1970, he helped organize the Flying Black Medics, a group of practitioners who flew from Chicago to Cairo to bring medical care and health education to members of the remote community.

Charles Richard Drew, MD (1904 — 1950)

Known as the “father of blood banking,” Charles Richard Drew, MD, pioneered blood preservation techniques that led to thousands of lifesaving blood donations. Drew’s doctoral research explored best practices for banking and transfusions, and its insights helped him establish the first large-scale blood banks. Drew directed the Blood for Britain project, which shipped much-needed plasma to England during World War II. Drew then led the first American Red Cross Blood Bank and created mobile blood donation stations that are now known as bloodmobiles. But Drew’s work was not without struggle. He protested the American Red Cross’ policy of segregating blood by race and ultimately resigned from the organization.

Despite his renown for blood preservation, Drew’s true passion was surgery. He was appointed chairman of the department of surgery and chief of surgery at Freedmen’s Hospital (now known as Howard University Hospital) in Washington, D.C. During his time there, he went to great lengths to support young African-Americans pursuing careers in the discipline.

Louis Wade Sullivan, MD (b. 1933)

Louis Wade Sullivan, MD, grew up in the racially segregated rural South in the 1930s. There, he was inspired by his doctor, Joseph Griffin. “He was the only black physician in a radius of 100 miles,” Sullivan said. “I saw that Dr. Griffin was really doing something important and he was highly respected in the community.”

Over the decades, Sullivan became an equally profound source of inspiration. The only black student in his class at Boston University School of Medicine, he would later serve on the faculty from 1966 to 1975. In 1975, he became the founding dean of what became the Morehouse School of Medicine — the first predominantly black medical school opened in the United States in the 20th century. Later, Sullivan was tapped to serve as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he directed the creation of the Office of Minority Programs in the National Institutes of Health’s Office of the Director.

Sullivan has chaired numerous influential groups and institutions, from the President’s Advisory Council on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to the National Health Museum. He is CEO and chair of the Sullivan Alliance, an organization he created in 2005 to increase racial and ethnic minority representation in health care.

Marilyn Hughes Gaston, MD (b. 1939)

In a pivotal experience while working as an intern at Philadelphia General Hospital in 1964, Marilyn Hughes Gaston, MD, admitted a baby with a swollen, infected hand. The baby suffered from sickle cell disease, which hadn’t occurred to Gaston until her supervisor suggested the possibility. Gaston quickly committed herself to learning more about it, and eventually became a leading researcher on the disease, which affects millions of people around the world. She became deputy branch chief of the Sickle Cell Disease Branch at the National Institutes of Health, and her groundbreaking 1986 study led to a national sickle cell disease screening program for newborns. Her research showed both the benefits of screening for sickle cell disease at birth and the effectiveness of penicillin to prevent infection from sepsis, which can be fatal in children with the disease.

In 1990, Gaston became the first black female physician to be appointed director of the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Bureau of Primary Health Care. She was also the second black woman to serve as assistant surgeon general as well as achieve the rank of rear admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service. Gaston has been honored with every award that the Public Health Service bestows.

Patricia Era Bath, MD (b. 1942)

Interning in New York City in the 1960s sparked a revelation for Patricia Era Bath, MD. Bath, the first African-American to complete an ophthalmology residency, noticed that rates of blindness and visual impairment were much higher at the Harlem Hospital’s eye clinic, which served many black patients, than at the eye clinic at Columbia University, which mostly served whites. That observation spurred her to conduct a study that found twice the rate of blindness among African-Americans compared with whites. Throughout the rest of her career, Bath explored inequities in vision care. She created the discipline of community ophthalmology, which approaches vision care from the perspectives of community medicine and public health.

Bath blazed trails in other ways as well, co-founding the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness in 1976, which supports programs that protect, preserve, and restore eyesight. Bath was also the first woman appointed chair of ophthalmology at a U.S. medical school, at the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine in 1983. And she was the first black female physician to receive a medical patent in 1988 for the Laserphaco Probe, a device used in cataract surgery.

Herbert W. Nickens, MD (1947 — 1999)

As the first director of the Office of Minority Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in 1986, Herbert W. Nickens, MD, set the foundation for promoting improved health among racial and ethnic minority populations across the country. When he left the HHS, Nickens moved to the AAMC, where he was the founding vice president of the AAMC Division of Community and Minority Programs, now known as Diversity Policy and Programs. He led Project 3000 by 2000, which the AAMC launched in 1991 to achieve the goal of enrolling 3,000 students from underrepresented minority groups in U.S. medical schools annually by the year 2000.

“No one in recent memory did more than Herbert Nickens to bridge the painful and persistent diversity gap in medicine," said then-AAMC President Jordan J. Cohen, MD, after Nickens’ death in 1999. The AAMC continues to remember Nickens’ legacy with three namesake awards, honoring outstanding medical students, junior faculty, and individuals who have made significant contributions toward social justice in academic medicine and health care equity.

Alexa Irene Canady, MD (b. 1950)

Alexa Irene Canady, MD, nearly dropped out of college due to a crisis of self-confidence but ultimately went on to achieve dramatic success in medicine. In 1981, she became the first black neurosurgeon in the United States, and just a few years later, she rose to the ranks of chief of neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital of Michigan.

Canady worked for decades as a successful pediatric neurosurgeon and was ready to retire in Florida in 2001. But she donned her surgical scrubs once again to practice part time at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, where there was a dearth of pediatric neurosurgery services. Canady has been lauded for her patient-centered approach to care, which she said was a boon to her career. “I was worried that because I was a black woman, any practice opportunities would be limited.” But, she noted, “by being patient-centered, the practice growth was exponential.”

Regina Marcia Benjamin, MD, MBA (b. 1956)

Regina Marcia Benjamin, MD, MBA, may be best known for her tenure as the 18th U.S. Surgeon General, during which she served as first chair of the National Prevention Council. The group of 17 federal agencies was responsible for developing the National Prevention Strategy, which outlined plans to improve health and well-being in the United States.

But it’s not just her work at the highest levels of public health that earned her praise. Long before she was appointed “the nation’s doctor” in 2009, Benjamin worked extensively with rural communities in the South. She is the founder and CEO of BayouClinic in Bayou La Batre, Louisiana, which provides clinical care, social services, and health education to residents of the small Gulf Coast town. Benjamin helped rebuild the clinic several more times, including after damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and a fire in 2006. Of the clinic, she said she hopes that she is “making a difference in my community by providing a clinic where patients can come and receive health care with dignity.”

New section

JULIA HASKINS, SPECIAL TO AAMCNEWS

#black history month #black history #black doctors #black history inspiration #black doctor #black history matters #black physicians #doctors #heroes #black in America #african americans #african american #bhm

[waeziverse]

Royal Punch (chapter 10)

“Ladies and gentlemen... the age of magic is OVER!”

Aura snickered at Agate the Dwarf’s statement. “What, again?” The other creatures who lived in Jadedale who had gathered to watch the presentation snickered as well.

“HA! Laugh all you like!” Agate strapped her safety goggles on as the final touch of her flight suit. “But today is the day a dwarf defies gravity! The sky won’t solely be the domain of winged creatures like you. And the superiority of science over magic will be painfully clear.”

Ivan had finished checking that the flying machine, or Agate’s baby as he liked to call it, had no loose parts. “Alright, nothing should fall off.” Ivan said. “But are you sure you wanna try this again?” The bull-man looked concerned as the dwarf climbed up to the seat of her invention.

“Ivan, she who does not dare does not win. And don’t worry; once I become world-famous as the world’s first flying dwarf, I will make sure YOUR name goes down in history as well as thanks for all your help.”

