#it took them 3 full seasons to address this

[rhysdarbinizedarby]

‘Our Flag Means Death’: How Blackbeard & Stede’s Fantastical Underwater Reunion Came Together

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Our Flag Means Death, Season 2, Episodes 1-3.]

It doesn’t take more than a single second to recognize Kate Bush‘s haunting and heartbreaking tune “This Woman’s Work,” as Blackbeard, a.k.a. Ed (Taika Waititi), is pushed from a clifftop to plunge into the ocean’s depths below in Our Flag Means Death‘s Season 2 installment, “The Innkeeper.” But how did the pirate heartbroken over Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) wind up in this position? It’s a delicate and winding path that starts with the infamous pirate’s unraveling over the course of the latest season’s first two episodes.

Believing Stede intentionally abandoned him after planning to run away together at the end of Season 1, Blackbeard embraces the version of himself so many have conjured up in their minds as he leads the Revenge’s “new” crew to pillage and plunder on the high seas. His unhinged behavior eventually forces Jim (Vico Ortiz), Izzy (Con O’Neill), Frenchie (Joel Fry), Archie (Madeleine Sami), and Fang (David Fane) to violently take control of the ship and neutralize Blackbeard — or so they think — after he steers them directly into a storm.

When Zheng Yi Sao’s (Ruibo Qian) Red Flag happens across an eerie-looking Revenge on the ocean, Stede dives overboard in his excitement over the possibility of seeing Ed, only to be told various excuses for his absence by the crew aboard. When Stede directly addresses Izzy regarding Blackbeard’s lack of presence, the now peg-legged pirate claims the Revenge crew dropped Ed on a beach.

This seems to ring true as we see Blackbeard wash ashore and cared for by his own former captain Hornigold (Mark Mitchinson). While together, Blackbeard and Hornigold discuss the mutiny that took place and Blackbeard’s hopes for the future. When a role-playing scenario testing Blackbeard’s ability to be an Innkeeper, a profession he’s interested in, goes awry, he attacks Hornigold, killing the tarp-clad pirate. But when Hornigold rises again, Blackbeard realizes something is off.

Aboard the Revenge, Ed’s body is uncovered below deck. Believing him dead, Zheng Yi Sao is forced to consider killing the Revenge crew for mutiny after initially welcoming them aboard the Red Flag. And Stede has to cope with the idea that his love may be gone forever.

After hatching an escape plan for the Revenge team, Stede and pals return to their former ship, leaving Zheng stranded without a wheel. Going to sit with Ed’s body, Stede wonders why he had to go and get himself killed. Meanwhile, Blackbeard begins to realize he’s stuck somewhere between life and death, a place this Hornigold manifestation calls a “gravy basket.”

As the two men banter about the pros and cons of choosing life over death, Hornigold ties a boulder around Ed’s waist and throws it from the cliff they’re standing on, pushing Blackbeard into the ocean. Just as it seems as though he’ll succumb to the waves, Blackbeard proves Bush’s song right: Perhaps there’s a little life in him yet. When Stede lifts the cloth from his face on the Revenge, underwater Ed reacts to the change. Peering into the water, he sees a light from which a fantastical mermaid version of Stede emerges.

In the real world, Stede reacts to Blackbeard’s twitching hand, taking it in his and pleading for him to live as a montage of their moments together rolls alongside Bush’s still-playing song. The final seconds of the episode see Ed’s eyes open, giving Stede hope.

So, how did this moving turn of events come to pass? A team full of creatives was responsible for bringing the captivating and satisfying reunion.

Stede’s Mermaid Tail

“It’s a huge process,” putting together Stede’s practical mermaid look, according to costume designer Gypsy Taylor. She says “it started with me begging everybody” to avoid visual FX and make a tail for the sequence. The orange and glittering look could have followed several different styles, but ultimately, Taylor notes, “I thought if Stede is going to turn into a mermaid, and it’s in Blackbeard’s dream, it’s sort of his vision of a mermaid.”

Considering this, in Taylor’s mind, Blackbeard wouldn’t envision some epic fantastical creature; instead, Stede would “just be like a goldfish. He’d just be like a sweet harmless goldfish.” In putting sketches together of the ensemble, Taylor acknowledges the symbolism of the goldfish motif: “There’s a huge Chinese element that we have coming through, and goldfish in Chinese culture is considered lucky.” As this vision of Stede was responsible for helping bring Ed back to life, that luck was certainly there.

“I thought that was a pretty beautiful thing, that they meet each other under the ocean and then they find each other,” Taylor gushes. “And so I went a little deep on that, but really he’s just a goldfish.” In order to achieve the goldfish mermaid look, Taylor teamed up with props master Hayley Egan, who’s based out of Australia. “She happens to excel at making mermaid tails,” Taylor shares.

After securing Egan’s involvement, Taylor says, “We fit Rhys in a jumbo stretch long skirt and made sure it was really tight so he could still sort of do this dolphin [swimming] action. And then we bought these mono fins, which you can purchase online and put your feet in.” Safety was key, though. “He had to swim really deep and for a really far distance, and he’d never done anything like that before,” Taylor explains. “So it had to be really safe and doable.”

Once that was figured out, Taylor says Egan “cast something like 3,000 hand-sculpted silicon scales. There’s something like five kilograms of glitter in the whole thing. And then we hand-dyed pleated chiffon for all the fins, so that when he was swimming through the water, it would have this magic feel.”

While the scene may play as emotional and romantic, the story behind getting Stede’s mermaid look from Australia to New Zealand was actually quite comical. “[Egan] sliced two suitcases in half, filled [them with the mermaid tail], and then when it went through customs, the customs guy said to her, ‘Are you bringing fish into this country?’ And she’s like, ‘Yes, yes I am.'”

In total, there were four tails, including “a practice tail, a stunt tail, because Rhys had to do quite a few lessons before we got the real one on. And the real one was super precious, and chlorine’s very strong, it eats fabrics away, so we wanted to save the hero one for the hero shot,” Taylor reveals. When it came time to film, “We put him in [the tail], and it was just amazing.” In order to get Darby into the pool, Taylor says a ramp had to be built and the actor was placed in a wheelchair while costumed “and pushed in.” As unglamorous as it sounds, she adds, “it was like Rhys’s dream come true.”

How Kate Bush Entered the Music Mix

It’s safe to say Kate Bush has been having a moment on TV since last year’s “Running Up That Hill” needle drop on Stranger Things, but music supervisor Maggie Phillips says, “This Woman’s Work” was selected before Netflix‘s hit made headlines with their use of the aforementioned song. “When we were placing [the song in the season lineup],” Phillips says, “it was maybe weeks after Stranger Things, and I was worried that we would look like copycats.”

Phillips maintains that the song was in the mix before, but it ultimately “doesn’t matter because really what matters is that Kate Bush is a queen and more and more people need to know her music.”

She says, “From what I heard from David [Jenkins], it was a song that Taika was attached to.” At first, Phillips was reluctant to go with the song due to its prior uses, but “David told me not to worry about [that], that people have short-term memory when it comes to music.”

While she debated with the team over cutting it, “[David] has the visuals in his mind. I don’t. I’m just hearing it with a script and I had no clue how it was going to work until I saw the first cut, and it was beautiful and they picked a part of the song that worked really well with the visuals, so they sort of made it their own,” Phillips explains. “They added a different context to the song that I wouldn’t have been able to imagine myself. So they proved me wrong for sure.”

It’s hard to imagine the scene without Bush’s song. “It changes the way you listen to the song,” Phillips notes. “I got chills watching it and I know that song so well and haven’t gotten chills like that in a long time.” With all of the buildup, “You’re waiting for them to have their romantic moment. You’re waiting for three episodes for that to happen. And so it’s so cathartic when that song comes on, and you see them come together in this fantasy world under the sea. It’s just perfect.” This led her to email Jenkins. “I was like, ‘You were right. I was wrong. But this was beautiful, and thank you so much.'”

Blackbeard’s Wet Wig Woes

Anyone watching the scene unfold would have to notice Blackbeard’s silver tresses weaving through the water, a feat much more difficult behind the scenes than the seemingly simple sequence onscreen. “We filmed that quite late in the season, and so we were really planning and thinking about that all the way through [filming]. I was a bit nervous,” hair and makeup designer Nancy Hennah admits. “I knew that he was going to have to be under the water with his wig on for quite a long time.”

Even with high-quality wig glue, Hennah says, “You can do everything you can to make that wig stay on, but there’s a limited amount of time that the glue will last. So we had to use different products than we would normally use to get the wig down.” Because the product Hennah normally uses to keep hair back in a wig is water soluble, “it melts, and the hair starts coming out from the lace, and it can ruin the whole look of the wig.” She had to come up with a creative fix.

“I glued his own hair back, and then we glued the lace on top of that, and wildly, it lasted right until the very last shot when they were dragging him through the water by the ankles,” Hennah reveals. “The wig just came off completely after they’d finished shooting. And so he came up out of the water, and the wig was off to the side, [and he goes], ‘I think my wig came off.'” She calls the success of the wig “incredible” and “just a fluke really.”

When it came to capturing Darby’s underwater look, it was all about blending the mermaid tail with his skin. “With Stede, Gypsy had a beautiful mermaid tail made, and we did a whole lot of practice with different types of silicon and things that we had to blend that piece between his skin and the tail. We made these pieces of silicon with glitter and things in them that we individually stuck over the top of the mermaid tail,” Hennah details.

Again, there were concerns about getting “things to stick underwater,” but watching the scene come together from behind the camera eased those. “[When] we were standing there on the set that day and watching the monitor, it just was so beautiful that we were all blown away by it, and that tank that they were filming in was a couple of stories deep, and to be out there in that water, it was challenging, and they both did so well. It just went off without a hitch. It was one of those great days where it just worked for everybody.”

Don’t miss what else is in store for the season. Stay tuned for additional interviews and content as the second season of Our Flag Means Death unfolds.

Our Flag Means Death, New Episodes, Thursdays, Max

Source: TV Insider

#rhys darby #taika waititi #ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 spoilers #costume designer #costume details

[invidiia]

oh my god the yan!dazai x willing reader fic😭 i love reading this type of content (its a trauma response but the idea of someone obsessing over me brings me comfort </3)

Can you write something more for yan!dazai and reader? Like dazai somehow forgets his keys at home giving reader full access to run away/call for help, but when he comes back running to his apartment worried he sees them cooking something for him and what surprises him the most is the fact that he didn’t have most of the ingredients which means that they went outside to buy them and actually came back <3

❐ - yandere osamu dazai (bsd) with a reader who to left the house to make dinner.

note ; HII thank you for requesting!! and the beginning of the request really made me think, and i realized you were completely right and i relate deeply !! on another topic besides the request, i feel bad about writing ever since character ai came about, because what's the point of writing fics and hcs for people who can just make everything they want happen with ai?! but i'll continue, of course!! alsoo ada dazai

prompt ; dazai's beloved cooks for him after he left for the store.

warning ; kidnapping, possibly soft!yandere dazai AT FIRST, mentioned suicide (it's dazai)

masterlist - rules - previous work

when dazai finally trusts you enough to be by yourself while he went out to run errands, it was like you felt relief for the first time in years. maybe it was.

he didn't specify what he was doing, but he did seem like he would be out for a long time. but for whatever reason in the world, you didn't exactly plan to fully escape from him. maybe you were on something, because anybody else would have went as far as they could.

dazai kissed the top of your top of your head affectionately. "my dear," he addressed to you, his voice sweet, just like every other time he spoke. "i have to run errands, okay? can you promise me that you'll be good while i'm gone?" dazai rested his head on top of yours, holding you closely to his chest in a tight hug. you nodded your head against him, and he smiled. "i'll be off now, my love." and with that, dazai walked out the door, completely forgetting his keys on the table.

maybe you were drugged, high or some kind of intoxicated, because anyone would be overjoyed to see that their kidnapper left their keys with them, and they'd try to leave! i mean, dazai was normally cautious - how stupid of him this evening.

but for just some reason, any reason in the world, you didn't leave the house for freedom. instead it was for.. groceries? dazai did feed you often, but it was usually food from a local place that he liked a lot more than cooking, hence the reason there were barely any ingredients to make dinner with.

maybe you were doing this to gain trust and then turn your back on him later? well, it was too late, dazai left the keys here, and you were free to escape. so the first place you decided to go? the grocery store.

walking through the produce isle, you turned your head anxiously, looking behind your back to see if dazai found out you left and followed you. but no one was there, not at all. you were safe.

you gathered up money from inside your pockets when the man first took you - enough to buy a couple vegetables, a bag of rice, and a bit of chicken. that was enough for tonight!

upon your return to the apartment, nobody was there, so you got to work, having not been caught by dazai on your little outing to the store.

it was pretty easy to make fried rice. you found yourself in the kitchen chopping vegetables to put into the frying pan while you seasoned the chicken. dazai didn't have a ton of seasoning in his cabinets.. guess this guy liked his stuff plain? but you worked with what you had, and you were able to make a pretty damn good plate of chicken fried rice. the meal was perfect, and you had just finished when the door opened up. it was dazai. the brunette man opened up the door rather quickly, slipping inside the apartment. "belladonna.. this smells amazing!"

dazai was quick to praise your cooking, even telling you that he didn't want to eat your masterpiece in hopes of ruining it, but you told him to sit down and just eat it.

and that he did, and he loved it! he didn't act like anything was wrong, it went perfect! he praised your cooking skills the entire time while he ate.

even you forgot that you snuck out to retrieve your ingredients!

"belladonna," dazai spoke, sweetly. you were both nearing the end of the meal, with just two bites of the food left on the plate. "your cooking is absolutely perfect, you know that? i almost forgot that we didn't have any vegetables in the house." you tensed up. this was such a stupid idea, sneaking out to get ingredients for your meal. "i found those in the cabinet, you brought them home one night. don't you remember?" you lied nervously, biting up the inside of your mouth while you just silently begged he would believe you. "i would never think about willingly buying bell peppers unless i planned to cook such a meal. why would you leave the apartment, dear?" dazai slid his chair back, stepping towards you with his hands in his pockets. this was stupid, a stupid mistake that you can't undo. "no matter.. you didn't run away.. so what am i to do with you?" he grabbed a lock of your hair, pulling it upwards so you could face him. you cried out, whimpering in pain - but he paid no attention to it, looking you in the eye. "let's see."

#klya..requests #yandere dazai x reader #yandere dazai #tw yandere #yandere dazai osamu #yandere bsd x reader #yandere bsd #bsd x reader #yandere osamu dazai #yandere osamu dazai x reader

[dogwithrabies]

what if.. hybrid scara in his breeding season and he needs help? he's usually submissive but he wants to try dominate you, and you agreed! he was a bit shy at first but later on he's pounding into you in rapid pace as you shake in overstimulation, moaning nonstop, begging him to slow down, back arched, eyes rolled, toes curled, squirted multiple times, just 😵‍💫😵‍💫‼️‼️

can you add some degradation kink pls? ○|￣|＿

also can I be "st4rz anon"?

Hello st4rz!! Apologies for the time this took me,, i got busy''' I wasn't sure what kind of hybrid you meant so I went with a kitty I hope that's fine!! i think I strayed a bit from the original prompt but I hope u enjoy it nonetheless <3

【★】 cws: gn reader but described as afab, sub reader, this is not proof read

word count: 1.6k

Kunikuzushi was always good at being sneaky, you hadn’t even heard him until he sat next to you on the couch, arms instantly around your waist. You felt his hot breath on your neck as he left a trail of kisses. Affection was a thing he seldom initiated, so it was always something you cherished. Actually communicating and asking for things just wasn’t his style. He usually just sat around you, slightly pouting (though he’d deny it if you pointed it out), hoping you’d get the hint.

However, today was not the case.

His heat had arrived earlier than expected, leaving his most uninhibited desires on full display. Now facing him, you sneak your arms around his neck pulling him for a kiss. It’s pleasant, and his lips feel nice against yours. But you can feel a tinge of desperation on his part, an urge to deepen it. Nibbling on your lower lip as if asking for permission, he sneaks his tongue into your mouth when he feels your lips parting.

It’s only when you’re effectively left breathless that he pulls away.

“Needy much?”, he’s not looking at you but he can just feel the smirk forming on your face.

He shifts lower, “Shush.” he mutters while readjusting himself, no longer straddling your hips, choosing instead to lay in between your legs.

You don’t miss the hardness poking your thigh.

He doesn’t give you the time to address it though, immediately pulling you in another kiss, even more desperate than the previous one. He feels your hands moving lower on his torso, grabbing and pulling at his shirt, urging him to take it off. Usually, he would oblige. Letting you take the dominant role whenever you got intimate was almost second nature to him. He wouldn’t call himself a sub, lest his ego implodes, and the thought of taking the upper hand had been buzzing in his mind for a while.

Today was the day, he decided.

He pulls away, grabs your hands, and pins them at your sides. Your eyes meet his and you open your mouth to question him, but the words die in your throat when you see just how intensely he’s looking at you. His stare has always been intense but now he looks like he’s fully undressing you with his eyes. His expression, however… is he embarrassed? He huffs and looks away when you make eye contact. Does he want to ask you something?

His eagerness makes you guess that his heat has arrived. You’ve helped him through it countless times already. A light bulb went on in your mind.

“Do you want to top?”, you speak up. Face flushed, he hesitates but then nods silently.

