#if a knight won it was thanks to God if he lost it was his fault

[coffee-in-veins]

Day 7: Greatest fear

an entry for darkest prompts promptober 2022

previous days: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

now available on ao3 too

sorry i’m a little bit late - life happened

Fear ARCHAIC - a mixed feeling of dread and reverence.

* * *

It was never promised to a devotee that his life would be easy, yet to Reynauld's understanding, it was supposed to be determined at the very least. The Light shone Its Divine mercy on them all, guiding them through the turmoils of their mortal coil, and it was upon devotees themselves to make the most out of it. If they upheld their obligations and followed the Sacred Flames without a fault, the Lights bestowed Its Grace upon Its loyal followers. It was the eternal Flame that gave them the prosperity of loot-laden sacks, peace of ambushless nights and glory of victory. Like any devotee, the crusaders won through the Light's will, protecting Its people - even if those were merely his mercurial comrades. And when they lost the battle and had to abandon their righteous quest, the knight knew it was because they failed The Light's Plan, and thus, it was only fair that many of the crusader's short-lived companions died in mud and misery. Dying, they cursed their luck or gods when in truth they should have known it was all their fault. Somewhere, somehow, they didn't do what the Holy Flame willed, and It couldn't help them in their perpetual fight. 

At least, that was what Church had taught them. 

Was it that surprising, then, that Reynauld devoted each conscious moment of his life to praising the Light and Its Glory and making sure he did so appropriately? Considering the alternative of eternity in the cold, empty void, could anyone even blame him for being god-fearing? Those who mocked his devotions were foolhardy blaggards, unable to see the danger of the excruciating afterlife they were setting themselves up to suffer through.

Well, it was their own undoing. Reynauld did what he could, pushing to show them the Light's divine Glory and trying his best to convey the fear it should instil in any sane mortal man. After all, as much as Reynauld loved the Light and Its warm Luster, he feared Its wrath, feared displeasing it with a simple mistake, feared losing everything he had and everything he was broken for to become what he was in one fell swoop. He endured so much abuse to be forged into the Light's weapon, he suffered through so much hurt and humiliation to be deemed worthy of Light's miracles, that a mere thought of losing Light's everlasting embrace made the crusader's soul tremble like an aspen leaf. 

And it was proper. And it was right. And it made sense.

He wasn't sure when the shift happened. A good leader protected his team within the realm of reason, that much was true, and yet there was something different in wanting to protect one particular squadmate he had acquired on the Old Road. 

Each time Dismas wasn't quick enough to dodge, the crusader flinched worse than when someone spoke the wrong words during prayer. When the rogue wouldn't leave the den of sin others called Tavern for weeks on end at times, Rey couldn't concentrate on his litanies to the point of mindlessly repeating the same verses. When the insufferable highwayman was locked in the Sanatorium for the first time, Reynauld ashamed himself by falling into distress so deep that only the righteous agony of mortifying his own flesh and offering the purity of pain to the Light returned him to his senses. 

It was the same fear - all-encompassing, consuming, everlasting. But instead of being devoted to the almighty entity worth every bit of it, to the cosmic being that held the whole world together in Its tender Splendor, this fear shifted into being about a single mortal man. A horrible man, a well of sins, someone fully deserving the title of a lost cause. 

A man Reynauld couldn't imagine his life without anymore. 

Before, all he could fear was losing the Light. 

Now, each time the highwayman couldn't get up after the wounds he sustained, the crusader abandoned his station and his reason, rushing to Dismas' side, begging the Light to aid him, to drag the sinner from the brink of death. Fearing losing him even more than eternal damnation. 

And yet as soon as the crisis passed, the fear of Godly abandonment reared its ugly head, forcing Rey to break the contact, clam up, and step away despite the pleas to stay and the barely hidden hurt in the rogue's dark eyes. When he wasn't afraid to lose Dismas, he suddenly remembered that his greatest fear was to displease the Light and lose Its Radiance in his life. That what he did, what he felt and thought was definitely against the Holy scriptures. That he was slipping into sin most heinous and would be responsible for dooming them both. 

So he backed away as any believer should have. 

He shut any talks down as any devotee should have. 

He got angry as any zealot should have. 

Until more blood was spilled from the battered body of his closest friend.

Until Abbot bellowed of filth and sin.

Until the confessions most delectable.

Until his devotion was publically questioned.

Until he finally knew what those scarred lips tasted like.

Until the realization caught up with him.

Until he was offered to stay.

Until the Light wouldn't hear his pleas for forgiveness. 

Until he was caught during those zealous promises to forfeit what they became. 

Back and forth, forth and back, like a saw slicing through the last string that held the whole world together. Was it that surprising that eventually it snapped, and everything tumbled down, down, down...? 

Truly, the Abyss wasn't the deepest pit he had been to. 

...as he was kneeling before the red-shrouded gravestone, watching blindly how the intricately carved candles cried wax for what could have been, for the first time in decades, Reynauld felt hollowed out and cold despite bright daylight and the Grace of the Holy Light's manifestation shining above him - but not upon him. 

For those who cannot choose between two frightening losses are always doomed by an all-too-late realization that their greatest fear should have been suffering through both. 

#dd promptober 2022 #darkest dungeon #reynauld #dismas #Reymas #if a knight won it was thanks to God if he lost it was his fault #being a zelot isn't easy #don't be mindless zealots kids #fanfic #The bloodied journal page || my writing #The tapestries of words || my ao3 #dd highwayman #dd crusader

[thenightling]

“The Oldest Game”

   I was surprised to find someone in my Sandman Facebook group actually complaining about “The Oldest Game” in The Sandman Netflix series (episode 4).  They seemed disappointed that it wasn’t a “Real” battle but instead it was “like watching them play Dungeons and Dragons.”  Meanwhile the majority of us Sandman fans loved the scene.  When I first read that scene that was when I knew I was reading something truly different from the usual DC content.  I was reading something truly special.          To the person complaining about it, I am afraid The Sandman might not be to your taste.  There is very little physical combat and scenes like The Oldest Game / “I am Hope” are what hooked a lot of us.

       The Oldest Game is based on something TV Tropes (and The Sword in the Stone) calls a “Wizard’s Duel” or a Wizard Duel.  The concept turns up a lot in folklore and mythology.  It’s where two magical entities (sometimes sorcerers, sometimes Gods, sometimes shapeshifters) have a duel of wits and creativity using their powers and imagination.   There’s a similar trope called the Transformation chase and there is an overlap but the transformation chase usually requires there being a chase.  You see a sort of single-person transformation chase in Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among thieves.  

     In The Sandman this battle was for Morpheus’s helm.  If he won he got his helm back.  If Morpheus lost he would have been enslaved by Choronzon The Demon.

     Here’s how the game usually works. The challenged usually gets to make the first move. They pick a form or a spell and it is usually non-lethal.  You’re supposed to start small and build up to bigger / more imposing things.  The battle follows TBL (Turn based Logic) like in a tabletop or online text based role playing game. So the Dungeons and Dragons comparison isn’t actually wrong so much as it’s not quite the right role playing game.  (Yes, I AM a nerd. Thank you for noticing.)  

     After the first move is made the opponent may take the hit and then make an offensive move (attack) in return or instead of taking the hit, they can make a defensive counter move to avoid taking the hit but in doing so the person loses the opportunity to make a offensive move.  If you’re clever you can sometimes get away with a single move that does both but that is tricky.   So the choice is usually take damage and attack or protect from damage and not attack until the next turn.  The game is usually about “one upping” the opponent so you go for something slightly bigger and better than what they used.  

     In some versions of the game you are allowed to defend yourself and then make an attack move during the same turn so you don’t have to make the choice of defense or attack. In both variations, if you’re clever enough you can come up with a combo of attack and defense in one move but that’s rare.  

      Usually it’s like this.  If your opponent throws a magical dart, you can create a shield or shoot a similar projectile but in some variations you can do both if you can pull it off in a single concept (like creating an armored knight holding a sword and shield). If the rival turned into a rat, you can turn into a cat.  Hopefully you get the idea.  You can’t go too big too fast or the creativity and strategy the game is known for is lost.  It’s a game of wits and creativity after all, not really brute force.   

     Recently I have seen some people try to argue that during the Lucifer and Morpheus version of the duel that Despair can kill Hope and that Lucifer could have won if she was willing to say she is Despair.  No, that may have just caused an unhappy stalemate because pretty much everything that can destroy Hope can also be destroyed by Hope.  Hope kills Despair as surely as Despair kills Hope.  They are two sides of the same coin after all.  It would just be an infinite loop at that point.  However there is also the argument that Hope springs eternal while Despair is always only temporary, depending on your perspective.  

      I have provided three pop culture examples of The Wizard’s Duel.   The first is the version in Netflix’s The Sandman between Lucifer and Morpheus.

The second is from Disney’s Sword in the Stone between Mim and Merlin.  

The third is from the 1963 film The Raven starring Vincent Price and Boris Karloff.  I have a bias in favor of this one since I love this movie. It was written by the late Richard Matheson, directed by Roger Corman, and starred Vincent Price. It came out the same year as Disney’s The Sword in the Stone.    

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZOwaeAEIw0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxqhjWcS8zQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2gBhMdJ23Q

#The Sandman #Sandman #The Oldest Game #Wizard's Duel #Wizard Duel #Morpheus #Dream of The Endless #Lucifer Morningstar #Neil Gaiman

[lunaerys-archeron]

The Shadow Queen - Chapter I

(Daemon Targaryen x OC! Lunaerys Novak)

Prologue | Chapter two

For caution, most of this is fictional not included in the books or show!! So there will be more than a few of my original characters that have last names of main characters.

The sounds of neighs and hooves pouding against the grounds echoed throught the nature, several horses moving just as happily to return to their home, as much as their riders were. The sounds of armor being clunked together, banners of a single wolf surrounded by bones and ash, colors of black and gold being waved by the cloaks on the shoulders of the warriors returning. Eyes beamed with excitement as they followed their commander to the gates of their home.

"Great warriors of the East. We have returned undefeated once again!" A strong voice boasted as she halted for her giant black wolf, stopping by the gates of her home. She wore a proud and victorious smirk under her helm.

"Once we pass through those gates, you will no longer be stray men and women. But strong and willed warriors of a won battle." Her voice had been filled with leadership, her men and women warriors cheered for their commander, pounding their fists against their armor.

The gates to their Kingdom had opened. They were home.

"Princess Lunaerys Novak, heir to the ash-blood throne, future Lady of the Shadow Hills, Warden of the East, and Commander of the mercenaries." Ser Rickard Starlight announced loudly to the people that had gathered to witness the arrival of their future Queen and the warriors of Adrithe.

"Blessings to the four gods princess."

"May the four be with our undefeated warriors."

"May the God of war honor you."

The free folk began to chant as their princess and her mercenaries rode past them towards and through the entire city. They cheered in relief and pride, their protectors had once again defeated a great threat to their Kingdom.

Lunaerys Novak unsaddled her great wolf, patting her head as she did so, giving her comfort after a long time being away in battle. "Rest my dear friend." A young boy comes her way, Alan Vaulant, her squire and the soon-to-be lord of his house, learning under her guidance.

“Princess Lunaerys, welcome home.” The boy greeted with a polite bow and smile.

“Alan, it seems she missed you as well.” Lunaerys laughed when her wolf, Pandora nudged the boy with her snout wishing to be greeted as well, “watch over her will you? And you Pandora, take care of him.” She bid both a goodbye as Alan and Pandora walked to the fields of grass to roust in.

“Princess, your father, the King, wishes for your presence in the throne room.” A knight named Aethen Starfyre called to the young woman.

Lunaerys gave a nod to her childhood friend, "Thank you Aethen, do be sure that Ser Rickard and Ser Harland don't cause too much trouble. We've only just returned."

"You have my word princess." Ser Aethen chuckled, joining the Starlight twins into the ale house.

Lunaerys made her way to the throne room, she knew who was expecting her after her arrival to Adrithe. Her father. King Aelor. As she walked her way through the godswood the servants and maids all bowed when she walked past them, earning small smiles from the Princess. Her armor made a small noise as her black and gold cloak waved behind her.

"Ser Fergus, I see you're still alive old man." Lunaerys teased with a grin as she caught the eye of her father's friend guarding the throne room door.

"Princess I see you were victorious." Ser Fergus Redmond scoffed playfully. "I was sure the rogues would've killed you this time, I lost coin because of you." His grin matched her own.

"Careful Ser, I can have your head for your words."

"Oh but who would put up with you then?" Ser Redmond laughed.

"Is he angry?" Lunaerys asked, her bright mood changing instantly, remembering why she had come to the Throne room.

"He was for a short time, you're his only child, Lunaerys." Ser Fergus wore a glum look remembering the way his friend suffered after Lunaerys went off into battle, not knowing the status of his only child.

Lunaerys faced the ground in shame.

She never meant to cause her father any pain. She then faced forward as Ser Redmond opened the throne room doors. "Thank you, Ser."

She walked down the short steps, where her eyes met those whom she inherited it from. Her father, Aelor Novak, King of Adrithe. Many would've found him slightly intimidating, as the great King sat on a throne made of bones.

Lunaerys shuddered as she took in the presence of her father. His once bright blue eyes, now dull with worry.

She was to kneel on one knee, her head ready to be bowed preparing herself to apologize to her father for her doings. She never met the ground. Instead was buried into familiar arms, feeling the warmth of the wolf blood flowing through his veins.

"My girl. My little warrior." Aelor whispered, holding his daughter tightly to him, too afraid to let go. One year. A year that his only child had gone to war never once hearing word of her status. Paranoid thoughts ran through his head during the twelve moons. Was she hurt? Was she even alive? "You are home. Thank the gods."

Lunaerys did not hesitate another second and wrapped her arms around her father, returning his embrace. There a father and daughter had reunited.

"I'm sorry father."

Her father stepped back slightly, his hands holding onto Lunaerys' shoulders.

"No need for your apology. I should've understood, having a warrior as a daughter would never be easy. I just never wanted to lose you, like I lost your mother."

Lunaerys smiled sadly at the mention of her mother, she had died of a fever that plagued their Kingdom, leaving peacefully in her sleep.

"Would she be proud of me?" Her mismatched eyes, one gold like every member of house Novak and the other blue as the seas, just like her mother had the. Her eyes were filled with sadness and hope.

"Very, my little warrior." Aelor smiled before he placed a gentle kiss on her head.

In the throne room, a father and daughter had been reunited. But soon they would be separated as the girl would soon be of age to begin her own journey.

___________________________

"Welcome to you all! For tonight's feast will be in the honor of the return of my daughter and her mercenaries. For they have slayed another enemy, vanquishing the threat to our people!" King Aelor announced to the court that it had been settled for tonight's evening.

The noble houses all clapped and cheered for their princess and her mercenaries, either slamming their fists or their cups on the tables. They were proud that their Kingdom remained as they always had been. Unconquered by their enemies, protected by the wolf of the East.

"Tonight we shall thank and honor those who risked their lives for our Kingdom. May the God of War honor them and the others to allow them a place in their heavenly Kingdom" Lunaerys and the rest of those present had joined their King in his toast lifting their cups of ale into the air, "let tonight's feast commence."

With the words of their King the noble houses had begun their feasting, making conversations within their own house or with people from others. Though men and some women would sneak quick glances to the royal family's table, hoping to catch the beautiful eyes of the Princess. She had surely changed over the years in war, her face strong, jaw defined. Her beautiful mismatched eyes seemed brighter than ever before.

Lunaerys held a small grin behind her cup of ale, it was amusing as she felt the not subtle looks being thrown her way. Her grin grew as Aethen gave an amused snort her way. House Starfyre had been sworn to her own house since her great-great grandfather was King of Adrithe, she would find herself missing something, if Aethen was not by her side. They had been long friends ever since they were mere babes, their mothers friends before them. To add, they were born on the same day.

"Princess Lunaerys, would you so honor me. And join me for a dance." Ser Rickard had asked from a few feet away from the royal table.

Lunaerys nodded and joined the knight on the floor.

Music began to play, drums bearing like hearts of winds, calling out to the souls of the people. The particular song was one of Lunaerys' favorites, a song created for Adrithe's victory against the Dragons.

Lords and Ladies joined the princess and the knight on the floor, as the dance was turning to a switch in partners. The melody softened to something that was known by history, this particular dance was to resemble the one that was once shared between King Silas Novak and Queen Visenya Targaryen.

Forever forbidden love.

"You look radiant tonight, Lunaerys." Rickard whispered to the princess' ear.

"You clean up well Rickard. I almost did not recognize you." Lunaerys stifles a chuckle when the knight glared at her playfully.

"You wound me princess." Rickard lifted Lunaerys in his arms as the others followed in suit, the dance replica of the wolf and dragon. "You have once again lead us to victory, how does it feel?"

The eastern princess sighed deeply with a small smile.

"Good. Our home remains its own. Though my father has informed me, this will only add to the incoming ravens of betrothal offers."

Ser Rickard laughed, twirling the princess around a few times, before taking her in his arms again. "Anyone would be honored to have a woman such as yourself as a wife. I know of someone that would die for your hand.." It was now Lunaerys who lightly chuckled under her breath, "Who did you have in mind, Ser Starlight?" She teased, but before she received an answer she was spun to the next partner,

Now she was in the arms of the other Starlight twin, Ser Harland. One thing that was acknowledged by the people of Mordun, was that everyone knew the closeness the Starlight twins had with the princess. Though small rumors began that it was either Rickard or Harland that was in a secret relationship Lunaerys, but none were so brave to whisper these rumors in the Starlight twins’ faces, nor for it to make word to her father, King Aelor, who would surely cut the tongues of those who whispered of his only child, meeting their death soon after.

“Harland.” Lunaerys greeted with a smile.

“Princess.” Harland returned with a cheeky grin, without ease lifting the young woman in his arms and circling both of themselves around.

The two teenagers were completely oblivious to the many stares they were getting, the others in attendance either whispered the countless rumors made in their minds, or they gushed how beautiful Lunaerys and Harland would be together. They saw as they danced together, their height was laughable, but an adorable one. Two fierce and strong souls. They had grown together, and fought together. They were always seen near one another when Aethen was not by her side. They were Princess Lunaerys Novak and Ser Harland Starlight. A wolf and hound. A princess and knight. Friends for eternity.

_______________________________________________________

King Aelor sat in his council meeting the following morrow, rather focused to the conversations happening around him. As custom he sat at the head of the table, his closest advisor Lord Ambrose Redmond, brother to Ser Fergus, his sworn protector, and another dear friend. He tried to stay focused on the Master of Whispers speaking to him about something unimportant to the council. He ran his fingers against the russet colored fur of his large wolf, Allyan, who even kneeling to the ground reached past Aelor's height.

