#in issue 12 Silver says he is staying in the past as he does not think the real threat is gone; aka actively sticking around by choice- | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sapphire374 · 3 years

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Soy Sol: Chapter 10 (Hopeful Curiosity)

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Ch.1 / Ch.2 / Ch.3 / Ch.4 / Ch.5 / Ch.6 / Ch.7 / Ch.8 / Ch.9 / Ch.11 / Ch.12 / Ch.13 / Ch.14 / Ch.15 / Ch.16 / Ch.17

The gang is huddled around each other at the Jam and Roller rink. Ámbar proceeds to glance over her clipboard that carries the original sign-up sheet. “So, Ámbar, do we have enough members to make up a team for the competition.” Ámbar quickly looks Luna in the eyes and decides to call out the list of names. “The official Jam and Roller team members are Luna, Simon, Matteo, Gaston, Ramiro, Jim, Delfi, Pedro and Jazmin.” Everyone starts counting with their fingers but before anyone gets the chance to start counting, Gaston and Nina both yell out “that’s nine members, we’re missing one.” Luna rollers towards Ámbar. “Ámbar you’re not on the list. Are you going to join us? Please, pretty please join us. Whether you would like to admit it or not, you’re one of the best roller skaters out there and we need you.”

Ámbar takes a big gulp of air, processing everything that’s going on. Luna’s pout with her watery eyes has made Ámbar reconsider her decision. Before she always wanted the worst for Luna, but the past few years has made them become inseparable. She now views Luna as her younger sister plus being the manager of the gang’s favorite place has made her feel as everyone’s bigger sister, being the mature one. Ambar gives in. “Fine, I’ll do it. Especially since you guys need me so much. You guys aren’t wrong though, I am the best,” Ámbar jokes. The whole gang cheers, everyone jumps up and down and excitement enters the room.

Everyone is huddled as they all set their hands out and chant, “ready! One, two, three Jam and Roller!” Juliana enters through the chaos of excitement. “Opa opa! Seems like the group has never separated and feels closer than ever.” The gang all turn around facing her, their faces show signs of shock. No one was expecting this except one certain person in the room. “Juliana! You’re back! Wait how did you know we got the team back together for a competition?” Simón asks. “A little birdy called me and said that a certain team needed my help so I came as quick as I can.” The whole gang starts whispering, wondering who was it that reached out to her. Luna gives Ámbar and Simón a little smirk.

“So have you guys chosen which song you all are going to skate to?” Juliana questions. “Nope,” Ámbar answers. That’s when the idea hits Simón. “I have an idea! Maybe not only the team gets back together for this competition, but also the band? What do you guys say, Nico, Pedro?” Simón suggests. Nico and Pedro look at each other in disbelief and with a loss of words. “Uhh yes of course! You have no idea how long I’ve missed playing on the drums,” Pedro states. “And you guys have no idea how long I’ve missed collaborating the three of us together again,” Nico chimes in. “I guess that settles it. The band is back!!” Simón announces. The room is filled with so many emotions as everyone is so excited about what’s to come next. True nostalgia and memories really do start coming back to them since working together and competing to save their beloved place truly brings them back to old times. Just like how Matteo and Luna wouldn’t stop stealing glances at each other through the midst of it all.

This competition will be fierce including what’s called two stages. The first stage is the basic entry in which they record a video of their performance, the second stage is where they have the official competition. They first though have to make it through the first stage. For the next few days, Juliana tries to prepare them with some exercises since it has been years some of them roller skated. Then they gradually learned again how to do some simple routines as pairs then as groups. Before the gang knew it, in a week they have mastered all the skills and are ready to practice the actual choreography for the performance. Luna and Matteo still haven’t talked much though, yet they’re constant staring proves to show that they still miss and love each other.

Monday Evening at the Jam and Roller (after about a week and a half)

Juliana tells the gang that they can rest, and training has just finished. The group has finally mastered the double turns alignment but are struggling with air spins. Matteo heads over to Luna like old times, while she’s drinking water near the rails. “What’s the matter Chica Delivery? Has all the training finally tired you out?” Matteo flirtatiously says. Luna tries to hide her blushed cheeks and smirks at his comment. “Chico fresa you know that can never happen. My internal adrenaline is endless.” Luna and Matteo begin to laugh. Luna stops once she remembers why she was trying to avoid him for the longest. “Matteo don’t think I forgot everything that has happened.” She begins to stare at the floor, holding back a tear. “I’ve already apologized, what more do you want?” Matteo begs.

“You know that’s not the issue. I just feel like I can’t trust you anymore. You promised me you wouldn’t lie to me anymore and that’s exactly what you did. I don’t want our relationship to be built out of lies. I’d rather stay single instead of having someone stab me in the back unaware.” Matteo widely opens his eyes, it feels like someone has sucker punched him in the gut. For a long time, Matteo has tried to prove to Luna he has changed and does truly care about her, how can one little lie bring all the pain back. “Luna, you know I would never want to break your heart or ‘stab you in the back.’ I just lied about this because I knew you would get jealous of me hanging out with Viviana.” Luna gasps in astonishment. “Jealous! Now that’s a joke right there. For me to be jealous of her, that would mean I would want to be like her or want something she has but that’s not the case at all. I’m happy with the life I live and don’t want to change it. I just don’t like how close she’s been with you. You know I’m okay with you having female friends, but not when one tries to kiss you when I’m not around and constantly wrapping her arms around you. Even the news outlets think you broke up with me and dating her because of how much ‘quality time’ you guys spend together.”

Matteo responds with, “You know how much I miss it when you call me Chico Fresa and miss these fun bantering moments. I would never fall for her because you’re my one true love. You may not be jealous of her but you’re jealous of her getting to spend time with me. Is that it? You want to hang out more with me? How do I make it up to you?” Luna shakes her head and says, “You just don’t get it and it’s okay. I don’t feel like arguing today.” Luna rollers away and Matteo covers his face as he lays his elbows on the silver polished rails. Gastón heads to him and pats his shoulder. “She still hasn’t forgiven you?” Matteo shakes his head in response. His phone begins to ring in the pocket of his jeans. He lifts himself up and pulls it out. “Hello…. yes……. Already in a week? ..... ah I see, okay that seems appropriate I guess…...tomorrow okay, I’ll see you then.” Matteo hangs up and places his phone in his pocket again. “Who was that?” Gastón questions. “It’s my manager. They’re planning to release my music video with Viviana at the end of this week. Usually, we don’t release music videos this early but apparently she demanded for it since it would look good and perfect for this summer. Well to prepare for the release, they want me to perform with her in a live concert.” Matteo’s expression shows his stress and frustration. “But what about the Jam and Roller training?” Gastón asks him. “I’ll try to practice for the concert before the Jam and Roller training starts every day and the concert is on Saturday so that day I guess I’ll just miss training for that one day. I have no other choice.”

Gastón keeps thinking and doesn’t say a word till an amazing idea slips in his head. “I just got it! I just thought of the perfect plan that’ll get Luna to forgive you and get back together with her.” Matteo starts smiling as Gastón whispers the plan into his left ear. “Hermano, you’re a genius.”

The Benson Mansion

Ámbar doesn’t stop glaring at the letter in front of her. It was the original copy that was locked up in Sharon’s vault. This was what her biological mom wrote to her before she gave her away, it includes her phone number. She wants to call that number, desperately wants to but what if this number doesn’t work anymore? Or what if it does? She feels so confused. The closer the wedding gets, the scarier it feels for her. She wants to invite her biological mom and maybe even Sharon, she’s just undecided. It’s more than just complicated for her.

She sucks up every bit of courage left in her, grabs her phone and types in the numbers smeared at the bottom of the letter. It’s…. ringing. The longer she has to wait, the faster her heart beats. The phone stops ringing. “Hello,” the person on the other end answers. Ámbar’s voice begins to crack, “Uh… yes is this Sylvana Ariel?” Ámbar takes a big gulp of air. The person on the other end responds, “yes this is she. Who do I have the pleasure speaking to?” When Ambar hears that it’s her, she decides to move forward with the plan of meeting her. Maybe it was destiny for her to still have this phone number for so many years? “Yes, this is Ámbar, Ámbar Smith. We need to talk. Are you available today?” Ámbar takes control of the situation showing no signs of hesitation, even though her heart says otherwise. “Oh Ámbar? Yes, I’m available today.” Ámbar takes one good look at the letter and answers back, “Good. Meet me at Pachani’s restaurant today at 7 p.m.” The lady answers with an okay before Ámbar hangs up the phone.

She didn’t know this day would come so soon. Getting to meet her birth mother. What should she say? What should she do? Maybe this would help her understand her whole story and discover more who she really is before she gets married. Simón walks into the living room. “There you are. I thought you would be at the Jam and Roller; you never miss an afternoon of work?” Ámbar quickly folds the letter and slips it into her purse. “Oh yeah I just came home to… find another bridal magazine. I thought I left one of my favorite ones here in the living room.” Simón scrunches up his face, “here? In the living room of the Benson Mansion? But you always look at them at our apartment?” Ámbar clasps her purse and places the strap around her arm. “Oh well I sometimes look at them here whenever I visit the Valentes and have a cup of coffee, by mistake one of these days I left my bridal magazine.” Simón nods showing how he understands. “So how are bridal things going?”

“Pretty smooth. Luna and Nina agreed to go order the sets of flowers and decorations at the boutique right across town,” Ámbar states. “Oh, that’s nice. Luna and Nina were so kind to offer their help. What would we do without them?”

“Yes, I agree. We’re very lucky to have them indeed. Um there is one thing I forgot to tell you. At around 7 p.m I won’t be at home yet, I have a meeting with some other law school students for this project we have going on, so I won’t be home.”

Simón’s smile fades away. “Aww I’ll miss you, but I do wish you good luck on the project. I know you’ll do great on it.” Ámbar smiles from thinking how lucky she is to have a caring, understanding partner by her side. They hug each other and head out of the mansion.

*Gif not made by me. Owner of gif's name is at the bottom right hand corner :) *

Lacey’s Boutique

Luna and Nina wait at the front desk holding a slip of paper that carries a list of things they need to purchase for Ámbar’s wedding. “He said that?” Nina whispers. “Yep, I can’t believe he called me jealous when he was the one who lied and created this whole mess in the first place. When we got back together, we agreed on no secrets and to always communicate. That’s the only way a relationship can go well, just look at Ámbar and Simón?”

“I absolutely agree. I felt awful when Gaston spied on me that day, so I understand what you mean. Luckily everything is fixed now,” Nina cheers. “I’m happy for you Nina, sadly in between Matteo and I is a person who doesn’t stop flirting and hanging out with him. Plus, it’s so obvious too, even Simón thought he was dating Viviana and broke up with me. I can’t believe Matteo doesn’t believe me and instead calls me jealous. After everything we’ve been through.” The cashier heads to the counter and Luna and Nina’s conversation ends. “So, is this the list for everything?” Luna nods in approval. “Okay great, everything will be prepared in time and the delivery will be sent to the place on the date of the card.” Luna picks up the card and puts it away in her tiny backpack.

“Thank you,” she begins to head out before the cashier stops her. “Wait, I have something to give you.” He pulls out another card from his pocket. “Here’s my phone number, maybe we can have a cup of coffee together someday if you’d like?” Luna is speechless and turns to Nina for a choice of words. Nina shrugs and seems to be just as confused as her. “Um... well the thing is I’m in a relationship… well right at this moment I’m not sure…. Honestly I don’t know it’s complicated me and my boyfriend well after what he did, I don’t think he’s still my boyfriend but I don’t know…” Luna stops talking when the cashier extremely perplexed expression shows vividly. “Um… well once you get all that resorted and decide not to be with this… complicated person feel free to give me a call.” He leaves and heads to the back of the store. “Luna, I’m shocked he’s still into you after everything you blurted out. I think you even fried his brain.” Nina and Luna giggle their way out.

Jim and Yam’s Apartment

Ramiro adjusts the collar of his nicely firm long sleeve button up shirt. He’s holding a bouquet of sunflowers and is trying to collect the right words to say to Yam. He knocks on the door and waits for a response. “I’m coming,” she says. For Ramiro, hearing Yam’s voice is like a breath of fresh air.

She opens the door and is surprised to see Ramiro’s well put together fit. “Before you say anything I want to do this right. Yam, I know our relationship has been like an ongoing rollercoaster, we’ve been through the ups and the downs but the one thing that has always stayed constant is my love for you. After everything that has happened, I always knew I love you and my path ends up meeting yours. Yam would you like to go on a date with me?” Yam covers her mouth in amusement. She’s appalled from the beautiful surprise he’s presented her, and with a speech too. Usually, Ramiro is too cool for all of this but seeing what he has done has proven enough to Yam that he’s committed. “Ramiro of course, I would love to. In fact, I was always thinking what took you so long?” Yam begins to chuckle. “I guess fear from this not working out, but you can’t always live in fear for the rest of your life.”

Yam jumps into Ramiro’s arms and kisses him on the cheek.

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jaimehwatson · 3 years

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I made another Snowpiercer playlist!

After posting my Wilford/Audrey playlist a while ago, I added some songs that didn’t quite make the cut to a different playlist, intending to put together another similar one. But rather than focusing on just one ship this time, I also ended up getting really interested in theorizing about what Wilford’s relationship with Melanie might have been like before the Freeze, and exploring the idea that maybe there was something going on there and some kind of love triangle with Audrey.

So here’s my new playlist, full of absolute jams that could apply to any combination of relationships involving Wilford, Audrey, and Melanie, and/or just general Snowpiercer vibes! Read on for more detail about the songs I selected, and as before, content warning for references to canon abuse & self-harm/suicide.

1. “The Tradition” by Halsey

Oh, the loneliеst girl in town Was bought for plenty a price Well, they dress her up in golden crowns His smile hides a lie

She smiles back, but it's a fact That her fear will eat her alive Well, she got the life that she wanted But now all she does is cry

Thanks @onetrainsnowpiercer for getting me into this excellent album! I thought it would be fitting to kick off the playlist with one that could suit the earlier days of Wilford’s relationship with Audrey, like my previous playlist was more focused on.

2. “cardigan” by Taylor Swift

'Cause I knew you Steppin' on the last train Marked me like a bloodstain, I

I knew you Tried to change the ending Peter losing Wendy, I

I knew you Leavin' like a father Running like water, I And when you are young, they assume you know nothing

Did you think I would make a Snowpiercer playlist without Taylor Swift on it? Not a chance. I picture this one being more from Melanie’s perspective, reflecting on possibly having had some kind of ill-fated romance with Wilford when she was young and naive.

3. “No Children” by The Mountain Goats

I hope I cut myself shaving tomorrow I hope it bleeds all day long Our friends say it's darkest before the sun rises We're pretty sure they're all wrong

I hope it stays dark forever I hope the worst isn't over And I hope you blink before I do And I hope I never get sober

The only reason this perennial favourite of mine wasn’t on the first playlist was that I had too many Mountain Goats songs already and wanted to keep things balanced. But this one got all the ones that didn’t make it to the first playlist plus some more I thought about later, so I’m kind of giving up on that balance by now. They just have a lot of great songs about terrible relationships, and I love them all so much.

4. “Gold Guns Girls” by Metric

I remember when we were gambling to win Everybody else said, "Better luck next time." I don't wanna bend like the bad girls bend I just wanna be your friend Is it ever gonna be enough?

This is another one that I can picture being about young Melanie, gradually growing more aware of everything that’s terribly wrong with Wilford and his approach to life, and of how little he cares to try to fix it.

5. “You’ve Haunted Me All My Life” by Death Cab for Cutie

And there's a flaw in my heart's design For I keep trying to make you mine

You've haunted me all my life You've haunted me all my life You are the mistress I can't make a wife And you've haunted me all my life

And this one I can see being Wilford thinking about either one of the women, and his unhealthy attachment to them and inability to keep them around for very long—maybe once he’s finally reunited with them both on some level in season 2, but still can’t fully persuade them both over to his side.

6. “Old College Try” by The Mountain Goats

From the cities to the swamplands From the highways to the hills Our love has never had a leg to stand on From the aspirins to the cross-tops to the Elavils

But I will walk down to the end with you If you will come all the way down with me

Another Mountain Goats classic. If you divorce it from its context of being from a concept album about a horrible marriage, I actually think this song is kind of sweet in the way it describes a couple still committing to try to make things work despite a whole host of problems. But never mind that now, because I’m putting it back in the new context of a whole collection of horrible romantic relationships!

7. “Risk” by Metric

So you're beaten up but you bounce back It’s all part of the pull And the story runs like a soundtrack We repeat 'til we're full Started slow, started late Started strong, then we lost faith Started slow, started to lose control The more we accelerate, the more we accelerate

Half of arranging any playlist I make is just trying to split up the Mountain Goats and Metric songs so that they aren’t always clumped together. Anyway, this one seems especially fitting to me in its imagery of a speeding vehicle of some kind (it’s a train, I’m always picturing a train) alongside its description of a relationship going badly.

8. “Big God” by Florence + The Machine

You know I still like you the most The best of the best and the worst of the worst Well, you can never know The places that I go I still like you the most You'll always be my favourite ghost

I think this one could be any one of the three of them contemplating their complex feelings about the past at some point around season 2.

9. “I Still Do” by The Cranberries

I don't want to leave you Even though I have to I don't want to love you Oh, I still do

There aren’t as many specifics that match the characters going on in the lyrics here, since it’s more of just a general break-up song, but I also really like the creepy way it sounds.

10. “Fault Lines” by The Mountain Goats

But none of the money we spend Seems to do us much good in the end I got a cracked engine block, both of us do

Yeah, the house and the jewels, the Italian racecar They don't make us feel better about who we are I got termites in the framework, so do you

This one feels really fitting for pre-Freeze Wilford, especially the engine imagery!

11. “I Don’t Care” by Fall Out Boy

Say my name and his in the same breath I dare you to say they taste the same Let the leaves fall off in the summer And let December glow in flames

Erase myself and let go Start it over again in Mexico These friends, they don't love you They just love the hotel suites

Another song that is simply a) an absolute jam, and b) generally fitting for my favourite obscenely rich asshole and his terrible relationships

12. “You asked for this” by Halsey

I want my cake on a silver platter I want a fistful in my hands I want a beautiful boy's despondent laughter I wanna ruin all my plans I want a fist around my throat I wanna cry so hard, I choke I want everything I asked for

This one I can picture as Audrey—or maybe Melanie too, but especially Audrey—beginning to regret getting involved with Wilford, but only once she’s in way too deep for leaving to be a safe or easy decision.

13. “my tears ricochet” by Taylor Swift

And if I'm dead to you, why are you at the wake? Cursing my name, wishing I stayed Look at how my tears ricochet

Much like several other Taylor Swift songs, I just know in my heart that it’s the type of music Wilford listens to in secret, while possibly drunk and definitely singing along very dramatically. This one he dedicates to Melanie once they’ve met up again in season 2.

14. “Speed the Collapse” by Metric

All the way from where we came Built a mansion in a day Distant lightning, thunder claps Watched our neighbor's house collapse Looked the other way

This one has a lot of good apocalyptic imagery that I can imagine scoring Wilford’s life in the last few years before the Freeze, as he makes his plans to save himself and let so many others die.

15. “Ox Baker Triumphant” by The Mountain Goats

I will thank my ride and crawl my way back inside To the guts of the building where my enemies Hide in the dark like roaches And I will signal the camera crew and everyone will do What he's been trained how to do Sweat dripping from my face as my moment approaches

Click your heels, count to three I bet you never expected me A little worse for wear Practically walking on air

I love this song a lot, and listening to it lately makes me imagine Wilford plotting his revenge while on his way to catch up with Snowpiercer before the end of season 1.

16. “Firewood” by Regina Spektor

The piano is not firewood yet But the cold does get cold So it soon might be that I'll take it apart, call up my friends And we'll warm up our hands by the fire

Don't look so shocked Don't judge so harsh You don't know You’re only spying Everyone knows it's going to hurt But at least we'll get hurt trying

This has to be one of my favourite songs of all time. It’s very beautiful, and I love the piano in it. I’ve always personally interpreted it to be at least partially about someone surviving a suicide attempt, and the overall imagery about burning a piano for warmth—and this bit about not judging someone for doing that—reads to me as more of a general statement about the difficult choices people struggling with mental illness and other similar issues have to make to survive. I listened to it recently and I could picture Audrey singing it in the nightcar. I think it suits her well.

17. “Cry for Judas” by The Mountain Goats

But I am just a broken machine And I do things that I don't really mean Long, black night Morning frost I'm still here But all is lost

I think the imagery of this song suits the show a lot in general, but I can also particularly imagine it being Wilford in a rare moment of self-awareness about how much damage he’s caused to the world and the people around him.

18. “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide” by David Bowie

Time takes a cigarette, puts it in your mouth You pull on your finger, then another finger, then your cigarette The wall-to-wall is calling, it lingers, then you forget Oh oh, oh, oh, you're a rock 'n' roll suicide

I love Wilford a lot. I don’t want anything bad to happen to him ever. I hope he kills more people, and I hope he gets his train back, and I hope he wins. But if he does eventually die in the show, I hope he’s found in the bathtub with there being some ambiguity about whether he really killed himself or whether one of his victims turned the tables on him, and I hope the climax of this song swells as the camera pans over his dead body. That’s the only Wilford death I will accept, thanks for coming to my TED talk.

19. “Source Decay” by The Mountain Goats

I park in an alley And I read through the postcards you continue to send Where as indirectly as you can, you ask what I remember I like these torture devices from my old best friend Well, I'll tell you what I know, like I swore I always would I don't think it's gonna do you any good I remember the train headed south out of Bangkok Down toward the water

Okay, I promise this is the last Mountain Goats song on the playlist. It’s just—it’s perfect. It has a train in it. And on the podcast “I Only Listen To The Mountain Goats,” John Darnielle commented that there’s barely anywhere you can go south of Bangkok before you hit the water, it’s a train going nowhere, it’s so good. It’s also one of the songs I’ve previously ripped a line off for my fanfiction titles!

20. “Sellers of Flowers” by Regina Spektor

The sellers of flowers Buy up old roses They pull off dead petals Like old heads of lettuce And sell ’em as new ones For cheaper and fairer But they die by the morning So who is the winner? Not the roses Not the buyers Not the sellers Maybe winter

And Regina Spektor closes out the playlist again! This song is another one I picked more on imagery and vibes than anything else. But since it’s about a young child in a world that seems to be moving inexorably toward an all-consuming winter, if it suits any of the characters, maybe it’s an appearance of Alex here at the end!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy the playlist!

#snowpiercer #wilford #music #snowpiercer tv

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youralternantpersonality · 3 years

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Wallflower

Embry x Reader: Wallflower

Anon request: Hey! so I just wanted to do a request. [Paul: He finds reader lost and cold in the forest.] and (if you can) [Embry: Reader was part of Victoria’s army and he imprints with her while they're fighting.] Thanks! I just love your stories.

Warning: Bree was unjustly killed, and I hate S. Meyer for it. The ending is kind of shitty sorry. Also, I feel like it is necessary that I post in hopes that it takes other's minds off of everything that is going on. I know it doesn't do too much, but I hope it helps and does enough.