“That’s generous of you.” Ivan felt regret over assisting the dwarf with building the dang thing, but he would rather try and help her make it work than just standing idly by as she tried to blow herself up. He went to the crowd in order to stand by the side of his wife Aura as Agate activated the heat crystals that were part of the machine’s function.

Amethyst and Dimi watched as the so-called flying machine began to make noises of several types. the two fourteen-year-old girls each held a bucket filled with water, just in case.

“Remember our bet?” Dimi asked the dwarf girl with ribbons in her beautiful beard.

“Absolutely.” Amethyst grinned. “No take-backsies. Those 30 coronets are as good as mine.”

The propel was spinning like crazy. The crowd of people stopped smiling as they realized that now was the moment. Agate ’s passion stopped being amusing as the vertical began to slowly move forward.

... and then it stopped moving. Aura smelled the scent of burning hair.

“I’M ON FIRE!” Agate jumped off the machine as the bottom of her beard was burning. “I’M ON FIRE, I’M ON-” The dwarf’s daughter and the human girl threw water in her face. “... Thanks girls.”

“Man, I was so sure she would fly this time.” Dimi grumbled as she gave Amethyst a small bag with coins.

Agate looked at amethyst with a judging look. “You would bet against your own mother?”

“Mom, don’t think of it as me betting against you.” The teen dwarf weighted the bag in her hand with a grin. “Think of it as me investing in your failures.”

Agate stopped looking at her daughter with annoyance as she turned her attention toward the flying machine that now burned. Ivan and the other townspeople helped extinguish the flames.

“Mom, seriously.” Amethyst looked concerned. “This isn’t funny anymore. Maybe you should try to create something less... extravagant? Everyone loves that toasting-bread machine you made.”

“Toasting bread is not enough to impress anyone.” Agate sighed. “I want something that actually makes creatures realize that advanced machines are the future and not just a temporary fad.”

"Wouldn’t it be better to make a machine that moves on land first and then work your way up?” Dimi asked. “Ah, no pun intended.”

“No, absolutely not. That would be a horrible idea.” Agate went to her machine to study it, hoping she could fix it instead of building a new one from scratch. “I already done the math and that would require that you made more roads, meaning the destruction of landscapes and nature in general. And it would be much easier to handle compared to a flying machine, meaning that any idiot could get one and drive around like a jerk. A land vertical would do far more damage than a flying one. AND it would harm the smaller businesses if creatures could casually travel around faster and farther than they can now. I refuse to be responsible for the creation of such a thing. Ah, DARN IT!” Agatha kicked the machine. “I have to get special parts from Onyxville.”

“Onyxville... crap!” Dimi slapped her face. “I almost forgot. Ivan! Aura!” Dimi yelled at her godfather and his wife. “I have to do a thing in Onyxville! I will be back in an hour, promise!”

Ivan was about to object, but the human girl had already left.

“Eh, we can survive without her for an hour.” Aura said. Then, a coy smile appeared on her face as she rested her head on her husband and began to draw circles on his chest. “We have the house for ourselves for an hour. Any ideas?”

“Yes, I have an order to finish before tomorrow and you are about to train a new griffin.” Ivan shrugged, looking as if he very much hated to be the wet blanket. “Sorry my love. Work before pleasure.”

Aura sighed and frowned. “By everything that is holy, you are no fun.”

***

Dimi was very satisfied with her purchase in Onyxville.

It was a vase with flowers painted on it. Once she got home, she would pick a couple of daisies to put in it and it would make an okay wedding day gift for Ivan and Aura. It hadn’t been expensive, but it hadn’t been cheap either, so Dimi felt good about buying it for her god-father and his wife.

Dimi stopped admiring the vase as she heard something. It was the sound of two or more people arguing. She followed the sound that brought her to the entrance of a blind alley. She took a peak and saw that in said alley were a dwarf, a satyr, a harpy and some sort of female green-skinned creature wearing a big, pointy hat. Dimi saw that the creature was armed with a kitchen knife, NOT the weapon of a mugger, meaning she was just trying to defend herself with what she had at the moment had on her possession.

Also, Dimi recognized the satyr.

“I swear, I will cut you if you get any closer to me, Hector!” The green woman said while aiming her knife at her three attackers.

“See? This is what I’m talking about.” Hector waved his hand at the woman as if he was showing his friends an interesting animal. “Her kind are violent. We would do anyone a favor by teaching this THING some manners and self control before she leaves Onyxville to infect some other town.”

“HEY!”

Hector and his turned their heads to see the human girl at the entrance to the alley as she carefully placed a vase on the ground and then proceeded to crack her knuckles.

“I don’t know what is going on here, but I can see you are ganging up on that girl. I’m a blacksmith AND a boxer, so I can kick your asses.” Dimi smiled. “Especially your ass, Hector. Or maybe you can’t remember what happened last Friday?”

Hector very much remembered last Friday where he had squared off against Dimi in the ring. Just looking at her made his ribs hurt again.

“You two, take care of the snake freak.” Hector tightened his fists as his hoof scrapped the ground. “The human is mine!”

Hector thought he had an advantage in a street fight since this wasn’t a boxing ring where he had to follow rules and wasn’t allowed to use his horns. But the goat boy had not considered that Ivan the Minotaur had taught Dimi how she should NOT fight. Like how she should NOT stick her thumbs in someone’s eyes to both partly blind them and cause them a lot of pain to disorient them. Or how she should NOT knee someone in the groin since that was more effective than trying to kick them in that area.

As Hector leaned forward in pain, Dimi placed a solid punch on his rips, mostly to hurt his pride. After watching him fall to the ground and whimper, she looked up to see if the green girl was okay. She seemed to be doing okay as she kicked the dwarf in the face and held her knife toward the harpy’s throat. Dimi noticed that the harpy’s wings were bleeding. This female creature knew to go for the wings first so the harpy would be forced to fight on the ground where she had a disadvantage. The green girl had tried fighting before, that much was clear.

The dwarf tackled the green girl from behind and made her fall to the dirt. The harpy was about to dig her talons in the back of her, but Dimi grabbed the dwarf by his arm and used his weight against him by shoving him into his winged buddy.

“Are you okay?” Dimi helped the green girl up. “Why are they... ah...”

Dimi blinked. The green girl had dropped her hat, revealing a head with snakes attached to it. the girl was also wearing a pair of sunglasses. She looked like she was a little older than Dimi, but not much older.

“Behind you.” The gorgon stabbed the dwarf in the shoulder as he had fetched a dagger. Dimi stopped staring at the snake-creature and turned her attention toward the harpy that kicked after her in the hope of scratching her. She was horribly unbalanced and Dimi knocked her over with a left hook.

Dimi and the gorgon watched as Hector and his friends limp away to lick their wounds. Once they were gone, Dimi returned her stare at the scaled girl who lifted an eyebrow at her.

“Something wrong?” The gorgon asked.

“No, I... no, I just never met a gorgon before. That’s what you are, right?”

The girl narrowed her eyes behind her shades. “Yeah. Got a problem with that?”

“No, I just never met one before, that’s all.” Dimi offered a handshake. “My name is Dimi.”

The gorgon hesitated before taking the human’s hand. “I’m Ruby. Thanks for the help.”

“Not a problem. I... Oh NO!” Dimi ran to see if her vase was still intact. It wasn’t. “DANGIT! They must have kicked it or something!”

“Oh, that’s too bad.” Ruby watched Dimi as she looked at the broken vase as she wondered if she could somehow fix it. “Hey, look... how about I thank you by buying you a new one.”

“Oh, don’t do that, it was my fault for leaving it lying around.”

“Yeah, you left it lying around to back me up. Let me buy you a new vase! The ceramics shop is next to my home anyways. Or rather, my ex-home, I’m getting out of this lousy town and moving to Jadedale.”