Moving his hands, he grabs the hem of your shirt he pulls it up and over your head. Now that he has better access, he latches onto your neck again. Biting and licking and covering you in his own marks. He always gets more possessive during moments like these. Realistically, he knows you’re his (as much as he is yours), but it’s a desire that comes from deep within. His shorts feel even tighter when hears you slightly whimper as he keeps his assault on your neck. His hips move on their own and he finds himself grinding against your core. Your hands move down his torso once again, and this time he lets you. Your touch on his bare skin leaves a tingling sensation, he feels a shiver running down his spine as he feels you touching lower.

There’s no reason to tease himself like this any further, his carnal urges take over. In a quick motion, he takes off your pants and the rest of his clothes, leaving you completely bare in front of him.

The wetness between your thighs arouses him further. With two fingers, he runs them along your folds, slowly toying with you. He swirls them one last time before pulling away. Covered in your slick, he brings them to his mouth. His tongue darts out as he licks his fingers clean of your essence.

“Kuni,” your voice brings him out of his thoughts and back to the matter at hand.

“Please?” Well, how could he ever say no to you?

He finally puts his palm around his neglected member and aligns it with your hole. He drags it up and down covering it in slick, the sensation makes him shudder. While you’re squirming under him, he pushes in, slowly sinking into you. A moan escapes from his lips as the pleasure engulfs him.

His head sinks in the crook of your neck, muffled pants can be heard as he struggles to keep his composure. Your hands run down his back soothingly, encouraging him to take his time. He’s not usually this sensitive… hell, he’s been fucked senseless multiple times, but his heats truly take a toll on him. Slowly, he starts thrusting into you, quickly falling into a steady rhythm.

Each thrust sends pleasure through you, your moans just spur him on. His name falls from your lips like a mantra as your grip on his back grows stronger. He hits deep, a feeling of fullness overwhelming you every time he pushes in fully.

There’s a spot that makes you clench on him harder. He chases that feeling, focusing all his energy on hitting it continuously. Your back arches and your moans become more frequent the more he pounds into that spot. Your climax builds up fast, Kunikuzushi's moans right by your ears certainly don't make you a favor.

It doesn’t take long before you come undone around him, your fingers scratching his back and your legs locking behind him. He keeps moving allowing you to ride your orgasm out.

Actually, he never stops thrusting.

“Kuni-” “I’m not finished.” He cuts in before you even get to finish.

He grabs your legs and pushes them toward your chest. This new angle allows him to hit deeper.

“I’m gonna keep going until I'm satisfied” he speaks between thrusts, mind completely fogged by lust. Keeping up is impossible, the relentless slide of his length hitting deeper with each thrust.

Pleasure slowly turns into overwhelming overstimulation, but he keeps going undaunted.

“You’re gonna take me right?” he whispers by your ear. “You’re gonna be good for me…?” His sultry voice rings in your ears. He’s not really waiting for an answer, it sounds more like he’s making these statements for himself. He grunts as he speeds up the pace, cursing under his breath as he feels himself getting closer. He can feel everything, every time you clench around him his stomach churns.

He leans down and bites into your shoulder to muffle his moans. Bottoming out one last time he releases into you, thick white ropes as deep as he can reach. He keeps moving, riding out his high till the end. Letting go of your legs, he lays down limp on your chest.

You're both just catching your breaths for a while, chests heaving up and down quickly.

"I like this uh, rougher side of you" You break the silence first.

He hums next to your ear, holding himself up with his arms so he can get a better look at your face. It's messy, still blushing and hair sticking to your forehead.

"Good, 'cause I'm not finished yet." Getting up completely, he pulls out his, still hard, cock. Turning you to lay on your stomach, he observes as his come leaks out of you. He can't have that going to waste, so he uses his fingers to scoop it back inside before sinking himself into you again.

The sudden intrusion makes you gasp, you turn around to look at him. He stares back at you with a proud smirk on his face, but it fades quickly as he asks you for permission to keep going. When you nod, he doesn't waste a second and grabs your waist dragging you to him as he starts moving again. 

Despite having finished once already, he still finds himself twitching with need and eager to fill you up again. The sight of his come leaking out of you aroused him, it revived a spark of possessiveness he usually (tries to) keeps hidden.

He wants more of that.

Leaning his chest over your back he gets close to your ear. "A-are you enjoying this?" he says between pants. You try to answer, but all that comes out is a winded whimper. "Do you like it when I use you like this?"

He laughs above you, his grip on you getting tighter. "Can't talk? Have I fucked you stupid already?" he says mimicking the sentences you told him during your previous sexcapades. One of his hands slides from your waist and between your legs, settling on your clit. He rubs his fingers at an agonizingly slow pace, intending to draw out more of your noises. Thin fingers move from your neck to your back, moving your hair so he can leave some marks on the untouched skin of your neck. Biting and licking, he doesn't intend to leave any spot blank. Moving down to your shoulder he only gets harsher, latching himself onto a spot until it bruises.

His name rolls off your tongue, it's muffled but he can still hear it. The sight of your back arched and your pleas for him go straight to his dick. He holds still for a moment, pushing himself as deep as he can before releasing once again. But the break is short lived, not even giving you time to catch your breath as he starts moving his hips again. His come gushes around his member, leaking out of your hole and onto your couch. Neither of you cares at the moment, Kuni being too busy fucking himself into you to even notice. It would be a while until he gets his fill anyway.

#st4rz anon #scaramouche x reader #wanderer x reader #scaramouche smut #dog writes

[cocogum]

There’s something off about Yugo now.

‼️ SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4 ‼️

LEAVE AT THE WARNING IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE FIRST FOUR EPISODES.

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Way before 2024 hit, when Tot was still teasing us with some snippets of Season 4 on Twitter, there was a time when one of his tweets made some people think about what he meant.

The specific tweet was made on the 10th of January of 2023 at 5:10 AM which showed a small scene of Yugo once said that THIS scene in particular was going to change Yugo forever

Here’s the full translation:

“Season 4 of Wakfu is going well my friends…Here’s a small snippet of Yugo that makes me want to cry. 🥲”

We didn’t know at the time what he could’ve meant by that or what that specific scene that saddened him was even about.

But now that Wakfu Season 4 is out, we were able to watch that same scene that happened in episode 3.

And omg it makes perfect sense now.

In his tweet where he addressed his feelings for the scene, Tot specified that this moment would be the last time we see Yugo, the last scene before saying goodbye.

Some people, back when the tweet was still recent, thought Tot might have been implying that Yugo would actually die or possibly gain his adult form through this scene where he’s surrounded by his mother’s blue hues.

But now that we’ve watched the actual episode where this same scene Tot was talking about took place, we can all finally confirm that neither of those two things happened.

Because what happened ended up being far worse than that.

Yes, what’s worse than Yugo dying or growing up to an alarming speed is nothing compared to what actually happened :

Yugo’s mindset changed.

When Yugo met the Eliatrope goddess for the first time (in this life at least), he explicitly told her that he does not know her, therefore, he cannot sympathize with what she’s saying to him. Yugo could see how she was crying when she told him, Nora, and Qilby she missed them as well as her other children and that she promises them she wouldn’t be away from them any longer.

Yugo doesn’t react to this, only Nora and Qilby truly understand the power behind her words.

But as soon as the Eliatrope goddess puts Yugo to rest for a while, the moment he wakes up was as if he changed his mind completely.

He claims that his mother is the purest of the pure and that she’s so perfect that she can’t express any negative emotions. Keep this in mind for later.

He truly believes what he’s saying and cannot fathom the fact that she may be imperfect in some ways.

His mind did a complete 360 to the point where he immediately joins the Eliatrope goddess, Nora, and Qilby’s cause. He changed his mind so quickly that even Nora noticed and brought it up.

When the assembly began, Yugo was proud of showing up first to welcome his mother and he proudly stated her arrival to the rulers. He had even told Joris that he insisted on being as forward as possible to the rulers and to welcome his mother appropriately.

Now, remember when I stated that Yugo does not believe that the Eliatrope goddess can express any negative emotions?

Well, it turns out he was wrong.

Not even a full hour passed, and the Eliatrope goddess was already in a full confrontation with one of the rulers, the queen of Bonta, Astra. When someone, especially a higher being, is claimed to be a pure being with no flaws, it usually means that they cannot even fathom the idea of expressing a negative emotion or struggling to keep it in.

But the reason why this scene was just so important to focus on was because THIS is supposed to be the goddess of love, the goddess that represents purity (no wonder people were beings suspicious of her. How are you gonna be called the embodiment of ‘love’ and yet express something that is out of your agenda?)

So the reason why we need to focus on this moment, is because the goddess hesitated.

This is what makes Yugo’s claims about her being perfect completely wrong.

And since his declarations were very much flawed, his current way of thinking can only mean one thing :

Something has gone wrong.

From what we’ve been able to witness from his slumber, Yugo was able to see how he and his siblings were created by their mother, how their original planet came to be, how their mother got thrown aside, banished by the other gods and ended up in the Necroworld, and how she got saved by Nora and Efrim.

To us, this sequence must’ve probably lasted for about three minutes or so but to Yugo, this moment lasted far longer than that. He must’ve seen the details, heard a lot of recrimination from the other gods, and seen his mother’s suffering from being cast aside. All of this pain and suffering that she must’ve felt was what made Yugo side with her and her cause.

But as much as his sudden want to be closer to her makes sense, it doesn’t mean that Yugo’s portrayal of his mother is true. Anyone can tell that the Eliatrope goddess had broken a very important major rule: DO NOT use a planet for yourself. She had betrayed the trust of the other gods without any explanation other than wanting to have children and making a world for herself.

Yugo saw it all and yet he did not think that she made a mistake. He does not care if she went against the other gods (creating a world for herself), he does not care if she wants to monitor the world (she has told this in front of all the authorities of the world), he does not care if she wants to infuse vigilantism (again, she told this in front of the leaders of the world), and he does not care if all the commanders of the world do not side with her ideas (he deliberately chose to follow her as soon as she left the assembly).

But it seems like even when he was not, at the time, sleeping under her energy, he didn’t care if people with bad intentions got paralyzed for some undetermined amount of time as punishment (he was watching Nora and Adamaï fight the rogues). That could have been an early hint that he would do much more than just stand aside and not say anything in matters like these but rather silently do what his mother wishes to do.

Since he embraces everything that she is, he embraces everything that she wants to do or has done.

Another thing I should mention is the fact that ever since he woke up, he started calling the Eliatrope goddess “mother”, implying that he now felt completely comfortable with knowing and understanding that she was truly his creator, mother.

As you can see, every time he addresses her, it’s always by calling her his mother, which is factually true, but again, he has just met her and is already completely enamoured by her. His admiration and respect towards her makes sense because he has seen everything that she’s been through while sleeping.

The problem is that even when he considers her perfect, he doesn’t seem to understand that the people around her (besides Nora and Qilby) DO NOT agree with her plans.

Yugo does not understand why Adamaï left because his intuition was telling him that something was very wrong about all of this (even though Yugo wasn’t too convinced by the Eliatrope goddess, he was still taking a neutral side at the time. Even though he didn’t completely understand his mother at that moment, this still counts as an event where Yugo did not think about the Eliatrope goddess’s ways even when his brother told him something was off. Also, if Yugo did see his mother’s suffering at that moment, he would have still most likely sided with her.)

Yugo also does not understand what the leaders are trying to say and how right they are (even though they have mistreated the Eliatrope goddess in the process). One of them, the queen of Bonta, makes very good points that the goddess should have answered and explained.

But instead of taking a moment to think about it or try to at least think about how the rulers are feeling right now, Yugo simply leaves them and goes right back to the goddess.

This is a very surprising decision of his because Yugo has lived his entire life in the World of Twelve. He has not only lived here but has met a lot of different people, gone through life and death for them, saved numerous victims and fought off enemies for them, and did all that in the same world where he is currently turning his back to the very rulers of it.

Tot wasn’t wrong when he said Yugo wouldn’t be the same.

And we’re starting to see it.

It’s becoming more obvious and I’m sure that at some point, there could be another fight between Yugo and Adamaï happening, or perhaps even a misunderstanding.

#i’m really late lol #i should rly stop writing in the middle of the week #wakfu #wakfu tweet #wakfu tot #wakfu yugo #wakfu season 4 #wakfu season 4 spoilers #wakfu s4 #wakfu s4 spoilers #yugo #ankama #krosmoz #wakfu theory? #wakfu theories #wakfu theory #wakfu season 4 episode 3 #wakfu s4 ep3 #wakfu season 4 episode 3 spoilers #wakfu s4 ep3 spoilers #wakfu twitter #wakfu analysis #wakfu analyses

[maryonaccross]

Dear fellow team green fans, I’ve finally managed to make a list of fanfictions on AO3 that every team green fan should read;

(Most of these aren’t aggressively team green but focus on team green characters and explore them in interesting and respectful ways )

Fist we have the holy trilogy:

1. Burning Jasmine by our national treasure @scalyfreaks and literally anything else that she writes (BJ is a beautifully written Aegon centric alteration of the dance of the dragons)

2. See, what happened was by @daylander1000 / Daylander on AO3 (the best Aemond centric fanfic I have ever read. If you dislike the strong boys and how Baela and Rhaena were done dirty in the show and love angsty preteens and “dark fluff” as the author herself describes it this is the jam)

3. All of @dulcewrites fanfictions are an absolute must for any team green fans (she handles the characters with such care and the humor is amazing)

Then we have the category that I like to call JUSTICE FOR ALICENT:

1. Springs end by Navree (long one shot that explores Alicent’s feelings at the beginning of her marriage to Viserys, beautifully written, I cried)

2. Give me back my girlhood it was mine first by JustA_Person (beautiful multi-chaptered fic that dives headfirst into Alicent’s depression at the beginning of her marriage and does not shy away from roasting the fuck out of Viserys and is currently heading towards a rekindling of the relationship between Alicent and Rhaenyra)

3. In your grave by 136108 (short but brilliant one shot on what Alicent should have told Viserys on his death bed)

Then we have Daemon and Viserys haters must read section staring;

1. Sins of the father by SelfProclaimedUnicorn ( ABSOLUTE MUST for any Daemon haters out there, this is the best there is. This fanfiction centers around two children Daemon has with Rhea Royce at the beginning of his marriage and follows them in their childhood and teenage years (the children are the same age as Rhaenyra and Alicent). This is one of the best written team green fanfictions I have ever read and it tells the story in such an intelligent and thought out way with some perfectly seasoned Daemon bashing sprinkled all over it. It also holds up so well considering that its plot is unlike any other team Green fanfiction out there and centers around characters that aren’t really explored enough. Oh and it also addresses the suffering Aemma went through trapped in marriage with Viserys which is always a great touch)

2. Out of the mouth of Babes by UnknownEnigma ( beautiful six chapter fanfiction exploring Aemonds relationships with Viserys that shows Viserys’ neglect and cruelty in all its glory and ends in a very satisfying way)

And then we have a few more brilliant fan fictions that I don’t really know how to sort into a category:

1. Lose your Ego by Fjlh (this series just started and is about Aegon USING HIS BRAIN and fighting for his claim. Very promising so far)

2. The sky is always red above Valyria au by Aifsaath (beautiful series of one shots about Aegon x Baela that explores the trauma of growing up with a father that maritally rapes your mother)

3. Lady Dreamfrye by Ai_Megurine (story about Sansa Stark being reborn as Helaena)

4. I’m never gonna love ( again ) by @crescenthoax (very interesting Aegon x oc fanfic )

5. My hand was the one you reached for by haught_hightower ( explores Alicent’s relationships with Criston and her children )

6. a poison tree by Juliet_Capulet ( very detailed and well written story about the younger brother of Daemon and Viserys returning to the capital with his daughter, after the death of his wife and witnessing Viserys’ brain dead decisions unraveling while forming a bond with his nieces and nephews. Full of Daemon and Viserys Bashing)

I hope you enjoy, it took me a real long while to find some of these gems

#pro team green #anti team black #anti team black stans #anti rhaenyra targaryen #anti daemon targaryen #pro alicent hightower #your skin makes me cry #anti viserys i targaryen #aegon x oc #anti rhaenyra stans #aemond x oc #justice for the velaryons #anti rhaenys targaryen

[ikeromantic]

Hiii omg congratulations on 1k subscribers!!!! 🥳 It's been wonderful to see you reach such milestones over the years, has it really been three already? Ig time really flies when you're having fun 😉 For this one, could I please get Chevalier, Observatory and Gingerbread? Thanks a lot in advance, I'm sure it will be just as creative and incredible as every fic you've written so far! 🥰 I hope you're having a great holiday season, XOXO

It has been 3 years ^_^ Hard to believe really. Time flies when I'm having fun! Your kind words are one of the things that keeps me sharing here <3 So here we go, approx. 1400 words of a spicy and sweet Chevalier. IkePri New Years Event story

Chevalier followed his love up the winding stairs, a bemused smile on his lips. A ‘mysterious’ invitation had replaced his bookmark in one of his new novels, and this was the address listed. He wondered what his precious Belle had in mind. It better be worth all the stair climbing.

At the top, the entrance to the observatory swung open. The space, usually dedicated to the scientific study of stars, was now decorated with roses and candles. A small, round table sat to one side, with a bottle of wine and two glasses. The Belle stood beside it, an anxious smile on her face. “What is this?” Chev raised an eyebrow.

“Umm. Welcome, Prince Chevalier. This is - ah - a romantic dinner?” She shuffled from one foot to the other, far less confident of this presentation than her lovely dress would indicate. It was silk, and clung to her curves suggestively, hiding and showing all at once. The sort of dress a seductress might wear to lure in her prey. 

He shut the door behind him and closed the distance between them. “You set this up?”