Paul’s request can be found here

***

Y/n POV

I watch everyone in the corner of the room going batshit crazy with hunger. We are cramped up in a warehouse somewhere deep in the southeast side of the docs in Seattle. I was one of the first few victims of Victoria and Riley. I knew what they were up to, and I knew she is playing Riley like a play-toy because I had been watching Victoria closely. Every day, it's someone new, and every day that someone new may end up dying because she starves them until they all go crazy.

Except for me, and that terrifies her.

I have always been the invisible one—the wallflower of every group of friends I had. I was also a runner and observant of everything and everyone. Cautious of everything and everyone. The second I got an inkling that shit was going south, I was gone. It explains my surveillance ability; to see tactical and strategic plans and details of someone and my surroundings. For example, Victoria, she has one goal in mind but changes her pathways every time. Her issue is that she only plans out two different options without thinking of another one. And that’s where she downfalls at. Because the worst thing to do is to be a step behind an obvious move. I know she has warned Riley of me. Both are unknown to what I can do. If I’m honest, if I liked the bitch, I would help her plan on taking down the Cullen.

Plus, if I liked her, I’d also warn her that we are actively watched. I look over to the left side of the roofless room to see four figures with bright red eyes—Three guys and one girl. They’ve came by almost every night for the past 2 weeks, and Victoria and Riley haven’t noticed a thing. And as usual, I make direct eye contact with them, nod my head a hello, and turn back to the room of bastards I’m stuck with. I know how this is going to end for everyone, including me. Death. Without a second thought. And Victoria and Riley, especially Riley, included in that equation. And by the looks of those four, I already know that there’s not a chance in hell I would survive if I was to go out hunting now. They’d kill me in a heartbeat.

I looked over to see the only two people I like in this room of chaos—a small petite girl named Bree and a guy around her age named Louis. Bree was no older than 14, and Louis was 15. It’s sad to see young lives lost and gone for good, thanks to a selfish bitch and her puppy. The second Victoria and Riley brought them in, I took care of them. They’re the youngest of everyone, and I reassured Riley to not go after younger kids if he wants to live another day. He took my threat heavily and never bit another kid under 17.

“Enough!” Macho man Riley screamed. I rolled my eyes and listened anyway. “We leave in an hour. Remember, when you see them, demolish them! They will kill you before you kill them.”

“Oh please,” Sabastian said, flexing his muscles, “They wish they can take me down.”

“With that attitude, you’ll be down in five, maybe ten minutes tops.” Another kid said on the other side. I can’t say he’s wrong.

“Why don’t you say that to my face!” Sabastian called out.

“HEY!” we all look up to see the red queen has finally blessed us with her glory. “Let’s save the fighting for later. Right now, we must prepare to head out. The Cullen’s are dangerous; they will play mind games on you and have you believed in lies. They took my family, and they will take many others if we don’t.” she says, giving a weeping sad story. I roll my eyes at her drama.

“So, what does that have to do with us? Yeah, they took your family, but you took us from ours.” I say. I’m tired of this bullshit with them. The second we leave, I’m out when I know I’m in the clear. I already know that when we land, Riley and Victoria will be nowhere to be found, leaving us for death.

“Excuse me?” Victoria squints her eyes at me. I know she is about to charge at me, so I calm my body language while she tenses hers up. I have always been a threat to her. I was a step ahead of her, always. My mannerism, my inability to not be terrified of her, worries her more than Riley turning on her. And oh, how I love to see this bitch suffer.

“Why should we help you when you killed and took us away from our family. didn’t you technically do the same thing they did to us?” Everyone was quiet. In a millisecond, Victoria took her step forward while I slid to my right just as she was about to grab me. She was fast, but I was a step ahead of her. she looked at me with wide eyes as I smiled.

“Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to underestimate the quiet ones?” I whisper just low enough for her to hear. She straightened herself up and walked towards the front. When she turned back, her eyes were wild with anger, and told us we are leaving. So, like the minions we have to be, we followed her. I wonder if there’s a tree tall enough for me to hid in to watch her get killed.

Embry’s POV

“What goddamn army?” Jake said, talking to the Cullen’s in their lair.

“We believe the Volturi is setting up an army nearby,” Carlisle said.

“I don’t see Aro making the decisions.” Pixie said. Alice? Pixie.

“It has to be Victoria,” Edward said,

“Victoria? Who’s Victoria?” Jake asked.

“A vampire that is after Bella. I killed her mate, trying to protect Bella, and now she is seeking revenge.” Edward replied. Ah, so it’s the human girl's fault. Interesting.

“We’re in,” Jake said, we all nodded, and Bella disagreed for Jacob. The absolute fuck? After planning a time to meet up with the Cullen’s for a “training” session to fight these new-borns, we head home and notify Sam. Needless to say, Sam was pissed but called up Carlisle to set up a meeting time later that morning.

A week later, we are hiding behind the trees waiting for the children of the fields to arrive. Not too long after did everything go down. There were about 25 versus our group of 12. Seth and Jake were up in the mountains with Edward and Bella.

On my call! —Sam

3—We can hear them coming closer and closer.

2—We prepare ourselves in a low crouching position

1—We see the first breakthrough

NOW!

We jump just in time to see the leaches leap over a small hill above us. Not preparing for what was to come did some of them back off slightly. They came from all over, nonstop. I don’t think they were ready for this. I look over to see Esme attempting to fight off two when I ran to help.

Y/N POV

I told Louis and Bree what they were going to do, and they did exactly what I thought. Instead of fighting, we hid behind some bushes since there were no trees nearby. We watched everything go down, and I was happy to see Leo, Thomas, and Krystina fall to their demise. Now, if only they could get Sebast-

“Fuck.” I say, putting Bree and Louis behind me backing away. The two older couple watches us, and I can see they don’t see us as a threat. They look back, and the lady stays behind.

“Who are you?” She asks. I cautiously look at her, making sure Louis and Bree stay behind me.

“I am Y/n, this is Louis and Bree. We are victims of Victoria but refuse to fight. Who are you?” I say,

“I am Esme Cullen,” She looks behind her quickly, “Stay here and do not move.” I nodded my head, and we went back down to a crouching position. We watch closely as the last few people are being killed off while some of the Cullen’s clean up. Esme and the other man who was with her come back to us, and we step forward. Bree and Louis grab my hand, and we slowly walk towards them.

“SAM NO!” I look over to see a giant black wolf charging towards us. I push Louis and Bree towards Esme and duck just as he was about to have his teeth attached to my head. I turn around to see him just look at me and notice another wolf behind him. I start weighing my options when I made eye contact with that other wolf, but I froze. I couldn’t see anyone or anything but the wolf. It was gross, honestly; why the hell would I want to care about a wolf?

“Embry imprinted.” Says one of the guys. The big black wolf looked towards the guy and back at the wolf who was about to walk forward until,

“Leah, look out!” Everyone turned to the silver and white wolf as Sebastian comes up behind her. Before he could do anything, another wolf comes and gets him off her. But before anyone else could react, Sabastian got ahold of the wolf and broke his bones. Thankfully the female wolf finally, killed Sabastian but the young wolf who saved her transformed into a human? What the fuck?

“What the fuck? They’re shapeshifters?” I ask quietly to no one. Soon after, the then naked man was fully clothed, and his friends come from the bushes dressed and grabbed him. Before altogether leaving, I man—lean yet buff. More of an angled sharp face with wide brown eyes looked back at me. It doesn’t take astrophysics to know that that was Embry carrying the injured young wolf.

“They’re coming.” A pixie girl said. Shit. I recollect the only four people who know of us. The guy who called out about Embry looked towards me when I thought of their face.

“You’re the mind reader, aren’t you?” He nods his head. “I don’t know who they are, but they’ve been watching us for weeks. I’ve made eye contact with them constantly, but I’m not stupid enough to actually go and risk my life talking to them.” He looks at me and nods again. Not long after, they come in the most dramatic way possible. They step out of the bushes with their hoods on and in unison flip them back. Dramatic much?

“I see you’ve taken down a great hit. Shocking with the size of them.” The blonde girl said.

“We were fortunate,” Carlisle said.

“You may have known their creator, Victoria.” Mindreader said.

“Edward, if the Volturi knew this was going to happen, they would’ve stopped it. Isn’t that right, Jane?”

“Yes. I see you saved some.” Jane calls us out.

“They offered their surrender-” Esme explained.

“I’ll be the judge of that. Who are you?” Out of nowhere, a striking hit of pain erupted through us. It was horrifying. “Who created you? Why did you come here?” we screamed louder.

“Please! They’ll tell you everything you want to know.” The pain suddenly stopped.

“I know,” the conniving little bitch, “Answer me.” She says, looking at me.

“I am Y/n, she is Bree, and his name is Louis. Victoria created me, and Riley created them. Victoria only said that we were to avenge her family's death that the Cullen took part in. We had no choice but planned on leaving as soon as possible. Before running into Esme and Carlisle.” As I was speaking, I noticed Jane was looking at Louis strangely. I looked at Louis, and he had a grin on his face. Jane looked back at Bree and me.

“We’ll let you go if one of you surrenders to show proof to our master, Aro.” She says, looking at Louis. The other guys with her are confused until they see where her eyes are leading too. Louis smiles and shrugs his shoulder.

“I’ll do it,” he says while looking at her. Jane smiles and looks at us,

“Then it’s settled. You may roam free, but do anything wrong, you will be caught.” She turns towards the female girl, “I see she’s still human. I bet Caius would like to know that.”

“The date is set.”

“Good, let this be a warning to you. The Volturi doesn’t give second chances.” She looks towards Louis, “Let’s go home, Louis.” She says with a smile. He turns towards Bree and me and hugs us, then speeds off next to Jane.

“Well, that was interesting.” A big guy said. He turned towards Bree and me and said, “Welcome to the family!” then proceeds to pick us both up and hug us.

“Emmett put them down; they’re not toys.” A blonde chick said.

“But, Rosie!”

“NOW, Emmett.” She said. He, begrudgingly, put us down, and patted our head.

“Why don’t we head back to the house, and you can explain to us who you guys are.” Carlisle.

The following week

Bree and I just got back from hunting with Esme and Rosalie when Alice met us halfway home. With some clothes to change into.

“I would suggest putting these on. We have to meet up with the wolves really quick.” She says, shoving clothes in our arms and pushing us into the woods.

“Uh, Alice is there a reason as to why I am wearing waist-high jeans, a crop-top, and some heals. I’m not complaining, just asking for scientific reasons.” I say, stepping out of the trees. Bree comes out with a black and white poke-a-dot dress with a yellow bowtie around the waist with black heals.

“Yeah. Although the dress is cute. And it has pockets!” Bree announces.

“Yes, there is actually. And to receive your answers, come with me.” Alice says before taking off.

“Oh lord, what did she see this time,” Rosalie said, rolling her eyes. We get to a small clearing and wait to see the rest of the Cullen’s and the wolves. As we approach, I see the brown wolf before. I’d recognize his eyes from anywhere.

“Thank you for joining us, girls. Edward will translate for us; they would prefer to stay in their form.” Carlisle said, giving Edward the floor.

“Do you know what imprinting, or in our term, mating means?” Edward asked both Bree and me. We nodded our head, and he continued, “It has come to the realization that both Bree and Y/n have imprinted on Embry and Seth.” Just then, two wolves stepped forward. Bree, without hesitation, went up to the gray-colored wolf and smiled. He did as much as a regular oversized giant bear of a dog could smile. I looked at the brown wolf in front of me, timid and shier than Bree. He took a step towards me, too, until we were in front of each other.

“Can I touch you?” I ask, unsure if he has full control over himself or not. He nods his head and allows me to do so. All I can feel is warmth and soft fur flowing through my fingers. I smile, and they both step into the woods. When they come back, they come as their human forms. Seth easily runs up and hugs Bree and twirls her around. Embry, however, steps up to me and just looks at me. We do nothing but stare at one another until he smiles. I couldn’t help but smile back at him.

“I think we’re good here, guys. She’s decently innocent.” He says, looking back at me and winks. I smile up at him and look around.

“Have fun,” Alice says before taking off with everyone else. I look over at Bree and Seth and see them walking together somewhere away from us. I look up at my mate and ask,

“So, tell me about yourself, Embry.” And we proceed to have a never-ending conversation.

Bonus scene: Narrator POV

A year has gone by, and Embry and I are still happy together. After dealing with the Volturi due to Bella and Edwards's ability to have a kid, and the snitch of a cousin in Denali who tried to get us all killed (snitches get stitches and end up in ditches bitch), Embry and I were finally able to relax. I won't lie, it was hard seeing Louis on that side. And I can tell it was hard for him to see in this fucked up situation, but when they turned to leave, we all got to smile at each other before disappearing into the woods with the rest of the Volturi.

Currently, Embry and I are in my room in Forks. After the war, everyone decided to pack up and leave, and Bree and I promised to visit them wherever they end up being at soon. Bree and I stayed behind because of Embry and Seth, and because with the amount of forest surrounding, it would be better for us since we are still learning to adapt to this diet.

“Hey, Y/n.”

“Yes, my love?” I turn towards Embry and watch him. He seemed worried.

“I love you, and I know you might feel as if this is too much or too soon, but,” he proceeded to take my left hand and slide a small band on it, “will you do me the honors of being my wife?” All I could do was look at the ring. If I could cry, I would. I quickly turn towards him and kiss him.

“Yes. I am fucking in love with you, Embry Call.”

“I love you too, Y/f/n Y/l/n.” Who would’ve thought that I would be lucky enough to land a fantastic guy like him with my fucked-up situation? I can honestly say this was one move I didn’t see coming.

MasterList

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crmsfanfiction · 3 years

Text

Second Chances-Chapter 4

Author Note: Ok this is a heavy chapter. It has trigger warnings, domestic violence and blood. There is a scene of DV towards the end of the chapter. Please don’t read if this will cause issues.

As always Feedback is appreciated and Constructive criticism is encouraged. Flames will keep the plot bunnies warm this winter.

___________________________________________________________

Chapter 4: Confrontation

Two days later Willa was back in her hometown of Columbus, Ohio. She’d gotten in the night before late and crashed at Becca and David’s house. This morning she had an appointment with the realtor at 9 and was meeting Tony for lunch at 12. She was ready for this all to be over with. Becca and David were heading to the house when Willa met with Tony for lunch. They were going to pack up as much of her stuff as they could and take it to their house. She’d be crashing there for a few days until she got a new place.

Getting ready for the day, Willa put on a pair of black skinny dress pants, a blue silk blouse and a black leather jacket. She wanted to exude confidence and power. Adding in a silver necklace and black booties she left her hair down and kept her make-up muted with natural colors. She didn’t want to overpower anyone, but she had to let Tony know he wasn’t in charge anymore. The past couple of days she had realized she was allowing him to much power over her. She was tired of crying and feeling horrible. Yes, she was still heartbroken, it had been 5 years together. However she was no longer feeling numb. Now she was feeling absolutely angry and ready to end this shit for good.

Willa’s phone rang and when she looked at it she didn’t recognize the number. Confused she answered it, “Hello?”

“Stay away from him. He doesn’t want you. He is with me now.” a female voice said with malice dripping from her tone.

“I don’t know who you are or how you got this number, but you can have him. Once a cheater always a cheater. Remember that. Also never call me again.” Willa said as she hung up and tossed her phone to the side. She shook her head and resolved to get a new phone and number. She also was going to give Tony a piece of her mind about giving her number to the women he is sleeping with. Of course he’d never have her number again after today. Checking the time Willa headed downstairs and grabbed a cup of coffee as her phone went off again with a series of text messages, all from an unknown number. They all basically said the same thing. Leave him alone. He wasn’t in love with her. He was with her now. He’d never loved her. She treated him better than Willa ever did.

Laughing at the stupid texts she showed them to Becca and David as she sipped her coffee and put a bagel in the toaster. “Who does this stupid bint think she is? I seriously don’t want his nasty cheating ass anymore. If she seriously thinks she can keep him from cheating, she is deluded.”

Grabbing her bagel, Willa slathered it with butter and cream cheese as she pushed all thoughts of Tony’s side piece getting all up in arms over her. She had more important things to think about. Like how she was going to break the news to Becca and David that she wasn’t staying in Ohio after this week. She’d talked to Uncle Bob and he told her to take off some time and come visit for awhile and then move to a different state to start over. He was hoping California, but Willa was leaning more towards New York. She had lived there a decade ago and she’d loved it, but after the incident she’d never gone again.

She missed New York. The great deli three blocks from his apartment. The cafe they would always stop and get coffee from on their way back from a run. Spending the weekend at his mom and step dads place. Willa shook her head. She had to stop thinking of him. It wasn’t doing her any favors right now. It isn’t as if she’d ever get back together with him. That ship sailed years ago, when he walked away with the worst excused she’d ever heard before. He told her he didn’t love her, but Willa knew that wasn’t true. He’d loved her then. Something or more likely someone made him walk away.

“Alright I’m off. See you guys in a few hours. I’ll be a free woman again. Be careful getting stuff out of the house. I don’t want much other than my laptop, clothes, make-up and jewelry. If you can grab the box of stuff in the garage. Becca, you know which one I’m talking about right? Black box, red roses on the lid. Everything else can be left.” Willa said as she pulled herself out of her thoughts and headed to the door and her car. She had 30 minutes to get to the realtors office. Luckily traffic was light today and she arrived with ten minutes to spare.

After a couple hours, Willa was tired and ready to be done. She had explained why she wanted to sell the house to her realtor and they had promised to get the paperwork sorted in the next week or so and give her a call as to when the inspector and appraisers would be by to see the house. Willa smiled, stood and shook their hand as she gathered her purse and headed to her car. She had just enough time to head for the phone store to get her number changed. Hopefully it wouldn’t take too long. She had been getting a constant barrage of text messages and a few voicemails from Tony’s side piece. Willa had ignored them all. Hadn’t even open them. She didn’t want to hear or read the vitriol spewing from this delusional chick’s mouth. She was ready to cut ties and start to move on with her life. It wasn’t going to a quick process, she knew that. It was 5 years that she was moving on from, but damn if she wasn’t going to do it.

45 minutes later Willa walked out with a new phone and a new phone number. She had her old phone in her purse, but turned off. She would transfer all the pics and music over another day. Right now she had to hurry to get to lunch. Getting into her car, she merged smoothly into traffic and headed for the restaurant. Pulling into the parking lot Willa noticed tony standing next to his car waiting for her. He had a confident smile on his face.

Groaning Willa got out of her car, straightened her jacket and walked over to Tony. She didn’t stop next to him, but kept walking towards the door causing Tony to curse lightly and jog to catch up. He wasn’t about to let Willa go willingly. He was confident he could sweet talk his way out of her anger and back into her good graces. He help open the door for Willa as she reached the door.

“Reservation for two under the name Malstrom.” Tony said as he smiled at the hostess. The hostess giggled lightly as she showed them back to their table. Willa just rolled her eyes at the display. She was so over it all. Tony pulled her chair out and pushed it back in as she was sitting down before sitting down himself.

“Hey baby. Thanks for having lunch with me.” Tony started, trying to lay it on so Willa would forgive him. He needed her connections in Hollywood to help get his book published.

“I wanted to do this in public to avoid a huge scene. This is over Tony. Our life together is over. I can’t forget seeing you in bed with another woman.”

“Baby that wasn’t what it looked like.” Tony was starting to feel a little nervous. He couldn’t afford to lose her and her connections. They were the only reason he’d stuck with her for so long.

“Oh? Then what was it like?” Willa asked genuinely curious as to how he was going to spin this.

“Alright, yes I was in bed with her, but she seduced me. It didn’t mean anything. I love you baby. I don’t want to argue. I refuse to allow you to break us up. We are perfect together. Everyone says so. We will get past this. After all we are getting married in two months. Now that this is settled, what do you want for lunch?” Tony said with finality. He wasn’t letting her get away from him.

Willa laughed out loud as she stood up pulling off her engagement ring and setting it on the table between them. “You’re not allowing me? I have news for you, I am breaking this off. We aren’t getting married in two months. The wedding is canceled. You are nothing more than a liar and a manipulator. I can’t believe I was blind to it all these years, but you have always done no wrong. It has always been someone else’s fault. No more. Time for you to man up and accept that you aren’t the victim in this.”

“Stop being so dramatic and sit back down. I’m not letting you go. Not like this. It was one mistake and you want to throw away 5 good years over it. Now put your ring back on and sit down. We are going to have a nice lunch and then we are going home, where I can prove I love you.” Tony said as he narrowed his eyes at Willa and purposefully stared at the chair across from him. This was getting ridiculous. She needed to relearn her place. He was definitely going to teach her once they got home.

“No. I won’t sit back down and have lunch. I am done. Done with you. Done with this situation. Done with all of it. We are done.” Willa said as she started to walk away, but tony grabbed her arm tightly and hissed, “Sit down now and have lunch. We are going to have a talk about this when we get back home and you will listen to me if you know what’s good for you.” Willa looked down at Tony and gulped. She nodded and sat down again. The look in his eyes told her that she would regret not doing as he said right now. She would follow through with lunch and then leave in her own car afterwards. Maybe by playing nice right now, she could deescalate the situation.

After an extremely tense lunch, Willa and Tony were headed for their cars. Tony had his hand wrapped around Willa’s forearm in an extremely tight grip. Willa was sure she’d have bruises by morning. Exiting the restaurant found Willa being pulled in the direction of Tony’s car and away from her own. “Tony, my car is over there. Let me go. I stayed for lunch. Time to go our separate ways.” Willa said as she tried unsuccessfully to extract her arm from his grip.

“No. You’re riding with me. I told you, I wasn’t letting you go. We are going home to talk. Once we sort everything out we can come back and get your car.” Tony said as he drug her to his car and opened door. He practically shoved her in and slammed the door shut. Willa thought about opening the door and making a run for it, but it was a fleeting thought. She knew he’d catch her and it could be worse. Sitting back Willa tried to think about how she could calm Tony down and she could walk away safely.

Tony drove them back home and once there pulled Willa out of the car and forced her into the house. Closing the door behind him, Tony threw off his jacket and started to roll up his sleeves. Willa stared at him waiting for him to speak. She was going to listen to him and then leave as soon as she could. She’d call Becca and David to come pick her up and drive her to get her car.

“Tony, look I know this is a shock and you’re upset, but acting like this isn’t the way. I am not going to stay with a cheater. You don’t get to play the victim. You don’t get to lie you way out of this. I am 1000% done with you and us.” Willa said as she crossed her arms and leveled a glare at Tony. He just turned away from her and curled his hands into fists.

______________________Trigger Warning_____________________

Willa wasn’t paying attention to him and had just closed her eyes, when the first hit landed on her left cheek. The second hit landed on her ribs knocking the wind out of her and doubling her over. The third and fourth hits were both to her face and after the fourth hit, blood started flowing from her nose. The fifth hit was to her ribs again, knocking her to the ground, where he kicked her hard twice. She was gasping for breath as Tony leaned over and grabbed her hair and dragged her to the living room. He sat on the couch and threw Willa on the floor in front of him.

“Now look what you made me do. You have always been so obedient and I’ve never had to punish you like this before, but you had to go and say horrible things about me. I won’t tolerate that kind of behavior from you again. Is that understood?” Tony said as he took in the bruises blooming around her eyes and nose. He knew if he’d lift her shirt there would be bruises to her ribs as well.