“What point are you trying to make, Lord Peter?” King Aelor huffed, leaning forward on his arms that rested against the table.

“A raven was spotted late at night, your grace.” Lord Peter Lagos began to backtrack to his reason for this meeting, handing the letter to Ser Fergus, who then handed the letter to the King.

“A three-headed dragon seal?” The Wolf King said in slight surprise. It has been long since the Dragons of King’s Landing ever tried to contact the Kingdom of Adrithe, since after his father became King.

“The Targaryen’s?” Lord Lucas Starfyre, the Master of Laws, asked in wonder. Why have the, above the gods and men believers, send them a raven? It has been nearly twenty years since their last attempt.

The council watched in anticipation as Aelor unraveled the letter. The Kings’ eyes followed each letter as he read them, his eyes widening in shock, then in slight annoyance as he reached the end. “Of course, another raven asking for my daughters’ hand.”

The council looked at each other before looking at their King worriedly.

“Surely the King does not offer his grandson to take her as a second wife?” Lady Myriah Vaulant, the Mistress of Ships asked. The Kingdom had known that Prince Viserys’ wife had failed to bring a son, and gave birth to a firstborn daughter instead. They did not shame the lady Aemma, but they felt some sort of pity as she was forced to another pregnancy shortly after the miscarriage of her lost child.

“No. But Jaehaerys does offer his youngest grandson, Prince Daemon Targaryen.”

The name of the dragon prince caught the attention of Aelor. It was no secret that the adventures of Westeros’ Rogue Prince made it all the way to Adrithe. The prince was said to enjoy his freedom and liked to cause trouble with that advantage coming with being of royal blood, many called him a womanizer for bedding many women in the brothels, but no one would dare shame him as not only was a prince, but he was also not married.

Though King Jaehaerys Targaryen had hoped with the things he heard of the intelligent and strong minded princess of Adrithe, Lunaerys would be able to hound down his grandson to become a good man. But Aelor would not have his daughter forced into a loveless marriage, nor one of convenience, he would give her the same opportunity he had.

“It seems our princess has made quite the impression during the battle, impressing a member of the Targaryen family takes quite a lot.” Lord Redmond snickered towards the KIng, but then sent him a small glare when Aelor kicked him from under the table.

“Who knows of the reasons that King Jaehaerys has to offer his grandson, but I will not give my daughter, unless she decides it is what she wants.” The council nodded with agreement to their King's words.

“Where is the princess, if I may ask your grace?” Lady Solia Darros questioned.

King Aelor smiled, his daughter was not one for meetings just yet. He had given her a break from her duties after being away for a year, his daughter deserved to be a young woman with freedom before she was backed into her duties forever.

“My daughter spends her time as she wishes, Lady Darros. She has a free spirit, just like her mother, one that can never be diminished.”

As the council continued with their conversations, a certain Princess had left her chambers and took her loyal companion for a small ride into the forests.

She was truly a free spirit.

__________________________________

Lunaerys held her bow close, drawing to the target in front of her, her eyes stilled on the sight, a large boar sniffing away to the trails the young woman made to draw it in. She held her breath as it came closer, then, with one breath out, she let her arrow loose. The boar let out noises of pain as it began to scurry away, but it was met with its end when a large wolf pounced onto it. Wails of its strangulation were heard loudly, before it limped in the locked jaws of its killer, crimson liquid appearing on the snout of the wolf drawing lines down into the grassy ground.

The princess walked closer to her companion, “You did well my girl, enjoy your catch.” She walked close to a tree sitting on its sprouting roots, she relaxed against the tall life. The scenery around her was beautiful, that is something she loved about her home, the beauty of the surrounding nature. The trees moving with life with the winds coursing movements, the bright skies glowing bright with the sun's radiance.

“You always preferred the outside world.” A teasing voice made Lunaerys open her eyes and sigh in announced.

"And you always had a way to rekove my peace, Aethen." Lunaerys joked her eyes closing once again, as she leaned back to the tree behind her. She chuckled when hearing his scoff.

"Well, who would protect the dear princess of Adrithe better than I? Her sworn guard and her most cherished friend." Aethen praised himself as he practically invaded Lunaerys' calming space by taking a seat right next to her. They both bumped their shoulders together playfully, trying to push the other away. "Hello Pandora, at least someone enjoys my presence." Aethen exclaimed with glee when the large wolf greeted him with a nudge to his side, he ran his fingers against her black fur.

"Traitor." The Novak scoffed with a pout. Pushing Pandora away when the wolf tried to nuzzle her head to her side as well. But the princess gave in, and began to scratch Pandora's head behind her ears. Lunaerys chuckled at the wolf's pleased huffs, and as Pandora layed behind both she and Aethen, her body curling around them.

"What is on your mind, Lunaerys?" Aethen asked with concern. The young man had noticed the way Lunaerys had been acting since they returned to Adrithe, she seemed different, more so than any time they had left to battle, "Is it Wayland again?"

Lunaerys eyes opened suddenly at the particular name. She had nor heard anyone else say the name in almost three years. It still hurt, hearing that name. One she had once cherished so deeply.

"No—no Aethen it is not Wayland that had been plaguing my mind. But rather my realization of the duties I will be expected to meet."

Aethen smiled lowly, "Ah yes. Your father has informed me of the many ravens that he received of Lords all over Westeros offering the hands of their sons. You are quite the topic, my dear friend."

Lunaerys scoffed in distaste, "The only reason for that many offers is due to those Lords wanting to see their son as King to an unconquered Kingdom. It is all they lust for in Westeros, power and their ambition bleeds to make it possible."

"Yes but Adrithe is different, Lunaerys. They may become your future husband, but it is you that we will all see as Queen. It is you that we will follow, not them, but you."

The Princess smiled at her friend and protector, she leaned her head against his shoulder, "Thank you, Aethen. You're always helping to ease my mind."

"It is my duty Princess, not only as your sworn shield, but as your friend." Aethen said resting his cheek against her head, "I heard that you have received another betrothal offer this morrow."

Lunaerys snorted a chuckle, "Yes those pesky Lannisters do not know when to stop do they?"

"I do don't speak of the Lannister's, I speak of the offer Jaehaerys Targaryen has made to offer the hand of his youngest grandson." The knight mumbled before Lunaerys moved her head away, and looked up to him suprised.

"Jaehaerys Targaryen sent my father a raven?" Lunaerys asked out loud, but mostly asked herself. Why would Jaehaerys try to offer his grandson? Perhaps this was another way of the Westeros King to men the broken treaty that his uncle long broke. "Interesting. How it would be to marry a man of dragon blood."

Aethen raised a brow in question, though he was equally concern when he saw Lunaerys look in thought. "Surely you're not thinking of accepting Lunaerys. Daemon Targaryen is wild, they call him the rogue prince for reasons, my dear friend."

The Princess only ignored him, she truly wondered what all the gossip about the Targaryen Prince was about. He surely couldn't be as handsome as they say, but she did believe the Whispers of his lustful ways in the brothels. Lunaerys knew that Jaehaerys wanted this marriage as a way to tame his youngest grandson, to better control his ways and become the ideal Prince.

"Of course not, who do take me for? While this would do well for duty, as Daemon Targaryen is to be known as a fine knight within his realms, but, I am not sure he will do well here in Adrithe." Lunaerys stifles a giggle imagining the trials that Daemon would have to go through in Adrithe to become her husband and a knight on their terms, not in Westeros.

How fun it would be to see it.

"Ah, the trials of earning the knighthood," Aethen sighed remembering the day he passed his own and earned his knighthood, "not many succeed the trials. But it would be entertaining to see him try completing the trials for your marriage."

Lunaerys and Aethen laughed together, but as they did so they stopped when King Aelor stepped into their view, his wolf Allyan standing tall behind him.

"Your grace." Aethen bowed now standing on his feet.

"Aethen, do mind to leave me and my daughter for a moment?" Aelor asked with a small smile at the knight.

"Of course your grace." Ser Starfyre sent once last look to Lunaerys before he walked away, leaving the King and his heir alone.

King Aelor let out a deep sigh, as he sat next to his only child he looked around. The small sounds of the water from the river clashing softy with the rocks in between. The area was quite beautiful, the greenery around seemed to grow even more beautiful with the sun's rays. He remembers this place.

The only place where he took his wife, Erys, the day he asked for her hand in marriage. Then after their daughter was born, they brought her here and would spend their days away from the stressful court.

This was the place they could just be together.

"I'm sure you either heard, or Aethen has informed you of the raven that was sent to Adrithe?" The king asked his daughter as they both stared towards the flowing river. But he received no answer from her only more silence, "Lunaerys, know that I would never force you to marry."

"I know", Lunaerys turned to look at her father. She wore a smile, one that resembled her mother's, "but I understand my duty father."

Aelor took his daughter into his arms, basking her in his comfort filled warmth that only a father could bring to his child. He tried to keep his daughter happy, he knew she appreciated the things he did for her, but he so hated the ways things were. He loathed that his daughter focused more on things that were yet to come, rather than to live her life in the slight freedom she had. But he knew that his daughter was too loyal and too wise to go against her duites, from a young age she was taught the things an heir to a Kingdom should be. She learned too much before she was to live happy life of a child.

"My daughter. My only child and solace in this world, you will make a fine Queen to this Kingdom."

Lunaerys smiled and held her father just as much as he held her. She enjoyed these moments when it was the to of them, a father and daughter just being themselves, carefree.

"Linōt eyssīa, mīedys." I love you, my daughter.

"Linōt eyssīa, lokto." I love you, father.

The father and daughter sat in the peaceful silence.

They enjoyed the breathtaking world around them, for they both knew that soon they would not see it again in many years.

_______________________________________________________

It had been two moons since King Jaehaerys Targaryen sent raven to Adrithe. It had been nearly one hundred years since anyone from Westeros has seen a person of Old Flame blood, Jaehaerys had remembered the last time he saw a member from the house Novak. It was when he first became King, and he tried to reconcile with King Lucian Novak to bring back the peace treaty his grandfather, Aegon I, had created. But the wolves of the East were not ones to forgive and forget if without good reason, for House Novak was one of loyalty and trust. Maegor Targaryen had long broken that bond.

It was early morrow, Jaehaerys sat in his own chambers breaking his fast in silence until a servant of his house came in silently.

"Your grace." The young man bowed standing next to the King's sworn guard.

"What is it?" Jaehaerys sighed tiredly, he only was visited either if important news came to King's Landing, or his youngest grandson Daemon had done something Daemon like.

"A falcon was spotted before the sun's light had risen, it carried this in its hold." The young man walked closer to the King handing him the rolled parchment.

The eyes of the King widened.

A black and gold wolf sigil. Unbroken at that.

"Thank you, you may leave." Jaehaerys dismissed the young man with a wave of his hand, he waited until the doors to his chambers closed shut to open the letter.

Jaehaerys Targaryen,

It is to my understanding that you have long wished to fix what your uncle had long broken many years ago. War had been called against your Kingdom and mine, for things that were mistaken and took to far. Both our families and Kingdom's suffered for such mistakes.

Though, we both wish to make things right.

My house, House Novak is not one to easily forgive nor forget. We have not forgotten what your house has done to mine, but it seems you bring a well enough reason to fix what was broken. But know this, if it is your wish to give the hand of your grandson to my daughter he must face many challenges and trials against our most fine fighters in our realm. For the hand of my daughter is no prize, for she does not need anyone to rule greatly beside her.

But alas my daughter understands her duties, as any good heir should.

In the name of King Aelor Novak and his heir Princess Lunaerys Novak, we fully accept your offer. For your grandson will wed my daughter if passed the trials given. Pray to your gods of the Valyrian or the Seven, for if your house takes our forgiveness to an dismay. We will finish what my ancestors had long started.

— King Aelor Novak, First of his name. King of Adrithe, Lord of Morukk, and Warden of the East, the Protector of the Old Flame.

Jaehaerys Targaryen was relieved, House Targaryen and House Novak would be untied as they were longed to be. But he knew the grieve consequences this could have on not only his Kingdom, but to his family. For he knew if his blood would continue their rebellious ways, filled with anger, betrayal.

For the only thing that could bring the end to the house of the dragons, was itself.

Lunaerys and House Novak would be the savior his house needed.

______________________________

#daemon targaryen fanfic #daemon targaryen x reader #daemon targaryen x oc #daemon targaryen #rhaenyra targaryen fanfic #rhaenyra targaryen #aemond targaryen #hotd fanfic #house of the dragon #house of the dragon fanfic #house targaryen #aemond fanfiction #house aellos #house novak #game of thrones fanfiction

[poisonsage808]

oh good flight!

may I ask anything for Pod (my softie boi) with fake dating? like I don't want to give too much guidelines, because I think that all your ideas are FANTASTIC, but maybe either him saving reader from a weirdo or being the one to pretend to be your date, after having been stood up! (those are just ideas, I am fine with anything that you come up with!)

hope it's alright and have a lovely day!

♡ As You Are ♡

Podrick Payne x F!Reader

a/n: as we talked about this isn’t exactly what you asked for, im so sorry about that and i hope you like what i came up with <3 thank you for your constant support, friend

“King Cunt thinks himself a hero,” Ser Bronn says all too nonchalantly as he scours over the lavishly decorated room.

A ball in the midst of a war. Celebrating a minor victory that Joffrey hid through just about the entire time. Only a delusional king would do something so foolish.

“He’s making a point.” Lord Tyrion raises a brow then his own cup to his lips, “He won. Stannis lost.”

“That's what I said. He didn’t do shit though.”

The two talked bitterly amongst themselves, more so the shorter man than the sellsword. While Bronn was no longer Commander of the City Watch, he was knighted after the battle and still reaped just as many benefits as before. Tyrion was stripped of his title as Hand and demoted to Master of Coin, further souring his taste for this event, and as a slap to the face he was moved into a closet that served pitifully as his new chambers.

However nothing changed much for Podrick Payne.

He killed a man to save his Lord but felt it was justified, there was no horror in what he’d done to keep him up late at night. He received no knighthood and likely he never would, Tyrion wasn’t a knight and couldn’t perform that for him. Still, the youngest Lannister attempted to repay the debt of his life with… many beautiful women. He may not be a Ser but the title Pod the Rod was earned shortly after that day.

Vines fell from the ceiling and wrapped around pillars, pretty white flowers blooming or budding in various spots. An absurdly high mountain of food spread across the longest table Pod’s ever seen. (Was it not just days ago the city was famished? Not that the people of the Red Keep should care, the reach of its effect stopped with the bread riot.) At the desert end of the table was arguably one of the prettiest things of this whole dumb ball.

Truth be told, Pod didn’t feel he deserved the moniker that, depending on who called him that, made his ears flush pink or his eyes roll. All he did was ask the ladies questions. What would make a woman happy? What do women like? How can he please one, really please them? They didn’t charge him for answers. They cooed and fawned over him for- what he always assumed was- doing the bare minimum.

The reason for his seemingly endless string of questions ended right over there, biting into a round finger cake that was sprinkled with blueberries. The object of his desires ever since he came into Lord Tyrion’s service. Pod had invited you to take a walk with him in the gardens that first day, it shocked him that he asked and stopped his heart when you agreed! However wars prove to take up most people’s time unfortunately and he was no exception. But gods above, you were as sweet as dessert, pretty as the dainty ruby necklace and once he was a knight, Podrick would surely be worthy of your affections.

Your gown matched the crimson red of his leather. Everyone was wearing red if they could help it per King Joffrey’s demand. Yet you stood out so effortlessly.

“Hungry, Pod?” Tyrion looks into his cup with a smirk.

His eyes go wide and the tips of his ears red like the rest of the room.

“Podrick would you mind fetching me something sweet? Perhaps with cherries?”

“Yes, m’lord.”

Bronn snorts, “Get yourself a slice of pie while you’re at it, boy.”

He threw the sellsword a vicious glareHow convenient you just happened to be standing there. From above Tyrion pats himself on the back.

“E-Excuse me, m’lady.”

Your lips pull into a soft smile when you hear that voice.

You’ve had plenty of short conversations with Podrick Payne and plenty more longing looks from a distance. He was kind, offering to carry things for you then rushing dutifully back to Lord Tyrion. You’re not sure you’ve seen him doing genuine work of a squire but you do see him putting the fullest extent of his efforts into what he does.

“Hello Podrick,” You smiled, setting your plate down.

For a second he just stares at you with a dopey grin, “Hello.” Then his eyes go wide and he bows suddenly, like he remembers it’s what he should’ve done in the first place. You laugh, politely covering your mouth with your hand but it does little. Podrick doesn’t mind either way. He likes that sound, he likes making you laugh and seeing the way your eyes crinkle in delight when you do.

“Your duties are never done, it seems.” You say teasingly as he grabs a plate and stacks cherry tarts on it.

“I don’t mind being-being kept busy, ‘specially now,” Pod exhales nervously, still grinning, “Lord Tyrion doesn’t have much work for me to do since, y’know, he’s not Hand anymore.” He quickly adds, “M-M’lady.”

With his eyes on the table, the young man doesn’t see the way your lips go from a pout to a sly smile. You dare to take a step closer, turning as if also scanning the display of desserts to make it look less obvious to any wandering eyes. Your shoulder barely brushed against his and yet Pod’s breath caught in his throat.

“Well,” Your voice hushes, innocently enough but it sends the hairs of his neck on end, “If you ever find time, I’d love for you to take me on that walk you promised me.”

You remembered that? Pod blinked away his disbelief by the time you stood face to face, still a respectable distance apart. You raised your eyebrows a bit, lips tugging into a smile. Crap, he didn’t answer! Before he can say anything, Podrick’s view is suddenly cut into blocked as if he wasn’t there in the first place. It was an older man from the Westerlands who wears the Lannister armor of crimson and gold to fit the theme of tonight’s celebration.

“We keep bumping into each other, my lady.” He says.

Your smile loses its genuine happiness instantly, pressing to a polite one. You’ve been avoiding this particular knight for a good portion of the evening. He’s asked you for a dance twice already and both times you found an excuse to slip away without accepting or embarrassing him.

“Yes, well, the room is quite small with so many people inside. I’m grateful I’ve avoided any casualties thus far.”

He laughs a little too loudly at your jest, gaining eyes from different directions. You and Pod both obviously lean around the armored body to try and see the other.

“I shall personally see you make it through the affair unscathed,” Ser steps to the side you leaned towards, blocking your view again and smiles while you try not to frown, “Do you have time for a dance just yet?”

“I’m actually in the middle of talking to—“ You again lean around when the knight's hands find your waist and elbow, “Hey!”

