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lisinfleur · 3 years

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Blómstur

The request:

Author’s Notes | This was definitely one of the cutest things I ever wrote. Universe | Vikings Pairing | Ivar x Reader Info | Viking Age AU, requested by @blonddnamedhandz for 5CW Ivar II. Posted for HTGI Event. Title translation: Flower. Words | 1306 ⁑ Warnings: Mentions to labor pains, Ivar’s ableism about his children.

It was what? The fifth one? The sixth if he would count the twins as two. There was Sigtryggr, Ingvar and Ímar - the twins. There was Udir and the little ones Erik and Einar - this last one his major concern since he didn't have left your boobs when Ivar accidentally got you full of his seed once again.

Would he be able to avoid his children from hating each other as Sigurd and he had done for so long?

Another sip of his mead, and, one more time, the cup almost fell from his hand with a growl of pain in your voice coming from the bedroom.

Why did it have to be so loud every single time?

Sigtryggr was taking care of his little brothers for him, outside of the house, to grant none of them would listen to your screams. As the older one, he had already age enough to understand those moments, and he knew how afraid his little brothers could be. He was thinking about getting a wife himself, on top of his fifteen years, and maybe carrying for his little brothers was a good way to learn how to behave when it was the time to see his wife screaming to put his children into Midgard like you were doing for his father's one more time.

Another scream cutting his thoughts.

"Gods..." Ivar mumbled, drinking from his cup one more time. "Why does it have to be so painful?"

Couldn't the gods be merciful about the birth part of that process?

To make the children was something so pleasurable! Why should putting them into this world be that horrible, bloody, and painful way?

You cried once again, louder. And Ivar swore he heard the midwife asking you to be strong and do it one more time.

Fuck that shit! You were the strongest human being he'd ever seen in his life!

Sword wounds? He could handle them.

Burning bleeding wounds with red-hot blades? Easy!

Now passing something as big as his children through a hole where his dick was used to feel tightly compressed? This was something his manly mind wasn't able to figure out how it was possible.

You'd always had long deliveries. His children were painfully big, healthy boys he could call everything but little. Sigtryggr was fifteen, and he was already taller than him! Ivar could bet he would be as tall as Ubbe or maybe Björn! And the twins weren't going through a different way: tall children, all of them! Big babies, all of them!

A new scream cut his ears. Were you giving birth to twins once again?

He got his crutch, forcing himself to stand.

It was taking too long!

Thinking closely, Siggtryggr had taken one day and half of a night. The twins took two days to be born. Erik was the shorter with one whole night. And Einar had taken almost as long as his twin brothers - the lazy thing. This one was approaching the end of its first day, but fuck! It was supposed to be quicker now, wasn't it?

Ivar thought about sitting down once again. What would he do inside that room but bother the women's work? What did he know about labor, to start with?

But what if something was wrong with this baby?

What if it was something wrong like...

Ivar felt startled by his own thoughts. Was it possible that the gods would allow Hel to touch one of his children like she had caressed his legs? After all the others, this one?

His eyes looked at the door, his heart speeding, his breath becoming shorter until everything stopped in his mind.

And around him.

A freezing cold shiver slid down his spine.

Why was everything so deep silent?

As fast as he could, Ivar rushed into the room, not minding the scared expression on his face when he opened the door, catching all the pairs of eyes into that place at once.

You were laid in bed, tired and sweaty like the last times you've done that. Ivar's eyes ran over the midwives, none of them seeming to be scared or anything but surprised with his sudden entrance.

One of them approached you, delivering a moving package in your hands.

It was smaller. Why was it smaller than the others?

Ivar's heart sunk into his chest as he approached the bed, but your smile confused him for a moment before you could show him the little package in your hands.

"Isn't she lovely, husband?" you asked.

And everything broke into shards of stars and light around him.

She was smaller than the others.

She.

His little gift from Freya was looking at him, with icy little blues exactly like his, filling his eyes with tears and making his lips break in a giggle that remembered that knock-kneed fool's voice for a moment.

Oh, Floki would be surely laughing at his anxiousness if he was there to see that moment. Or else, he would be making any stupid joke about how visibly melted Ivar's heart was with the sight of that little preciosity in your arms.

"A girl..." he mumbled, giggling again. "You gave me a beautiful little girl."

"Yes, my love. And I want to name her Aslog Ivarsðóttir. To remember your beautiful mother she'll probably grow to follow in beauty.”

He giggled again.

Oh, damn that fool! He would grow into an old wreck just like him.

But how wouldn't he be happy in front of such a thing? You passed the little package into his hands, and he cut the cord like he'd done so many times for his children before, marking her little forehead with the blood as a blessing.

"Oh, gods, look at you..." he mumbled, speechless in front of the small blue eyes looking at him so full of curiosity.

How, in the name of Odin, could something be that beautiful?

"I grow, I get older, but the gods don't get tired to bless me, do they?" he asked the little one as if she could answer him. "I've seen many things in this life, my child, but none... None was as beautiful as you are, looking at me like this."

His words were making you feel your heart full.

"My father once told me his daughter was the light of his heart. I never understood what he was talking about... With the many sons he had, how could she be different?" Ivar said, looking at you.

And then, turning himself to caress his little girl's face, as gently as if his fingers could break her delicate skin like the flowers you've once seen him braiding into a crown for you.

Maybe now, he would have more flower crowns braided by his hands in the course of his life.

"I get him now," he said. "It is different." Ivar completed.

He loved his children. Every single one of them.

But that moment was unique, and her way to look at him was unspeakable.

His heart was sure he would never see the world the same way once again.

She would be the light to enlighten his way. And what once was black and white had just been painted in the most beautiful colors Ivar ever had seen in his life.

"Are you happy, husband?" you asked.

Just to see him lifting his teary eyes to smile at you.

"No... Happy is too little of a word to define how enormous is what I'm feeling now."

Happiness is nothing, his father once said.

In that little girl's eyes, he could understand it too. It's nothing.

Happiness is nothing compared to the wonders he could experience with you by his side.

Happiness was nothing compared to what it was to hold that little package knowing his world would never be dark ever again.

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#history vikings #imagine vikings #ivar #ivar the boneless #ivar imagine #ivar x reader #ivar x OC #ivar ragnarsson #ivar lothbrok #ivar's heathen army #sister wives #HTGI #shot

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thessalian · 2 years

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Thess vs More Toby Day Theory

So, a couple of things - because, again, I’m on the Toby Daye train:

1) the Luidaeg’s geas means she’s going to have to kill Toby. Honestly, why doesn’t she just kill Toby and get it over with? Because, honestly, the Luidaeg said she’d kill Toby but said nothing whatsoever about Toby staying dead. She never mentioned letting Toby go to the night-haunts. Think what Toby’s survived. Multiple drownings. Elf-shot. Knife in the heart. Plummet from a very high place that broke every single one of her bones. So the Luidaeg could kill Toby any time she wants to so long as she doesn’t do it in a way that Toby can’t recover from. And hell, that’s what she might have meant to do when asking for payment in the form of bleeding Toby for an entire day, or until she’s satisfied. Leave just enough blood in her body to let her come back, and have a stack of sandwiches on hand, and Toby should be fine even if her heart stops.

...I think she’s avoiding doing it because she knows Toby wants to keep the last tattered shreds of her humanity. I imagine her body has tilted towards Fae as much as it has as much because of the times she’s died as because of significant magic use and Amandine’s interference. When she needs power badly enough, her body finds it in the blood, and the more Fae her blood is, the more power she has. Killing Toby again would probably be the end of Toby’s humanity, and the Luidaeg is trying to spare her that. Then again, that might satisfy the geas in a way that would bolster the “her heart stopped, so she died” loophole, the human side of her dying for good. The Luidaeg probably understands Toby wanting to keep something of her long-dead father for as long as she can - she did the same to keep something of her children, when she made the Selkies - and would rather do anything else. Still, she’s probably going to have to. One day, Toby’s going to be entirely Fae. If it happens at the Luidaeg’s hands ... well, it’s certainly poetic enough.

2) So ... the Roane were killed because Eira told a bunch of merlins that they could tease immortality from the Roane’s skins. Everyone says that it’s because Eira just didn’t like anyone else being happy, or that the Roane wouldn’t share their gift of prophesy with her. Thing is ... Eira plays a very long game, and she’s been about the supremacy of her line, and Titania’s children in general, more than any other of Titania’s Firstborn. She wanted to break the Ride, but she mostly wanted to break Maeve’s Ride - the Queens took turns, I think it was mentioned. I think Eira’s other reason for seeing the Roane killed was to make sure that no one could interfere with her plans.

It took me awhile to figure out the timings, but it definitely works. The Three would have had to still be around and properly active when the Roane were slaughtered, because that’s when Titania cursed the Luidaeg with the inability to lie. I haven’t seen any mention of how long after the slaughter of Roane it was that Janet broke the Maeve’s Ride, but I would bet it wasn’t long. It’s a time the Luidaeg won’t talk about; a time whose memory Toby only unearthed when the Luidaeg fed her an awful lot of her blood. A time the Luidaeg, who can’t lie, was speaking a language she now can’t remember, so probably a time she can’t consciously remember ... likely due to her grief. For a couple of reasons, potentially. I mean, if the death of the Roane was recent enough, one of the Roane might have said something just before the merlins came to kill them ... or maybe one of the few survivors did. Ether way, in The Unkindness Tide, the Luidaeg said that it took years for her to be able to do anything but answer a yes or no question; if she was still learning the limitations of the geas she was under, she might have had a really hard time phrasing suspicion as truth in a way that would maintain the sheer urgency of the thing. Prophesy is vague and tricky, and seldom gives anything direct enough to phrase as truth.

And ... given the serious mention Amphitrite made of what most of Titania’s children would do to make their mother smile, it stands to reason that most of them behaved with Titania the way the Daoine Sidhe behave around Eira, and Titania wanted to be the One True Queen of Faerie. And “You can never lie” is a pretty weird thing to curse someone with. I mean, yes, it does poke holes in the Luidaeg’s ability to see Eira pay for what she did - because at that point, she wasn’t entirely sure of what happened, and could be shut down with the simple question, “Can you prove any of it?” But Titania couldn’t have been stupid, any more than Eira’s stupid - it’s nice to have things that can be shut down with “Can you prove it?” or “Are you sure?” and have the answer have to be no because of a horrifically open-ended geas, isn’t it? Lots of stuff could be shut down with that kind of loophole. Like, whether Eira orchestrated the breaking of the Ride and Maeve’s resulting banishment. Or like, whether Titania told Eira to do it. Which brings us to...

3) The more I think about it, the more I think that people who think Stacy might be Titania have a point. I wouldn’t have thought a changeling should be that adamant against bringing the Roane back. She framed it as “The Luidaeg’s putting too much on you”, which is a mom-response if ever there was one ... but in nearly the same breath she told Toby that she could back out. Of a bargain with the fucking Luidaeg. There’s no way a changeling educated by Devin would be that ignorant of how dealing with one of the most powerful beings in the area works, especially not after knowing what Firstborn can do owing to her children getting kidnapped by Blind Michael. So ... someone who’s subconsciously really used to being the most powerful person in any room, ever (see also: yelling at the False Queen at Toby’s first trial).

Though that does bring me to another question: it’s pretty obvious that Stacy’s concerned about Cassandra dating because she doesn’t want the risk of someone finding out things they shouldn’t, or what might happen with any of her children’s kids, even if those worries are subconscious (though that said, I have to wonder what kind of alchemical solution Walther used for his transition, and whether it allows him fertility - in the novella dealing with Arden waking Nolan up, he was nicking things from the clinic that I’m damn sure were hormones, so...). Anyway, my question of the musing variety is this: Karen and Cassandra look very similar in terms of the Fae characteristics they share, neither of which fit with Barrow Wight, Nixie or Hob. We don’t know a whole lot about what Andrew or Jessica or Anthony look like in that regard, so we’ll see if that becomes relevant. Anyway, point is - if Stacy is Titania ... how does that work in terms of who’s Firstborn? I mean, they’d all be children of Titania, so technically all Firstborn, but Cassandra and Karen at least look like the same descendant race, so would that make Cassandra Firstborn? I guess that depends on what Jessica and the boys look like, whether there’s more than one descendant race in the offing from the Brown marriage.

Also ... how strong is the transformation, if Stacy is Titania? I don’t think it can be that strong - not bone and blood deep the way it was with Officer Thornton turning out to be Oberon. Why? Well, because blood magic is Oberon’s province. Maeve would have an easier time of it because water magic is about transformation. Titania only has flower magic - illusions. So the change in her couldn’t go overly deep unless Oberon or Maeve did it to her. And Maeve left first, so it wouldn’t be her. If Oberon made that change to Titania, I have to wonder if Toby could break the spell, or if Oberon would have to do it himself, or if even he’s capable of it now? I also have to wonder what would happen if Toby were to actually taste Stacy’s heritage now, with her being so much stronger now. Would she taste Barrow Wight? What watermarks would she find in Stacy’s blood, if she were to look now? And the kids - would she see Barrow Wight in the kids? Would she see as much human as she should? And what would happen if she pulled the Hob, Nixie and human out of those kids? What would the result be if she had to change them?

#October Daye #october day spoilers #Thess is a bibliophile

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grailfinders · 3 years

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Fate and Phantasms #129: Artoria Pendragon (Archer)

Today on Fate and Phantasms, our fun in the sun continues as we make yet another Artoria Pendragon. Geez, we’re over 100 builds in and they just keep coming. How many of you are there?

...Wow that’s a lot of clones.

Anyway, Artoria’s known for two things- the existential horror of existing in over a dozen places simultaneously, and now, her skill with water guns. I choose to believe those are connected somehow.

Check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next up: Summer lovin’, happened so fast!

Race and Background

Again, there’s nothing new here. You’re a Human, giving you +1 to all stats. You’re also a Knight, getting History and Persuasion proficiencies.

Ability Scores

Your Charisma was already pretty strong, and thanks to Summer helping you chill out a bit it’s only gotten stronger. Instead of focusing on Strength, your mana bursts now empower you Dexterity for greater speed and avoiding other player’s shots. You’ll also need some Wisdom to spot enemies lying in wait. Your Constitution hasn’t been changed much by your class change, but your Strength did take a hit as did your Intelligence. It’s Summer, the one time you don’t have to worry too much.

Class Levels

1. Sorcerer 1: Thanks to your ranged weapon specialization this time around, being a paladin is completely useless for us! The good news though is that we can finally take a moment to appreciate your Draconic Bloodline. As the descendent of a white dragon, you get abilities related to Cold damage later on. You also double your proficiency in charisma checks against dragons. Your Draconic Resilience makes your sorcerer hit dice slightly less terrible, and you get a permanent mage armor effect, making your AC 13 plus your dexterity modifier.

