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curiouselleth · 9 months

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Of Elured, Elurin, and Gil-Galad

I started writing this intending to share my theories on the matter of Elured, Elurin, and Gil-galad, but it got long and very detailed. This is NOT edited at all, I just wrote most of this in one sitting... but I think it came out really good! (2,218 words?!?!?!?! HOW?!?!)

Most of this is my personal cannon, but it would fit within the story. Some of it has no clear basis in Tolkien, I originally made this theory for a fic I'm working on and needed to invent some things to make other ideas work. Mostly in how Maiar, Valar, and their powers can mess with time. (I am also kinda-maybe-just a little disregarding bit with Gil-galad being sent to the Falas in 455.)

Elured and Elurin survive being abandoned in the woods, and they are led to food and shelter by nightingales, and are eventually led south into the forests of Ossiriand.

While Melian had returned to Valinor after Thingol's death, and despite that the Girdle of Melian fell and she seemingly abandoned them when she left, she actually sent the nightingales to guide Elured and Elurin to safety. Her last act to help those in Middle Earth for a long time. (continued under the cut)

Maiar, Valar, or large concentrations of their powers can do weird things to time and aging. Whether making time pass faster or slower for those in their immediate vicinity, so one year would feel like months, or several years could pass in their vicinity while only one year may seem to pass away from them. With practice and skill their effect on time around them can be minimized, as pretty much all the valar and maiar do. This can cause aging to be faster or slower, or decay to slow down.

Elured and Elurin were too young to be taught of this, so barely more than 4 years after the Second Kinslaying (506), they have aged around 15 years in that time, and are about 21. As Elwing had Elrond and Elros at 22, I am assuming that since she was considered an adult then that they are at that age too.

Over the years they also slowly built up walls, hiding their true identities with magic, eventually so that none could recognize them, so they wouldn't be reminded or found again by the Feanorians. Part of it is that people will see what they expect, and who would expect to the see the twin sons of Dior, believed to be dead?

Now it is year 510, and Gondolin falls that summer. (I would guess it is around the solstice, in late June.)

Gwingloth is the daughter of Lalwen (daughter of Finwe), and was born a few years after Lalwen arrived Gondolin after its completion. She is a little young for a elf but well of age. Tolkien gateway says that is about 100 years old, I don't want to get a headache checking the Nature of Middle Earth right now 😅.

Gwingloth had never been fond of festivals, she often found the noise and the chaos overwhelming, so she had snuck outside the city, thinking to visit the gates, and to check on the guards who she had heard expressing sadness to be missing the festival.

She had been about to leave, but then the attack started. The guards had defended her with their lives, and when she was knocked unconscious they defended her until they fell, and in a strange bit of luck she was hidden in the bodies and presumed dead. When she came to she was once again lucky, and most of the fighting had moved on to the city. She managed to sneak out, and down the Dry River to Sirion. She did not know much of Beleriand, but she knew the south in Ossiriand to be safe, and she made a makeshift boat and sailed down Sirion until she reached the Fens of Sirion, where she left the river and ventured east until she met Elured and Elurin.

Elured and Elurin had been living semi-nomadically in Ossiriand in this time, with some help and guidance from the green elves there. Before they were of age, they lived with a small group of green elves in a hidden village of flets. They were not taken in my one specific family, but the whole village helped in their upbringing. They were taught to survive, fight, and to be able to sneak through the trees and hills with skill no other elves had. Once they were of age they began to live more nomadically, scouting or hunting to help that village.

The year they came of age the green elves gave them a gift that had been found near the River Ascar, the northernmost river in Ossiriand. It was two fine twin swords Thingol had crafted for the twins when he heard of their birth. (there was a small inscription) They had been taken in the sack by the dwarves and almost were cast into the river with the rest of the treasure, but they were found by one of the green elves, and kept. The twins each got a sword, as Thingol had first intended for them, his first great-grandchildren.

Shortly before Gwingloth arrived, the village made the decision to move further south, fearing the growing reports of orcs Elured and Elurin brought. The twins decided to remain while they figured out what they wanted to do. Do they seek out survivors from Doriath or other Sindar? Do they forsake their heritage and remain with the green elves who raised them and taught them?

Gwingloth and Elurin quickly fell in love, but Elured and Elurin found the word of Gondolin's fall to be the last straw in their decision to pursue the rumors they had heard of Elwing in the Havens of Sirion. Elured wished to go alone, as they had been planning to stealthily go to gather information, not to enter the city, so both of them did not need to go, and one of them needed to stay with Gwingloth as she recovered from the shock of Gondolin's fall and the battle, and her long, hungry journey south. Elured also... hinted... to Elurin that perhaps he should be trying to research Noldor and Sindar marriage traditions wink wink.

Elured traveled extremely light, nearly nothing with him but some basics he gathered and supplies and tools he made. He did bring his twin sword, as it was the finest weapon he had and he did not wish to be about without it, but he put a small enchantment on the inscription, hiding it. He first traveled north-west, in the direction of Nargothrond, to see if any survivors of Gondolin passed through the west part of the region. He was hoping inconspicuously to join a group of survivors heading to Sirion, and to tell them the story that he had been living in the wilderness ever since his city fell.

This worked a little too well, and he encountered the main group of survivors from Gondolin sheltering in Taur-en-Faroth, the forests on the west and south sides of Nargothrond. He called himself Ereinion, which had been Beren's nickname for him, as he was descended from Kings of Elves and Men. Perhaps he should've thought his story through more, with him being found outside a fallen city of the Noldor, and having darker hair, like most of the Noldor, with highlights that shone like gold in the sunlight, because rumors begin to fly that he is Finrod's, Orodreth's, or, somehow, Fingon's son. He tried to deflect, saying his appearance took more after his mother. The enchantment that both he and Elurin wove around themselves was still in effect, and made people see what they expected when they were looked upon. So the survivors expected to see the son of a noldor king? Well, that is what they saw.

He thought that quelled the rumors, so he continued travelling with them for some months, because it was safer. When they arrive in the Havens in the late winter (march???) of 511, he hears that it is true, Elwing is alive, but is almost immediately brought to the Isle of Sirion, for they started to believe him to be the rightful king of the Noldor.

It is on the Isle of Balar where he finally has to confront the fact that they think him to be their rightful king. He feared what would happen should the truth come out, and panics (privately), but ends up going along with it, planning to use it just until he can see Elwing, then... well he wasn't sure yet.

It takes months for the opportunity for him to return to the Havens of Sirion, and by then he was crowned as Gil-galad, King of the Noldor... and discovered just how busy that title makes you (karma?). By then it is late summer of 511, almost a year after he left Elurin and Gwingloth on a journey they expected to take only a few months. He had tried to covertly send messenger birds, but most returned with their messages unopened, if they returned at all.

Once he arrives in Sirion, he once again has a stoke of bad luck. Not only is Elwing considered just a little too young* to meet him, the King, he is too busy with politics and meetings to be able to sneak away to see her.

*I also have Elwing aging at an accelerated rate as well, she is almost 18, but is incorrectly considered too immature by a few of the other rulers of the Havens (who have sticks up their buts), so she is kept away.

Elured has to return to Balar, but the next year he is finally allowed to meet Elwing, for she finally set those other rulers straight, and is taking her place as leader of the Havens. The ceremony was small, but in the following days Elured was invited to meet her, not on strictly official business, but so the two of them could simply meet as people and leaders.