“Nonsense, we’re practically in step already.” He tried to give a harsh tug towards the dance floor, his smile curling to a snarl.

“‘S’cuse me, Ser.”

Both you and the soldier whip your head to see Pod hadn’t left. Your relief is palpable but brief as the man holding you doesn’t relent. Podrick’s face was harsh for a change, eyes cold and staring right at the knight.

“M’lady and I weren’t finished with our conversation.”

“My lady, not m’lady,” The man scoffs out a bitter laugh, “Gods, you’ll make a sorry excuse for a knight. And you,” His attention is back on you with far less enthusiasm, “You’d rather be fondled by a squire than dance with me?”

You’re released the moment a claps the older man’s shoulder and yanks him back so hard that, with his heavy armor, you hoped thought he might topple over. Your hand flies to your mouth to stifle the mix of a gasp and laughter that threatens to spill. Your eyes meet Podrick’s but he’s just as surprised as you, like he can’t believe he’d done that.

And worse, more eyes than ever are on you at the scene that was made.

Just as the old knight fumbles to get to his feet, a new voice cuts in quickly, “Lad, why don’t you take your lady friend for a dance. I’ll keep ‘im occupied for you.”

Podrick can’t bring himself to move an inch, not until your hand finds his arm and you gently tug him to the outskirts of the party. It’s there that you two can all but run from King Cunt and his terrible flock of gossips guests.

You brought Pod to the beach, secluded and quiet aside from the crashing waves against the rocky shore. He looked down at his hand and started laughing, then you did too. He was still holding onto the plate of cherry tarts! He took the liberty of offering you the first before taking one for himself, looking away as he calmed his chuckles.

Gods that fucking smile of his was as contagious as greyscale and all the more inviting to catch.

“By the way,” You said after biting into the dessert, “I think you’ll make a great knight.”

“Yeah?” Pod asks all too hopefully. It broke your heart to hear him ask that way, like no one else had ever told him so.

Your reply is earnest, “Of course.” Then it’s not, “Pod The Rod just doesn’t have the same ring as Ser Podrick Payne, does it?”

“Oh gods!” Pod groaned, his cheeks blushing terribly red even under the moonlight, “You heard about that too?”

You didn’t even try to hide your giggles this time, “Only the people living under rocks haven’t heard that! Let’s hope the tale doesn’t make it into any future songs they’ll sing of you.”

“You-You think they’ll sing songs of.. of me?”

You smile brightly, “If they don’t, I’ll compose them myself.”

“Oh,” Pod blinks away his surprised expression, “You’d d-do that?”

“You’ll have my favor at tourneys, too.” You say softly but firmly enough to make his eyes jump from the rocks to meet yours, “If you ever compete, that is.”

“R-Really?”

“Yes, really! Podrick, I fancy you quite a bit and have for quite a while. I would be yours as a knight,” Your hand finds his in the radiant glow of the moon, “Or as you are right now. As long as you’re Podrick Payne, I would like to be yours. Does that sound alright?”

Does it!? Pod holds your hand tighter and lets out a breath of a laugh. Partly in disbelief but mostly in relief. He looks down where he’s interlocked your fingers with his and smiles so big his cheeks hurt. He’s blushing, he knows it but he doesn’t care.

“That sounds... perfect, m’lady.”

In that moment Podrick Payne doesn’t think he could be anymore blessed or lucky or whatever he should call this feeling! He makes a vow that even if he never gets the proper title of a knight, if no one else but you calls him Ser he’ll be satisfied with that. He’ll be strong with a sword to protect you, he’ll be gallant and honorable to do right by you and be a knight in every conceivable way but name.

He feels your lips quickly press against his already rosy cheeks and he thinks he died and went to one of the seven heavens awaiting him.

“Don’t faint on me now, Payne!” You laugh and tug on his hand, “You still owe me that walk.”

#x reader #game of thrones imagine #imagine #game of thrones #writeblr #podrick payne imagine #podrick imagine #podrick payne #podrick payne x reader #poiboidrabbles

[fagcrisis]

my friend ellis @jonny-dykeville wants to get into njpw, and i thought id write her a little summary of whats been going on lately! im posting it here in case its useful for anyone who wants to get into nooj but finds it a little too confusing (understandable) or has stopped watching in the last couple years and now wants to get back into it

this will include a list of matches at the end from 2023 that i think were good and/or are important to storylines! this is accurate to the day im writing it which is 2023/05/15

LINKS TO BE UPDATED

The landscape of New Japan Pro Wrestling has changed enormously in the past couple of months. For example if you told someone a year ago that Kazuchika Okada would hold a non singles belt, theyd laugh in your face.

So how did we get here?

google doc version

Your current champions

Sanada beat Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP heavyweight championship at Sakura Genesis, and has since defended it against Hiromu Takahashi, the current junior heavyweight champion. 

Hiromu won the belt at Wrestle Kingdom in a four-way match against Master Wato, El Desperado, and former champion Taiji Ishimori.

The IWGP women’s title was created last year and won by Kairi at Historic X-over. She lost the belt to Mercedes Moné, who was champion until Mayu Iwatani dethroned her recently.

Aussie Open hold the tag titles after defeating Bishamon, and they’ve gone on to win the Strong openweight tag team championships from the Motor City Machine Guns.

David Finlay is the NEVER openweight champion, bringing the belt back in to Bullet Club after Tama Tonga defeated Karl Anderson for it at Wrestle Kingdom.

Intergalactic Jetsetters (Kushida And Kevin Knight) finally ended the reign of Catch 2/2 (Tjp And Francesco Akira) as junior heavyweight tag team champions during the road to Wrestling Dontaku tour, thank god.

Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii are the NEVER openweight six man champions winning the titles from Strong Style (El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki And Ren Narita). If you think that sentence is insane, don’t worry I’ll explain whats happening.

Zack Sabre Jr became the inaugural NJPW World TV champion, winning the tournament at Wrestle Kingdom by defeating Ren Narita, and he’s had some incredible defenses since (you might’ve seen him on ROH).

the KOPW trophy graduated to a belt after El Phantasmo broke it, and Taichi is the current provisional champion having defeated Shingo Takagi for it. 

Kenta lost the strong openweight championship to Hikuleo in the first defense of the belt in Japan, after winning it from Fred Rosser (with Juice interference).

at the time of writing this the Strong women’s title does exist but the tournament to decide its first owner has yet to be held (Resurgence may 21st).

Karl Anderson will pay for his crimes

Those who have been following me since november last year know that Suzuki-gun, a heel faction in NJPW led by Minoru Suzuki, has come to an end. I was inconsolable. There are multiple reasons for this happening, but the main one is Karl Anderson.

While Anderson is a member of Bullet Club, and in fall of last year was still the NEVER openweight champion, he is contracted to WWE and was on a handshake deal with NJPW, essentially promising he’ll appear at shows they book him for. There was a scheduling conflict with one of WWE’s saudi shows, and Anderson essentially ghosted the company not appearing for his title defense against Hikuelo, which meant I had to watch Yujiro Takahashi wrestle. anyway this all meant that New Japan lost faith in their freelancers, and because the majority of Suzuki-gun were on handshake deals, this meant the faction had to go. Their last match was on december 23rd (njpwworld) (bilibili link) and it was very emotional and beautiful, and I was incredibly sad.

Shota came back!

Shota Umino, who you may know as the protege of Jon Moxley, returned from excursion in the fall of last year. Young lions (NJPW trainees) are sent abroad to foreign promotions by the company to train and gather experience in different environments to Japan. Shota was in Britain for a time and he returned, challenging Will Ospreay for the US title he still held at the time. He lost but with this high profile title shot he joined the ranks of the young stars NJPWhas much faith vested in. 

This also includes Ren Narita, who you may not know because he was never adopted by a mean american man. he was trained by Katsuyori Shibata, earning the nickname Son of Strong Style and wearing similar gear to Shibata as well. The company seems to be trying to set him up to be Shibata’s successor, and he wrestles a similarly, clean technical style.

A recent addition to their ranks is Yota Tsuji, whose return I will explain later.

The IWGP women’s title

Women’s wrestling promotion Stardom and NJPW are both owned by Bushiroad. Because of this last year there was a crossover between the two promotions, which saw the first mixed tag matches in an NJPW ring. Great show, you should watch it. (njpwworld link) (bilibili link)

For this event, the IWGP women’s championship was created and won by Kairi. Now I have some thoughts about how Stardom is already full of accomplished talented women, and putting a women’s match on the card once in a blue moon isn’t a win for women in wrestling and you should maybe try watching Stardom instead (guide on how to do that). But I digress. Regardless of whether or not this is pandering, every match for the belt was undoubtedly incredible and I will be linking them all in the rec section.

A brief Wrestle Kingdom aside

You fucking know what happened at Wrestle Kingdom I shouldn’t have to explain this to you. Kenny Omega returned and defeated Will Ospreay for the US title, and Okada won his beloved IWGP belt back from Jay White, starting him down the path of leaving NJPW.

What you might not know is what happened at Wrestle Kingdom Night 2, which confusingly was held some weeks later. Wrestle Kingdom traditionally is a show between NOAH and NJPW, so Night 2 saw the two promotions pitch their most popular wrestlers against each other. Okada was set to fight Kaito Kiyomiya in a tag team match, but he thought this challenge beneath him and attempted to murder Kiyomiya ruling the match a no contest.

Later in february, at Keiji Muto’s retirement show, Okada did have to face off Kiyomiya in a singles bout, despite his protests that he is not some cheap whore (his words not mine). That entire show is incredibly good but not extremely relevant to NJPW storylines, as crossover events usually are not. (njpwworld) (unoffical link)

After Wrestle Kingdom, New Japan holds New Year’s Dash and the New Beginning shows where they set up new storylines that will likely last the whole year. Jay White challenges Hikuleo to a loser leaves Japan match, because he blames him and his brothers (Guerillas of Destiny) for Bullet Club weakening and his loss at Wrestle Kingdom. He promptly loses this match. Bummer. 

El Desperado refuses to accept that Suzuki-gun is over and joins Minoru Suzuki in defending Ren Narita from House of Torture’s dastardly attack, leading to the formation of their trios team; Strong Style. They then go on to defeat House of Torture for the NEVER openweight six man tag team titles. Now this is crazy but we dont have time to dwell on it because the other remnants of Suzuki-gun are also making moves that are considerably more insane.

Its time for: faction madness

There are a lot of factions in New Japan Pro Wrestling. like a lot. Every storyline is heavily driven by who is in what faction and where their allegiences lie. This might be confusing to you if you only watch AEW, a promotion where factions matter less than what Tony adds to commentary.

TMDK

Naturally ex-Suzuki-gun member and best technical wrestler in the known universe Zack Sabre Jr couldn’t simply remain in Hontai, the main body of New Japan where factionless members of the roster belong. Luckily he was a free agent for all of five seconds before his old australian buddies snatched him and his fresh tv championship up. TMDK, known as an australian faction despite a solid half not being from Australia, has suffered some losses in the past year. Jonah, their strongest member, a man who defeated even Kazuchika Okada, left Japan for WWE. Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls, founding members of the faction and a tag team under the same name, have failed to succeed in winning Tag League in fall of last year. Safe to say, they needed a win. Zack has teamed with them during his time in NOAH, so it was only logical that he would return to his old friends. They even recruited a young lion, Kosei Fujita, who became the first young lion in a faction if you don’t count Hikuleo which was a slightly different situation. TMDK also includes Bad Dude Tito (or Big Teets) over in the States.

The addition of Zack really reinvigorated the faction. Shane and Mikey challenged and failed to defeat Aussie Open for the tag titles, and Robbie Eagles left Chaos for more australian pastures, joining the faction when he challenged Hiromu Takahashi for his championship. Robbie also lost but TMDK didn’t let these setbacks stop them from cutting the weirdest promos after every match and staunchly insisting Fujita (who they’ve nicknamed Big Fooj) will be the first young lion to win a championship.

United Empire

Will Ospreay is no longer the IWGP US heavyweight champion. After losing to Kenny Omega he threw a hissy fit and declared that he would give professional wrestling one more year. He also entered the New Japan Cup, a tournament for the right to challenge for the IWGP championship. Unfortunately in a match against his friend and stablemate Mark Davis (of Aussie Open and ass size fame) he injured his shoulder which put him out of action until about last week. He won the 1pw world title though, so he’s fine.

Other than that, the faction has been doing fairly well for themselves. After a titanic struggle against Bishamon, Aussie Open won the tag titles and have gone on to defend them against TMDK and somehow, Best Friends on AEW television. They also won the Strong tag titles, and Kyle Fletcher managed to botch a moonsault in both matches. You’ve definitely seen them even if you don’t watch NJPW, their schedule is insane and they have a banger of a match practically on a weekly average. 

Also tag champions in the faction were Catch 2/2, who held the junior titles until fairly recently. They’ve had great defenses against YOH and his new tag partner, Lio Rush (more on that in a second) and Douki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. What you need to know about Catch 2/2 is that TJP is a PragerU weirdo and Akira is good albeit italian.

UE also includes Jeff Cobb, who you might’ve seen challenging for Kenny Omega’s US title on Dynamite. He is incredible I don’t have anything else to say. He also kind of thinks flat earthers have a point. He’s really good though.

Also in the faction are Aaron Henare, men’s rights weirdo who challenged and lost to Shingo Takagi for the KOPW belt and Great O Khan who is somehow the Revpro champion. He is notable for having a nice bow in his hair and screeching. The most recent recruit to the faction is Dan Moloney, who unfortunately is fairly unknown to me. He joined the faction as a junior heavyweight and subsequently entered the Best of Super Juniors Tournament, which I will explain later.

Chaos

I’ve previously described Chaos as Hontai 2.0, because that’s really what it is. Lead by Kazuchika Okada, Chaos was the original heel faction in NJPW, founded by Shinsuke Nakamura. Nowadays it is a loose collection of allegiances that confusingly includes the entire Best Friends faction in AEW. Yes, that includes Trent’s mum Sue. Since becoming faces, Chaos members regularly team with Hontai because it all doesn’t really matter. 

Kazuchika Okada defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi at Battle in the Valley, and then asked him to tag together. They named themselves the Dream Team, and I only briefly pondered how well it ended the last time Tana teamed with a younger star. Anyways I’m sure this will go fine. They challenged Okada’s fellow Chaos members Bishamon for their tag titles they still held at that time, and sadly lost that match. They defeated the team of Shota Umino and Ren Narita, and then once again failed to obtain gold in a 3-way match against the Motor City Machine Guns and Aussie Open (who won). After Okada lost his belt, they recruited Tomohiro Ishii, who doesn’t like Tanahashi and doesn’t want to team with him because he isn’t in Chaos. Despite this, they managed to defeat Strong Style for the NEVER openweight six man championships.

Bishamon I’ve covered sufficiently enough I think, they are the team of Hirooki Goto who recently celebrated his 20th anniversary in professional wrestling and YOSHI-HASHI who used to be incredibly horrible and is less bad recently. They are fun and I like them.

YOH and SHO were a junior tag team in Chaos until SHO turned heel, joining Bullet Club. This left YOH in a sort of strange limbo, where he contemplated quitting wrestling and pursuing his more artistic ambitions (he is a musician and an artist). Rocky Romero, also a member of Chaos, got him and Lio Rush together to team for Junior Tag League, and they ended up winning the tournament! Although they failed to defeat catch 2/2 at Wrestle Kingdom, and Lio got injured, teaming with him seemed to bring YOH’s confidence back. He’s been wrestling slightly differently and with more self-assurence. The pair both separately challenged and lost to Hiromu Takahashi, two incredible matches that I will link below. Not even these losses brought YOH’s confidence down though, and he’s entered BOSJ alongside Lio although they are in different blocks.

Also members of Chaos are Rocky Romero, Best Friends (including Kris Statlander, Orange Cassidy, Sue, and I think quite possibly Danhausen), Toru Yano who is kind of a funny little man, and Tomohiro Ishii.

Los Ingobernables de Japon

Led by Tetsuya Naito, the tweener group is more of a loose collection of talented individuals than your regular faction. LIJ has a policy of letting their members forge their own paths and create their own success, instead of letting them fall back on the power of the group. 

Maybe the only exception to this rule is Hiromu Takahashi, who owes a lot of his success to the faction as well as his mentor Tetsuya Naito. Hiromu is very talented and has a very unique style both in his wrestling and his fashion sense. Unbiased corner ahead I like him a lot. He holds junior wrestlers in very high regard and recently organized the All Star Junior festival to showcase junior heavyweights from all around japan (njpwworld ppv) (vk link). He has a plush cat named Daryl. Hiromu is kind of the ace of the junior division right now, he is on his fifth title reign and is trying to defend the belt 12 times to beat the current defense record of 11 held by Minoru Tanaka. Currently he is 4 defenses into this streak, having defeated YOH, Lio Rush, Robbie Eagles and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Despite being champion he entered BOSJ, a tournament he’s won four times, three times in a row. If he wins, he’ll get to hand pick his opponent at Dominion.

I have no clue what to say about Tetsuya Naito. To quote my friend Jay, “it’s naito. he is an indescribable force of non-functional knees and the driest hair you've ever seen. he takes ten years to remove his entrance gear. he is naito”. You fucking know who Tetsuya Naito is.

This year, the main thing he’s done is defeating his mentor Keiji Muto at his retirement show in Febuary (njpwworld link) (vk link). He has a very hands off approach towards leading his group, sort of letting everyone figure their things out, which is why he didn’t really seem worried about his match against his stablemate Sanada in the New Japan Cup. You can imagine his surprise when Sanada not only defeated him but then declared that he would be leaving the faction, but more on that later. He also recently had a singles match against DOUKI, which was incredible.

Also members of LIJ are Shingo Takagi, winner of KOPW 2022 and former KOPW 2023 provisional champion, and also living legend. He made his name in Dragon Gate, a different japanese promotion you should also watch (I’m not at all being held at gunpoint by people whose names start with J), Bushi and Titan, who are both junior heavyweight luchadors I don’t know as much about as I should. They’re really good and they are both in BOSJ this year.

Bullet Club

Do I even need to explain. Don’t worry I will. 

Jay White lost his loser leaves Japan match to Hikuleo, but there was hope. He promised Gedo he would go to America and wrestle on Strong and right his wrongs. So obviously he immediately lost a loser leaves New Japan match to Eddie Kingston, barring him from ever wrestling in a New Japan ring ever again. After weeks of radio silence, he showed up on Dynamite, forming Bullet Culb Gold (2 bullet 2 club) with Juice Robinson and you all know what happened after that.