On top of that, you get proficiency in Constitution and Charisma saves, as well as two sorcerer skills- Intimidation and Religion. You can really put the fear of god into people.

You also get Spells you can cast using your Charisma. Grab Frostbite, Shape Water, and Ray of Frost for the opening salvo, Light so you can still make your sword all cool and glowy without God helping out, Expeditious Retreat for a bit of speed, and Charm Person because there aren’t that many first level spells I really like for you.

2. Warlock 1: You wouldn’t be King Arthur without Merlin hanging on like a hair in a biscuit, so let’s spend this time to make you a Archfey warlock again. This gives you a Fey Presence that lets you force Wisdom saves on creatures in a 10 foot cube (DC 8 + proficiency + dexterity modifier) or they become frightened/charmed by you for a round once per short rest. You are the king of the britons wielding a deadly weapon, but you’re also in a bikini, so either one works here.

You also get Pact Magic, another spell list that also uses your Charisma to cast. This spell slot doesn’t mix with your other spells, so just use the normal spell tables to figure out how many you have.

You get Friends for more charisma shenanigans, Eldritch Blast for a quick and easy water gun (it’s force instead of cold, but that just means you’re blasting them really hard). For first level spells, Armor of Agathys ensures you get water all over the place when you’re hit. I told you to put a towel down before you sat in the car, but noooo... You also get a Healing Elixir to create a healing potion. Nobody will judge you if you take a sip out of your water gun. Actually I just saw its color, everyone will judge you. But it’s still healing.

3. Warlock 2: Second level warlocks get some Eldritch Invocations to customize your squirting experience. Lance of Lethargy makes your Eldritch Blasts slow down enemies when they hit once per turn by making their socks a bit squishier. Most people would call it rude to attack someone with a squirt gun when they’re clearly not ready, but you call it strategy. Like usual, we’re saving the other one for level 3.

You also get Protection from Evil and Good, because even if you’re not a paladin officially, you still gotta get some of the holy flavor in there.

4. Warlock 3: You’ve probably figured it out already, but your pact boon is the Pact of the Blade, allowing you to create a magical melee weapon as an action. Thanks to your Improved Pact Weapon, you can also make it a crossbow, if you really want an actual water gun. Regardless of its form it gets +1 to attacks and damage. You’re limited to two-handed crossbows though, so you won’t be able to dual-wield a gun and sword like in your NP.

You can also cast Calm Emotions, to cool down your allies and enemies alike with a little playful water. Don’t mix this up with your killing people water, that’s an easy mistake to make.

5. Sorcerer 2: Second level sorcerers are a Font of Magic giving you a number of sorcery points equal to your sorcerer level each long rest. Right now you can use them to recharge spell slots, or vice versa. This gets more interesting next level.

You can also cast Magic Missile now! it might not be cold damage, but it is very accurate.

6. Sorcerer 3: Third level sorcerers can use their sorcery points for Metamagic, adding extra effects to their spells. Right now you get two options, Distant Spell doubles the range of spells that involve attack rolls, making your water guns fire on par with most bows. Empowered Spell allows you to re-roll damage dice on your spell for some extra pumps before firing. Both of these cost 1 point.

You also learn how to fire a little wildly thanks to Snilloc’s Snowball Storm, launching cold damage in a 5 foot radius, dealing full damage to creatures who fail a dexterity save (DC 8+proficiency+charisma) or half as much if they succeed.

7. Sorcerer 4: Use your first Ability Score Improvement to round up your Dexterity and Constitution scores for better weapon attacks, a higher AC, and more health and concentration.

Your next cantrip is Blade Ward in case you miss raging, and you can cast Alter Self to give yourself a swim speed and water breathing. There’s other uses, but you can just ignore these.

8. Warlock 4: You get another ASI right away, so use this to become an Elemental Adept. Your spells now ignore resistance to cold damage, and all dice rolled for damage count as at least 2. Your water blitz skills grow by the day.

You can also Create Bonfire for a cookout after the match, or take a Misty Step for some extra speed.

9. Warlock 5: Fifth level warlocks get third level spells, and Spirit Shroud will allow you to add extra cold damage to your closeup attacks, and make your surroundings a bit more slippery for enemies.

You also get the invocation Eldritch Smite. Just because you aren’t a paladin doesn’t mean you can’t hit like one.

10. Sorcerer 5: Your Magical Guidance lets you spend a sorcery point to re-roll a failed ability check, because being a protagonist means never having to say “I got a nat 1.”

You can also cast Water Walk at this level to walk on water. This is more in-character than alter self, use this instead.

11. Sorcerer 6: You now have an Elemental Affinity for cold damage, adding your charisma modifier to cold damage caused by spells. When you deal damage with such a spell, you can also spend a sorcery point to gain resistance to cold damage. You’re probably the only person in the party in a bathing suit, water shouldn’t be an issue for you.

You can also cast Haste now for even more extra speed and eldritch blasts.

12. Sorcerer 7: Seventh level sorcerers get fourth level spells such as Stoneskin. We’re not spending levels on barbarian this build either, but that doesn’t mean you should miss out.

13. Sorcerer 8: Use this ASI to bump up your Charisma for stronger and more damaging spells. You also get Watery Sphere this level. I don’t have a way to flavor this as a watergun technique, but there’s only so many cold spells so we can’t be picky.

14. Warlock 6: As a sixth level feylock you speed up a lot thanks to your Misty Escape. As a reaction to taking damage, you can turn invisible and teleport up to 60 feet away, once per short rest.

You can also cast Blink to become fast enough to be completely unhittable. At the end of each turn, you’ll have a 50/50 shot of vanishing into the ethereal plane. You’ll pop back in at the start of your next turn, or if the spell ends.

15. Warlock 7: Your final spell is the fourth level Elemental Bane, forcing a constitution save on a target creature. If they fail, the first time they take cold damage each turn they take extra damage as well, and lose resistance to the damage type. (It also works on other types of damage, but... come on.) You also have a Thirsting Blade, allowing you to attack twice with your pact weapon each turn.

16. Sorcerer 9: At ninth level your aim starts getting really wonky, turning your watergun into a Cone of Cold. It’s a cone, it’s cold. It forces a constitution save.

17. Sorcerer 10: With another metamagic option you get Twinned Spell, allowing for double the blasts at once.

If you really wanted to, you could cast True Strike. Or you could do something productive with your turn and go with Far Step, giving you teleportation as a bonus action each turn the spell stays up.

18. Sorcerer 11: Your sixth level spell gives you the nicest bikini magic can make, the Investiture of Ice. This outfit makes you Immune to Cold damage and resistant to fire damage, causes the area around you to become difficult terrain, and you can create cold blasts as an action, dealing cold damage and further reducing the speed of anything that gets caught in it and fails a constitution save.

19. Sorcerer 12: Last ASI, bump up your Dexterity. More AC, better weapon fighting, yadda yadda.

20. Sorcerer 13: Your capstone level nets you a seventh level spell, Plane Shift. I’m not entirely sure where that place you do your noble phantasm is located, but I’d bet the elemental plane of water will make a great substitute.

Pros:

Sorcerers are good blasters, and you show that off nicely. With haste and a quickened spell you can fire off three supercharged cantrips per round, or the powerful eldritch blast. Or, you can use other spells like Spirit Shroud or Elemental Bane to push your spell damage even higher.

Thanks to all that ice and water you’re sporting you’re great at slowing down creatures, controlling the tide of battle by controlling the tide.

Compounding on that, you’re pretty mobile thanks to those teleportation spells to pop you around the battlefield, making you a real nuisance to pin down.

Cons:

All three of those pros mostly rely on concentration spells, meaning you’ll have to pick which one you’re good at at any one time. You also run the risk of wasting spell slots by dropping them since we spent all your ASIs on feats and attack stats instead of constitution.

We got a lot out of multiclassing into warlock, but we also lost a lot, especially in regards to sorcery points. It’s a good thing you’re good a blasting, because you’re not good at extended fights.

If you could focus on either your sword or your water gun, you’d have a much easier time squeezing yourself into 20 levels. You dual wield though, so we have to split our attention.

#Fate Grand Order #D&D 5e #FGO #Artoria Pendragon #Fate and Phantasms #Sorcerer #Warlock

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rechoired · 4 years

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A problem with the Tales Of Arcadia community

First and foremost, I’d like to ask anyone taking the time to read this to please read the post all the way through before commenting on the matter. There is a lot of dirty laundry to unpack here, and some points will be building off previous ones.

I’ll get right to the point. Most everybody in the Tales of Arcadia fandom will have heard of the blog imthegingerninja / ginger-le-gay. She is one of the most well-known ToA-centric blogs, after all. (If you’re wanting to avoid her on Twitter as well, her account is Margaret Bell, or @The_Book_Bell.)

This is your PSA, TOA fandom: Ginger is a toxic, manipulative person.

This is not a claim I like to make lightly, but it’s long overdue that this issue is properly brought up within the fandom.

I’ve seen so many people wonder why the Tales of Arcadia fandom is so small. Well, I and many others very strongly believe that Ginger is one of the main reasons for that, if not the main one. To make matters easier, I’ve tried to break this down into some main points. So let’s take a look at how Ginger falls under this category.

Disclaimer: Please DO NOT look at this post as an excuse to harass Ginger or any other blog mentioned here. This sort of behavior is NOT acceptable. The point of this post is to educate those who may not know the extent of her harrowing behavior, nothing more.

1. Dishonesty and Death Threats

[EDIT: Shortly after this post went up, she started blatantly lying about me to try to cover for herself. You can see those lies being easily disproven here]

Ginger has been kicked from at least three Tales of Arcadia servers, all for similar reasons of violence. While I cannot provide screenshots as I am no longer part of the servers they were in, there are multiple witnesses that can verify the disgusting behavior she engaged in. The one I saw specifically was her saying that certain members of the fandom should be gathered up and hunted for sport, among other gross things. (Elaboration of why can be found in point 3, though it still doesn’t excuse this kind of talk)

Here is some points made by another blog that also sums up similar issues with Ginger, though:

While there were multiple instances of her inciting violence towards others, this is unfortunately one topic I cannot provide specific screenshots for at this time. But I will add them in as I can find them. That being said, I want to move to the dishonesty, something I do have a screenshot for.

While you could argue that people sometimes notice the similar things, this is far too close together to be considered an “original find”. The reblog button is there for a reason, but she instead decides to steal the OP’s premise and present it as her own original thought.

There have been a couple other blogs that have confirmed that their theories and analysis posts were often stolen and presented as Ginger’s own as well, to the point where they stopped bothering even making such posts, as the above blog points out. (Out of respect for their privacy, I will not be naming these blogs. Say what you will about that possibly weakening my point, but if she’s willing to so blatantly steal from that person shown above, it shouldn’t surprise you that she’s so willing to do it to others.)

Theory-making and analysis posts aren’t as solidly “original content” as a piece of art or fanfiction, sure, but it’s still common fandom courtesy to give credit where it’s due. Ginger has intentionally avoided extending that courtesy far too many times.

2. Hypocrisy

Most of this is going to be about past Merlin vs. Morgana drama, though there are also words to be said for the incredibly shaky relationships she forms with “friends”.

But first let’s talk about those wizards.

This is a topic I’ve tried to approach with Ginger before, but she borderline refused to acknowledge any of the points I was trying to make, and when she did, I don’t know if I just wasn’t being clear or what, but it honestly looked as though she was purposefully trying to misunderstand what I was saying in her bizarre responses. (To be fair, I was sending messages out of anger because she vagueposted about a blog I admired, calling them a “disgusting creep” because of them simply saying they’d hoped Jim and Merlin would be able to actually bond at some point... Not really a justifiable reaction to such a harmless thought, in my opinion. But my point is, I recognize that the circumstances may have clouded my ability to vocalize my thoughts clearly.)

That aside, we should first acknowledge this post Ginger made to save face after having gotten some backlash about hate-train related things (Side note: I couldn’t find the original post, so this is a screenshot I got from someone else. I did not add the writing. The text underneath it should still be slightly readable, I hope.):

Taken at face value, this is a very reasonable post. I think everybody would and should be able to agree on it. Hate-meme him for fun, sure, but don’t actually harass or insult others over a fictional character. Simple, right?

Apparently not, because Ginger’s done loads of that to others. Probably why the “LOL” was added in, I bet.

This post confused me. First of all, exploring dark topics (”angst”, as you put it) has never been a rare occurrence, every fandom has that content, most in heavy abundance. I’ve noticed no staggering difference in volume of this fandom compared to others I’ve been in. People enjoy angst not because they think the character “deserves to be in pain”, they enjoy a fictional blow to their own emotions. There’s lots of different reasons people like angst, but it’s barely ever been out of a genuine hate for whatever character’s the focus, from all the things I’ve seen. Your own friends have indulged in Jim angst and body horror posts before, does that mean you think they’re awful people? I feel like I shouldn’t have to explain something like this.

Also, way to basically admit you think all Merlin stans get off on child torture. So much for “If you like Merlin as a character, you’re valid”, am I right? God, what a mess of a post. (It’s been very recently deleted, which makes me wonder if she got more backlash on it, but just... wow.)

Let’s look at another one.

Again. Vagueposting about someone specific, I’d wager, since most of the people I’ve seen comment on this topic either think both characters are morally gray, or hate both.

But of course, when it comes to Morgana, suddenly excusing bad behavior can be justified. Ginger can call someone a disgusting creep because they want a familial bond between Jim and Merlin, that’s just wrong, but pushing the Mom-gana narrative with the genocidal abuser and Toby is completely fine, folks.

(Note: I would like to point out that I really don’t care about what theories and hopes people have for Morgana. You should be allowed to love that character in any way you want, same as I would say for Merlin. My issue with these examples is the completely brazen hypocrisy in which these two characters are treated. You’re obviously allowed to love Morgana without consequence, but the same should be said for any character of the show, and yet it’s not.)

The most obvious instance of this double-standard is well observable here, I believe:

... I think this mostly speaks for itself. Sorry, but this is very blatantly trying to excuse Morgana’s actions, here.

Oh hey, remember that post about Ginger saying that liking Merlin must mean you want to see Jim in horrible pain?

Say anything similar about her with Morgana, and suddenly she takes issue with this line of reasoning!

I’m sorry, but if you can’t take this sort of thing, then you shouldn’t be dishing it out. One of your own friends is still getting hate over the simple fact of liking Merlin, and all this mentality is exactly why.