Willa nodded quickly and turned her face away from him. She was in survival mode now. She’d never thought he’d be capable of doing something like this. Never had he given any indication that he would ever physically abuse a woman. She was hoping and praying that he’d just leave her alone now and she could leave. Tony smiled and reach out to caress her hair and face as he gripped her chin and forced her to look into his eyes. “Now why don’t I go run a bath for you and then we can spend the rest of the day in bed.”

____________________End Trigger Warning____________________

“Y-Y-Yes. Th-That sounds lovely.” Willa stuttered out as she stared into those cold, brown eyes. All she could see in them was rage and hatred. She smiled through her tears and the pain trying to convey to him her submission. Nodding, Tony stood up and left the room. Willa listen as he walked up the stairs and into the bedroom closing the door behind him. He was confident that she wouldn’t leave now.

Willa struggled to her feet and softly walked to the door. She grabbed her purse from the floor and opened the door. She ran outside and down the street. Lucky for her, she was three blocks from a bus stop. Running there she was just in time to catch it. She paid and sat down. Pulling her phone out she scrolled through her phone looking for a number she had never thought to call again. She wasn’t even sure if it still was his number, but it was worth a shot. She pressed the call button and held the phone to her ear. It rang several times before his voice came through, “Hello?”

“Baz.” Willa said as she broke down sobbing on the bus.

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#sebastian stan #sebastianstanxofc #sebastian stan slow burn #sebastian stan angst #sebastian stan fluff #sebstian stan smut

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drawlfoy · 5 years

Text

Mirror, Mirror P.3

masterlist request guidelines requests are open! just please be sure to read my guidelines before sending one in :)

pairing: draco x femravenclaw!reader

request: the original idea is all mine, but p.3 has been requested

summary: while on their prefect rounds, y/n runs into both an issue and a mirror that she knows nothing about (but her partner certainly does).

warnings: foul language, light physical violence. i hesitated to write the slap since i don’t believe that anyone should ever hit someone. especially in a romantic relationship. but also this is magic and fictional and this draco is getting on my damned nerves

a/n: fr i’m so flattered that you all wanted a third part, i really am, but oh my GOD this particular draco is being such an intolerable dickwad and not cooperating with anything that i want him to do. thank you for your patience

music recs: i listened to the hp soundtrack while writing this so that’s pretty meta

word count: 1,239

tags! tags! @accio-rogers @geeksareunique

Y/N huffed as she stamped off to find Professor Flitwick, her hair falling loose from her bun as the sharp movements jerked it out of place.

That git that git that git that git that git....

How had he known? Y/N was secretive and so were her friends...as far as she was aware of. Perhaps she had fallen asleep in Potions that day and uttered her undying love for her fantasy Malfoy, but while the Slytherins were cunning and sly, there was no way they all wouldn’t have laughed at her. And she wasn’t even tired, thanks to the Wide-Eye she was permitted to take after her 10-12 shifts.

She was pondering the thought as she neared the end of an unfamiliar hallway, suddenly struck with the realization that while she was deep in concentration, she had missed the turn to Flitwick’s office. The end of the corridor was oddly familiar, though, and when she turned to the left, she knew why.

The mirror she had seen with Draco was right in front of her. If she squinted in the dark, she could make out the letters ERISED on the top, something she committed to memory for her next library visit. But before she could spend too much on her many tricks to memorize a word, a movement in the mirror distracted her.

“Aah! Malfoy!”

He had appeared next to her, gazing into the mirror with a teasing expression on his face. A smirk formed as he closed the distance, resting his chin on top of her head and shutting his eyes contently.

The only problem with the picture was that when Y/N looked to her side, Malfoy was nowhere to be seen. He only existed in the mirror, and it appeared as though her reflection wasn’t a perfect copy as well when she looked closer. Y/N was donning formal ministry robes that only high ranking members of the Ministry wore...the very career path she wanted to follow. She laughed, lacing her fingers through Malfoy’s and squeezing.

Y/N watched, speechless, as the pieces all began to fall into place. Just like the many riddles she had had to solve in the past to enter her common room, the confusion slowly drifted away until she was left, staring right at the answer.

Erised was simply the word Desire reflected. She desired a high ranking career in the Ministry and Draco Malfoy. That was no secret, at least not to her.

But Malfoy knew now. She had confessed to seeing their reflection in the mirror when she was holding onto his sleeve to make him stop. While she thought the claim of it being a regular old mirror innocent enough, she had been dead wrong. And, somehow, he had known what the mirror was.

Now she had to find Professor Flitwick.

“That’s kind of funny,” Rena admitted, dicing her beetroot with practiced precision. “But mortifying. What are you gonna do?”

Y/N sighed, adding her own ingredients to the shared cauldron between them. “I don’t know. I talked to Flitwick, but he refuses to switch us. Something about house unity and maturity. I would push harder, but I want him to choose me as a prefect next year too, so I’ve just got to roll with the punches.”

“So how are you going to act around him? Are you gonna be the same or come clean?”

“Well, he knows now,” Y/N mused. “But I was thinking that instead, I could tell him that he was getting his knickers in a twist about nothing because I went back there and just saw my simple reflection.”

“That’s evil, and you know it.”

“You say that as if he’s not evil.”

“Fair, fair.”

The two worked in silence, finishing up the extra credit assignment in the cold dungeon air. Y/N shivered as she began cleaning up the ingredients and noticed that Rena was yawning profusely.

“Rena, you don’t need to stay. I know you stayed up late studying last night. I’ll take care of it, you hurry up to our dorm and I’ll be there soon with some tea.”

Rena smiled. “You sure? You don’t look too well-rested yourself.”

“Absolutely. You forget that I fell asleep watching you lean over your desk last night. You deserve to sleep a little more.”

“Okay. Love you, Y/N!”

“Love you too.”

Rena skipped off, suddenly revived. Y/N rolled her eyes but smiled after her, gathering up the rest of the ingredients and washing the cauldron.

While she knew that she had done the right thing sending Rena back to their room, she couldn’t help but wish that she hadn’t. The dungeons were creepy at all times of the day, but especially so if it was 11pm and you were alone. Y/N thought that she had heard some suspicious sounds from the corridor but brushed off the notion.

No one’s down here except for the Slytherins, and they’re all holed up in their swanky common room.

Ah, yes, the Slytherins. Y/N cringed at the thought. She was in Malfoy’s territory, something she wasn’t too pleased about. The most disobedient part of her mind wanted to catch a glimpse of Malfoy in his natural habitat, but she knew that that was a bad idea.

Before she knew it, her station was completely clear and it was time for her to depart into the dark and freezing corridor. Gross. She didn’t understand how Rena had managed to look so cheery skipping into a corridor that probably had its own budding rat civilization.

She shut the door quietly behind her, hissing as a water droplet fell on top of her head. The chill as it slipped down her neck caused her to yelp, jumping nearly a foot in the air. In her surprise, she almost didn’t hear the amused snort from the shadows somewhere to her left.

“Who’s there?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

Shit. She could recognize that drawl anywhere.

Draco Malfoy stepped into the dim lighting by the torch, wearing his signature silk suit. Does he ever take that off? His hair was annoyingly nice looking considering how late it was, and its silver glow, brought out by the torchlight, made her knees weak.

He cocked his head expectantly, waiting for her scathing comeback. She just stared, her eyes wide and dilated from the dark. What could she say to him?

“I went back to the mirror after our rounds.” The words just tumbled out of her mouth, quick and shaky.

“And?” His mouth quirked and his eyes sparkled.

“And I don’t know why you’re so enchanted by it. I just saw my reflection again.”

He frowned, but she could still see a shadow of amusement dance across his features. “Really, now?”

Y/N was frozen in place, but she so desperately wanted to run away from the situation. “Er...yeah?”

Before another word could come out of his very well-shaped mouth, the frozen spell over her had broken and she was already speeding halfway down the hall.

“Hey! I wasn’t done talking to you!”

Refusing to look back, she turned to the stairs and began jogging up them, praying that he couldn’t hear her feet on the stone as she was literally running away from him.

This was so, so embarrassing. Ravenclaws didn’t run, they remained and outsmarted their opponents with their wit and wisdom. But, for some reason, when it came to Draco Malfoy, all of that went away.

final a/n: so the wait for this one was long and it didn’t even turn out that cool, but i want a lot more time to actually construct the next meeting of them during their rounds, and that should be out soon. i’m sorry for making this one so short!! i’m thinking there will be either 1 long part or 2 more short parts before the end of this is reached. thanks for reading!

#draco #draco malfoy #draco x reader #draco malfoy x reader #draco malfoy imagine #draco imagine #draco x y/n #draco x oc #draco x you #draco malfoy x y/n #draco malfoy x oc #draco malfoy x you #slytherin #ravenclaw reader #harry potter imagine

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butchbella · 4 years

Text

a (mostly) comprehensive comics guide to james buchanan “bucky” barnes / the winter soldier.

this is my simple attempt to make comics accessible, for both seasoned readers & folks that know nothing about comics and just want to see more of bucky.

key

[ ▶ ] personal favorites & best-of-bucky moments

[ ✘ ] non-essentials & blink-and-you-miss-it appearances

[ ⚑ ] marvel event; typically do not directly feature bucky but impact the universe/him in some way

[ ★ ] ongoing / still being released as of january 2020

[ ☗ ] indicates that i haven’t read this myself & can’t be sure of how involved bucky is

last updated: february 6, 2020

golden age comics

[ ✘ ] captain america comics (1941) #1-12

[ ✘ / ☗ ] young allies (1941-1946) #1-8

[ ✘ / ☗ ] all-winners comics (1941-1947) #1-21

[ ✘ ] quick note:

none of these are essentials. if you are a history buff or are interested in the roots of the characters, these might interest you. however, please take note that while there are some cute/fun scenes & these have historic significance as early anti-nazi messages from jewish writers, these comics are deeply “of their time” and full of overtly racist caricatures & many other deeply problematic themes/images, and i generally would recommend avoiding these.

silver age comics & beyond

[ ☗ ] avengers (1963) #1-20

[ ☗ ] avengers classic (2007) #1-12

(reprints of 1963, w/ new stories)

[ ☗ ] tales of suspense (1959) #63-71

[ ☗ ] giant-size invaders (1975) #1;invaders (1975-1979) #1-22; annual (1977); marvel premiere #29-30; avengers #71; invaders #23-41; giant-size invaders 2; what if? (1977) 4; invaders (1993) #1-4

[ ✘ ] fantastic four annual (1976) #11

(the fantastic four go back in time to wwii and help the invaders stop the nazis from winning the war with vibranium. 40s kid bucky plays a small part here.)

90s / almost modern comics

[ ✘ ] adventures of captain america (1991) #1-4

(a 90s retelling of captain america’s origins - some interesting panels, but nonessential.)

[ ☗ ] marvel universe (1998) #1-7

captain america: sentinel of liberty (1998) #12

(1940s cap & bucky adventure, featuring some cute “what comes next” dialogue)

captain america vol 3 (1998, dan jurgens era) #32, #48, #50

(#32 is a wwii story told from the perspective of someone cap & bucky saved (brief bucky cameos), but #48 ends with a beautiful funeral/memorial scene honoring bucky & featuring rebecca barnes.)

[ ✘ ] captain america annual (2001) #1

(dan jurgens era cap story; offers a new 40s invaders story in which cap is captured by the red skull; president bush is in it for some reason)

modern backstory

[ ▶ ] captain america: man out of time (2010) #1-5

(modern retelling of origins; great starting place to get familiar with bucky and steve in 616 and incredibly heart-warming.)

[ ▶ ] captain america: white (2015) #1-5

(another retelling, featuring some gorgeous art and a letter “to” bucky)

captain america comics 70th anniversary special (2009) #1

(40s bucky narrates steve’s origin story again, providing some new context from before project rebirth.)

the marvels project (2009) #1-8

(a modern retelling of several major characters, including steve & bucky, by ed brubaker)

[ ▶ / ✘ ] history of the marvel universe (2019) #1-6

(don’t start here; this creates a general marvel timeline of the whole universe/events/etc)

self-contained stories

[ ✘ ] captain america: the 1940s newspaper strip (2010) #1-3

(a reimagining of the 40s cap comics as mini ‘newspaper’ strips. cute idea but nonessential.)

[ ▶ ] captain america annual (2018) #1

(1940s cap & bucky run into jewish, romani, & gay camp escapees.)

[ ▶ ] winter soldier: the bitter march (2014) #1-5

(1960s political thriller on a train, featuring some incredible sad dialogue)

[ ▶ ] marvel comics presents (2019) #7

(remembering a 1968 winter soldier mission; see some of ‘bucky’s’ kindness escaping)

pop secret exclusive comic (2016) #1

(not really a full comic; promotional pamphlet in a popcorn box ft bucky & black panther, linked [here])

[ ▶ ] a year of marvels: july infinite comic (2016) #1

(bucky’s shit is stolen and he wants it back)

[ ▶ ] winter soldier: second chances (2018) #1-5

(included below, but can be read as self-contained; a post-winter soldier journey about healing; bucky has a cat, goes to therapy, is friends with sharon, ‘adopts’ a kid - all good)

main storyline (earth-616)

[ ▶ ] captain america vol. 5 (2004-2011, aka: brubaker era) #1-21; 65th anniversary special

(this is often recommended as a starting place for bucky comics, and for good reason - the plot tends to be pretty good, the winter soldier is introduced for the first time, etc. not my personal favorite *comic* generally, but vital for understanding bucky in 616. in tpbs: winter soldier ultimate collection & red menace ultimate collection.)

[ ▶ ] wolverine (2003) #36-40

(“origins and endings” arc, set after house of m. wolverine regains memories of his life, some of which involve bucky. shows a pretty dark and grim side of bucky and his time as the winter soldier, & is a pretty well-paced mini-arc overall.)

[ ▶ ] wolverine: origins (2006) #1-30

(this is a continuation of the story mentioned above (wolverine #36-40) with wolverine unraveling his memories/past and finding his son. bucky comes in around issue #15 and pretty consistently stays until around issue #30. we see a really interesting, darker take on bucky’s wwii days, as well as modern bucky working with logan.)

[ ⚑ / ✘ ] civil war (2006) #1-6; civil war: the confession

(if i remember correctly, this “marvel event” does not feature bucky at all - not a single panel - but is vital context for the second half of the brubaker era. read the wikipedia summary if you’d prefer to skip it.)

fallen son: the death of captain america (2007) #1, #5

(#1 is a wolverine-centric story immediately following the death of captain america in civil war. the opening pages involve bucky and logan, and while nonessential are quite well done and interesting. #5 focuses on the two funerals of steve rogers & includes blink-and-you-miss-it bucky.)

[ ▶ ] captain america vol. 5 continued (2004-2011, aka: brubaker era) #22-42; winter soldier: winter kills; #43-48

(bucky!cap begins during this arc. brubaker era continued. “the death of captain america” & “the man with no face” arcs.)

[ ▶ ] young avengers presents patriot (2008) #1

(this is most interesting if you read the young avengers comics & ‘truth: red, white, and black’ first - but still an exceptionally sweet short story.)

[ ▶ ] avengers/invaders (2008) #1-12

(bucky!cap comic; 1940s invaders are transported to 2008, 1940s bucky’s war journals)

[ ⚑ / ✘ ] secret invasion (2008) #1-8

(this event bored me to tears, but i do think buck is in a few panels.)

the new avengers (2010) #48-60

(after the secret invasion, bucky!cap creates his own team of avengers.)

free comic book day avengers (2009) #1

(a short story where the avengers go toe-to-toe with another god. set during the lead-up to the siege event. has a few cute panels of bucky!cap.)

[ ▶ ] young allies comics 70th anniversary special (2009) #1

(super good; bucky!cap contemplating what it means for all his friends to be dead, dealing with the weight of the cap mantle - and reunites with some old friends.)

[ ▶ ] captain america: forever allies (2011) #1-4

(modern bucky!cap revisiting his old friends and an old young allies mystery.)

captain america vol. 5 continued (2004-2011, aka: brubaker era) #49-50; #600-601

(this is called the “road to reborn” which is going to spark another change in re: cap.)

captain america: reborn (2009) #1-6

(continues the brubaker storyline, just under a different name.)

[ ⚑ / ▶ ] siege (2009) #1-4

(the rare enjoyable marvel event; bucky has a pretty decent role in this one, too.)

new avengers: siege (2009) aka new avengers #61-64; new avengers annual #3; dark reign: the list - avengers; new avengers finale

(continues the new avengers storyline and leads through the siege event. features this scene with bucky!cap saying he killed hitler.)

siege: captain america (2009) #1

(bucky!cap and steve!cap team up.)

avengers: the initiative (2007) #34

(while he also shows up briefly and inconsequentially in #19 and #35, there is actually a good chunk of #34 set during the siege event featuring bucky!cap and steve!cap working together against the taskmaster - pretty fun stuff.)

captain america vol. 5 continued (2004-2011, aka: brubaker era); #602-605; who will wield the shield?

(brubaker continued. “two americas” tpb.)

fall of the hulks: gamma (2009) #1

(i personally haven’t read any hulk stories, so this was hard for me to follow. however, bucky!cap does seem to feature quite prominently in this issue.)

world war hulks (2010) #1

(continues the fall of the hulks storyline. bucky!cap features in the mini story arc ‘nobody dies forever’ and tells a story from his time as the winter soldier.)

hulk (2008) #21-22

(part of the ‘fall of the hulks’ and ‘world war hulks’ storyline, where bucky!cap plays a small role and becomes a gamma-infused hulk.)

[ ▶ ] world war hulks: captain america vs wolverine (2010) #1-2

(some more hulk stuff, but this one is actually pretty fun - bucky!cap and logan are in a hulked out rage, which triggers memories of another fight they had in bucky’s winter soldier days.)

avengers vol. 4 (2010) #1-6; #12.1; #16

(bucky!cap joins the avengers. we meet james rogers.)

[ ✘ ] invaders now! (2010) #1-5

(bucky does have a major role, but this isn’t essential to the timeline nor particularly good imo - if you want to skip something, this might be it.)

captain america vol. 5 continued (2004-2011, aka: brubaker era); #606-610; #611-615, #615.1; #616-619

(brubaker continued. “no escape”, “the trial of captain america”, & “prisoner of war” arcs)

captain america vol. 5 continued (2004-2011, aka: brubaker era); #620-624; #625-628

(brubaker continued. not continuous to the story, alternatively titled “captain america and bucky” - “the life story of bucky barnes” and “old wounds.”)

fear itself: the book of the skull (2011) #1

(provides some context to red skull, sin, baron zemo, and hydra in the lead-up to the fear itself event. features flashbacks to sidekick bucky in the 40s.)

[ ⚑ / ▶ ] fear itself (2010) #1-7; and fear itself: captain america (2010) #7.1

(another event that is actually pretty good & majorly features bucky - essential for the story. bucky officially gives up the captain america mantle.)

secret avengers vol 1 (2011) #15

(this issue involves natasha in the wake of bucky’s death during the fear itself arc. in it, she talks with a group of clickbait reporters about mortality and grief and loss. bucky doesn’t feature centrally, but there’s a strong bucky!nat focus here.)

[ ▶ ] winter soldier (2012) #1-19

(more from ed brubaker; includes the arcs “the longest winter,” “broken arrow,” “black widow hunt,” and “the electric ghost.” uneven, but mostly very good arc about finding redemption.)

[ ✘ ] captain america vol 7 (2013) #1-25

(at the end of this run is where sam wilson takes on the captain america mantle. bucky appears in #13 in a winter soldier flashback and #20 in a fantasy sequence, but otherwise this isn’t essential.)

[ ✘ ] all-new invaders (2014) #1-15

(not my favorite, but it’s okay - a rebooted modern team of invaders.)

[ ⚑ ] original sin (2014) #1-8

(the arc where bucky becomes the man on the wall. a small-scale, space/murder mystery-esque event that is pretty fun.)

[ ✘ ] bucky barnes: the winter soldier (2015)

(man on the wall bucky. personally, i count this one as nonessential - it’s very abstract and not very cohesive. not much happens, so don’t feel bad if you skip it.)

[ ⚑ / ✘ ] secret wars (2015) #1-9

(non-essential reading for bucky; just know that some weird things happen with alternate universes here.)

all-new, all-different avengers vol 1 (2016) #8-9

(part of the stand-off event. we see the winter soldier with nadia van dyne, & a panel with the three captain americas introducing stand-off omega.)

[ ⚑ / ▶ ] avengers: standoff (2015); welcome to pleasant hill prologue; assault on pleasant hill alpha; captain america: sam wilson #7-8; assault on pleasant hill omega; captain america: steve rogers #1-2; #4

(the titling here gets very silly, so this is a hodgepodge of various issues; the pleasant hill issues are essential, and the full sam wilson/steve rogers runs are pretty good if you’d prefer to slow down and appreciate them. there’s a very comprehensive guide [here].)

[ ▶ ] thunderbolts (2016) #1-6; #7-12

(bucky starts leading the thunderbolts (a group of morally dubious heroes) & looks after a traumatized child-thing. super good. #7 begins the secret empire tie-ins, see below.)

[ ⚑ ] secret empire (2017) #0-10; secret empire: omega (2017); captain america: steve rogers (2016) #16; captain america vol 8 (2017) #25

(it’s a tricky choice to include this, because while the art in these is often very good & the secret empire arc encompasses the majority of sam wilson’s (incredible) time as captain america, this event was very controversial - primarily because steve rogers “becomes” hydra. i think you should still read it if you’d like to, but engage with it with a critical lens. there’s a good guide to the reading order of this run [here].)

[ ▶ ] tales of suspense: hawkeye & winter soldier (2017) #100-104

(this one is a fan favorite and for good reason. post-secret empire hijinks as bucky and clint barton try to solve a mystery. there’s a big russian bear involved.)

[ ✘ / ★ ] captain america vol 9 (2017; aka: ta-nehisi coates era) #1-?

(so far, features only minor appearances of bucky - but still a pretty interesting take on post-secret empire steve rogers)

[ ▶ ] winter soldier: second chances (2018) #1-5

(included above as well; a post-winter soldier journey about healing; bucky has a cat, goes to therapy, is friends with sharon, ‘adopts’ a kid - all good.)

invaders (2019) #1-12

(a cool modern invaders story that centers around their relationships to namor.)

[ ⚑ / ✘ / ▶ ] war of the realms (2019) #1-6

(war of the realms is a truly incredible event featuring many years of build-up in the jason aaron thor canon, which you can follow [here]. however, it only features a few quick panels of bucky - so if you have no interest at all in thor, you may want to skip this.)

war of the realms: strikeforce - the war avengers (2019) #1

(another team-up where bucky plays a role during the war of the realms - a quick issue, and pretty fun.)

[ ▶ / ★ ] strikeforce (2019) #1-?

(bucky joins a different strikeforce team, where he and a team ft. billy kaplan, blade, monica rambeau, etc face a post-war of the realms foe. super, super fun.)

guest appearances

black widow: deadly origin (2010) #1-4

(a black widow origin story with some bucky history involved; features a pretty misogynistic storyline about natasha, though.)

black widow vol 4 (2010) #1-8

(heavy on the buckynat romance, if that is your thing.)

[ ▶ ] black widow vol 5 (2014) #8, #15, #17, #18

(a gorgeous series illustrated by phil noto that heavily features glimpses of bucky!nat after the memory loss in winter soldier 2013 #14. bucky is also in #12 of this run in a blink-and-you-miss-it panel.)