It’s spring which means it’s Bullet Club infighting season. After Jay’s loss, his long time rival David Finlay waltzed into the ring all goth and angry, cutting a promo about how the japanese fans never appreciated him and he is an outsider wherever he goes. If this didn’t make it clear to you that he was the new leader, don’t worry it wasn’t clear to me or El Phantasmo either. 

ELP was friends with Jay White, and made the rest of the Club agree that they will let Jay ride off into the sunset. A peaceful transfer of power is however impossible in Bullet Club, which is kind of a Stanford prison experiment for closeted gay men. It started bothering Phantasmo, that everyone in his faction so readily accepted Finlay as the new leader, like they weren’t fully behind Jay only a week ago. And anyone who questions the leader has to go.

Then came a months long game of gay betrayal chicken. Every postmatch, Phantasmo would assure Finlay that they were doing it for the club, refuse to too sweet the new leader, and the two slapping eachother in place of a tag. Meanwhile the faces in Hontai were increasingly more accepting towards ELP, Shota Umino even gave him one of his bracelets. The tension came to a boil at Sakura Genesis, where in a tag team match against Guerillas of Destiny and Master Wato, Phantasmo refused to commit the clubs usual heel antics and was brutally kicked out in response. Despite his close friendship with Taiji Ishimori and Kenta, both men readily betrayed him for David Finlay.

Phantasmo returned as a face to beat Finlay up after he defeated Tama Tonga for the NEVER belt, and the two have a title match set at Dominion.

As I mentioned Kenta and Taiji Ishimori are both members of Bullet Club, and Finlay recently recruited Clark Connors to be the clubs newest junior. He entered BOSJ alongside Taiji. Gedo, the head booker of NJPW is also a member of BC but he mainly stands ominously in the background and in kayfabe doesn’t have a massive role in storylines.

HOUSE OF TORTURE

I have to explain what’s going on here. Bullet Club has sort of a subesction? Called House of Torture. They’re only really part of BC in name only, and merch sales. Their thing is gratuitous cheating, if one HoT member has a match, the rest of them aren’t far behind making every match a handicap. Their members are EVIL, the leader of the group and former LIJ member, Yujiro Takahashi the incredible slow motion man whose joints creak audibly with every move, Dick Togo and SHO, who joined after betraying YOH and turning heel. SHO is actually pretty good but the presence of HoT at every match really ruins. Everything. I try not thinking about them.

JUST 5 GUYS

NOW baby. The reason I’m even writing this. The worst faction name in the history of pro wrestling. This faction is made of four ex-Suzuki-gun members and Sanada. Originally called Just Four Guys when Taka Michinoku, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and DOUKI announced they would be forming a faction at New Year’s Dash. Taka made some baseless claims about how they will defeat everyone and change the landscape of New Japan. He also came up with their new catchphrase “You already die”. Commentary and everyone else immediately dismissed them as a joke that will last maybe a couple of months. Oh how wrong we were.

Initially, the group did not have much success. Douki and Uncle Nobu lost to Catch 2/2 in their title match against them, Taka kept getting pinned and they failed to deliver on their promises to destroy everyone who stood in their way.

Taichi, as their only heavyweight, entered the New Japan Cup. His first match was against Sanada, a man he’s had some history with when he was still tagging with Zack Sabre Jr as Dangerous Tekkers. Sanada was a man not really renowned for anything, he hasn’t seen any singles success since joining LIJ by helping Tetsuya Naito cheat, except for a US title run cut short with no defenses due to an injury. He had blonde hair and the best or the worst move in pro wrestling history, depending on if you ask my friend Ryan or me. He never hits a moonsault. I don’t think Naito even knew who he was.

Safe to say, absolutely no one expected Sanada to defeat Taichi, much less his superior Naito. What we expected the least is for him to announce he is leaving LIJ for Just 4 Guys, which was now to be renamed JUST 5 GUYS. With dark hair, a clean shaven face and soon, new gear as well, Sanada really found his footing among this motley crew, the way he never managed in his seven years during LIJ. He went on to blaze through the competition in the Cup, winning it and subsequently defeating Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP world heavyweight championship. Absolutely no one has expected this to happen, ever. Yet somehow, it is also one of the coolest things to happen, ever.

His former faction members in LIJ mostly seemed to just sort of accept he left, except for Hiromu. He said while he understood Sanada’s reasons for leaving, he felt betrayed. Hiromu challenged Sanada to a match for the heavyweight championship. No junior heavyweight has been able to defeat the heavyweight champion in the history of the company, although this match is not the first of its kind. 

When Sanada defeated Hiromu, the returning Yota Tsuji walked out into the ring and beat him up, held up the LIJ fist and carried Hiromu out of the ring. We don’t really know if this means he’ll be joining the faction, but it’s very likely, and the two have a match set at Dominion.

Obviously other stuff has happened but this is already 4000 words long and I still have things to explain to you. 

Whats happening right now

As I’m writing this, the 30th Best of the Super Juniors is just beginning. BOSJ is a round robin style tournament, just like the G1 where wrestlers are divided into two blocks and everyone fights everyone in their block. Usually, the winners of the two blocks face off against each other to win the tournament, but this year, the winner of each block faces off against the person who came second in the other block, and the winners of those matches are the finalists. The winner has the right to challenge for the IWGP junior heavyweight championship at Dominion.

This year’s participants are as follows.

I think this is absolutely the perfect time to get int New Japan. The junior division is full of incredibly talented wrestlers who focus more on fast paced high flying style matches and every one of them is easy to watch and very entertaining. The entire tour will be broadcast with full english coverage.

How do I watch all of this

New Japan conveniently has a streaming service called NJPW world, membership is 999 yen per month. Dont forget to toggle it to english in the upper left corner! Most shows have english commentary and in my opinion it is pretty good commentary. Even if you don’t want to pay for the site, it has a schedule page (upper right corner) which even displays multiple timezones, and links to the card for every upcoming show.

The site also has some free content, for example the backstage comments after every show. Backstage comments are essentially short interviews with the wrestlers directly after every match, which makes for very fun adrenaline fuelled nonsense. Search backstage comment on the site, or check the njpwworld youtube channel. The videos always have subtitles, but it takes the transcribers time, subs are usually out a day after shows air.

PIRACY 

In case you’d like to sail the high seas, you have a couple of options.

Watching show’s live I would recommend watchprowrestling.org for. They upload the shows and you can watch them live as well with a bit of delay.

If you’re looking for older stuff, you should try searching on bilibili (dont be intimidated by the language barrier, its quite easy to use) or this specific user on vk.com.

MATCHES TO WATCH

Title changes and defenses:

Kazuchika Okada vs Jay White (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Master Wato vs El Desperado vs Taiji Ishimori (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Zack Sabre Jr vs Ren Narita FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Tomohiro Ishii FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Shota Umino FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Tom Lawlor FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Jeff Cobb FREE MATCH

Catch 2/2 vs YOH and Lio Rush (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Catch 2/2 vs Intergalactic Jetsetters (njpwworld) (unofficial link 2:35:08)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Lio Rush (njpwworld) 

Hiromu Takahashi vs YOH (njpwworld) (unofficial link2:48:13)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Robbie Eagles (njpwworld)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Kazuchika Okada vs Shingo Takagi (njpwworld)

Kazuchika Okada vs Sanada (njpwworld)

Sanada vs Hiromu Takahashi (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Aussie Open vs Bishamon (njpwworld)

Aussie Open vs TMDK (njpwworld)

Aussie Open vs Motor City Machine Guns vs the Dream Team (Okada & Tanahashi) (njpwworld ppv)

Kairi vs Mayu Iwatani  (njpwworld)

Kairi vs Tam Nakano (njpwworld)

Kairi vs Mercedes Moné (unofficial link)

Mercedes Moné vs Kairi vs Hazuki (njpwworld)

Mercedes Moné vs Mayu Iwatani (njpwworld)

Tama Tonga vs El Phantasmo (njpwworld)

Tama Tonga vs David Finlay (unofficial link)

Taichi vs Shingo Takagi (njpwworld) (unofficial link 1:44:00)

Strong Style vs Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Hikuelo vs Kenta (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Story matches

Tetsuya Naito vs Sanada (njpwworld)

Jay White vs Hikuleo (njpwworld)

Jay White vs Eddie Kingston (njpwworld) (unofficial link 1:04:00)

Bullet Club (David Finlay, Kenta, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo) vs Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga, Hikuleo & Jado) & Master Wato (njpwworld link)

just fun

Mark Davis vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Mark Davis vs EVIL (njpwworld)

Tetsuya Naito vs DOUKI (njpwworld) (unofficial link 2:11:32)

El Desperado vs Tomohiro Ishii (njpwworld ppv)

Shota Umino vs Tetsuya Naito (njpwworld)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Speedball Mike Bailey FREE SHOW

Taichi vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld)

#njpw #wrassle #yall this is nearly 5000 words please read it and watch njpw i worked so hard. for you to watch njpw. its so extensive #i explain literally everything

[martyrbat]

every few days i see hockey(?) liveblogs from you (I enjoy the enthusiasm even if i have no idea whats going on). What are the main teams you're following? is it just hockey?

this is so sweet, thank you for the support even if youre a little lost! it is just hockey! but i got plans to get into baseball when it starts in february (go pirates and cubs!) but a little too wordy vomit under the cut about my teams :)

my top team is pittsburgh penguins. for better or worse (and usually worse)—i will be there for every game and saying we're so back after one score when we're down by 5. i will defend them until my last breath, theyre the team ill always put on when having to choose between which ones are currently on. its not a hockey team, its sidney crosby building an ice family with his 5 and counting partners and being known for his banana bread and kind heart and fat ass while literally being the inspiration for over half the players in the nhl because hes been wonderful since he was a rookie. its 18 years of love and friendship despite the odds and how theyre so open in loving and supporting their teammates while hockey culture is filled with toxic masculinity. its the narrative loving and hating us, its sidney being gods most loveable and tortured lamb, its geno whos hilarious and dramatic with a heart of gold, its tanger and his greasy hair, its the babygirlifying grown men AND rooting for the old underdog who are in the 4th spot for the playoffs in their metro area despite our powerplay being a joke and our star players ages (late thirties isnt old by any account but for a high energy physical contact sport?? average retirement is 25-30 instead while 13 of our guys is 30+ and playing some of their best hockey)

after that i really like the leafs despite them being the leafs! theyre a blast to watch (sometimes) and theyre a big third period game, for better or worse. so its always exciting (sometimes unfortunately)! auston matthews is my top favorite from them, hes absolutely remarkable and doesnt get the credit and appreciation he deserves. but i also love the other players, mo, willy, and mitch all especially have a place in my heart :) third fav tosses around with who i can catch a game from most to be honest since a lot of times they overlap too much. im fond of the wild because their goaltender (flower!) was ours for forever. kraken is a blast and has lots of old penguin players too. avalanche is fun to root for when ive seen some games :) im less familiar with all of them but hockey is a fun sport to just throw yourself into and learn as you go so its never been an issue!!

teams i hate is anyone who won against my special guys in the last month tbh HFIFJ but i REALLY hate the chicago team, flyers, and vegas knights. chicago is.... a lot of bad shit off ice and has so many controversies—from their name and jerseys to players being abusive and cover-ups of sexual assault from coaches. just hate them and anytime i see those jerseys and remember theyre allowed while flower was threatened with a lawsuit if he wore his helmet (was designed specially by an indigenous artist to honor flower's indigenous wife and their kids during native american heritage month).... god i just get too pissed, theyre number one for who i despise. flyers are the biggest rivals to the penguins so it makes more sense (but also fuck the capitals and canes for personal grievances. also still mad at the canucks) vegas golden knights just annoys me so much with how theyre still calling themselves the misfits and i associate them with flower leaving so!!!

sorry for the little. word vomit lol but !!! if you ever want to get into hockey, please dm me! im no expert by any means and i know me throwing names out there is intimidating but i promise its fun once you get into it and you dont need to know much to just start watching! for me its great to have something to look forward to every week and watch something happen as it actually happens and liveblog—it kinda feels more like a loose community experience that i never got because of my health issues and disability! its also just fun to be dramatic (screaming its so over when scored on /celebrating a goal) over something thats kinda... not that important. (important for the players and fans ofc but it doesn't change anything in MY daily life outside of how i feel which is refreshing!) sports in general kinda encourage those big emotional responses and it can be great catharsis and silly if you let it be :) and the fan community here can be so welcoming if you just fully ignore twitter and the straight white angry men on it <3

come look at gifs of people calling a 36 year old babygirl and the excitement of a goal celly. come watch funny videos and clips and at how *our* captain wore tiny little shorts and a white shirt to get dunked in a water tank for charity. come and slowly learn how much shit the players put up with as rookies and have the happiness of hindsight at what happiness their futures would hold and why me saying 18 years of love and friendship despite the odds is so big because thats genuinely so rare (only 127 retired players in all of nhl history has accomplished this). come get emotional at poetry over getty images hockey pictures and relish in the delight that is finding art everywhere you go. come see people say that sidney needs to get knotted up and mpreg debates in who will abort that thang or not. take my hand and become a hockey fan, i prommy its not scary—not even during the 'who the fuck is this' stage <33

#oooohhh you want to be a fan of the pittsburgh penguins retirement home so bad...... #like im obviously biased for my reference and i became a fan at such a fun time (the west coast road trip that turnt the season around) #but even for a loss its so fun to be part of. genuinely one of my favorite things in the world is that ive set at least 2 hours every other #day to just sit down and engross myself in something i love and look forward to its genuinely one of my biggest acts of self care :3

[howlingday]

What do the girls of mortal kombat do when jaune just absolutely and utterly beats the hell out of Quan chi,shinnok,shao kahn,and oonaga

Jaune panted as his arms shook from the final blow. The Sorcerer, Quan Chi, was slain. The Conqueror, Shao Kahn, was dethroned. The Dragon King, Onaga, laid, in twain at the young knight's feet. Cheers roared around him and fell to his knees.

At his sides, Liu Kang and Kung Lao helped him to his feet, as Raiden, the Thunder God congratulated him on his victory, and promised he would hold true to his word, and send the warrior home.

It was here when Johnny Cage spoke up about holding a celebration, and after much pestering from Johnny, the paladin relinquished. A feast with music and dancing was held to celebrate Earthrealm's victory, as well as all others, over the tyranny of Outworld and the Netherrealm. Jaune Arc feasted like a hero, and was praised as one, though he felt no different than before. "The attributes of a true hero," replied the Thunder God.

Meanwhile, in Outworld, a seperate Tournament was held for a new ruler to replace Shao Kahn. Sindel, Skarlet, and Mileena sank into the shadows to plot and scheme, much to the chagrin of the forgotten princess, though all began savoring the moment the knight from the foreign realm would return.

At the same time, Jade removed herself from Kitana's side, and made her way to Outworld. There, she sought a companion much like the warrior she met at the Mortal Kombat tournament. The closest to him she found was a being who dominated the Outworld tournament, and seemed destined to become the new king. Their eyes met, and Jade knew she had found her prize.

In Earthrealm, Jaune Arc was engaged in a new competition. Though less deadly, it was all the more challenging as he put his wits against the greatest minds in the realms... and Johnny. Cards were tossed and dice were rolled, and Jaune had lost against everyone... including Johnny.

Sonya Blade chided Johnny as Jax laughed at the brotherly bond Jaune seemed to share with the Special Forces. Guns were no stranger to Jaune, nor were bionic implants, but energy-based weaponry like that of Sonya's arsenal were entirely new to him. He and Sonya took notes to share with Ruby when he returned.

Though Jaune felt great fear and trepidation entering the tournament, he steeled his heart and tempered his emotions into a righteous fury that won him out against the warring realms. It almost started a new war between the Lin Kuei, Shirai Ryu, and the Shaolin Monks for the new pupil, when Kitana spoke that the war would be pointless, as Jaune would be gone the next morning. The three factions shared a laugh, including the normally stoic Frost, and thanked Kitana for preventing further bloodshed. Liu Kang complimented Kitana, explaining that her beauty and her mind were second only to her fighting skill. Jaune nodded in agreement, though he was oblivious to her flushed face at the initial comment.

Tomorrow, Jaune Arc would return home as the same warrior he was before. However, perhaps this tournament was what he needed to improve his spirits in his endless war against the Grimm. He could stay here, in the company of his new allies. He pondered on this thought, then waved it away, because his friends needed him in Remnant. But should Earthrealm ever need assistance again, he would gladly answer the call.

#rwby #mortal kombat #jaune arc

[kvothbloodless]

The Dark is Waiting

The paladin raised their sword and light spilled from them, a wave of brightness rolling in every direction, illuminating every beautiful detail of the temple, cleansing the dark influence that had corrupted it.

"That is why you cannot win, why you will never win, Dark One. Darkness always flees the light." They stood there, panting with the effort, as the foul shadows that had survived began to crawl away. They ignored them, staring down the cloaked figure as it began to laugh in response. Not the mad cackle they had been taught to expect, but the genuine, perhaps exaggerated laughter of someone who has heard a mediocre joke.

They had become familiar with that laugh over the past decade, and barely suppressed a shiver at the sound. No. I've won. This was what he'd been building towards since our very first encounter. Without this, he's finished.

They knew they were right, but that didn't stop the feeling of dread in their gut. They pointed the sword at the abomination and prepared to question it, but it spoke first, holding up a gloved hand.

"Sorry, sorry. It's just. Heroes always say something like that. 'Light is stronger than the dark', 'dark can never survive the touch of light', etc. etc. I'm sure you've heard them all, likely while practicing in front of the mirror."

They flushed at the assessment, glad that they wore a helm. "Really? After all this time? Quips?"

The monstrosity lowered its hood to raise an eyebrow. "After all these years, this still surprises you?"

The Paladin grunted in annoyance, the light rolling off them brightening, and they knew it took him effort to avoid flinching back.

"Quip all you want. You've lost. Already the corruption you've spread is being purged. Soon-" they were cut off by another laugh.

"You still don’t get it, do you boy. All those sayings, they’re true enough I suppose. Dark cannot be where there is light. But you lack perspective.”

They shrugged. “Enlighten me.”

The creature groaned. “Ten years of trying to kill each other, and the most you’ve learned are puns. Spare me.” Between one heartbeat and the next, his demeanor shifts; the playful gentleman is gone and only a monster remains.

“How did you become fated, boy? A wandering old knight found your farm when you were 16, filled your head with song and stories?” The Paladin doesn’t react. Both of them already know this.

“Sixteen. You spent 16 years as a farmhand. Your predecessors would spit at the idea. Those who came before you trained from the age of eight to wield your power.”

Their eyes widened, and they were again thankful for the helm. Their old master hadn’t taught them much history, too focused on their mastery of the power they had been given. She’d lasted just long enough to pass on what they needed to survive, before the Dark One had ripped her soul out and eaten it in front of them.