Elured is guided to her lovely home in the Havens, and when he knocks, he hears a call to enter, and he steps inside and into the living space. It's well decorated, cozy and lived it, and there's a vase of lily of the valley and cyclamen on a mantel above the hearth.

It had been so, so long since he had seen his little sister. And his breath caught for a moment when he saw her. She's so grown up. Without us. Elured thought, tears starting to form in his eyes.

"Ah you must be King Gil-galad! Suilad! It is so wonderful to finally meet you!"

"Ahm," he cleared his throat, "yes, it is wonderful to, meet you, too. I'm so glad we finally got the chance..." he trailed off.

"How goes matters on the Isle? Good? Well..." she continued talking but Elured was barely listening.

He worked rapidly to drop the enchantment disguising his identity, in denial, No, it must be the enchantment, that must be why she... why she doesn't he thought frantically as it finally came down.

But she didn't react. She kept on speaking about how things were in the Havens, until she notices his lack of response, she pauses, and looks closer at him. "Are... are you part maia as I am?" She haltingly asks.

"I. I am, yes, as you are." Elured hesitantly answers. Is this it? Is she starting to recognize me?

But she takes his hesitant response as him not wishing to speak of it, and says "I'm sorry, I did not mean to pry, and you need not answer. I too understand having a past too painful to speak of."

Elured nods, shocked and despairing. She didn't know him. His sister didn't know him anymore.

Elured is devastated that his sister does not know him, and perhaps it is cowardice, or perhaps he does not wish to bring her more pain by showing up in this life she's worked hard to make for herself and telling her that he is her brother, that both of her brothers were alive... and they shared the same past she called too painful to speak of.

Upon his return to Balar that day, he throws himself into work as High King of the Noldor, just a little longer, he tells himself. Then I'll go home. Just a little longer.

But days turn to months, and months into two years, and it is 514 when he can finally return to Ossiriand, for he did not want to forsake the people who had come to rely on him. He is only able to go back under the guise of seeking a stronger alliance with the green elves, but one night, when he is not so far from his home, he is able to slip away from his guards.

He travels light, only his one twin sword with him, speeding through the treetops until he reaches the edge of the empty village where they had lived. But all is silent.

As he steps into the flet he shared with his brother, there is not a sound, and it is empty. Gwingloth and his brother are gone.

There was no note, no message anywhere in the village, nor the trees. He is so desperate he checks the ground, for when the village was occupied none were allowed to go on the ground under the village to help keep it more hidden, not a trace of them or tracks.

All was silent and empty. His twin is gone. He unsheathes his twin sword, which now truly missing it's partner, it's other half, as he is. He drives it into the ground in the middle of the village, standing alone as a memorial... or as a grave, and he rips off a bit of his robe, with his new sigil of silver stars on a blue field.

Gil-galad turns and walks back to his camp, and his people. Once again devastated.

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diamaker-moon · 3 years

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Moving Forward - Chapter 5

Chapter Five

First stake-out...

—————

She observes the young boy and hummed. She instructed Adrien to try and look around thinking that it might've been misplaced.

'I have a bad feeling about this. It's already bad that it's missing, but if my theory is right that it is in Ladybug's possession, we might be at a disadvantage.'

— previous chapter... —

Marinette was nervous. She doesn't know if she can pull it off.

She was currently crouching on a roof near the Agreste Mansion, waiting for any signal from the kwamis. She was already feeling a strain in her body due to wearing multiple miraculouses at once.

She was wearing the ladybug earrings, black cat ring, fox necklace, horse glasses, mouse pendant necklace. There was a slight change in the plan. She decided to do a stakeout in the middle of the night, that is why she also had a flashlight in hand.

If there are no open windows or any entrance to the atelier straight from the outside, she'll just create a portal. She was currently transformed as Multimouse. While the four kwamis searched around the mansion. After waiting a few minutes the four kwamis came back.

"Sorry bug, but all the windows are closed. And it can't be opened." Plagg said.

"But, the atelier is empty, Natalie is already sleeping and Gabriel as well. Their bedrooms are a bit far from the room." Tikki said.

Marinette thought about it. "Hey, Trixx. You think your illusions, can affect the security cameras inside the room if there is any?"

"Sure Kit. My powers are meant to be useful to you!" Trixx said.

Marinette nodded. She will need to divide into two, one to unify with Trixx for the illusion and another for Kaalki's teleportations.

"I hope this can work..." She mumbled before preparing to activate the mouse's special power.

"Multitude!" She activated the power and waited. She felt a slight change in her when she opened her eyes a copy of her is staring at her. She handed her the glasses.

"Mullo, Kaalki, unify!"

The gray, pink and black bodysuit was changed. The pink accents of her bodysuit were changed into a dark brown colour, while her mask was removed and the glasses act as her mask. Her ribbons in her Odango-style twin buns were changed from pink to dark brown. A horseshoe attached to the back.

"Mullo, Trixx, unify!"

He bodysuit turned into Multifox's look, all the pink accents on Multimouse become orange, and she has a white section on her chest similar as a result of the Fox miraculous influence. The pink section of her mask also becomes orange.

Multifox looked in the direction of the mansion, before grabbing the flute from her back and playing a song to activate the power. As short 'Mirage' and the illusions are up. The cameras will only see an empty room, and if the doors are opened they will see a dark empty room.

Multifox nodded to Multimare to open a portal.

"Voyage!"

She activated the power then a portal opened. They went through it to appear in the middle of the dark empty room.

"Mullo, Kaalki, divide." Multimare mumbled, releasing the Horse kwami. Multifox handed a small pouch that has food for the kwamis.

Multimouse is on guard duty, she needs to be on alert, while Multifox, Plagg and Tikki walk up to Mme Agreste's painting. Multifox pulls the painting to reveal a safe behind. She looked at Tikki who nodded before phasing through. Multifox flicked her flashlight 'on' once the safe's door opened.

She saw a picture of Mme Agreste, a book about Tibet, a ticket to Tibet, rolled-up pieces of old paper, and a shiny brooch, that is shaped like a peacock. The brooch has five segments. Its main colour is pale, light grayish blue-violet, while the crystals on the top of each segment are pink. The lower part has a silhouette body of a peacock as a single teardrop.

She had her jaw opened. Hawkmoth just leaves it here?! Wow... What a great keeper. She grabbed the brooch and clutched it in her left hand. Before grabbing the book about Tibet which only has words about their trip and nothing important.

She placed the book back, closed the safe then returned the painting back to normal. She then nodded to Multimouse, who immediately transformed back to Multimare, and opened a portal straight to her bedroom inside the dorm.

Kaalki was divided and handed a sugar cube to eat, before Multimouse and Multifox fused, leaving only Multifox.

"Mullo, divide."

Leaving her in a fox suit. She removed the illusion in M. Agreste's atelier before finally detransforming.

"Trixx, let's rest."

Finally leaving her in her pink athletic leggings and a cropped black shirt. She was still clutching the peacock miraculous in her left hand. She made sure she didn't leave anything. She had the pouch and the flashlight on the floor after getting dropped when Multimouse and Multifox fused back together.

She sat down on her desk chair with the disguised miracle box opened on the side of the table. The other kwamis flew towards her, while She was inspecting the miraculous.