[ ▶ ] black widow vol 6 (2017) #8-10

(“stop pining, schoolboy.” these issues have a bunch of buckynat, also in the wake of natasha’s memory loss.)

[ ▶ ] the web of black widow (2019) #1-5

(bucky’s appearance is mainly in one issue, but this is still a lovely arc about friendship and trust.)

[ ✘ ] hawkeye & mockingbird (2010) #1, #5

(bucky!cap makes two brief appearances in this run, helping bobbi morse and clint barton.)

[ ▶ / ★ ] hawkeye: freefall (2020) #1-?

(ongoing comic by acclaimed team; so far, very fun vibes between clint, bucky, and sam in #1.)

punisher: war journal (2006) #11

(in this issue, bucky invites punisher to a fight after he dons cap’s uniform.)

punisher: war machine vol 2 (2016) #224-228

(some fun bucky scenes, but nonessential.)

[ ✘ ] punisher vol 12 (2018) #4-5

(“world war frank,” post-secret empire. bucky has a small role fighting against the punisher.)

[ ✘ ] punisher (2019) #16

(bucky is in a few panels on a team with natasha, nick fury, etc.)

captain america and the falcon (2004) #5-7

(disassembled-era story. in these issues, we see steve having hallucinations of bucky – and mourning a prized photo of bucky he keeps in his apartment.)

[ ✘ ] cable & deadpool (2004) #45

(deadpool goes back in time to kill captain america for hydra. lots of baby bucky being especially ‘feisty,’ but nothing essential plotwise.)

[ ✘ ] thunderbolts (2006) #125, #137

(completely nonessential. these taken place during secret invasion and dark reign/siege, respectively. bucky!cap appears in the background a few times.)

[ ✘ ] new avengers: the reunion (2009) #1-4

(short story set after the events of secret invasion, where mockingbird (bobbi morse) reunites with former husband clint barton. the first two issues feature bucky!cap in a supporting role.)

[ ✘ ] agents of atlas (2009) #3-5

(bucky!cap and the avengers go up against the agents of atlas, in the dark reign/siege era. nonessential, but shows an interesting twist in bucky’s story that doesn’t really ever go anywhere.)

invincible iron man (2008) #8-19; #20-22

(this covers iron man’s story between secret invasion and siege, where bucky!cap plays a small role in tony’s fight against osborn alongside black widow and maria hill.)

[ ✘ ] amazing spider-man (1999) #523, 537, 600, 601, 637, 648, 661

(most of these are set approximately during dark reign, where osborn is in charge and bucky!cap is teamed up with peter parker, et al. mostly just in the background of a few panels, nothing important here.)

[ ✘ ] avengers vs atlas (2010) #1, #4

(the original 60s avengers team replaces the current bucky!cap avengers team for this short team-up arc with the agents of atlas. bucky isn’t in this much, so it’s skippable.)

tails of the pet avengers: dogs of summer (2010) #1

(in the second story of this collection, bucky!cap, thor, and iron man team up – and get turned into frogs.)

avengers vs pet avengers (2010) #1-4

(bucky!cap, iron man, and thor are frogs. they team up with the pet avengers, led by throg - the frog thor.)

[ ▶ ] wolverine: weapon x (2009) #11-15

(a fun arc that starts with steve rogers on a pub crawl. this is one of the few times bucky!cap is used to full advantage, and it’s glorious.)

i am an avenger (2010) #2, #4, #5

(a collection of a bunch of little short stories focusing, primarily, on off-times and side-battles. includes one called ‘a little help’ where bucky!cap inspires a suicidal teen to seek help.)

[ ✘ ] captain america and the falcon (2011) #1

(an issue that centers on sam wilson/the falcon. includes a nice moment with bucky!cap in the beginning, but he doesn’t play a central role.)

captain america and batroc (2011) #1

(an issue that centers on batroc the leaper. features a fight between bucky!cap and batroc.)

[ ✘ ] x-club (2011) #1, #4

(40s sidekick bucky appears alongside the invaders in a few flashback panels that provide context for this mutant story.)

captain america: hail hydra (2011) #1, #5

(a short series showing how hydra and steve have intersected throughout history. the first and last issues feature bucky - first as sidekick baby bucky and later as bucky!cap.)

a+x (2012) #1

(40s captain america and bucky team up with time-hopping cable to fight against some robots. pretty fun stuff.)

secret avengers vol 2 (2013) #9, #16

(bucky plays a small role here as the winter soldier. i didn’t read the full run so i don’t entirely understand his role, but he seems to team up with bobbi morse/mockingbird and daisy johnson/quake against shield/maria hill’s policy of altering agents’ memories. also hinted that they vacation to hawaii together.)

[ ✘ ] marvel 75th anniversary celebration (2014) #1

(this issue is a collection of mini-stories, released as part of the 75th anniversary stuff. the first two feature one panel of bucky-as-winter-soldier in flashback and a 40s stan lee original classic text story adapted into modern comics.)

[ ✘ ] secret empire: brave new world (2017) #5

(bucky appears briefly in the namor mini-story, sanctuary. he has the thunderbolts arm and a little bun in these panels.)

rise of the black panther (2018) #3

(fills in some gaps following fantastic four #52 from 1966, after they are invited to wakanda. this details the process of king t’challa opening the lands up to international affairs. as the winter soldier, bucky is involved in a russian assassination attempt.)

[ ✘ ] uncanny x-men (2019) #11

(natasha and bucky meet up with logan for a few panels. there’s a mutant hate rally ongoing, and the x-men are working to stop it.)

captain marvel (2019) #6

(a war of the realms issue that opens with a team-up of natasha and bucky. eventually, nat goes off to work with captain marvel, however.)

[ ✘ ] gwenpool strikes back (2019) #3

(gwenpool is doing weird shit, bucky is hanging out on the beach with steve in a few panels.)

[ ✘ ] marvel (2019) #1000-1001

(a bunch of mostly disjointed one-page comics to celebrate marvel’s 80th, has a few cute pages with bucky)

[ ▶ ] unstoppable wasp: unlimited (2019) #7-10

(read this whole series - #1-10 if you can; incredibly tender scenes with former red room trainee & forgiveness themes; lgbt youth & mental illness)

[ ✘ ] avengers: no road home (2019) #10

(the vision manifests bucky & many others to help aid in a fight. he’s seen in a few big battle panels.)

ruins of ravencroft: dracula (2020) #1

(related to the upcoming ravencroft event. in it, bucky narrates a previous run-in with the ravencroft institute. heavily features 40s kid bucky and cap fighting dracula and an american eugenics research program.)

alternate universes

what if? (1977) #5

(this issue asks: what if captain america and bucky hadn’t died in wwii? in it, steve starts to age - and bucky takes on the mantle of captain america.)

[ ✘ ] what if? vol 2 (1991) #28

(this issue asks: what if erskine didn’t die, and there was an army of supersoldiers? unfortunately, it takes a very nick spencer-esque approach and turns steve rogers into a racist, fascist, eugenicist president. bucky features in a very minor role - he never goes to battle because he isn’t a supersoldier. skip this one.)

[ ✘ ] what if? vol 2 (1998) #105

(bucky is not in the main story here, just in a small doodle on the fan letters page. there’s a mini two-panel ‘story’ that asks: what if bucky hadn’t died in wwii, and came back to fight alongside steve as an old man?)

[ ✘ ] what if? (2005) #1

(what if captain america was in the civil war instead of wwii? this introduces an evil, ‘white skull’ bucky barnes. it also features some pretty grotesque appropriate of indigenous customs and other assorted racisms and bastardizes bucky’s key personality traits. skip it.)

[ ✘ ] what if: house of m (2008) #1

(what if the scarlet witch said ‘no more powers’ instead of ‘mutants’? bucky appears in just a few quick panels.)

civil war: house of m (2008) #1-5

(confusingly, has nothing to do with civil war. this is a “house of m” alternative universe where bucky is sent to kill magneto.)

[ ✘ ] what if: world war hulk (2009) #1

(what if the heroes lost world war hulk? briefly features winter soldier bucky barnes, who dies.)

what if: secret invasion (2010) #1

(what if the skrulls won the secret invasion? bucky!cap is a part of a resistance team, and kills norman osborn.)

what if wolverine: father (2010) #1

(what if logan found the winter soldier killing his wife, and got to raise his son daken? bucky dies in the beginning of this one, for obvious reasons.)

what if? dark reign (2010) #1

(what if clint barton succeeded at killing norman osborn? bucky!cap, bobbi, and spider-man hunt down clint, hoping they get to him before the rest of the world does.)

[ ✘ ] what if? (2011) #200

(what if norman osborn won the siege of asgard? sentry decapitates steve rogers/cap in front of bucky!cap.)

[ ▶ ] planet hulk: warzones (2015) #1-5

(au of implied stevebucky, where they are beefy gladiator-type warriors)

[ ▶ ] battleworld: runaways (2015) #1-4

(a moody teen!bucky alternate universe.)

[ ✘ ] 1872 (2015) #1-4

(in this western alternate universe, bucky barnes was sheriff steve rogers’s deputy & the wife of natasha. he is only depicted once, in a photograph.)

[ ✘ ] a-force (2016) #5

(features a brief but cute cameo where bucky is called a heroine.)

1602 witch hunter angela (2015) #1

(in this battleworlds alternate universe, witchhunters angela and serah [a wlw couple] hunt down and kill captain james barnes of clan buchanan, who transforms into a monster.)

batman/captain america (1996) #1

(in the 40s, bucky and steve team up with batman and robin in this dc / marvel crossover comic. there’s some very cute stuff with bucky and robin.)

[ ✘ ] the ultimates (2002) #1-13

(frankly, i hate this because everyone is an asshole. there’s a whole lot of things set in this universe if you seek them out. bucky didn’t tragically “die” in the 40s and instead marries steve’s fiance and grows old with her.)

wolverine (2003) #66-74

(most of these issues are from the ‘old man logan’ run, and feature bucky!cap in a few panels.)

old man hawkeye (2018) #6-8

(bucky features as the winter soldier with glowing red eyes - after the events shown in the old man logan flashbacks. he’s put on a mission for the bad guys, and then dies.)

[ ✘ ] bullet points (2006) #1-6

(a ‘what if’ dr. erskine died before giving steve the serum; steve becomes iron man; bucky has two small roles in this, but nothing too major)

[ ✘ ] marvel zombies vs the army of darkness (2007) #2

(there’s a zombified winter soldier featured on a single page, where he’s killed by ashley.)

marvel zombies destroy! (2015) #1-5

(in this one, bucky is a nazi zombie & member of the invaders. in the last issue, we see his demise.)

[ ✘ ] marvel apes (2008) #1-4

(a weird story where everyone is an ape and ape-cap and ape-bucky are vampires. skip it.)

[ ✘ ] marvel apes: amazing spider-monkey special (2009) #1

(spins out of the above ‘marvel apes’ story, and features a quick update on what happens to ape-bucky after the vampires are defeated.)

[ ✘ ] world war hulks: hulked-out heroes (2010) #2

(hulkpool, captain america, and 40s bucky briefly team-up in this issue.)

captain america corps (2011) #1-5

(takes place in the lead-up to bucky turning himself in in the brubaker issue #611. captain americas of the multiverse are going missing, and john walker, 40s cap, bucky cap, a sharon cap, and a future descendent of luke cage cap all team up.)

a-babies vs x-babies (2012) #1

(‘bucky bear’ features centrally, with great/cute art by gurihiru.)

rebecca “rikki” barnes / nomad

captain america vol 2 (1996) #1-12

(heroes reborn era marvel, which was super unpopular for good reason. this introduces rebecca ‘rikki’/‘bucky’ barnes, the child of richard barnes and peggy carter barnes in a pocket universe created by franklin richards.)

[ ✘ ] heroes reborn the return (1997) #3-4

(rikki barnes says goodbye to cap/steve in this, as the heroes reborn era wraps up and the universe returns to normal.)

[ ✘ ] heroes reborn: young allies (2000) #1

(truly this is a mess and not worthwhile at all. in short, it’s an alternative universe version of the young allies, led by rikki barnes, with a hard to follow and bizarre plot.)

exiles vol 1 (2006) #81-82

(the pocket universe where rikki is from has been removed and placed in the 616-universe. rikki’s young allies and exiles team up to stop proteus from destroying the pocket planet.)

onslaught reborn (2007) #1-5

(onslaught, the villain involved in the creation of the pocket verse by franklin richards, returns in the wake of the genocide in house of m. in the pocket verse, rikki narrates the events leading to her death, which then draw her into a post-civil war/cap’s death 616.)

nomad: girl without a world (2009) #1-4

(rikki barnes takes on steve’s old title - nomad - and deals with the jarring move to a new reality. bucky!cap appears a few times in this one, too!)

captain america (2005) b-sides #600, #602-615

(pretty solid stuff - rikki barnes is acclimating to the 616 universe, and she teams up with anya corazon/spider-girl, patriot, steve rogers, & black widow.)

[ ☗ ] spider-girl (2010) #1-6

[ ☗ ] young allies (2011) #1-6

[ ☗ ] avengers academy (2011) #13

[ ☗ ] onslaught unleashed (2011) #1-4

[ ☗ ] exiles vol 3 (2018) #1-12

[ ☗ ] future foundation (2019) #1-5

mcu-verse bucky

[ ▶ ] captain america: first vengeance (2011) #1-8

(a captain america: the first avenger comic that shows a ton of extra content not in the movies, like bucky taking steve boxing & bucky meeting the howling commandos at azzano.)

[ ▶ ] captain america civil war prelude infinite (2016) #1

(a really beautiful short comic that shows the immediate fall-out of the final events of the winter soldier film.)

marvel’s avengers: infinity war prelude (2018) #1

(covers events immediately following civil war, including bucky’s move to wakanda.)

marvel’s black widow prelude (2020) #1

(comic that provides some background for natasha’s history in the lead-up to the black widow film. there’s a page that gives a brief overview of natasha and bucky’s mcu-verse relationship - which, notably, does not place him in the red room program.)

[ ✘ ] quick note: other prelude comics

(if you’re a big bucky fan, you might like to know that there are other prelude comics about the mcu films specifically. i’m not including them as must-reads because, unlike the others listed above, they add no new info - they are mostly line-by-line and scene-by-scene comic renderings of the films, which i found quite dull. if you’d like to seek them out, try captain america: the first avenger adaptation 2013, marvel’s avengers: civil war prelude 2015 #4 (catws adaptation), marvel's avengers infinity war prelude 2018, marvel’s avengers endgame prelude 2018.)

upcoming or ongoing

captain america vol 9 (2017)

#19 coming february 18, 2020

strikeforce (2019)

#5 coming march 4, 2020

hawkeye: freefall (2020)

#3 coming february 12, 2020

falcon and winter soldier (2020)

#1 coming february 26, 2020

blink-and-you-miss-it appearances

[ ✘ ] quick note:

these are issues commonly included on others’ rec lists for bucky. everything in this section has bucky in the background / in a single panel / in some other inconsequential role that is easily looked over. none of these are worth reading specifically for bucky, unless noted otherwise.

[ ✘ ] deadpool (1997) #0

(bucky is brought ‘back from the dead’ by arnim zola; he’s in about two quick panels. this issue suffers from 90s comics sexism and transphobia, tho.)

[ ✘ ] iron man vol 3 (1998) #73

(features in a single panel in a flashback as told by steve rogers.)

[ ✘ ] deadpool (2002) #61

(from context, it seems that deadpool dies and then in some sort of afterlife finds bucky playing poker with abe lincoln, etc.)

[ ✘ ] mythos: captain america (2008) #1

(a short retelling of steve rogers’ origins with painting-like artwork and heavy-handed patriotism. features a few quick panels of baby bucky that are pretty cute.)

[ ✘ ] secret invasion: front line (2008) #4-5

(story focuses on journalist ben urich during the secret invasion storyline. bucky!cap is in the background in two panels. skippable.)

[ ✘ ] the mighty avengers (2009) #29-31

(occurs after secret invasion and before siege. bucky!cap plays a small role in the battle scenes.)

[ ✘ ] new mutants (2009) #30

(set during dark reign event. in one quick panel, someone has a vision that bucky!cap gets his arm ripped off - see that panel here.)

[ ✘ ] timestorm 2099 (2009) #1-4

(bucky!cap is sort of in the background of a few panels. mostly focuses on spiderman and wolverine and some bizarre future stuff that was hard to follow. imo, skip it.)

[ ✘ ] fantastic four (2009) #569, #584, #588

(once again, while these feature bucky!cap in a few panels/background scenes, this isn’t vital and doesn’t add anything to his story.)

[ ✘ ] ms. marvel (2006) #41-42

(set near dark reign. another two quick panels of bucky!cap with his team, helping out during a battle. there’s a lot of this stuff, as you can see.)

[ ✘ ] incredible hulks (2010) #601, #606, #607, #609

(more bucky!cap saves the day… in the background. also nonessential. there’s a lot of hulks.)

[ ✘ ] dark avengers annual (2010) #1

(bucky!cap appears in a single panel alongside steve rogers, spying on noh-varr pre-siege.)

[ ✘ ] origins of siege (2009) #1

(blink-and-you-miss-it single page that gives a quick summary of bucky!cap’s history.)

[ ✘ ] spider-woman (2010) #7

(another brief blink-and-you-miss-it type appearance, where bucky!cap shows up with the avengers team to aid spider-woman with a foe.)

[ ✘ ] dark avengers (2009) #16

(post-siege, taking in the dark avengers for their crimes. bucky!cap has a small role here as the battle raps up.)

[ ✘ ] siege: embedded (2010) #4

(during & post-siege, with ben urich reporting. bucky!cap appears a few times in the background in battle.)

[ ⚑ / ✘ ] age of heroes (2010) #1

(post-siege, bucky!cap has a few quick cameos in this issue. introduces the heroic age ‘event.’)

[ ✘ ] new avengers vol 2 (2010) #1

(this issue sets up the next new avengers team, which bucky!cap will no longer be on - though he appears in the background once.)

[ ✘ ] heroic age: prince of power (2010) #1

(this focuses on amadeus cho. bucky!cap makes a single-panel background cameo. nonessential.)

[ ✘ ] x-men: legacy (2010) #236

(another brief appearance of bucky!cap coming to save the day with the other avengers.)

[ ✘ ] web of spider-man (2009) #8

(appears in a single panel with the other avengers as bucky!cap. irrelevant to the story.)

all-winners comics 70th anniversary special (2009) #1

(features a story about the all-winners squad, with jeff mace captain america and fred davis bucky – the replacements put in by the government after they disappeared. doesn’t truly feature our bucky except as a sort-of zombie/ghost.)

[ ✘ ] heroic age: one month to live (2010) #5

(bucky!cap appears briefly with the other avengers, where they temporarily induct a hero dying of cancer into the avengers.)

[ ✘ ] uncanny x-men (2010) #525

(bucky!cap appears briefly with the avengers, working alongside the x-men on a mission.)

[ ✘ ] shadowland (2010) #1

(this is a dark daredevil story, and bucky!cap makes a brief appearance here with other avengers.)

[ ✘ ] doomwar (2010) #6

(bucky!cap makes a single cameo in the background of a large group scene at the very end here.)

[ ✘ ] chaos war (2010) #1-2, #5

(a few panels of bucky!cap in this story centering on hercules.)

[ ✘ ] chaos war: dead avengers (2010) #1; #3

(two blink-and-you-miss-it panels of ‘dead’ bucky!cap.)

[ ✘ ] thunderstrike (2010) #2

(small bucky!cap cameo among other avengers during a search-and-rescue / clean-up mission.)

[ ✘ ] the twelve: spearhead (2010) #1

(40s wwii story. features blink-and-you-miss-it appearance where bucky can be seen, in shadow, falling off of the plane to his death in the background.)

[ ✘ ] invincible iron man (2011) #501

(bucky!cap features in a single panel in a meeting with iron man.)

[ ✘ ] all-winners squad: band of heroes (2011) #1-5

(in flashbacks, 40s sidekick bucky features in the background a few times with steve/cap. this story focuses on bringing the aged timely comics c-list characters back.)

[ ✘ ] herc (2011) #4

(bucky!cap appears in a single panel that is included to provide context to what else is happening in the 616 universe during the fear itself event. spoilers for that arc, but no new info here.)

[ ✘ ] heroes for hire (2011) #9-10

(set during fear itself arc. misty knight is monitoring the ongoing battles, bucky!cap features in two quick panels showing the action.)

[ ✘ ] avengers vs x-men: versus (2011) #6

(bucky doesn’t appear, but he and the rick jones bucky are discussed/mourned by cap.)

[ ✘ ] battle scars (2012) #3

(features in a single flashback panel of bucky!cap and steve fighting taskmaster.)

[ ✘ ] deadpool (2012) #49.1

(this is a musical-style rendition recapping the last few years of deadpool’s comics. bucky features in a single panel that harkens back to his role in wolverine: origins.)

[ ✘ ] deadpool: killustrated (2013) #1

(blink-and-you-miss-it appearance where bucky!cap appears as a corpse among a pile of corpses.)

[ ✘ ] deadpool (2013) #17

(40s bucky appears on the very first page in a flashback. the rest is an adventure shared by steve/cap, wolverine, and deadpool.)

[ ✘ ] superior foes of spider-man (2013) #7

(bucky… sort of appears? as a doodle. featured in an interaction between a lawyer and baron zemo. skippable and not really an appearance.)

[ ✘ ] all-new marvel now! point one (2014) #1

(features a bunch of short stories that briefly introduce the major players and storylines of the marvel now era, including the all-new invaders story. features a few brief mentions/panels of bucky.)

[ ✘ ] loki: agent of asgard (2014) #12

(loki makes a quick reference to bucky and the events of bucky barnes: the winter soldier 2015 in this panel.)

[ ✘ ] what if? age of ultron (2014) #4

(blink-and-you-miss-it appearance of 40s kid bucky’s death in a recap panel.)

[ ✘ ] amazing spider-man vol 3 (2014) #1

(blink-and-you-miss-it appearance of bucky barnes as a cardboard cut-out.)

[ ✘ ] secret wars: secret love (2015) #1

(often included on bucky guides, but *incredibly* blink-and-you-miss it panel where we see a very brief background glimpse of buckynat.)

[ ✘ ] inhuman special (2015) #1

(40s bucky appears in a single panel in flashback.)

[ ✘ ] agents of shield (2016) #8

(this is part of the civil war ii event. bucky is shown in a single panel in a large battle scene.)

[ ✘ ] all-new, all-different avengers annual (2016) #1

(ms. marvel’s fanfiction world, come to life. bucky appears in the background of a single panel, on a date[?] at a coffee shop.)

[ ✘ ] guardians of the galaxy vol 4 (2017) #16

(a cute little story about groot on earth. bucky features in a single panel, as part of a large scene depicting many other superheroes at once.)

[ ✘ ] generations: sam wilson captain america & steve rogers captain america (2017) #1

(sam wilson goes back in time and gets to grow old and watch steve rogers in wwii and his younger self much later. a good story, but bucky features only as 40s kid bucky in the background a few times.)

[ ✘ ] unstoppable wasp (2017) #7

(blink-and-you-miss it panel where we learn bucky is a magazine model. a good comic, just not bucky-centric.)