“You can’t see it of course, but the kingdom is crumbling, as all things do. The King can no longer afford to house and train hundreds of children for 8 years. He can barely retain the loyalty of his knights. The alabaster walls you so generously repaired hadn’t been touched in a century.”

They kept any fear from their voice as they spoke “I appreciate the advice. I suppose my next goal will be to fix those mistakes. After killing you, of course.”

And again that damned laugh that made their spine go cold.

“To what end?”

Baffled, they replied, “What do you mean-”

“To. What. End. You will live at most another 60 years. By another 60 after that, all those fixed mistakes will be erased.

That is what you have failed to see. You see that where there is light, there is no darkness, and believe it is a victory. That the dark has fled.

The dark cannot flee. You cannot beat what does not fight. You cannot kill that which does not live.

Ah, I see you begin to understand.”

And they were. Gods and Goddesses, they were.

“Light is temporary. Light is a brief and fleeting refuge from the dark. Light must have its fuel. And all the while the light is burning, the dark is at its edges, waiting. The moment you falter, the moment you run out of fuel, you find the dark has never left.”

They stand there, the divine light pouring from every crack in their armor faltering for a moment, then continuing undiminished.

“You say that. But even without the training, without any help or guidance beyond what I could claw from before your grasp, you failed. You claim I cannot beat you. But apparently you cannot beat me. You say you cannot die, but I say that already this temple’s consecration is burning you from the inside. I begin to doubt your words.”

As the shadows began to pour off him in earnest, the damage becoming visible gave truth to their words.

And then that laugh, a final time. Choked with pain, but clear and confident.

“It is as I said. The dark is always waiting. I am just one of a hundred faces it has worn, and each has walked this world far more years than you will live. I do not believe we will meet again. But in a 120 years, when those alabaster walls are once again crumbling and your successor’s successor stands before me, fresh from the farm, speaking of light, I will remember you fondly.

Until then.”

#my writing #flash fiction #writing #sometimes divine inspiration strikes #entropy is cosmic horror

[crystalelemental]

Why do I do this to myself?  I see a new CS, I know full well what kind of nonsense it’s up to, and think “I bet I can clear this with F2P tools.”  You can, idiot!  You just can’t do it in under three hours!

Glacia is Fighting weak, and apparently has Wise Entry x3.  This is the funniest one yet.  Like, what an attempt to stop Knight Diantha and Knight Diantha exclusively.  Bruno is solid damage, but this fight is admittedly really scary.  AoE damage causes a lot of problems, and Maylene is...not tanky.  The only reason she didn’t drop was because of the special shield we get at the outset thanks to Condition 1.  Tech Kangaskhan had Leer and Stomp Aggravation, which was basically essential.  The goal was to take down the left to deny a move, then break down Glacia and flinch lock the side.  It worked out, but man, does Bruno really need to bring his speed buffs for this one.  Gauge use is high.

I am not messing with Phoebe.  I’m sorry, until Nanu gets a grid, I want no part of Dark-weak stages.  BP Karen kills herself with Double Edge, I am not about that life.  But like a moron, I think to myself sure, I can spend my best stall team here, what could go wrong?  Well good news, they won first try, though holy shit shoutouts to Phoebe for setting Ghost Zone prior to her sync.  That scared the hell out of me.

And now, let me tell you a tale.  A tale of how I came to no longer disrespect the condition of “increased special move damage.”

I tried initially to handle Drake using Grant.  Grant sucks, guys.  I’m sorry, he’s awful.  I brought Hop for his needed buffs, and Winona for a high flinch rate and weather.  Under optimal conditions, Grant could nuke Drake down in two syncs.  But he cannot beat the sides.  Like, could not.  And performing a denial on the left usually meant you couldn’t take out Drake in one sync, because Grant’s damage is so bad.  So I took like a dozen attempts and gave up.  It was not working.

With Hop freed, I thought hey, let’s try Kahili!  I bet she can do it!  And she could, in theory.  But it turns out, Hoenn CS has so many different movesets that it is almost impossible to keep track of what happens when.  The consistent aspect was my approach; Hop uses three trainer moves, Nanu hits Sidney with Screech once then left twice, Kahili uses two pecks on the right then trainer move.  This guaranteed the KO on the left (one screech meant if she didn’t get Super Preparation it failed), then we just had to all survive until she had second sync up.  Easy, right?

Wrong.  Dark Pulse at any point past the opening is an instant one-shot on Hop.  Even from full HP.  That thing dealt over 1k damage.  In one move!  And if the right side used Energy Ball, it was like 500!  Why does Sidney have eleventy fuckbillion damage points?!  That’s terrifying!  After many, many attempts, I eventually had to call it because we only survived to that point once in a blue moon, and then had to deal with the right side spamming Earthquake, which would kill Nanu instantly, and deal so much to the other two that Hop would die in one extra move, and Kahili wouldn’t be ready.  So I gave up here and went to the stall team you see on Drake.  But when I failed there and came back, after a few tries, we got the winning condition, which is Nanu had to hit flinch.  Please game.  Give Nanu a grid.  This week is Give Nanu a Grid week, please for the love of god, I want to handle Dark-weak stages offensively, and I want a reliable flinch.  Please.

Anyway, Drake.  Turns out, Skyla can do it really well!  Right up until the end.  When the left side spams Heat Wave.  And she can’t buff special defense.  And special moves are increased just enough to take out her allies, resulting in the last attack being a KO on her.  We lost by like 5HP, I swear, I’m still mad.  Without that condition, it was completely smooth sailing.  We had effectively no issues.

So, Wallace.  Initially, I wanted to beat him with Cheryl and offensive Koga.  But then I realized how difficult it actually is to set up Koga appropriately on an F2P budget, and gave up when the left side used Iron Tail.  Thankfully, it then occurred to me that hey, Wallace is AoE special moves.  And I still have a favored stall team that only works against special!  So we brought back this group, who won first try, and it wasn’t close.  I will say though, I like the approach this Wallace takes.  High BP moves due to inaccuracy, and instant +2 accuracy, is a pretty nasty combination.

So, we did it, on an F2P budget.  I am...calling this good.  I dunno, I just don’t want to do this again.  F2P clears are always possible, but it’s a matter of how much frustration you want to put into something like this.  And I don’t think I do.  I like showing off a bit, but we’ll call this good.  I want to try out other things next week.

#pokemon masters #champion stadium #f2p clear

[twisted-art-wounders]

YGO AU Leviathan Rising

The Pharoah has managed to call all three dragons to the duel will it be enough to stop Leviathan?

Chapter 25 Awaken Hope

Thanks to the magic card “Legend of Heart” all three of the legendary dragons regained their true forms as knights whose powers came form the light within the heart. Together Timeaus, Critas, and Hermos managed to shatter the three seals of Orichcalos and deal damage to Orichalcos Shunoros.

“Our bond of absolute!” Hermos called out

“The dark seal doesn't effect us!” Critas added.

“I'll repay you for this scar you gave me! And free my master form your control!” Timeaus pointed directly at Leviathan, the god sneered and chuckled.

“That's some big talk coming form three pitiful lizards! Especially you Timeaus! You really think you can defeat me?! You still can't stop Orichalcos Shunoros! And I have over 10,000 life points! You'll never take Yugi away form me!” Levi shouted glaring daggers at Timeaus.

Timeaus in turn returned the same amount of anger towards the Great Beast; his scared eye still shut but even with only one eye open his intent was still there.

“I promise to free my master form you're control! And together we will stop you form achieving your wish, Leviathan!”

--

Back in the void; Joey and Yugi sat together and waited, the anticipation and anxiety of hoping for the Pharaoh's victory over the great beast loomed all around them. As more bubbles of humans souls continued to drift down towards Leviathan's waiting eye to be eaten.

Yugi looked so worried so anxious about everything going on and Joey would see it. He'd known Yugi for a long time now and he knew when Yugi would get lost in his own head replaying his fears over and over again. This time he didn't just see it in his fidgeting movements, but he could see it in his apprentice too; claws growing form his nails and his eyes where flashing form purple to gold to red.

Joey needed to cut the tension before  things got out of hand. A distraction! Something to keep his mind off what was happening even for a little it so he asked.

“So what games did you play with him?”

Yugi blinked and looked at Joey now his mind wasn't quite there before but now he had his attention.

“S-Sorry?” Yugi stuttered a bit while speaking.

Joey decided to repeat himself gently, he knew Yugi responded better when he felt safe. “What games did you and uh Levi play together? In your soul I mean.”

“H-how did you know we play games?” Yugi asked a bit confused.

“Well you've told me before that inside of your soul is like a big room full of games and toys right? And I figured if you're stuck in your own soul you'd play games. And if this Levi guy is attached to you and you could speak to him you'd totally play games together am I right?” Joey smiled warmly to smaller boy who nodded and blushed again.

“Y-yeah we played all kinds of games! Puzzles and board games and of course duel monsters. In fact that's actually how I got him to give me some control before.” Yugi said while pushing one of his gold bangs form his cheek and tucking them behind his ear.

“Gain control?” Joey raised an eye brow.

“Yeah, kinda like how I let the other me have control over our body when we duel. But instead it's my solid soul self as the body. It's hard to explain...But basically I negotiated for about an hour of freedom if I won our duel.” Yugi turned and faced Joey now keeping his legs crossed.

“So why didn't you try and contact us if you had control?” Joey asked again trying to find some form of comfort in his bubble but it was hopeless.

“I wanted to but Raphael wasn't going to have that...plus I did promise Levi I wouldn't do that and I couldn't break my promise to him...not on purpose...” Yugi looked away sorrowfully.

“I was hoping maybe I could convince Levi to trust me enough to find someway to get him to change his mind about everything...but I think I just made things worse. He's obsessed with me now and he wont stop until he has me all to himself...”

“Well too bad he's gonna have to learn to share ya Yug. Guess your sweetness is just too good to share huh?” Joey winked trying to get Yugi to smile a bit, Yugi chuckled a little.

“Well Joey he's been fed nothing but negative emotions and pain since his inception. So I guess once he'd been shown kindness and compassion he liked it so much he wants more of it. Like trying ice cream for the fist time and finding it so delicious you want it all to yourself.” Yugi rubbed his stomach a little.

Joey licked his lips a bit and sighed “Oh man don't mention sweets! I could eat a mountain of ice cream right now...”

Yugi laughed a bit making Joey smile wider; he knew he could cheer him up.

“Well that's the thing you know? While a mountain of ice cream sounds great to eat alone, it's nothing compared to sharing it with your best buds! plus much less of stomach ache in the end.” Joey chuckled but Yugi's face lit up a little as if something had just clicked in his mind.

“Yeah...maybe just maybe...Levi needs to learn how to share...” Yugi was still lost in his own thoughts when a blinding light eliminated the area a large tare has opened up in the void.

“Wow! What is that?” Joey yelled as he Yugi and Kaiba started to glow and where soon pulled into the tear.

--

This was it; Timaeus the Knight of Destiny had destroyed Leviathan's ultimate monster Divine Serpent Geh, a feat no one would have believed was possible especially Leviathan. The god stood aghast as his monster was destroyed and duel was now over, he lost...

“N-no...it can't be!”

“It is Leviathan! You've lost our duel and now you're going to keep your end of the bargain and free everyone you've captured here!” Yami yelled out only making Leviathan chuckle under his breath and slowly lock eyes with him.

“YOU made a deal with Dartz not me. And we are far form done your highness.” Levi spat out that last word before lifting his right hand, the claws on his finger tips grew out an inch with a teal glow surrounding them. He turned around and quickly slashed at the air making a portal that floated before him.

He took one last look at the pharaoh before jumping into it. Yami could only hold out a hand and tried to yell for him to stop before the god was gone. He growled a little but his attention was pulled towards the three knights that stood in front of him.

“The beast may have gotten away but we can still bring back our masters!” Timeaus said looking at his fellow knights who nodded to him before lifting a free hand each. Their hands started to glow as their powers allowed them to make a connection into the open portal, it reached deep within the heart of the beast where the souls where kept.

“Wow what is that?” Joey asked as he saw his orb start to glow, Yugi blinked as he looked over and saw that Kaiba's orb was glowing as well.

“I don't know...” Yugi looked down and saw he too was glowing, it felt like he was being called for.

Slowly one by one Joey, Kaiba and Yugi were pulled form the void and sent back through the portal, back towards their respective bodies. One orb flew directly to Kaiba's body while the other made it's way to Joey's back on the helicopter.

All except for Yugi who upon reaching the portal face smacked right into it like a bug hitting a windshield. Yami Yugi's eyes widened as he rushed over to the portal yelling

“Yugi!”

Yugi shook his head and stood up just in time to see Yami Yugi on the other side of the portal, his heart skipped a beat as he felt tears well up in his eyes.

“Other Me!”

Yugi reached out but found the face of the portal was solid like glass. His hands pressed against the portal face as hard as he could but it wouldn't budge. Yami Yugi's face was puzzled he didn't understand he put his own hand to the portal face only to find it can go through uninterrupted.

Timeaus looked at fellow knights who returned the look to him, they knew what was happening but how could they explain it to him?

“Master...” Timeus started

“What? I don't-” Yami Yugi was about to finish his sentence only to hear a voice behind him speak.

“Yugi?” Tea had just woken up form being knocked out and saw Yami Yugi in front of the portal with Yugi on the other side. Tears filled her eyes as she stumbled to her feet and ran towards him, Yami Yugi had seconds to step aside and allow her through.

“Yugi! I can't believe it's really you!” she exclaimed and leap towards the portal that held her long lost friend in it, and just like Yami she was able to pass through it with no effort. With her arms wrapped around Yugi's upper torso she squeezed him tightly making it hard for Yugi to breathe.

“I...can't...breathe!” Yugi said breathlessly but still quite happy to see and feel her again. Just as soon as she was up so was Tristan who saw the sight and came over as well, followed by Joey who entered and room running towards his friends.

“Yugi! We did it we're back!” Joey yelled and pilled onto the group of 4that held onto the small frame of Yugi and where all partly inside the portal.

Mokuba and Kaiba had both woken up and where watching the event take place before noticing Yami Yugi stood on one side of the portal while the other Yugi was inside the portal still. Form what he understood Yami Yugi was only a soul and has to possess Yugi's body to have a physical form, but there was the other Yugi standing in the portal and not in his own body? What was going on?

Tea and the others pulled themselves away form Yugi who was happy to have some air again, but before he knew it Tea had taken his hand and pulled him towards the portal face again.

“Come on! What are you waiting for lets-” she stopped as she felt Yugi's hand slip form her own the moment she stepped outside of the portal. She looked back to see Yugi still standing inside the portal, she looked down at her hand again then reached for his hand again.

“Huh?” she took Yugi's hand again and tried to pull him but again his hand and body where stopped by the portal's face. Both Joey and Tristan looked confused as they watched Tea try again only for the same result. It was only then they noticed Yami Yugi on the outside of the portal and both had the same confused expression between each other.

“How come the Pharaoh is out here?” Tristan asked Joey who shrugged.

“This isn't adding up...He should have gone back to his body right?” he starched his head a bit before being startled by Tea's voice.

“Come on...this isn't funny! What's going on?” her voiced started to sound desperate now as he tried again and again, each time she failed more tears built up in her eyes as she looked at Yugi's hand in desperation.

Yami Yugi closed his eyes and looked away he already knew the answer but was scared to tell her.

Everyone else looked on as Tea continued only to have Yami put a hand on her shoulder and start to pull her away. She rolled her shoulder and snapped a glare at him with tears running down her face, her eyes widened as she finally really saw Yami Yugi was there at her side. Her lower lip quivered a bit as she finally realized what was happening but she didn't want to believe it.

“Stop it! Stop standing there and help me!” she yelled at Yami then looked at the others desperate for them to come and help her. She felt like everyone had gone crazy why weren't they helping her?

“Come on you guys! Just-” she started to speak only for a soft voice to call to her making her snap her head back towards the portal. Yugi stood looking at her his orchid eyes shining brightly but with sadness filling them.

“Tea, I... I can't leave...”

Those words broke her, like a glass shattering on the ground she felt all her emotions hit all at once, tears just couldn't stop streaming down her cheeks.

“Is that it? We came all this way...we lost so many people...you-you're right here and we can't set you free?” Tea was shaking and held herself tightly looking down before screaming out loud.

“WHY?! This isn't fair! You're right there! The Pharaoh won! Why can't we have you back!?”

Yugi once again answered ever so sadly.

“Yes...he did win...but I'm still bound to The Great Leviathan...I'm part of him now...I can't just walk out of my own soul...”

The realization fell on all of them now as the room grew heavier with emotion; they'd gone through so much fought so hard was this where it all ended? Yugi could feel the despair in the room he was growing stronger form it so that meant so was Levi...

Yugi gathered up all her courage and spoke loudly again.

“Come on you guys! You came all this way just to help me and the others! Just because I'm stuck doesn't mean we can give up! If we can stop Leviathan then I can be set free again and we can save everyone else! Don't give up!”

Tea wiped the tears form her eyes, her face was still red form yelling, but she started to clam down enough to really let Yugi's words and his smiling face give her hope again.

Joey gave a thumbs up “Yugi's right! With me and Kaiba back we can use our dragons to help put that scaly serpent in his place!”

“You're right Joey! Yugi I promise we'll take down Leviathan and set you free, no matter what!” Yami Yugi smiled towards his partner.

“Humh! I don't need any help taking down that over grown lizard. Just stay out of my way.” Kaiba barked making Joey fume a bit and made everyone else roll their eyes.

The rooms tone changed once again now with renewed hope, only to be interrupted by an earthquake. In that moment everyone's attention was now set to what was happening outside.

“What is that?” Joey yelled.

“Leviathan! He's not finished yet!” Yami Yugi growled

Kaiba wasted no time heading towards the exit followed by Mokuba, The others followed after him all except Yami who looked towards the door then back at Yugi.

Yugi looked back at him and said

“Hurry! I don't know what's planing but we have to stop him!”

#yugi #yugi mutou #yugi moto #joey wheeler #levi #leviathan #yami yugi #timeaus #leviathan rising #au #waking the dragons #yugioh #yugioh dm #fan fic

[katberk]

Headcannons for a Deaf Reader Part 2

💚Dream💚

💚This man would already know a lot of sign language

💚’Asking’ you if you need anything before he streams/records a video

💚He doesn’t mind if you hang out in his room with him (no face cam=cuddles)

💚Tea kettle laugh is definitely a must so once again your dream is to hear that laugh (I mean like who doesn’t!)