"Tikki, I thought the Peacock Miraculous was broken?" Marinette asked while still inspecting the miraculous.

"Maybe Hawkmoth fixed it? He did have the Master Fu's tablet for a while..." Tikki reasoned out.

Since she basically stole the miraculous from Hawkmoth. She couldn't believe what was happening. One moment, she was alone fighting a magical terrorist that has two miraculouses that transforms themselves as Shadowmoth. Then suddenly, here she was, it was supposedly a stake-out only! Not a stealing stake-out! But... finders keeper, losers weepers!

Marinette sighed before attaching the brooch to her shirt and hoped for the best. the brooch changed into its new camouflage design, it was now rose gold in colour, from the five feather segments when it is charged to eight with pale pink crystals on the top of each segment, there was no design in the middle, leaving the brooch in a simple yet elegant look.

A dark blue ball of light popped out and swirled around her, after the light vanished a peacock-looking kwami appeared.

"Oooh! Hello! Huh?! Why do you have the other kwamis?! Who are you?!"

Some of the kwamis laughed at the new kwami's energetic personality, while Tikki and especially Plagg grumbled about how to keep the kwami in one place.

"Hello, Duusu," Marinette said then smiled at the confused kwami.

"I'm your Guardian, I have retrieved you from Shadowmoth's possession. I am sorry that I didn't get to retrieve Nooroo as well..." Marinette continued.

The peacock kwami gasped before nuzzling on the Guardian's cheek.

"Thank you! Oh if you could've seen him, his outfit was hideous! Poor, Nooroo! Please Guardian, save him as well!" Duusu exclaimed.

Marinette smiled, she removed the brooch to put it back in the Miracle Box. Duusu didn't get sucked into it since she had no intention to relinquish him, after placing it inside the designated area of the peacock miraculously, she opened the middle circle for the kwami once they want to return in the parallel universe inside the miracle box. She let the other kwamis talk to him, while she handles civilian duties.

She opened her website on her computer and replied to a few emails before responding to requested commissions.

Clara Nightingale is commissioning her for a set of four dresses that will be used for her brand new music video, that had a theme of stars, constellations, space etc.

It was a weird concept for her but decided to accept it, thinking it could be a challenge for her. She wrote a reply email then sent it to Clara before closing her computer and climbing up to her bed.

"I'm going to sleep, be careful okay? There's food in the other mini fridge for everyone, since someone's food is influencing the other's food." She said while giving a pointed stare at Plagg who had the audacity to look innocently at the young guardian.

"Goodnight, guys!" Marinette said in between her yawns.

A series of 'goodnights' was heard before Marinette finally drifted to sleep.

—————

"Is she asleep?"

"Yes, it's quite rare for her to catch sleep lately, I'm glad that this new change is giving her quite a good impact." Tikki said.

It was currently hard for Tikki's chosen. A Ladybug Miraculous holders are usually the leaders. Those personalities are needed to become a ladybug since they are the only ones who can purify an Akuma, cast a purifying spell, and with Tikki's creations of Lucky Charms, they needed to be a tactician and are aware of responsibilities.

She was proud of Marinette. Such a young child has a strong devotion to protecting the city while risking her life, but now the stakes are high for her. Hawkmoth is aware that the Ladybug heroine is the current Guardian of the Chinese Miracle Box.

If he manages to overthrow Ladybug he can gain access to the box, and the fact that her bug needed to repress her negative emotions down into the deepest voids of her soul after being targeted by countless akumas.

Tikki knew it was taking a toll on the young aspiring designer.

Being a superheroine that needs to battle akumas whenever and wherever is already hard enough. She needed excuses for her various disappearance every time there's an Akuma.

Having an emotional battle of trust and faiths between her and her former classmates, ever since the Liar appeared. It took everything in Tikki to not pop out of the designer's purse and chew the vixen herself.

Her series of achievements through various commissions by famous peoples in society.

And finally, this Guardianship that was handed to her during an unfortunate event. She lost her temporary heroes since their identities were exposed to Hawkmoth, the loss of her Mentor— Master Fu, and now the loss of her partner.

Tikki and even the other kwamis are curious about how she was still standing straight even though she was carrying a lot of responsibilities on her shoulders. The fate of Paris, France, the fate of the world, and the fate of everyone's reality by preventing Hawkmoth from achieving his goal, that can have a massive impact on reality due to how powerful miraculouses are.

"I am proud of your chosen, Tikki."

Wayzz said in a calm voice. "She took in the responsibility of being a heroine exchange for her time in her civilian life, and now, she chose to carry the heavy responsibility of a Guardian even though she can refuse it and pass it to someone else, leaving everything behind."

The other kwamis nodded at the wise turtle kwami's words. Tikki looked at them and smiled.

"I'm proud of my bug. She's a worthy ladybug and had shown how worthy she is despite her flaws. She made mistakes, but she chose to fix them. And now she's healing from the toxicity she had received in that place. Sleep well, Marinette..."

Chapter 4 — Moving Forward: Masterlist — Chapter 6

#miraculousladybug #marinette dupain-cheng #movingforward #AO3

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cyborg-squid · 3 years

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Kal’tsit, the Doctor, Theresa, the Lord of Fiends, and memories

Kal’tsit is so interesting and contradictory this Chapter (and Chapter 7) and I love it and it really goes to show complex her feelings are towards the Doctor and Theresa.

In Chapter 7, she whispers under her breath “If you really want us to breathe as one...” She says, to herself, that we can prove we were not the Doctor that was stuck in the past. “Why do you look in my eyes when you say that? There’s nothing to see in these eyes.” She is worried that she won’t be able to protect us. She wonders if we are worthy of protection. Even if we aren’t, she will protect us anyway.

She has high hopes for us. She hopes to see us "offer the world a chance to change, just like many kindhearted people before you did". She wonders whether or not it is too late to convince us to turn back from pursuing the truth. She thinks she should be happy at that, but she isn’t.

Her attitude, she says she will do her best to hold back.

She would settle the score with us, if she could. She would take her revenge. She will remain forever furious. She will not trust us. She will never stop hating us.

She has high hopes for us. She believes in us. She will protect us.

“If you really want us to breathe as one...” I believe this was part of the promise Kal’tsit made to Theresa, maybe it was Theresa’s dying words. To promise that Kal’tsit would not seek revenge against the Doctor for what they’d done. To not hate the Doctor, to try and find some sort of connection. But Kal’tsit can’t not hate us. We killed Theresa, after all. She was our friend too.

But Kal’tsit would protect us, and Amiya. She would, and will continue to, honor her promise. 3 years ago, she brought our body to the Chernobog Sarcophagus. Inside of it, we would be healed, we would be safe. We would be safe from harm, and the world would be safe from us, locked away as we were.

It is believed/said that Theresa was killed in an assassination attempt ordered by Theresis. And maybe that is true. But Theresis still lacks the power of the Lord of Fiends. Amiya has that power. We see, through scattered images, Amiya by Theresa’s side as she dies. Theresa looks to maybe be stabbing Amiya, and letting her blood run down the blade towards Amiya. From the Chapter 9 PV: "I will disappear in my ideals, and she... she will be the flames to burn away all the corruption." "I'll leave Amiya to you."