[ ✘ ] unbelievable gwenpool (2017) #16-18

(not really an appearance, but bucky does appear as a doll on gwen’s bedroom shelf.)

[ ✘ ] ant-man & the wasp (2018) #2

(the winter soldier appears in a brief flashback panel, explaining nadia van dyne’s origins with the red room.)

[ ✘ ] cosmic ghost rider destroys marvel history (2019) #4

(no clue what’s happening here, tbh. frank/the punisher is the ghost rider of the future, maybe? there’s a wwii story here, and a few brief glimpses of bucky from the 40s - nothing important.)

[ ✘ ] friendly neighborhood spider-man (2019) #9

(spider-man’s neighbor marnie, also ‘rumor’, tells her story about japanese internment camps. cap and bucky fought with her, and 40s kid bucky is present in one panel.)

[ ✘ ] marvels epilogue (2019) #1

(in one two-page spread showing phil sheldon’s past run-ins with superheroes during his journalism career, a small image of 40s bucky can be seen.)

[ ✘ ] spider-man annual (2019) #1

(bucky appears in a single panel, as a horse.)

amazing spider-man (2020) #38

(j. jonah jameson tours a millennial clickbait newsroom that publishes pieces critical of superheroes. bucky appears responding to a hydra!cap accusation, joining the angry comment section.)

frequently asked questions

where/how can i read comics?

you can search for a local shop [here]. digital comics are also an option. i recommend [marvel unlimited], which you can pay $9.99/mo or $69/yr for almost all marvel comics older than 6 months.if you want to try an issue out before purchasing, there are also sites dedicated to pirating comics - getcomics and readcomiconline being the most popular - but if you can afford to pay, please do.

there is a comic missing from this list! what gives?

i do have an ongoing list of possible bucky appearances mentioned by others that i haven’t vetted myself that you can find on [this google doc]. if not listed there, please feel free to send an ask and recommend with as much detail as possible (title, issue, year, volume, author, etc). if i’ve read it and it isn’t listed here, it probably means that it doesn’t fit my own arbitrary criteria (in the background of a single distant panel, merely mentioned by another character, etc).

i would like to know more about [x]…?

there’s a lot of cool resources for those types of questions. to find more comics about a certain character/event/etc that excites you, try googling “[name] comics reading order guide” or “[x] marvel wikia.“ these pages were really essential for me trying to figure this stuff out: - comic book herald guide to bucky barnes - comic vine’s captain america: the definitive reading guide - marvel wikia’s james buchanan barnes (earth-616) extended history - wikipedia’s bucky barnes page - angela’s comic-bucky tumblr posts; bucky!cap guide - travis starnes’s bucky 616 appearances list

how are comics bucky and movie bucky different?

this is getting harder to answer, because newer writers keep retconing things to fit the movies. but for (most of) the comics above, the stories differ mostly in bucky’s timeline. for most authors, he meets steve for the first time at camp lehigh & doesn’t die by falling off a train, but on an exploding plane. he also does not kill tony’s parents as in the mcu. he is also generally a more well-developed character, by virtue of actually having lines in the comics.

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simplyslytherin · 4 years

Text

Concerning Severus

Number 12 Grimmauld Place wasn't one of Claire's favorite places in the world. Sirius her distant cousin was pleasant enough company, he did love the children and Arthur especially loved when "uncle doggy" came out to play. However, it was the confused calculating look he gave her whenever he heard her call for Severus, her two year old that made her not want to vist much.

"Sirius just ask," she said while playing with Severus's hair. He looked remarkably like Jacob for some reason.

"Why name your boy after Snivellus?"

"He was my head of house."

"From what Harry has told me he is the worst professor of the lot and that's including the ones that tried to kill him,"

"He's strict. Not evil. He would never hurt a student."

"That's not what Harry said he tried to murder that Neville boy's toad."

Claire started to shush Severus he was waking up, "Accio blanket," tucking the blanket around her son, he stopped moving and went back to calm slumber.

"Even if he did do that he wouldn't of killed the toad, he would of found a way to revive it."

"Claire why are you so insistent that Snivellus is a good person?"

"I owe him my life," she looked at Severus moving his blond bangs away from his eyes, "he saved me and helped me start my life with Ben. He is a good man. Why would he help us if that wasn't the case?"

"Let me guess Snivellus used the imperious curse on your father to let you get your things and helped you move out. Oh, and he even let you stay at his house while you completed healer training!" Sirius laughed his sarcastic tone dripping from everyword.

Claire glared at him, "if you wake my baby up your not gonna like what happens Sirius."

"Fine, fine what did he do?"

"He sent some owls for me."

"Sent some owls thats ridiculous! Anyone could do that,"

"Sirius your father had a pensive, right? Go get it please."

He left and return with it a short while later. "I don't see how this will change my opinion on Snivellus."

"Give it a try," she gathered up Severus and started extracting some memories, "I think this should be enough," she tipped the memories into the pensive.

Sirius looked very skeptical but obliged anyway entering the pensive. Claire followed carrying Severus.

The memory was crisp and clear she could see the bags under professor Snapes eyes as he left his classroom. He walked briskly and Claire motioned for Sirius to follow her. Professor Snape rounded a corner clutching his head slightly. He opened a door suddenly to reveal a frazzled crying Claire.

"Miss Reyes, I thought I made it clear that you had to maintain control of your emotions so you wouldn't be accadently attacking other legilimens! As much as I enjoy mental images of you torturing that Skeeter woman, I must insist-"

"She just issued our death warrant." Claire said simply resignation in her voice.

"I beg your pardon?"

Silently she handed him the copy of the Evening Prophet. On the top of the newspaper it read: "old sins rectified as former deatheater's daughter dates muggle born boy!"

The article continued with several quotes from Claire about how supportive her father in particular was, "mum took some time to come around but daddy liked him instantly," one quote read. However, the most damaged part Claire thought was the photo, she and Ben were outside of Honeydukes, she tripped leading to him catching her. The position was very intimate until Ben let her go and stole some of her Fizzing Whizbees as a prize she stole some of his licorice in protest.

"He's gonna kill us both," she said after Professor Snape folded the newspaper, "seven years of keeping Ben safe only for it to be blown by that woman! Mum already said not to send anything by owl or he would have it intercepted, I just have to sit here like a good girl until my execution,"

"That will not happen," Snape said. "We will not let it happen. Expecto patronus," a silver doe burst out of his wand and ran into the castle, "Miss Reyes come with me we have much to do," he swept away Clair following him. "You are friends with the Weasleys, correct?"

"Yes"

"Good," the sliver doe had appeared again and he directed it with his wand and once more it tore through the castle.

"Miss Reyes, contact Mr Copper."

"Expecto patronus," a small sparrowhawk burst through and landed on her arm. "Professor are we meeting in your office?" Snape nodded, "Go find Ben and tell him to meet in Professor Snape's office, its important," she lifted up her arm as the patronus flew away.

The memory faded and she and Sirius found themselves, her younger self, Ben, Mcgonagall, Snape, Dumbledore, and Mr and Mrs Weasley in Dumbledore's office.

Suddenly the fire place light up and out stepped a older witch, her hair looked like she had just enough time to pull it up and she looked uncharacteristically rumpled.

Professor Snape put himself infront of Claire in a protective motion. "Get out of my way let me see my daughter!" She yelled. Ben had jumped up and moved Claire behind him. The woman quickly pushed past Snape and Ben. She took Claire's face in her hands and began inspecting. She moved her hair checked her neck and even lifted her sleeves inspecting her fingers and wrists.

"Mum what are you doing?"

"Looking for cursed objects, your father probably sent one already, I was able to do a lot but that man is stubborn." She finally finished her inspection turning to the stunned faces around her.

"Mum just leave him."

"You know why I can't."

"But-"

"Professor Dumbledore, please save my daughter."

A stunned silence crossed the room.

"Severus, will look after her, Lilith."

Lilith turned around and looked at Severus, "please protect my baby, I can't lose another one. I just can't"

The memory faded to show professor Snape and Claire in his office at the end of the school year, "you will need to use floo power instead of taking the train back home. No doubt your father will be waiting for you on the platform. This," he said producing a small key, "is to your new apartment in London, the lease is under my name, as far as anyone is concerned you are my niece and I'm renting the property out to you. You will stay with the Weasleys for a time before moving there."

"But what about healer traning my father could come to that."

"Professor Dumbledore, has made aragements for him to be unable to enter. And wherever you work, be it Saint Mungo's or for some quidditch team, we will put things in place so he cannot get to you."

"Thank you professor, is there any way I can ever repay you?"

"Yes, there is, be happy with him. Be happy and start a family and you must complete your healer training. Miss Reyes if you ever need anything please owl me."

"Thank you Professor," Claire said a pleased smile on her face.

""Severus,"

"Thank you Severus."

"Your welcome, Claire."

The memory ended and she and Sirius exited the pensive.

"He did all that for you?"

"He did."

"And all he wanted was for you to be happy?" The shock in Sirius's voice was evident.

"Yes, he seemed quite pleased when I completed healer traning top of my class and even more so when we sent him a wedding invitation," Claire had busied herself with making Severus more wrapped up in his blanket.

"How did he react when he found out you named your boy after him?"

"I was quite pleased Sirius," Snape's low drawl startled them both.

"Hello Severus, " Claire greated warmly, "would you like to hold him?"

"Certainly. But he won't be scared by a stranger? "

"He knows who you are,"

"How old is he now?"

"Almost 2," Claire handed Severus to Snape and he smiled.

Sirius looked back and forth between them like they had lost their minds.

Ben appeared with two small children holding his hands, "Mummy!" The little girl said running to Claire.

"Rowan, did you have fun with daddy?"

"Yeah, Artie busted his nose running into a door," she giggled. Claire's head snapped up to took at Ben.

"I fixed him up, he's just embarrassed," Ben said and true to his word Arthur was buried behind Ben's leg.

Molly's voice called out "lunch is ready everyone!"

"Kids go wash up and make sure you say hello to grandma Weasley," Ben told them. Little Severus was waking up so Snape handed him to his father, "will you be joining us for lunch Severus?" Ben asked pleasantly.

"I suppose I will."

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demigodsanswer · 5 years

Text

A Marriage of True Minds

So I can’t get this AU out of my head, and so this happened.

Summery: Percy and Annabeth are in line for their own respective thrones, and have only met in person once when they were twelve. But for nine years they maintain weekly correspondence, becoming, in many ways, each others closest friends. When they are both 21, Annabeth, particularly, is feeling the pressure to get married. After a bad encounter with a suitor at 16, she puts it off marriage prospects until she is 21, when she has the perfect idea: ask her best friend to marry her.

(TW for attempted rape)

Poseidon’s kingdom is on the south east side of the continent, where as Athena’s is north west. The kingdoms have a past history of bloody war, but they have been a relative peace for about a century. Still they aren’t close, and the leaders of the respective nations rarely actually communicate or see each other.

The last time either leader traveled to the other kingdom was when Athena and Annabeth traveled to Poseidon’s kingdom for his marriage. Percy and Annabeth met there as 12 year olds, and spent the month playing and training together. Because Athena’s kingdom is a matriarchy, they have no problem with Annabeth learning to sword fight, and Percy is happy to have someone his own age around to practice with.

King Poseidon had previously been married, and had two sons with another woman, the Queen, but she passed away when Percy was 11. Percy was raised in his father’s palace, but as a bastard. When his father married he mother, he was legitimized, making him third in line for the throne.

At the end of the month, when Annabeth leaves, Percy promises to write her. This starts off a nine year friendship built exclusively over letters.

Annabeth is first in line for her throne, and therefor gets a lot of marriage proposals once she turns fifteen.

Annabeth complains about these men pretty consistently to Percy, hoping that he proposes marriage. She hasn’t seen him in years, but he was cute when they were twelve. And physical appearance doesn’t actually mean much to her. She knew they got along intellectually and that was all she wanted - a marriage of minds. If he was good looking, that was great, but she didn’t need that.

But that doesn’t happen. And Athena never suggests him either. Annabeth pretty much figures out that it’s because of his former bastard status. Athena hasn’t even considered his proposal if one has been made, but, likely, Percy sees himself as unworthy.

Athena turns down most suitors for Annabeth, but there is one who makes his way through. Luke, a 23-year old duke-to-be. Annabeth is 16 when they meet, and the two click pretty quickly. He’s funny, he’s sweet, and he kisses her hand every time they greet each other.

He’s starting to look like a viable match. Annabeth even tells Percy about him. But before Percy can respond, Luke proves to not be as great as Annabeth and her mother once though.

After a few weeks with the family, Luke asks if he can kiss Annabeth, and she lets him have a chaste kiss. They share a few more kisses over the next week or so. Then, one day he deepens the kiss, and she lets him. He mutters sweet complements to her about her beauty and intelligence, and how he wants to marry her and is going to propose marriage soon. Annabeth is thrilled.

The next day, Annabeth goes to his room to give him a book - Athenian history. If he is going to marry her, he should know their history. Luke invites her in, takes the book, and starts to kiss her again. Annabeth is okay with it, until she remembers where she is and what people might think if they realize that she is gone and in her suitor’s room. And then Luke starts to move to the bed, pushing her down onto her back, holding her under him.

She starts to struggle and kick, and say that she wants to go, but he doesn’t let her up. He starts pulling at the ties on her dress, saying that they will be engaged soon and that no one has to know. But Annabeth knows what he wants and refuses to give it to him. She manages to get her hand under her skirt to where she keeps her knife (because of course she does), and cuts him across his face.

Luke flies off of her, holding his face to stop the bleeding. Before he can retaliate, Annabeth is running out the door, dress still torn and, now, bloodstained.

She runs to her mother and explains what has happened, and Luke and his father are out within the hour. Annabeth refuses any offers of courtship for a year, and does not even meet in person with any potential suitors until she is 18.

After Luke leaves, she writes to Percy “Courtship with Luke is over.” Percy sends her comforting words, but he doesn’t ask what happened. Annabeth is grateful for that.

Between 18 and 21, Annabeth meets some potential suitors but has a hard time trusting any of them. The only one she comes close to is Frank, but on the fifth day of their courtship, he confesses to being in love with a woman back home, and asks Annabeth to call of the courtship, saying that his father will never forgive him if he is the one to call it off.

At 21 years old, Athena is starting to really look for Annabeth to find someone to marry. Annabeth does not need to be married to rule, but, as her mom keeps pointing out, strategic alliances through marriage are the strongest.

Annabeth asks if Percy has had as much bad luck with suitors as she has. He confesses that he hasn’t had nearly as many suitors as she has. “Legitimized or not, people still see me, at best, as third in line, and, at worst, an illegitimate bastard. No one wants to marry me. I’m likely to be forced into some high ranking military position just to save my family the trouble.”

Annabeth writes back. “Nonsense, any woman would be lucky to have you. I would certainly marry you over any of the men I’ve had to meet the last five years.”

Percy writes back. “Are you serious about marrying me? Because life with you sounds much nicer than military life.”

Annabeth thinks hard about his letter when she gets it. She knows she likes Percy, and she could easily grow to love him. It would be politically advantageous to marry someone from that kingdom to secure peace, and, because of his former bastard status, he is just scandalous enough for Annabeth’s more adventurous side. Plus, they already have a great respect for each other. It would be a marriage of true minds, and that would be perfectly ideal for Annabeth.

She responds to Percy that, yes, if he offered courtship, she would accept. She would do anything in her power to get her mother to accept the courtship.

The next month, an official offer of courtship is made, and, with some convincing from Annabeth, Athena agrees to accept the proposal.

Four months later, a royal caravan from the south enter the kingdom.

Percy cleans himself up from the road - he’s pretty much ridden horseback the whole way, only using the carriage when it was raining (and even then, only most of the time) - and he gets ready to see his best friend for the first time in nine years.

He walks into the throne room, and sets eyes on Annabeth, and nearly passes out. When they were twelve she was boyish, aggressive, and wearing trousers most of the time. Now her hair was combed, she was in a silver dress, wearing a tiara, and wow she beautiful.

After a moment, Percy remembers his manners, and they get on with the meeting. He goes to Annabeth and greets her by bowing and kissing her hand. She just stares at him with an intensity that he had almost forgotten. He can’t read her emotions at all. Maybe she was not as satisfied with him as he was with her.

By the end of the meeting, Athena and Annabeth have agreed to courtship, lasting no more than a year, during which time Percy and whatever members of his royal company he would like, would stay with them in the palace.

When they are dismissed, he asks Annabeth for a walk, and asks his companion, Grover (son of a lesser lord) to chaperone them.

As soon as the three of them are alone, Annabeth pulls Percy into a hug. He hugs her back tightly, lifting her off the ground a bit just to show off that he’s no longer shorter than her.

Annabeth would be a fool to deny how handsome Percy had become. He still looked a little wild and mischievous, but he was also more composed and mature. And he was so very, very handsome. If they never found love together, she would at least not have any trouble going through with the act of conceiving children.

They walk around the garden for hours (Percy feels bad, they barely acknowledge Grover) but they have a lot to catch up on.

When the sun starts to set, they make their way inside for dinner.

At the end of the night, Percy kisses her hand goodnight, but, had he had any less sense of decorum, would have probably just asked to kiss her.

Before Annabeth lets him walk away she asked, “When do you think you should propose marriage?”

Percy pauses. They had written back and forth and agreed that, barring any real issues, their courtship would end in proposal and marriage. But he had spent all day so enamored with just being around her that he hadn’t even thought of it.

Finally he answers, “How long would be appropriate? I don’t see much need to drag courtship out if we already know that we get along.”

“I agree. I think three months would be sufficient. My mother knows that we have been writing, so she won’t question it.”

Percy smiles and nods. “Three months then.”

“Three months.” Annabeth agrees.

Percy smiles and takes her hand. “At this rate, by the end of the year, you will be my wife.”

Him saying that fills Annabeth with an anxiety and excitement. She squeezes his hands. “And you will be my husband.”

He kisses her hand again, still clutched tightly in his own. “Good night, Annabeth.”

She lets go. “Good night, Percy.”

They weren’t alone, as they thought, when they had that conversation. A servant overheard, and quickly rumors spread that the reason for their courtship was because of love. “Isn’t it romantic,” the servants whisper, “a marriage for love. Long time friends turned lovers.” It does not take long for these rumors to get back to Athena.

She confronts Annabeth about it, and accuses her of rejecting other suitors just to marry someone far below her own station.

“He is not bellow my station,” Annabeth argues, “he is in line for his own throne. He is legitimate.”

“You could have told me if you were in love with him and this marriage business could have been over with a long time ago.”

Annabeth realizes then that Athena does not think this is the smartest match she could make, but is allowing the courtship to go on because Annabeth seems excited by it. It’s not like her mother to listen to servant gossip. The fact that she believes it means that Athena has thought her daughter was in love with Percy for a long time. And that Annabeth’s “love” for Percy is the only reason this courtship was allowed to happen at all. If Athena finds out that they don’t love each other, Athena may call and end to the courtship.

“He has already promised to marry me,” Annabeth tells her, “that rumor is true. We were going to wait an appropriate amount of time but ...”

“No need for all of that. Tell him he may ask me for your hand whenever he feels ready.” Annabeth nods and turns to leave but Athena stops her. “And Annabeth, from now on, your brother will be chaperoning your interactions with him,” Athena walks closer and places a hand on her shoulder, “for your safety,” and Athena meant that. Annabeth hugs her mother quickly, before leaving. She needed to find Percy before her brother found the both of them.

Annabeth finds Percy in the garden and fills him in as quickly as possible. He must propose much sooner and they must pretend to be in love. Percy agrees and doesn’t have an issue with it.

They’ve only been alone for a few minutes when Annabeth hears her brother approaching. Quickly, Annabeth grabs Percy and kisses him. Percy’s breath catches and he freezes for a moment, before catching on to what she is doing. He quickly places a hand on her waist, and another hand on her face, making the kiss look like the tender kiss of two lovers newly engaged.

“Annabe - Oh, there you are,” Malcolm freezes, and the two pull away. “You know mother sent me to chaperone, but I really don’t want to be in the way of you two too much, so if you ever need a” he gestured vaguely, “moment, please tell me and I will turn away.” Annabeth smiled at him. “So it’s true then?” He asked. “You two are really getting married?”

“Yes,” Percy said, “once I ask your mother officially.”

“But she’s given her blessing,” Annabeth says, putting her hand on Percy’s.

“Great,” Malcolm says, rocking back on his feet. “Anyway, I’ll just be, sitting over here, reading my book, don’t pay any attention to me.”

Once Malcolm is sitting, Annabeth mouths “sorry” to Percy, who just shrugs. “It was nice” he mouths back. Annabeth just shoves him.

They continue to talk in hushed voices about the engagement and marriage, and about this ‘pretending to be in love’ stunt they have gotten themselves into. They have to talk in relatively coded language though, just in case Malcolm can hear them. Or in case of more nosey servants spreading their business through the castle.

When they depart at sunset, Percy leans in, seeking silent permission to kiss her again. Annabeth closes the space between them, kissing him gently, and much more appropriately than before. Percy finds himself desperately wishing for a third and fourth kiss.

When Percy gets back to his wing of the castle, Grover is waiting for him. “So do you really love her?” He asks.

Percy just shoves him into his room and sits him down and says, “Yes, no, kind of.” Percy explains everything that happened the night before and that day. He pauses when he gets to the kiss. “And then she kissed me, and, of course she is beautiful, and she’s my best friend, I feel like I could tell her anything, but I didn’t expect that when I kissed her for the first time -”

“It would be a show for her brother?”

“Well yes, but mostly, I didn’t expect that I would be able to actually imagine doing it because of love. It was like ... in that moment, I could imagine us living together and having children and ruling together, and being in love I guess.”

“Well, considering you will be proposing by the end of the week, its probably a good thing that you can imagine those futures. I’ll leave you alone now with your fantasies of your future wife.”

When Grover leaves, Percy lets the term “future wife” wash over him and mingle with memories of the kiss. He smiles and suddenly he feels like his whole body is on fire in a way he’s hardly ever felt before.

Annabeth, likewise, is on fire. Luke never even made her feel this way. She was sure she wasn’t falling in love with him - no they had been friends for so long, and he was handsome, so of course that kind of intimate contact would have a physical effect on her. Her logic doesn’t make the feeling go away though.

(That’s all I have energy for right now. But let me know if people would be interested in a part two or real fic version of some of these scenes. For sure don’t have time for a real chapter fic, but some fluff or smut here and there featuring period clothing is my jam)

#Percy Jackson and the Olympians #percy jackson #annabeth chase #percabeth

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roseamongroses · 4 years

Text

W.A.L: “Hold My Hand” (25)

s u m m a r y

Eden was the lowest of the low, a monster, hardly human, and was set to be executed. Roman was on trial, perpetually stuck in time until it was time to atone for his families sins.Neither cared much for staying trapped.So when a Stranger offered freedom, offered peace, offered power, it was hard to say no.Even if it put them on the wrong side of history.

v i b e s

time is irrelevent, homophobia who?, magic and beasts, demigods

w a r n i n g s

Imprisonment, Mentions of execution, Blood/ injuries, Mentions of past Death, repression, cursing, some dissociation

c h a r a c t e r s

Deceit(Eden) Sanders, Remy Sanders, Logan Sanders, Virgil Sanders, Patton Sanders, Roman Sanders, Emile Picani, Elliot, Kai, Lauren, Dot

Ship: Roceit

1) (2) (3) (4) (5)

(6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11)

(12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17)

---

Deceit entered with the sunrise, the bed creaking as they eased in beside Roman.