She nodded. “I . . . thought you might enjoy it? It’s really pretty up here, with the view. And we can use the telescope! I - I got one of the scholars to show me?” 

“Why?”

The Belle looked down and took a deep breath. When she looked up again, her eyes held that flame of defiance that Chevalier found so alluring. “I wanted to celebrate our time together. And to show you what romance looks like in real life. It can be really nice.”

Chevalier snorted. Though his expression was cool, he felt a sudden tightness in his throat. He could not think of a single time someone had done something like this for him. There were only official celebrations, mandated by tradition, put together by servants, and attended by the ambitious. This was none of those things. He avoided replying by looking around.

“I made the bouquets just for us. See, apple blossoms and red carnations to tell you how much I like you and how my heart aches when we aren’t together. And baby’s breath with red roses to say our love will last, and -”

“I know what flowers mean.” He interrupted her to stop her from saying aloud all the things he could read himself in the careful arrangements. When she spoke those words, it made his heart beat faster, his breath shorter. Feelings that he eschewed. Storybook reactions that were inappropriate for a prince. 

The Belle nodded mutely. She walked over to look out at the night sky. The moon hung above them, full and bright, its cold light distant and beautiful. Nothing like the close, warm affection she carried. 

Chevalier followed, unable to let her away from him, even if it would be best for them both. He knew what this emotion growing in him was, with its hooks deep in his heart and mind. It was too late to let her go. Far too late. He grasped her hand and pulled her to him. 

She gave a gasp of surprise, her eyes wide. “My Prince?” 

“I did not say that I do not like it.” 

“So . . . you do?” Her lips curved up in a small, satisfied smile. 

Chevalier brushed a lock of hair from her face, the gesture awkward and a little brusque. Gentle touches were outside his experience, yet with her, he wanted to be gentle. To coax a smile from her that was just for him. “Silly fool.”

There was high color in her cheeks and a heat in her gaze. Chev smiled. “What else did you plan for us?”

“I -” She cleared her throat. “I thought we’d have some wine and th-then look at the stars.” 

He gestured to the table. “Then pour.”

“Right.” She reluctantly let go of him and hurried to the table. 

Chevalier enjoyed watching her as she moved about in this dress. It was revealing in the most interesting ways. Hugging the curve of her backside, clinging to the side of her breast and hip. It made him want to tear it off of her to reveal her beauty in full instead of these teasing glimpses.

The Belle returned a moment later with two cups of deep red wine. “This is a malbec. The sommelier said it was a good choice, since I’m not sure what you like.” She handed him his glass.

“Try it.” He watched her eyes widen at his order. And it was an order, spoken in his crips, chill tone.

“Ok. I thought you might taste it first but . . . just so you know, I don’t know much about wine. Sariel says I don’t have a good nose for it because I didn’t -”

Chevalier interrupted sharply. “Stop delaying.”

She gave a self-conscious laugh. “Yeah, alright. Sorry.” Then she lifted the cup to her lips and took a small sip. Her eyebrows lifted and her lips curved in pleasant surprise. “Oh! That’s really good! I was afraid it might be bitter but it’s sweet!”

“Let me see.” He took his glass and held it to her lips.

“Y-you want me to drink from your cup?” 

“Don’t ask foolish questions.” He tilted it a bit so that the dark red liquid nearly touched her.

The Belle understood, though there was a hint of confusion in her gaze. Still, her lips parted and a trickle of wine poured over them, leaving a bead of moisture at the corner of her mouth. Then he set the cup aside.

Chevalier leaned close, and took her chin in his hand. Then he licked the wine from her lips. She was right, of course. It was sweet, but not nearly as sweet as she was. He pressed his lips to hers and slid his tongue into the heat of her mouth. It was not the sweet kiss of a kind lover, nor the passionate skill of a lothario, but it was the kiss of a brutal beast that hungered for her honeyed warmth.  

The Belle clung to him, kissing him back with as much inexperienced desire. Her fingers tangled in the fabric of his shirt as if she would hold him in place. 

His hand slid down her side, tracing the line of her breast, her waist. Calloused palms rasped against the delicate fabric, catching. It would take only a small effort to tear, he thought. To take. But he wanted her to give. 

Her breath caught as his hand caressed her lower still. Sliding over the cloth that draped her hips, her thigh. The glass of wine slipped from her fingers, and shattered on the ground. She gasped, and he breathed her in. “Prince . . .” Her murmur was lost against his thirsting lips.

Chevalier didn’t care about the broken goblet. He lifted her up, pressed her back against the thick glass wall of the observatory. His mouth moved from her lips to her throat, where her pulse raced against the velvet of his tongue. Down to her shoulders, nipping the line of her collarbone. 

She arched into his touch, her legs wrapped around his hips, dress riding up her thighs to reveal her satin skin beneath. His hands explored this revealed territory, claiming it with every rough caress. 

“Was this what you imagined,” he asked with a teasing smirk.

“I . . .”

He laughed, a low, hoarse sound that sent a shiver up her spine. “Fated.” He nipped her throat. “That is where you got this idea.”

“Y-you knew?” Her breath was ragged, her voice trembling.

“From the moment I got your invitation. You created the scene where the emperor finds his stars align with the maid.”

The Belle nodded. “Sh-she left him a message in flowers.”

Chevalier’s smile grew. “And when he summoned her, the scene ends with them making love under those same stars.”

Her cheeks were hot, the flush of desire all the way down her neck and up to the tips of her ears. She didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need to. Chev knew what she wanted. He wanted her as well. All of her. The woman that loved him. The woman he had come to love, in defiance of all wisdom. 

“Let us see if reality is better than fiction, then.” His smile was that of a predator about to devour his prey. An appetite that could never truly be sated, a desire that would never fade.

#ikemen prince #ikepri #ikepri chevalier #chevalier michel #fanfiction #fanfic #otome #otome guys #fluff and light spice

[frenreyzine]

DIGITAL ZINES ARE ONCE AGAIN AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE!

Previously, PDF zines were emailed to you by a mod manually, but now you should be able to get them within minutes of your purchase in your email.

***REMINDER: If you bought the digital zine or any of our bundles during pre-orders, you shoud have already gotten the PDF in your email. If you did not get it, please contact us with your order number, the email you used to order, or the name you used to order.

PHYSICAL BUNDLE BUYERS, PLEASE CLICK THE READ MORE FOR OUR PRODUCTION UPDATE + a delay announcement!

PRODUCTION UPDATE + DELAY ANNOUNCEMENT:

Originally, we had estimated shipping would begin around late January- Early February! Due to some production delays because of the holiday season, we are going to have to delay shipping to APPROXIMATELY Mid to late-February! So sorry about that! We appreciate your patience.

So, for full transparency, what is being delayed and what do we have so far?

The initial test books took longer to arrive than expected, so the final book order had to be delayed. They have now been ordered and are in production.

Almost all merch has arrived! Including all stickers, both sticker sheets, all mini prints, charms, shaker charms, acrylic standees, and 2/3 buttons!

The third button had a major error in manufacturing. We had to re-order it, and they will now be a different shape. Again, so sorry about this, we hope you understand! These have already been shipped to us. It's the only merch we are missing.

Shipping will commence once the final books and the buttons have arrived. We will make an announcement when those have been shipped to us, to give people time to change their addresses if need be.

If you need to change your address, email us at [email protected] with your order number and we can change that for you.

#frenrey #hlvrai #half life vr but the ai is self aware #bendon #benrey #gordon feetman #fanzine #update

[crestfallercanyon]

1, 4 and 21 for Mickey Milkovich since I’ve seen you post about Shameless <3

I have seen you liking some of my posts about Shameless, too! I'm always excited when mutuals overlap in other fandoms than just the root one, if that makes sense <3

Anywho, to the questions!

Why do you like or dislike this character?

This answer's long, so sorry, but I feel like it's hard to talk about all of Mickey in a succinct way. While there are parts of Shameless that the writers severely fuck up, and that fuckery did occasionally get his hands on Mickey Milkovich (like constantly trying to write him off it seems??), Mickey has some of the greatest depth and is also consequently one of the most consistent characters they managed to write.

I've said it before, but he has every reason to "look out for number one," and he does, but his number one stops being himself -- it's for his family (Mandy and Ian in particular). While that has its own ramifications, it's also a beautiful thing about him.

He's also smart. I like that he is not a stupid man, which I feel he could have been very quickly reduced to (and I think they sometimes try to do to him in later seasons but that's a rant for later). Reckless and flippant sometimes, but he is smart and he can and will learn. His biggest character growths aren't from lack of understanding due to ineptitude, it's due to biases, and when those biases gets shattered he learns from them and keeps those lessons with him (my main example of this is when he was so very against letting Ian go to a mental hospital -- the whole progression of Mickey taking care of Ian during his illness is what I would say is where he has most of his rapid growth: it's where he stops trying to pretend he doesn't love Ian, it's where he realizes that he can't do everything on his own and has to ask for help sometimes, it's where he loses his ignorance about what exactly Ian is going, much of what he learns in that season carries with him throughout the rest of the show it seems).

Mickey's story is so full of tragedy, and I thought that Shameless was going to "life sucks and then you die" to him, honestly (whenever something went right, they immediately took a hammer to that fragile happiness as soon as seemingly possible). But he wins. He gets the boy he fell in love with, and has a job, and makes his way out of South Side. It's not the dream he thought he'd always have (he thought he'd be King of South Side) but that dream was also made up of a lot of... resignation. So I'm glad that that was turned on its head for him and he still had happiness, I thought that was consistent with the rest of his life, too.

4) If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

This is a fascinating question. To be perfectly honest, I actually wish a character like him was in Sons of Anarchy. There were parts of that show I really enjoyed (I mean, boil it down and it's essentially Motorcycle Hamlet), but I think his character and his arc (with Ian, too, actually) would have added a lot of additional depth to that show -- that and have it address queer characters in a meaningful way (the only queer character I remember from that show was very limited and quickly off the show if I recall correctly). I think he'd be really well suited to meld into that world, actually, with a few tweaks to get him as part of the SoA in the first place.

I also would love to have him in a western or noir, but that's more fanfiction au ideas, not actually placing him in another piece of media haha

21) If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

I love to write his dialogue, the snappish way he speaks. I particularly like to write earlier seasons Mickey because he's got such a front he's putting up, it's fun to figure out dialogue where he's clearly saying one thing and hiding another in-between the words; or just straight up contradicting his own thinking because he has to and is desperately hopeful and also terrified that someone (Ian) can see right through him. There's so much internal conflict of Mickey early seasons that while it can be a challenge, it's also so fun to write.

What I don't like? I'm not sure how to articulate this correctly, but I struggle with writing some of the antagonism he and Ian continue to have in later seasons. I mean it's definitely there, it's a part of him, just because Mickey loves Ian and vice versa doesn't mean those two don't insult each other or all that -- I just tend not to write those moments that much because I either will go overboard and write too strong of an argument or it won't feel quite like their energy, if that makes sense.

Thank you so much for the asks! They were a lot of fun. They come from this: Character Ask Game

#ask games #character ask game #shameless (us) #shameless #Mickey Milkovich

[newyorkrican922]

My thoughts on the series finale of Mayans…

I think we all agree this last season was rushed af. Most of the storylines were a discombobulated mess. Was it there greatest series ending? No. Was it the worst? Also no. There are some things I liked and A LOT I didn’t. Here’s my list of what I liked and how I wish some storylines went.

I agreed…

1.) With the way EZ died. Since he took over he was very much given dictator vibes. I enjoyed the way the club going all Julius Caesar to kill him. I also think we all knew that Angel was going to have a hand in EZ’s death since day one. (At least I did). There was always a Cain and Abel factor in there, even if Angel was reluctant to do so.

2.) Speaking of Angel, I did appreciate the fact he lived and got away with Maverick. The beach scene was honestly the best thing in the whole finale.

3.) Marcus/El Padrino getting out of the life and living the rest of his days with his family. He came a long way.

4.) Bottles and Nestor getting patched in. Though Nestor should’ve been patched awhile ago. I would have loved to see him as a full fledged member.

5.) Isaac dying. He was a great fucking villain, but he had to go. I wish Hope was the one who did it though, but I was okay with EZ being the one to do it.

… yeah that’s about it.

I disagreed…

1.) As much as I love Taza, he should’ve died and not be able to live his life as a nomad. Killing Riz was the start of all of this! Literally lead to the civil war between the Mayans, the war with the Sons, and the cartel. It should’ve been done back when the Mayans showed up in Santo Padre. I don’t understand how he got off scot free.

2.) Miguel, Ez, and Angel not knowing that they’re brothers! What was the point of all that if they were never going to find out? It should’ve been addressed a lot time ago in Season 3 or 4.

3.) Killing Sofia. I’m sorry, but this was bullshit to me. She didn’t know EZ worked with the Feds. If they’re going with the whole “she’s a liability” route, the same applies to Angel. I would have loved to see Angel take her and Sally. They could’ve both gone out, start a new life, and raise their kids together.

4.) NOT KILLING POTTER!! Omg this man is like a cockroach! Potter should’ve definitely been a goner and Miguel be the one to take him down with Devlin. Katie/Kody could have taken his place or Devlin a la Agent Stahl and haven them focus on the Mayans.

5.) Speaking of Devlin, if they were going to get Miguel out of the way, I would have loved to see Emily work out some sort of deal with her to ensure Miguel spends the rest of his life in prison and pull a double cross rather than kill him.

6.) Angel not knowing Luisa/Adelita is dead. I would’ve have loved a scene with Mini showing up somewhere and telling Angel everything. Well maybe minus the part where she was the one who killed her.

7.) If Isaac was going to die this whole time, why did Hope have to? We should’ve seen Hope and Letty halfway to Ohio or the Broken Saints take them in.

8.) ATF busting in and killing the whole charter!!! This would’ve been a great ending if it was just a season finale, not a series finale! We should’ve at least seen a few members (Gilly, Hank, Bottles, Nestor, and Guero being cuffed) .

#mayans mc #mayans fx #mayans mc spoilers #Mayans fx spoilers

[3pirouette]

Fic: The Infinity Leap (1/1)

Title: The Infinity Leap

By: TriplePirouette/3Pirouette

Spoilers: Through Endgame, Basic Quantum Leap Orginal Series knowledge required. 

Disclaimer: They're not mine.

Word Count: 

Distribution: AO3 Anyone else please ask first :) 

Story Summary: Dr. Sam Beckett leaps into Agent Peggy Carter to write a wrong, but in the end, he may just end up righting two of them. 

Story A/N: This story assumes 3 things: 1. Season 2 of Agent Carter never happened 2. The MCU up though Endgame is otherwise intact and 3. The reader has basic knowledge of Quantum Leap. Quite Frankly, this is really more of a Quantum Leap episode than anything, so I know there’s gonna be like… 5 people interested? But for those of you interested, I hope you really, really enjoy this. 

Also, I know I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m a subscriber to the Outlander/Doctor Who version of time travel that makes the events of Infinity War possible in the Main MCU timeline. Seems Quantum Leap rules also fit into that. 

This story is set in 2000, about 5 years after the last “leap” we see in the series, and assumes they get to continue the Quantum Leap program for several years. 

I had hoped to really get this to a full length story, but it’s been sitting on my hard drive for a LONG time. In the end, I’m pretty happy with it, even if it isn’t exactly what I set out to write. 

For Steggy Week 2023, Day 3: AU’s and Crossovers @steggyfanevents

~*~

Peggy Carter blinked. 

Before she’d blinked, she’d been in the conference room, sipping the dregs of the morning coffee as Thompson addressed the room with his usual narcissistic flare. 

After she blinked, she was in a white room she’d never seen before, in a white unitard she’d never worn before, and she didn’t feel a thing. 

~*~

Sam took a slow breath as the tingling dissipated and did his best to keep a neutral facial expression. He kept his eyes on the man talking, hoping to feign interest. It was always hard stepping into a person when there was something happening, when people expected him to be able to contribute. 

He slowly brought his hands under the table and down his stomach: a suit jacket. That seemed to track for the way the rest of the room was dressed, but he felt that funny feeling where his chest was too tight and his neck wasn’t constricted enough. A little lower with his hands and he confirmed what he’d been afraid of: a skirt. He was a woman. Again. 

He wiggled his toes and rolled his ankles; at least the heels were sensible. Was he the secretary? He hated being someone’s secretary. 

“So that’s it,” the man at the front said sharply, turning to hook his thumbs in his suspenders. “Any questions?”

Sam stayed quiet, hoping to get through the meeting without having to say a word. He looked down at the folder in front of him and immediately tossed the idea of “secretary” out the door. Secretaries didn’t usually have folders marked “eyes only” and “top secret.”

“Even you, Carter?” The man looked directly at Sam, and he looked up, locking gazes. “No thoughts or suggestions?”

Sam knew that tone, recognized it for the goad that it was and wished he could fire back. He almost did, as the man seemed to expect something from him, but he didn’t know what was going on, and didn’t want to change anything before he knew what he was really here to change. “No. Not right now,” he replied, shooting what he hoped was just enough of a smile laced with just enough sarcasm that the man would believe it. 

“Yeah, fine. Right.” He turned back to the rest of the men around the table, seemingly upset he wasn’t going to get to spar with him. “You have your assignments.” He waved his hand and everyone stood to leave. 

Sam did the same, gathering the papers and coffee in front of him, standing slowly to get used to the feeling of the heels on his feet. 

A man with a crutch stopped next to him, whispering even though they were the only people left in the room. “I thought you were ready to give him hell about that plan?”