Let’s look at one more.

Fun fact! Morgana horrifically abused somebody for centuries, tried to kill multiple kids, took horrible advantage of Claire (probably traumatized her), and canonically wanted to genocide humanity, not to mention all the OTHER murders she's committed, both directly and indirectly.

But somehow pointing any of this out “doesn’t count”. This is why the fandom keeps saying more and more things like this:

And this:

I could be going through her constant hating on Merlin and people who like Merlin for days straight, but I hope you all get the idea by now.

Again, I would like to just reiterate: You can like whatever character you want for whatever reason you want. The problem with this case is the hypocrisy and mistreatment of others, not your taste in characters.

Now interestingly enough, she’s lately been singing a different tune about the guy, switching from the “I hate Merlin I hope he dies!!!” mentality to “Oh he should get a redemption arc too :)” sort of thing.

I’m highly convinced that the only reasons for this “change of heart” is because of the constant backlash she was getting for the obnoxious amount of hate posts being thrown around all the time, but also because Aaron Waltke keeps tabs on the fandom more lately, and has spoken himself about Merlin not being a villain.

I could go on about this point forever, but I think I’ll just leave the Merlin topic with this post going through the hypocrisy of the Merlin Hate Train. In fact, here’s two just for fun.

Now onto more real-world focused areas of hypocrisy. One such instance can be found in Ginger’s Janus Disorder server.

Just take a look at this post.

While the offender in this case isn’t Ginger specifically, it still takes place in her server, and she made no moves to enforce her “No discourse” rule. All over... what? A random kudos on a fanfiction that’s not even about anything controversial since all characters involved are adults? I immensely don’t understand the point of why this ever had to be an issue, or why nobody spoke up about how ridiculous this is.

I’d also like to point out a certain user called firecat17. For some quick context, waaay back in the Kung Fu Panda fandom (around 2018), this user had been harassing people and saying incredibly vile things, a person of which Ginger had a bit of a feud, but firecat’s anon threats had gotten to the point where Ginger ended up having to block their IP.

Obviously, the user firecat was the one in the wrong, here. (Also, the irony in this comment is through the roof...)

Interesting point there, Ginger. Sure would be nice if you practiced what you preached.

Why am I bringing this random old drama up, you may ask? Well, it just strikes me as strange that someone who was so vile to Ginger is suddenly on her okay-list again, sending her asks and getting casual responses as if nothing ever happened.

To be fair, there is the possibility that they worked out their differences in private. But given the severity of the kinds of words being exchanged, I would still find that rather suspicious.

When someone who’s said things so vile can be so easily forgiven, yet something as harmless as leaving a kudos on some random fanfiction is considered grounds for harassment, it’s obvious there’s no stability or room for trust among this group of people. Unsurprising when there’s been several instances of this “friend group” turning on each other.

If you think you’re somehow different, that your “friendship” with Ginger or the others is more valued than that, then I’m sorry to burst your bubble but it’s likely not true. She’d throw you under the bus at the hint of you doing something she deems problematic, as it’s happened to multiple blogs before you.

3. Demonization of and insensitivity towards s*xual abuse victims

(This topic is one that’s hard for me to talk about, being a victim of CSA myself, so I’ve gathered some different sources to do most of the main talking for me. I tried to form more commentary on this myself, but I get too emotionally charged in my responses, and I don’t want that to cloud any reader’s perception of what I’m trying to communicate here, so I’ll try to keep most of my comments brief on this one.)

One thing recently brought to my attention about Ginger and her squad that especially bothers me is their rashness in labeling people p*dophiles and p*do apologists. If these claims were true, then I wouldn’t have a problem with it.

But these people are accusing others of these horrible things and threatening them on the sole basis of fictional content.

Now before you fly off the handle at me, let me be very clear: I absolutely understand that there are gross people out there who use the “It’s all just fiction” argument to hide their actual, pr*datory behaviors. (We’ve all probably seen at least one or two neckbeard memes of that caliber)

But like it or not, exploring traumatic themes through a fictional lens is something that has been studied and proven to be a genuine coping mechanism for some. It’s not something that works for me, but I knew a few people from past therapy groups that it worked surprisingly well for. Bringing a trauma into a controlled environment and processing it through fictional means can and does help some victims deal with what they went through.

It’s important to understand that not everyone processes their experience in the same neat, little boxes you have laid out as the only “acceptable” ways of coping. Trauma fiction and expressive arts therapy are commonly used by victims, and it does help some people, whether you like it or not.

I’m already dragging this on too much, so here are some sources for better-worded information on the topic (Warning: Most of these deal with highly sensitive themes such as gun violence and s*xual abuse.)

Source 1 - Source 2 - Source 3 - Source 4 - Source 5 (pages 61 onward, specifically) - Source 6 - Source 7 - Source 8 - Source 9 - Source 10 (and believe me, if those all don’t satisfy you, I can easily supply more.)

And this quote from source 9 I think sums it up best:

“Fiction works differently. My imagination gives me a framework to process the grief and terror and the consequences, even when I myself have not found any resolution. It allows me to enter my own traumatic experiences sideways and linger inside them, if I know I can give them to characters who might be lucky enough to find the antidote: love, connection, community, family. In other words, I can enter — and exit — the trauma loop through stories that are not exactly the same as mine.

This goes for the reader also. Recent studies periodically assure us that stories — literary fiction, hardcover books, even the simple act of reading — promote empathy. We rarely have identical experiences, so fiction is how we practice linking our similar or parallel realities so we can feel them. This seems particularly useful in our current society, where we are all so separated, and are working so hard to block the violence that keeps happening to us from our minds.

Fiction connects us, and it can also contribute to our healing. When we see ourselves in worlds we don’t live in, like The Handmaid’s Tale or The Color Purple, sometimes, that very different violence helps us finally process our own. Because as much as our memoirs and testimonies are brave and validating, fiction does not just mirror our truths so they are safe to experience; it also helps us endure the aftermath. Because long after the immediate experience is over, survival struggles onward, in every moment of our daily lives.”

While most professionals have in the past advised that victims keep their trauma-related works more private, to only show it to your trusted friends or family, the fast-growing use of the internet has led more people to sharing it in an online platform, which is not unexpected behavior.

I unfortunately don’t have the screenshot of the original post, but there was a post made some time back literally telling a fandom member to go and hang themselves over this garbage. A survivor of s*xual abuse, no less. And to top that off, one of Ginger’s squad @emmy-puff commented in support of that violent post, as well as blatantly misgendering the target of it. While, again, I was unable to get screenshots, there are multiple witnesses to this instance, one Anonymous even having called them out on it back when it happened. (I suspect that Emmy deleted that answer due to how bad it made them look.) If anybody reading this has screenshots of the initial post or the ask that came of it, please feel free to share.

I don’t care who you are or who you’re talking about, if you use misgendering someone as a way to hurt them, then you are an insult to the trans community. That is an awful thing to do, and you lose so much credibility if that’s the only thing you can fall back on when getting in a fight with someone. While this post isn’t about Emmy specifically, this is exactly the kind of hateful rhetoric that’s being encouraged in the environment Ginger’s made.

Another thing I would like to point out on this matter is an instance that happened in the ToA fandom a couple years back. I, again, don’t have screenshots available (I believe the original post ended up deleted) but the post in question caused enough of a fuss that I’m sure a few people must remember it...

A while back, there was an artist that posted uncensored, untagged r*pe art of Aaarrrgghh, Gunmar, and Jim in the main Trollhunters tag. As you can imagine, this infuriated many people. Many of which are among the list of those who’ve been labeled “p*do apologists”. Almost the very minute that post showed up in the tag with no trigger warnings of any kind, the fandom immediately got on OP’s tail about it, because they all shared that basic understanding of “This is a traumatizing subject for many people and they should have the ability to avoid it”. If the people you’ve labelled as pr*dator supporters were really as awful as you say they are, they would’ve jumped to that person’s defense, too. But they were completely against OP’s horrible lack of consideration of survivors, right alongside the rest of the fandom.

Am I saying you have to like trauma fiction? Absolutely not. Are there people that make trauma fiction that are actual pr*dators? I’m sure there are. But those people would be that way whether trauma fiction was out there or not. Gross people have existed and will always exist regardless of what media is out there.

I deeply understand the controversy, uncertainty, and stress that surrounds this topic, I promise you, I do. But the fact of the matter is, some people actually do use trauma fiction and expressive arts therapy as a way of coping, as has been observed in people even from ages as young as 5. To say otherwise is blatantly untrue. This isn’t a matter of opinion or morals, this is plain, studied facts that you cannot change about human psychology.

Nobody should ever have to go through something as horrible as s*xual abuse of any kind, and I know how deeply upsetting it can be to see certain images or stories with those themes in play. Those users with a sense of decency and understanding for fellow victims will tag their posts with the appropriate warnings. After that, it’s up to you to filter out what you don’t want to see. You curate your own internet experience, and it’s just plain irrational to try and harass everyone into conforming to your rules. While it’s an 18+ blog’s job to make sure to tag and label their content appropriately, it is your job to block the things you don’t want to see, whether you’re an adult or a minor. It is YOUR job to blacklist content that you know will upset you, because it is always going to exist on the internet, and any internet user needs to know and understand that. Multiple times I’d seen people going off about posts that were already appropriately trigger-tagged. If you don’t have those upsetting tags blacklisted by now, then the fault is mostly on you in that kind of case, not the OP.

Before I end this topic off, just one more example of blatant disrespect towards victims:

I’m sorry, but the absolute nerve of comparing some random fictional character you’re petty over to an actual pr*dator who’s terribly hurt real children is just awful. Imagine how insulted one of Onion’s victims would be if they saw that. Lord.

Ginger claims to care about victims, but she’s made it abundantly clear that she only cares about those that behave the way she think a victim should.

4. Ableism

I’m going to just show a couple posts here and let them mostly speak for themselves.

Just... my God. You looked at the definition of psychopath and decided that was enough to give you qualification to speak like this about it? Do you realize the extensive work and study of human psychology goes into the diagnosis and understandings of psychopathy? Not to mention, you just admit to thinking people deserve hate because of a mental disorder they legitimately have no control over? I’m sorry, but that is just cruel. Demonization of the mentally ill is not cute or funny. Next.

While I’m still annoyed with Emmy’s transphobic treatment of another user mentioned earlier, they make a very solid point in this instance. (The first post they referenced has since been deleted, but here’s the second one speaking out against the ableism.) I feel I don’t need to add much to this, as these points have already been argued very well by users better qualified to speak on the subject than I.

5. Manipulation tactics

This part is more observations of two kinds of abuse tactics Ginger appears to demonstrate, using the above as points of reference.

First, there’s DARVO.

Then, less formally, there’s this good point about online cult mentality.

Before you say anything, obviously I don’t think Ginger thinks of herself as some sort of deity. While it could be argued that she considers herself a point of authority within the TOA fandom maybe, I haven’t seen enough of this to say for sure how far that goes. So that point can be ignored, because it mostly doesn’t apply in this case. (The “Dictating parts of your online life” might also not apply, but I can’t say for sure as I haven’t gotten any confirmation of that sort of thing in Ginger’s group.)

But there are grains of truth in the other four points, especially that last one. Plain and simple, she’s made people afraid to speak their minds about even harmless things such as character analysis.

Ginger is someone who can’t seem to comprehend different viewpoints and life experiences. She’s extremely unsympathetic towards people she doesn’t understand, as can be observed in above examples. Assuming malicious intent from everybody you can’t understand is a dangerous and hurtful mindset to have, for both you and those who you unnecessarily scorn.

There are a few outcomes I’ve speculated should she ever come to see this post.

1. She will ignore this post completely, pretending as if it doesn’t exist

2. She will dismiss me as being some sort of horrible person, a p*do apologist or something of the sort (despite being a victim of that myself, clearly she doesn’t care about who’s actually been hurt by real p*dos or not if they don’t conform to her narrow worldview), and claim nothing I’ve said bears any meaning, despite the extensive evidence I’ve provided.

3. She will get people to try and attack me.

4. She will actually address these points in a tactful, mature, and serious manner instead of her usual act of trying to dismiss everything at the slightest hint of non-conformity. (The least likely outcome, but one can dream.)

I could add to this post all day, but it’s long enough as it is and my focus was on getting the main points out of the way. I understand that I lack some of the receipts necessary to back myself up in a few parts, but I know that many other fans have bared witness to those things, so I know there will be at least some people who’ll know what I speak of is true, and that’s good enough for me.

That being said, if anybody has screenshots of the instances I wasn’t able to provide for, it would be greatly appreciated if you could add them into the conversation.

!!!-If you have screenshots, but are too uncomfortable to get involved in this, then you can private-message them to me and I would be grateful and more than happy to add them in while keeping you completely anonymous.-!!!

(I've removed the section with all the tags, as I recognize it was probably going overboard. My goal was just to spread information, not to try and involve those tagged, but I understand how that may have gotten lost in translation and made people uncomfortable. Also, it apparently was showing up multiple times in people’s notifications when I only tagged people twice, so I’m not sure why that glitch happened, but I apologize for that annoyance as well.)

Now, to end us off, my responses to questions or angry comments I’m probably going to get:

You don’t even have all the evidence! How are we to know you’re not just lying about some of this?

Admittedly, I don’t have as much screenshot proof as I would like, that’s true. But for most of the instances I couldn’t provide for, there were other witnesses to her bad behavior. I don’t really have the need to lie when there’s already a lot of knowledge out there of the bad stuff she has done. Nor do I really have the emotional investment in this fandom anymore to lie for the pointless reason of causing drama.

Why post this on a throwaway account if you think people are on your side?

I just don’t really want my main blog associated with TOA anymore, to be frank.

You tagged a bunch of people, so you must be trying to get them to attack Ginger!

No. I tagged a bunch of people because I think this information should be heard on a wider scale, considering the position Ginger has in the fandom. I don’t want her or anybody else to be attacked, but her negative impact on this fandom deserves to be acknowledged.

Again, I don’t think Ginger or any of the others deserve harassment or cyberbullying or anything of that manner, that’s kind of what this whole post is against. And it just hurts the situation more than it helps it. What bothers me is how she’s never apologized for or even once acknowledged the gross way she’s treated people. While she might be more low-key about it now, she still treats people who don’t deserve it like garbage. There are still several people upset about the damage she’s caused to this fandom, rightfully so. I wouldn’t be so loud about making this post if I didn’t think it was something worth drawing attention to.

Thank you for reading.