Roman sighed, turning and curling into their lap, “You smell funny,” he mumbled, voice still heavy with sleep.

Deceit arm wrapped around Roman’s shoulders, careful to avoid his exposed wings, “Good morning to you too,”

“Did you get much sleep?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Deceit sighed, pressing a kiss to his forehead.

Roman opened his eyes, folding his arms to support his head, “Is there something I should be worried about?” he asked, coy.

Deceit’s lips twitched, “Don’t be nosy,” he said, not missing how Roman’s eyes narrowed, “I’m fine, just get some rest,” he added on quickly.

“I dun’wanna,” Roman pouted, all puppy dog eyes, but Deceit could hear their anxiety edging into the tone.

“Stop that,” Deceit scolded, prodding their face, “I’m fine—” another poke, “Sleep.”

Romans face twisted away from another poke, sitting up abruptly, “Okay so you’re fine,” he said, “You’re used to fine and obviously fine isn’t doing shit for you,”

Deceit met their state head-on, jaw ticking, “I’m working on it,”

“Are you?” Roman challenged, somehow managing to look smug with his disheveled clothes and adorable half-dazed look—

“Yes, I am,” Deceit gritted swallowing that mess of emotions. He was half annoyed at Roman’s persistence but he was more annoyed with the fact that he knew it didn’t make him magically be able to hate Roman. Ugh. “Even if I wasn’t, that doesn’t mean you’d be able to fix me,”

At that, something flickered in Roman’s eyes and for a brief, terrifying moment Deceit had to seriously contemplate the extent of Romans persuasion. Roman couldn’t really—

“I can’t,” Roman agreed as he tucked his legs, “I won’t.

“But…” Roman sighed, “Janus, that isn’t the first time you’ve been like… that. And I understand that you can’t just make yourself stop but, “ he paused, wringing his hands, “That doesn’t mean there aren’t ways to make it better. If you’re hurting I don’t want to add onto it just because I make I stupid mistake or can’t read you right. I’m trying to talk about it now because a lot of the times when you do shut down you can’t talk to me. - you can’t say ‘don’t do this you’re hurting me’ and it’s just… scary not knowing what to do.”

“I…” Deceits chest clenched, “What if I don’t know what to tell you,” he said, face darkening, “Sometimes I want to be touched sometimes I… need to be alone. And other times… I feel like if you do stay near me you’ll only get hurt,”

“Well it’s a start,” Roman said, “So what do you need right now?”

“Need?” Deceit scoffed, “I don’t need anything,”

Roman rolled his eyes, “Okay tough guy, “ he said, “What do you want,”

Deceit opened his mouth then he froze, promptly closing his mouth, eyebrows knitted as he thought. After a few seconds he patted the space beside him, not looking at Roman, “I’m tired,” he said, cautiously, “I don’t want to be alone right now.”

“Okay,” Roman eyed curiously, “Are you fine with cuddling or no?”

“Yes,” Deceit said, a bit too quick.

“Yes to what?” Roman teased.

“Don’t be a dick.”

Roman smiled, crawling beside Deceit and slipping back under the covers. He wrapped his arms around Deceit’s waist, face nestling in the crook of their neck as Deceit relaxed.

The bed wasn’t as luxurious as the one in at The Offerings, but it wasn’t as cramped as the one they had prior--it was just right. Everything was new, but Deceit felt it all clicking together just right, as if maybe he stumbled onto being something of substances after all. Something that was his to choose and share, as if he had something of worth and for once the world was finally letting him be.

The sun rose steadily outside, it’s patches of light warming Deceits skin as he slowly fell asleep.

---

You don’t really comprehend being in the same house with four kids until you experience it. Sure, Deceit’s dealt with the brats, but they were all teenagers and he didn’t feel the same degree of anxiety when they were being dumbasses. Hell, he didn’t even feel comfortable saying the Sanders kids were being dumbasses because they were actual children.

After Lauren, there were the triplets; Sofia, Vivian, and Marie. All adorable and strikingly resembling their mom with thicker, kinker hair and soft, dark eyes. They apparently had chaotic tendencies, with them invading Roman’s bed and dragging him out of bed a, seemingly unbothered by Deceit’s presence if not a little curious. Deceit told them apart by how many baby teeth they were missing and how clingy they were to Roman.

Roman stood at the counter fixing some food, while Marie remained attached to his waist, “Aren’t you going to wake them up?” he asked, head gesturing back to the hallway towards the brats rooms.

Deceit dumped more sugar into his coffee, “Mm, not today,” he said, idly watching as Vivian and Sofia arranged their dolls at the smaller table-- aka Sofia bossing around Vivian who looked increasingly agitated, “Apparently dickhead is taking us on a field trip later today, so I thought it’d be best to let them get some sleep,”

“Who’s dickhead?” Marie frowned.

Roman inhaled, giving Deceit a dry look, “He’s a bad man that you won’t ever have to meet,” he explained matter of fact, setting aside a plate a food, “Make sure you eat your vitamins,”

Marie’s face scrunched up for a moment before she nodded, detaching herself and grabbing the plate. After the other two girls grabbed their plates, taking them to their table, Roman turned to Deceit with a raised eyebrow, “Really?”

Deceit lifted the cup to his lips, “Am I not allowed to curse?” he mused, leaning against the counter next to Roman.

“Try to keep it to a minimum,” Roman sighed, “Especially around Tami, she’s like a sponge,” he mumbled, picking at his own bowl of fruit.

“I thought she was still nonverbal?”

“She is,” Roman popped a blueberry in his mouth, “But she learns quick. So if she does have her first words I’d never hear the end of it from Ma if it’s something vulgar,”

Deceit snorted, “Your mouth is filthier than mine,” he said.

“You like my filthy mouth,” Roman muttered.

The two looked up at the sound of footsteps softly padding into the kitchen. Mrs. Sanders looked visibly disheveled, Tami holding her hand--eyes trained on the ground. She yawned, “Mornin,” she said to no one in particular, her eyes flicking between the two, something akin to exasperation settling on her face, “Roman, dear, I thought you outgrew sneaking boys into the house,”

“I didn’t, I just got better at it,” Roman shrugged, “There’s coffee still in the pot--” he offered, his gaze flickering down to Tami, “Do you want me to make her something?”

Mrs. Sanders rubbed her eyes, before pulling out her glasses, “That be lovely, just make sure it isn’t sweet she hates it--,” she sighed, “Also I’m not your father, and you’re not the heir anymore so you don’t have to hide your boyfriend. But,” she pursed her lips, “If he stays here, you’re going to have to use protection.”

Deceit choked on his coffee and Roman cleared his throat, face straight, but Deceit could spot the vines peeking from their sleeves, “There are seven kids in this house, hon,” Mrs. Sanders continued, gravely serious as she poured a cup, “I’m not taking care of anymore,”

“Yes ma’am,” Roman said. It was only when Mrs. Sanders left the kitchen for the porch did he side-eye Deceit, “Stop that,”

“Stop what?” Deceit set his cup down in the sink, watching them curiously.

“You’re staring,” Roman said, walking to the pantry and pulling out the lone box of oatmeal, “Stop.”

At that, Deceit grinned, moving himself in Roman’s way, “I thought you liked having my attention,” he mused.

“I do,” Roman said, easily sliding past them, “Which is why you need to stop,”

“Uh-huh,” Deceit said, following close, “You’re cute when you’re embarrassed,”

“Fuck off--I’m not embarrassed,” Roman huffed, setting aside the box.

“Mhm,” Deceit said, winding his arms around Roman’s waist, pulling them close just as they turned around, “Kiss me?”

Roman’s glare faltered before slipping off altogether. He couldn’t mask his laugh, ducking his head to close the distance.

“You do realize we still have to talk about that?” Deceit murmured against their lips, “I know we’re not in any rush, but seeing as we don’t exactly have the same biology...”

Roman’s face twisted, hands resting on Deceit’s chest, “I’m fine with talking about sex it’s just… I don’t like talking about my body.”

“I know. I don’t either.” Deceit admitted.

“I…” Roman paused at that before nodding, “Later,” was all he promised.

---

Upon seeing Kai, Lauren, and Elliot successfully break into some magical zoo in less than an hour, Deceit began to consider that maybe, just maybe, he was surrounded by criminals.

All the faceless guards were taken care of, some in soundless pain, others passed out completely, so they slipped inside without issue. Once everything was secured, the Stranger strode inside leading the way with no further comment.

The moon hung in the sky. It was almost full.

All around them silver bars glinted, the cages themselves shadowed with the peering violet eyes hidden among the foliage.

Something about this place just wasn’t right, but the brats seemed to be having fun

Lauren was talking about some rare plant she spotted and Kai seemed placated by the rippling furs of creatures just out of reach. Of course, Elliot seemed uncomfortable, but they generally were whenever they went out with the Stranger.

The Stranger stopped abruptly, head craning to address the brats, “Y’all scram,” he shooed them, “This lesson is for Deceit,” he said with a smile.

That is when Deceit knew he was fucked.. But to the rest of them, it was normal and they all took the orders without comment or question, leaving Deceit with the Stranger once again.

Once they were out of sight, The Stranger’s smile slid off. He resumed his path forward, knowing that Deceit would follow.

The further Deceit walked the more the pit in his stomachs grew. Something was just wrong. He knew it and his mind scrambled trying to figure out if he did something wrong—which wasn’t helpful since he always did something wrong, but—

The Stranger stopped in front of a dark, cavern-like entrance. It was further away from all the cages, but it still held a commercial presence with cheery signs in odd languages and bright arrows pointing inside.

The Stranger propped himself against one of these signs, popping a lollipop on his mouth, “It’ll be a full moon soon,” he said to no one in particular, “You know…” he crunched the lollipop hard, spitting out the stick, “You’ve lasted longer then I expected.”

Deceit stared blandly and The Stranger sighed, “Still, you aren’t good enough,”

Only then did Deceits eyes narrowed, “I’ve been doing everything you asked,”

“Yes-Yes I know, you’re a good little dog aren’t you huh?”The Stranger said, “Still,”

“Still?” Deceit gritted. He could feel his anger sharp through the haze of worry.

“You’re getting a bit too—“The Stranger clicked his tongue, “Distracted—now don’t look like tha--t I won’t touch your little boy toy, that would be counterproductive to our cause,”

“So what do you want me to do?” Deceit managed, forcing his eyes to unslit, and ignoring the scales searing up his sides.

“Ah,” The Stranger laughed, “Now you’re asking the right questions and as a reward for not being entirely useless—” He flicked his sunglasses down and Deceit stiffened, “I’ll ask you a different question; what is our cause?”

“None of my business,” Deceit shrugged, “I am simply a tool who will benefit.”

“Very good,very simple right?” The Stranger hummed, “It’s easy for people to get scared of the bigger picture, but aren’t you just a little bit curious?”

“No,” Deceit lied.

“Good,”The Stranger flipped his glasses back up, covering his relentless gaze, “You’ll learn soon enough. Until then you need to push yourself further and I won’t tolerate any failure,” he gestured towards the cavern, “But just in case, here’s a little reminder about what you’ll be worth to the world if you do decide to fuck up,”

The Stranger didn’t follow him into the cavern, but Deceit could feel their mocking, cold gaze the entire time. Inside were fluorescent-lit exhibits, brightly colored informational posters and those arrows and—and—it was all terribly wrong.

Because behind each glass panel, were skeletons of all sizes; some with painted on whiskers others, with ancient feathers sticking from their arms, or scales carved deep into bone.

An exhibit of dead shifters, propped and polished for the public’s consumption.

As if they were nothing but monsters.

#ts sides #roceit #ts roman #ts deceit #sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction #fanfiction #writing #Winners Among the Losing

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marnivanross · 4 years

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★ have you seen [ MARNI VANROSS ] since the storm? some say they look like [ zoey deutch ] but they’re [ 21 ] & go by [ THE SKEPTIC ]. [ she’s ] lived in halloway for [ 12 years ] & they are originally from [ LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA]. before the town vanished they were studying [ astronomy ] and lived at [ UNI BLVD ]. most people knew the [ CISFEMALE ] as [ + INTELLIGENT ] but i’ve heard they can also be [ - COLD ]. for some reason, they feel [ uneasy ] about the town’s disappearance. ( pepper, twenty three, s he/her, est )

ABOUT THE MUN. what is that? that freaky thing? yes, that’s right, it’s a naked mole rat.

hello all, my name is pepper and what you’re about to see is about to be peak mediocrity. i am usually pretty decent at intros but i really have spent most of today watching love island, and i just spent the past two hours watching pilot pete make horrible decisions, so my brain is officially mush. that said i am going to do my best to make this coherent. to start, a bit about me, i am a taurus. i like trash tv. i’m really craving chicken fingers. i have never met a plate of nachos i didn’t like, and if i could be anything other than a human person i’d be a cloud i think. alright onto the good stuff.

BIO. *has my feelings surgically removed*

first of all here is her pinterest board (keep in mind marni was kind of the skully inspired muse in a scooby doo rp so that’s why stuff looks a bit spooky)

marni was brought into the world into a weird situation by anyone’s standards, but especially by hers. to start, both her parents were hippies. yes, weed smoking, chakra cleansing, organic grown kale that they got from the farmer’s market where the only store clerk walked around with her tits proudly out, hippies. but they weren’t just any hippies, they were rich hippies. and that somehow made it worse.

clint ‘storm’ vanross and clementine vanross were the proud owners and entrepreneurs of a whole food organic grocery store (think whole foods or trader joe’s), and clemetine later went on to ride the success of their company to create her own website and brand (think goop basically. yes, marni’s mother has sold a candle that smells like her vagina, and yes marni is deeply ashamed of it). both businesses were wildly successful, and so clem and storm quickly went from living and travelling the world in their van to having about six mansions across the world. marni came into their life as their first child around the time they bought mansion two. she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but that spoon’s handle was made of moon quartz and the silver was organically sourced.

from there on out marni was raised in a weird way. you’d think because hippies were all about free love, that marni would be raised with an abundance of it but that wasn’t exactly the case. her parents were all about giving marni her aunotomy fairly early in life, which sounds good, but really means that marni was simply treated as an adult from the moment she could walk by herself. and she was the adult really. after all, marni was the one who had to convince her parents to enroll her in school (they were determined to let the world be her teacher, and marni simply wasn’t having any of it), the one who had to fix her own meals when all that was left in their fridge was raw tofu, the one who had to clean up her mother’s vomit whenever she went a bit to hard on the moonshine. yes, marni had parents, but she also had forty-something year old children in boho chic attire.

and marni’s parents never understood it. after all, with the way they were they could never understand how their genetics combined to make such a serious girl. one who would look at the moon and not just admire it, but ask how it stayed up there in the first place. how far away was it? how could she get there? and when told to simply enjoy and love it for what it was, would instead march herself to the library and find out the answers herself. marni’s parents and her truly never saw eye to eye, and at a certain point marni stopped trying to. she wasn’t expecting her parents to follow suit, but follow suit they did. marni’s parents gave up on trying to understand her her around the time she was nine. that’s when she moved to halloway, or rather, that’s when they moved her to halloway.

they said it was because of business. the fact was, marni’s parents had been marching her around the world, from state to state and country to country whenver they wanted to start up a new store or run down a new story. yes, sometimes they would leave her (alone, in an empty house, with only the occasional eccentric ‘aunt’ or ‘uncle’ to come by and make sure marni wasn’t dead) for a while for short business trips (the longest being about two weeks) but they always came back eventually. but this was different. her parents set her up in halloway with a nanny named paola, and then they left for the foreseeable future. her mother, to go down to africa to chase a story. her father, to go down to europe and expand the business. they both promised to be back within a month, and they were. but then they left again. and again. and again.

but it was fine. marni and paola got along great. she learned very quickly how to forge her parents signature on school forms. she didn’t need them. she didn’t miss them. but she did desperately want them to want her, and it took marni a long time to realize they just didn’t.

marni was the new girl for a while. she struggled a bit to make friends as the little girl who got more excited by science experiments than barbies. the one who was always the first to raise her hand in class, and the one with the famous parents. most of the kids didn’t know who the vanross’ were but the parents did. and having the occassion adult come up to marni and tell her how they just loved her mother’s zuchini bread recipe, or the all organic popcorn they sold at her father’s store was just... weird. and other kids found it weird too. marni struggled for a while, and was picked on quite a lot but what was she to do other than accept it? all that marni had in her arsenal were facts and scathing words, and mean kids didn’t usually tend to let those stop them.

eventually marni grew up. she went to high school. skipped prom. remained fairly anonymous other than becoming president of the chemistry club, valedictorian and being known as the girl known for making friends with her teachers. she got accepted to harvard and yale for university, but not knowing if it was because of her own accomplishments (which were countless) or because of her parents, she refused them both and decided to stay in halloway. to go to university here. to try and make her own way.

honestly in university marni’s life was similarly uneventful because for the most part she was the quiet type that went to class, went home, and back. she didn’t cause any stir unless you could hear the occasional scathing comment murmured under her breath, or you were a neighbour who marni was screaming at to keep it down. she didn’t even attend a single party unless coerced. she was nobody, and honestly that was how marni liked it. she had never been one for the spotlight. she genuinely preferred to be more behind the scenes, unless there was a need to rise to the occasion.

and then all of this happened y’all. it really went to shit huh. marni is terrified honestly and she just wants to know what’s going on. a lot of people who barely know who she is have probably seen her speaking up and asking questions and getting almost frenzied in her attempt to find the truth because the mystery of all this is driving her insane. no she doesn’t miss her parents particularly, but she does miss what the world used to be and she wants to go back to that, desperately, but she also really just wants to know. like if marni understood what was happening here or even just played a part in future generations understanding, and she was literally still never able to get back... honestly she could still die pretty happy i’m ngl.

PERSONALITY. *eyes snap open at 3:52am* nobody likes me

blunt. painfully painfully blunt, god. if marni thinks you’re an idiot she will tell you to your face, she really does not care and that absolutely will get her into trouble one day

painfully curious! wants to know what’s happening with this whole situation, god desperately wants to know the truth and mechanics behind it.

cold honestly?? like marni doesn’t know how to comfort people really, she was never really taught how. she isn’t very compassionate, she’s genuinely more on the logical side. will give you the most rational answer even if it does sound kinda of cruel

the voice of reason! the person in your friend group who is the designated driver. also the person in your friend group who would say ‘i told you so’

an overachiever. lives for academic acknowledgement, like those little gold stars on your papers in elementary school are what kept marni going man. huge ass nerd. huge ass bookwarm.

super stubborn. refuses to even entertain the idea of anything magical happening here, and is honestly kind of judgmental of people who think that way because of her parents like marni has very little respect for any hippies i’m not gonna lie

skeptical as hell but we been knew

a know it all! think she’s right about everything !! she usually is but still !!

does not know what to do with emotion. has had a couple, and does not recommend it. would rather die than admit to a feeling.

trust issues galore! does not trust literally anyone ever. if marni trusts you than you’re truly special

HEADCANNONS. it takes me 3-7 business days to process my feelings

has never learnt to ride a bike cause her parents never taught her rip

loves the smell of books

laughs at horror movies generally. the kind of person who is really hard to scare.

was raised a vegan but loves eating meat. stress eats meat when she’s truly like anxious, and so is really bummed about the dwindling meat supply for more reasons than one.

needs coffee to survive, so the rationing has got her going a bit crazy even though she knows it’s necessary.

has never really gotten truly drunk.

keeps a detailed journal about all of her thoughts about all of this and takes meticulous notes.

is left handed.

can shoot a gun and does have one on her person pretty much at all times. i headcannon that her nanny paola taught her to shoot, and marni isn’t strong at all but she’s a pretty good shot. it’s the only way she has to defend herself honestly.

is redheaded/strawberry blonde zoey and redheaded/strawberry blonde zoey ONLY

bi as hell!

WANTED CONNECTIONS. baby’s first words are ‘i’m not here to make friends’

i really am too lazy to make a whole ass sexy list rn and i apologize sjsdjjdf but !!! best friends, friends, confidantes, someone who used to drag her to parties, someone who used to pick on her, someone who used to defend her, flings, exes (marni is a horrible gf and she probably DIPPED the moment she started to feel something so give it to me folks), crushes she used to have in high school or middle school or elementary school, people who had crushes on her in high school or middle school or elementary school, current crushes on either end, enemy (just someone she butts heads with man!), old academic rivals, partner in crime in trying to figure this shit out, someone who hates her man, sibling like relationship, a girl squad, someone who tries to get her to loosen up, someone who is really chill and okay with the current situation who marni just wants to strangle with her bare hands!!! and anything else your heart desires okay, thank you for listening to me ramble ilu already.

#hallowayintro #this is a new blog so i already know this won't show up in the tag but still #m.v. | intro.

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crystalelemental · 4 years

Text

Alright, post-game League in Platinum time. Let’s go.

Perrine the Gliscor, level 72 (Careful)

Arianne the Floatzel, level 72 (Rash)

Melanie the Skuntank, level 73 (Naive)

Cadence the Chimecho, level 73 (Modest)

Florence the Cherrim, level 74 (Timid)

Eleanor the Dusknoir, level 75 (Brave)

The only change to moves was giving Cadence Energy Ball, now that we found that TM.

Aaron vs. Gliscor. Thank god that first Rock Slide hit. Too bad it somehow didn’t KO. Yeah, I don’t know either. But it didn’t, and I’m shitting bricks turn 1. We got a nice flinch chance, but Speed Boost is going to put us in the ground. Swords Dance on the Full Restore, thank god I get Double Team, so Aerial Ace bypasses the check. Only Scizor survived a single attack at that point, hanging on after Earthquake. Which is fairly expected.

Bertha! While it’s probably a mistake to send in Cherrim, I decide this is the only time the poor thing ever gets to be useful and go for it anyway. Whiscash is no big deal, and we get sunlight set on it. Unfortunately, I do remember the main issue we ran into last time. Gliscor is a pain. Fire Fang is a bigger pain. And just like last time, Solarbeam isn’t a clean OHKO. Golem comes in, and the sunlight fades, which means I can’t stay around because it definitely has Fire Punch. I decide to go to Chimecho. Yes, it might take a bit more than Floatzel, who resists, but on the off chance of something stupid like Explosion, I’d rather Chimecho go down than Floatzel, who is still very needed for later matches. Golem’s no trouble, but of course Hippowdown knows Yawn. And decides to spam it relentlessly. I can’t keep taking chip damage, so after switching around trying to avoid Yawn, I give up and let Cadence get hit. And now, Rhyperior, who is a huge pain. Thank god, Megahorn misses my Floatzel. Thankfully, despite Sand and Sturdy Rock, Surf OHKOs. No deaths.

And now, the reason I didn’t want to let go of Floatzel. Flint is a bunch of fairly frail Fire types, and Floatzel has 115 base speed and a Splash Plate. Houndoom, Infernape, and Rapidash are all OHKO’d by Waterfall in rapid succession. Magmortar is a higher level, but Surf is a clean OHKO as well. And Flareon...Yeah, you know how that goes. So great, a complete sweep of all five of his Pokemon, no damage. Flint, git gud, please. There has to be some kind of trick he can pull that I just never see because Floatzel.