Sam shrugged, juggling the folder for a second. “Well, I decided it wasn’t the right time.”

The man sighed, stepping forward and through the door. “One of these days he’s going to listen to you, Peggy.” 

Sam nodded, slowly following him out to the bullpen of desks. Peggy. Peggy… Carter. He scanned the nameplates and found a Margaret Carter in the back and made his way to the desk. The one thing that was on his side was that everyone seemed engrossed in their own work. Sam sat at the desk and kicked the heels off underneath, wiggling his toes as he looked at the clean desktop. He pulled open drawers and sifted through the papers there, finding little to go on. 

He heard the woosh of the imaging room door open behind him and picked out a pad and pulled a pen to his fingers as Al’s voice drifted over him in the noisy room. “Let me tell you, Sam, this is going to be a tough one, that lady in there- she isn’t spilling a thing! We had a hell of a time finding you, and even then, it was a wing and a prayer. Ziggy’s been malfunctioning ever since you leaped, insisting you’re in the 40’s.” He spun, frustrated. “We don’t even have a name.” Sam smiled to himself and tapped the nameplate on the front of the desk, just like he was thinking.

Al moved around in front of him, meandering to look at the name plate. “Margaret Carter…” He huffed, typing it into his handlink. “Well, that’s more than we’ve gotten all morning.” Al leaned back, looking Sam over. “Wow, Sam, you’re…”

Sam looked up, annoyance on his face, but he said nothing. 

Al let his hands wave in the air for a moment and sighed. “Yeah, you’re a ‘she’ for sure.” He snapped his mouth closed, for the first time realizing where they were. He looked over the clothes, the decorations on the walls, the telephone on the desk. “This looks a little…” He stepped over to the desk across from Sam where a newspaper was lying next to an Agent drinking his coffee. Al leaned over, eyebrows raising. “April 16, 1948.” He looked at the handlink as it beeped at him. “Ok, fine. You were right.”

Sam looked up, surprised, but put his head down and wrote furiously on the pad before him. “1948?”

Al looked at Sam’s note. “I mean, it’s not unheard of- you have leapt out of your lifetime before… not a lot but…” Al shrugged, then looked up at his handlink as it beeped and blinked in his hand. “This can’t be right.”

“What?” Sam wrote. 

Al huffed. “Ziggy is saying that this woman is classified.” Sam’s look asked the question he couldn’t say out loud. “Well, I don’t know!” Al waved his arms, one disappearing through the man seated in front of them as the hologram interreacted with the world around them. “I don’t know how a whole, entire person can be classified. I’m gonna…” He huffed again and pointed to where Sam suspected the door to the imaging chamber was. “We’ll get it sorted. In the mean time, just…” Al shrugged, disappearing into the air. 

Sam sighed, crossing out the notes on the paper until they couldn’t be seen. “Oh, boy.”

~*~

Peggy gaped at the woman across from her. “This is, frankly, the worst interrogation I’ve ever been a part of,” she leaned back and crossed her arms, fighting to keep her breathing even. She was trying to come up with a clue as to where she was or why she was taken, but the woman across from her was giving Peggy as little as Peggy was providing. 

The woman sighed gently. “I’ve told you, this isn’t an interrogation. I asked your name.”

She laughed, shaking her head and sitting back into the couch more. “You’ve kidnapped me and you don’t even know my name?” Peggy looked her up and down. She was probably poisoned. Maybe gas. She couldn’t believe they’d managed to get her out of the SSR building without anyone noticing or putting up a fight she didn’t remember. It must have been gas. She wondered how many others they had. “I’m not telling you anything.”

“Miss,” the young, dark- skinned woman continued, closing the notepad she had in front of her. “If you don’t cooperate, we can’t help you.”

“You’ve refused to tell me who you are or why I’m here, and you don’t even know who I am. I believe we’re done speaking.” Peggy’s mind was racing, but she was somewhat relieved to see the woman slip her pad in her pocket and stand. 

~*~

Al stood at the entrance to the Starbright Project, waiting patiently. He was sure Sam needed him in some way, that he’d been gone too long now, but surely a few hours wouldn’t hurt.

He hoped. 

The black SUVs stopped in front of him, and out stepped a man in a black suit with unnecessary sunglasses as it was nearly night. He turned, and helped a stately woman out of the back. She was old, older than Al, with fine lines around her mouth and an expertly twisted hairstyle. She moved toward Al with purpose, the man following just a step behind. 

The woman stopped right in front of him, and the man that followed stepped next to them. “Admiral Al Calavichi?”

“That’s me,” Al gave a short salute. “And you are…”

The man nodded, then held out his hand. “Agent Coulson, and this is Former Shield Director Margaret Carter.”

“Admiral,” she started, in a soft English tone that let Al know exactly who she was, “I believe we have a lot to talk about.”

~*~

Sam was following the flow of people out of the building, thankful for the idea of a general quitting time. He turned his ankle more than once on the pumps, stumbling out of the elevator just as the sound of the imaging chamber set his teeth on edge. He turned his head, but couldn’t say anything in the crush of people. His eyes said it all: where have you been?

“I know, I know!” Al waved his hands, following Sam as he made his way through the building. “I was sidetracked by… well, you’re not going to believe it.”

Sam raised his eyebrows and stopped, hoping for a payphone but settling for the little door to the side labeled “women.” He slipped into the bathroom and checked each stall before locking the door behind him, Al floating through. 

“You’ve been gone all day!” Sam accused, dropping his briefcase on the floor. 

“Like I said: sidetracked.” Al shrugged, barely able to hide his excitement. 

Sam leaned on the sink, exhausted. “Well, it better be good, because tht bull pen was hell. Those guys, this time…” He shook his head and caught his hat as it fell into his hands. “’Coffee, Peggy. Can you take notes, Peggy? File these, would ya, Peg?’” He made a noise of disgust in the back of his throat. “Leaping into women has given me such a different appreciation for them.” 

“I have an appreciation for them.” Al pulled the cigar from between his teeth, his eyes unfocusing as he thought back to earlier that day, “And the one that got me sidetracked. When I tell you she was a knock-out! A ten! A real silver fox. I mean—”

“Al!” Sam turned, rolling his ankle and kicking off the heels. “You left me here all day to see a woman?”

“No, actually, I was visited by the head of one of the countries most prestigious intelligence organizations.” He shrugged, a light smile on his face, “who just so happens to be, well…” He smiled and raised his eyebrows. 

Sam stared at his reflection, truly seeing Peggy for the first time, mumbling at his friend. “Let’s go, will you?” 

Sam’s whisper of desperation stopped the man mid rude gesture and he shrugged. “Anyway, big to-do on arrival, she comes into my office, leaves her goon outside, and starts in on the story.”

Sam tried to straighten his hat in the mirror, feeling nothing of the complex hair style under his hands. “What story?”

“Turns out, you’ve lept into Agent Margaret ‘Peggy’ Carter. She was a Great American Hero, Sam.” Al’s eyes sparkled. “During World War Two she was a code breaker with the SOE then a spy with the SSR. She was Captain America’s liaison to the agency and tracked Hydra through Europe with the Howling Commandos!”

Sam looked blankly at him, then turned to look at the soft-boned woman in the mirror that stared back at him. It didn’t make sense to him that a woman with that kind of resume was relegated to getting coffee and filing paperwork. “Must be the Swiss Cheese… none of that means much to me.” 

“She’s one of the best spies who ever lived,” Al threw up his hand and paced the small bathroom. “But that’s why literally her entire life was classified.”

“Classified?” Sam barked out a laugh, pacing the small bathroom. “What do you mean, classified? We have the highest clearance of any—”

Al lifted his eyebrows, punching more buttons. “Not from SHIELD.”

“SHIELD?” Sam ran his hand over his face, shaking his head. “Why did she show up?”

“Any search for her in a government database gets flagged.” Al shrugged. “She said when she saw it was Starbright, she knew she had to come.”

“She remembers?” Sam asked, astounded. 

“She can’t. Well, shouldn’t.” He dropped the handlink down and pushed his cigar back between his lips. “She didn’t say if she did or not.”

“But, if she remembers, that means what I’ve needed to change—”

“Is already changed?” Al twisted his face up and shook his head. “No. No, no, no. That’s not how…” He shrugged and sagged. “I was going to say that’s not how this works, but every time I think we have a handle on it, something surprises me.”

Sam looked at the door, knowing it was only a matter of time before someone else was going to try to get into the bathroom. “So then, did she tell you want I’m here to do?”

“No,” All huffed, twiddling the cigar. “but…”

“But?”

He changed the subject. “But Ziggy thinks you’re here to stop an assassination.” 

Sam perked up. He wasn’t sure how he could make something like that happen, especially if an actual spy like Peggy hadn’t been able to. “Assassination? Of who?”

“Angie Martinelli.” Al tapped the handlink and started reading off the facts. “Angie Martinelli was a broadway actress. She and Peggy are roomates, living at the Manhattan home of one Howard Stark.”

Sam rolled his eyes, leaning back into the sink. “Now that name I remember.”

“Imagine if Tony Stark had bankrolled us…” Al mused for a moment, eyes bright. He stopped and sighed. “Missed out. Anyway,” He hit the keys again, waiting for the next bit of information to pop up. “Tomorrow afternoon, Angie will be found in her bedroom, half naked with her throat slit. It’s only after the fact that it was discovered she was hiding that someone had been stalking her, meeting her at the stage door, sending her threatening letters…”

Sam leaned back on the sink, “Is that what Peggy told you?”

“No.” All sighed and shrugged. “She made me explain Project Quantum Leap, in detail, and then nodded.”

“Nodded?” Sam asked, confused. “That’s it?”

“Once she knew what it was all about, she asked what we knew about where you were, and then she came up with the same idea Ziggy did- Angie.”

“I don’t like you running around telling other agencies about-“

“You tell SHIELD what ever they ask for, Sam. You know that.” Al, paused and  shrugged. “Knew that. Anyway,” He shifted, walking through the sinks as he paced. “She said that missing that Angie was in danger was something she never forgave herself for, and if we could fix it, well…”

“Well, what?”

“She just kinda stopped and looked sad. Asked if we had any way of targeting where you went.” Al frowned. “ I told her no and then she looked up at me and said the damndest thing.” 

“What?”

Al, knit his brow, shaking his head. “She said, ‘I suppose you should save her, then, who knows if his chance will ever come.”

“His who?” Sam asked as the door rattled. 

“Dunno,” Al shrugged, watching Sam pull his shoes on and grab his briefcase. “She and her goon left.”

“Look, just get me to her apartment and we’ll take it from there, ok?” Sam smiled, opening the door to the face a bewildered young woman. 

“Everything ok in there?” She asked, looking Sam over. 

“Fine, just…” he paused, smiling, “Classified.”

Sam rushed past her, headed out to save a life. 

~*~

Angie stood with her hands on her hips. “What do you mean I’m not going in today?”

Sam matched her pose, the standoff tense in the living area of the Stark apartment they shared. Angie had barely been home, and Sam had only been able to track her down with Al’s help half the time. “I mean, you need to stay home tonight. Both of us do.”

Angie walked right up to him, got in his face the way that only best friends or siblings do. “You’re gonna get me fired, Peg.”

“Call in sick,” Sam held his ground, placing his hands on her shoulders. 

“To Broadway?” Angie rolled her eyes and started pacing back and forth. “What in the world could be so important that-“

Sam had one card to pull, and he hoped his plan would be right. Peggy, in the original time line, had missed that Angie was being stalked. Probably, he’d thought more times than he could count as he tried to track the girl down, because she was never around. But Angie knew some of what Peggy did for a living, even if she didn’t know all of it, and he was banking on their bond of friendship being enough cause for Angie’s trust. “Why didn’t you tell me about what’s going on?”

It was enough to get her to stop in her tracks, back to Sam. Her shoulders tightened. “Tell you want?”

“You’re being stalked.”

Angie tried to brush it off with a laugh. “What? Like corn?”

Sam shook his head. It wasn’t a term that was familiar yet. “Who's harassing you?”

“I don’t even know the guy.” Angie looked down at her feet, shaking her head. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s not nothing and you know it,” Sam moved closer to her, lifting her chin to him. Her eyes were filled with tears. “Tell me.”

~*~

Sam was supposed to be on a stake out, the very one he’d heard planned out as he lept into Peggy Carter. He took his own advice and called himself in sick, and now sat with a very disgruntled, and somewhat anxious, Angie, Peggy’s gun sitting next to him on the table as he read. 

“Nobody’s coming,” Angie muttered, focusing on the script in her hands. 

“You trying to convince me or convince yourself?” Sam asked, looking up from the newspaper in his hands. 

“You,” Angie shot back, weakly. 

They went back to reading, radio playing softly in the background, when after a few minutes Sam’s head popped up. It was the sound of scratching. Quiet, but there. 

Angie watched as he pulled the gun into his hand, slowly standing. Sam hushed her with a finger at his lips. 

The imaging chandler door opened, Al popping through. “Sam, it looks like any time between about a half hour ago and-“ He stopped, watching Sam slip through the dark apartment. “Oh, shoot, it’s happening now, isn’t it?”

Sam nodded, Angie following close behind as he swept through each bedroom, Al walking through walls and calling out as he cleared each room ahead. 

“You really think someone-“

“Shh,” Sam quieted Angie again. “Stay close, ok?”

She cringed to his hips, following along like the caboose of a train. “You’re the one with the gun, I ain’t going nowhere.”

“Sam!” All called, two rooms ahead. “Here, in the Pantry. One guy coming up the dumbwaiter!” 

Sam moved swiftly, Angie following. On Al’s cue, he pushed through the door to the kitchen, hitting the intruder in the face with the door and knocking him back. Angie’s screams mingled with the swing music pouring from the radio as Sam jumped on him, landing a solid right hook before tumbling him to the ground, unconscious. 

Between Al’s supportive cries, Angie’s screams, and the music, Sam could barely focus as he reached for the handcuffs in Peggy’s pocket. “Angie, go call the police.”

“Aren’t you-“

Sam shook his head, sitting heavily on the man. “We need the regular police, not the SSR.”

Angie ran out of the room while All finally focused. “Good job, Sam! According to Ziggy,” he paused, tapping the handlink gently before giving it a final hard knock, “Angie lives a long life and has a fabulous career.”

“She get fired for calling in sick?”

All frowned. “Yeah, but it won’t matter. She gets picked up to be a series regular for a radio serial in a few months, then breaks into the movies.” 

“Peggy?” Sam asks, slipping to the side of the intruder and sitting on the floor, one hand on him in case he woke up. “She still get to be Director of SHIELD?”

Al knocks his handlink again and it beeps. He smiles and nods. “Yup. Looks like the little information we had didn’t change, so-“ He pause,d listening to a voice only Al could hear back on the other side of the hologram. “What letter?” He waited again, and Sam watched, confused. “There is no letter!”

“Letter?” Sam asked quietly, knowing they only had a few seconds before Angie came back or their assailant came to. 

Al shook his head. “Gushy is telling me there’s a letter in my office and it’s been there since Carter entered the waiting room for me to open, top secret, high priority. There’s no letter in my office.”

Sam tilted his head. “There wasn’t a letter in your office.”

Al opened his mouth to argue, but then it hit him. There hadn’t been a letter before Sam changed history. 

Now there was. 

“I’m gonna go read that letter.” 

Al disappeared through the imaging chamber door just as Angie came back. “They’re on their way…” Her voice died out as she got a glimpse of the face of the man on the floor. 

“You know him?”

Angie nodded, eyes wide. “That’s our stage manager! You mean to say he’s the one…”

~*~

Al tried to hold on to the feeling that there was no letter. He knew as soon as he stepped outside of the Imaging chamber, whatever had changed in history would feel like reality to him. 

He needed to read it, to try to compare it with what he could remember. 

He strode through Project Starbright’s halls without saying a word to anyone, holding his hand up to stop people from talking with him. Once in his office, he din’t even bother sitting to open the Manila envelope marked “eyes only, top secret.”

Admiral Calavichi, 

If you’re reading this, that means the day has come when my younger self has shown up in your lovely white waiting room. I have been told that this is how this must happen, that to stray from this would be to mess with forces beyond all of our comprehension, and so though I have not given you any reason to trust me, I must ask that you do as I say. 

If we do this right, all will stay exactly as it is, for it has already happened, and always will happen this way. Do not ask me how, for I have no understanding of it myself. What I do have is a deep desire for things to be as they are, and not as they could be. 

Dr. Beckett has leaped into my younger self. You will find no record of me, as little exists. At that time I was Agent Margaret Carter of the SSR, a spy. I remember nothing of that time when I sat in your waiting room. Whatever right Dr. Beckett put wrong, I have no memory of, and cannot help you with this, but I know that he succeeded, or will succeed. 

And when that is over, you must give Sam a message. You must tell him exactly this: He must go to the research level and wait. When he sees him, tell him to go home. Tell him, I’ve said to come home. 1952, to be exact. 

The “him” I refer to must remain a mystery, but rest assured both you and Sam will know exactly who when the time comes, as Sam told him that much. He’ll be confused, but accepting, as time travel is not unknown to him. 

You must deliver your message. It’s the only chance we’ll have to right this wrong. 

Al looked for another page, for something that made sense, but there was nothing except Director Carter’s signature and a date: 1953. 

~*~

Sam looked up from his desk in the SSR bullpen as Al stepped into the room, right through a desk and two men passing. 

It was always jarring to see his friend moved through like a ghost. 

Sam pulled over a pad and wrote, “Why haven’t I leaped yet?”