#TrollHunters #3Below #TOAwizards #Tales of Arcadia #TOA

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muse-oleum · 4 years

Text

Not that kind of ride

Kingsman - Harry Hart x fem!reader

Based on this ask: Hello! Can you write one with the Fem!Reader “innocently” teasing Harry and him being so sexually frustrated and he lets that frustration out ;)

Y’all are thirsty my my. It’s a classic prompt, and I took inspiration from this piece by @ardentmuse because it’s the first one I ever read from her and I loved it. Go check it out.

Summary: The major downside of being a female Kingsman? Honeypots. The biggest upside? Honeypots with Harry Hart.

Word count: 2k (oops)

Warnings: *sing song voice* smut smut smut; swearing; fighting; unwanted advances; definite sex-in-the-car kink ur welcome

(gif credits to original owner)

Honeypot missions were, as a rule, not your favorite.

But honeypot missions with Harry Hart, on whom your not-so secret crush had been steadily developing for some months, were even worse.

For a reason you simply could not fathom, Merlin kept putting the two of you together, as if twice as much handsome would somehow enhance chances of success.

Usually all it did was enhance chances of fuck ups.

Your target, another one of these big shots, was a known womanizer. Your part of the job was basically done the moment you waltzed into that ballroom, your cleavage on display and about three quarters of your leg exposed through a high-thigh slit.

In a normal situation you’d have gone for one or the other but this was not a normal situation.

So, you accepted your fate through gritted teeth, wondering why exactly your talent as an agent was always equated to your sex appeal.

Eggsy found it fucking hilarious. Especially the constipated look on Harry’s face each time a hand flew up your leg, or an arm wound itself around your waist.

So, Harry was condemned to watch from the sidelines as the jilted ex/date/boyfriend/husband or whatever else you happened to be going undercover as. And he hated it.

He watched your position at the bar, your back to him. He wasn’t quite sure how that dress was supposed to stay on if both front and back were equally as exposed, but then he didn’t claim to be an expert. All it did right now was distract him from his task, which was to keep an eye on you and an ear on his mic.

Your target had spotted you immediately.

He joined you by the bar, hand already in motion, settling on your shoulder. You didn’t flinch. You were supposed to play the part of the bored girlfriend, and it was a game you knew well.

Harry could hear you talk through his earpiece. He knew your entire strategy: feign indifference, let them talk themselves up a bit (usually involving money, cars, and the likes), then proceed.

The man pulled you in, so close to him as to effectively stall any chances of your getting the room key before getting into said room. His hands then went to grab your behind, feeling you up and down shamelessly and all you could do was feign interest.

What you truly felt was complete disgust. If there was a pair of hands you wanted on you - had ever wanted on you - those were certainly not his. The aforementioned pair of hands, last you checked, were closed around a martini.

Merlin and Eggsy had a bet for which one of you was going to blow first; Eggsy had bet on you, assuming Harry “didn’t ‘ave the game, luv, sorry” but Merlin, with a knowing and mildly pained smile, said “oi, you didn’t know him when he was young.”

They left it at that, leaving you more confused, and more… curious, than ever before.

You were pretty sure Merlin was going to lose his bet because Harry didn’t look like he was about to get his “game” on any time soon.

And it was driving you positively crazy.

Cut to the fancy hotel room you were now being led to, you analyzed every possible outcome.

One: you pretended to enter the room, thus avoiding any cameras, and knocked that pathetic excuse of a human being clean out once inside. Two: you managed to sneak the key out by sliding a hand under his suit jacket. Didn't look feasible given the timeframe. And three: you pushed things along until Harry got there as backup in case things got out of hand.

You chose option one. It seemed the safest, and the most entertaining one. Leave Harry to figure out where exactly you were.

There was obvious flirtation between the two of you, after all, and you knew you weren’t just dreaming it. Out of all the other female agents, whether in field or tech, Harry never called them “darling” or “love.” He never brought them coffee, or asked them if they were alright when they looked tired.

So what was his deal? You’d made your interest clear enough - at least in your opinion - and all the hints you dropped made approximately the same sound as the few neurons racing each other inside that tycoon’s skull: silence.

“After you, sugar.”

His drooping American accent, together with the disagreeable feeling of having to turn your back on him, had your senses on hyper alert.

A fact you were incredibly thankful for since no sooner had you stepped into the loft than a tall, Hulk-like individual descended upon you, grabbing at every part of your person he could reach. His knife nipped you right above your breasts, missing the strap of your dress by a hair.

Thankfully for you, your dress, and your dignity, you dodged, gun already in hand as you quickly neutralized him, eyes darting around the room watching for others.

“Just as I thought. You and your handsome fella just looked too good to be true.”

“Why, thank you,” came a wry voice from the doorway, just as you heard the distinct sound of a taser going.

With a very undignified gurgling sound, your target went down, properly knocked out.

“Files are in the cabinet. That’s where he looked first thing when I got his guy.”

Without a word, Harry secured the files, taking pictures through his glasses. You kept your eye on the two buffoons, your ear trained on the hallway.

“We’ll get into the car, and I’ll look over that.”

Without thinking, Harry let his thumb run right above the wound. your skin tingled at the contact, involuntarily leaning into his touch.

His eyes met yours, and even in the dimly lit room, you could see how dark they were.

Before you could open your mouth, he’d already drawn you to him, his hand on the small of your back. His nose touched yours; chest to chest, and hearts beating, you could feel his breath on your cheeks. This embrace was the one you’d been wanting all night, and he was giving it to you now?

You didn’t have time to do much thinking, because then Harry finally kissed you. His hands encircled your waist, gripping your hips fiercely. You abandoned yourself to his kiss, returning the favor as your hands tugged on his hair, massaging his neck.

“I’ve been waiting all bloody night to do that.”

You hummed, brushing your nose to his. You liked the way your breaths mingled and how your hearts seemed to beat at the same accelerated pace.

“Shit, Merlin, you win.”

You heard Harry chuckle. Eggsy sounded incredibly pissed. You could see Merlin disgusted face from here.

“Get your asses out of here. Car’s waiting for you two idiots by the back entrance.”

A few minutes later found you and Harry sitting in a very non subtle limousine. You could only assume that if anyone was looking for you, they probably wouldn’t think to look for a big, classy, black Mercedes. Hence the limousine.

Harry whistled.

“Well I never got that kind of ride before, that’s for sure.”

Funny how such an innocent sentence could invoke all sorts of salacious thoughts in your mind. Those salacious thoughts turned devious as you noticed the incredibly opaque screen separating you from the driver’s seat.

Oh, Harry wasn’t getting out of that ride before you’d… settled the air between you.

The driver’s voice, muffled, warned you of the traffic, and that it could take longer to arrive at destination.

You could feel your grin turn into a full wolf smile.

Harry settled down by your side, and you didn’t leave him much choice. As soon as he was seated, you removed your glasses, tucking them neatly in your handbag. Before he could speak, you removed his, placing them in your handbag as well, before resuming the kiss.

(fun under the cut)

Harry was stunned. He already knew that things could get out of hands, based off the simple fact that he was so fucking desperate for you. That, and you were in a car.

Apparently, you’d thought that fact through and decided you didn’t care, because next thing he knew, you were sitting on his lap, a mischievous smile on those godforsaken lips.

Harry was sure you knew what ample view of your cleavage he had from that vantage point. His eyes fixed on the small wound atop your right breast. It wasn’t bleeding anymore, and was just there, daring him to do what he so desperately wanted.

Your skin was burning where his eyes were fixed.

Deciding Harry needed some more persuasion, you perched yourself astride him, staring back down at him as you undid your updo, letting your locks fall to your waist, grazing Harry’s fingers.

Casually reaching for your handkerchief, you slowly removed your lipstick, dragging the cloth over your lips in an agonizingly slow motion.

“We don’t want any red lipstick on that collar, now, do we?”

Not only was Harry stunned by this point, he was incredibly aroused.

He knew the happy-go-lucky, goofy, charming, sexy, side of you. But you’d never been more desirable as you were right now, stating your wants so blatantly. That made him want you even more.

Your hands fell on either side of his head, bearing your weight down on him, hips onto hips. The very audible groan that earned you made your skin flush with pleasure.

Harry’s hands grabbed your thighs, holding you down on him. Your lips, now lipstick free, found his ear. You traced a path down to his throat with heavy kisses, breathing in his minty scent.

“Darling, we’re in a car,” was all he could muster, the feel of you simply too much for him.

“He said there’s traffic.”

The decisive argument came when Harry found the zipper to your dress.

His hands roamed your back, feeling the soft skin beneath. You enjoyed the rough feel of his calloused hands, especially when they found the very sensitive skin right below your breasts, teasing you there.

You arched yourself against him, rolling your hips on his, feeling the evidence of his desire. His mouth latched onto your neck, beginning a slow descent downwards towards your breasts. Hips rolling and bucking, you let your head go, biting your lips as to muffle any moans as his mouth found the sensitive skin beneath the hem of your dress.

You felt his hands rake across your back, pressing you to him frantically as his mouth tortured your breast. In retaliation, your hands flew to his belt, undoing it in one swift motion and reaching inside his pants. His response was immediate, muffled against your skin, as he panted out a breathy moan.

His breath became more frantic as your ministrations accelerated, your name rolling off his lips a few times as he pushed into your hand. Just before his release, you pulled your hand away, the sharp contact with the air making him hiss.

Mouths came colliding as he entered you. You were enthralled by the look on his face: eyes shut, teeth ground into his lips to keep silent, cheeks flushed.

“Y/N… Sweetheart, I… I won’t hold out…” you cut him off, finger on his lips as he thrust into you with greater force.

Your hips ground into his, desperate for that friction you desperately needed. As if on cue, Harry’s hand reached underneath your dress, pressing against your bud. You couldn’t contain a gasp as you rocked into his hand, feeling your release fast approaching.

Harry held out just in time for you to come with him, mouths against skin; his biting down on your breast as you felt him thrust inside you one last time; yours against his ear, your moan making him tremble, exhausted in his pleasure.

That was definitely not the kind of ride he was used to.

He fervently hoped that car would never reach its destination.

lol sorry i can’t do short pieces your girl needs 2000 years to set the scene. Also modified the prompt a tiny bit, hope that’s alright.

Taglist: @justawriterinprogress; @tonystrksslut; @emilyyblackkk

#request #writing #harry hart #harry hart x reader #fem!reader #harry hart x fem!reader #kingsman #kingsman: the secret service #kingsman: the golden circle #agent galahad #agent galahad x reader #original work #one shot #// smut

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snzyflowrr · 3 years

Text

It was the end of the winter holiday, and the students who had went home for holiday were now all piled onto the Hogwarts express on their way back to school. Two of these people where Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, who has snuck away from their friends to a compartment all by themselves. they were both desperate to see eachother after the two weeks apart. the windows were fogged with ice and the compartment door curtain was drawn, so it was as if they were the only two in the world. Sirius thought he could never get tired of snogging Remus. His soft lips, his bouncy curly hair, his delicate fingers, and Dainty nose. The two boys were huddled together for warmth in the coldness of the weather, each other’s breath feeling hot. suddenly Remus broke the kiss pushing Sirius‘ shoulders back before a soft “humptshh!” into his lap, that he has been desperately trying to hold back.

”ugh sorry“ Remus chuckled.

”s’alright,” Sirius whispered leaning in meeting the other boys lips again. Remus ran his fingers through Sirius’ long smoothe hair. But soon Sirius felt labored breaths against his face. Remus pulled away again and Sirius lifted his robe sleeve to Remus’ nose to catch the sneezes for him.

”humptshh hepchhmpt humpchh!”

“bless you, Moony,”

”ugh, cheers,” he responded scrubbing at his nose.

“good?”

”yep, just a tickle,”

sirius would just have to come to terms with the fact that everything Remus did was adorable. So he leaned back in the kiss more passionate than before. Soon Remus moved down to Sirius’ neck. But this seemed to tigger something, for Remus didn’t have enough time to pull himself way from Sirius when, “huhEsshh-kchh!” Remus sneezed, leaving a bit of spray on Sirius‘ collar bone, ”Ugh, sorry that one snuck up on me,”

“you alright?” “yeah, cold air, heh, making my n-nose, Hehckshh! Making my nose run,”

“finished?”

”yeah reckon so, heh, hold on,” Remus turned his face away from Sirius and gave into the build up of sneezes in his nose, cupping his hands over his mouth and nose, “heptshh hepchhmpt heptckk humptchhnt hupTshheh!” Remus sneezed desperately into his hands. Sirius watched at his boyfriends head bobbed with every sneeze. He reached out to him and Remus let himself he pulled into Sirius. He began kissing smoothly and rhythmically behind Remus ear, then down to his jaw. remus hummed with contentness. Then Sirius moved down to Remus neck. Remus buried his head in Sirius’ hair. Inhaling the scent of him. And almost immediately his breath began to hitch. He pulled away from Sirius just in time to spare him of the spray but he didn’t have enough time to bring up his hands to cover his sneezes before the fit began.

”HuhEshh HupCHhhmp hepChkk HiihTshhh HumpKishh huh-Esshhh HepEshh-Hnnkkk!” Remus‘ sneezes were becoming rapid and breathless.

”whats the matter, Moony?” Sirius asked voiced filled with concern.

”I dunno, I just can’t, huh, can’t stop, huh, sneez- HuhEptchhnt! can’t stop sneezing,”

“do you think your getting ill?” “I feel fine its just loads of sn-sneezing, HiihEKtchhhmpt!” he sneezed Welty into the air and a bit of mucus leaked out of his nose, Remus quickly clamped a hand to his face to cover it.

”let me get you some tissues,” Sirius said patting his pockets realizing he didn’t bring any, “did you pack a Kleenex Moons?” Remus shook his head wordlessly from behind his tented hands, “I bet Prongs has some, I be right back Moony,” Sirius said and leaned down to press a kiss to Remus’ forehead And Remus let out two very wet sneezes into his cupped hands.

”humpChhngt HiihEptchhgehh!” Sirius left the compartment and made his way down the narrow hallway. He would have to think of an excuse to why he would need the tissues. James didn’t yet know about the two boys relationship, and it would look very suspicious if Sirius was just alone with Remus for no reason. “Hiya Prongs,” Sirius waved at he enters James’ car.

”Hiya Pads, were’ve you been?” he asked. “no where, any chance you‘ve got a pack of Kleenex?”

”probably snogging some girl,” Peter chuckled.

”maybe i have, maybe I haven’t. but do you have some tissues Prongs?“

“yeah course I do,“ James got up and riffled through his trunk for a bit then pulled out a small pack of Kleenex, and handed to Sirius. “thanks Prongs, i owe ya one,”

Sirius hurridly exited the compartment to avoid any further questioning. And headed back to his car. He opened the door to find Remus, red-nosed and flushed, but looking better.