And now for this asshole. Lucian is easily the most obnoxious of the Elite Four, I hate him so much. Skuntank is going to maybe take two. It takes down Mr. Mime in one shot, because Night Slash good, but as always, then there’s Bronzong. I play like a moron and stay in. Sure enough, Flamethrower wouldn’t 2HKO even if we didn’t have him Calm Mind. Night Slash also doesn’t crit, so great. Florence jumps in, ready to Leech Seed. Unfortunately, it gets up to 3 Calm Minds. I really don’t have the option of switching at this point. It uses Psychic, and does more than half her HP. Maybe I do need to switch then. Back to Skuntank, who is immune to Psychic. It’s also in range of Night Slash, so that’s a relief. I further play like a moron and stay in on Alakazam, knowing about Focus Blast. Thankfully, we actually get lucky for once and it misses. Night Slash is a one-shot. Espeon is a bit scary, but Night Slash continues to devastate. This is the best Skuntank’s ever done. Gallade is tough, and I make the call to go Dusknoir. Right into Stone Edge, which only deals like 60 damage. Tank master. Shadow Punch finishes the job in one. So, despite him usually being the worst part of this run, that...actually wan’t too bad. We got lucky with the Focus Miss, and despite Bronzong doing what it do, we managed to win without much damage.

Having learned from past mistakes, that Spiritomb does not, in fact, pack Will-o-Wisp and is all-out offensive, so I go in with Skuntank, ready to throw down with something that resists most of its moves. No Silver Wind bullshit this time, just two Night Slashes and a Poison Jab to win it. As before, she goes straight to Garchomp. Like an absolute buffoon, I think I can outspeed it. Skuntank is dead immediately. Like an idiot, I think Floatzel’s Ice Beam can one-shot. I am not dead, but I may as well be. Roserade’s in, and after weighing somem decisions carefully, I decide that yes, Floatzel has to go down. Good thing too. I almost swapped to Dusknoir as it used Shadow Ball. That would’ve been embarrassing.

Gliscor’s Aerial Ace takes it down, and I get what I wanted. Milotic is baited. Florence switches in...hey, did you know that Milotic had Ice Beam? And that it deals HALF? So that’s fun. In a surprise twist, Cynthia got cocky. I survived and got Leech Seed with only 6 HP, and the next turn she thought Surf would KO. But I have Sunny Day and a resistance. So we get that set up, and she deals maybe 12 damage. Solarbeam annihilates it in response. Unfortunately, now the hard part begins.

I honestly think Togekiss is her toughest Pokemon. I get Leech Seed on it. No way is Florence KOing this thing. Gliscor comes in, and we’re prepared to Rock Slide cheese. We actually get a nice flinch. Twice, even. Leech Seed damage supplements our actual damage, which wouldn’t have 2HKO, and Gliscor wins it. Only Lucario remains. Earthquake is sufficiently strong to take it down.

That...actually went better than I expected it would. Like a lot better. We got a bit lucky with Focus Miss, Megahorn miss, two flinches on Togekiss, and Cynthia getting overconfident in Surf taking out my Cherrim. While there were some luck shenanigans, I say this is earned.

So, the whole game is done once again. I liked this team a lot. Dusknoir is hilariously tanky, and having all elemental punches is still my favorite way to play a game. Gliscor is disgustingly good in this game. It’s so strong. So is Floatzel, actually. Outspeeding all of Flint’s team with ease makes it a really good counter to him and Bertha in one slot. I really enjoyed getting to run Cherrim. I don’t know if I’d necessarily do it again, but it really is enjoyable to run these sets that otherwise I wouldn’t touch. Skuntank was a little bit underwhelming overall, but it can seriously pull its weight. Definitely a fun team.

With this, I must consider the next game to play. A part of me wants to try HGSS, but I haven’t been able to focus on those for a while now. I also considered...Pokemon Y. But like. Am I really up for Gen 6? I don’t know. We’ll see what I pick up next, but this was a good one to pick up this summer. Pokemon Platinum is always a good time.

#pokemon platinum

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dandylion240 · 5 years

Note

Legacy questionnaire: 1, 5, 10, 12, 20, 29, 34, 40 :)

1. When have you started your legacy? What inspired you to do it?

I started my two legacies in 2014. It was a kind of dark time for me and I needed something to focus my energy on. I turned to writing. I’ve always loved making up stories but I wasn’t sure if anyone would read what I wrote. But soon it didn’t matter. I was hooked on telling the story.

5. Favourite generation(s)

There’s something I liked about all the generations I’ve written. But my favorite generation for The Van Winkle’s was Gen 2. That was Adam’s generation and Gen 5 is a close second since Adam was a big part of the story. For Not so Ordinary Life my fav gen was Gen 4, Andrew’s generation.

10. TOP 5 favourite couples.

1. Gene and Aimee - Gene was a gen 2 spare that I wrote a side story for after he starred in @legendofsim‘s Star Idol and fell in love with Aimee another contestant on the show.

2. Britland and Carson - Britland is the grandson of another gen 2 spare that I wrote a side story for and I wrote three gens of.

3. Andrew and Charlie - Andrew was my gen 4 heir who struggled to come to terms with his sexuality.

4. Adam and Clare - Adam is actually gen 2 heir but he’s still a large part of the story and he struggled to find love again after losing his wife Beverly. He hadn’t expected to fall in love with the girl who won the BC he was forced to enter but he did.

5. Eddie and Rory -Eddie is the son of another gen 2 spare who fell in love with Rory who struggled with commitment issues. Eddie had his unfair share of issues and together they helped each overcome them. Glitter is the continuation of their story with their grandchildren.

12. Any memorable moments?

There are so many. In NSOL when Andrew and Charlie were transported in the future and had to fight mutants. Gabriel’s instability that allowed him to meet the founder of the legacy William Bennett. Caleb Gray coming into the dimension and falling in love with Drew gen 3′s heir. When Robert was killed by his estranged ex-wife trying to protect his children from her murderous outrage.

In VW the many ways Adam was able to bounce back from tragedy and his love for his children. The moment he became a Vampire against his will and taking over Moonlight Falls. Peter being betrayed by Emit and becoming immortal because of it. Phoebe’s wish at the wishing well and the many consequences that caused. The darkness that threatens them all. Silver and his obsession with Adam.

20. Who is the best genetic mix of their parents?

I’m going to say Gabriel is a good mix of both his parents. He has Andrew’s coloring and delicate nature and Charlies beautiful blue eyes.

29. Have you had a sim that you fell in love with right away?

Adam I knew as soon as he was born he was going to be heir. Sydney Bennett was going to be heir until a tragic fire took her life as a teenager.

34. The most unique sim?

Silver is unique in that he was supposed to be this tragic super powerful guy. In some ways he is but instead of using his past and his powers as a means for good he uses it to cause chaos and to get what he wants. Everything he does has an ulterior motive and he is obsessed with Adam. You’ll see later where that obsession leads him in the final chapters of the Van Winkle Legacy.

40. Random fun fact about your legacy you want to share!

Everything is going to end on a tragic note this generation with both my legacies. However Gabriel messed with time and some things will change coming into the next generation. You’ll meeting sims that were once dead come back to life and several other changes. Hope you stay tuned.

@desira-sims I know you asked for 12 & 29 in another ask.

I primarily kept to my two long standing legacies. I hadn’t planned on turning my gameplay of the Reagan’s into a legacy but the stories I have for them it certainly heading that way.

#legacy questions #thanks for asking #silverspringsimmer

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twentyonepilotsficlibrary · 5 years

Note

do any of you have any personal favorite you'd recommend?

These are all of our favorites - Christie

Madi -

Wicked Games by heyitsbabz & youngvolcahoes (19/19 | 145220 | Explicit)

Josh didn’t mean to be rude to Tyler. Sure Tyler abandoned him in high school when Josh told him one of his dirty little secrets, but Josh didn’t hold grudges. He didn’t.

OR, the one where Josh is an idiot, Tyler is a bigger idiot and they both end up fucking shit up.

In Clover by TheDyingSun (1/1 | 12242 | Mature)

Not everyone can afford to drop everything for a two-man band in it’s infancy. So for three weeks, across the belly of the country, Josh and Tyler are forced to tour alone. Just the two of them.

They do okay.

Tyler -

Bold & Fearless In The Risks We Take by marsakat (14/14 | 42176 | Mature)

The first time they met, Tyler made Josh bleed. But as blood brothers, the friendship endures all life’s growing pains.

//underage drinking //underage sex //homophobia

Mack -

Mustard by edy (1/1 | 14,827 | Explicit)

The one where Tyler sits on street corners and plays his ukulele for money and Josh hates his life.

Joy to the World by edy (12/12 | 95,906 | Explicit)

Summary

Fires will consume soon.

Leave while you can.

I heard Greenland is nice.

Everything will be okay.

This last message is sprawled across the front of the bakery, two suns for the dots of the i. Josh reads and believes the message

million dollar man. by fkeyouout (12/? | 28,087 | Mature)

josh just needs a good story to keep his less than thriving journalist job, and tyler probably has enough dirty laundry to break the news.

Another Western Vampire (Different Time, Same Place) by stalksoftly (11/11 | 37969 | Explicit)

Tyler Joseph is a mysterious cowboy. Cityslicker Josh Dun doesn’t know what he got himself into when he agreed to be his ranch hand for the summer.

Caitlyn -

From the Dining Table by chevycoop17 (16/?| 36631 | Mature)

Tyler and Josh broke up two years ago. Josh has moved on, but Tyler hasn’t. Things happen and Josh sees Tyler walking down the street. Josh wants to be friends with Tyler again. Will Tyler let Josh worm his way back into his life or tell him to go away?

Based off of Harry Styles’ song From the Dining Table. It’s cute, go listen.

Fuck You, Joshua Dun. by LoudandDangerous (1/1| 2041| Mature)

“Joshua Dun, you little motherfucker.” Tyler glares to the trash man beside Josh.“And you…Have you ever wondered how antifreeze tastes?” He smirks, holding up the drained empty bottle of blue liquid.

Sweet Creature by olgushka (17/?| 65187| General Audiences)

Apparently being a single parent and a drummer in one of the most popular bands in the world is not as easy as it seems.

Be careful sweetheart, there are wolves like me who will eat sweet things like you alive. by BlueNightShade (14/14| 24711| Explicit)

Tyler Joseph is a 16 year old Sophomore in high school. He’s running away from his home in Ohio, planning on traveling from Columbus, to Oak Hill. He desperately needs a ride. What’s the worse that could happen while hitch-hiking? That’s when he meets Josh. A man who’s older than him, has a mesmerizing warm smile, and bright yellow hair.

“What’s the worst that can happen?” Tyler thought.

Christie -

heavydirty by personalized_radio (1/1 | 33,356 | Mature)

Josh and Tyler have just moved into a new neighborhood when Josh gets a big break and has to leave on tour. Home alone, Tyler begins to notice a few odd things.

Ft. Panic! at the coffee shop, Bob the well-meaning co-worker, Josh the long-distance-but-in-love boyfriend, and a very naive Tyler.

//animal abuse //harassment

Tell Me Now by edy (1/1 |11,929 | Explicit)

Tyler hasn’t left the house in almost ten years.

//self harm //anxiety //depression //suicidal thoughts

Webcam by Marasa (1/1 | 5,334 | Not Rated)

Tyler shouldn’t trust people he meets on the internet.

//major character death //suicide //violence

The Shopping Mall Survivors by tjstar (1/1 | 16,279 | Mature)

‘My neighbor has just killed a zombie,’ dings in Tyler’s head. ‘My neighbor has just killed a freaking zombie.’

How to call the police if you’ve just witnessed the murder of a person who was already dead?

//blood //violence

This Regional Love of Mine (I’m Gonna Let It Shine) by PastelMess (1/1 | 39,717 | Mature)

They meet at a house party.

//implied/referenced self-harm

Bar -

The Silver Screen Dream by AddictWithAUnicorn (14/? | 104,574 | Mature)

It’s not like Tyler was interested in him or anything like that. In fact, he was most, most definitely straight, he was sure of it, he had never even slightly felt attracted to another ma–“Hey,” the stranger whispered, nudging Tyler’s arm.“What?” Tyler responded, determinedly keeping his eyes glued to the screen.“Do you wanna make out?”

Someone Else’s Dreams by SpookySad (34/? | 149,615 | Mature)

Josh has a great life, but that doesn’t mean he’s happy. He spends all his time working at Guitar Center, being a loner at school, and pining for the unattainable Tyler Joseph who probably doesn’t even know Josh exists.Except that, unbeknownst to either of them, they’ve started sharing dreams.

Get the tissues. We’re going to face our issues.

(Work in progress)

//anxiety //violence //Implied/referenced self-harm //suicide attempt //

No Man Is An Island by kyewopen (1/1 | 5,722 | General)

Five times Tyler thinks about confessing his feelings for Josh and one times he actually does

Seeking a husband by TwoBoysInABand (14/17 | 43,927 | Mature)

A self-proclaimed commitment phobe and a lonely widower’s worlds are about to collide, and they find love in the most unconventional way.

Sydney-

Not For All Markets by SoManyRegrets (1/1 || 3,570 || Mature)

“Ok,” Josh said, dragging himself together. “I’m gonna go find Mark. You,” he said, prodding Tyler in the shoulder, “are going to stay here. And geez, do not offer to suck anyone else’s dick.”

So as it turns out, being propositioned by your drunk best friend really, really sucks.

Confidence Man by edy (1/1 || 5,000 || Explicit)

Tyler has somehow misplaced his swimming trunks and found a replacement in the form of a green rhinoceros inner tube. It’s stupid, stamped with “JUNGLE BUDDIES” on the side. Big blue eyes stare at Josh.

“No way you just blew that up.”

In Clover by TheDyingSun (1/1 || 12,242 || Mature)

Not everyone can afford to drop everything for a two-man band in it’s infancy. So for three weeks, across the belly of the country, Josh and Tyler are forced to tour alone. Just the two of them.

They do okay.

Hold Your Bones (and slowly die). by franticatlantic (1/1 || 26,690 || Explicit)

A chronically ill Tyler is trapped in his house, with nothing to do but spy on the new boy across the street.

and i meant everything i said that night (only for you) by SoloChaos (1/1 || 1,169 || Teen and Up Audiences)

“Um,” Josh says, licking his lips. “Whoops?”

holy roller, blow me over by orphan_account (1/1 || 3,546 || Explicit)

Tyler needs help washing the black paint off of his hands.

A Milano by flightlessnerds (1/1 || 2,397 || Mature)

After all the running he’s done today, Josh is eager to get back to his tent for some alone time.

Good thing Tyler’s only a phone call away.

Spin Cycle (dirty laundry) by marsakat (7/7 || 26,584 || Explicit)

There were many tweets warning others ‘don’t share the pics. You’re an asshole if you do. Be respectful!’ but it didn’t take Tyler too long to uncover the first of the photos.

Everything changed after that.

Cade-

teethmarks by peterandhispirate (1/1 | 8,958 | Mature)

Tyler is on house arrest.

// trauma, flashbacks, hallucinations, animal death/abuse

The Saltwater Game by chess_boxing (14/14 | 17,136 | Mature)

Tyler and Josh meet by chance when they each decide to bury a body in the exact same place on the exact same night.

// murder, self harm, anxiety, depression

Eaten by Birds by edy (1/1 | 19,877 | Explicit)

In which Josh loses his lower jaw and Tyler is the lucky paramedic who finds him.

// depression, disfigurement, past suicide attempt, self harm, suicidal thoughts

i’m not sentimental (this is a rental) by SoloChaos (2/2 | 31,601 | Mature)

“We look at our own bodies as a vessel of a message or an idea to transport as we live life. Hopefully, the message or what is inside can actually outlive the vessel itself.”

-Josh Dun

// implied/referenced suicide, cannibalism, character death, implied/referenced rape/non-con

#twenty one pilots #josh dun #tyler joseph #joshler #joshler fanfiction #admin favorites #anonymous #answered

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juniperwindsong · 4 years

Text

Dragonology 101 (5/10)

Summary:

A shiver runs through Felix that has nothing to do with the cold. Something does not feel right about the way the dragon is staring at them. Its eyes are more menacing, more calculating than he has ever seen before...and he realises all in an instant the very real danger they're in.

November arrives unreasonably cold and gloomy, even for Scotland, and presents a growing problem with Felix and Juniper's dragon. Quite literally. Sparky is now almost 12 feet in length, and is becoming obviously restless with his small enclosure. Felix makes note of the way the dragon paces the edges of the ravine, craning his neck over the top. Occasionally, he makes an attempt to claw at the earthen walls. And although the dirt is always too soft to support the dragon's weight, crumbling away before he can get a foothold, Felix begins to be seriously concerned.

"He needs exercise," Juniper says as they walk back to the castle in the wee hours of the morning. With no sun to provide even an illusion of warmth, the air is frigid and both are huddled deep inside their cloaks.

"He needs more space," argues Felix, trying not to shiver too visibly. "He can't stay there for much longer."

"Well, where would you like to put him, then, the Quidditch pitch?" asks Juniper shortly, though whether it's the temperature or the situation grating at her nerves Felix can't say.

"Of course not," he snaps back, pushing his scarf down past his mouth to speak more freely. "I mean, it's time we think about finding a more permanent home for him. Get him back up to the mountains somehow. We're no closer to fixing his wing than we were two months ago, and he's only going to get bigger. If we wait too long, he'll be climbing out of there on his own and then he's bound to be spotted."

Juniper considers this as they exit the forest. Once they leave the relative protection provided by the trees, however, the two Slytherins are hit by the full force of the bitter wind, and are forced to duck their heads and make a undignified sprint for the castle. Further conversation is impossible until they reach the warmth and safety of their common room.

"You know, we don't know that he can't fly," remarks Juniper as she unwinds her scarf from around her neck and stuffs it into her pocket.

"He wouldn't still be here if he could,” Felix replies, folding his own scarf neatly and draping it over his arm.

"Not necessarily. He doesn't have any real space to manoeuvre in that ditch thing. It could be he just doesn't have enough room to take off,” Juniper pulls out her silver pocket watch to check the time. "Plus, the tree canopy is pretty thick there, there's only a few little gaps. He might not even know he can fly out that way. I never did find out how he got in there."

Felix mulls this over as his eyes sweep automatically across the common room, checking for any evidence of wrongdoing that may have occurred in his absence.

"I suppose that's a possibility," he concedes dubiously. "But how are we going to get him out of there to test him? And where can we take him where he won't be seen?"

"I have an idea about the second one," says Juniper thoughtfully, "But not the first. How do you get a dragon out a ditch?"

How do you get a dragon out of a ditch?

It sounds like the set-up to a joke, Felix thinks wryly, but the question consumes him over the next two days.

Levitate it? That's a simple enough spell, and they're both excellent at Charms. There's a good chance the two of them together could lift the dragon out. Although, Felix admits to himself, levitating a heavy object is not the same as levitating a heavy, struggling, magic-resistant dragon. And even if they managed it, he seriously doubts the dragon will appreciate their efforts. Felix supposes they could put it to sleep first, or immobilise it, but those spells are rather more difficult. And if they don't succeed on the first try...

At best, they'll likely lose whatever small trust they've earned with the dragon, and at worst, it could attack. Creatures don't generally take kindly to magic being used on them, and it's not as if the two students can explain what they're trying to do.

Felix wishes he could pick Juniper's brain about the issue. She's been known to have the occasional clever idea. But they rarely have the opportunity to speak to each other outside of their evening excursions. If there is anyone at Hogwarts with less free time than Felix, it's Juniper Windsong. Between her commitments to her burgeoning friend group and the Slytherin Quidditch team, the new cursed vault phenomena that he's sure she's still secretly investigating, and the school work he can only assume she's keeping up with, Juniper has every minute of her day accounted for. The only times he sees her in the common room anymore are occasional evening revision sessions with Rowan, and Felix isn't keen to discuss their illicit trips to the forest in front of anyone else.

It's for this reason that the first time the two of them can really discuss their dragon problem in depth is as they walk toward it together the next evening.

"What about using reducio on him? Shrink him down?" suggests Juniper through her many layers. "Then we can reverse it with engorgio when we're somewhere else."

Their footsteps crunch loudly as they step through the now frost-tinged grass and brambles carpeting the forest floor.

"It's incredibly risky using the shrinking charm on living things, you know that," chides Felix.

"I do know, but I also know it's possible. I've done it on myself loads of times," Juniper boasts.

Felix furrows his brow. "That does not make it any less risky." he counters, disapproval in his voice. "Anyway, you're a good deal smaller and lighter than a dragon. I don't know that we'd be able to pull it off just the two of us.

"And even if we did," he continues, raising his voice over Juniper's fledgling argument, "I don't think he'll appreciate being shrunk and resized. It could provoke him to attack."

"Hmm," Juniper hums, sounding slightly annoyed. She pushes a thin, whipping branch to the side with a little too much force and it snaps. "I suppose you're probably right. What's your better idea, then?"

"I think we'll have more luck using magic on the surrounding terrain than the dragon itself,” predicts Felix sagely.

"What, blast a hole in one of the walls or something?"

Felix smirks, a little smug. Powerful for her age Juniper may be, but her magic is still lacking in finesse. "Or something."

While Juniper tosses rabbits up to Sparky as quickly as she can (the dragon eats them in one gulp now and is always impatient for more), Felix walks to the opposite side of the valley and inspects the wall near the small pool of water. Like all the surrounding walls, it's formed of dirt and earth with roots and small stones stuck in at random. But the wall nearest the water has a stickier, clay-like texture that Felix thinks might be better suited to the plan he has in mind. He runs his gloved hand along it, searching for the firmest area.

Felix hears the dragon's heavy footfalls behind him and turns to see Juniper approaching, the sack over her shoulder and the dragon at her heels. He makes eye contact with it, wondering if the burning, inscrutable look in its eyes might be interpreted as curiosity. They're more intelligent than anyone gives them credit for, thinks Felix fondly.

"So," Juniper says, stamping her feet a bit with cold, free hand deep in the pocket of her trousers, "What's the plan?"

Felix turns back to the earth in front of him. "Just watch," he says and pulls out his wand.

"Defodio," Felix pronounces clearly, directing his wand in a horizontal line. A deep gouge appears in the wall, the displaced earth falling to the ground in a small shower. Juniper and the dragon both take a step back. Felix repeats his spell again and again over the course of several minutes, changing the direction of his wand, until finally, solid earth steps about a metre wide form a rough but sizable staircase leading out of the valley.

"And there you are," proclaims Felix, more than a little proud of himself.

"Wow!" Juniper breathes out. She grins broadly at Felix, obviously impressed. "Very cool!"

Juniper moves closer to inspect the staircase while Felix tries hard to arrange his features into a more modest expression. He's unduly pleased with her praise.

"Will they hold Sparky up, do you reckon?" she asks.

"One way to find out," Felix replies, reaching out to take the bag from her shoulder. "You go first, you're the lightest."

Juniper shoots a face at Felix as if this were an offensive statement, although he can't see how, but she makes no comment as she begins to climb carefully. The steps being spaced for a creature with a much longer stride, Juniper is forced to use her hands as well. When she reaches the top, Felix walks forward to examine the steps. There's no visible wear to them, only the light imprint of her shoes.