💚Getting into fights he sometimes forgets to sign, also when he does it’s probably to fast to even comprehend

💚George and Sapnap being the absolute best people

💚Drista days! (She really cares about you and you teach her sign everyday for a class)

💚Drista thinks that you’re the best thing to happen to her brother

💚Cuddles and snuggles and just soft Dream

💚Protecting you no matter what

💚Kisses before and after long streams (he lets you sit on his lap though so...A LOT OF KISSES FROM THIS MAN)

💚Patches always on your lap

💚Dream doesn’t really see any problem with signing all the time! He actually thinks it’s pretty fun

💚Thank god you can’t hear him scream at the top of his lungs when something doesn’t go his way

💚Kinda on the idea for you to participate in the war

💚Calming him down when he gets accused for staging his videos

💚This man is Robin hood! Stealing your heart the first time you two made eye contact

💚’Why do you think I’m Robin hood?!’

💚’Because you stole my heart! You’re the thief that I fell in love with silly!’

💚Love him like he loves you

💙GeorgeNotFound💙

💙This man is SUPER soft for you

💙Sleepy cuddles all day

💙Rarely fight with each other

💙If you do fight it’ll be for petty reasons

💙Like Dream he probably knows a lot of sign already, but he needs a refresher

💙His voice is already soft so hopefully one day you’ll be able to hear his voice

💙’I love you’s’ back and forth

💙Sometimes he gets confused with some stuff you teach him so it’s a pretty slow ‘class’

💙He talks to you about his colorblindness while you explain more about being deaf

💙quite mornings

💙He’s your little magic boy

💙Building that little mushroom house with you while the war was ablaze definitely happened

💙You guys probably argued a lot over which wood to use or where an item should go

💙He lost after you slammed yourself on him and started squeezing him to death

💙’I believe we should have dark oak Y/N!’

💙’I think spruce would look a lot better!’

💙’Spruce?! Are you insane!’

💙’Yes Gogy....now drop the dark oak planks’

💙”Help chat....please”

💙You won btw

♥️Sapnap♥️

♥️I can see Sapnap over exaggerating his hand movements

♥️Hugs and soft pecks on stream (If the relationship is out)

♥️During fights his hand movements definitely do something

♥️Apologizes super fast (comprehending it is again super difficult)

♥️I can see him brag to everyone about you (he’s just that kind of man)

♥️You want cuddles now?! Well grab those blankets and pillows because he’s gonna probably kill you with love

♥️Dream is to definitely hear this man’s voice (I don’t really have to explain why)

♥️Is he your knight in shinning amour?! YES

♥️Doesn’t care if you’re deaf or not

♥️Lilly would always be on your lap purring so you would feel the vibrations

♥️The man is soft, but strong

♥️He’ll protect you with his life

♥️Again kinda glad you can’t hear him scream in fear/anger when he’s doing a video/stream

♥️Everyone gets hate so comforting each other is very important in this relationship (I don’t understand why people hate on Sapnap?!)

♥️Sometimes he forgets that your deaf and whispers “I love you” or “good morning/good-night” (😂🥰)

♥️Jokes all around

♥️Shows you around the SMP with signs (yes, he would do that)

♥️*Welcome to the SMP Y/N*

♥️’Why are you writing on a sign?!’

♥️*I don’t wanna take my hands off the keyboard*

🌼Wilbur Soot🌼

🌼Already knows sign language

🌼 Still asks you to teach him

🌼Makes you feel his guitar when he plays so you can feel the vibrations

🌼Nice streams with jokes and laughs

🌼Definitely dreams to hear his singing

🌼Calm days

🌼Singing on stream

🌼Tommy being annoying to both of you

🌼Making a cute house where both of you would live with signs that have quotes

🌼Having a great time ‘talking to you’

🌼Walks on the beach where he describes the sounds to you 🥺

🌼Sad that you can’t hear music

🌼SOFT BOY

🌼Tries to make you as comfortable as he can

🌼You guys don’t really get into fights, but when you do it’s pretty hard (Don’t worry though)

🌼Glad to learn about this disability so he can help and understand more

🌼I can imagine you putting your fingers on his throat to feel the vibrations (closest thing to this man’s BEAUTIFUL voice)

🌼’What are you doing?!’

🌼‘’Listening’ to music’

🌼”Smart Y/N....smart”

💜Quackity💜

💜He’s pretty decent at sign

💜You can’t stop me from thinking that he’ll ask for you to sign bad words for him 🥺

💜I see him joking about it, but not to the extent of being hurtful

💜Chat loving you and believing that you two being together would be the end of the world

💜Chaos

💜Just like Wilbur I can see him putting your hand on his guitar to feel the vibrations

💜Fights would probably have one person speaking angry Spanish and the other doing some angry sign language (😂)

💜His laugh, voice, singing! (I would miss this so much)

💜Karl being your best friend (Karl is just so wholesome)

💜Watching Mexican Soap Operas

💜Him translating for his chat and signing to you at the same time (stupid sub titles)

💜Always seen with him and vice versa

💜Jackbox is chaotic (All of his videos with him are chaotic)

💜When you guys are together in Minecraft....no one’s safe

💜Late night talks

💜He believes that you’re the best thing that has ever happened to him

💜”Yo Mamacita!”

💜’You said something?!’

💜’oops! Sorry, no’

💜ME PERDONAS

Hope you guys enjoy! This took awhile lol



#minecraft #dream smp #deaf reader #x reader #dream x reader #georgenotfound x reader #sapnap x reader #wilbur x reader #quackity x reader #mcyt #dreamwastaken #georgenotfound #sapnap #wilbur soot #quackity

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Pining John Pt. 2

Please if you have any pining!John fics (like Sherlock accidentally hurts him like he did molly with the Christmas gift) I would absolutely love that!! Thank you so much😊(submitted by @thediamondwoman)

Anonymous said to inevitably-johnlocked: hi! New Johnlocker here, this is a fic rec ask, but do you have any fics where John is pining/suppressing/ignoring his feelings for Sherlock? Preferably after TRF, and without Mary in the way, and a slow burn one (sorry for all the preferences just one with pining John would be fine) and thank you for being a blog currently reading all your metas and they are amazing <3333

@i-love-books-and-so-do-you asked: hullo!! *waves* i’m in the mood for some pining john, so i was wondering if you have any good ones? preferably with a happy ending

and may i just say your blog is GORGEOUS like all your fic recs *chef’s kiss* thank you for the literal best johnlock content <33

——-

Hi Lovelies!!!

First of all, thank you for your love for my lists! LOL! These asks just keep coming in, so it looks like I’m overdue for another pining John list!!

That said I do actually have pining John fics, and enough to start a second list! As I re-read fics, I’m able to keep adding all the old ones I didn’t tag ages ago to lists, so that’s fun, hahah. Hope you guys don’t mind me just combining all the pining into one list, hahaah. I get more fics that way LOL!

Enjoy, and feel free to add your own, friends!

See also:

Pining John

Pining Sherlock || [MOBILE FRIENDLY VERSION]

Mutual Pining

Mutual Pining Pt 2

John’s Away (and Sherlock’s Not Okay)

Caffeine and Adaptive Programming by DemonicSymphony (E, 5,540 w., 1 Ch. || Androids AU / Bond Fusion || Android Sherlock, Coffee Shop AU, Pining John Hinted Bond / Q, Toplock) – Sherlock is a coffee shop android slowly falling for a regular customer. But he's not supposed to be able to feel emotions.

London Gods by a_different_equation (E, 11,092 w., 5 Ch. || American Gods Fusion || Magical Realism, Sex Magic, True Love, PTSD John, First Kiss/Time, Marathon Sex, Sensuality, Genie Sherlock, Human John, Internalized Homophobia, Star-Crossed Lovers, Soul Mates) – Sherlock Holmes is a jinn who does not grant wishes. However, when Dr. John H. Watson, recently returned from the war in Afghanistan, gets into his cab by "accident", it might not even need magic to grant both men their deepest wish: love.

There's So Much Labour Just in Breathing Lately by Susan (E, 12,708 w., 1 Ch. || Post-TRF / Mentions of S3 Events, Romance, Angst, Grief/Mourning, Grieving John, Mutual Pining, Meddling Mycroft, Therapy, Ambiguous Hopeful Ending, Infidelity) – The dreams he hated most – the ones that left him a sweating, shaking mess when he woke – were the ones in which Sherlock was just Sherlock. Laughing or drinking tea. Sitting across the table from him at Angelo’s eating pasta. Trailing his open hand behind him on the way to the bedroom. “C’mon, John. I’m about to have my way with you.”

On The Fence by BeautifulFiction (T, 13,770 w., 1 Ch. || Fencing, Case Fic, First Kiss, Insecure John, Pining John, Hug, Greg Finds Out) – The murder of the King's College fencing champion leads to revelations about Sherlock's past. Will it be the point that tips them from friends to lovers, or will they remain on the fence?

The Invocation of Saint Margaret by Ewebie (E, 15,831 w., 1 Ch. || POV John,  Crossing Timelines, Light Angst, Fluff, Series 3 John / Series 1 Sherlock, The Matchbox, Mushy Romance, First Time, Bisexual John, Pining John, Bottomlock, Love Confessions, Sensuality, Emotional Love Making, Snippets of Time) – When Sherlock Holmes opens the matchbox from The Sign of Three and John finds himself years in the past, back to that first dinner at Angelo's with a much younger Sherlock Holmes. Is he dreaming?

Division by MrsNoggin (E, 19,542 w., 11 Ch. || Coffee Shop AU || First Kiss/Time, Fluff, Barista Sherlock, Clingy Sherlock, POV John, John’s Limp, Bed Sharing, Fluff, Sleepy Cuddles, Sensuality, Touching, Virgin Sherlock, Insecure John) – John likes mysteries. And every morning he dips into the local independent coffee bar with his newspaper and ponders another... one Sherlock Holmes.

Insanity in the Middle by DotyTakeThisDown (E, 28,010 w., 8 Ch. || Equestrian Sports AU || Alternate First Meeting, POV John, Pining John, Bottomlock, Clueless Sherlock, First Kiss/Time, Passionate Kisses, Hand Holding, Caught Making Out, Bed Sharing, Spooning, Blow Job) – John is a world-class eventing rider with a gold medal and several four-star wins to his credit, but he's never won at Rolex. Sherlock is an up-and-coming rider taking the sport by storm.

Deck the Halls by itsalwaysyou_jw (T, 31,018 w., 24 Ch. || Advent Fic / Multiple One-Shots, Assorted Tags) – One Johnlock ficlet for every day leading up to Christmas. Who is ready for pining, first kisses, established Johnlock, and everything in between? This collection of stand-alone ficlets will have it all.

The Case of the Vanishing Pants by SwissMiss (E, 44,025 w., 6 Ch. || Five and Ones, Post-TRF, Case Fic, UST, Homophobia, Friends to Lovers, Pining John, Showering Together, Couple for a Case, Sherlock’s Bum, Fantasies, Jealous Sherlock) – Five times John and Sherlock lost their pants in the course of a case.

Only To Be With You by SinceWhenDoYouCallMe_John (M, 40,768 w., 4 Ch. || Black Mirror / Future AU || Character Death, Future Technology, Sickness/Cancer/Illness, Heavy Angst with Happy Ending, First Person POV John, Pining John, Heart-Wrenching Angst) – I tell myself that next time I’ll come near this same place again. Wait around for the mysterious stranger in his coat to dash past me, hot on the heels of a new criminal in black. I think this all the way back to my Exit, planning where I’ll wait and what I’ll say when I see him. Scheming on how to get his name. It’s only once I reach the Exit Point door that I realize two hours and forty-five minutes have passed, and I realize that this won’t be the last time I Visit. It won’t be the last time at all.

Inscrutable to the Last by DiscordantWords (M, 48,842 w., 6 Ch. || Post-TRF, Alternate S3, John’s Blog/S3 is a Story By John, Divorce, Marital Difficulties, John is a Mess, Emotional Reunion, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Grief / Mourning, Pining John, First Kiss, Adorably Clueless Sherlock, Nostalgia, Love Confessions, Eventual Happy Ending) – He wasn't Sherlock, he couldn't work miracles. All he'd ever been able to do was write about them.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse by SilentAuror (E, 50,635 w., 1 Ch. || Post-S4/S4 Divergence, Case Fic, For a Case / Reverse Fake-Relationship, Conferences, Marriage Equality, Travelling / New York, Pride, Homophobia, Bottomlock, Marriage Proposal, John POV, Sexuality, Love Confessions, Emotional Love Making, Public Hand Jobs, Blow Jobs, Passionate Kissing, Needy/Clingy Sherlock, Virgin Sherlock, Touching / Hand Holding, Bed Sharing, Little Spoon Sherlock, Intense Orgasms) – John and Sherlock go to New York to attend a conference run by the National Defence of Traditional Marriage Coalition in order to investigate the potential bombing of the annual Manhattan Pride parade. As the conference unfolds, John finds himself repulsed by the toxic ideology being presented, which becomes relevent to his own unacknowledged issues and his friendship with Sherlock...

Isosceles by SilentAuror (E, 56,609 w., 7 Ch. || Post-S4, POV John, Original Male Character / Sherlock Dates Another Man, Love Triangle, Jealous John, Virgin Sherlock, Sexual Coaching, Angst, Romance, Domesticity, Unrequited Feelings, Miscommunication, First Kiss/Time, For a Case, Friends With Benefits, Bottomlock, Love Confessions, Spooning) – After solving a case for a major celebrity, Sherlock gets himself asked out. When John asks, he discovers that Sherlock has no intention of going, at least not until John agrees to coach him through whatever he might need to know for his date...

White Knight by DiscordantWords (M, 69,840 w., 13 Ch. || S4 Compliant/Post S4, Marriage For a Case, Jealous John, Pining John, Janine / Sherlock Fake Relationship, Serial Killers, Case Fic, Undercover as a Couple, Weddings, John is a Mess, Misunderstandings, Wedding Planning, Jealousy, Drunkenness, Love Confessions, Angst with Happy Ending) – Green. The word green was used to convey a great many things. Illness. Envy. Inexperience. Standing there amidst Janine's chattering bridesmaids, watching Sherlock furrow his brow and study fabric swatches, watching him smile and simper and flirt, John thought it a remarkably apt colour choice. Because he felt quite sick to his stomach, he feared the source of said sickness might very well be jealousy, and he had absolutely no idea at all what to do about it. Or: Sherlock needs to fake a relationship for a case. He doesn't ask John.

Thermocline by J_Baillier (M, 83,557 w., 14 Ch. || Scuba Diving AU || Adventure, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Marine Archaeology, Asexual Sherlock, Horny John, Relationship Drama, Technical/Scuba/Wreck Diving, Slow Burn, Underwater /  Medical Peril, Doctor John, Hurt Sherlock, Anxious Sherlock, John POV, Protective John, Body Appreciation) – John "Five Oceans" Watson — technical dive instructor, dive accident analyst and weapon of mass seduction — meets recluse professor of maritime archaeology Holmes. As they head out to a remote archipelago off the coast of Guatemala to study and film its shipwrecks for a documentary, will sparks fly or fizzle out?

The Bang and the Clatter by earlgreytea68 (M, 137,049 w., 37 Ch. || PODFIC AVAILABLE || Baseball AU || Slow Burn / Dev. Rel., Possessive/Obsessive Sherlock, Jealous Sherlock, Mutual Pining, Body Appreciation, Depression, Closeted Sexuality, Family, Sherlock’s Mind Palace, Ogling Each Other, Anxious Sherlock, Panic Attack, Drunkenness, Talk of Forever, Big Feelings™) – Sherlock Holmes is a pitcher and John Watson is a catcher. No, no, no, it's a baseball AU. Part 1 of Baseball

Proving A Point by elldotsee & J_Baillier (E, 186,270 w., 28 Ch. || Me Before You Fusion || Medical Realism, Insecure John, Depression, Romance, Angst, POV John, Sherlock Whump, Serious Illness, Doctor John, Injury Recovery, Assisted Suicide, Sherlock’s Violin, Awkward Sexual Situations, Alcoholism, Drugs, Idiots in Love, Slow Burn, Body Image, Friends to Lovers, Hurt / Comfort, Pain, Big Brother Mycroft, Intimacy, Anxiety, PTSD, Family Issues, Psychological Trauma, John Whump, Case Fics, Loneliness, Pain) – Invalided home from Afghanistan, running out of funds and convinced that his surgical career is over, John Watson accepts a mysterious job offer to provide care and companionship for a disabled person. Little does he know how much hangs in the balance of his performance as he settles into his new life at Musgrave Court.

#steph replies #johnlock fic recs #pining john #pining idiots #my fic recs #submission #i-love-books-and-so-do-you #long post

[smilesthroughfandoms]

Every single episode of Ducktales (2017) Summarized in Roughly in One Sentence or Less!

Thank you Frank and team so much for introducing this family to a new generation of kids while remaining faithful to your source material. I hope you all enjoy my attempts at humor!

Woo-oo!: We don’t really know what’s going on yet but let’s do this!

Escape To/From Atlantis!: “Well I’m wearing a kilt McDuck! A kiiiilt!”

Daytrip of Doom!: They’re all siblings now and I love them all.

The Great Dime Chase!: “Shut up, everyone! I’ve done something brilliant!” (Also: Guess’s who my favorite character is?)

The Beagle Birthday Breakout!: Lena and Webby are best girls, fight me on this

Terror of the Terra-firmians!: This is the Spoopiest episode and also the most heartwarming.

The House of the Lucky Gander!: He’s an asshole but I love him.

The Infernal Internship of Mark Beaks!: He’s an even bigger asshole but I love him.

The Living Mummies of Toth-Ra!: I too would do anything for a good burrito.

The Impossible Summit of Mt. Neverrest!: “If I had a nickel for every person who cursed me with their dying breath, I’d be twice as rich as I already am.”

The Spear of Selene!: Of course Scrooge showed up freaking Zeus.

Beware the B.U.D.D.Y System!: The fusion of Iron Man and Sailor Moon I never knew I always wanted.

The Missing Links of Moorshire!: I always knew My Little Pony had a deadly fandom but this is ridiculous…

Mystery at McDuck Manor!: Took you long enough, Duckworth, welcome back.

Jaw$!: In this house, we love and respect Tiffany. (Also: Whoever came up with this episode title is the coolest person ever)

The Golden Lagoon of White Agony Plains!: Scrooge and Glomgold are in love with Allison Janney, and honestly, same.

Day of the Only Child!: Doofus is even creepier than Lil’ Gideon, and that is saying something.

From the Confidential Casefiles of Agent 22!: *hums James Bond theme intensely to myself*

Who is Gizmoduck?!: He’s not throwing away his shot! (I’m sorry, I had to)

The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck!: I love Louie in this episode, he’s such a mood.