“Hey, I live in Jadedale!” Dimi said excitedly.

Ruby grinned. “Well, I already have some hopes regarding that town now thanks to you. Know what? I’m opening a restaurant in Jadedale, stop by my place once I open it and I will give ya a free meal.”

“So it’s YOU who bought the closed-down bakery?”

“Yeah, I decided to keep a low profile before I actually moved to Jadedale. Was worried I would be met by a load of people who would run me out of town before I actually arrived.”

“No way, Jadedale is great! We accept each other, and cross-species marriage is not frowned upon. In Jadedale, we can’t even SPELL the word bigotry! Heck, my caretakers are a minotaur and a sphinx!”

Ruby laughed as she grabbed the bag she had to drop as she had gotten ambushed and stuck her kitchen knife in it. “Dimi, it sounds like Jadedale is my kind of town!”

***

Ruby and Dimi sat in the wagon that transported people from Onyxville to Jadedale. Dimi held her new vase while Ruby was wearing her hat again to hide her snakes despite only sharing the wagon with Dimi and the goblin coachman who minded his own business and had his eyes on the road.

“And that’s how my mom ended up marrying a grindylow and had me.”

“That is so sweet!” Dimi was moved by Ruby’s tale, but then realized something. “Wait, you are only part gorgon? Why don’t you have traits from your dad? And how do you live on land?”

“Eh, the gorgon genes are always the dominating ones. But I did inherit dad’s lounges, meaning that I can hold my breath for several hours under water. But I don’t have to stay wet to stay alive or anything like that.”

“Still, a gorgon and a grindylow... that’s pretty unusual, right?”

Ruby looked somewhat bitter. “Actually... not as unusual as you would think. There aren’t that many gorgons left, fewer and fewer are born after the massacre. Dad was lizard-ish like mom, meaning having a child was possible for them. There are more half-blood gorgons today than there are full-blood ones.”

Dimi blinked. “The... massacre?”

Ruby sighed. “Yeah, no wonder you haven’t heard of it since you are a human. My people were originally from an island not far from Nesredna. About one-hundred years ago, the queen of Nesredna decided we were too dangerous since the gorgons did not want to make an alliance with the humans, meaning we could side with a potential enemy, like the orcs I guess.”

Dimi felt as if she had just been punched in the guts by someone wearing a stone for a boxing glove.

Ruby’s eyes tightened as she went on. “Gorgons pride themselves as astounding hunters and illusionists, but we were not the greatest warrior nation. The gorgons were slaughtered once the humans attacked. Those who survived had to flee and we spread across the world. The gorgons never became one people again and our number has only dwindled with time.”

“Um...” Dimi was afraid to ask. “What was the name of the island where gorgons were from?”

A dark shadow came over Ruby’s face. “Ever heard about Ceto Island?”

Dimi bit her lower-lip. “Oh god, NO!”

“Yup. My ancestors’ home is now used as a holiday resort. Creatures are sunbathing on the graves of gorgons.”

Dimi was very familiar with Ceto Island. she had spent the summers there as a child while still living with her father. “Ruby... I had no idea.”

“Oh, please! I have no beef with you. It was a long time ago, and it was the royal human family who planned the slaughter of gorgons. They are the ones I’m really pissed at.”

Dimi felt as if she received a severe beating while being forced up a ring-corner. “Um... are you still mad at the human royal family? You said it yourself, it was a long time ago, right?”

“Eh, maybe I’m being unreasonable, but they never made it up for us, they didn’t even admit that what they did was genocide, not an act of war. Also, they made life harder for us by making laws to treat us unfairly, like the one about us having to wear shades all the damn time.”

“Wait, aren’t your eyes... you know... dangerous?”

“No, that’s just human propaganda. We don’t turn people into stone with simple eye-contact, we stun people for about a minute or so. And we have to want it, it’s not a handicap. But taking off my glasses, even to just nudge my eyes, is a criminal offence.” Ruby sighed. “It sounds like small potatoes, but it is just the top of the iceberg of injustice. And it is extra annoying since the human king Pater made promises he didn’t keep because he was a wuss.”

It was almost too much for Dimi. “I’m sorry, what?!”

“Dimi, no offence... but king Pater was a big wuss. He kept making speeches about equality among creatures and stuff, but he never did a damn thing to help gorgon, minotaurs, half-elves or other creatures humans has screwed over for who knows how long. Creatures who had it crummy kept having it crummy. I mean, if he was a douche-bag who hated us less-than-fortunate creatures, then I could at some degree respect it. But he never changed the laws because he didn’t want the humans he ruled over to be pissed at him. Seriously, such a little-” Ruby paused as she saw that Dimi looked uncomfortable. “Look, as I said, no offence. I mean, it is not like you are related to that wimp of an ex-king.”

Dimi felt great relief as they arrived in Jadedale. “I have to go home, work and stuff. I will see you later in your new restaurant.”

Ruby watched Dimi run for it with the vase under her arm. The gorgon felt stupid for hitting the human girl with such a truth bomb and made her feel bad about being a human since she had been nice to her. Ruby would probably feel even worse if she knew how much it hurt Dimi to hear about king Pater and why.

***

“ROOWR!”

“SQUEE!!!”

“ROOOOWR!!!”

“SQUEE!!!”

Aura roared at the newly-bought griffin that had been tied to the fence near her barn so it wouldn’t fly away while she proved her dominance to make it accept her as pack leader. She dropped her war-mask as she noticed that Dimi had returned home while carrying something packed in brown paper. She stopped smiling as she noticed how miserable the human girl was.

“Dimi, is something wrong?” The sphinx asked concerned.

“No...” Dimi’s face betrayed her words. “Where is Ivan? I have to talk to him.”

“In the forge.”

Aura watched the human girl go into the house first to leave the packet inside. Then she went to the shed that had been rebuilt to function as forge. Inside was Ivan who was busy with what would become a kitchen-knife.

"Girl, you've been away longer than you promised.” Ivan cooled the new knife in water and dried his face. “Were you occupied or-”

“Was my dad a bad king?”

Ivan knocked the bucket over and the not-cool-enough knife got bent out of shape. Ivan looked at Dimi as if she had turned into a talking tomato before his very eyes. “Ah... I’m sorry, what was the question again?”

Dimi looked at Ivan with annoyance all over her face. “I asked if my dad did not lift a finger to change laws that targeted different creatures even though they were unfair and only made to make their lives harder. Laws my ancestors made. Short version: Was my dad a bad king?”

Ivan just looked at Dimi. This was worse than when he tried to muster up the courage to explain the birds and bees to her. And he could see on her expression that every second he hesitated with answering her question just made it worse.

“Dimi...” Ivan began to clean up his mess on the floor so he had an excuse not to look her in the eyes. “Politics... it’s complicated. A delicate affair. Doing the right thing is... not without problems.”

Dimi scoffed. “Ivan, that’s a load of bull.”

“Dimi, the sort of language...Eh, okay, you are right, it’s a load of bull.” The minotaur sighed. “Dimi... Your father is a good man, he really is. But... he is not exactly a brave one. There were decisions he did not dare to take.”

Dimi tightened her fists. “Great. Just great. My dad is a coward.”

“Dimi, it’s not that-”

“Sorry I came home later than I promised.” Dimi left the forge. “I’m going to help out Aura.”

Ivan watched the human girl leave. She looked so angry that one would worry that getting near her would be life threatening. Ivan was unsure what to do.

So he went back to work.

#Royal Punch #RP #Dimi #Princess Dimi #Dimicatio #waeziverse #Ivan #Ivan the Minotaur #Aura #Aurauaakarusaank #Aura the Sphinx #Ruby the Gorgon #Agate the Dwarf #Agate #Amethyst #Amethyst the Dwarf #OC #Ruby

[cactibarber]

Chapter 2 of my TMA x MBMBAM crack fic is up! (Chapter 1) Thanks so much to everyone who’s read it so far!