“Because I gotta show you this.” Al hovered the letter from Director Carter over the pad so Sam could read it. He waited as he watched his eyes go back and forth, Sam mouthing him over and over. 

He leaned down, scribbling, “Who do you think ‘him’ is?”

Al shrugged. “No way to tell. We got bupkis on most of her life.” Al sighed. “You know where research is?”

Sam started to answer, but Al felt his heart drop as the blue lightning started to envelop him. 

Sam was leaping. 

There was no time to go to the research level. 

There was no time to right one more wrong. 

~*~

Sam took the long moment to let the blood rush to his fingers and toes, to feel the energy that crackled through him just a second ago dissipate. He took a deep breath and let his eyes see and his body feel. 

Heels. Again. 

Pants. A sensible pants suit. 

He looked down in the small office at the papers in his hands. They were marked classified with a symbol that suddenly seemed very familiar. He looked up, searching for the answer he already knew. He picked up the nameplate on the desk and smiled. 

“Director Carter,” he mumbled to himself, smiling before placing it back. “Glad to see they finally listened to you.”

He sat in the chair behind him, looking over the documents on the table to try to get a clue as to why he was there when the phone on the desk rang. “He-hello?” He stuttered out. 

“Director Carter?” A male voice confidently replied, “You asked me to call when I detected that energy spike?”

“I did?” he asked, then caught himself and cleared his throat. “I did. Yes.”

“Well, I don’t know how you knew it was going to happen, but just now we got an alert from the research subbasement. Do you want me to send someout out?”

He felt fear and excitement run through him, the letter Al had shown him clear in his mind. “No, no. I’ll go.”

“Are you sure?”

He sat back, surprised after all this time they were still questioning her. “You think I can’t handle myself?”

“No, not at- I was just.”

“Thank you for the report, that will be all.” Sam hung up the phone and popped from his chair as the door to the imaging chamber opened. 

“Sam—” Al started excitedly. 

“I know.” Sam pointed to the plaque on the desk. “Can you get me to… the research subbasement?” he asked, carefully trying to remember the name. 

“Yeah. Start moving and we’ll see what…” He tapped the hand link then pounded it against his palm as they moved out of the office. “I’m guessing down.”

Sam started through the base, trying to feign confidence as Al called out lefts and rights to bring him to a set of elevators. Once in, he hit the button and waited for Al to talk, he couldn’t say anything with the other people in there. 

“So, you’re Peggy Carter again, Director do SHIELD, this time. It’s April 16th, 1970 and you’re in a SHIELD research facility at Camp Lehigh in New Jersey.” The elevator stopped, and the pair of scientist stepped off, leaving Sam and Al to descend to the lowest research level. 

“And I gotta tell someone… to go home?” Sam asked. “I remembered the research level but-“

“Him was all she told us. You’re gonna know him when you see him.” Al emphasized the vagueness with his cigar, pointing it towards the doors. Al sighed, “You gotta tell him Peggy says to go home to 1952.”

“Which means he’s got to be another time traveler?” Sam asked, anxious as the elevator dinged. 

He stepped out, Al following. “I’d assume, but you know what that makes out of you and me.” Al shoved the cigar in his mouth, wandering through rows of machines. “There’s nobody here, Sam.”

“There was some kind of energy spike,” Sam whispered, clearing the space one row of desks and shelves at a time. “Something has-“

“It oh.”

Sam stopped in his tracks, “What ut oh?”

Sam could see Al, frozen with his hands up, staring at a a corner he couldn’t see into. “He can see me, Sam.”

“Who?”

He pulled the cigar from his mouth, astounded. “Remember when she said you’ll know him when you see him?”

Sam slipped quietly up beside Al until he saw a figure hiding in the dark, red and white flight suit, nothing that belonged in this time, or any time Sam had ever been a part of, lifting and lowering a shimmering visor on his helmet, eyes wide with surprise and confusion. What stood out, though, was the shield on his arm. Even with his Swiss Cheese brain, Sam would have known that shield anywhere. 

“Captain America,” he whispered out, in awe. 

“Captain Freaking America,” Al echoed, in nearly as much shock. “She wants us to right that wrong.”

“I can hear you, too.” He let the visor stay down, his face partially hidden but the futuristic helmet. “You seem to know who I am,” Steve started, intensely. “So how about you tell me who the two of you are, and start explaining why you’re impersonating Director Carter.”

Sam smiled. “Oh, boy.”

End A/N: So, there wasn’t a place to PUT this, but the theory in my head goes that Without the visor to the suit up, Steve sees Peggy. However, with the nanotech visor up, which is partially powered by Pym particles and has been affected by traveling through the Quantum Realm, Steve can see Sam as he really is and see and hear Al. I had hoped to work that into the story, but I really liked the idea of ending on an “oh boy” for all my QL fans. 

#steggy fic #3P's Fic #SteggyWeek23 #Quantum Leap Crossover #The crossover you never knew you needed but will only make any sense if you actually watched Quantum Leap #If you ACTUALLY read this I would LOVE TO KNOW THAT even if you hate it because I'm absolutely sure it has an audience of just me

[thewanderingace]

I have finally watched The Flux!!

God it took me ages to get through Thirteen's episodes. Some were good but overall I was bored a lot so it took me ages to get through season 11 and 12. But I just watched the last episode of the Flux tonight and now I'm going to randomly share my disconnected thoughts about it on this post.

Okay so overall I think I enjoyed this season! Which surprised me. I was so prepared to hate it after all the hate for the Flux I've seen on Tumblr or be super bored like I am with a lot of Chibnall's episodes but while it isn't my favorite thing I do think it was 13's best season. I didn't think I'd enjoy the Flux if I'm honest. Everything I read about it sounded dumb or confusing and yeah I'm still a bit confused by some stuff that was just not addressed but this isn't the first time the whole universe (or massive parts of it) have been wiped out so it's not exactly a new concept for the Doctor. But the connection with her and her past is new and I'm intrigued by it if I'm honest. And it gave Jodie some great stuff to work with. She was so good in this season. Way better than the previous two seasons just because she had a lot more to work with writing wise.

The individual plots for each episode are really good and kept my attention. I've loved the plot of the Sontarans waging war through time, the Lupari and their species bond with humanity, the whole thing with the Mouri, Swarm and Azure were cool villains, the star crossed lovers Vinder and Bel trying to find each other, the Weeping Angels taking a whole village, Dan and Yaz living 3 years in the early 1900s and doing Indiana Jones type of stuff. I even enjoyed the Division and the Flux plot.

Now while I overall liked all that, I still feel unsatisfied because there were a lot of potentially great stories but they were all crammed together into 6 episodes and none of them had time to be fleshed out properly and some of them didn't connect well and trying to follow it all was SO HARD. There's so much going on and so many seemingly unrelated plots happening all at once that it's so hard to keep track of. And I'm watching all these episodes back to back immediately after one another. I can't even imagine trying to keep up when this aired one a week. I'd be lost. I think this would have been amazing if they had gotten a full season and didn't have to cram it all into just 6 episodes. (this is why I'm worried about the new season coming which is only gonna have 8 episodes. DW needs more than 8 episodes)

I adore Dan by the way. I loved him from his first scene and every second after has just been lovely. He's super sweet and I love his accent and that he's apparently so selfless that he'd rather give all his food to others than have any for himself. He's taking all this alien stuff so well too. He just got kidnapped by a giant dog and hasn't had a moments break since but he's cool. I like him best out of all of 13's companions so far. Too bad he barely had any episodes. That's a shame. Looking forward to watching these last 3 episodes with him though.

Vinder and Bel? I LOVE THEM BOTH!!!!! Talk about star crossed lovers! I'd watch a whole show just about those two.

Dan and Yaz living for three years in the early 1900s?? I WANT TO LEARN MORE!!!! How did they get out of the village that was surrounded by space? Why was it surrounded by space? Dan as the stowaway is hilarious and has to sleep under the bed in the ship XD.

Chibnall throwing every recurring species he can think of was nuts but in a fun way. Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen, Ood, Weeping Angels, etc.

Kinda lame that Tecteun was just taken out so easily. I wanted the Doctor to do it in a very Doctor way. Like what 10 did to the Family of Blood ya know?

And that's all I got for now. 3 more episodes to go for 13's run!

#doctor who #the flux #thirteenth doctor #13th doctor #stephs stuff #mod post

[sharonisthebettercarter]

So much suffering could've been easily avoided, had Billy's musty ass learn to calm the fuck down and instead of moping around, he should've took anger management classes before s3 ep 3. I understand it's very common for younger kids to look up to adults because Ryan probably admired Billy and now he let Ryan down.

If Ryan shuts Billy (and Shitlander) down next season, I'd say he deserved it. I know Billy's life have been hard too and I had compassion for him as well, but that's never an excuse to treat others like Billy did to Ryan in ep 3, s3. (I'd be) Glad Ryan (might be) mature enough to realize it was Billy's own fault that he decided to gaslight him.

Ryan has every right to cut billy off because at this point Billy is going to deflect and turn his back on everybody (like he did in the comics). Billy (like 🍇lander) will just brainwash Ryan with his own issues and turn him into a minion and i will never trust him around kids after using that infant and threatening to unalive children too. Yeah he didn’t kill a child (yet) but Ryan (nor any child) should get mixed up in his toxic bullshit. I wouldn't be surprised if he successfully unalives Neuman's daughter, like the unsentimental douchebag he is.

holy fuck anon! putting all your asks together in this but i'll try to respond as best i can between them (gonna put your shizz in italics), lmao there is a shit ton of ranting and i may do a little myself, don't mind me~<3

first off, that grapelander killed me because i have a sick sense of morbid humor but also wkuk the grapist

but i feel you, i get what you mean and for sure, billy is an enraging character that somehow manages to be less well adjusted and more fucking damaged than homie while having genuinely less garbage to show for on his 'shit has happened to me' roster. not even saying that as a dig at the guy but it becomes very very clear (and infuriating) when you actually read the comic or even just watch back the show. specifically, he doesn't have a single soft moment where he's being genuine with someone that isn't becca and it dives hard into that disturbing element.

the difference being that homelander has the power to do far far worse with much greater ease, but the craziest thing about that is that he generally doesn't and even in some cases (obviously not always, but james stillwell even mentions this in the comics, that homelander has incredible control over his temper) shows a remarkable sense of self control. and i think it shows for more that there's so much homelander chooses not to do at any given moment while billy is spending 1000% of his time and effort working towards these things, including chipping away at homelander's control (which as everyone keeps warning him is gonna fuck EVERYONE over!)

but billy is pretty much the next stage of what would happen to homelander if he actually did earn someone's love/learned to actually love them back. he latches on hard and it's borderline parasitic with how bad he can be and how he makes them his lifeline without actually addressing or working on any of his issues. his whole damn schtick is to drag homelander down to his level so they can duke it out. losing becca was a catalyst, but the reality is that it stopped being about her a long time ago. the real issue is his pride

that should be clear enough in his willingness to alienate ryan AND potentially and actually destroy whole buildings full of thousands of innocent bystanders just to get to ONE guy.

and the thing is, alienating ryan was completely unnecessary. it was billy being a preemptive cunt of 'i'm eventually going to hurt/disappoint this kid, so let me just make it easier on myself by doing it on purpose now instead of actually trying because trying is too hard.'

WELP. y'know billy, maybe if you hadn't done that, the kid would have kicked his grape daddy in the balls and left with you at the end of the season instead~!

but it should say enough that he actually said the words (more/less) "nah, it'll be years before ryan can take him(homelander) on" in regards to using him like a weapon against said grape daddy...

I hope fans turn against trashlander when seasons 4-5 rolls, after its revealed homelander is a shitty, unsupportive parent who's ruining his kid. I also hope they realize Creeplander was given a choice to go to the light side, leave vought, and call them out on their shit, numerous times, yet he refused and then killed or tried to kill the people who offered him such. This man has made his choice MANY TIMES, AFTER choosing to fall to the dark side in the first place. Why should he be offered yet another chance? And why would he expected to make a different choice? And even if he did, why should he be considered eligible for redemption? He can’t un-murder all those innocent people, he can’t un-torture his victims. He does not want to be redeemed.

But if they wanna keep having the flying creep in a wholesome light, then go do that, mother teresa. Imma see this dude get folded by kryptonian dogs

listen... i gotta level with ya...

as much as trashlander is accurate, and as much as i look forward to the coming chaos and destruction and blood and death~<3<3<3 excuse me~

that is an unlikely hope when we got fucking rape apologists in fandom. just. i gotta be real.

and homie's not gonna be the shitty unsupportive type parent. don't get me wrong, he will absolutely be shitty. but less 'you're a fucking disgrace and i'm going to abuse the shit out of you' so much as... 'my kid is perfect and can do no wrong ever' entitled parent nightmare. he's going to be supportive... in all the worst and most horrible ways, enabling the shit out of ryan to be terrible (you remember that little smirk ryan got at the very end of s3? think more of that type of shit, tho i do think it may become too much for ryan to handle, right now, homie is the only person telling him what he would want to hear and providing him with **dangerously unconditional 'love' while he's in a very vulnerable place)

that being said, there haven't been instances where homelander's been presented with any real chances to leave vought. and i'm going to say this because it comes from a place of first hand experience with abuse.

homelander is trauma bonded to vought. yes, they abused and did so much terrible shit to him, but they were still his 'parent', his 'mother' or 'creator'. and when someone is trauma bonded to family? especially in a place where *family* and love is the ONLY thing you long for and the ONLY thing that you have? it is NOT that simple to be presented with an 'out' and just take it.

especially when you have nowhere to go.

abused is a precarious place to be put in (never say that people choose this, they don't). because it is not always obvious, it is not always painful, but it is unbearably blinding. it is a vicious cycle that continually hurts you. but it also offers you comfort, and love, and everything you could possibly want... without ever actually following through or instead giving you the bare minimum to keep you addicted. and most people don't realize they are STUCK in the cycle until it's dug its claws in and won't let go, or until it's gone too far.

but it is NEVER a choice. it is a specific psychological response and preconditioning that is extremely difficult or even impossible to break through and break free from.

abuse victims never want the abuse. what they do want is to *fix* the situation and not abandon the people they love, even if they shouldn't love them. but it is not an easy place to be in, and it is not a choice either.

homelander doesn't want to abandon vought because they are all he's ever known, he doesn't want to be abused either. he wants to fix it, and even if that's a lost cause, he doesn't see that because vought robbed him of the ability to see that. by making him BELIEVE in them and having control of his life since before he was even born.

he never had a choice and he still doesn't have one because no one has shown him that he does.

sorry for the lecture, but for me that subject hits way too close to home and any time i can correct misinformation or prevent victim blaming, i am who i am.

anywho. agreed that 'redemption' may still not be the best choice for homelander's situation. not to say it's impossible, but he also DID become an abuser and has hurt countless people. and you're right, none of those people will get a second or their lives back. but i think there is also something to be said about what homie could do to make up for it/how many more he could save if he did make different choices (even if unlikely, lmao)

comics homie is actually a different (even more fucked up and tragic story) who honestly might have chosen to go back to being 'good' post epiphany/reveal if he'd had the choice, but i digress.

i am looking forward to him flying off the deep end tho~<3

Ryan needs to ditch Homelander (and Billy) to secure his future and live his own life because at the end of the day, it's all about control (especially when it comes to the flying cunt). Ryan will not only lose his childhood, but lose his adulthood as well, the past and future being stolen from him, unless he manages to escape the flying cunt (and Billy too because fuck him and Ryan has every right to not forgive a poor excuse of a human being too) to make his future secured and his life not ruined any further than it is. Also, tell vought to fuck off too.

I also hope he find some strangers who will genuinely help him and treat him right than those scumbags (and Mallory too because she sus).

Get orchiectomy when he's of age because if I came from a fucked up bloodline and surrounded by fucked up people on a daily basis, I'd do the same too (I mean I wouldn't blame him at all if he did that)

Change his identity legally and move to a different ass Country because start anew.

agreed that ryan is pretty much better off without any of those mofos lmao. like honestly, he's too good for half of fandom advocating for his fucking death as they dick ride soldier boi. i don't care how handsome any of them are, ryan is a fucking child, becca's child, not a goddamn hot potato to be tossed around or cooked.

castration is a little extreme even with his powers i'm gonna say. i mean i kinda get what you mean but at the end of the day, we are not our bloodlines. ryan isn't his father and you def recognize that so i think he could move on with his life without necessarily going that far.

mallory is def sus but i still love her and i actually think the likeliest option is that ryan ends up saved after the whole scorched earf debacle (for real this time) and then adopted by annie and hughie in the end.

Despite the fact that Ryan really has been given the shit end of the stick in the reality he calls life. I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually becomes something without forgiveness, and he certainly becomes a part of some unforgivable acts, but really haven't been given the chance to thrive and succeed. It's gonna be sad, because I think Ryan would have been entirely different had he been given a chance. But chances can possibly be too late for him, or something will happen that emphasizes that.

However, depending on how seasons 4-5 goes, he should grow a backbone ditch both homelander and Billy because he can do better w/o them because all that poor boy wanted is to find a place where he is loved, safe, and appreciated. Yet, every time he finds that, it gets ripped away from him. I can't imagine what outcome he will have to suffer next. I fear what comes.

...

i almost don't want to do this to you but the irony is just too fucking poetically palpable.

LIKE FATHER. LIKE SON. and so the cycle fucking continues... jesus fucking christ fuck me.