Perhaps the Doctor was a more direct part of it somehow, but it seems to me that either a dying Theresa, or Theresa killed herself in order to, passed her power, the power of the Lord of Fiends on to Amiya. I think then that, maybe, the Doctor took the fall for it. It is easier to believe that the Doctor of Rhodes Island, a ruthless and efficient being if there ever was one, sold out Babel and killed Theresa, rather than having Theresa’s death be by Amiya or her own hand. If that’s true, then even Kal’tsit was deceived, and you can see the Doctor being willing to bear the brunt of blame and hate, from both Kal’tsit, W, and the world, if it meant protecting Amiya. Perhaps this was one of Theresa’s wishes as well.

Amiya is a worthier successor to the title than Theresis, but it makes you wonder if this was always the intent, to pass on the power to Amiya. Or was this a plan born out of a dying Theresa’s desperation? It doesn’t feel that way to me, given how much she “leaves behind”, so to speak. Like she had somehow orchestrated or intended for things to be this way.

And we see from the epilogue of Chapter 7, that Theresis has not given up on obtaining the power of the Lord of Fiends, which he views as rightfully his as the King of Sarkaz. There is a weird box which has a Sarkaz very similar looking to Theresa in it. Maybe this was some sort of attempt to clone her or make some sort of homunculus to house the power, or maybe Kazdel recovered her body after her death. Maybe that container is another Sarcophagus! Kal’tsit said that the Chernobog one was found deep in some mountains and was believed to be ancient technology. It’s not a stretch to say that there might be others and that Theresis got his hands on one.

The memory wiping, the amnesia, of the Chernobog Sarcophagus is said to be accidental, a side effect. What intrigues me is that the Doctor is not the only one at Rhodes Island with similar memory issues. Granted, that’s hardly a unique trait in a fantasy setting like this one. We have Whisperrain, who debuted on the same banner as Rosmontis at Chapter 8′s release (which makes me think she may eventually play a bigger role), whose memory issues stem from her unique Aegierian species. We have Rosmontis, whose memory was damaged by the Infected organ transplanted into her brain cell. The aftermath of the lab she was held in are remarkably similar to what happened to the Chernobog lab and scientists. This might just be a coincidence, might just be the fate of Unethical Science Experiments, but I couldn’t help but notice the similarities. And actually branching off of that, we have Rhine Lab and Ifrit, who is mentioned as being a kind of ‘artificial’ Sarkaz, was involved in the “Flame Demon Incident”, and while her records mention her hallucinations, the After Class Homework story makes me think it’s something closer to a ‘possession’, possibly.

And here we get to the one I really want to talk about, Nightingale. A Sarkaz with memory issues. “A box of messy puzzles. The real problem is many pieces are missing.” Importantly, she is the wife tied to Shining, the Confessarius. Her memory loss is mentioned as being different from the Doctor’s, but also isn’t the result of Oripathy. “A sacrificial lamb of war.” Shining says both of them are guilty of the crime ”of starting the war, as Demons”. She has a sense of deja vu upon seeing Amiya, and wonders why the Doctor is in her memories as well. It makes sense now, given what we know about Babel’s/Rhodes Island’s involvement with the Sarkaz Civil War, and their interactions with both sides. So with her ties to Shining and her memory loss, I wonder if she could have been a sort of ‘test’ of a possible Kazdel Sarcophagus, or something similar. Maybe she was intended to be a vessel for the Lord of Fiends power, or the memories of Theresa, or something like that.

I spent like 2 hours on this and branched off a lot from what I started talking about, but I hope y’all enjoy it, take the time to read it, and use it to help with your own theories!

#Wow I actually feel like I kinda. stuck the landing on this one.#it almost makes sense throughout!#arknights #my posts #arknights meta

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pl-panda · 4 years

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To Marry a Vigilante: Part 9

MASTERLIST || First || Previous || Next

To Marry a Vigilante: Part 9

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The Gala. The Wayne Gala. The Wayne New Year’s Gala. The Wayne Gala to celebrate the New Year.

“I can’t do it!” Marinette screamed. “What if I trip and fall on Mr. Wayne and then he will break his leg!? Or what if I accidentally babble something I’m not supposed to and make it a disaster!? Or what if Lila makes a mess and I get blamed for it in front of thousands of people!?” She started breathing heavily. “Or maybe I’ll just look awkward and people decide that I’m useless and Mr. Wayne decides that I should leave Damian to spare him the embarrassment?! I can…” Tikki slapped Marinette when she didn’t respond to any of her pleas.

“Marinette! Breathe.” The Kwami instructed her.

“Sorry Tikki. I’m really nervous. I know that making the announcement today is the best option since we’re starting school soon and the news would break anyway, but it’s just so… I’m not used to all that.”

“I know Marinette. But you must accept that your beloved lives in these circles and you must respect some of the needs. He’s changing for you, but you can’t just demand he abandon his old life.”

“I know… I really want to make this work. He… I know I can trust him like nobody else. Even… even you… I love you, but you’re not…”

“Human?”

“Yes! I’m sorry Tikki. You’re still my partner and my best friend. Don’t tell that to Chloé though.”

“My lips are sealed.” The kwami giggled. “You’re my favorite chosen too, Marinette. You have the true creation inside you.”

“Thanks, Tikki.”

“Not get on and show them what you’re made of!” The little goddess cheered.

“Yes! I’m going to rock! I’m great!” The girl said confidently and put on the purple mask with golden lines.

-------

Damian waited impatiently for his beloved to come. The guests were already filling in and his father and brothers went to greet them. Tom and Sabine, dressed in their MDC original outfits, were already on the dance floor, showing everyone that they could still move even in their forties. Cass was probably somewhere with Bourgeois, stealing cookies or something. The two seemed to bond over being the third wheel and treating Sabine like their new mother.

“Wassup Dames?” A voice startled him and Damian whirled around with a punch that stopped an inch from Jon’s nose.

“Tt. Aren’t you supposed to be downstairs? With the guests?” He grumbled.

“Nah. Mom and Dad are with your dad, going over the safe questions to ask your wi…” Jon didn’t get to finish that word because Damian lunged at him and covered his mouth.

“Tt. Shut up. The last thing I need is drama caused by your big mouth.”

*muffled sounds*

“I don’t care. Mouth shut or I’ll test the new Kryptonite dusters.”

*more muffled sounds*

“I did get them. Want me to try them out right now?” Jon shook his head. “Good. We’ve got an agreement?” A nod. “Fine.” Damian let him go.

“You’re very violent, you know that?”

“Tt. Shut up.”

“I’m just saying.”

“I told you to…” Damian’s words died in his throat. Marinette entered the scene.

“Shall we?” She asked, handing him a sleek black mask with gold details. When light reflected from it, a very subtle purple gleam could be seen.

“It’s incredible, Habibti. Just like the rest of my suit.” He was dressed in a pure-black three-piece, a white shirt underneath, and had a black tie. He screamed style and power.

-------

All in all, the trip was not yet a disaster for Lila Rossi. Her lies were slowly taking root in the people around her. Like the clerk at the Hotel. Soon, she would have them all wrapped around her fingers. Only Maribrat and Chloé seemed to be completely immune to her charms. But that girl was too goody-two-shoes for her own good and Bourgeois was hated even before she started her work.