”its dying down, reckon it was just a really awfull tickle,” Remus shrugged.

”good,” Sirius smiled and sat down to throw an arm around Remus who rested his head on Sirius’ shoulder pressing his nose into his neck. After a moment, Remus breath became labored.

”heh, huh, oh for fucks sake, huh heh, hih, Hiih...”

Remus’ head tilted upward with a Pre-sneeze face. Sirius plucked a tissue from the pack and held it up to Remus’ face. as if on cue Remus gave way to a volley of congested sneezes.

“HiihEcktshh HepChhhmpshh HiihEptchhgehh HuhKishhh-guhh!” Remus sneezed, congestion quickly leaking through the tissue.

”here Moons,” Sirius handed the pack to Remus who gratefully took it. And gave four wet blows before he was finished. “thanks Padfoot your a legend.”

”I thought it was dying down?” Sirius said perplexed.

”I, heh, thought it was. now I feel sneezy again,” Remus took another tissue from the pack and scrubbed at his already raw nose.

”poor thing,“ Sirius tutted running his fingers through his boyfriends golden brown curls As he fought the sneeze trying to make it way out.

”ehhh-heh-Eptchhh! HiihTChhahhgnt! HehChuhhhh-guhh!” Remus clutched the damp Kleenex to his nose.

”bless you Moony,” Sirius said sympathetically. “it’s, Hiih, huh, HepEckk! you,” Remus stuttered.

”what?” “the sne-sneezing, HetChhnnkk! It’s you,”

“oh Merlin!” Sirius clamped a hand over his mouth, “I’m wearing new cologne,” Sirius riffled around in his trunk for the little gold bottle of cologne and held it up to Remus’ nose, “is it this?”

As soon as Remus inhaled the scent his breath hitched. He was taking in gasping shuddering breaths. He pulled a few Kleenexs out of the pack and pitched foreword, “Huh, Heh, heh, Hih, HiihIHKShhhh! hehCshhhh! hehSHUHHHH! Ehh-KUTChhhhhh!“

“oh moony I’m so sorry,”

Remus sneezed rapidly hands pressed firmly to his face as the fit wouldn’t seem to end, “heh-IPShhhh! Heh-EKShuhhh! huhShuhhhh! heh... heh-IHTShhhhhhh! HiihEPTchhhhmgnt HeTshhch HihItchhhump!”

“it’s, Heh, its okay, Hih, you didn‘t kn-know heh-IMPHSHH!” “I still feel terrible,”

“Heh, its not your, Huh, Heh, not your fault I’m all- AllergICKKK! Allergic to everything,”

“let me go wash this off, I only be a minute. Want me to open the window?”

”heh... heh, that would be nice HepTchshhh!”

Sirius hurried from the car to the washroom and throughly scrubbed the areas where he had aplloed the cologne. he couldnt believe he had been so stupid. He has a werewolf boyfriend with super human sense of smell and is senseative to literally everything, and he didn’t check with him first. Sirius entered the car once again. Remus’ face was pressed into his jumper sleeve.

”I ran out of tissues,” he mumbled exhaustedly.

”I’m sorry I don’t have anymore, we’ll be at school soon. Why don’t you try and sleep. Your not allergic to me anymore“ Sirius held a hand out to Remus to reluctantly took it and was pulled so his head rested on Sirius chest.

“ humptshh!” Remus sneezed into Sirius’ chest.

”ugh sorry“ Remus mumbled.

”s’alright,” Sirius whispered leaning in meeting the other boys lips again.

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aficforeveryfandom · 4 years

Text

The Love Shack Tavern

Time for a Merthur fic! Remember 0304 where the barmaid in the tavern fancies Merlin? Well this kinda spirals off from there soooo

Lots of fluff :)

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

“Oh no, sorry, I was talking to your friend,” smiled the barmaid. Arthur’s face catapulted through the spectrum of human emotion, from confusion, to surprise, to shame, to annoyance. Merlin looked quite frankly rather pleased with himself, shooting Arthur a cheeky grin.

“Merlin??” Arthur questioned, not really having considered the dollophead to have any sort of appeal before. But whatever, he could totally let it go. “Are you absolutely sure she meant you?” Okay so maybe not completely let it go. When Merlin continued to smile and a faint blush rose in his cheeks, Arthur tilted his head slightly in bewilderment.

After the bar fight and the drunken pretty boy who was literally a nightmare on legs, Arthur really started to think. He watched how Gwaine looked at Merlin, like he was precious and desirable. Again he relived the mistaken barmaid, her dough eyes sparkling at his servant. Then he thought about Gwen, how close the two were, and the way she smiled at him like he was some beacon of hope. And Morgana - she really liked him, and trusted him, and cared about him. Arthur had never really considered how much other people seemed to like his idiot manservant.

Merlin felt Arthur’s eyes on him as they rode. He chuckled to himself, thinking he was still fixated on for once not being the drop dead gorgeous one. Although he totally was. With his stupid blonde shiny hair and his stupid bright eyes and his stupid stupid jawline and those rippling stupid muscles. But this time, Merlin had been the sex appeal, and by god he was never going to get over that.

But Arthur wasn’t thinking about the barmaid. He was wayyyyy past that. Arthur was studying the curve of Merlin’s pinkish lips, the gentle slope of his nose, the slight smatter of dirt on his cheek and the mess of shiny black hair shifting in the wind. He couldn’t place when Merlin had started getting muscular, but the toned arms and broad back were... well they were absolutely fine. Totally fine. But there was more. Arthur saw the glinting eyes of the young lad who had called him a prat and laughed at “daddy’s men”. He admired the tiny dimples in his smile, so reminiscent of their teasing and laughing. In his lightly tanned skin he found the memories of a dozen battles and hunts and adventures, in his long fingers the deliberate pokes and prods but at the same time the gentle kindness as he helped Arthur with his armour. Oh no. Really? Oh he couldn’t. There was absolutely no way on this earth...

Arthur was in love with Merlin.

Damn. He so nearly avoided that. What should he do? Does Merlin know? He can’t possibly know, there’s no way. But does that mean he should be informed? Maybe a... a letter. Flowers. Wait no that’s girly. Well Merlin is a wuss. But still.

“You alright clotpole?” Merlin looks at Arthur quizzically as he speaks, noticing him turn a peculiar chartreuse colour.

“Yes you’re just really hot”. Oh no. Oh no Nono no. Oh he had said it without thinking, without realising. He had just turned around and said the thing he promised himself he would write in some flowers. In a letter. Fuck everything was stressful.

Merlin just gaped. He pulled up his horse. And gaped. Every few seconds, he would take in a breath as if to say something, but then return to the slack jaw position. Arthur. Arthur found him, him, attractive? And admitted it?!?! Was he supposed to say thank you? Ignore it? What if it was a ploy, to test his reaction? What if Arthur knew that he liked him? No, he couldn’t know. So that... that meant Arthur did like him.

Arthur watched in mute horror as Merlin slowly climbed down off his horse. Then he saw his hands, beckoning him. He shouldn’t take orders from his manservant... although it was hot... like, super hot. Oh no. His body was ignoring his brain and he was genuinely climbing off his horse and Merlin was right there in all his mud smudged glory and how he wished he could just-

The train of thought was broken by lips meeting. Slow and cautious at first, wary even, it quickly became heated and intense, tongue hitting tongue and teeth snagging skin as they both realised a destiny neither of them had been shouldering. Hands found grooves and books and tangles as they stumbled across the ground, firmly intertwined and lips not disconnecting even for a second. Not until Merlin, clumsy as ever, tripod backwards over what seemed to Arthur to literally be air, and found himself hanging in Arthur’s strong embrace. They looked at each other for a long while, as though seeing the other for the very first time. Tenderly, Arthur swept away that cute smatter of dirt gracing Merlin’s cheek, then leaned in and kissed him again.

When they arrived back at the castle that evening, significantly later than anticipated (“ran into some sort of riot at the tavern father, felt it my duty to put a stop to it”), Morgana and Gwen exchanged a glance. Morgana discreetly slipped Gwen a few coins, secretly pleased to have lost the bet. When Merlin went in to Arthur’s chambers later that night to do a final clean up, he very much didn’t leave again. Prince’s orders.

Gaius decided that the tavern was in fact not a feasible excuse anymore, and he would rather have to think of another.

#writers on tumblr #writing #fic #merthur #merthur fluff #merlin #bbc merlin #merlin x arthur #fluff #fanfic #arthur x merlin #arthur pendragon #morgana #gwen #merthur smut #smut #cute #soulmates

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suffering-and-happy-about-it · 3 years

Text

Into the Unknown (The Big, Big Bang; Part 1.)

Series summary: Sometimes, you might feel lonely in the entirety of the universe; of all of the stars, planets and constellations... Until it comes. The big bang that turns the world upside down, the reason why all the stars collide and why you, in the first place, are alive.

Part summary: Remus wasn’t as social as you’d maybe assume when you’d got to know him. Yet althrough his personal struggles, for some reason, Dumbledore had chosen him as his new DADA teacher.

A/N: Okay, this is more or less the first, informative, get-into-the-story chapter and there’s not much happening at the moment. I swear, we will pump it up, just give it at least two parts.

Word count: 2.3 K

Tagging: @notaliteraltoad

Series playlist: H E R E

Series masterlist: H E R E

If you'd ever put a piece of parchment, inkwell and a goose quill and asked Remus John Lupin do describe himself with a few sentences, the parchment would be empty for a few minutes before he'd settle on one small word: a loner. He was alone for quite a time, he wasn't too attracted by the idea of a human accompany; after everything that happened with Sirius, James and Peter, he wasn't quite sure if he would be able to connect with a someone new at the time of speaking. The second word he'd most probably used would be ill - then, he would cross the word and write 'seriously ill' instead.

There wasn't a lot of people who knew what Lupin was going through or what kind of illness he was diagnosed with thanks to hiding away at the edge of every thinkable society; his bad state was visible just from looking at him. His skin was dry and almost transparent almost all the time and when his illness was getting the best of him, he even appeared lightly green. His hair was slowly thinning out as he grew older, but it still wasn't as bad as it could be. The only thing that remained the same over the last few decades were his eyes.

The last sentence he would write would most likely say 'down to earth'. It was a rather generous name for not having much money, always looking shabby and, as some wizards or witches would say, second-like hand. Not that Lupin would be proud of what he was looking like, but there weren't many things he could with it - wizards with his sort of 'illness' rarely got a good job proposition if they ever ended up having one.

For everything that was stated above and far more, it was a miracle when he got approached with a job offers from one of the most well-respected, smartest and brilliant wizard of all time, Album Dumbledore himself. The old man found him hidden away in Yorkshire, living in one tumbledown, semi-derelict cottage at the line of poverty itself. Remus felt like he didn't have the right to complain; he was a damn werewolf. And thanks to the small reminder spoiling his whole face, everyone who could order him something to do for a living knew about this aspect of his life way sooner than Remus would've liked them to.

The night Dumbledore had walked into his humble home, he barely got one shirt that held together without patches; most of his clothes was patched up already - all of his trousers and coats surely. At first, he vehemently dismissed Dumbledore's wish for Lupin working at his school as a DADA teacher. What Dumbledore was suggesting was pure madness. Remus always thought he's a calm and tolerable man - yet when Albus told him everything that he was asking of him, Remus almost lost it.

Yes, of course - there were the mad werewolves like Fenrir Greyback who hunt children down just for sport and making sure that more and more people would be carrying this sick curse. Lupin hated these sons of bitches the most. He himself was one of their victims in the end. And Albus Dumbledore, the most brilliant man Lupin had ever met, one of the few that Lupin had real respect for was asking him to be a teacher at the biggest wizarding school in all of England, Ireland and Scotland? No. That was an offer that couldn't be accepted, that was pure madness. He would never willingly get near such a cluster of young people who were full of dreams and had their lives ahead of themselves. What would happen if he would lose control? How many people would get hurt because of one slip? Did Dumbledore realize how many things he was betting by asking Remus such thing?

But to Remus' surprise, Albus smiled dismissively and stood up from his half-broken-down sofa. With a serious face, Dumbledore had told him that now, he had a professor who could brew the perfect Wolfsbane potion every month and according to Albus, this said the professor was a potions master and genius. However, if Lupin wouldn't trust himself as much to spend the night of wolfing out inside the Forbidden Forest, there still was the Shrieking shack, just like Remus used to remember it. As a small topic for consideration, Albus left there a small bag with thirty Galleons laying on the coffee table, so Lupin could at least buy himself the most basic needs - whether he would take the job offer or not, the money was his to use, to keep or to give to someone else.

After that, Albus left the cottage. He knew what he was doing and what Remus is capable of. When Albus was leaving, he was smiling and humming a jolly song; he knew very well that he's leaving Remus with his thoughts alone and he knew very well that this lycanthropic wizard had one of the biggest potentials for teaching Albus had ever encountered.

Everything got sealed on one dark August night. It was mostly the idea of him and Black meeting that made Remus send an express letter to Hogwarts. Sirius Black, the insane wizard that had murdered twelve muggles and his very own best friend, had escaped from Azkaban. Anyone could tell how he had done it, anyone knew where he was and what was he planning to do. Yet Remus had the feeling he should be counting on Sirius visiting him; in the end, Black already murdered one of their small group of friends and helped with murdering the second one... Remus had the feeling that Black might be wanting to finish what had happened in 1981 and for that, he accepted Dumbeldore's proposition. He was to be one of the Hogwarts teachers.

During the rest of the summer and hiding away, Lupin started to study the materials for each year he was to teach; back in his school days, he was one of the greatest students Hogwarts had seen. There was rarely a test in which Lupin got worse than Exceeding Expectations. It was mostly caused by his natural interest in the art of wizardry and by Remus' gratefulness - Dumbeldore let him study like every other normal student and prevented him from hurting anyone else during the full moon. And DADA? Dear Merlin, he always had a deep appreciation for this class. One of his biggest DADA achievements was that he could cast the Patronus Charm without too much of a trouble. Also... The creatures were quite brilliant and before Lupin could comprehend, he was looking forward to sharing his knowledge with all of the young people in Hogwarts.

At the same time, he realized that he will be there. Son of James and Lily Potter. His name was Harry and he had last seen when he was smaller than Lupin's forearms. He was nothing more than a sweet, laughing boy covered in one big blanket. How old was he now? Twelve? Thirteen? Remus couldn't even count it down properly, he just knew that the boy's going to be there once be starts his teaching career.