'growing a backbone' is easier said than done. one of the pain points of the general hero genre is to teach us to protect those who cannot protect themselves. and what the boys does is take that ideal and put it through the meatgrinder of reality. we often don't do this in real life.

that's supposed to sorta be the lesson taught with lenny. he didn't 'choose' to 'sink', no one does. you could argue that the world is tough and people need to be stronger (like billy's toxic piece of shit sperm donor), but i would argue the world needs to be softer for those that won't be able to keep up or who are vulnerable.

one suicide is too many. what are we really doing if we let so many people fall that far?

EVERYONE deserves to feel loved, safe, and appreciated... and it's the lack of those things that CREATES monsters of men.

I've seen kids manage to leave their fucked up situations, despite difficulty. It's going to be simple though. Besides, not all strangers are bad, right? In fact Ryan had better luck with those he doesn't know very well- like kimiko- than he has with his own family. Buuuut, who knows how long can that 'luck' last.

Sure he has his maternal aunt and grandmother, but welcome him w/ open arms?? If a child comes to your doorstep, saying they're you're nibling (the child of your sibling) and grandchild, along w/ your sister and daughter dead because they accidentally killed her?

Because his entire life has been out of his control from being raised in a hermit place because of satan dad and vought, to the death of his mother, to his mom's so called 'husband' gaslighting him, and now satan dad most likely forcing Ryan to distance himself from others, and then said father involving Ryan in murderous plots and promising him family in return which he will never provide. Yeah, Ryan had zero control.

If it ever happens, a group of people (or supes such as super-duper), could be the point where he actually has a say, his freedom, and a support network and hopefully he embraces it but... It might not be a happy ending, depending on how things go in his future. And that is depressing.

Better to leave the hell he's in now than staying. Also, he can defend himself (for obvious reasons), until he finds some strangers who genuinely want to help him, rather than hinder him and the best way to survive in a new environment is to learn from the locals. He should fight tooth and nail to cut ties w/ shit from his past and no longer associate with it as he starts to get better because if I was him, I wouldn't even go back.

Unless something in him clicks in, which he feels he has to go back, as if there's (a) haunting shadow(s) constantly following him. People underestimate the power abuse can have over a victim. You even got oppressed nations or people glorifying their own oppressors/abusers in the real world. he might not be raging and trying to kill anyone right now, but he might clearly mistrustful.

i'm gonna take a moment to get a bit more serious and mention survivor's bias. (i'm also assuming you mean '*not* that simple' hopefully??)

but keep in mind and this more a guesstimate outta my ass so don't quote me on it. but while it's great that those kids get out of those shitty situations, keep in mind that for every 10 kids that do, you might have a 100 more that don't. (just look at the foster system or pedo church rings, sorry, yuck, i know... but there are a lot more child victims that suffer in silence than we could ever know)

and for ryan, yeah, i for sure hope that he is able to get out of it all and get into a better situation, at the same time you have to remember that he is a just a child. he is not going to manage that on his own and things are likely to get worse before they get better.

i don't think becca's family would reject him tho because shocker, i REALLY don't think they'd be like BILLY~! especially with ryan being the last piece of becca left. i do think they might have some fears or be wary, but i do think grams and sister would just be happy to have him and the closure

LMAO AT 'SATAN DAD', can vouch for that. tho to be fair... satan is a GREAT daddy~ but an AWFUL dad... ;)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) (i cannot resist and i am not sorry.)

but yeah, i think the ideal here would be for ryan to NOT become either of his 'father' figures

and what is all this shit at the last part??? see you DO get it! just try not to forget that billy and homie are also products of their upbringing. but they WERE ryan at one point too. innocent kids that didn't deserve what the world gave and *didn't* give to them...

billy got out of it but carries every fucking scar with him and it still has an ironclad hold on him. homelander still hasn't gotten out. ryan is a snowball waiting to happen.

ugh, this shit gets depressing but you ranted, i ranted, we all had good fun and great discussion of these shitheads and i am looking forward to the new season~!

fuck me this is long, and thanks for comin' to my ted talk.

#billy butcher #homelander #ryan butcher #becca butcher #the boys #ask #long post #abuse #trauma #soldier boy #multiple asks #hughie campbell #annie january #bad parenting #vought

[unknownfacelessfanfictions]

Part 3: To be near you

Pairing: Commander Tysess x Ophelia (OFC) Fandom: Star Trek Prodigy Words: 3.9K Warnings: SPOILERS for season 1 finale; discussion of death; blood and injuries Summary: A reminder that time is precious A/N: @bigblissandlove1 @akamitrani I believe I've read somewhere that you have not seen Prodigy, but I tagged you anyway, just to be sure. I also know that many people find it uncomfortable to read about animated characters, especially if children watch the show too. If you don't want to betagged in Prodigy stuff, just tell me.

Body Language Masterlist

Red alert.

The constant flashing of the red light hurt his eyes and the shrill wailing of the sirens made his ears ring.

It was over. They had survived it.

For a moment, Tysess allowed himself to close his eyes to take a breath and let the irony of it all sink in. The entirety of Starfleet had been saved, by a bunch of kids who weren't even Federation citizens.

At least, pretty much all of them.

And it was almost destroyed by you, whispered a voice in the back of his head, but he pushed it aside when Janeway addressed him.

"Any sign of the USS Protostar?" Tysess felt his antennae lower and turned to his console. "No, Admiral." Regretfully, he shook his head. "I've tracked their warp signature, but read," he hesitated slightly, the cruelty and harshness of the words not wanting to cross his lips "-no signs of life." Without hesitation, Janeway replied. "Send a search party."

Tysess felt as if he could not agree more. This crew had saved them. Granted, they had brought the ship here, but the massacre had hardly been their fault. But as first officer, he felt obliged to present her with the facts. "But, Admiral, the distance they crossed," he folded his arms behind his back and looked at the screen. "It would take months to scan that many star systems."

Janeway, however, was not swayed and straightened up, her eyes now on him. "That crew just saved Starfleet. If they're out there, I want to know." Tysess nodded and stepped behind her to order the lieutenant to send a message to Starfleet requesting permission for a search party.

All at once, one of the ensigns at the ops console spoke up. "Admiral, damage reports coming in." Janeway turned and settled into her seat. "Report." "Direct hits on decks five, seven and nine, the starboard nacelle is damaged and we have hull breaches on decks ten, thirteen and fourteen, as well as cargo bay three and the engine room, with four dead there, eight injured, five of them seriously."

She continued to enumerate the number of injured and dead, but Tysess heard little more, except the pulse in his ears, which accelerated many times over, within a few moments.

At the same time, however, he felt as if time had stopped. Hull breach in engineering. Four dead. Hull breach in engineering. Four dead. Hull breach in engineering. Four dead. Over and over again these words echoed through his head, followed by another thought. Ophelia was on duty. She could be among them. Ophelia was on duty. She could be among them. His head was too full to think and at the same time empty without any thought.

"Commander? Commander? Tysess!" He snapped out of his trance and stared at Janeway out of wide eyes, who looked at him anxiously. "I'm sorry Admiral, you were saying?" It took vast amounts of strength to force those words out and Janeway seemed to notice as she gestured for him to follow.

In the privacy of her office, she turned instantly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Are you all right, Tysess?" He straightened and jutted his chin. "Everything's fine. I apologise, for my lack of presence of mind."

Anyone else would have bought it. Janeway, however, knew him too well. "Nothing is fine. Something is bothering you. Talk to me, please!" Tysess expelled a shaky breath and looked to the floor before answering. " Engineering was hit and had a hull breach." "Yeah, I heard." He took a deep breath. "Ophelia was on shift." Silence. Then-

"You are relieved of duty, Commander." Tysess's head and eyes shot up and he could feel his antennae snap to attention. "Admiral, Starfleet regulations require that-" "I know what regulations require," Janeway interrupted him, crossing her arms behind her back. "However, I also know what it is like to fear for the life of the person you love."

"Admiral, it would be wrong-" "- if you had to continue working even though you are subject to such emotional anguish." Her gaze softened for a split second. "Tysess, you have been awake and on duty for the last twenty-two hours. And even though Andorians are physically superior to humans, even they must realise that at some point enough is enough. Go. That is an order."

He was silent for a few moments, words missing, before he bowed his head slightly. "Very well Admiral." He turned, but paused outside the door to glance behind. "Thank you, Admiral." A thin smile danced on her lips. "I wouldn't know what for. Now go!" This time Tysess didn't hesitate as he walked through the doors, across the bridge to the turbolift and stepped inside. "Deck fifteen."

While Tysess had never had reason to complain about the speed, the turbolift seemed agonisingly slow today. Each deck seemed to take longer to reach and every second he continued to spend in uncertainty about Ophelia's condition drove him mad.

Under other circumstances, he would have found this revelation most intriguing. Although he and Ophelia had known each other for some time, they had been in a romantic relationship together for barely two months.

He wouldn't claim to have much experience with romantic relationships, in fact he had only had two before, but the feelings had never been as strong before, not even after years of being together, as they were now for Ophelia after less than two months. All at once it hit him like a blow. He loved her.

He, Tysess, loved Ophelia Zubira, with all his being, as he had never loved anyone before.

For a few seconds he felt a warmth swell inside him as he realised this. Although they had both made it clear that they were romantically interested in each other and had done things that were common for couples, neither had so far uttered the word 'love'.

Abruptly, his joy fizzled out and horror, disbelief and dread began to grow within him. He loved Ophelia. Ophelia might have been dead.

He would have never been able to tell her how he felt. The fear, which he had been able to suppress for a few moments, returned stronger than ever and Tysess knew that any Andorian would have fled at the sight of his retracted antennae. They knew that every Andorian would not let the death of his mate stand.

The turbolift stopped and as soon as the gap was wide enough to let him through, Tysess slipped out into the corridor and walked with brisk steps towards engineering, which accelerated each time until he was running. He did not care that he was jogging, even sprinting. He didn't care about the astonished looks of the other crew members who had probably never seen him so out of control, however, Ophelia was the only thing that mattered at that moment, the only thing that lived in his head right now.

Only in passing did he notice the damage, which didn't even need a closer inspection to be seen. By now, as he rounded the last corner, his heart was pounding in his chest and the sight before him brought it to an instant halt. The security doors were closed. Engineering had been evacuated. Tysess slowly raised his hand as his nightmare scenario played out before his eyes. Ophelia, locked in the engineering, dying in agony.

He closed his eyes to put the images out of his mind when he heard his name and shot around. For a split second he had hoped, however the voice turned out to be that of an ensign who looked at him. "It's about Lieutenant Commander Zubira."

~**~

She's dead.

Ophelia pulled her legs closer to her body and buried her face in her arms folded over her knees to stifle her sobs as the same scene played over and over before her eyes. When the ships had started firing at each other, she had been in sickbay to repair one of the replicators.

The first hits had shaken the ship and Ophelia had been about to go to engineering to avoid the nurses and doctors, Noum was God knows where, when the next hit had hit the power supply for half the bio-beds. But as these had been needed and Ophelia didn't know what to do anyway, she had set to work and for the next twenty minutes had bitterly fought a battle against the power sources that kept failing before finally winning.

However, all the shaking and spraying of sparks had left her with some scrapes and minor burns, though nothing serious or life-threatening.

However, when Ophelia finally managed to get up to attend to her duties in other areas, the doors had slid aside and three lieutenants, led by Noum, who had apparently finally come down from the bridge, rushed frantically into the room shouting, carrying a person between them.

A person Ophelia knew very well and with whom she got on very well.

Commander Maira Baqri. Chief Engineer of the USS Dauntless, Ophelia's fire chief superior officer and a very good friend. She had been full of joy for life and every time that mischievous smile had appeared behind the yellow hijab, Ophelia knew that what was to come would either be the best experience of her life or a memory she would forever regret.

However, the strong woman, otherwise so full of life and bursting with energy, now lay on the biobed with severe burns and bleeding flesh wounds, while nurses and Noum, scurried around her as the Tellarite barked orders. "Maira." Her voice was only a soft whisper, however she could not bring herself to raise her voice as the lump in her throat knew to prevent it.

The next few minutes were nothing but a blur of movements, colours and shouts and the only thing burned into her memory forever was the long drawn out beeping and the soft cursing of Noum, which he only uttered when his medical skills were once unable to save his patients.

The memories brought tears to her eyes and for a moment she was tempted to wipe her face with her arm, but left it at that. Her arms, more than the rest of her body, were covered with small wounds and hurt a little, but she had refused to have them examined and treated. Noum had protested strongly, but he too had realised that it made more sense to look after more seriously wounded members.

Ophelia sniffled softly and wiped her eyes with her hands, which were also a little scuffed up, making it a little more painful, to wipe away the tears as her eyes fell on the PADD lying next to her on the sofa.

It was still open from this morning and the program to select holoprograms was still open. Ophelia had decided to introduce Tysess to her home in Colombia and had spent the morning searching for suitable and realistic programmes, only to find that none came close to the real thing.

Tysess.

Her sadness changed abruptly to pure fear and horror and a sob escaped her. Tysess had also been on duty, on the bridge, and so far Ophelia had heard nothing from there. That very morning, since Admiral Janeway had been declared unfit for duty, he had said goodbye to her as the highest ranking officer and promised her that they would be back on Earth soon. Now she wasn't even sure if he was still alive.

Ophelia tried to reassure herself by telling herself that she hadn't seen him in sickbay, but it didn't really help. After all, patients could still have been brought in, or his body could be lying cold and lifeless on the floor in a corridor.

Cold sweat of fear spread over her body and she jumped up. She didn't care if she had to tear the whole ship apart, but she would find Tysess.

Alive.

Ophelia didn't even bother to put on her shoes and ran over to the door on her socks, opened it by pressing a button on the panel next to it, and cried out softly.

Standing in front of her, breathless and filthy, sweaty with a small scrape on his cheekbone but otherwise unharmed, was Tysess, who had raised his arm to open her door with the code she had given him. For a split second they stared at each other in shock before realisation set in.

"Oh God!" Ophelia sobbed out, wrapping her arms around Tysess, who had rushed over to her in an instant and was holding her tightly against him, his arms wrapped around her waist, body pressed tightly against body, nose buried in her hair. "You're alive, oh God you're alive," Ophelia sobbed softly and felt them stagger into their quarters, the doors closing behind them.

She sobbed into his shoulder, which didn't seem to bother the Andorian as he continued to run his hands up and down her back and through her hair.

"I thought you were dead," he murmured and she could hear his voice almost breaking with tears. "When they said that engineering had been hit, I thought-" His voice broke off and Ophelia sobbed out again, pressing herself tighter against him. "I was so scared. The possibility of losing you too, after-"

Her voice broke off and her crying intensified before Tysess led her to the sofa so they could drop down, still pressed close together. Tears of sadness, anger, fear and relief streamed down her face onto his uniform top, yet he didn't care and just pulled her closer, pressing kisses to her forehead and just being there while Ophelia cried the sorrow of the last few hours from her soul.

"Maira is dead," she choked out after a while. "They brought her in and...and...there was blood everywhere and I...I couldn't do anything...I...I just stood there and wa...watched her die..." Another volley of sobs shook through her and Tysess pressed his forehead against hers. "It's not your fault." His voice was strained and Ophelia felt more than saw his antennae, which had dug into her hair earlier, twitch. "If anyone is to blame, it is me."

Through tears, she looked up at him in confusion. "Tysess, of what..." "It was I who gave the order to take the call. The call that ultimately subdued the entire ship and nearly sent it to its doom. I am the one to blame for the death, of every single crew member. I-"

His voice trailed off and with shock Ophelia watched as silent tears rolled down the usually composed Commander's cheeks. "It's my fault...mine alone...Please...forgive me... I'm sorry..." He broke off and sobbed quietly, making it Ophelia's job now to pull him close and, even with a tear-stained face, gently run her hands through his hair, careful not to touch his antennae.

"It's not your fault, Motema nangai. Anyone would have done the same in your place. You are not to blame."

Tysess shook his head silently before looking up. "I would never have forgiven myself if anything had happened to you. If you had died, I would have..." He did not finish his sentence, yet he did not have to. Ophelia knew what he meant and pulled him close again. "It's okay.... It'll be alright, Tysess."

"No," he pulled her to him so that she was almost sitting on his lap. "I would never have forgiven myself if you had died without me being able to tell you how much you mean to me, how much I cherish you and praise your presence."

Still with tears in her eyes, she looked up at him and smiled slightly. "You don't have to." For the first time in fifteen minutes, he broke away from her, only to frame her face with his hands. "Yes, I do have to. Because just the thought that one of us could die without you knowing how much I love you... It breaks my heart."

Ophelia's breath caught and for a moment all sadness and fear were forgotten. "You mean it? That you love me?" With a calf-eyed smile he looked down at her and rested his forehead against hers. "How could I not? You are wonderful, kind, beautiful, intelligent, funny, and so much more than I ever hoped or dared to dream. In all my life I have never loved a person so much and it scares me."

Ophelia laughed a tearful laugh and put her hands to his cheeks. "Then let us be afraid together, mi amor. Let us fear this love together."

His eyes widened. "You too?" She smiled and felt tears well up in her eyes again. "Like crazy." For the first time he smiled a wide, if too equally gentle, smile and leaned down slightly to kiss her. It was a long, intimate kiss, which told of the pain, fear and sorrow of the past hours, however, it was what they needed.

When they broke away, admittedly a little out of breath, they leaned their foreheads against each other for a few moments and could each feel the other's breath on their face.

"Will it always be like this now?" Ophelia's voice was low and barely audible, though she knew Tysess had heard her. He always heard her. "Will we only spend our time in service worrying about each other? Having to worry about the other getting hurt? Or even worse?"