There was also that exchange student, Grayson boy… Darren, Damien, something like that. She couldn’t believe she thought that guy was Damian Wayne when he first walked into her class. She went as far as stopping Alya from being mean to him. From her research, all Waynes were kind and helpful. Damian Wayne supposedly volunteered at an animal shelter. The press described him as ‘cute in a special way.’ Blasted Waynes and their no-pictures policy. The guy in her class looked a bit similar to Bruce Wayne, at least at first glance. Then, she noticed that his skin was darker (not just solar tan), his nose was a bit different too. And his eyes were green. It was the only constant with the Waynes. They all had dark hair and blue eyes.

As such, she dismissed him as unimportant and focused on her more important goals. Making a deal with Gabriel Agreste, or rather Hawkmoth, was risky. In the end, it worked out for her in many ways. She gained a foothold from which she made her small empire. And Agreste boy was nice arm candy for a while. Until he went all psycho on Maribrat that is.

Now if she found one of the Waynes, she could start working on worming her way in. Blasted masks! They appeared too good in the media not to have a big dirty secret to exploit. Blackmail wouldn’t be new for her.

The Gala was slowly starting when all the lights turned off. Two stage flood lights focused on the stairs leading to the second floor of the manor. Two people appeared on them. First was a young man, about her age, dressed all black. He radiated money and influence and she was sure what he wore was in fact an MDC original. But he was nothing next to his companion.

Her dark-purple dress shone in the light like a thousand diamonds. It hugged her figure perfectly and while she was most likely the same age as her companion, she still looked stunning. The high collar was embroidered with a golden thread that formed intricate patterns around her slender neck. The sleeves went down to her arms where they seamlessly merged with gloves. The line was blurred by twin bracelets that each had a symbol of a bat with flowers. A nod toward the Bats of Gotham while keeping it original. From the waist down, it opened on the side, giving her the freedom to move while still keeping the near-royal appearance. With each step, it flowed slightly, revealing the golden underlining. Her legs were also covered with the same material down to ballet shoes in a deeper shade of purple finished with golden lining.

Her blue hair reached slightly beyond her shoulders and matched her eyes perfectly. All the gold and purple served to make everyone focus on her.

Lila cursed under her breath. There was no chance anyone would notice her with someone like that parading around. Something had to be done. Lila checked her own dress. It was pretty, but when compared to that, it came plain.

All her scheming came to the halt when the pair walked over to Bruce Wayne and got him to stop speaking with Gotham’s mayor. They knew him. A realization dawned on her. It was Damian Wayne and his date. They had to be. But his eyes… they were green.

“No…” escaped the Liar’s lips. The woman she was talking to noticed and followed her gaze. Some part of Lila’s brain noticed she also checked her dress and was saddened. At least her reaction was not out of place.

Bruce Wayne walked with the two back to the stairs where the stand with a microphone was prepared before the lights were turned back on. Sensing a juicy story, all the journalists and bloggers swarmed as close as possible. Some even lost their masks.

“Can I have a moment of your attention?” The billionaire asked. His eyes swept over the crowd. “Before I start, I wanted to remind you that there is a strict no-photos policy on the gala. We’ve hired a photographer with an exclusive contract and any pictures taken not by him will be considered a breach and will be met with a lawsuit.”

The murmurs broke all around the crowd. It was a known fact that taking unsolicited photos at Wayne Galas was forbidden. There was no need to remind anyone about it unless it was a really juicy piece. The last time Bruce Wayne took time to remind everyone about this was when Jason Todd turned out to be alive and well, only slightly amnesiac.

“Now. First I wanted to welcome everyone to this year’s Gala. We’re closing another year and I thank everyone for showing up to celebrate with me and my family.” He raised a small glass of champagne. “In particular, I wanted to welcome a class from Paris that is participating in the year-long exchange program funded by the Thomas Wayne Education fund. I hope you enjoyed Gotham so far.” The journalists were frantically noting everything down. Either for publishing or just to put it in tabloids with some conspiracy theories. “Now, onto the main reason for the announcement. You know I’m not good at speeches.” He grinned and the crowd exploded into laughter. “Since my son just returned from Paris, I’m well aware that this news would break anyway when he returned to school. I ask you to respect their privacy and… well, at least try not to bother them. May I introduce Damian Wayne and his girlfriend, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

Everyone started to either whisper or frantically make notes and think of questions to ask. The fact that Damian Wayne, dubbed Ice Prince of Gotham, got himself a girlfriend serious enough to be introduced to everyone was already front-page news for many of them. Even just the dress she wore was front-page news. Any journalist that dabbled in celebrity fashion would recognize an MDC original by now, at least from Jagged Stone or Clara Nightingale. The two refused to even consider anything else.

“Tt. Against my better judgment, I know that teenagers are walking gossip machines so you would all learn it the moment we entered Gotham Academy.” Damian started his speech. “As such, I want to clear any and all confusion before it can start. This,” he motioned at Marinette, “ is my girlfriend. We met in Paris and clicked immediately. I expect you to show her the same respect you show my family or I will challenge you to an honor duel.”

Damian was not even trying to hide his distaste for journalists today. He could see that Marinette was uncomfortable with this attention even more than he was. He grew up used to attention while simultaneously being taught that newspapers were at best a propaganda tool and at worst trouble to be dealt with. Obviously, he disliked them, even more, when he became Damian Wayne. Usually, he tried to remain civil to the journalists unless they were irritating. Today, he didn’t bother. Not that they didn’t know he was a private person. A certain paparazzi with a blade going through his camera would attest to that.

“Angel, do you want to answer their questions or should I?” He whispered.

“Um… shouldn’t you first tell them more?”

“No. It’s better if I only answer what they want to know.”

“Um… Maybe you start.”

“Fine.” He turned back to the microphone. “I will be taking the first question.” He pointed at Clark who had his hand in the air.

“Clark Kent, Daily Planet. Could you tell us more about how you met?”

“I joined Marinette’s class for the exchange program my Father mentioned. The only free seat was next to her, so that’s where I sat. What got my attention first was her willingness to stand up to injustice and forgive those who slighted her. She was open-minded and didn’t back down even when I was… Ehm… a bit rude.” He admitted. “I managed to ask her out and she showed me the side of Paris you don’t usually see with a tour guide. We share a passion for drawing and she shared with me her favorite place in Paris. No, I won’t reveal it. After that, my respect for her only grew when she was willing to accept an apology from a girl that bullied her in the past, helping her actually change her ways. Next question?” He pointed at a different journalist. He really hoped he picked right. The masks were making it harder than he assumed. A flaw in their plan that they overlooked.

“Vicky Vale, Gotham Gazette” The woman introduced herself and Damian resisted the urge to curse. His Father’s ex was not exactly the most favorable toward them after their breakup, even if she tried to stay professional. “What more can you tell us about the mysterious girl behind the mask? So far we know she’s from Paris and likes to draw, plus some traits.”

“May I answer this?” Mari asked Damian, thinking it was high time for her to step up and help. He nodded and stepped back so she had free access to the microphone. “Hi. I'm Marinette. Mostly, I’m just a normal girl with a normal life…” She started. What followed was quite a long introduction where she gave the press enough to satisfy them while keeping private the parts she wanted.

There were many more questions. About family, plans, dreams, etc. The young couple answered some while dismissed others as too personal and rude. Finally, after over an hour they ended the event and told those who would stay to move on with the gala while several journalists were removed. In total, ten photographic devices were confiscated and Chloé got the honors of handling everything with Tim. He was there for a technical site, she was there for intimidation.