"They look alright," Felix declares, turning slightly to face the dragon. Sparky's eyes are fixed hungrily on the bag slung carelessly across his shoulder. "I guess the real trick will be getting him to actually climb them."

"Hand up the sack," Juniper calls down. Careful not to turn his back to the dragon, Felix awkwardly slings the bag up toward Juniper's waiting fingers.

"Stand out of his way,” she instructs Felix. He takes a few steps back and to the side so Sparky has a clear view of the stairs and the girl.

"Here, Sparky!"

Juniper throws a rabbit underhand toward where Sparky is standing. The dragon snatches it out of the air, but makes no movement forward. She aims her next throw at the bottom of the stairs, too far for the dragon to catch without moving. Sparky steps forward to pick up the rabbit, and Juniper takes a few steps back from the edge of the ravine.

"Here, boy!" Juniper calls again, this time tossing the rabbit onto the topmost step. Sparky places a foreleg on the bottom of the rough staircase and cranes his neck up to grab the treat.

Felix waits with bated breath, willing the step to hold. It does.

"C'mon, Sparky," encourages Juniper, but the dragon needs no more incentive. Recognizing an escape route, Sparky makes a hasty scramble up the wide steps. His claws leave deep gouges in the earth but it holds, and the dragon reaches the top and thrusts himself over the ledge in a matter of seconds.

"Yes!" Felix exclaims under his breath, flushed with his success.

Sparky lets out an exultant, musical roar like a trumpet's reveille, and Felix realises belatedly that Juniper is now alone facing a dragon with a full range of movement.

"Windsong!" he cries as he rushes toward the steps, taking them as fast as he can.

When Felix reaches the top, however, he finds Juniper is already moving off through the forest, tossing rabbits at a merrily trotting Sparky.

"Follow me! I know a place," she says brightly, as if they were guiding nothing more dangerous than a lost mooncalf.

Shaking his head, Felix brings up the rear of their strange caravan as they make their way through the forest in the opposite direction of the castle. As he walks, Felix notices the trees in this part of the forest seem less densely clumped, and some are bent and broken at strange angles, as though something strong had forced a path through them. He wonders if this is the way the dragon took into the forest in the first place.

After a brief walk, the tree line comes to an abrupt end at the top of a small, rolling hill. Their little train stutters to a halt, and Juniper moves aside so Sparky can take in the landscape. As Felix walks around the dragon to stand beside Juniper, he sees what look like sloping plains covered in long grass, waving eerily in the dark.

"We're here!" says Juniper proudly. "These grasslands go on for miles. Sparky will have plenty of space to-"

Juniper breaks off, covering her ears, as the dragon lets out a musical roar of obvious approval right next to her. With no further warning, Sparky breaks into a camper down the hill and across the dark ground, wings outstretched and tail dancing behind him. The force of his movement throws Juniper off balance, and Felix has to put out a hand to steady her elbow so she doesn't fall. She seems not to notice, all her attention on the dragon's diminishing outline.

"Sparky!" Juniper cries, running forward clumsily as the bag bounces on her back.

Felix has no choice but to follow her. Flat-out running is not an action he's much practiced in and he descends the hill with more caution than Juniper. He doesn't catch her up until she stops, a few minutes later, bent over double and breath coming in gasps. Energy, she may have in spades, but the tiny thirteen year old is simply not capable of matching a dragon's speed.

"What do we do?" Juniper asks Felix between gasps. He hears something unfamiliar in her voice and thinks it might be panic.

Felix stares out into the dark, empty plain ahead of them where the figure of the dragon grows rapidly smaller and smaller. There's a lump in his throat as he answers.

"We don't do anything. It's...he's free now. That was the whole point, wasn't it?"

Felix does his best to keep his voice steady and confident, revealing nothing of the sick writhing in his stomach. He has completely failed to consider how it would feel for something that had come to mean so much to him in the last two months to be suddenly gone from his life.

"But we don't know if he can fly yet! He'll never survive if he can't fly." Her voice rising in pitch and volume. "Someone will see him! The ministry will get called in! We can't just let him run away!" Juniper's tone reveals all the brokenness Felix feels but cannot show.

"We can't exactly stop him." Felix wants to comfort her, wants to comfort himself, but he doesn't have the first idea how. "And... we don't know that he can't fly, like you said."

Felix is saved from trying to think up more platitudes by a thunderous noise and the reappearance of the brilliantly green dragon in the distance ahead of them.

Sparky is running flat out, wings spread wide as if poised for flight. Every few steps, the dragon gives a sort of wild hop, throwing himself forward and pulling his legs in, powerful wings beating rhythmically at his sides. But while wind catches underneath the right wing, the left wing falters, the torn wing panels fluttering uselessly. Sparky lands on his face and forelegs, skidding forward with a roar of frustration. Momentum keeps him moving, and he runs forward another few steps before trying the comical manoeuvre again.

Juniper and Felix watch wordlessly for several minutes as the dragon tries desperately to take flight. After one particularly fierce jump, Sparky slams hard into the ground and lets out a screech of pain and frustration like a strangled clarinet.

Juniper puts her hand across her mouth and turns her head away. Felix understands. It's a painful sight, watching such a magnificent creature reduced to this pathetic, undignified scramble. His heart aches as Sparky cries out again, obvious despair in the deep musical roar.

"I guess... that answers that question," Juniper whispers.

They wait there in the cold grass for what feels like hours, unsure of what to do or how to help.

Eventually, Sparky wears himself out. He throws himself to the ground in a heap, releasing one last bellow, like a fiery sob. The dragon rests in the grass a short distance away for several minutes before Juniper finds her feet. She drags the sack up from where she's let it slump to the ground, and begins to walk forward.

"Sparky," calls Juniper softly, reaching into the bag for a rabbit.

The dragon raises its head, his eyes weary, but still alight with that ferocious yellow fire.

"Windsong, wait!" Felix hisses, catching her up and grabbing her arm to stop her getting any closer. "He may not be in the best mood right now."

"Well, we can't just leave him there, we have to get him back," says Juniper, ever pragmatic, and wrenches her arm free. She continues to step forward, perhaps with a shade more caution, keeping her eyes on the panting dragon.

"And how do you propose we do that?" Felix whispers from behind her. He isn't sure why, but the nerves he felt during his first few visits with the dragon have returned, and he feels the need to keep his voice low.

"The same way we got him here," Juniper replies testily. She's close enough to make eye contact with Sparky, and she tosses a rabbit toward him.

The dragon lets the rabbit fall to the ground, his reptilian eyes never leaving Juniper's. For several tense seconds, they stare at each other. Then, with almost sarcastic slowness, Sparky lowers his head to the small corpse and snaps it up, swallowing it whole and maintaining eye contact all the while.

Juniper and Felix stand awkwardly in front of the dragon, unsure how to interpret this little display.

"C'mon, Sparky," Juniper cajoles,"Time to go home." She takes a few steps back and tosses another rabbit about a metre in front of the dragon's face.

Sparky does not move. His eyes, still fixed on Juniper, are venomous and resentful.

"You can do it, Sparky,” she says coaxingly. She walks backward, tossing a third rabbit, and then a fourth, creating a trail for the dragon to follow.

With exaggerated slowness, the dragon clambers to his feet and takes deliberate steps toward Juniper, scooping up the rabbits as he walks.

"See?" Juniper says in relief to Felix, who is keeping pace beside her, "He's just tired."

But a shiver runs through Felix that has nothing to do with the cold. Something does not feel right about the way the dragon is staring at them. Its eyes are more menacing, more calculating than he has ever seen before. He suddenly remembers everything he's ever read about how dragons cannot be domesticated, how they feel no true affection for humans.

They're more intelligent than anyone give them credit for, Felix thinks again, only this time it's with dread. While he had no way to escape or hunt, Sparky had permitted their presence. But now that he's free, Felix knows the dragon regards them as threats. And he realises all in an instant the very real danger they're in.

Felix draws his wand surreptitiously.

"Windsong," he whispers as quietly as he can, but the dragon turns its head a fraction to stare him in the eye. Felix gulps unconsciously. When he continues, he keeps his voice even and low, "I want you to draw your wand, very slowly. No sudden movements."

Juniper glances at him, confused. She does not seem to have picked up at all on the dragon's change of attitude. "Why?" she asks softly.

They're approaching the edge of the forest now. The small hill, the only thing between them and the cover of the trees, is just a few steps behind.

"I don't think he's going to come with us," mutters Felix.

As he speaks, Sparky looks up and notices the looming forest as well. Fast as lightning, the dragon drops his head between his front legs and lets out a ferocious roar that roots them to the spot.

"I think you might be right," Juniper whispers, her voice hoarse.

Felix watches the dragon stamp out a challenge in front of them, trying to think through his fear.

"When I say, we make a run for the trees,” murmurs Felix, keeping his voice as calm as he can. "Make for the denser areas where it can't get through."

"But we have to get him back," Juniper insists, and her doggedness in the face of their mortal danger causes Felix's nerves to snap.

"Windsong!" he barks, taking his eyes from the dragon to glare at her, and Sparky lunges.

There's a bright green blur on the edge of Felix's vision. His body knows what's happening before his brain has time to process. Felix grabs Juniper's arm and yanks her behind him as he runs forward and to the side of the pouncing dragon, skirting it by a hair.

Sparky skids to a halt, trying to change direction quickly, and Felix uses that split second to push Juniper ahead of him up the hill.

"Run!" he commands, glancing behind to determine Sparky's location.

The dragon is already crouched for a second spring, and Felix knows they won't make the top of the hill in time to avoid it. Wand drawn, he aims for the dragon's eyes and yells out the conjunctivitis curse.

Sparky is in the air as the spell hits him square in the face, and his shriek of pain is a cacophony of discordant notes. The dragon falls forward, shy of the two students by a few blades of grass.

Sparky continues to scream, scraping his face across the cold, soft ground in an attempt to relieve the pain in its eyes, but Felix does not stop to watch further. He takes the hill in a few rapid strides and grabs Juniper's arm again as she stands frozen, watching the dragon writhing below. He manages to pull her forward a few steps, almost to the treeline, but Juniper struggles against his grip.

"We- can't- leave- him- here!" She emphasizes each word firmly, her voice loud but surprisingly calm. It infuriates him.

"Windsong!" Felix snarls at her, tightening his grip on her arm until he's sure it's painful. "That creature is not your pet, it's a dragon! It's dangerous and it does not care about you, and it's going to kill us-"

"Exactly!" Juniper interjects, trying desperately to prise his fingers from her. "We can't leave a dangerous, angry dragon loose on school grounds!" She speaks so rapidly he can barely understand her. "Even if by some miracle it doesn't hurt anyone, there's no way it isn't discovered now. And then we're sure to be expelled!"

Below them, they can hear the dragon stamping and roaring, still attempting to clear its vision.

"No one has to know it was us," argues Felix impatiently. "We run back to the castle. We never speak of this again!"

"Felix," Juniper says his name urgently. She ceases her struggling and, instead, reaches out to grab his other hand, squeezing gently, willing him to listen to her.

Felix's whole body stills, and the sounds of the dragon seem strangely faraway.

"We did this! If he hurts someone, Hagrid or Kettleburn or a student, or anyone else who tries to stop him, it'll be our fault. We have to stop him somehow. He's our responsibility!"

Below them, the dragon's screams turn from pain to rage. They can hear its claws scrape the earth of the hill as it attempts to climb blindly toward where they're standing. The renewed sense of danger breaks the spell Juniper's voice has created.

"You're mad,” Felix blurts out. "Completely mad."

He wrenches his hands out of hers.

"You want to stay here and be killed? Be my guest." Felix turns his back firmly on Juniper and the dragon and sprints into the dark trees.

"Felix!" He hears Juniper yell angrily after him, but he ignores her.

Felix takes a few steps into the forest, searching for the thickest clump of foliage he can find. He throws himself behind a tangle of willowy trees all intertwined and growing on top of each other, and sinks to the ground. Felix listens hard for the noise of the dragon, or Juniper, behind him, but the beating of his own heart in his ears makes everything around him sound muffled. He takes a deep breath, and then another, waiting for the panic to subside.

She'll come to her senses, he assures himself. She's not that stupid, she knows she can't battle a dragon on her own. Any second she'll come tearing through the trees.

Sparky's roars sound from close by, but not, Felix thinks, in the forest yet. The ground beneath him shakes very slightly with the dragon's furious, lumbering steps.

It can't see her, he tells himself. She'll get away.

But then Felix hears Juniper's voice, yelling "Flipendo!" and he groans aloud. Did she really just try to trip it? he thinks with a cringe.

There's another roar from the dragon and more stomping. Then a loud crack close by, and an ominous creaking. Felix leaps out from his hiding place, wand raised. A tree at the edge of the forest is swaying precariously, the dragon's powerful tail whipping away from it as it stalks back around.

Felix can't see Juniper, but he hears another cry of "Depulso!" and sees the dragon stumble back very slightly, as though pushed by a rough wind. But the spell is not powerful enough to actually blast Sparky off his feet. Instead, the dragon roars with fury and charges in the direction of Juniper's voice.

Felix can't believe what he's about to do. There are voices in his head screaming at him, but he pushes them away and focuses on the task at hand, the way he does best. He picks his spell decisively, and runs forward faster than he knew he could, aiming for the dragon's feet.

"Immobolus!" Felix shouts, putting all the power he can muster behind his jinx, all the force of will he has and some he was previously unaware of.

The dragon's clawed feet freeze up just as it takes a step, causing it to fall spectacularly to the ground and roll heavily down the hill, its tail whipping wildly behind it. The tail connects with something as it thrashes; there's a yelp, and a shadowy silhouette flies through the air much too quickly and hits the ground near the trees.

For one heart-stopping moment, Felix sees only a too-still body and forgets how to think, how to breathe... then he hears her groan. Felix exhales so forcefully he can feel pieces of his hair flutter where they've fallen against his face. He staggers over to Juniper as props herself into a sitting position.

"Are you alright?" Felix asks, his voice raw. He half bends down beside her, awkwardly, unsure how to help.

"Of course," Juniper says with obvious pain, clutching her side as she gets heavily to her feet. She's panting hard, covered in scratches, scrapes, and dirt. But when she turns her face to his, she's beaming. "I knew you wouldn't really leave."

It's a praise, not a taunt, but Felix is too focused to feel proud at the moment.

"We're not done yet. That jinx will wear off in a minute." He peers down the small hill to where the dragon lays winded, tiny notes of angry music erupting from it like someone striking a xylophone. "Or less."

"What can we do?" asks Juniper, reaching down to pick up her wand with a small grunt of effort, other hand still holding her side, "We'll do more damage if we cast together."

"Probably, but you don't know any spells powerful enough to incapacitate a dragon."

As they speak, Sparky starts to clamber to his feet clumsily, the last vestiges of the jinx still tugging at its limbs.

"Then let's try my original plan," Juniper says, her words nearly unintelligible under the dragon's renewed roars of frustration.

"What?" Felix asks, confused.

"Shrink it!"

Sparky shuffles around to face the direction of their voices, bloodshot eyes searching for them blearily.

Felix shakes his head slowly, "That's -"

"You have one second to think of a better idea."

He can't.

The dragon finally focuses on the two students and it shrieks its triumph and fury.

"On three then," Felix says raising his wand.

"On three," agrees Juniper raising her own, her face set grimly.

"One."

They chant together as the dragon takes a stumbling step forward.

"Two."

They take aim at the dragon's center mass.

"Three."

Sparky crouches, ready to spring, as Felix and Juniper cry out as one:

"Reducio!"

Chapter 6 | Masterpost

#felix rosier #felix rosier x mc #felix rosier x juniper windsong #felix rosier x jacob’s sibling #felix rosier fanfiction #hphm fanfiction #hogwarts mystery fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction #hogwarts mystery #hogwarts mystery mc #hphm mc #hphm #juniper windsong #jacob’s sibling #mc

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thefreshfinds · 5 years

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GRIM: Damage Control

By: Natalee Gilbert

With more truth and less falsity, New Jersey-based creative, Grim creates a sound that holds nothing back and instead, paves the way for other artists to do the same. Advocating for originality, Grim says that while his music is based on real situations, he also makes sure to add in a vibe that everyone can rock to. "I like a dark trap or dark slow melody kind of vibe to match the Grim Persona" he adds. And if I'm being frank here, his project Damage Control lives up to this notion. Aside from carrying that spook in its overall soundscape, Damage Control comes with scathing verses and a cadence that could crush anyone's "so-called" ego.

In this 12-piece collection, Grim bust the clout-chasers and he even leaves room to speak about his dwellings. However, he's worked hard to get to where he is (unlike them). The artist says that the album’s theme stems from how rappers are acting now. To elaborate, Grim says “They all believe that got everything on lock, now it's time to show who deserves the recognition.” Notable tracks like “No Games,” “LEGO,” “Thankful,” and “Storytime Pt 1” deserve some spins. But really, the whole project is a bop. To say the least, Damage Control provides listeners with multiple flows, witty punchlines, catchy hooks and a variety of genres that intertwine. Grim is a persona, feeling, and vibe, in a way but the difference is that he uses his gift to tell stories that leave some sort of impact. As one flips through the tracks, they won’t be able to resist their urge to hear more. However, don’t be mistaken. By no means is Grim a rapper. To clarify, he’s an artist. “Hip-Hop helped me go through any issue I had growing up, it was my escape, my everything. It's all I ever wanted to do. It will never end it's only going to get better and I will support every artist that cares about their craft.”

To begin, “No Games” speaks volumes in its lyrics but the beat, however, is a big misconception of the song title. Grim talks about how he works hard to get to where he is now. Due to working around the clock, he’s able to flex off luxurious jewelry, foreign cars, and drip. And the artist even says that he’d rather not be compared to others. To amp up “No Game,” Grim possesses a bouncy, articulate flow and cut-throat verses. Regardless, the soundscape goes in an upbeat tempo and integrates a gritty 808. Grim says that “No Games” was the most fun to make, “My producer and I baked some cookies and made hits.” he continues “It was a classic night.”

“See Thru” meshes faint harmonic cries with sporadic hi-hats and an anonymous eerie progression. The track itself highlights Grim’s maturity and the rhymer even goes so far as to say that he’s drippin’ now and has his water too. His collaborator, Will Harbor uses slight auto-tune to speak on how he lives by the silver lining. My favorite punchline to date is when Harbor says “Need the ice, I need the cream. Ben and Jerry’s double scoop.”

Still, “LEGO” holds weight in keeping things trap-ridden. Besides this genre, “LEGO” takes influence from country in its guitar riffs and steady, faint eerie piano progression. Even so, the synths ride out with an 8-bit backdrop to prove that Grim didn’t come to play. Starting, “LEGO” comes with a little hum and then he does a repetitive pattern on the last words of his rhyme schemes until the 0:50 mark. He says that he’s going to go and get it.

Additionally, “Story Time Pt 1.” crossovers between jazz-inspired piano riffs, boom-bap, and a steady, dark baseline. This song tells an intriguing tale that takes place on a rainy night. Praying to the one above, Grim hopes that he doesn’t get robbed. But sure enough, someone tries to stick him for his paper at his doorstep. Still, the joke is on him because Grim keeps his bands in the stash box. Shortly after, things get hectic after the guy pulls out a gun in which Grim refers to as “sunny.” To add, Grim mentions that the wangsta only pulls it out on a rainy day. And as the artist runs around aimlessly, his life flashes before his eyes, (don’t worry, he isn’t dead). In short, “Story Time Pt 1.” ends with a cliffhanger.

Moreover, “TROOF” takes influence from the trap and follows up with futuristic synths and sporadic hi-hats. Essentially, “TROOF” takes the melody from “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” for a dark spin. To play off this idea, Grim even says “I let my light radiate,” and “I’d rather pass the shine.” Punchlines like “They be peddling their bikes, I’m on my 4 wheeler” and “They only rap what they assume, I’m recognizable in close rooms” speak volume on the song’s underlying message.

Grim grew up in the 732, so he only had to bring it! “Let Em’ Dance” talks about everlasting growth and how he’s only going to reap the benefits of being an icon in the game. Sure, others can do what they want, but just know that he’s going to get it regardless (and lend a hand to his loved ones along the way). Production-wise, “Let Em’ Dance” uses daunting hi-hats, piano riffs, wind percussions, and an oh, so heavy base. The metaphoric line “Just wait till I blossom, a flower needs to water and b*tch I’m dripping like a faucet.” takes a jab at one double entendre whereas the rest plays out as a punchline.

Categorized as a trap song, “UFO” provides hi-hat progressions, a dark snare pattern, speaker-knocking base, and distorted spacey synths. Grim goes to say with a little flex that he’s trying to make the proper moves to get two steps ahead. Lines like “I’ve been trying to find a place and time/Park the ship and make the stars align,” express this message to the max. The feature, Will Harbor carries a deep tonality and just has fun with his verses.

Now “Story Time Pt 1’s” predecessor, “Story Time Pt 2.” switches the tempo and turns into boom-bap. Over the deep piano riff, an 808 cuts in now and then. Sure, they make a sudden appearance but the instrumentation refuses to stay in the same pattern. To further put it, the soundscape just always seems to fit. “Story Time Pt 2” basically speaks about how all rappers fight for the same spot. In first verse, Grim metaphorically exposes how clout chasing rappers glorify drugs and alcohol by saying “Slip him half of a Xanny and watch him wash it down with Jack/told him spit a 16’ all the sh*t that you can think of.” and “He dropping to the ground/every smile turns into a frown. I’m asking where the clout at now?” “Body and Prada up in a box” Speaking of which, Grim would rather stay in his lane and build rappers up. In means of encouraging others, he hints that he’s always going to stay true to himself no matter what.

Then the song shifts to “Lights Out” which implements eerie, spacey synths in a trap-ridden fashion. In “Lights Out,” Grim reminisces the hard days and celebrates the good ones. And he doesn’t forget to add that he likes a girl who wears Louis Vuitton. On the other hand, “Lights Out’s” strongest component is its bounce and to take it up a notch is Grim’s collaborator, Will Harbor who weaves into a fast flow as well.

Second to last, “White” tackles onto cash register synths and deep, booming bass. Here, Grim flexes off the jewelry while his featured femcee, KillaKay lets her natural swag take over and she ends up shutting it down!

Finally, “Thankful” comes in as a somber ballad and provides listeners with a dark, bellowing bass. Through switched up flows, Grim allows himself to be vulnerable and lines like “I got too much on my mind, I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t want to close but I don’t want to open” prove this very statement. He’s tired of others excluding him out because he’s different. And one can just hear his pain through his rhymes. In means of relatability, Grim says in this very line, “Every soul know the struggle of the come-up/The 9-to-5, then come home, record till sun up. It ain’t for the fame or Hussle, boy you better nut up/Deserve some plaques now/Not a little, I need a tunnel. All-in-all, Grim is thankful for all those past situations because it helped him to become who he is today.

With Damage Control, Grim hopes that fans hear that he’s taking this seriously, “I'm not here to just talk about drugs, guns and sex 24/7.” he continues “Yes, it has its place but you can do more with music.”

If you haven’t already, listen to Damage Control. It is available on all platforms.

Fun Fact: Grim says that 17 by XXXTENTACION saved his life.

LINKS:

1. Instagram: @real_grim

2. Damage Control: https://soundcloud.com/realgrim/sets/damage-control

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