As to be expected, the safety precautions around Hogwarts got more intense - Nd so did everywhere else. Lupin was especially aware of that once a Dementor harassing a black-hearted boy had woken him up. And to his realization, it was Harry Potter himself who got into trouble. The most logical thing that came to mind was to talk to the staff and to make sure there are no more dementors inside the train.

Yet once he made sure the train was safe, he couldn't bring himself to go back to the coupe and rather stayed in the corridors on a watch, trying to ensure the safety inside the train. His mind, on the other hand, was racing - James' son, his murdered best friend's son, was inside and he looked just like James. Except for the eyes. Those were, without a doubt, Lily's. Lupin didn't expect such a low blow on his very first day. At that moment, he promised himself to be better. He promised himself that he'd teach the kids everything he knew; and he was particularly excellent in this subject, so the kids had.

The first days at school were... Good. Lupin wasn't particularly all over the place because he wasn't quite comfortable with the all-the-time type of company. The other teachers tried to talk to him, to make him feel good about himself and the purpose of his staying inside the school's walls and he didn't avoid the introduction where the whole Great hall had given him short applause.

McGonagall, who was sitting next to him, persisted on Remus calling her "Minerva" and every time he dared to call her Mrs professor, she gave him a furrowed look, correcting him in her straight-to-the-point type of voice. Madame Pomfrey was also fond of seeing him after such a long time in a pretty good shape and Hagrid tried his absolute best to behave; there was still quite a lot of memories inside other's minds that connected him with Sirius and Remus could understand the worried looks and careful words. Needless to say, the whole feast was delicious as it usually was in Hogwarts and after such a long and draining day, he was glad to walk the quiet and dark halls before he took off to his room, located close to the DADA schoolroom to have some proper and certainly refreshing sleep.

First classes after the feast in the Great hall were the worst for Remus. There were new faces to remember, a lot whole more of names and... At first, he was lost when it came to some of the students. The name of Justin Flinch-Fletchey didn't crawl into his brain until the end of the first week; however, there were people of whom he was very aware against his better judgement.

One of them was Harry and his two friends, Hermione and Ronald - no matter what they said or did, they always looked there are about to cause some mischief. This, of course, could be only a feeling inside of Lupin's guts; yet from other professors, he listened to the wild stories about the past two years; all of which had Potter himself in the centre. Another student he was keeping his eyes on was Neville Longbottom, the son of Alice and Frank. The fates of his parents were heartbreaking and growing up with his grandmother, who was a persistent and unpleasant woman at times, had to be hard for such a gentle soul. There were moments when Lupin could see glimpses of his own uncertainty and shyness in Neville's words. At last, there was a girl from Hufflepuff named Rosamunda who caught his eye simply because her mother was one of his former schoolmates.

Kids who caught his attention naturally without having some sorts of a past connection with him were Fred and George Weasley who were friends with Lee Jordan, another Griffindor student - they were quite a loud and jolly party who, when the topic was right, had a lot of questions and were very curious about the subject. On the other hand, when they didn't have one of those days, they could be annoying, to say the least. Another girl, Heather from Ravenclaw, had caught his eye simply because of her unusually deep interest in DADA. There were no students who would give him any sorts of trouble, which was also a win. As Lupin got a hold on his classes step by step, it suddenly didn't seem to be so out worldly that he'd have the potential to be a teacher - and a good one.

Sure, there were concerns expressed by others member of the staff, especially by Snape, that were regarding his lycanthropy. Yet as Dumbledore had sworn to him, everyone was doing their best when it came to that - madame Pomfrey made sure that the Shrieking shack is at the disposal all the time, Snape was brewing the potions even though his mostly anti-Lupin agenda and Dumbledore himself sworn to him that if there would be a situation in which a student was to be harmed, he himself would prevent that.

Everything seemed to be falling in its place.

It was the break between the noon and afternoon classes in which Lupin was to assigned to have a patrol on the small courtyard opposite the Great hall where some students took their lunches so they could spend some time out in the open before the weather gets bad. And the occupation of the courtyard was quite big - some students were just taking a short break and played Exploding snap throughout, the Weasley twins were throwing some kind of small, non-burning fireworks at each other and there were even people who simply chatted the whole period away. Lupin himself was quietly standing in one of the corners, leaning into a wall dressed in one of his shabby sweaters and ate an apple while overseeing the whole situation.

There was a moment where he didn't notice it at all - someone had crashed into a group of three students, taking two of them down onto the ground. It was hard to see what was happening there since there was quite a lot of people in the way. The only thing he could see were people picking off the ground as another person was running off inside the castle. Honestly, he didn't know where to jump first - if he should go to help the students laying on the ground. - "I am so sorry! I will buy you a lollipop or something!" - The woman who jumped at them yelled over her shoulder and disappeared inside the castle. He could only see a grey sweater, long black pants and her hair flow in the wind as she ran for... For an unknown reason.

The only thing he had seen was her back, he could hear her yelling some nonsense at the students and even though, it knocked the apple out of his hand as he looked at her disappearing. There was something. Remus couldn't exactly name it, but there was some energy about her. Yet in the end, he walked to the group to check on them, letting the woman disappear inside.

#remus lupin x fem!reader #remus lupin x y/n #remus lupin imagine #remus john lupin #harry potter movies #harry potter books #harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban #harry potter

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magicjesuscup · 5 years

Note

I really like your headcannons, may I please ask for some about Jeanne x Siegfried (saber of Black)?

I’m glad you’ve liked what you’ve seen so far. :) So...I can probably only do this because I feel like I know the characters well enough. I kinda ship Jeanne with Arthur, but this would be cute too. I mean, who doesn't love that precious dragon slayer? So now I'm in rare pair hell x2. Lol.

I've seen other people do relationship hcs, and I'm not sure I can write them like that. I don't think Siegfried or Jeanne would be different in other relationships. So if someone asked about Jeanne in a relationship with Arthur or something, I feel like I'd be repeating myself. I can write a separate hc post for what Siegfried would be like in a relationship and what Jeanne would be like in a relationship, but approached this ask by answering things like, How did they get to know each other?" "What do they like about each other?" and "What happened when they kissed or confessed their love for the first time?" ...I hope that's ok. >_>; It also got pretty long because I got carried away.

I stuck it under the cut because there are spoilers to Siegfried's first interlude and the Orleans singularity.

((This is going to assume that this Jeanne is different than the one in Fate/Apocrypha so I can avoid the love plot she was apart of.))

Both Jeanne and Siegfried tried to take responsibility for Fafnir still being in France. Jeanne believed since her alter brought the dragon to France, it was her duty to make sure it was vanquished; besides, France was her home, and she would protect it always. Siegfried insisted Fafnir's presence in France was his fault. The dragon was only summon-able because it gained fame through his legend. As their master, you suggested both of them accompany you and Mash. After all, the number of servants you could take with you well exceeded three.

While on the mission, Siegfried opened up about himself. Unfortunately, his stories were often cut short leaving Jeanne wanting to know more.

When they returned to Chaldea, Jeanne went after Siegfried and asked him, "You said you had no regrets, but what was there to regret? What happened?" Siegfried didn't seem to want to answer, so Jeanne clarified why she was asking. She too didn't have regrets about her life or how she died; she thought the two were similar and wanted to know more. Siegfried was 100% sure he had nothing in common with a saint, but his curiosity got the best of him.

Jeanne told her story first. She focused on growing up on her family's farm and the friendships she formed while on campaign with the French army while glossing over her trial and burning at the stake.

In turn, Siegfried shared his life. He skimmed over his fight with Fafnir as she had witnessed him fight the same dragon not too long ago. He focused most of his story on the things requested of him. As he agreed to any and all requests, it lead to him doing some not-so-heroic things. "I did those things because the person asking me couldn't, and I was able. I'm afraid back then I did things because I could rather than give any thought to if the things should be done. I would have turned down a lot of requests if I had." He also explained the circumstances surrounding his death.

Jeanne is incredibly inspired by Siegfried. Even though he had done things he wasn't proud of, he turned them into lessons to make him a better person. And what a person he had become! She understood everything he did while at Chaldea were things he wanted to do and determined were things he'd be willing to do. She watched him carry child servants on his shoulders. She saw him indulge Astolfo that one time Rider was curious if their riding skills would transfer to office chairs on wheels if they used them in a race, and who would win (The short answers to those questions, by the way, are "yes" and "Astolfo"). She observed him train with the knights of the round table and listen intently when any of them spoke of their code of chivalry. She spied on Siegfried as he interacted with their master; the way Siegfried slowly came to trust their master and form a friendship was heart warming.

Siegfried was equally impressed with Jeanne. She somehow saw something good in everything. In the few instances where she couldn't, she saw the possibility of redemption. No one and nothing was beyond hope; the only requirement for God's forgiveness was to seek it, and God loved all regardless. Her positivity was a sight unlike any he had ever seen. She made everything seem possible and bad situations less awful. Siegfried was never terribly religious, and was surprised when Jeanne didn't push Christianity on him. She certainly never bothered with any fear mongering. When asked about it, she would say, "Every person's path to God is unique; the only person that can walk your path is you. When the time is right, you'll find Him, and you'll understand how much God has always loved you." Siegfried wasn't sure who or what was to thank for him having met Jeanne. Was it fate? Good fortune? If it was her god, then maybe his book was worth a read.

Her smile was infectious and he often had to turn away from her or walk away least he be left grinning like an idiot. Of course, there was that one time Jeanne followed him, asked what was wrong, and immediately apologized if she had offended him or hurt his feelings. Siegfried quickly explained that she hadn't done anything wrong; it was just that his smile was weird...like serial-killer-weird. Jeanne put her hands on her hips, smiling and told him that wasn't true. She had seen him smile many times while speaking with her, and he didn't look like a serial killer at all. In fact, his smile was actually rather wonderful. Siegfried blushed a bit at that and found himself smiling along with Jeanne. Her face lit up even more and the two walked back to the others.

They were oblivious about their feelings for one another until Astolfo asked if they had made out yet. Both of their faces were bright red and both denied knowing what Astolfo was talking about. He came back with, "Oh, come on. You two have been flirting for months and a bunch of us are kinda invested." When Siegfried asked Astolfo to clarify, he explained that a bunch of servants (the Apocrypha group, a few knights of the round table, Merlin, both Gilles de Rais, and several others) started a betting pool for how long it would take for them to kiss.

Siegfried and Jeanne became super aware of each other after that. There were many moments where one would be staring at the other and turn away when the other looked in their general direction. To be honest, neither were opposed to a relationship, but neither were the type to initiate one. In life, Siegfried was married. He loved his wife, but their vows were only valid till "death do us part," and death parted them centuries ago. He had mourned his loss and since moved on. Jeanne, on the other hand, was a ruler class servant. Her role was meant to be that of a referee, and she wasn't supposed to get overly involved with any one servant in the grail war. However, her role seemed different in the Grand Order as every servant was fighting for humanity's salvation rather than the Grail.

They got a lot of advice from other servants. Siegfried got his from the Apocrypha crew. Karna was largely unhelpful. Astolfo and Shakespeare often gave bad advice. Most of the useful advice came from Vlad and Chiron, although Achilles added this gem, "Don't listen to Shakespeare...That dude wrote tragedies." Jeanne's advice came from Roman, Da Vinci, her master, and the other saints (most notably Georgios). For as many ideas as they had to kick start their relationship, both were too shy to actually do anything. It all kinda happened on its own.

One day Siegfried told Jeanne that he would likely turn into an evil dragon one day. He was sitting under a tree when he said it. Jeanne planted her left knee by his right thigh and swung her other leg to the other side so she was effectively straddling him. Jeanne replied with, "That's not possible." She put her hand on his chest. "I've seen your heart; it is pure, and it wouldn't permit you to do such things." Siegfried moved his left hand up, covered the hand Jeanne placed on his chest, and curled his fingers under it. Jeanne lowered herself a bit and pressed her forehead to Siegfried's. It wasn't terribly comfortable because of the armor she was wearing, but he would sooner die than complain. He tilted his head and pressed his lips against hers. He wasn't sure if she was ok with that until he felt her free hand rest on his side of his neck. Siegfried ran his free hand up the outside of her thigh before finally finding her lower back. As Jeanne broke the kiss to catch her breath, Siegfried murmured, "Sorry. I had trouble finding you back with my eyes clo-" He was cut off when Jeanne leaned in for a second kiss.

#Siegfried #Jeanne d'Arc #SiegfriedxJeanne #Fate/Grand Order #innersuperhero

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theazkabandreamer · 7 years

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A Furry Little Problem

This is my second story about how James, Sirius and Peter worked out how Remus was a Werewolf.

Ever since they met a year ago, James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew never failed to notice that Remus Lupin seemed to disappear every month.

Every time he was asked about it, Remus would come up with excuses that would get more and more far fetched as time went by.

"Blimey, Remus!" Exclaimed Sirius in the Gryffindor Common Room one evening after Remus had told them that his Great Uncle Reginald had died and he had to go to his funeral. "First your mum getting ill, then your faithful pet tortoise, Alan, snuffs it. Now this. You have one tragic life, don't you?"

Remus went red and muttered something about a long illness before returning to his Charms homework.

"He doesn't mean it like that, mate." Said James quickly. "It's just that you've been disappearing quite a lot. We've been worried about you."

"We are." Peter nodded vigorously as Remus scowled.

"Well you can stop worrying about me!" He snapped. "I'm fine!"

"All right. All right." Said Sirius placatingly "No need to bite our heads off."

Remus stood up abruptly, knocking his Charms Homework to the floor.

"I'm going to bed." He said shortly before storming to the boys Dormitories.

Sirius stared after him open mouthed. "What was all that about?" He demanded of the other two.

James shrugged. "Dunno." He said. "But somehow, I get the feeling that what you said was pretty…well…..tactless."

Peter stared at James in shock while Sirius looked at James as if he had grown two heads.

"You're lecturing me about tact when you display none whatsoever in front of Lily Evans?" he growled in a low dangerous voice.

James was not listening, however. A flash of dark, red hair moved past him as Lily Evans made her way to the Girls Dormitories. James stared at her, face set and he quickly ruffled up his hair as he stood up.

"Oi, Evans!" He hollered. "Fancy a ride with me on my new Broom?!"

A number of older students laughed at James as Lily Evans looked at him with intense dislike.

"Just because you made the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, doesn't mean that I'm going to swoon all over you, Potter." She hissed. Bright green eyes flashing. "And you want to be careful,." She added. "I'm not sure if your Broomstick would be able to take the weight of your large head."

And with that, she turned on her heel and disappeared up to the girls Dormitories with a flash of dark red hair. James sat back down fuming. His face bright red as laughter erupted around him.