One of the particularly irritating paparazzi tried to argue, but then Chloé started to rant until he was cowering in the corner. Pretty much everyone around them was now glaring at him with a hateful gaze. After that, they mostly behaved.

-------

“Well… that was exhausting. And it’s only ten pm?” Marinette and Damian were resting next to the snacks table. They were enjoying a moment of peace once the initial wave of well-wishers passed. Jason was keeping an eye on the class to make sure they were stopped from making anything worse for themselves and everyone else. So far they were too stunned to deal with it. He was pleased to see that Alix girl was finally doing something and pointing out many flaws in their reasoning. The problem was Lila disappeared in the crowd for the moment. Chloé was on the hunt though. She was a master of dealing with a rich crowd, probably surpassing even Drake.

“Here you are!” A voice startled the couple. Marinette and Damian turned to see a group of four people. Jon was one of them. There was also a girl with blonde hair pulled into a long braid and a boy in a blue suit with medium-long black hair and blue eyes. The fourth one made Marinette’s blood run cold. Her eyes went wide and she acted before anyone caught the wind of it. A strong straight punch sent the boy looking like Adrien flying onto the ground.

Chatter around them died in an instant. Marinette tried to lunge at him, but Jon caught her. He was probably the only one strong enough to hold her back.

“Let me go! Don’t you see he is a criminal?!” She was doing her best to get out of his grip. Damian suddenly was holding the blade to the neck of the blonde boy.

“You have five seconds to speak.”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not my moronic cousin. Would you please let go of me?” He asked with a thick British accent.

“Tt. Prove it.” Damian scoffed.

“Ugh. I’m really tired of dealing with everyone taking me for a criminal just because I look like him. Ask my mother!”

Indeed, a blonde woman in a gray dress was making her way through the crowd. “Felix sweetie!?” She kneeled next to him while glaring daggers at Damian and Marinette. Reluctantly, he took away the sword but didn’t put it away. Dick and Tim also arrived.

“What happened?”

“That twit attacked my Felix!”

“Tt. He shows up and looks just like a known criminal. You should’ve really chosen something other than a black mask and a black suit.” Damian frowned. He didn’t exactly feel bad about the incident, but the press would jump on that.

“It’s alright mum. I admit I’m partially at fault. I forgot the reaction Parisians have to me right now.” He bowed his head. “Please accept my apologies.” His lower lip was bleeding.

“Um… here. Let me help you.” Marinette pulled a tissue from her pocket (of course her dress had pockets) and handed it to him. Nodding, he wiped the blood.

“Tt. I’m still not convinced.”

“Damian! That’s rude. I remember Felix. He was in Paris once.” Then, she mumbled under her breath. “Caused a triple akumatization.”

“I am sorry for that…”

“Felix joined our class this year. You left the day before he came.” The blonde girl explained.

“It was all just one big misunderstanding folks. You can move on.” Dick took control of the crowd and allowed the teens some breathing space. Except that’s when the class finally decided to start speaking up.

“Yeah right! Marinette is just a big bully! I’m in her class and she was mean to Lila from the beginning. I wouldn’t be surprised if she dated Damian Wayne just for money.” Alya had to babble. The rest of the class (minus Alix) was either nodding or giving their own confessions, real or not, and always against Marinette.

So far the Waynes avoided any accusations about gold-digging. The one journalist that tried to pick up the subject (subtly at first) was silenced by Damian’s evil eye. Now more people murmured. And the number of people able to respond was greatly limited as Damian, Chloé, Jason, and Sabine had to be restrained from hurting people.

To everyone’s surprise, it was Cass who jumped on the table.

“Shut…! Up!” She shouted. Or what stood for her shouting, which was only slightly louder than normal people’s speech. Still, it got everyone’s attention. “Cousin Nettie is… kind. Good. Sel… Selfless. She is my family. Not… digger.” She glared at several people that were still muttering. “Saw her… date with Damian. She did not let him pay. Not digger!” There was a dangerous edge in her voice. That was enough to shut people up. Except for the class.

“Of course you would protect her!” Kim stared at her. “You’re probably…” He didn’t finish because Alix covered his mouth. The girl noticed that Bruce, who was restraining Jason Todd was about to let go. She wasn’t sure exactly what would happen, but she wasn’t willing to find out.

“I think it’s time for you to leave. Where is your teacher/chaperone?” Bruce asked, also glaring at them.

“Um… Madame Bustier is…”

“Madame Cheng is right there!” Mylene pointed to where Tom was doing his best to stop his wife from grabbing the Bag and cutting the class into tiny pieces.

“I… I don’t think it would be healthy for us to go with her right now. She is very emotional right now.” Alix offered. She was trying to act like the voice of reason. Something this class lacked.

The teacher was quickly located flirting with one of the musicians invited to the gala. She was completely unaware of what her charges did.

“I’m sure it was just some misunderstanding. Marinette indeed started acting out a bit this year. They probably overexaggerated a bit.”

“Tt. You mean she stopped being a doormat?” Damian huffed.

“As I said, it’s time for the kids to leave,” Bruce said in a harsh tone.

“Oh… Okay. I’m sure Sab…”

“Caline. You’re the one responsible for taking care of them. You’ll take them away when Mr. Wayne asks.” Tom then pointed at his wife, who he was holding a few inches above the ground to keep her from doing something stupid.

“Um… Of course.” The teacher sighed. “Kids. Gather your things. We must leave.”

As they were walking out, people applauded. After Alfred closed the doors behind them it was finally safe to let the more violent part of the family free. In all that mess, nobody noticed that a certain sausage-haired girl was not with them

“Now, Wayne.” The blonde started. “Want to explain why we had to learn about you having a girlfriend from a press conference?”

“Or why did Jon know her before us?” The boy added.

“I would also appreciate hearing how my bloody cousin earned your ire,” Felix added.

“Oh! Sorry.” The girl turned to Marinette. “I’m Allegra and this is Claude. You already know Jon and Felix. We’re Damian’s friends. Or the closest thing he had to such.”

“Tt. I don’t have friends.”

“Bro. Not cool.” Claude argued.

“Shut up. Claudius.” he huffed.

“You wound me.” The teen gasped and put a hand on his chest. “Dami.”

Felix and Marinette watched from the sidelines how the quartet bickered. Jon tried to help Damian sort things out.

“For what it’s worth, I am sorry,” Felix said after a moment of silence. “My cousin is a daft git.”

“That we can agree on,” Mari said absentmindedly while trying to keep the eye on Damian. She hoped he didn’t bring the kryptonite dusters tonight.

-------------

Masterlist // Next

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chenvs3000 · 3 years

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The Periodic Table of Elements and Whales.

I once remembered the entire periodic table of elements because of the “Periodic Table Song” song on YouTube posted by asapScience... if you know you know. In grade 11 my chemistry teacher (Mr. Blackmore) had an end-of the year competition where the student who could remember the most elements from the periodic table won a box of Timbits... safe to say I memorized the song and I won. Mr. Blackmore and Mrs. Hargrove were my two science teachers in high school and they are probably the two most influential teachers I have ever had, especially in respect to my academic path in life. Mrs. Hargrove wrote her own songs to help us remember the Kreb’s cycle – which is quite literally awful to learn about and memorize. I have always used acronyms, mnemonics, and acoustics to help me remember information. Both these teachers used these tools to help teach lessons. But of course, not everyone learns the same so maybe I have more aural learning style. Musical learning style, also known as the aural (auditory-musical-rhythmic), is one of Howard Gardner's eight types of intelligence defined in his theory of Multiple Intelligences. Songs are a great way to make words and facts stick in people's brains. Songs can be extremely catchy, and I’m sure you’ve asked yourself how you can remember every word to the That’s So Raven theme song (or whatever your favourite TV show was as a kid), but you can’t remember half the details we learned about in first year physics even though we were tested on them. Songs can be catchy and make us remember the lyrics long after the performance is over.