He sighed slowly and moved away from her face just enough so they could look into each other's eyes. "Yes. But at the same time it means that in any situation we know that there is at least one person on this ship worth fighting on for. When we come back, wounded and injured there will be someone to tend to our little aches and pains. And even if one day, though I hope not, we have to hand over the other's coffin to the family, we can live with the certainty of savouring every moment. Because that's what I intend to do. To savour every moment with you" He looked up. "Are you in?"

For a few seconds she just looked at him, contemplating his face. Elongated shape with a pointed chin, sky-blue skin, eyelids dabbed with purple paint and pale lilac-grey eyes that looked at her with such love as she was not used to from people outside her family. Ophelia smiled softly. "Yes."

~**~

The next day, Ophelia and Tysess stood side by side in the shuttle hangar and looked at the coffins lined up in front of them. The previous evening, after some time, Tysess had broken away from her to fetch the first aid kit from her bathroom and, as promised, had dressed her wounds.

The rest of the evening consisted of lying in each other's arms and letting out the grief and fear in the form of tears, so that now there were no tears left to shed.

During the memorial service, Tysess held Ophelia's hand tightly in his and only let it go once during the whole two hours of listening to speeches, when Ophelia gave her speech for Maira.

She was nervous and grieving, however, she brought out the words she wanted to get rid of in a way that was worthy of Maira. In the end, she turned to Maira's coffin, only temporarily, as her faith demanded to be buried without a coffin, and gently placed a sunflower wreath on it, which she had woven herself that morning.

They were Maira's favourite flowers and she had loved it when Ophelia had made her a wreath out of them.

Like a queen's crown.

"May you find your peace, dear friend," was all she could whisper before she fled back to Tysess, who held her in his arms. Discretion no longer interested him, nor did some of the astonished looks they received.

At the end, Janeway stepped forward and gave her farewell speech, which brought tears to Ophelia's eyes again and Tysess pulled her closer. Together, after Janeway stepped aside, they watched as the coffins were carefully placed in transporters and then flown out into space to be delivered to the families of the deceased.

Gradually the gathering dispersed until only a few were left. Noum stepped briefly towards Ophelia, who was still standing there nestled against Tysess, and spoke briefly to her before he too took his leave.

"Do you want to go?" Tysess's voice was calm and composed, grounding Ophelia somewhat, at least enough for her to nod. Before they finally left, however, Ophelia was held back by the call of her name. She turned and saw Admiral Janeway coming towards her. Ophelia gave Tysess an assuring look, whereupon he let go of her and stepped back a little, but remained just within earshot.

"Admiral." "Lieutenant Commander Zubira. I wanted to offer my condolences once again. I understand you and Commander Baqri were close." Ophelia felt another lump forming in her throat. "Very close, ma'am." Janeway sighed slightly. "If it were up to me, I would like to postpone the whole thing and give you time to grieve, however, regulations require that I do so as soon as possible." "Admiral?"

Janeway raised her hand, silencing Ophelia before standing up at attention, prompting Ophelia to do the same.

"Lieutenant Commander Ophelia Celeste Zubira. You have served Starfleet for several years now and have proven yourself to be a trustworthy, responsible and talented officer. We have suffered many losses, including our Chief Engineer, who will be sorely missed by us all. Nevertheless, I cannot leave this post vacant." Janeway reached into the pocket of her uniform and pulled out a gold pin, causing Ophelia's eyes to widen.

"I am aware that the circumstances are not ideal and under others this would have been done in the presence of the other bridge officers, however that is almost impossible at the moment. Yet, I have a feeling that the most important ones are here."

Janeway's gaze flew to Tysess who was looking at Ophelia proudly and full of love at the same time. "Lieutenant Commander Zubira. It is my honour and my greatest pleasure to hereby promote you to the rank of Commander and Chief Engineer of the USS Dauntless. Do you accept the promotion?"

Ophelia's breath stopped as she looked wide-eyed at the gold pin in the Admiral's palm. She was torn. For one thing, this had always been her biggest tram. Being Chief Engineer had been the reason for her to join Starfleet and if that meant getting promoted, she wouldn't fight it.

On the other hand, it felt wrong somehow, like she was trying to replace Maira.

Her gaze flew to Tysess, who looked at her encouragingly, as if to say 'Whatever you want, I've got your back' and had to smile. No, she would never be able to replace Maira. Nor did she want to. However, she could uphold the reputation of her best friend and ensure that the ship she had loved so much could be in the best condition possible.

"I would be honoured, Admiral." Janeway smiled at her and took the blank Lieutenant Commander pin from Ophelia's collar, but paused and held the new, gold one out to Tysess then.

"Commander, would you care to do the honours?" For a moment Tysess looked surprised, but quickly stepped towards her and took the pin in his hand. His eyes fell on Ophelia and that one look said more about his feelings than words ever could.

"It is my privilege to promote you to Commander." Gently, he pinned the pin to her collar, smoothed out her uniform and took a step back, pride flashing in his eyes. "You deserve it."

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@indignantlemur

#star trek #star trek prodigy #star trek pro #commander tysess #tysess #tysess x oc #tysess x ophelia #commander tysess x ophelia zubira #commander tysess x reader #kathryn janeway #doctor noum #season 1 episode 19 supernova part 1 #s1e19 star trek prodigy #season1 episode 20 supernova part 2 #s1e20 star trek prodigy

[disasterbijamietartt]

Reasons Jamie and Keeley should be endgame

Hello everyone, I present to you my probably not comprehensive post full of breadcrumbs why I believe Jamie and Keeley should end up together.

Note: As my blog description says, I ship Jamie x Keeley x Roy, but that is in the little canon divergent world in my head where Roy got his shit together. Looking at the current canon, Roy’s just not at the point where I would want him to be in a relationship with either Keeley or Jamie or anyone to be honest. Could I change my mind if he actually gets the development that is teased in this article and my next exciting meta post titled »Maybe I’m delusional and drank too much wine, but this is why Roy Kent being a closeted queer man explains EVERYTHING« is not actually delusional? Yes. But for the time being, Jamie x Keeley is the outcome I’m hoping for.

So, but now onto the reasons, not in any particular order – I tried to make it comprehensible, but I gave up halfway through, since it took too much time and just word vomited lol

It won’t make sense for Jamie to end up with anyone else 

There is of course the option, that Jamie isn’t meant to end up with someone by the end of season 3, but that is an option I decided to ignore lol.

Jamie is a too central and important character on the show to end up with some random person, that hasn’t been introduced on the show yet. That would just be really poor writing (and we’re talking about the show that set up Sam & Rebecca in the first season in a way that was easy to miss but was so obvious in hindsight). So now let’s take a look at possible love interests for Jamie that are not Keeley.

The only person aside of Keeley that he has enough backstory and interaction with, so a romance subplot would have some sustenance, is (and I don't believe I actually write this as something that could legit happen and doesn't only live in fangirls minds) Roy – I know that a lot of Jamie x Keeley shippers don’t particularly like Roy x Jamie and a lot of Roy’s behaviour right now is a red flag for any kind of relationship, especially with Jamie, but there is not one other person Jamie has a deep and complicated emotional back story with, that could be turned into a romance. NOT ONE.

Which is actually, if they don’t want to feature two queer storylines this season, a very good argument supporting Jamie x Keeley (and if they actually go down the queer Roy and Jamie road, Jamie x Keeley x Roy is endgame, I do not make the rules – nobody puts Keeley in a corner).

Since they want to build up Roy’s friendship with Jamie, and there is the Zava stuff and possibly a resolution of the »Ted dumped me«-subplot, more ManCity stuff and dealing with his father, him hopefully playing a crucial part in Nate's redemption, it is hard to imagine how they could wriggle in another subplot for Jamie where he meets someone totally new, falls in love and gets a convincing happily ever after. They want to get Phil finally his Emmy nomination this season – see this tweet – so he’ll have a lot of good material, but at this point of the narrative it makes more sense to address the loose ends that still need to be tied up, instead of introducing something new.

And his relationship with Keeley is one of those loose ends that needs to be tied up – could they do this with both of them ending up as best friends? Sure, but there are a lot of reasons why they could or should be endgame instead.

So, anyways, his love interest has to be someone he already knows at this point of the story, since ending up with some random person simply wouldn’t feel like a good and rewarding story for a main character.

But I can’t think of any woman who would make sense for me, so let’s look at »age appropriate women he canonically knows« to hammer the point home that no one except Keeley makes sense.

Rebecca – some people suggested that because of the »shite in nineing armour« prophecy, but … I think Rebecca and Jamie had one actual interaction in the whole show so far (Christmas, when she rolls her eyes about him not knowing Secret Santa) and it would not make sense for Rebecca to dump Sam and then start dating another footballer who’s roughly half her age. They could possibly construct something about bonding over their mutual distrust of Zava, but a romance makes no sense at all for either of them. What I’d rather see with him and Rebecca: Jamie’s relationship with Keeley and his well being were collateral damage in Rebecca’s revenge – and I’m sure she deep down knows how she fucked him over and took him back without argument because she felt guilty. So the fact, that she used him as a pawn, doing something unforgivable to him even though he didn’t deserve it, actually being acknowledged by her would be nice.

Bex – some people theorise that Jamie is actually Diane’s father and not Rupert and while I generally support everything that hurts Rupert, there is not enough actual set up for them to work, even if she cheated on Rupert with Jamie and he is the father. Like, we virtually know nothing about Bex as a person and even though I’m curious about their backstory, it would make no sense to give them a romantic subplot. (I could rather see Jamie telling Rebecca that Bex is actually a gold digger manipulating Rupert and not another naive woman that fell under his spell – and their backstory is definitely a loose end that should be tight up)

Sassy – LOL no I can’t even think of any far-fetched reason that would make this even remotely plausible

Sharon – When I asked ChatGPT who Jamie’s love interest in the upcoming season could be, it was really adamant that he has feelings for his sports therapist, but that would be just as unethical as Michelle and Jake, so NO.

Shandy – she is too new and not well enough developed to make sense as a romantic partner for Jamie in my opinion. And their short interaction in the background didn’t look like the show wanted to set up a big romance to come, but to show that Keeley was upset/jealous.

So, I hope I didn’t forget anyone, but … yeah, there is no real romance material for him with any woman on the show, except for Keeley.

With Keeley we have history and they still share a strong bond and just looking at their interactions this season, we have both being awkward, shy and flustered around each other AND as pointed out above Keeley being upset about Shandy talking to him. We also know from the trailer that he goes to her place looking sad/anxious and them hugging. Which all looks like romance arc set-up.

Jamie’s confession

Why have Jamie confess to Keeley at the end of season 2 and still have him have feelings for her, if it is meant to go nowhere?

He is too important a character to just have confessed to cause drama and tension for Roy and Keeley and they could have found something else to further complicate his relationship with Roy. Roy's irrational jealousy of Jamie didn't need any more fodder.

Another important point: When Keeley tells Roy about the confession, she doesn’t address her feelings at all – if she had no lingering feelings for Jamie, she could have told Roy so. But she didn’t.

Also, this happened in 2x10, which would have been 2x8, if Apple had not ordered two extra episodes, in other words mirroring 1x8, the episode Keeley and Jamie hooked up last, even more than it already did.

Another thing: Keeley states in this episode that she wants her death to nourish people and in his confession Jamie tells her how much an impact she had on his life, essentially telling her how having her in his live nourished him.

In other words: Jamie gives her exactly what she needs.

(Also, as shown in 2x2 when Roy catches her wanking to the video of him crying, Keeley values emotional openness and vulnerability – and that is something Jamie gives her even in season 1, before he has all his growth; it is the reason for their hook-up in 1x8, since his openness und vulnerability made her feel special and important.)

Keeley obviously still has feelings for Jamie 

Like, she never stopped caring for him, which is obvious by all their interactions after their break-up (the next day when she runs into Jamie’s rebound is awkward, but she still seems genuinely amused by his “You’re welcome. I like to make people feel good.” bit) and how comfortable they still were around each other.

And how she was upset Jamie deleted her number in 2x2, the way she talks about him and just the way she checks him out and looks at him.

But most importantly: Keeley didn’t dump him because she didn’t love him anymore – she dumped him because he wasn’t showing accountability.

And if that boy has learned one thing it is accountability. He has grown so much since season 1 and while I generally dislike the idea of "gifting" a guy the girl he loves once he gets his shit together, it feels like they deserve a second chance.

Especially since messing with their relationship was one thing Rebecca wanted to do to mess with the team and — even though I think her advice to Keeley in the restroom was genuine — it never really sat well with me how much a role she played in their breakup. And the way she compared Jamie with Rupert like, no, Jamie is 23 and immature, but that doesn’t mean he can’t grow and that he will never show accountability for his mistakes. The fact that Rupert’s a piece of shit doesn’t mean that Jamie couldn’t have learned if Keeley and him just had an honest conversation about it.

Also, let’s look at this quote from Keeley: “Whenever I break up with someone, I spend months questioning it, wondering if I made a huge fucking mistake. But you have really helped me to feel good about this decision, just by... being you.”

This is almost lampshading that she will do exactly this: wondering whether she made a fucking mistake dumping him. Since she was being impulsive, running from issues instead of constructively addressing them and not giving Jamie a chance to fix his behaviour before breaking things off.

I honestly don’t blame Jamie for having a rebound since for him the break up came out of the blue and must have hurt a lot.

(Like, his first instinct, when he learns about the Roy x Keeley break up, is to comfort Roy because he knows how it feels to be dumped by Keeley - which kind of implies he would have wanted some comfort he didn’t get. Rebecca really got what she wanted: every progress Jamie had made so far was undone when Keeley dumped him - but he never let Keeley feel this, instead he used the team as an outlet for his pain and anger, and still got back on a path of growth with Keeley’s help by “Two Aces”. Just to be sent back to Man City. It hurts so much to think about how absolutely awful he must have felt, basically losing EVERYTHING.)

But anyway, both of them got the impression that the other got over their break-up in less than 24 hours.

Which is a big painful misunderstanding that in my opinion needs to be addressed.

Jamie x Keeley are a healthier couple than Roy x Keeley 

Looking at Roy x Keeley throughout the second season, it gets painfully obvious that they have problems in their communication. They both rather bottle up their emotions and ignore issues instead of talking about them (see Jamie’s confession). They only address issues if they don’t have another choice. (see “Headspace”) They seem to be unaware what the other one actually wants/needs (see "Inverting the pyramid of success")

This is NOT a good basis for a relationship.

(And honestly, I tried to explain the appeal of Roy x Keeley to someone and … I couldn’t come up with anything except “They’re grumpy & sunshine and … hot together? Sometimes they support each other, but most of the time they’re communication sucks? They’re good in theory but bad in execution?”)

Jamie on the other hand was even in season 1 fully capable of being open and vulnerable with Keeley, which is something season 3 Roy is still unable to do.

Another thing: Keeley's advice in “The Signal” is actually pretty toxic and says a lot about Roy’s lacking anger management (and her fear of rejection) – like, really, agreeing to everything your angry boyfriend says until he calms down? This shouldn’t be necessary in a healthy relationship!

And in “Headspace” and “Midnight Train to Royston” it gets obvious that she has problems telling Roy stuff that could potentially anger him.

And also in “Headspace” Roy does not get that Keeley felt overwhelmed by his clinginess until she exploded in his face (bonus: Jamie’s accidental relationship advice saved Roy x Keeley). But in “Do the Rightest Thing”, Jamie was able to sense her bad mood the moment he stepped in a room with her and she didn’t had to tell him.

Point is: Jamie’s superpower is empathy – in the first season he often used it to find peoples weaknesses and which buttons he had to press to get Roy to explode. But in dealing with people who have difficulties expressing their feelings, it is a very valuable ability to, you know, be able to sense when something is off or to lift them up when they need it. And by now Jamie is so far on his emotional growth journey, that he would work so much better with Keeley than Roy ever did.

The only problem: What about Roy?

My upcoming Roy meta post is basically the result of my reflections about how this would work with Roy’s character arc, so I won’t go into depth here and list the myriad of reasons why I believe Roy is queer and nothing else makes sense.

But basically I could picture Roy having a realisation similar to him leaving Chelsea, that he regrets not staying with Keeley, but that in the long run it was the right decision, because it led him to a place that was actually better for him. (And honestly, that is the kind of realisation I want Keeley and Jamie to have once they get back together - that breaking up instead of working on their relationship may be something they regret, but that it is also the reason they both got the growth they needed to become the best versions of themselves.)

And while the break up with Keeley is framed to be a mistake by basically everyone, that could be there to throw viewers off Jamie x Keeley endgame, similar to the way the writers made it look like Rebecca was texting with Ted on Bantr before we got the Sam reveal.

But my main argument agains Roy x Keeley endgame is, that the article linked above basically says that Jamie helps Roy to grow emotionally in return for their training sessions. But would Roy x Keeley be a satisfying endgame, if they got back together because Jamie was Roy’s wingman, teaching him to be in touch with his emotions? Like essentially: “Your ex-boyfriend, who is still in love with you, taught me to be a better version of myself and to get in touch with my emotions, so that I now can be a good boyfriend to you. Please take me back.”

Would it be a satisfying story for Jamie to be the glue that brings the woman he loves and the man he admires back together while he gets … well, not nothing, since he likely would get their friendship in return, but would it be really satisfying if he saves the main couple’s romance and ends up without a romance of his own?