"See what I mean?!" Sirius grumbled to Peter. "No tact whatsoever and the attention span of a Flobberworm to boot."

Peter looked as if he was trying his hardest not to speak his mind.

The next month progressed as usual. James was busy with Quidditch practice almost every night, Sirius let a Dungbomb off in the Third floor corridor and narrowly avoided detention after hiding behind a suit of armour as the new caretaker, Argus Filch came wheezing around the corner and James caused Severus Snape's Cauldron to explode in Potions after he tried to hex James.

"Did you see his face?" Chortled Sirius after they left the Dungeons. "It's like that time he was confronted with shampoo! The greasy haired git!".

Remus, however started to look pale again and James and Sirius's concerns were answered when he told them that one of his Great Aunts (Ethlewalda) was on her deathbed and he needed to see her.

"Is your family cursed or something?" Sirius asked, worriedly in the Gryffindor Common Room one evening. "You seem to be getting a lot of illnesses and deaths, lately."

"I don't have time for this, Sirius." Remus sighed warily before walking off and climbing out of the portrait hole.

Sirius caught James's eye, ready to share the exasperated look whenever Remus was acting odd. However, James seemed to be deep in thought. It was so unlike him. He was usually the life and soul of the Common Room whilst trying to show off in front of Lily Evans most of the time.

"You want to be careful, mate." Sirius grinned. "Thinking's quite dangerous for those who aren't used to it." James shot him a glare.

"I'm worried about Remus." He said in a low voice.

"I noticed. You're so worried about him that you've neglected to chat up Evans. She'll be missing you at this rate."

James ignored him.

"It's weird. The way he keeps disappearing once a month. I think he's hiding something."

Sirius nodded grimly. "You know. I've had a theory about this, for a while but I wasn't sure if I should tell you. I mean it's not an accusation I'm comfortable about spreading around. He is one of my best mates, after all."

He looked around the Common Room but people were too busy to pay them any attention. Lily Evans was chatting with her friends and showing no signs whatsoever that she missed James chatting her up. Peter was in detention after receiving a T on his last piece of Transfiguration Homework.

Sirius lowered his voice. "It's full moon tonight. I've always noticed that he starts acting strangely on the week leading up to full moon."

James stared at Sirius, open mouthed. "A-are you saying what I think you're saying?" He gasped. "Because if you are, then I've been having the same suspicions as well."

Sirius nodded grimly.

"He must be." He muttered. He looked around the Common Room again, before leaning his head closer to James. "I think he is." He whispered the last words. "He's A Werewolf."

Silence fell between the two as James stared at Sirius, open mouthed and in a state of shock.

Finally, after several minutes of stunned silence, James found his voice again.

"Are you sure?" He choked.

"Positive." Said Sirius. "I've been doing some research in the library-"

"I thought you said you were allergic to books?" James interrupted.

"This is our friend we're talking about!" Sirius snapped. "Anyway, I've been doing some research in the library. He's always been ill on the week leading up to full moon. I've been checking the lunar charts and it all fits, James. As much as I hate to say it: Our friend Remus Lupin, is a Werewolf."

James let out a low whistle and ran a hand through his messy hair.

"Merlin's Beard." He breathed. "A Werewolf? At Hogwarts? Wow!"

"'Wow' pretty much sums it up." Sirius remarked.

"I'd bet that Dumbledore must've made special arrangements for him." James said slowly.

"Yeah. Must've been that Whomping Willow. My cousin, Andromeda, the one who's married to that Muggle born, Ted Tonks. They're expecting their first child. Anyway, she was quite surprised when I had written to her about it. She said it definitely wasn't there when she was at Hogwarts. It must've been planted when we arrived at Hogwarts last year. Still. You'd think he would've told us."

"I can't imagine that many of the parents would be pleased if they knew their kids were going to school with a Werewolf." James muttered.

"You should hear my Mum talk about them." Said Sirius darkly. "Honestly, the way she goes on about them, you'd think they're vermin. Says they're not fit to lick the dirt of her shoes. Mind you I told her that no decent human being would want to lick the dirt off her shoes. You should've seen her face."

James gave Sirius a reluctant grin.

"But Remus is alright." James muttered. "I mean, he wouldn't hurt a fly!"

"Not now. But as a Werewolf, it's a different matter. He would literally bite our heads off in his Werewolf form. Which explains why he got so touchy last month."

They both lapsed into silence with both boys deep in thought.

"Sirius." James said suddenly. "This won't change things, will it? Our friendship with Remus."

Sirius gave James a sharp look.

"What? Because Remus is a Werewolf?" He snapped. "Of course not! What about you?"

James gave him a determined look.

"Never." He said. "Remus is still Remus. It's not his fault he's a Werewolf."

Sirius looked relived.

"I'm really glad you said that," He said. "Because I was worried about how you would react."

"Well, I've put up with you for the past year despite you being a Black so how bad can it be?" James grinned which Sirius returned.

They lapsed once more into thoughtful silence. James then suggested that they should get on with their Transfiguration homework.

The next morning, Sirius showed James the lunar charts and his research. To his complete surprise, James had compiled notes on the very same thing.

"As I said last night, I had my own suspicions," he shrugged. "and I'm not allergic to books like you are." He shot Sirius a cocky grin which Sirius responded with a rude hand gesture.

They wasted no time in telling Peter about their suspicions about Remus and showing him the lunar charts. Peter's face paled and his watery eyes darted from James to Sirius.

"A-a Werewolf?" He squeaked. "B-but he can't be! He told me that his Great Uncle Gunthar had died from Spattergroit!"

"Don't be thick, Peter." Sirius snapped. "That's what he wanted you to believe."

Peter's eyes darted to James.

"James." He breathed. "You don't believe it, do you? Remus can't be a Werewolf, can he?"

James nodded his head and smiled sadly. "Sorry, Peter. The facts speak for themselves, I'm afraid."

"But- We're not going to abandon him are we?" Pater asked slowly.

"Of course we're not." James stated as Sirius shot Peter a glare.

"Don't even suggest such a thing!" Sirius growled. "I'm not a prejudiced bigot like my parents. Remus is my friend!"

"And I would die before I would abandon Remus." James stated with such fierceness, that Peter took a step back. "And besides. It's not his fault. He's just got a…a furry little problem."

Sirius looked at James as if he had been hit by a Bludger. He raised an elegant eyebrow.

"A furry little problem?" He repeated.

"It doesn't matter to me what Remus is," Said James "He could be half Giant for all I care. He's my friend and I'm not going to abandon him. He's your friend, too, Peter" James said looking at Peter with the same fierce expression. "Surely you're not going to abandon him just because of that?"

"N-no of course not!" Peter spluttered. "I-I thought that y-you were going to abandon him!"

"What have you got for brains, Peter? Dung?" Sirius snorted.

Peter shot Sirius a reproachful look.

"So you're with us, then?" James asked. "Because I'll help you with your Transfiguration homework if you are." He added with a sly grin.

"Alright then." Peter said after considering James's offer. "I'm with you."

Remus returned after a few days and continued to look peaky. James, Sirius and Peter decided not to talk to him about his lycanthropy as they didn't want to trouble him yet. They discussed ways of trying to help Remus but it wasn't until James raised the possibility of becoming Animagi, that they made any real progress.

Sirius had roared with laughter when James raised the issue.

"Do you realise how difficult that would be?" He chuckled after he calmed down. "We're Second Years. We don't know enough Transfiguration to work that kind of Magic. All we can do at the moment, is turn animals into water Goblets."

"Oh, come on. Transfiguration is easy." James snorted. "We know it all, anyway. Peter will need all the help he can get but we'll be able to do it no problem."

"I know we get a lecture about Animagi in the Third Year." Sirius said slowly. "Andromeda told me. My Uncle Alphard told me about a friend of his who's Great Grandmother could transform into a Leopard. Said she used to transform at dinner parties and everything. It would be really cool to transform into an animal just like that." He snapped his fingers.

James nodded. "Think of all the fun we can have if we become Animagi." He grinned.

Sirius laughed. "Yeah! It will definitely be worth the risk!"

They told Peter of their plan to become Animagi. Peter wasn't sure at first, but with the promise to help him with his Transfiguration, he agreed.

"Don't worry, Peter." James said to him. "McGonagall will soon be missing you from detention."

"I hope so!" Peter squeaked. "If I see that Ginger Newt tin one more time, I'm going to have to snatch a few when she's not looking!"

Over the next few weeks, James, Sirius and Peter spent their spare time in the Library going over Animagi books in the Transfiguration section.

"This'll take years," Peter moaned one Saturday morning. "Knowing my luck, I'll probably transform into a Worm or a Rat or something."

"If you do transform into a Worm, we can call you Wormy!" Sirius grinned from over his book.

James gave a loud snort of laughter, earning him a severe glare from the librarian, Madam Pince. He continued snorting with laughter after she shuffled off.

"Or if it's a Rat," He chuckled, "How about Wormtail?"

Peter flushed a furious red as James and Sirius both roared with laughter. A number of students gave them irritable looks and Lily Evans's eyes were green slits as she glared at them. Severus Snape sat next to her, scowling at them looking very Vampire like.

"No laughing in the Library!" Barked Madam Pince furiously. "OUT!"

James and Sirius just laughed harder before Madam Pince bewitched their bags to chase them out.

Remus began to look peaky as full moon was approaching again and James and Sirius were debating whether or not if they should tell him that they knew about his lycanthropy.

"We can't keep this from him." Sirius said one night. "We have to let him know that we know."

James ran a hand through his messy hair. "Yeah." He exhaled. "How about we spill the beans when he comes and tells us about another 'death' in his family?"

"Sounds good to me." Peter nodded before Sirius could respond.

Their opportunity came a few days later when one morning in their Dormitory as they got up when Remus suddenly spoke.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to go away for the next few days." He said grimly. "My father's got a Charmed Cheese competition and he needs me to help him. He's already written a note to Dumbledore and I've been excused from lessons."

Sirius and Peter both looked at James. James sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"Look, Remus." He said heavily. "We need to talk to you. The thing is…" He hesitated.

"We know you're a Werewolf." Sirius cut in.

Remus's face paled and he took a step back from them.

"How did you know?" He asked in a constricted voice, eyeing them up suspiciously.

James gave Remus an apologetic look. "The lunar charts. The fact that you disappear once a month. You're always looking pale around full moon. We were able to piece everything together, Remus."

Remus looked at them worriedly, mouth hanging open.

"We're not going to abandon you, Remus," Sirius told him. "You don't deserve that."

"Really? You mean that?" Remus looked at Sirius with an odd expression as if Sirius's words were too good to be true.

"Of course we mean that!" Sirius stated fiercely "You're still you, aren't you? It's not your fault! Why should you have to suffer because of that?"

"He's right, Remus." said James. "It's what's on the inside. Not the outside. You could be Half-Giant for all we care and you'd still be you."

James and Sirius looked at Peter pointedly.

"We'll always be friends, Remus." Peter said earnestly.

Remus looked touched. He straightened his robes and turned his back on them to look out the window.

"I've never spoken to anyone about it." He said in a strained voice. "Apart from my parents and Dumbledore."

"Dumbledore knows?" Peter asked, shocked. James and Sirius shook their heads in exasperation.

"Of course Dumbledore knows," Remus laughed. "He is the Headmaster, after all. The whole staff knows, in fact. If it wasn't for Dumbledore, I doubt that I would even be here."

He turned to face them.

"No other Headmaster would've stuck their necks out for me like Dumbledore. I was very young when I received the bite. I think it was before my fifth birthday. My parents tried everything. I remember having to stay indoors because I couldn't mix with other children my age in case they got suspicious and figured out what I was. We always had to move often as well. I never had a permanent home whilst growing up."

"That's terrible." James said sadly. Sirius nodded whilst Peter gave a loud sniff.

"It all changed when Dumbledore turned up on our doorstep one night." Remus continued.

"He said he heard what happened to me. He told me that there was no reason why I shouldn't come to school and that he made special arrangements for me."

"Do you mean that Whomping Willow that was planted last year? The one that nearly poked Davey Gudgeon's eye out? " Sirius asked. Remus shot him a look of surprise.

"My cousin Andromeda says it wasn't planted at Hogwarts when she was there." Sirius shrugged, answering Remus's unasked question.

"There's a secret passage under the Willow that leads me to a house in the Village. There, I am separated from humans to bite so I bite and scratch myself instead." Remus said solemnly.

"Does it hurt?" James asked. "When you transform?"

Remus nodded sadly.

"Every time." He said. "It is very painful to transform into a Werewolf. I have to rest a few days afterwards."

James and Sirius exchanged glances while Peter looked between the two, confused. Sirius nodded and James spoke.

"Listen, Remus we don't want you to be alone while you transform." James said tentatively.

"What are you talking about?" Remus frowned. "Do you know how ridiculous you sound? If you happen to be with me when I'm a fully grown Werewolf, I would kill you all! And it doesn't matter of you happen to be my best friends! It won't make any difference!"

For the first time, James, Sirius and Peter could see the shadow of the wolf on Remus's face as he glared at them, breathing heavily.

"You can't help me." Remus finished "So don't even think of suggesting anything as stupid as that because if I kill you, I'll never forgive myself"

Remus snatched his bag up angrily and made his way to the Dormitory door.

"No! Remus, wait!" James called. "We've found a way to keep you company!"

Remus froze, his hand on the door handle. He slowly turned to face them once more.

"What do you mean?" He asked shrewdly.

James and Sirius explained all about the Animagi research that they were doing during their spare time.

"Since Werewolves only go for humans, we'd be safer with you if we transformed into animals." Sirius finished.

Remus looked impressed by this argument but he gave a small frown.

"Isn't that going to be a bit dangerous, though?" He asked. "You're Second Years. Peter's going to need all the help he can get. We're still doing the Vera Verto spell."

"Oh, come on that's easy." Sirius snorted. "It's all easy. We know it all anyway and James is giving Peter some extra help as well."

"I've got an A on my last piece of Homework." Peter said proudly. "I used to keep getting Ps, Ds and Ts before. McGonagall kept putting me in Detention."

"A vast improvement," Remus noted dryly "I'm not sure if it's a good idea. But I really do appreciate the gesture. I can't tell you how much it means to me that you're willing to put your necks out for me, like that. That you're able to accept me for being me. I really can't thank you enough."

"That's what friends are for, Moony" Said James with a cocky grin. Sirius and Peter both groaned at the nickname, but Remus laughed at it.

"Moony?" He chuckled. "How did you think of that one?"

"Dunno," James shrugged. "But I thought it suited you. What with your furry little problem and all."