---

Justin cleared his throat and began. “Well, we were thinking about going on vacation, so we were waiting until we had some free time-“

“Not that we work hard,” Travis interrupted. “Not like you guys with your files and- are those tape recorders?”

“And we then we all got sick for like two weeks, so we figured we needed a break,” Justin finished. “So we wanted to go to Europe-“

“Gotta get out of the states, you know. It’s uhhh not great right now,” Griffin said. “And-“

“And we decided on London. You know, to- tae sae Bahg Baen,” Justin said, in what Jon guessed was an atrocious attempt at a Scottish accent. The voice didn’t go unnoticed, however, as the two brothers pounced immediately.

“No, no, no it’s Boig Boin-“

“Bae Baen-“

“Beyblades? Are you talking about fucking Beyblades, Travis?”

Jon rubbed his temples and resisted the urge to shout down the hall for Martin- hell, maybe Daisy or Basira could help scare them into giving a proper statement. He had to admit, he was a bit confused with what was going on- usually when people gave a statement, it was in a more listenable way, getting rid of all the feelings (and trauma) that clouded the statement. But these brothers sat in front of him, seemingly rambling about some thing that had happened to them, and they didn’t seem to care at all.

Jon attempted to focus back in to the conversation. The brothers seemed to be arguing about whether the Dick Van Dyke accent from Mary Poppins counted as a real English accent.

“-and the whole movie takes place in London, Griffin, so what I don’t know why you would think that it didn’t count-”

“Oh, just because the movie takes place in London, huh Travis? So if I started talking about ‘puttin it on the barbie’ in Niu Yawk-”

“Gross, Griffin, what are you putting on the barbie?”

“Yeah, c’mon Griff.”

“Gentlemen,” Jon said firmly, a faint crackle of compulsion in his voice. The McElroys sat up straight, as if shocked by lightning. “Please. Continue.”

Justin’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he started speaking again. “Well, the point is that we ended up taking a trip to London town-”

“Something no-one but our dad says,” Griffin muttered under his breath.

“-and we were out at one of the pubs here, having some drinks after our flight landed.”

“It ended up just being us three, since our wives decided to stay in the states because of all the traveling we’ve been doing recently. My wife, Teresa, in particular-”

Jon stubbornly ignored the chorus of “My wife” that erupted around the room. Justin’s face was beet red from trying not to laugh at his own joke, while Griffin looked at him, stonefaced and shrugging. Jon was surprised that his compulsion seemed to be wearing off almost immediately. At this point, he was wondering if he was going to be more hungry after this statement than he was before it.

“Anyway it’s just us in London right now. So we were in a bar-”

“Pub-”

“And we were leaving around 1 AM? We were pretty, uhh, out of it-” “Drunk- we don’t have to leave a good impression on this guy, Justin, we’re just telling him about how we saw Daz,” Griffin corrected.

“I’m getting to it,” Justin said, glaring at Griffin. He turned to Jon, holding his hands out in a “see-what-I’m-dealing-with” position. “Daz is, well, I mean, I’m getting to it.”

“We were leaving the pub-bar, and we were slightly stumbling to the street. Not like falling down drunk, but definitely tripping every few steps drunk,” Justin continued. “Travis was the worst off since he tried to drink a cocktail with a pie slice on top of it-”

“It was definitely worth it,” Travis said, pulling out his phone. “Let me show you a picture-”

“And when we were outside of the bar-pub, we heard someone ask if we had a cigarette.”

“Was he in the alley?” Jon asked, startled. This story was starting to sound shockingly familiar. If the angler-fish was active again, then it mean that the Stranger had already recovered from their attempted Unknowing.

“Yeah!” Griffin chimed in. “He was leaning against the wall like a gangster from the 60s. Have you seen Grease? Because he looked like-”

“Griffin, I swear to god, if you are going to say that Daz looks like John Travolta from Grease,” Justin exasperatedly interrupted. “Then I will be forced to-”

“I meant his posture, Juice,” Griffin said, rolling his eyes. “Y’know, one leg up like a fuckin’ cool guy.”

“Yeah, that’s what makes someone cool, Griff,” Travis laughed. “One leg up means a fuckin’ cooooool guy.”

Justin raised his voice over Griffin and Travis’ laughter. “The guy in the alley was in the shadows at first, so we couldn’t see him. None of us had any little, uh, smoke sticks on us, so we said no and were about to walk away.”

Griffin and Travis erupted into another round of laughter at Justin’s choice of words. When he was sure all three of them were distracted, Jon allowed himself a little smile.

“But the guy didn’t give up,” Justin continued, getting a little solemn. “He stepped a little out of the shadows and we were able to see him a little more clearly.”

“He looked like a normal dude at first. Like anyone you would see on the street,” Travis said, picking up where his brother had left off. “But as he kept getting closer, he felt, ummm, I guess off is the best way to put it?”

Griffin let out a bark of laughter. “Really, Trav? Is that the best you, a New York Times best-selling author can do?” Griffin put on a voice that Jon guessed was one crafted and honed over many years with a singular purpose of annoying his brothers. “Oh yeah, man he felt like, off I guess? I dunno, I haven’t learned anything past o in the alphabet.”

Justin burst into laughter as Travis pouted. “You describe him then, Griffin! Sorry I wasn’t trying to be all poetic and shit like in one of your cutscenes-”

“Hey, my cutscenes aren’t just poetic. They’re masterpieces in literature.”

Travis rolled his eyes at that and flipped Griffin off, which Griffin responded to by sticking his tongue out. Jon Saw™ a brief flash of hours upon hours of family dinners, many of which had gone the same way, and felt the chill in the back of his spine start to dissipate.

“I’ll give it a crack, though,” Griffin said. “I thought it was pretty clear why he looked off. He was too smooth.”

Jon took a bit longer than it should have to process that statement. “Excuse me?”

“I mean, I guess specifically his face was too smooth,” Griffin explained. “Like it would have been as if he did one of those Korean face mask treatments, but every day, since he was a baby.”

“How would you even put one of those on a baby?” Justin mused, leaning back in his chair.

“I bet you’d have to cut one of them up,” Travis answered. “Unless-”

“Unless-” Justin and Griffin answered back, almost immediately. Jon felt like he was watching a play at this point.

“Unless that’s our next business idea for when we get back! Baby face masks!” The three of them laughed heartily, only stopping to chant in unison, “TM TM TM.”

“But that’s what I meant!” Griffin said, trying to get back on track. “His nose was slightly crooked, but his skin was so smooth, it looked like it was merging back into his face. His mouth was stretched out until it was like the width of his face, and, it wasn’t like it was in the wrong place, it looked like it was supposed to be there. He had these black spots all over his face, but they didn’t look like birthmarks or anything, it was like those parts of his face were, I don’t know, sunken, but still, they were so smooth. Everything about his face was so rubbery and plasticky, I mean it was like-”

“Like he wasn’t a real person,” Jon finished. There was a silence in the office that hadn’t been there since the McElroys had walked in.

“Yeah,” Justin said, breaking the awkwardness.

“How did you know he was, what was the phrase you used, a video game monster?” Jon asked curiously.

“Well, we do this Youtube series called Monster Factory,” Justin explained. “And by me, I mean me and Griffin, because Travis is too busy trying to get into Supernatural or whatever-”

“It’s going to happen!”

“And one of the monsters we made was based off of late great character actor Dennis Farina.”

“Who-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Griffin said hurriedly. “I didn’t know who he was either, and I was in the video with him.”