Capture from the visuals used in asapScience’s Periodic Table Song, available here on YouTube.

Tilden's 4th principle of interpretation states that “the chief aim of interpretation is not instruction, but provocation”. It can be difficult to spread a message about a boring topic, or something the majority of society seems not to care about. More, maybe the content itself isn’t uninteresting, but you just really want to get a key point across. Provocation is an approach use to invoke certain emotions or reactions, and can capture your audience’s attention. Music plays a larger role in nature interpretation other than just providing a catchy sequence of words for us to remember. It promotes a response because it – on some basic human level – connects to our emotions. We can’t touch or hear sounds like we can a tree or a rock – but we can feel it. The emotions tied to music are what make it a powerful tool. Don’t believe me? The whales basically saved themselves by singing.

In the mid-20th century, whalers were causing whale populations to dwindle – killing more than 50,000 a year. But in the 1960’s, underwater equipment recorded a sound that had never been heard before – whale songs. These songs changed and had distinguishable themes and emotions that changed over time. Robert Payne, one of the early scientists who helped share this discovery said; "These sounds are, with no exception that I can think of, the most evocative, most beautiful sounds made by any animal on Earth,". Any repeating sound is technically part of a composed song. Crickets and birds use songs, but the songs sung by whales are arguably the most complex and emotional songs sung by any animal on earth.

"Do you make cat food out of composer-poets? I think that's a crime." - Robert Payne, biologist/cetologist

Robert Payne gave one of the whale recordings to Judy Collins. I know her best from the famously North American song “This Land is Your Land” (which in and of itself is a perfect example of how music can capture the essence and history of a place and era all at once – but that’s a blog post for another time. This song takes me right back to bonfire at my cottage and nights at summer camp). "It was very emotional," she says. "Angst for being a human being on a planet where they also live. Guilt for doing what we do to them. And that they're so smart and they have been here so long, and they certainly might have some insights about what we could do to live a better way.” In the following decade, she included a song called "Farewell to Tarwathie" on her 1970 album Whales and Nightingales. This song is an adaptation of a traditional whale song and it actually features whales singing throughout the song! The record was a hit and introduced millions of people to the songs sung by humpback whales. In the same year she released her album, Capitol Records released Payne's recording of humpback whale songs, which is still the best-selling natural sounds album to date. Songs like Judy Collins’ "Farewell to Tarwathie", and the songs sung by the whales themselves, show that there is both music in nature and nature in music. And the best part – the campaign using the whale songs worked so well that only 5 countries still hunt whales today.

"It certainly was a huge factor in convincing us that the whales were an intelligent species here on planet Earth and actually made music, made art, created an aesthetic." - Former Greenpeace director Rex Weyler

Sources:

Beck, L., Cable, T., & Knudson, D. (2018). Interpreting cultural and natural heritage for a better world. Sagamore-Venture Publishing.

Hooykaas, A. (2021). Unit 7: Nature Interpretation Through Music. In Lecture Notes. University of Guelph. https://courselink.uoguelph.ca/d2l/le/content/666945/viewContent/2593375/View

May, M. (2014). Recordings That Made Waves: The Songs That Saved The Whales. National Public Radio. https://www.npr.org/2014/12/26/373303726/recordings-that-made-waves-the-songs-that-saved-the-whales

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idontknowwhatsarcasmis · 4 years

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Old Acquaintances Made Anew

A Morriana fanfic

Hellooooo!! And I’m back in the DA fandom! Hope you’re all keeping safe and reading and writing loads in this quarantine! Stay at home guys! ^^

I started writing this story… sooo many years ago I don’t even remember! Anyways, I know this has been written many many times, buut I wanted to present my take on these two lovely ladies meeting in Halamshiral. I do hope you guys like it, cause I am really proud of it and had quite a bit of fun writing it!

Also, I have already started a second chapter, on Morrigan’s POV back in Skyhold after this, but wanted to see if you guys liked the idea first!

So, do let me know yeah?

As aaaaaalways, thank you brother for beta-reading it ^^

Enjoy!

Ao3

Ff.net

Xxxx

“A distraction would help.” Ellana said, biting her lower lip.

“What kind of distraction? There are plenty of them around here.” Cullen said, looking around in displeasure.

Leliana held back a smile at that, and saw both Ellana and Josie doing the same. The Inquisitor shook her head however.

“No, no. It needs to be something bigger. That’d draw most people’s attention.” She paused and looked at her other two advisors to see if they had any ideas.

Leliana started considering what she could let slip to whom that might entice a duel, but didn’t manage to get far before she was interrupted.

“Oh!” Josie suddenly said. “I think I know what can happen.” She seemed excited (and… scared?) as she looked at Leliana.

Leliana narrowed her eyes slightly.

“Yes?”

“Well, it would positively draw everyone’s attention, and might even leave them quite a bit distracted afterwards.” She said, looking away while biting her lip.

“Josie…” Leliana’s voice was a warning.

“I’m listening.” Ellana said.

“Well,” Josie started, slow at first but gaining traction as she spoke. “As we’ve told you, Your Worship, everyone was staring at you and Lady Florienne while the two of you danced. Another high member of the Orlesian society and a high member of the Inquisition dancing once more might do the same.” She completed, almost casually. So casually, that it made Leliana freeze in place.

She couldn’t possibly mean-

“That’s an excellent idea, Josephine!” Ellana exclaimed excitedly, looking around the room, as if trying to find who could be the centre of attention. “Did you have anyone in mind? I think the only people here that know how to dance properly would be Vivienne, Cass and Dorian, aside from the three of you. Vivienne would not be a novelty really. And I was thinking of taking the other two with me… besides, I think either might do more harm than good down there.” She said with a small frown on her face, likely imagining Cassandra or Dorian insulting someone beyond repair while sharing a dance.

Which, Leliana mused, was very probable.

Still, she was quite sure that they were not who Josephine had in mind.

“Actually, Inquisitor. I did have two people in mind.” The ambassador started and paused to bit her lower lip, eyes darting quickly between Leliana and the Inquisitor.

“Oh?” She asked, eyes also finding Leliana. Less subtly.

“Speak your mind, Josie.” Leliana said. She had a good idea of whom Josephine wanted her to dance with. As much as she loathed to admit, the idea actually did have merit. Getting it to work would be another matter entirely, however.

Then again, 10 years was a long time…

“Well, it so happens that we have two veterans of the Fifth Blight here tonight. One of our own, and one of the Orlesian society.

Ellena looked confused as understanding dawned on Cullen’s face, his eyes now also focused on Leliana.

“Two?”

“I’ve told you I’d had dealings with her on the past, Inquisitor.” Leliana said, barely moving her lips.