Sky Pirates… in the Sky!: The Pirates of the Caribbean meets High School Music crossover starring evil Panchito I never knew I needed.

The Secret(s) of Castle McDuck!: We’re all Webby in this episode.

The Last Crash of the Sunchaser!: *ugly sobbing*

The Shadow War, Part 1: Night of De Spell!: Donald finally gets the love he deserves.

The Shadow War Part 2: Day of the Ducks!: *spoiler warning* How is she still alive?!?!?!

The Most Dangerous Game… Night!: David screaming “GAME NIGHT!” is the best damn thing I’ve ever seen.

The Depths of Cousin Fethry!: I love Cousin Spongebob!

The Ballad of Duke Baloney!: Dammit, Frank.

The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!: They’re boyfriends mates, sorry I don’t make the rules.

Storkules in Duckburg!: Storkules is the ultimate Donald Duck fan, we cannot comepete.

Last Christmas!: Somehow the Ghost of Christmas McBrayer is the least surprising thing I’ve ever seen in this show.

Whatever Happened to Della Duck?!: Oh, so that’s how she survived.

Treasure of the Found Lamp!: Dijin is the best character.

The Outlaw Scrooge McDuck!: Yee–and I cannot stress this enough–haw.

The 87 Cent Solution!: *wheezing* Dammit, Frank…

The Golden Spear!: Oh my god, they were roommates!

Nothing Can Stop Della Duck!: Dammit, Frank!

Raiders of the Doomsday Vault!: “So stand out, above the crowd! Even if I gotta shout it out loud!”

Friendship Hates Magic!: Webby gets two friends for the price of one seance!

The Dangerous Chemistry of Gandra Dee!: BEAKS SMASH… THAT LIKE BUTTON! (I’m so sorry)

The Duck Knight Returns!: *spoilers* The single best superhero, origin story-based episode ever! 

Whatever Happened To Donald Duck?!: *sobbing* He’s a good dad!

Happy Birthday, Doofus Drake!: This entire episode is creepier than most indie horror games.

A Nightmare on Killmotor Hill!: All the kids’ dreams are moods… except Huey’s, his dream can go jump off a microwave.

The Golden Army of Cornelius Coot!: Della is just pulling a Donald and adopting any and all kids within arms reach at this point.

Timephoon!: “I’m on it!” *gets struck by lightning* “I’ve immediately failed you!”

Glomtales!: I don’t know what’s more surprising, the fact that Louie won the bet or that they used Glomgold’s theme song takeover as the intro.

The Richest Duck in the World!: Drag them, Owlson. Drag them all…

Moonvasion! Part 1: *deep inhale* D A M M I T F R A N K!

Moonvasion! Part 2: Glomgold is my new favorite villain character.

Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchuck!: Huey and Violet fight for the right to be crowned the squarest of squares.

Quack Pack!: Radical dude! *insert cheesy 90s riff here*

Double-O Duck in You Only Crash Twice!: We were all simping SO HARD this episode don’t think I forgot!!!

The Lost Harp of Mervana!: Scrooge fails a vibe check.

Louie’s Eleven!:  Is it really a heist movie if something doesn’t go completely wrong?

Astro B.O.Y.D.!: So much ANIME!!!!!!

The Rumble for Ragnarok!: Eh, the MCU did it better

The Phantom and the Sorceress!: Seeing Gladstone suffer brings me an odd amount of joy

They Put a Moonlander on Earth!: They’re lesbians, Harold!

The Trickening!: Did… did no one really tell Launchpad how Halloween works?

The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades!: If I had a nickel for every time a cartoon version of Ponce de Leon died a gruesome death on screen, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice, right?

Let’s Get Dangerous!: *spoilers* THEY ARE A SUPERHERO FAMILY!!!!

Escape from the ImpossiBin!: Scrooge and Beakley are a little too excited to traumatize their family because of their trauma.

The Split Sword of Swanstantine!: Dewey and Webby literally walk in blind, Violet spices things up, and Huey unleashes the Rage™

New Gods on the Block!: The most accurate representation of Zeus ever.

The First Adventure!: Young Donald is one heck of a mood.

The Fight for Castle McDuck!: The sibling culture episode.

How Santa Stole Christmas!: Charles Dickens would approve, probably.

Beaks in the Shell!: Huey ships Fendra and Gyro needs to stop hiding in the closet.

The Lost Cargo of Kit Cloudkicker!: The Battle of Theatre Kids... in the Sky!

The Life and Crimes of Scrooge McDuck!: All the emotional weight was nearly overshadowed by One (1) attractive goth twink.

The Last Adventure Part 1; A Tale of Three Webbys!: They’re so cute! I love them!

The Last Adventure Part 2; The Lost Library of Isabella Finch!: Letting the kids on the plane is the single smartest decision Scrooge has ever made in his life.

The Last Adventure Part 3; Tale’s End!: *ugly, happy, heartbreaking sobbing* Woo-oo!

#ducktales 2017 #ducktales season 1 #ducktales season 2 #ducktales season 3 #dt 17 #ducktales spoilers #dt 17 spoilers #frank angones #don't repost #smilesthroughfandoms

[kotachii]

Fate

Pairing: Ace x Reader | Soulmate! Au

Synopsis: Soulmates had matching tattoos. When you met Ace, you were certain that he was your soulmate.

  Fate

  Raindrops slid down the glass, like melancholic tears from the sky. Your reflection only so faint on the window. Even if you were decorated with the finest jewelries from the top to bottom, tailor-made dress, most expensive heels nothing can fill the void in your heart.

       “It was fate that brought you to me otherwise I would of drowned”, he used to say.

Fate.

       It was a beautiful morning when you mindlessly strolled towards the river. Without a place to go, a reason to be, you found a man floating down the river. He was unconscious. With all of your force, you pulled him up on the riverbed and checked for pulse. He wasn’t dead. For the rest of the day, you camped out beside the man waiting for when he wakes up. He was quite peculiar, shirtless, no weapon, a hat that is completely soaked, the raven locks of hair framed his freckled face.

       It was around mid-afternoon when he finally woke up. When he did, he enveloped you in a hug.

       “Oh god, I thought I was dead! Thank you so much for saving me,” he said while you struggled to get out of the hug.

       You would later learn that his name was Ace, Portgas D. Ace a traveler looking for adventure. When he asked you to join him on his adventure, you accepted. He was charming, nice, stupid at times but he always made you smile. The two of you went on so many adventures.

       “Do you believe in dragons?”, Ace asked you.

       “Umm...not particularly,” you replied.

       “I heard that there is a dragon in Tamya forest, want to go check it out?”

       “Sure!” you said with a grin.

       On that day, you and Ace slaughtered one overgrown lizard and made more money than you could ever imagine selling the dragon parts in the nearby town.

       “(Name), look at all of this money! There is more than enough for a lifetime! We could go anywhere, be anyone we could have feasts and not care about what anyone thinks of us,” Ace said.

       “This is so great, let’s go eat something to celebrate,” you suggested.

       “No, first, let’s get you the most expensive dress there is and get rid of that plain and ugly peasant dress you are wearing now,” he replied with a grin.

       You laughed and said, “I can’t tell if that was supposed to be an insult.”

       “Just stating the facts,” he said and winked.

       In this world, you can’t just be anyone, there is a red string of fate that connects two people together. They are each other’s soulmates. The destined counterpart always bears a matching tattoo on their upper thigh.

       “This grilled octopus taste so good!”, Ace said.

       The two of you were in the Full Moon Festival at the Eastern Country. The streets were full of people, street food, performances and liveliness. The real reason you two came here was mostly for the fated technology called “fireworks”. They were described as on the best inventions of the Eastern Country, flowers that blooms in the sky.

       “Ace,” you called. He bent down slightly so that he was at your height, “there is so much people here, let’s go find a quieter spot so we can enjoy the fireworks,” you said.

       “Sure (Name), don’t get lost though,” he told you with a warm smile and you could feel his grip tighten on your hand.

       Together, you found a nice and quiet spot by the river and awaited for the fireworks to appear. You leaned your head on Ace’s shoulder and enjoyed the calm moment.

       “(Name), can you promise me to keep a secret?”, he asked you.

       “Of course,” you mumbled.

       Ace shifted from his position causing you to slightly fall backwards but he caught you and made you look into his eyes. The glow of the moon illuminated his face with an off white colour, the stars shone brightly in his eyes.

       “Then pinky promise me,” he said.

       You looked at him amused by the odd request but still obeyed anyways.

       “Alright, I thought it was about time I told you, do you remember that one time when we were in the Southern Valleys and we were chased by a whole lot of knights?”, he asked you.

       “Um...I think so. Yeah so what about it?”

       “Those people weren’t after us. They were after me. It’s because I am the child of the last King. The one that was overthrown,” he said grimly.

       “And…,” you continued.

       “That’s it,” Ace said and he saw the look of confusion on your face, “Aren’t you surprised? Or angry? My father was known as the corrupted King. People hated him.”

       “But that’s just him. You are you and that is all what matters to me,” you replied while staring right back into his eyes.

       You two slowly leaned in for a kiss, and thus the vow was sealed. You could feel the strings of fate tugging you and Ace together into a bind. You were no longer travelling companions but a couple.

       The fireworks erupted into the sky and created beautiful flowers of more variety than you’ve ever witnessed. Sparks of multicolours danced within the sky.

       “(Name), do you feel it? I think we are just meant to be,” Ace said when he pulled away from the kiss.

       You nodded with a smile and rested your head on the crook of his neck and enjoyed the moment. You wished the story could of ended here, it would of been perfect. But fate had other plans.

       You remember later that night when you showed him the tattoo. In this society, it was considered inappropriate to show another person your tattoo before you can feel the strings of fate pulling you two together. However, you are positive Ace is your soulmate, there is no other way. Though one should not underestimate fate.

       “How….how is that possible?”, you looked at him, not believing your eyes. Tears threatened to fall down and all of your senses felt numb.

       Ace didn’t say anything and stared at the ground. The tattoo on his leg, a fire pattern mocked you as it did not match with yours. Yours were flowing like water, not the abrupt flames that he had.  How could this be, you were positive it was him. You didn’t want to be anyone else but with him.

       “Screw this!”, Ace shouted as he stood up, “Why does some dumb tattoo get to decide who I spend the rest of my life with.”

       “It’s just fate,” you replied back depressed.

       “Screw fate! Then it is also fate that brought you to me, otherwise I would of drowned that day by the river.”

       “But Ace, fate gets to decide everything. It will keep on trying to separate us if we don’t listen to it. There is nothing we can do about it---”

       “Until that happens, I am not abandoning you. Fate can try to separate us but we just have to be faster, more clever. We can escape it. We don’t have to listen to it. Let’s run away and don’t look back. I don’t care who we have to betray, who we have to abandon, I’ll do anything just so we can be together.”

       Ace panted with harsh breath and anger seeped through his usually carefree face. You stood up and walked over to him and hugged him. You agreed with him, you don’t ever want to be with anyone else but him, he may not be your soulmate but he is the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. No regrets.

       Life went on as normal but you two traveled at a quicker pace than before. Ever since that night, you could feel your surrounding altering it. It was because fate wants to punish you for not listening to it. For example, you’ve lately noticed that you tend to lose each other easily. Even if it is just walking in a crowded city, for a brief moment, you will lose sight of him among the sea of people. That was what you feared the most. What happens if one day you can’t find him anymore.

       Also, more and more people that has been hunting for Ace. He is the son of the previous king and naturally, he brings a lot of enemies. But the appearances of conflicting parties has been more often than before. In fact, you even heard the name of the very man chasing after Ace. He would sometimes be in the front lines on this operation and there was one time when you and Ace almost didn’t escape. A piece of your dress was ripped off during the escape leaving your tattoo exposed. Ever since that day, a grim feeling has possessed you.

       “Hey, (Name), have you heard about the town of Ethelia?”, Ace looked at you.

       Today was a normal day, so you wished. No one chasing you, the sun was shining bright and life was pretty good.

       “Yeah, isn’t that the big city up north?”, you replied.

       “Let’s go there, today. I heard they have some nice ice cream shops,” Ace said.

       “What’s that?”, you asked confused.

       Ace chuckled, “I think it is something cold and sweet. That’s what I heard.”

       “Cold? Like ice? I hate ice,” you stated bluntly.

       “I don’t know but we will know once we go.”

       “Fine.”

       And little did you know, that day was the day fate finally won. On your journey there, you were stopped by the very group of men always after Ace. Lead by their leader, Akainu, there was nowhere left for you two to run. Ace was injured but he tried his best to stand up. He blocked you from the enemies.

       “Leave her alone, what you want is me. Not her!”, Ace shouted at them.

       “Move you little runt,” Akainu said, “Are you her soulmate or something? Last time I checked, you didn’t even have matching tattoos.”

       “That is none of your business!”, Ace shouted back.

       “Of course it is my business because that lovely lady behind you, she happens to share the same tattoo as me.”

       Shocked. Sadness. Unbelief. It all swallowed you like waves trying to suffocate you. On that day when your dress ripped, it must of been that day when he saw. And later you did witness for yourself when you saw the familiar tattoo on his leg, that disgusting man was your soulmate.

       It has been six months since then. It is also the day before the scheduled execution for Ace. He did nothing wrong but of course, Akainu was a powerful man and he is capable of pinning crimes onto Ace to make his execution justified. Ace is locked in a cell, underground, beneath this castle. You only saw him twice. The first time, he didn’t say anything and the second time, he told you to not come see him again. He didn’t want you to see him in this pitiful state. Chained to walls and wearing rags.

       “Wanna take one last look at lover-boy down there,” Akainu mocked you when he walked into the room. You can’t believe he is your soulmate.

       “There is no point.”

       “Glad to see you finally came to your senses. He is just a swine,” he huffed before walking out of your room again.

       There is no point because you’ve already planned the escape. It took you six months but you have acquired the keys to his cell, you also have found the gap flaw within the guarding system and an escape room.

       When the night turned dark, shadows swallowed the castle, chains were removed and the caged became free. Two lone figures silently escaped the castle and never looked back. They dissolved into the night and once again they cheated fate. No one noticed them until a couple hours late when they were long gone and never had they caught them again.

#ace x reader #portgas d ace x reader #one piece x reader #one piece ace x reader #Portgas D. Ace #portgas d ace #one piece ace #one piece

[adsosfraser]

The Stone’s Toll - Chapter Eight

Read on AO3

“Tante Jenny! There is a rider near the gate!” Fergus shouted through the front doorway and sprinted away.

His dirk was poised in his grasp, ready to protect against any danger. The mule sauntered through the archway and snorted when its rider pulled against the reins to stop. 

 Claire slid off the horse and slammed into Fergus almost immediately. She gathered his body up against hers into a hug and rested her chin over the small curls that were growing even longer than before atop his head. 

“M-milady?” He stared, dumbfounded at the sight. 

 “Oh my Fergus, I’ve missed you so much my darling boy.” She smoothed the hair at the back of his head. Her tears fell unbidden into the little brown waves and began to soak through his hair like a steady rainfall. Fergus didn’t mind, he was also soaking her dress with his own tears. 

 “You have been restored maman.” He stated, still shocked. It didn’t pass her notice what he called her.

 “I love you mon fils. Let me look at you.” She pulled back slightly from the embrace to hold onto his cheeks with her hands. She brushed the hair that was on his forehead back and noticed the subtle changes of the boy. The bones of his face were slightly more defined and he had lost more of the roundness associated with adolescence. She even spotted two hairs on his upper lip that were darker and thicker than the soft downy hairs of the rest of his face. It would be years until it would fully develop into a beard, but she could tell what a handsome man Fergus would be. He just needed to do some more growing.

 She slowly noticed the pallor of his face and the dark purple and red hues under his eyes. The way the flesh of his bone was practically nonexistent. He clearly wasn’t getting substantial meals these days. She placed the back of her hand against his forehead again and her heart skipped in fear at the blazing temperature of it. 

 “Dear God, Fergus, you're burning up.”

 “Do not worry Milady. It’s only the winter sickness.” 

 There was a bulk inside the sleeve of his shirt and she pulled back the fabric to see Jenny’s attempt to bandage him. A long deep gash split through the skin of his inner arm. The skin around the wound was red and swollen, and she could see the tell tale signs of infection from the puss oozing from the centre.

 “What on earth happened to you Fergus?” 

 “Tis simply a scratch, Milady, dinna fash.” He tried to mimic his Scottish family’s accent, and if Claire’s concern wasn’t in overdrive at the moment, she would have laughed at how cute the boy was. “Milord said I was a brave lad that day. And braw.” He beamed with confidence and pride.

 “I’m sure you were.” She hugged him tight into her side. “Come inside, I need to examine your wound.” 

 “Fergus what stray ha’ ye brought in today? We dinna need more mouths to feed, especially wi’ young Jamie in his sickbed now too.” Jenny called around the corner of the kitchen, fixated on chopping the potatoes for supper. 

 “Auntie, Milady has returned to us.” He beamed, leading her inside on his arm. “I always told you she would.”

 The knife Jenny was holding clattered onto the floor. She crossed herself as all the colour drained from her cheeks. 

 “Blessed Michael defend us.” Her hand clutched at her heart. 

 “Jenny- I.” What words could she possibly say now? “It’s so good seeing you again.” She stared down where Jenny was protectively holding her middle. “A fourth?” 

 “Thank Christ yer here. We dinna have time to waste.” And without a single inquiry over her return, Jenny dragged her up the stairs to the children’s room. 

 The children were all tucked tightly into their beds. Wee Kitty gurgled in her Bassinet. Her small breaths were interrupted by sharp whimpers of pain. Claire’s heart fell at the somber scene before her. 

 “Ian?”

 “That useless, floppy-haired nonce can bide.” 

 “Fergus go fetch some water to boil, and lots of clean cloth. Do we have deer or chicken bone to boil?”

 “Aye.”

 “Great, can you make a broth out of it with whatever vegetables we have? Oh and um-” Her brain paused, racking her memory for the proper words. “Garlic or Rosemary too. They won’t be able to stomach any solid foods for a while, so they’ll need to sip on broth to keep their strength up.” 

 Jenny left for the door but paused near Claire. She squeezed her shoulder. “I dinna ken how yer here, or where ye’ve been these past months, but I am glad to have ye back. Just know I’m going to have some choice words wi’ ye once they all heal.”

 “I’d imagine you would.” Claire smiled brightly and planted a kiss on her cheek. “I missed you too Jenny.”

 Once she had situated the children in the sick room. She brought Fergus along with her to inspect the gash across his arm. 

 “You never did tell me.” 