“Well we took a facescan of Dennis Farina in some golf game and we really messed him up. I mean like, really rogered him right up. Actually,” Justin pulled out his phone and showed Jon a picture of a video game character mid-golf swing that did look “real rogered up”.

“So when he came up to us and asked us for a cigarette again, we got a better look at him in the light. His hair stood out too- it was all blocky instead of smooth like his skin. Like it was low-res,” Griffin said.

“And everyone knows, your hair doesn’t look like your skin,” Travis told Jon, in a faux-educational voice.

“And,” Griffin said pointedly, “his head was moving.”

“Moving?”

“Like he was- like he was breathing through his head. It was pulsing, like really slowly, but I definitely saw it.” Griffin shuddered. “Honestly- one of the top ten grossest things I’ve ever seen.”

“What about what happened today with the bugs and Slime-” Justin asked.

“Top ten means that there are other events on there,” Griffin said. “The use of the number ten instead of-”

“How did you get away?” Jon interrupted. This didn’t sound too much like the anglerfish since it could move around, but it still gave off hints of the Stranger. And if it was-

Travis muttered something under his breath, and Griffin elbowed his side. “I said, I yartzed on him,” Travis said reluctlantly, as Griffin stifled some laughter.

Jon shook his head slightly, as if trying to dislodge some rocks from his ear. “I’m sorry?”

“I yartzed! I threw up on his shoes, and we kind of just ran. We would’ve paid him for his shoes-”

“You would’ve,” Justin said, crossing his arms.

“But we were all kinda drunk, and he was really, really creepy. Y’know. Off.”

Jon sat up a little straighter, running a hand through his hair. “You… threw up. On the shoes of something that you don’t even think was human.”

“I mean, we didn’t say that yet,” Griffin said, jumping in. “Butttttt yeah. That’s pretty much what happened.”

“Things were pretty buckwild that night,” Justin said brightly. “But I mean that’s nothing compared to what happened earlier today.”

“Today- what do you mean today?” Jon said, confused. “Did something else happen?”

The McElroys looked at each other, each mentally telling the other to speak. Travis lost, sighing and saying, “Yeah, we saw another one of them today. And-and that’s why we’re here! Because-”

“Well, we want to stop seeing them, for one,” Griffin said. “But also, if this is some sort of weird nightmare hell realm pattern thing, where we keep seeing them, there’s one character we reallly, really don’t want to run into.”

Jon gripped the table, as he Saw™. “The Final Pam.”

#tma #the magnus archives #mbmbam #monster factory #sabs stuff #this one's got #daz #i can only write this #late at night #when my brain is loose enough #hopefully yall like this chapter! #i am stubbornly ignoring tma 160 #except for the first five minutes #mcelroys #griffin mcelroy #justin mcelroy #travis mcelroy #jonathan sims

[feathersandfarmers]

Bunty’s point of view part 2

“How about this one, luv?, said the pudgy man, look at the size of her!” He quite rudely began poking a sausage-like finger through the cage. The woman sniffed and turned her nose up at me “This one will probably gobble up all the feed…attack the small, weaker ones…” She responded sharply. When the large idiot wouldn’t quit poking into my stomach, I retaliated by giving him a good, hard bite to his index, making him jolt backwards as if electrocuted. The lanky woman gave an amused smirk to her partner, who was dancing from foot to foot howling and clutching his hand in pain. “Actually Mr. Tweedy…..I think this one will be perfect after all!”

Perfect? Just what was that supposed to mean? In a great hullabaloo, I was given over to this strange couple, and thrown once again in another vehicle. It seemed, to my great discontent ,that I was yet again on my way to another unknown location.

From the moment I got there…I just had this awful feeling in my gut! (and it wasn’t because I had an empty stomach!) Without any introduction whatsoever….I just knew this was no haven for animals. There was no greenery in sight…no sweet scent of waffles and syrup…and the only animals around were other hens. It didn’t seem there was much I could do…tall fences towered over us at each corner, so there was no chance of an escape. As much as I hate to admit it, my eyes began to sting as hot tear arose…passing row after row of chicken huts, I soon saw a group of chicks gathered around this blue rooster. This group of young’uns seemed enraptured by the rooster’s words, as he made grand gestures with his arms, obviously deep in his story-telling. Despite thinking I was too old for stories, I slowly made my way over to the group and sat down with the others…listening to tales of war and epic plane flights.  

All my blimey hope was lost after enough days had gone by. I understood that farmer Hasen would not ever return for me…Tweedy’s farm was my new home. I learned the very grim truths about the place after only a week of residing there; eggs were what kept me alive...I was going to be laying eggs ( just be a bloody egg machine!) until the day I died. Truth be told ducks, I went from being a prim n’ proper, spoiled hen to the hardened no-nonsense prune you all know and love… (shall I take a curtsy?)

Whenever new chicks were dropped into our coop, they’d always be crying. (Quite aggravating if you ask me!) But I’d remember how I felt on my first day at the Tweedys’, and it got my heart to beat a little lighter for them. In particular, Mac and Babs had become my first chums. Babs wasn’t too far from my age and we often spent time in the huts yackin’ about this and that. Mac was quite young…and was blind as ever even back in those days! (hehe baby four-eyes).

The last to join our little group was even younger than Mac was, and I first met her after a typical roll-call. Obviously, she was crying her eyes out like a little fool. “whatchu blubbering about?” I said irritably, looking down at the little chick by my feet. “I…I  want mummy!”  “yeah well….she’s not coming back!” To this, the little bird began to wail…and the part of me that cannot stand the sight of someone in such chagrin decided to be a little more welcoming to the puny thing. “Listen…that whining won’t do you any good here…you’ve got to be a big girl now, and brave! Why don’t you come with me and the others? The old sausage has a new story brewing for us tonight!” I said, leaning down and smiling softly. I gave her a little wink, she slipped her wing into mine, and we walked off together to Fowler’s hut. I became somewhat of a guardian or older sister to my young friends. I was gruff and tough, sure....but they needed the tough love to get them through such a hard life! 

Having friends there mad my life a whole lot bearable. And little did I know that the crying chick would someday hatch a plan to our salvation!  

Am I still bothered by the past? You’re darn tootin’, I am! The anger is certainly still there, and I know for certain it will take some time to die down.  In the meantime, I try to redirect my energy into summat positive like raising my sons; Padovan, Dimitri, Viktor, Alastor and Griffin. Having five boys, I thought I’d have my wings full at all times… (and most days I do) but my boys love quiet activities(picking flowers, dirt-drawing ,skipping stones by the pond) and that gives me a moments peace to just breathe and be still.

I’m not bloody sure how i can make it up with Ginger....but I suppose those answer will reveal themselves to me someday somehow or summat...”

Here is part 2! I’m getting A LOT  of requests for the other stories and I feel I just need to say that I WILL be doing the other characters (Babs, Nick & Fetcher as well as Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy). But I need to take my time doing them as to properly develop my ideas/write things out well and with effort.(that and I have other priorities other than the fics!) So they will be out when the time is right for me, thank you. 

I had a hard time figuring out the ending to this one...so i just did my best with it! (Part 1 can be found here )

#chicken run #Bunty #fanfic #aardman

[sometimesrosy]

total long term speculation here. I’m just picking up on some clues here about the new story, the old story, and where it might go, in terms of the spiral of their story, and some foreshadowing I might have caught. I always make my speculation too soon, because this is a long term story, so I think this will be developed this season but NOT finished. I’m looking for THIS story, this BOOK, to finish up, at the earliest, in season 7, so two years. OR possibly season 10, which would be even with book 1. OR they could reach this storyline conclusion in season 7, reach the new plateau I see here, and finish the grand themes by season 10, which would be the end of Book 2.

Okay. I’m going in. 