To their great surprise, Remus roared with laughter. It took a while for him to stop laughing.

"I think it might be more then a 'furry little problem', but I appreciate the sentiment." He chuckled after a minute.

"That's nothing," Sirius grinned. "You should hear what he wanted to call Peter!"

"No! He shouldn't!" Peter snapped as his face reddened again.

"Wormtail is a perfectly brilliant nickname, if I do say so myself." James said proudly. "Now come on. Let's get down to breakfast. I'm starving!"

The four of them made their way down to the Common Room but Remus hung back. A thoughtful expression lingered across his face. James and Sirius made their way to the portrait hole but Peter noticed it.

"Are you alright, Remus?" He asked him. James and Sirius stopped and turned to look at him.

"What?" He said distractedly, snapping back to reality. "Oh yes. I was just thinking. About what Dumbledore said to me when we first met. He said 'that man often spends time in fear of those that they call monsters, but often fails to notice that they, themselves can sometimes turn out be the worst of them all, despite their best intentions' I've been thinking about these words a lot."

"I always thought he was off his codger, old Dumbledore. But he's brilliant if you think about it." Said James.

"Of course he is!" Exclaimed Sirius. "Best Headmaster there is. My parents hate him, of course but I couldn't care less what they think."

"You couldn't care less what anyone thinks." James grinned.

"Dumbledore can see through all the fear and prejudice ."Sirius said thoughtfully. "That's why he let you into Hogwarts. It's like what we said. It's not the outside that counts but the inside."

"I've always been grateful to Dumbledore." Said Remus. "If is wasn't for him, I wouldn't be sure what I would be doing."

"You'll always have us, Remus." James told him. "Friends forever. Until the end."

"You'll never be able to get rid of us" Sirius grinned.

"We have a bond that no one will break." Peter chipped in.

"Thank you." Remus said, touched. "I am truly lucky to have such three incredible friends."

"And we're lucky to have you." Grinned James. "But that's enough chin-wagging for one day. I believe I said I was hungry and then we've got-"

But James fell silent as a flash of dark, red hair went past them as Lily Evans pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and walked down the corridor.

James stared at her for a moment, face set and then messed up his hair and puffed out his chest making him look like an Penguin.

"Oh, Evans!" He sang. "About that Broomstick ride!" He followed Lily out of the portrait hole and ran after her, out of sight. Sirius and Peter exchanged exasperated looks while Remus looked like that he was going to laugh.

"Attention span of a Flobberworm, that one." Sirius told the other two. Remus laughed. "Come on, Moony. It looks like we're going to have to nick some food from the kitchens for James and then we're going to have to grin and bear History of Magic. If you want, I'll try and take notes for you."

And with that, the three friends exited the Gryffindor Common Room to the sound of Lily Evans screaming herself hoarse at James Potter.

#The Mauarders #I was worried about making James seem too mature for a Second Year but I think I pulled it off quite well #My Stories

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thebibliomancer · 7 years

Text

Essential Avengers: Defenders #11: A Dark and Stormy Knight

December, 1973

“Dark and Stormy Knight”? I get it! Because.... because the Black Knight?

Right. Well. Anyway.

This is an okay cover. Conveys the nature of the threat they’ll be facing and illustrates Dr. Strange’s stunning overestimation of his own abilities. But I just have to wonder. Where is Valkyrie’s cover bubble?

Last time: Dormammu tricked the Defenders into thinking they needed the Evil Eye to unstone Black Knight from when Enchantress turned him into a statue as an eternal testament on how rad she is. A lot of nonsense and shenanigans ensued but the Avengers and Defenders together defeated Dormammu and claimed the Evil Eye. Or rather, Scarlet Witch did most of the work.

This time: Time to fire up that bad boy and see if it works. Yup. This is technically the last part of the Avengers/Defenders War. The war is over but it would kind of feel dumb to not address whether the big motivating factor of so much of the event could be saved or not.

So lets start as Dr. Strange points the Evil Eye at the fourth wall.

Both teams are back on Earth now. And although there is a lot of damage from the dimension merge and monsterificaiton of people, if Scarlet Witch hadn’t gotten the Evil Eye to eat Dormammu Earth would now be a land filled with mindless monsters under Dormammu’s rule.

Nick Fury goes up to thank her for saving humanity but she blows him off. She doesn’t want humanity’s thanks. She was just doing her Avengers duty. I see she’s still a bit nettled over those anti-robot suicide bombers.

Trying to avoid an awkward conversation, Fury tries to swing the conversation toward the Defenders but Dr. Strange instantly wipes his mind. In fact, he wipes knowledge of the Defenders from everyone’s minds, except the Avengers.

What a douchey thing to do, Dr. Strange. Its his wish that the Defenders remain unknown to the world at large. Maybe he just doesn’t want to be blamed for gathering the Evil Eye and indirectly causing this disaster. Either way, his desire for privacy probably doesn’t outweigh the entire population’s desire not to have their synapses scorched.

Anyway. He does it. With the power of the Evil Eye, Dr. Strange wipes knowledge of the Defenders, cleans up the damage left behind by the dimension merge, and poofs away the Defenders.

At least he cleaned up after himself.

So at Strange’s sanctum, Dr. Strange uses the Evil Eye to turn himself into a statue.

Its for a good reason, swearsies.

Oddly, someone forgot to tell the colorist that the Black Knight should still be a statue too. Womp womp.

Dr. Strange astral projects away from his stone body into that cool space land that the Black Knight’s spirit had retreated to. While he’s at it, he muses on the irony that Dormammu lied about the Evil Eye being used to help the Black Knight when its being used to help the Black Knight.

But when he gets to the arbitrary space spot where the Black Knight’s spirit should be, by the Many Moons of Munnopor, it isn’t!

Meanwhile, while the Defenders wait for Dr. Strange to finish up what he’s doing, Hawkeye muses.

He’s probably going to quit the Defenders. He likes them but he ragequit the Avengers to prove he could make it on his own and if he just immediately joins another group, how would that look?

Plus, being tricked into fighting the Avengers put a sour taste in his mind mouth.

Namor agrees. “Being in a group is not the way one demonstrates his true worth.” Namor himself is planning to quit after this mission.

And then Dr. Strange comes back. He starts to explain that the Knight has vanished mysteriously when the Defenders vanish mysteriously. With that most mysterious of sound effects: the FOOM!

The Defenders now find themselves in a world of deserts, fortresses, catapults and oh hey, its the Black Knight. Just the man we were looking for!

They’re a confusing but welcome sight for sore eyes but there’s no time for casual conversation! They’ve ended up in the 12th century Crusades and the Arabs are attacking!

Hahaha, I don’t want to be anywhere near Marvel’s Saturday Morning Cartoon conception of the Crusades.

Neither does Dr. Strange, although for different reasons. This isn’t his war so he’ll just use a spell to immobilize the attackers so the Defenders can get their bearings.

Hulk is fed up with... pretty much everything by this point so just pounds the ground, knocking the attacking Arabs off their feet. And then the other Defenders jump in to help now that Hulk has kind of made their decision for them.

And then a grey version of the Hulk attacks.

Noooo, not Joe Fixit. A gnome of some sort. Except a big gnome. Wish they didn’t make it look so much like the Hulk. It’s not confusing so much as it is off-putting.

Anyway, Dr. Strange and the Silver Surfer blast the gnome, Temax, to no avail. Hulk attacks only to get swatted away.

Dr. Strange reiterates his desire to avoid conflict and teleports the Defenders away before Temax can throw a really big rock.

MILES AWAY, the Defenders plus the Black Knight reappears. There’s no immediate danger so you know what that means!

Exposition time!

Black Knight explains that because of a spell cast by Merlin at the time of Camelot’s collapse, his spirit was yoinked back in time to possess the dead body of his dead ancestor, the original Black Knight. Their spirits have mingled and he’s on a quest to find and fight the man who murdered the original Black Knight, MODRED THE EVIL!

Who also died centuries ago but his essence lives on and can appear anywhere, anytime. Which sounds hax.

Because of Modred’s interference, King Richard was captured and made an Arabian prisoner in the middle of his crusade. And Prince John, instead of being a lion in England trying to get a meddling fox, has taken command of Richard’s army and is planning to desert the king. Also, he’s teamed up with Modred.

The spell that yoinked Black Knight brings opposition to Modred. So it brought Black Knight into this time to fight him and it must have caught up the rest of the Defenders too, to even the odds against the magic that Modred wields.

Basically: Merlin did it.

Later that evening, the Defenders have a plan.

They sneak into Richard’s prison in the guise of really conspicuous priests. And then they split up. Dr. Strange, Namor and the Hulk will go after Modred. The rest will go to free the king.

Black Knight takes a second to grouse that Valkyrie has his sword but Hawkeye says hey you left it unattended on your body. Losers weepers.

Meanwhile, the ‘get Modred’ side of things follows a hunch of Dr. Strange’s. There’s only one corridor of the fortress with no sand on the floor. Clearly, that means the gnomes absorb the sand, leaving the floor clean.

And then they get spotted when two people arguing over a bet drop a torch and see that the Hulk has green feet.

Before you can say ‘man gangrene is really bad huh’ Hulk and Namor have punched them unconscious but too late to keep them from crying out.

Meanwhile elsewhere, Valkyrie ponders that she feels no love for the Black Knight. I don’t remember if I mentioned it but early on when she first joined, she had an irrational love for a man she knew for five minutes. Whether it was just a side-effect of her creation by the Enchantress or something else is unknown to me. But it seems to have worn off.

Anyway, they rescue Richard.

And then get attacked by three gnomes, one of them still looking uncomfortably like the Hulk, another looking like the Hulk if he became a monk, and the third not being very Hulk at all good job.

Anyway, the Defenders get their shit rekt. They all get one feeble attack before being knocked sprawling by the gnomes.

Valkyrie tosses the Ebony Blade to the still standing Black Knight and he has a moment of confidence where he reaffirms his bond to the cursed sword, the singing power locked deep within its polished black metal, and that he was born for battle. This is why he is the Black Knight!

He valiantly rushes forward proclaiming that the Ebony Blade can counter magic!

And he gets even more rekt than the other Defenders.

Damn.

Elsewhere, the other party finds Modred, Prince John, and Chandu the Arabian wizard. Chandu is summoning more gnomes.

The Defenders leap to attack, Dr. Strange confidant that using the Evil Eye will swing the battle in their favor.

But Chandu casts a spell against Dr. Strange and knocks him for a loop. Its magic that has never been directed against him before. Because Chandu is calling on the same forces Dr. Strange usually summons. Womp womp.

Also sorta implied that Dr. Strange doesn’t have access to those forces right now because he hasn’t chronologically befriended them yet.

And then Namor punches Chandu right in his goatee.

And then gets tackled out of the fortress by the gnome Chandu was summoning. There’s a bit of bad news, best news though. Bad news: the gnome hits like a mack truck’s gamma-irradiated cousin and Namor is hurt pretty bad. Best news: the gnome tackled him into an oasis. Not only does the water reinvigorate Namor, it also happens to be the elemental weakness of the gnomes.

The mohawked gnome starts melting.

Now this is something Namor can get behind. “For as I understand so well, water and land ultimately destroy each other!”

You do you, Namor.

And he do do him. He smacks the oasis so hard that he sends a wave through the mystic chamber where the Defenders are fighting Modred and co AND into the tower where the other Defenders got their asses kicked trying to rescue Richard.

And thus today Namor is MVP.

But something occurs to Namor. The whole Avengers/Defenders War was pointless. For many days, the Defenders fought hard to gain the Evil Eye. But it was Merlin’s spell that yoinked them back in time. And it was the simple cleansing power of punched water that saved them from the gnomes. The Evil Eye hasn’t done jack or shit!

Maybe that can be remedied? Because Prince John picked it up from where Dr. Strange dropped it when Chandu zapped him. And boy Prince John is just going to flip the board, so to speak.

And then Prester John shows up and goes ‘nope’ and force summons the Evil Eye to his hand. And he blasts Modred and Prince John unconscious.

Prester John explains that he sensed that the Evil Eye had been restored so he traveled through time to retrieve it. Because he can do that. Shut up.

And even though he has recovered the Evil Eye before he ever obtained it, he’s going to stay in this era because Prester John doesn’t care for your 20 cent paradoxes. Prester John has important Evil Eye owning to do.

Anyway, not only does he belong in this era, he tells Black Knight that he does as well. What with his valor, skill in swordplay, and love of the life chivalric.

PRESTER JOHN KNOWS ALL.

Black Knight admits that he never felt comfortable in the 20th century and could never get interested in being a full-time Avenger (you never even tried!). He’s going to stay in the past!

Dr. Strange is strangely (hah) comfortable with their whole quest being pointless. And since Black Knight already has a body in the past, Strange is just going to keep the stone body in the present. It looks good in his study.

King Richard doesn’t understand any of this high-concept nonsense but he’s happy to have Black Knight if he wants to stay.

And then Prester John sends them Back to the Future with the Evil Eye. Because that is also something it can do.

Back at Strange’s Sanctum, Hawkeye calmquits the Defenders. He thought about becoming part of the team but its not really what he wants. And he’s off to have solo adventures.

Namor also quits. He has to go spend more time in Atlantis. But he’ll be back if he’s ever truly needed. Likewise for the Silver Surfer, except for the Atlantis thing. And likewise for the Hulk, except for the Atlantis thing or the promising to come back thing.

And off they fly or jump hella high in different directions.

Leaving just Valkyrie and Dr. Strange behind, wondering if they’ll ever see them again.

Considering there’s a ‘next time’ box, I wager there’s a strong possibility.

Anyway, that was the real, true actual conclusion to the Avengers/Defenders War. It kind of falls flat. Its good to get resolution on the Black Knight even if that resolution is ‘nah I’m going to stay in the past and help with the Crusades.’

Because of his love of swordplay and valor and chivalry. He is the worst kind of ‘I was born in the wrong century’ person.

But after being fought over so long, the Evil Eye was ultimately pointless. Well, I guess it sent them home. But it would have been a dick move of Merlin to yoink people from the future without a way to send them back.

I think overall this didn’t need to be part of the Avengers/Defenders War. Its not a satisfying conclusion. All it does is tie up a loose end that the Avengers themselves weren’t interested enough to see followed up on.

Also, if Prince John was defeated here, when will he sign the Magna Carta? You’ve destroyed history, you idiots!

#Defenders #Avengers #Avengers Defenders War #pointless artifact of mass destruction #Dr Strange #Namor #Hulk #Valkyrie #Silver Surfer #some historical figures #Essential Avengers #Essential marvel liveblogging #i guess monsters weak to water are a pretty good idea in the desert

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