 “It was a bayonet, from a redcoat. I was holding wee Kitty and they thought she was a sack of grain so they lunged for me. I protected her maman.” He grinned with pride at the memory. 

 “Oh God, Fergus.” She embraced him, careful of his arm. “Though that never should have happened, I’m proud of what you did. My brave boy.” She patted his hair affectionately. “How long ago were they here?”

 “Less than a fortnight maman. A week after they were gone, les enfantés were struck with la petite vérole.” 

 “Those bastards!” They had not only brought fear, pain, and strife into her home- Jenny’s home, she corrected herself, they had brought their disease as well and the threat that carried. 

 She returned her attention to his arm and carefully cleansed it. Jenny had brought alcohol down for her and she told Fergus to be prepared for the sting. He assured her he wasn’t afraid. With the puss and dried blood removed, she carefully poked around the wound. Claire asked if any of it was painful but he immediately gritted out a non. It wasn’t healing on its own and she was concerned. She couldn’t stitch it up with the infection she assumed was waging a war inside it, so all she could do was wrap it in clean cloth every few hours with garlic paste. When Claire went up to the Laird’s room to check on Ian, her breath quickened and her hands became slick with sweat. Ian insisted he didn’t need any coddling and he didn’t want to see his wife up there until he was healthy. Jenny and her worked simultaneously together to heal young Jamie, Maggie, Kitty, their father, and Fergus. They were thankful for the snow to help bring down fever, but also cursed the season for bringing sickness in the first place. Ian sprang back instantly and returned to work on the farm the next morning. Maggie and Kitty were worried for the scars left by the smallpox lesions, but Claire assured them they wouldn’t be terrible. It had spared their faces, and only a small amount of red dots lined their arms. Jamie was proud to add more scars onto his list, and proud to say he fought the monster and won.

 When her nephew and niece's fevers began to break, Fergus took a turn for the worse. She had prayed that the smallpox would pass over him, but it came back with a vengeance. The infection from the bayonet wound and the virus coupled together, left Claire severely worried. 

 She worked tirelessly with Jenny by her side. Never once did she leave Fergus’ room and her sister had begun to worry about her as she simply stared blankly off towards the wall clutching the sickly boy’s hand in hers. Jenny had found her in such a state many times, as if her mind wandered off but she didn’t want to bring it up. When no one was looking, Claire would open the small case of vials and a syringe from her leather travel bag. Fergus didn’t notice the slight pinch of the needle to his rear and grumbled no complaint to her in his delirious state. The Reverend couldn’t smuggle much medicine, most of what he pilfered was what had been discarded behind the hospital in a dumpster. But this small amount of penicillin he had managed, made Claire want to reach out through the veil of time and kiss him in thanks. 

 The infection was healing nicely, but there was still the smallpox coursing through his body. With his body pulled between fighting two foreign enemies, his energy was quickly fading into a weakened state. 

 “Claire, it’s time. We have the certificate ready. I’ve sent the priest down from the kirk to-”

 “No! I will not give up on my son!” She yelled with such ferocity, that Jenny stumbled back a few steps. None of the anger seeped through to the limp hand of Fergus that she was holding, and she kissed it gently while her body shook with rage at the suggestion. 

 “If the lad doesna earn his last rites, dinna say it was my fault.” Jenny slipped away to care for her now rambunctious children, who had bounced back from their sickness immediately. 

 That night, she never slept, and took up her usual spot beside his bed. It would get worse, before it got better. Claire was elated at the signs that his fever would soon break. 

 “Would you like me to tell you a story?”

 “Mmm.” 

 “Well, there once was a brave knight. He found a faerie at the bottom of the standing stones, and knew right away that she was his. He loved her, and protected her fiercely. They were blessed with three beautiful brave children. Two angels, and one son of their heart.” Somehow it was easier for her to pretend she was speaking about someone else. “There was a great evil that the knight had to vanquish. It was-“ She pursed her lips in thought. “It was threatening their angel babies, so the knight had to leave his faerie and guard their daughters in heaven. The faerie returned to protect her son.”

 Fergus while laid fevered and asleep. Claire smoothed back the crusty hair from his forehead sticky with sweat. “Je t'aime mon fils. Être fort.  Je sais que vous êtes.” Fergus stirred slightly. 

 “Je t’aime maman.” His smile and voice were weak. 

 She kissed his forehead and he slumped back into his slumber. 

 Jenny stood in the doorway smiling, on the verge of tears at the sight. It felt such a personal moment between mother and son, that she didn’t want to interrupt. But when Claire lapsed into silence, she took a tentative step into the room. 

 “The worst of it is over.” Jenny said, both as statement and question. 

 “Yes.” 

 “Good, now we can talk sister.” 

 “Yes, I believe we should.” 

 “Why- why’d ye leave my brother? I’ve kent ye well over these past few years, and I’d

never imagine that you’d just give him up so willingly. Ye’d die wi’ him if it came to it.” 

 “He made me promise that- well we knew how Culloden would end up, everyone could 

feel how much of a defeat it would be. He forced me to-“ Her brain felt muddled, keeping track of all the half-truths in her mind. “board a boat to France for the safety of our child.” Tears sprung into her eyes at that admission and her hand extended from her stomach absentmindedly, as if she was holding her belly at six months, the furthest she had been in either of her pregnancies. “Red Jamie couldn’t escape the fate of Culloden but his wife the Stuart Witch could, no one would recognise me. But I- I came back for Fergus and you, Ian, your children. I know that’s what he would’ve wanted. I just wish I knew, if he really-”

 “Ye eejit he isna dead! That dunderheid is holed up in a cave somewhere on these lands, 

grieving ye terribly.”

 “He’s- he’s alive?” A lump formed in her throat. “I didn’t want to hope that-“ 

 “Why on earth would ye think he’s dead! If ye had written letters to us. To let us ken ye 

were safe, we’d tell your daft arse to come back home! But of course, ye couldna spare us that much mind.” 

 “I’m sorry Jenny, I wasn’t in a safe place to send you letters. A man wanted to marry 

me.” Yes, years ago. “After I lost- he put me in an asylum when I refused his advances. I had to escape him after I lost-“ Jenny’s expression softened and she nodded, not in understanding, but in acceptance of what she had done. It didn’t do well to dwell on the past for too long. 

 “Well ye seem dead on yer feet, I’ll go take out all this anger on Ian.” Claire chuckled 

and then kissed Jenny’s cheek. “Wi’ him out and healthy again, the Laird’s room will be free enough but I dinna want ye to be lying in that sickbed so soon.” 

 “It’s yours now.” 

 “Ye ken Jamie and ye will always be Laird and Lady to the tenants. And no, Ian and I

occupy the same room we have fer years. I just stuck him in the Laird’s room because I was irritated at him groaning and shivering in our bed.” 

 Claire laughed, but felt bad for poor Ian who had unknowingly become the subject of 

Jenny’s ire these past few days. 

 She was in the courtyard, while Jamie made his way back to Lallybroch. A deer slung over his shoulders and buckets of water weighed down his arms. He took in the sight of his wife and nearly fainted. The buckets he had carried dropped to the ground with a snap and rolled across the yard. The stiff deer slumped to the ground over the mud. 

 It was the first word he had croaked in months, “Sassenach.” The sound didn’t reach her ears but she could read off his lips the endearment she knew all too well.

 Even with Jenny’s confirmation, she couldn’t believe the apparition before her. But could she have imagined him this way? Haggard and weary from months living in a cave. A bonnet slanted across his red hair to hide the bold colour. His beard had grown considerably from the scruff she was so familiar with. But the thing she couldn’t possibly imagine in her head was the haunted look on his face. The dark circles under his eyes and the gaunt nature of his face echoed his grief.  

 “No I’m. This isn’t- the after effects of the electroshock therapy” she mumbled. 

 She felt woozy, and her head was full of fluffy clouds. She regained her balance swiftly but stared unwavering at Jamie. His heart chilled, as if she was staring straight through his soul, but couldn’t see it. 

 “Claire I dinna ken what ye’re saying lass.”

 She gasped at his hand on her forearm. “You’re real.” 

 “And so are ye. Christ when Jenny told me to get my hide back here, I dinna ken it was really true.” She fell into him and he wrapped his strong arms across her back. 

 “Oh, God. Jamie. Oh God.” Claire’s breath rattled onto his cheek. “Just hold me.”

 She trembled in his arms, months of exhaustion, fear, pain, and heartache expressing themselves. 

 “I’m sorry Jamie. I’m so sorry. I - the stones.” 

 “What’re you apologising for lass?” He choked out. “Claire -the bairn?” She couldn’t meet his eyes. 

 She felt the need to run and hide as she did in the arbor of Fontainebleau. She didn’t want to face what was before her, what was behind. How could she let Jamie forgive her when she couldn’t herself? As if she were putting a sheet of metal between her and her heart, she suddenly felt nothing. 

 “She’s dead.” She said simply, staring at a chipped stone on the ground. 

 This time Jamie did collapse, and took Claire tumbling down to his lap. They held tight to one another, and Claire was the one to comfort him now. His tears soaked the wool of her bodice as he rocked them back and forth on the steps. When his eyes couldn’t produce anymore tears, he slowly peeked out of his shell. Jamie rose slowly from his spot on the steps when the sun crawled below the horizon and carried her with him to the Laird’s room. 

 Claire stripped him down to his sark and was prepared to ask for water, when she saw someone had already completed the task. She resumed her task and shed his final layer, exposing his naked body. It was filthy and covered in scratches, but beautiful to her all the same. When she began to direct him into the washing tub, he objected and began to take off her clothes with a practiced hand. As he reached for the final string of her shift, she moved his hand away. 

 “No, tonight I bathe you.” 

 She pushed him down into the small tub and his knees poked out of the water. The ewer sat on the wooden table near the tub, and she plucked it up with her fingers. She grabbed a sponge as well, and began her ministrations, leaning over the lip of the tub to reach him. She grabbed some scissors as well, trimming the beard that had grown over the months in the woods. 

 “Can ye ever forgive me?” A dejected Jamie asked. 

 “For what?” She knew, but she wanted to hear the words coming from him. 

 “For sending you through those stones, for breaking our family.” 

 “I already have.” 

 “What did she- Was she like her sister?” 

 “I don’t know.” Claire worried at her lip. “I- um. I lost her when I went through the stones. I only know she was a girl, because I felt her presence when I came back. She said she loves us.” She began to scrub harder against Jamie’s arm with the sponge to distract herself. 

 The pang in his chest nearly brought his head below surface of the water. All the air in his lungs fled and he was left with nothing. He stopped Claire’s arm and brought her hand to his, squeezing it tight. 

 “Will you ever forgive me?” 

 “Fer what lass?”

 “Not being strong enough. Not protecting her in the one way I could. Not returning to you soon enough.” 

 “I’ve already forgiven ye for anything ye could ever possibly do. And yer not to blame for any of those.” 

 “Then you’re not either. If there is, it’s God for being a cruel bastard. You say you can forgive me for anything, but I’m not sure I can give you what we want anymore.” 

 “What I want is you by my side. Come in the water Sassenach, let me hold my wife. Let me carry this burden wi’ ye.” 

 With the dim light of the fire and candles dotting the room, she was confident he wouldn’t be able to see her body fully. She slugged out of her shift, weighed down by weeks of exhaustion and crawled in between his legs. Water splashed out of the top of the tub, but they paid it no mind. Jamie repeated the ministrations Claire had provided for him, but even more gently on her smooth skin. When she began to doze off tucked safely between his thighs in the water, they were both wrinkly like prunes. Jamie carried her body wrapped tight around his, and placed her on the fresh sheets. 

 He held her naked on their bed. The smooth skin of her back was pressed against the soft tufts of hair on his chest. They needed to talk, but for now, neither wanted to leave the warm bubble of each other’s arms. Jamie was still processing what it all meant, and so was Claire, even after months of enduring it herself. No words could repair the loss they both felt, and the heartache of time spent apart. It would just feel like a hollow repetition of events after their first born. But tonight they would just simply be. Claire looked down at her sleeping husband. For the first time in months, she felt safe. She lightly traced the skin of his face, from temple to cheek, and saw the familiar smile ghost his peaceful rest. She spread a grin in response, the first one that reached her eyes in months.

#outlander fanfiction #adsofraser writing #jamie x claire #jamie fraser #craigh na dun #claire fraser #frank randall #canon divergence #claire beauchamp #fergus fraser #jenny murray #lallybroch #outlander fanfic

[honestlyandrogynousnightmare]

magic reveal

So ive been thinking about the magic reveal we did get and also the different magic reveals we COULD have gotten so i thought id project all my thoughts into another massive tumblr rant:

personally, i dont think the magic reveal was bad at all. yes, i wouldve done it slightly differently, i think it was done way too late in the show and left little time to explore how that reveal affected merlin and arthurs relationship, and obviously we never actually ended up seeing if magic was legalised and all. but i dont hate the magic reveal we got. the key part i really love is that it was done on Merlins own terms, he could have just lied, but instead he finally told Arthur the truth and i think that there were many reasons for that decision being made. 

firstly, Merlin definitely felt guilty and blamed himself for Arthur being stabbed, he must have at least partly blamed himself because everything he did directly led to Mordred turning into a little shit. Part of him might have just felt as if he owes Arthur that explanation yknow. secondly, i feel like by that point he was tired of lying in general, he needed to get that secret off his chest. those two things combined with the fact that Arthur was dying may have pushed him to telling the truth,  because deep down he did know that it was probably the last chance to tell Arthur the truth. 

i liked how they presented Arthurs reaction too, the clear message there was that Athur was angry at the lying, thats the part he saw as betrayal, not the magic itself. he didnt want to believe that Merlin was a liar, when he always saw him as the one person that was entirely honest with him. hell, he still trusted him enough to send him back to Camelot and Gwen so he knew Merlin wasnt evil. If the writers actually did a good job at developing Arthurs character, i feel like itd be more obvious that Arthurs stance on magic was different from his fathers, but yknow bbc and their shoddy writing. I love that moment of acceptance as well, when he tells Merlin that he doesnt want him to change. He doesnt even now about all the things Merlin sacrificed and lost in order to protect Arthur and Camelot but he still accepts him. I think that when he first fund out it was all like “holy crap i dont even know him” but after spending a few hours with Merlin he realises that its still the exact same person he knew the week before. 

anddddd as much as i like the way they did that magic reveal, the ending of the show left me with no closure and a lot of tears. my ideal magic reveal wouldve happened earlier, either at the start of season 5 or near the end of season 4. It would give us a chance to see them talk it out, and god we know that there would be arguing, and if arthur wasnt dying he would probbaly be shouting but the key part here is that arthur wouldnt hurt merlin. i think he culd consider sending him away if his father was still king just to protect him but we all know merlin would reply with “no <3″. but since i cant see the reveal happening when uther is king, i will be ignoring that scenario. and again, theres many ways this could play out.

the one way that ive always found interesting was arthur figuring it out on his own, because he may be an idiot, but hes not stupid. *if you like this sort of thing read “so close and im halfway to it  on ao3, its a merthur fic and the magic reveal in that one makes me cry so much and the fic is so well written* I feel like at one point, he would just put the pieces together, and it would all make so much sense to him? Merlins random disappearances and scars would make sense, the luck he had when it came to fights, Merlins weird reactions when someone mentioned magic, how on earth merlin of all people managed to survive every battle and fight arthur was in when some of his best knights didnt. 

then theres the very cliche “merlin using magic mid battle to save everyone” reveal. because its mid battle, i really cant picture them talking it out there lol,  i picture a lot of ignoring but also if other people saw him using magic, we all know the first thing arthur would do is give the knights a good old “if you kill him i will kill you and then myself”, it wouldnt be until later that they would actually talk. 

and then like the canon magic reveal, theres Merlin doing it on his own terms. i personally really like thhis one because it gives him so much more control over the situation and over his words. *another fic rec here if you like this sorta thing, its called “to the world that let you by” and its really beautiful and made me cry at 1am so there you go, and as you guessed it, its another merthur*. i love this reveal because it gives merlin a chance to explain, and arthur a chance to listen and try to understand. 

now there are loads of different sub categories that could go into those, like Arthur finding merlin creating butterflies out of thin air lol, but i wont go into those. whatever reveal would happen, i feel like “the talk” after would usually end up in a similar way. Arthurs reaction would be similar to what we got in the canon reveal, because the actual magic isnt what would hurt most.  it would be the lies. Arthur has been lied to and betrayed by so many people you cant really expect him not to react badly to being lied to. the magic sure would confuse him and put him in a difficult position, because you have to keep in mind that his entire life he has been told that magic is pure evil, and to him, merlin is the polar opposite of that. i think it would just make him question everything, like does he even know this man? has he won any of his battles or has it always been merlin? why is he in camelot? why would a sorcerer be serving him? but he wouldnt hurt him. he wouldnt even consider that imo, sure, he will demand an explanation, but he wouldnt actually thin about hurting him. 

and merlin would understand why hes angry about the lying, that much is obvious. and he would be reluctant to tell arthur about the things that were happening behind his back all those years, but he would be honest. and go that conversation would be hard for both of them, i cant really imagine them having it without a lot of crying, shouting and even more wine tbh. arthur isnt good at listening which is why this would be so hard for him too, but merlin has to be honest, completely honest with arthur for the first time in his life and thatd be difficult. 

and i think merlin would handle arthurs reactions well, even if arthur decided to lose his temper lol. but i can still imagine him being a bit bitter if arthur judged his choices and stuff when it came to poisoning morgana and freeing the dragon, asking what on earth HE would do in that situation. where the only choices he sees are bad ones, and he has to pick the one thats least evil. 

arthur would probably be most pissed off at the thing about his mother tbh, because merlin outright lied there, usually its just deflecting but he made that deliberate choice to lie. but i really do think he would understand all of this, while not every choice merlin did was good, he did it with good intention. 

and then arthur would remove the ban on magic and they would kiss and get married amd live happily ever aft-

thanks bbc.

anyway if you want any more magic reveal fics (or links to the ones i mentioned, ao3 can be bloody annoying sometimes) feel free to comment or message me or anything, i have a couple more in my bookmarks. 

thanks for reading this rant, scuse the bad grammar, id love to hear your thoughts and opinions on this and magic reveals in general so feel free to comment! have a great day<3

#merlin #bbc merlin #merlin magic reveal #magic #magic reveal #arthur pendragon #emrys #once and future king #merthur #merlin x arthur #arthur x merlin #rant #bbc arthur #bbc shows #lancelot #bbc lancelot #gwaine #sir gwaine #bbc gwaine #im tired #gwen #bbc gwen #morgana #morgana deserved better #merlin deserved better #mordred #knights of the round table #sir leon #bradley james #colin morgan