Be prepared. There are TWO theories here. One which I’ve been considering for a while and another which I just came up with while writing it. Take the stories we’ve already had on earth, and make them BIGGER. 

UGH. Be prepared again. This baby is long. Scroll to the end for a vague Bellarke theory about JR’s intentions for Bellarke romance and a happily ever after.

SOO long.

Spec: Alien Theory

  IF the new planet has the “peaceful” society of eligius colonists, which is based on the subjugation (slavery? attempted genocide? both? like the history of america,) of the native population. Then that means that Clarke and Bellamy are obliged to not only give up their own privileged status as humans who are entitled to the new planet, and “superior” to the aliens, but they have to STOP the colony of humans from taking the planet from the natives. They have to fight for the people who are NOT their people. They have to fight AGAINST what’s best for their people.

Because “their people” are not those with the same genetic background or history or homeworld, but the people who want to live in peace and BUILD a world instead of control or destroy.

Okay, so, this is the same basic premise and struggle as we saw in Mount Weather. They HAD to be stopped. They wanted to enslave and torture the natives of the surface because they believed the surface was their birthright. They WERE what was wrong with humanity. If L had not betrayed them, they could have done it right and destroyed only those who were actively trying to hurt everyone, but in the interests of power and self interest, Clarke and Bellamy and Monty were required to eradicate the whole people. 

It is not a coincidence that Monty is the one who woke up Clarke and Bellamy and then told them to Be The Good Guys. This is the legacy of that action. The lessons learned from Mount Weather are going to come up again. Because I am speculating that Eligius 3 is going to be very much the same people as Mount Weather. First off. They are the same culture. They FLED the earth before it was destroyed, BECAUSE they had used it up, and they wanted a NEW planet to use. MW already had all the treasures of humanity IN the bunker before the bombs ever dropped. There was no time to save them. They ALREADY had Starry Night by Van Gogh? How did they do that? These are the same people. That’s my theory. They had the power. They set up their escape routes. One on earth. One in space.  Hmm. Maybe. 

But, JR said the planet had a mythology deeply rooted in the mythology of The 100. It can’t be the grounders, because they were formed AFTER the apocalypse. But it CAN be Becca, Eligius, Mount Weather (who were the american leaders) and Diyoza... who was a traitor AGAINST the american leaders. I doubt there will be time travel, and I doubt we’ll MEET the people who did all this hundreds of years ago (there is a slight possibility we will, through cryo stasis or new tech,) but the society WILL be based on the society that used up all the resources of Earth and went looking for a new planet to take. 

THIS IS OUR COLONIALIST NARRATIVE THAT WE’VE BEEN ON ABOUT SINCE S3. Not refugee. Eligius three was not a refugee ship. It was a colony ship with, I’m guessing, superior technology to whatever is found on that planet. 

OKAY. So that’s my guesses for Eligius 3 and the new planet.

Spec:  Return to Earth

My spec for what part Clarke and Bellamy and our heroes will have are crystallizing around THESE concepts.

Be The Good Guys, Monty Green

Doing What’s Right For Your People Is Not The Same Thing As Doing The Right Thing, Marcus Kane

I’m Making Sure Humanity Deserves To Survive, Abby Griffin

“If we didn’t take the blood treatments, we’d die. What were we supposed to do?” Maya Vie. “Die.” Monty Green.

You Are Responsible For Your Monster, Lincoln kom Trikru

Just Once I’d Like To Take Off From A Planet That Wasn’t On Fire, Raven Reyes.

1. If Clarke and Bellamy need to be the good guys, when faced with a situation that would benefit them, eligius 3 colonists, they have to make sure their choices are not just about benefitting them.

2.I suspect doing what’s best for their people would be to accept the evil of Eligius 3 and just benefit from it. But if they’re being the good guys, then they can’t accept the evil, just because they benefit.

3. Abby was willing to sacrifice the stability of the Ark to do the right thing. Maya was willing to sacrifice the stability of MW to do the right thing. Making sure humanity DESERVED to survive, after blowing up their own planet, means not letting them do it again.

4. If Humanity can’t be successful and peaceful on the new planet without causing pain and damage to others and to the planet, then they don’t deserve to have the planet... or to live.

5. Even if the new society is not Clarke and Bellamy’s fault, as humans, it’s their responsibility to make sure humanity doesn’t continue to destroy the universe in their greed and xenophobia. They need to destroy all the people who are trying to dominate the new world, to stop the spread of humanity’s illness. I suspect there will be freedom fighters on that planet who do not accept what their people are doing. This time, I think Clarke and Bellamy will be able to save them. What Clarke and Bellamy and humanity ARE responsible for is what happened to their planet. You CAN’T JUST DISCARD A PLANET YOU HAVE TO CLEAN UP THAT MESS. They’re going back to earth. If it takes another 75 years to travel back in cryo that means it will have been 200 years before they get back to earth. 200 years is the original prediction for how long it would take earth to recover from the first apocalypse, back on the Ark. When they get back to earth, it will be livable again and they can start rebuilding the world they lost. This time better. 

6. This was the realization that made me finally write up this spec, because I’ve been ruminating on it for a while. Raven said she wanted to take off from a planet JUST ONCE without it being on fire. She’s only done it TWICE. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern. She’s going to do it AGAIN. She’s going to lift off from a planet, and this time IT WON”T BE ON FIRE. They will have made their change on the new world and whatever they are leaving behind it will be, for once, better than what they started with. Because they were the good guys.  Clarke’s hero’s journey fulfilled. (my guess by season 7.)

extra spec: Madi

 i just thought about while writing this: They will all need to be nightbloods in order to survive the radiation on the planet, so that will no longer be special. But only Madi has the flame in her head. The flame is an AI supercomputer. Eligius 3 was prepared by Becca, that’s why the nightblood, so it is conceivable that there’s another ALIE on the new planet. Because she would have sent it to help the colonists survive without contact from earth. Madi will be able to connect, on one way or another, with the new AI, because she’s a freaking cyborg. (cybernetic organism, hybrid of computer/human.) Knowing Slytherin Clarke, she will keep that tidbit a secret form Eligius 3. Madi’s super human abilities might very well make her the savior of the planet. Madi might be the one to ascend to a higher plane of existence, not Clarke, but Clarke will have to deal with SERIOUS emotional and spiritual and psychological transformation to deal with this, especially if she’s back to being the leader of people, some of whom are not her own species.

Okay. So. I do not know how on target I am with this speculation. It’s so far in the future as to be almost crack, but the ideas came together because I combined the story we already have with the reading/watching list that JR suggested (The Sparrow, Annihilation, Interstellar, Battlestar Galactica.)

Extra extra spec: AI Theory

Oh my god. What if the colonists are a planetary version of the City of Light, and all the peaceful citizens are being controlled by ALIE? Oh my god. It could happen. They wouldn’t have the personal agency of the commanders, because the flame is ALIE2 which she developed to fight ALIE1. HOLY SHIT, not only possible, but very likely that this fight is coming back. If ALIE is connecting all the colonists, then that would explain the peaceful society. And she NEVER would consider any aliens to be “her people.” Or wait. If it’s ALIE and another City of Light on the new planet, then you don’t need aliens. You just need people who have rejected ALIE and fought their way out. Oh. shades of The Matrix, yo. And Wrinkle in Time. Can we call ALIE on the new planet, IT?

Okay, Alien theory went down in possibility. AI theory went up. 

Ugh. So if it’s a COL situation, when Raven takes off from the planet for the third time, it might not be on fire, but it will still be leaving a global catastrophe behind, as the destruction of ALIE would, possibly, cause another genocide. I was always surprised that shutting down the COL didn’t kill everyone in it. This could be a different program, and could kill them all. 