(Or it means Jamie x Keeley x Roy is endgame, again, I do not make the rules – but Roy x Keeley? Nope, no way, I don’t see it.)

How it could happen

Considering that this season mirrors the first season – with Rebecca still hellbent to get revenge on Rupert but this time with the opposite goal (which likely will cause her to – almost – reach her season 1 goal of destroying the club/team, before a shite in nineing armour fixes everything) Jamie x Keeley endgame would just make so much sense to me.

Like the things that broke apart in the first season get fixed and heal and get better.

And if Keeley’s and Jamie’s second chance romance arc starts in 3x4 (as I have theorised here) it would mirror their breakup in 1x4.

And honestly, it would be so hilarious to get a "You can’t get mad. You broke up with me!" callback to 1x5, if Roy finds out about Jamie & Keeley in 3x5 lmao (something like picking Jamie up for training and running into Keeley)

But if they want to go with a bit more slow burn, I can picture Jamie offering Keeley to help her get back together with Roy, since he believes Keeley is actually over him and wants to make her happy by fixing her relationship with Roy. While at the same time Keeley is questioning, whether breaking up with Jamie was a mistake, and realises that she actually rather wants to get back with Jamie, but is unsure whether he actually still loves her, since he wants to help her to get back with Roy, yadda yadda, until they finally both fess up.

Cue the happily ever after!

(And now I’ll wait until Wednesday, when something I totally didn’t expect happens and I have to settle with the sad truth that I made myself a clown in a tin hat x’D)

#jamie x keeley #my meta #jamie tartt #i don't dare to tag this keeley since I don't want to argue with r*oy x k*eeley shippes

[wario-speedwagon]

"It's the summer of 1973, and Jack has nowhere else left to go. No one else left to turn to.

Peter is ridden with his own feelings of grief and betrayal. But he still has to answer the knock at the door."

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Greetings, DSAF fandom. I come bearing a freshly microwaved angst one-shot, so come get it while it's hot!

Cuz as that one out-of-season movie said, "Never, ever let it cool!" Also, yes, I am drinking hot chocolate right now, no reason in particular. *disgusting slurp*

Jokes aside, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it! <3

Full text below the cut if links aren't your style :)

Hot Chocolate

He had nowhere else to go; his house was seized, he didn’t have his wallet on him–he must’ve pocketed it while he was out–he was wanted for some reason if the Reno Gazette headline was to be believed…

The long journey here was a hazy memory as he looked back on it, probably because he spent most of it lost in his own head.

But he made it. This was Peter’s address.

He eagerly knocked on the door in front of him, but instead of anticipating relief, he became self-aware: how would Peter even react to how scarred he was all over? He hadn’t even been able to shower–other than the heavy rain right now–he was still in his bloodstained uniform–

The door began to click open and Jack hadn’t even thought of what to say.

Peter appeared behind the door. He looked worn down himself, but his face became incredulous as he surveyed his visitor.

“Peter… I failed… I couldn’t save her.”

Peter still looked back at him like a stranger.

“I don’t know what to do. I… I need help.”

His voice had come back, but it was still quite inconsistent.

“...Jack…?”

The man’s humbled silence seemed to confirm it.

“Jack, why are you here?”

“I have nowhere else to go– I don’t know what to do–”

Peter was afraid of his answer, but he had to ask.

“What happened to you?” It came out with more disappointment than concern.

“I…”

Jack didn’t know how to start. He realized just how outlandish the words that came to him would sound if he said them out loud.

“I don’t think you’ll believe me…”

Peter didn’t know how he should feel. Should he want to believe what he has to say? Was it naïve to hope he’d say that none of this was true? Should he believe him if he did?

“Just try me.”

Jack again tried to conjure the words to explain.

“...I was– i-it was Henry–”  No, he should start with Dee– 

“I l-left her behind, I didn’t mean for–  S-So I– I got a job there to– to find her–  And then he– H-H-He– He– It was h-him– He–” Dizzying nausea and an involuntary hand over his own mouth stopped him from continuing. 

Peter was flabbergasted. This person was so unlike his brother; he’d never seen Jack even remotely nervous like this before. He didn’t know what the appropriate response should be.

“Come– Just come inside.”

Jack nodded, mouth still covered as Peter ushered him out of the rain with an arm around his back. He was drenched and cold to the touch. He was shaking, but given the sorry display he just witnessed, Jack probably wasn’t shivering from just the rain.

He sat Jack down onto the couch.

“Hold on…”

Peter disappeared around the corner.

Time had stopped as Jack sat in that living room alone. He took in his current situation. 

…He was home now. Or close enough to it. He was safe for the first time since...–even if just for now.

Peter came back with some towels.

“Dry yourself off. I’ll go make us some hot chocolate. Does that sound fine with you?”

“Yeah…” It unintentionally came out as a voiceless whisper, but his nod answered for him.

Peter disappeared again to the kitchen. He figured Jack would need time alone to settle his nerves. But honestly, he also needed it for himself.

You shouldn’t be doing this. That man’s a criminal!… right? You just let a wanted criminal into your home–!

Faith, Peter. Hear him out first, he’s your brother for Christ’s sake!

Jack felt bad. The pale grey towels were turning a sticky maroon where he wiped. Dear lord, he hadn’t even checked a mirror since… that. What did Peter see him like right now?  The deluge of thoughts was creeping back again.

Who was he right now?

I’m dead. I’m a dead man walking.

Jack felt deeply unsettled again. 

He remembered the still-searing lines outlining his body with persistent, sensitive pain. They had closed after just a couple days untreated but they still weren’t fully healed. Nor were a couple of his bones either.

After those nights, this is nothing.

He made the mistake of pulling up a sleeve. He was disturbed by a reddish purple line down the under- and outsides of his forearm, but the rest of his arm had also assumed an unsightly jaundice.

Fuck, this was reality, though, wasn’t it?

You’re like them now.  Dead.

No, this isn’t real.  None of this is! This is all just a dead man’s fantasy.

That voice, that conversation, Fredbear– Heh– Fredbear.

I’ve gone insane, haven’t I?

Am I really dead, then? What’s going on? What is all this?

Can you do this for us?

Stop that, Jack, not now.

I need you to promise that you’ll save everyone. Please. Make the world brand new.

Jack, you’re insane, that never happened! It couldn’t have. You’re not here anymore.

No, I chose this.  I chose this.

“Here we are–…”

His voice snapped him out of it, and a nostalgic aroma carried Jack back to the living room around him. Peter had walked in, mugs in both hands. 

Peter carefully handed one to Jack who took it with both hands. While Peter pulled the coffee table toward them, Jack contemplated the mug that he held on his lap. He could feel its intense warmth course throughout his hands and thighs. 

It felt nice.

Peter moved the bloodied towels aside for room to sit.

“S-Sorry about…”

“Oh. Don’t… worry about it. They were cheap.” Not especially, but whatever.

Peter seated himself, and then the two sat there in a moment of silence.

Peter thought of how to break the silence, but seeing that Jack was transfixed on the hot chocolate he wasn’t drinking, he figured he’d respect the quiet for a couple minutes until he seemed more at ease. 

Peter began to drink from his own mug which subconsciously inspired Jack to start drinking his as well.

He tried to resist the urge to steal rude glances at the person right next to him. Jack’s gaunt, beaten appearance was incredibly concerning, enough to warrant a call for the hospital if he weren’t a wanted fugitive. 

Peter wanted to ask a million questions about what he’d been through, but Jack was woefully unprepared last time he tried to answer.

He’d need to ask simple, specific questions, or else Jack would probably bite off more than he could chew again.

“Jack, I’m sorry, but I need to ask you this directly.  Don’t... explain yourself, just ‘yes’ or ‘no’:

Did you abduct Dee?”

“No, b-but–”  Peter stopped him there.

“So someone else abducted her then?”

“Yeah.”

Some of Peter’s tension was relieved.

“Good… good, I’m glad… Okay, now tell me–slowly. What happened the day she went missing?”

He could see Jack becoming visibly upset.

“Y-You’ll never forgive me…”

Peter considered carefully how to respond.

“I’ll never forgive myself.”

“...You made some mistake… and she got abducted because of it, is that the general idea?”

“I… I guess, yeah…”

“What was that mistake? You and Dee went to Fredbear’s for her birthday, right?”

“I left her there alone. I assumed it’d be fine–”

Jack was losing his cool again.

“–it’d be fine, her friends, the adults were all there, th-they told me it’d be fine–”

Jack remembered who “they” were.

“I just left her there with HIM!”

“Who?”

“Henry!”

“Henry?”

“Peter, what’s going on?”

Caroline was standing midway down the stairs, holding a sleeping baby in her arms.

“Sorry, did we wake you?”

“Who is this?”

“He’s a-an old friend of mine. He’s having a bit of a… crisis I’m trying to work him through.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.  I’ll leave you two in privacy. Holler if you need me for anything.”

“Thanks, hon. Good night.”

“G’night, love. Oh, and tell him he’s allowed to spend the night here if he needs.”

“Will do.”

She yawned back up the stairs.

“So… Henry?”

“...Henry Miller.”

“Miller. That’s right, he’s the owner, right? They kept getting statements from him on the news every so often.”

“It was him.”

This was serious. 

“You mean he abducted Dee?”

“Positive.”

“And how do you know this for sure?”

Jack didn’t respond. He looked deeply conflicted. Hesitant.

“…Jack, you’re my brother, but it’s still your word against the authorities’. I can’t just believe you if you don’t tell me what happened.”

That turned out to be the wrong thing to say, as Jack only retreated further from talking.

There was no way he could begin to explain what happened in that room.

“Okay…um…”

Peter tried to think of a different question.

“Then why don’t you explain how you got so banged up?”

He could see Jack’s brain trying to come up with something to say, but still no dice.

“Okay…then–”

“...He…”

“Hm?”

“He… killed me…”

“...What?”

Jack was afraid to elaborate.

“He… killed you?”

“...”

“O-Okay, how did he… kill you…?”

He was visibly unwell again. 

“... Springl–”

“...Spring?”

No, there was no way Peter would know what that was.

And he desperately didn’t want to explain.

Before he knew it, Jack’s left ankle felt warm and wet, and he realized the mug slipped out of his fingers onto the floor.

It wasn't unlike how his blood felt oozing down his impaled calves.

He couldn’t collect himself to apologize. He just stared blankly at the spill, barely registering how Peter rushed to get some paper towels.

When Peter entered his gaze to sop up the spill, Jack attempted an apology.

“I– I’m–”

“Don’t worry about it.” He said it through a sigh.

He didn’t know what the right thing to do was. Jack was clearly shell-shocked, so he felt bad wanting to get answers out of him that made more sense. 

But if he couldn’t believe in him without a shadow of a doubt, then he couldn’t in good conscience harbor him in his home.

No, what am I thinking? It doesn’t matter what I think; if the police ever find out I interacted with him without alerting them– 

“Jack… I have a family to think about. You– You know you’re wanted… F-For her murder.”

He barely responded.

“I want to have faith in you, but no matter what I think, it’s dangerous for us if you stay here for long.

…If you won’t explain anything more, th-then I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave now instead of later.”

He didn’t visibly react, but Jack was gravely considering Peter’s ultimatum.

“Here. Finish my hot chocolate, and if you’re not feeling up to it after then, then…”

“Can– …Can I at least spend the night…?”

Peter carefully calculated his request.

“...Fine.  But I’m dropping you off at a bus stop early in the morning, alright?”

“Could I borrow some money, too? Henry… took my wallet. When he killed… me…”

“Y-Yeah, sure.”

Jack was really insistent on saying that Henry “killed” him.  It was… disturbing. 

“Jack, if you’re up to it, could I still ask more about your injuries?”

“No, p-please… I’m tired…”

You won’t believe me anyway.  He couldn’t say that to him. Peter would always hear him out, and Jack couldn’t bear to be proven right.

*sigh*  “Okay, you’ve had a rough night. Why don’t I get you a change of clothes and a blanket and pillow? You can shower in the morning.”

Jack dreaded the idea of seeing all of his wounds bare, let alone putting soap to them. No, he’d also have to confront them tonight just to get changed.

For now, he just focused on finishing Peter’s lukewarm mug.

#dsaf fanfic #dayshift at freddy's #dsaf #dsaf 3 #jack kennedy #dsaf jack #peter kennedy #dsaf peter #dsaf caroline #peterline #made by me #go get yourself a cup of hot cocoa. you deserve it champ

[babysharl]

Hope I'm not too late for the WIP ask game. What about #1 and #3? Also is there really going to be a continuation of the Christmas one shot you wrote?

You were not late for the WIP ask game !! But I definitely am, sorry it's taken me a couple days to answer 🙏 Thank you for the ask, love!

You have all the answers under the cut so I don't make an annoyingly lenghthy post ^^

Okay, so #1, Lest is my 2022 season fic. It has like 25k words written, but it's mostly dialogue except for a few fully formed scenes, and it spans literally the entire season. I wrote it as it went on (it's divided into 28 chapters), but it's too gargantuan of a WIP to work through :S Maybe I'll reconceptualise it into a oneshot, cause I like the character arcs in it and there's scenes I love a lot. Max is poly in this and in a serious relationship with Kelly, and at the start Charles is with Charlotte too. Charles and Max start developing a closer friendship, and then ✨feelings✨ start to appear. They go back and forth without addressing said feelings for a long while.

Here's an excerpt of a scene post Singapore qualifying:

"Hey." He said quietly, debating with himself for all of two seconds before he took a seat next to Max, self-consciously still leaving a gap between them. When he finally settled down, it seemed like Max came out of whatever revery he had been in. 

"Sorry we're up here." He muttered, his voice cracking up in the middle before he cleared his throat, still looking ahead to the skyline that was visible. "Kelly was asleep already." 

Charles hummed, but didn't really know how to answer that. There was a weird feeling hanging between them, and Charles would be lying if he said on his part it had nothing to do with having met Kelly the day before, or Max mentioning her being in their room and bed right now. It made him feel awful, too. But he doubted anything going on between them had anything to do with Max reaching out so late and when they should've been closing the curtains in their rooms and getting to bed. It was nearing midnight in Monaco's time. Way past their bedtimes. 

"Are you okay?" He braved, waiting with bated breath to see if Max would lash out. Charles still didn't know what to expect with him. He was better at reading Max now that he had ever thought he would be, but Max still seemed so out of reach sometimes.

The other man only let out a long sigh, though, stretching his legs and letting them rest against the pavement of the roof. 

"I lost it." Charles frowned, confused, but then Max kept talking and he suddenly knew what about. "Such a small issue, completely and understandably something that can happen –not that it should, but I know it can happen, and I shouldn't complain because the team ever so rarely makes mistakes–, and I…. completely lost it."

Charles took a deep breath, then let it out slowly before admitting in a quiet voice, "I heard." He doubted there was anyone in the paddock who hadn’t. And the press… not their most forgiving day when it came to Max. Charles was selfishly glad that he usually had the press on his side, that he didn’t have to know what was being on the other end of it, being labelled as the villain time and again.

It was the middle of the night, and Charles’ phone told him it should’ve been at least a bit colder than it was during the day, but the heat remained even as high up as they were, his t-shirt clinking to his skin in a way that not even the humidity in Monaco managed to accomplish. Singapore was beautiful, but Charles had never liked how sticky it made his skin. 

#3 F1TV -> this one started as a 5+1 and I'd really like to finish it. I have 3 and a half out of 6 written, so odds are I may actually do finish it. Premise is Max keeps analysing Charles' onboards to "study the enemy" (full suspension of disbelief cause they have both said they never watch other onboards and just focus on their own hahahah). Here you have a little excerpt from it:

After that second time, it becomes a thing. Max keeps asking G.P. for the race onboards, he makes a habit of watching them either on the plane back home or once he's home, so he can watch on a screen bigger than his phone. Sometimes if he’s told it’s a particularly good race, he sets up the video on the screen of his simulator, and analyses it while replicating every movement Leclerc does with his own hands on his steering wheel. He can't find a way to explain this weird obsession other than he's trying to find cracks in Leclerc's driving. Because about halfway through last year's summer, Leclerc signed to Sauber. And even though Max shouldn't be concerning himself with someone driving such a backmarker car as a Sauber, he knows Leclerc from his own karting days, and he has seen enough onboards from him by now to know he's not going to be driving a midfield car in Formula 1 for long. He'll step up sooner or later. And Max needs to be prepared.

And finally, as for a continuation of As Long As I Get To Keep You, it's not so much a continuation as me tying loose ends for my own peace of mind. I don't know if it'll ever see the light of day, but here you have the conversation that made me create that WIP:

It was only later in the day, when they were both once again cuddling in Max's bed, that Charles remembered something. 

"What did…" He started, but for some reason the words got lost along the way as his finger slid up and down Max's chest, taking in the way it rose and fell with each breath.

Max indulged him, but he still whispered, "Hm?"

Charles had to make a conscious effort to tear his eyes away from the skin he had littered with hickies. It made something stupid and primitive go nuts inside him, Max being all marked up by his lips. But the curiosity about this particular part of their day in that world itched his brain. It probably wasn't even that important. Charles still couldn't help it. 

"When Jules called." Max takes a deep breath, as if he felt this conversation was going to go down a route Charles wasn't intending it to, so Charles rushed to finish his thought. "When he called, and you took the phone." 

"Yeah?" 

Charles turned a bit in Max's hold to be able to look at him properly. 

"What did he want to talk to you about?" He finally asked, meeting Max's eyes and seeing confusion in them, then something else entirely.

Thank you again for the ask! 💙

#lestappen #wip ask game #ask game #my writing