If it’s a COL situation, then we COULD meet the original settlers. They would still be inside ALIE. ALIE would have taken their consciousness when they died, like she did in the COL. The new planet would essentially be run by the people who destroyed the world once before. HOLY SHIT. 

HUH. Interesting. If you were writing The 100, which one would you pick? Alien Slavery or AI mind control? They haven’t done aliens or slavery yet, but there’s still room in the AI story. Was it ever really explored all the way? Could they have BOTH? oh no. i want both. 

WAIT I HAVE MORE.

Bellarke spec: It’s A Comedy Bitches!

Okay, so the above spec is NOT about Bellarke. It is about their partnership and them as leaders and heroes and being the good guys and humanity.

But now I’m going to address the Bellarke romance.

Because there is one other main philosophical survival theme, that belongs WITHIN the apocalyptic science fiction genre, that is NOT being addressed by all this political and psychological and heroic stuff.

Life should be about more than just surviving.

The ONLY ones who have managed this so far are Harper and Monty. This is a concept that started with Wells in season 1, and travelled around with lots of other characters, but no one’s ever found this purpose and peace until Marper’s happy ending.

If Book One was about bringing opposite sides together (Bellarke) and breaking the cycle, I believe that Book Two will be about those two opposites transforming the world and creating something new, LIFE. 

Ahh. Because of that, let’s keep an eye out for Octavia. She is the symbol of the trinity, which is the symbol of fertility and new birth and creating something new, and LIFE. She is the soul, and she was tainted in the last book, (just like can happen to people when they face trauma after trauma) but like the earth, SHE GETS TO COME BACK. Watch for Octavia’s redemption in book 2. 

Okay. So Bellarke in book two are already soulmates, and canonically love each other. So the story now is about how they explore their love within the constraints of their world. The obstacles (b/e which I suspect will be settled in the first half of s6,) the new way of relating, how they are seen by the new people, their goals which are now on the same track. How they work together to BUILD a life for their people instead of just always being desperate to survive. 

This is about HOPE. “We still breathing?” 

Okay, there’s less spec here than just a vague direction. But it looks to me that while Book One was a tragedy, Book Two might end as a classical comedy. Not a romance, that’s different, but a comedy, which DOES indeed have romantic elements.  If Book One was Dante’s Inferno, then Book Two might be Paradiso. I mean. Okay there are three books to The Divine Comedy, so is Purgatorio its own book for us? Or is it the end of Book One, with s4 and 5 which definitely felt like Purgatory, middle ground, holding pattern of the second apocalypse and its aftermath. It felt like purgatory to me, so I’m going with Book Two as moving from purgatory into paradise. 

So. JR is moving out of the darkness of seasons 1, 2 and 3, and into purgatory, with 4, 5 and maybe 6, then on to PARADISE, with I don’t know how many chapters. 

He GAVE us our happy ending with Marper. I think The 100 is no longer a straight tragedy. And it’s hinging on this parallel of Marper with Bellarke. They passed the baton to Bellarke. Not just to be the good guys, but to LOVE and to BE HAPPY, and to RAISE A FAMILY. They GAVE HIM THEIR SON.

I dont’ know how they’re going to tell this story. But I’m making my prediction. By season 10 (if they get it) Bellarke will have a baby. And be married. Marriage is the way classic comedies end. The heroes win. There’s a marriage. Life succeeds. The 100 isn’t the story of The Inferno. The 100 IS THE STORY OF THE DIVINE COMEDY. 

THIS BITCH TOOK US THROUGH HELL AND HE’S LEADING US INTO PARADISE. 

#the 100 #the 100 spec #bellarke #alien theory #ai theory #return to earth theory #the divine comedy theory #believe in bellarke #this is a lot yo #just remember though i came up with cryo theory even before s4 aired i think like jr #crack theory

[captaindaddykru]

you hurt the ones you love (i don't believe that)

for @obviesbellarke based on this photo ;)

Raven has always prided herself on her work ethic. She didn’t come from much, her parents did not plan on having a child which about described her relationship with them, and she worked part-time jobs ever since the goverment allowed her to. (Since they put her in the system and the system failed her, she felt like she could pretty much do whatever she wanted to the system. So sometimes she repaid the cards they dealt her by doing some not so legal hacking into college databases to slightly change rich frat boy GPA’s and make some extra cash.) 

It paid off, because now Raven works for NASA and she didn’t even apply for the job. They asked her to come work for them. Who can say NASA asked them to come work for them? Raven Reyes can. Why? Because she is a certified genius who worked her way through high school, and college, and a master degree, and still managed to look halfway attractive, get in thirty minutes of exercise a day and keep a semi-active social life throughout it all. 

She loved her job. She did, but—but it also meant long days, a lot of overtime, even more time spend on business trips and conference calls. If it wasn’t for her boyfriend Zeke working in the same building as her, she’s pretty sure she would never see him either since she barely ever goes home. She just happened to luck out and get the most amazing, understanding and supportive friends in the universe. 

Besides, after spending half her life ‘being friends’ with Finn—who fucked her over and ghosted her after mere nine days apart at different colleges—Raven has come to learn what real friendship is. Emori tags her in a meme at least every other day, Harper brings over fresh vegetables from her and Monty’s garden whenever she looks extra pale and Clarke dutifully keeps her up to date on all her favorite shows she has zero time to watch. They’re as real as it gets. 

Hence, when things start to cross over from a strong work ethic to borderline workaholic slash inevitable burn-out and her boss Sinclair forces her to take two weeks off, she is disappointed when the first three people she asks to hang out on her first free Saturday night that year already have plans. They barely hear from her in months beside a quick ‘what’s up’ in their group chat before she falls asleep on her couch every Saint Glinglin and they have the audacity to not keep their nights free in case she might ask them to hang out sometime? Assholes. 

Since Emori and Murphy are out of town (probably robbing a house or something, she still doesn’t know what they do in their free time), and Harper and Monty have dinner with her parents, Clarke is up next. Raven texts her asking what she is doing that weekend, opening up a bottle of wine before padding over to her living room without a glass. She deserves the entire thing. Raven starts up Netflix on her smart TV while she waits for her friend to reply. 

Twenty minutes deep into an episode of Homeland, her phone buzzes annoyingly on the armrest. 

CLARKE [8:51 PM]:

who’s number is this?

RAVEN [8:54 PM]:

very funny griffin. drinks on saturday?

It takes a surprisingly long time for Clarke to answer her text, even though she isn’t a notorious bad back-texter unlike her boyfriend. One time like two years back, Raven asked Bellamy if he wanted to chip in on Murphy’s birthday present and he still hasn’t replied to this day. She’s pretty sure he isn’t even aware of the fact iMessage exists.

Raven has almost single-handedly finished off a bag of Cheetos before her phone buzzes again. She unlocks her phone to find a photo of a pregnancy test staring back at her, balanced precariously on what she assumes is Clarke’s knee, like the night terrors she used to have in middle school, terrified to end up like the other girls in her neighbourhood, sure a boy even looking at her could knock her up. 

RAVEN [9:08 PM]:

so no drinks then???

The reply comes faster this time, Raven sure that Clarke was just jumping for her to something. Anything.

CLARKE [09:09 PM]:

i just found out and my first instinct was to grab a bottle of beer, i’m fucked

She’s not sure what Clarke wants from her here—that one always had more up her sleeve than expected—a congrats or a condolences, so she settles on the safe middle of comic relief. 

RAVEN [9:10 PM]:

who’s the father?

CLARKE [09:10 PM]:

seriously?

RAVEN [9:11 PM]:

what? thought you two went to that swingers club the other month

CLARKE [09:14 PM]:

that was a teacher’s conference. he begged me to come

RAVEN [9:15 PM]:

i thought YOU begged HIM to come and now we’re in this whole mess?

A reply doesn’t come for two minutes, and then three, and when the clock ticks closer to five minutes, Raven decides to dial her number. It switches over to Facetime, but the screen is black, static commotion of the phone being moved around the only sound between their two devices for a good ten seconds. Finally, she asks, “Clarke?” 

“I didn’t plan for this, Rave,” is the first thing out of her mouth, and Raven has to bite back a smile. Clarke is such a in-the-closet neurotic mess and she missed it. The screen turns very bright, then finally she can make out her friend. From the looks of it, she is on the floor in her bathroom, mascara smudged lightly under her eyes, wavy hair a mess on top of her head. “I haven’t even finished school yet. My NCLEX exam isn’t until next month—“

“Sound like perfect timing to me,” Raven snorts, keeping her tone very bored. Is this all she has? Are these her best arguments? She’s off her game. “You’ll ace the exam, get a few months of nursing experience at the hospital and then you can go on maternity leave. Your mom owns the surgical ward, I’m pretty sure she can make it happen.”

She watches Clarke draw her knees up to her chest, resting her forehead on top of them for a moment before looking back up at her phone. She does look wrecked. Raven hesistates for a second, then inquires, “Have you told him?”

“No,” Clarke replies, and then she is quiet for another second. She sounds softer this time, “What if he doesn’t want this?”

Raven almost cackles out loud. That loser would do anything for her, even if he didn’t want a baby with her—which seemed very unlikely—he would probably go to his grave swearing it was all he ever wanted. Besides, Bellamy has a few years on Clarke, is a well-known mother hen and is practically smitten with his sister’s toddler. (The only pictures he ever posts on social media are either of Clarke, his sister, that bratty little Octavia look-alike, or the three of them together—which was probably Nirvana by his definition.) He was more than ready, Raven’s sure that his old man primal hormones are just off the charts.

“Fat chance,” Raven settles on, instead of manic laughter because she’s a good friend, eyebrows practically disappearing into her hairline. “You’re talking about Bellamy Blake? The same Bellamy Blake who, when you introduced him to me and I told him I would kick his ass if he ever hurt you, said he couldn’t wait to have your babies someday?”

Clarke scrunches up her nose in disbelief, and Raven wonders if she needs to get her sight checked. Does she not see how that buffoon looks at her? “He said that?”

“Yep,” Raven drags out, seemingly unimpressed.

“He was drunk,” she argues, brushing her off as she runs a hand through her tangled blonde hair. 

“That makes it more true, Clarke, not less,” Raven replies without skipping a beat, can’t help but sound a little tiny bit judgemental just because of who she is as a person. There’s more silence, Clarke chewing on her thumbnail as she stares off in the distance and Raven sighs, softening her voice. “No offense, but why are you complaining to me about this, babe? It isn’t like you to be this insecure.”

Was this not the Clarke Griffin who marched up to their arrogant orange-President-affliated professor and told him he might be an art teacher, but she was an artist? It was a popular meme around their college for weeks, black sunglasses and a animated blunt photoshopped onto her yearbook picture and plastered around the halls. The same Clarke Griffin who punched through a glass window because racist campus police let her go and took Monty into a interrogation room alone after catching the both of them with some weed brownies and still has the scar to prove it? Was she not the Clarke Griffin who got everyone to sign a petition to get Kyle Wick kicked out of school when he tweeted out a sexually suggestive picture of Raven?

“Because you know he’ll be excited,” she presses, aggrevated, blue eyes dark as she stares at her camera as if she can stare straight into Raven’s soul. “And I can’t break his heart and tell him that—”

“That what?” Raven cocks an eyebrow, figuring it’s time for some though love now. “You dont want a baby?”

“No—“ She tries to get it, but Raven doesn’t relent, keeps pressing, “That you don’t want his baby?”

“No!” Clarke blurts out harshly, cutting her off as her eyes brim with tears. “That I didn’t plan for this!” She swallows tightly, and Raven just watches her, chest heaving up and down erraticly, blue eyes darting from left to right as she tries to get her thoughts together.  “You know what happened when I started medical school, why I had to drop out,” her voice finally breaks, lip trembling. “This time, I was going to better. I was going to do it right.”

“You had a nervous breakdown, Clarke,” Raven snaps, tired of the sugarcoating. She was so hard on herself, and Raven still feels the slighest pang of guilt at that because she used to encourage that quality in her, held her to even higher standards. Maybe at first because she was jealous of her, of the golden girl who got everything handed to her. When she realized that wasn’t true, it was more because Raven knew she could be brilliant. Then after everything went down, she realized Clarke had already been brilliant all along. “You were making eighteen hour days, Lexa broke your heart and then your dad died in your arms. I think not having a breakdown over that would’ve qualified you as a sociopath.”

Clarke quickly wipes at the wetness trailing down her cheek, like she is trying to keep Raven from seeing, hugging her knees closer to her chest. Quietly, she sniffs, wondering, “What if it happens again?”

“It won’t. Because you’ve learned you can’t plan everything because life comes at you fast,” Raven says, authoratively, like she’s reading it from the pamphlet her therapist got them back then. “—and to communicate about how you’re feeling, what you’re thinking. Eat enough vegetables and sleep enough hours.”

Clarke takes a deep breath, wiping at her nose with the back of her hand as she lets herself nod. Raven can’t help but press, “Isn’t that what you and Bellamy use as foreplay? A good old fashioned emotional conversation?”

Clarke scoffs. “No, like talking shop doesn’t get you and Shaw going.”

Raven lifts a shoulder, indifferent. She’s not going to sit here and pretend like him being able to name every component of a Harvey Davidson motorcycle in alphabetical order doesn’t get her all hot and bothered.

Clarke wipes her palms on her jeans-clad thighs, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “What if I’m not any good at this?”

“Then the child will have the most awesome aunt to fall back on,” Raven smirks, and luckily, Clarke finally cracks a smile too. “You’re Clarke fucking Griffin. If this is something that you want—“ She drags out the last word, pausing to get her confirmation (she’s pretty sure it’s something she does want, deep down, but it doesn’t hurt to check before she rolls out the whole peptalk), and reluctantly, her friend nods, corners of her lips turned up almost shyly. “If it’s something that you want, you’ll succeed at it. You care about everyone, Clarke, to a fault.”

Raven finds herself smirking again, pretending to be half-distracted with re-tightening her brace. “And I know it’ll be hard to care about that baby knowing it’s Bellamy’s—“

“Shut up,” Clarke deadpans, and her eyes look brighter, clearer. Tentatively, her hand comes to rest on top of her lower belly, fingers flexing on top of her shirt for just a second. Raven can’t help but smile, happy for her friends. It’s what they deserve.

“You should really call him,” Raven pushes, pursing her lips satisfactory, “He’s going to be so salty you told me before him.”

“Probably,” Clarke snorts, just the slightest bit of nervousness flashing across her eyes before they soften as she says, “But, thanks, Rave. I’m glad to see NASA lets you out on probation every six months.”

“It’s NASA though,” she responds—a little boastful, because it’s NASA, she gets to be boastful—then stretches out her free arm. “Also, mocktails Saturday?”

Clarke beams. “Deal.”

(The next time Raven gets a text from Clarke, it’s a photo of a ring on her finger.)

#bellarke fic #my fic #bellamy x clarke #drabble #bellarke drabble #bellarke fic rec #bellarke #the 100 #the 100 fic #the 100 drabble #raven reyes #clarke griffin #sorry for any mistakes i did not proofread #kisha bullied me into writing this #she held me at gunpoint and told me i had to deliver bellarke babies within three hours #should i make the youre gonna have to make it a killshot joke or is that assumed? #different POV #fluff #angst #real life #family fic #established relationship #princess mechanic #brotp