“Deal with wh-Morrigan?!” She exclaimed a bit too loudly, and flinched at the look Leliana and Josie gave her. “Sorry. Morrigan? You know Morrigan from the Blight?” She asked in a hushed, excited whisper.

“Yes, we were both companions of the Hero of Ferelden. We fought side by side for many months.” Leliana said, her voice as if of its own accord taking a story telling intonation as she scanned the room, looking for red velvet.

As she focused back on Lavellan, however, she couldn’t suppress a small smile. The Inquisitor was always very excited to hear more about her time with Mahariel.. Lavellan probably heard a lot about her before in her clan, but it was different to have a first-hand account. It was not often, Leliana thought, that a Dalish elf was at the centre of history. Well, at the positive centre of history.

“You did?” Ellana looked like she was about to ask more when Josie cleared her throat, looking at her pointedly. “I-I mean, that is wonderful, though! Surely a dance between you two would draw everyone’s attention! I mean, I wish I could see it…” She mumbled the last part, and the three advisors smiled softly at her.

“While a good idea in theory, I am unsure if it’ll work in practice. Morrigan and I haven’t spoken since the Archdemon was slain. Even then, we never talked much. She… was rather reclusive. Mahariel was the only one she would actively speak with.” Leliana said, eyes once again sweeping the room in search for the witch. “Also, as far as I know, she never cared for dancing, either.”

Josephine tsked at that.

“Really Leliana, that was years ago. She’s been at court long enough to have picked up some steps. Celene would not suffer any member of her court to not know the basics, at least!” Josephine said ,and Leliana conceded her point. “Besides, as you said, you haven’t seen each other for a decade! I doubt Morrigan would not want to catch up.”

Leliana raised an eyebrow at that, face blank.

“W-well, she wouldn’t dare reject the Seneschal of the Inquisition in front of all these people? We are honoured guests!” She tried again.

Leliana maintained her expression. The Morrigan she remembered would have no qualms whatsoever about doing exactly that.

Josephine was suddenly looking very uncertain, and was about to say something when Ellana interceded.

“Well, I think she might surprise you, Leliana! When I talked to her before she seemed perfectly polite. Celene will likely be watching you two, so she won’t have to be concerned about any murder attempts during the dance, and I really need this distraction. I might be gone longer than before this time.” she said with a small, hopeful smile, and Leliana felt her icy heart melt a little. Ellana reminded her so much of Mahariel sometimes.

She so missed her dear friend.

Rolling her eyes, Leliana let out a small sigh.

“Well, time is of the essence, no?” She said, glaringat the whoop and smiles she received from her companions. “Wait for her to take my hand, if she does, before vanishing. You two” she said to Josephine and Cullen, “go to different corners of the room and look pointedly at the dancing floor once I, hopefully, get there. We want to attract as many people as possible. Ask one of the servants to spread word.” Leliana instructed as she started to push and pull at her uniform, trying to make it look more proper.

Stupid, ridiculous uniforms. Presenting a united front was one thing. Wearing this? It was an outrage. It’d help her play her part when asking Morrigan for a dance, however, so at least that.

The others nodded in agreemnt, and Cullen and Lavellan moved away to play their parts. Josephine, however, stayed behind. Leliana raised an eyebrow.

“Are you alright?” She asked, barely moving her lips.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Leliana felt her brow furrowing.

“Well, you seem nervous.”

“I…” Sometimes she forgot that Josephine knew her from before she had been the Left Hand. “It’s nothing, Josie, don’t worry. Go, time is of the essence.” She said, with a small smile. With a quick squeeze of her hand, Josephine motioned to the main balcony with her chin, before she made her way across the ballroom to the opposite side.

Slowly, Leliana looked to where Josephine had pointed. Right there, by the Empress’ side.

Leliana closed her hand into a fist. Was she nervous? Why, by Andraste’s name, was she nervous?

Visions of lingering glances flashed before her eyes. Words that were, day by day, week by week, less and less cutting and more and more teasing. Fond.

Taking a fortifying breath, Leliana minutely shook her head to focus, and started walking towards her target. She made sure her steps seemed casual, but wide enough to draw attention at the same time. People needed to be watching her as she approached the other woman.

When she was but a few steps away, Leliana finally was able to actually admire the ensemble Morrigan was wearing. The sight almost made her step falter. Red velvet. Gold details. Low on the front. Another vision entered her mind, one that almost made her skip a step. Maker’s breath. What was Morrigan playing at?

Another step made her come close enough to the Empress and her advisor to call the attention of those nearby. As the two women turned to look at her, something flashed in Morrigan’s eyes.

Time for a trip down memory lane.

“Your Majesty, my Lady.” She said in a clear and (appropriately) loud voice, taking a deep bow.

“Sister Nightingale!” Celene exclaimed, nodding her head and giving her a large and warm smile. Out of the corner of her eyes, Leliana saw Morrigan giving her a small courtesy, and her lips twitched upwards. “What a pleasure to have you at court once more. It has been quite a while.”

Leliana allowed her smile to become larger.

“Too long, your Majesty. I’m afraid my duties have kept me away for longer than I wished.” She said, making sure her voice sounded just the right amount of sad, as if she were trying to hide it.

“’Tis all for a good cause, I hear. With your Inquisition, now.”

The voice washed over her like the first ray of sunshine on a cold winter’s day. An inexplicable tingling sensation spread from the tip of her fingers to the other.

All of which Leliana promptly ignored.

Morrigan’s voice hadn’t changed much. The same tilt. The same way of saying ‘tis’. The same tone that tried to impress on you that she knew much more than what she was actually saying. Leliana felt her smile become that bit more genuine as she directed her gaze to her old companion.

“Indeed. Being the seneschal to the Inquisition is a very busy job, but one I take to proudly.” Leliana said.

“I’m sure.”

Their eyes lingered on one another, but Leliana could not for the life of her figure out what was on the witch’s mind.

“Oh, allow me to introduce you-” Celene started, only to be interrupted by Morrigan.

“There is no need, Your Majesty. Sister Nightingale and I have known each other for many, many years.” Morrigan’s voice carried like velvet around Leliana, just like it had all those years ago. Her tone as she said her title, though, made Leliana want to wipe that smirk off her face.

Leliana could feel more and more eyes being drawn to them as the witch took a small step closer in her direction.“Indeed, your Majesty. There was a time when we travelled together. When we fought side by side with the Hero of Ferelden to defeat the Blight.” Leliana said, letting her old bard training take over as she turned to look back at the Empress. “Alas, circumstances made it so that our paths were separated shortly after we emerged victorious. Your magnificent ball, however, has presented me with an opportunity I have long since waited for.” Leliana let a happy and grateful smile grace her lips as Morrigan’s eyes almost imperceptibly narrowed.

“I’m very happy to hear that, sister. What opportunity have I unwittingly given you?” Celene asked.

“To make an old acquaintance anew. If you’d allow me, Your Majesty, I’d beg you to let me take your advisor from your side for one dance. It has been many years, and I find myself wanting to not let this opportunity go to waste. You’ll be able to keep your eyes on her all the time, of course..”

The fact that that line did not taste at all like a lie on her tongue was something that Leliana would stash away for later analysis.

Celene laughed, delighted. “Oh, but I would love to see such an event! As much as I’ve been trying to impart on Morrigan the importance of enjoying oneself on the dance floor, I have yet to succeed. Perhaps you’ll fare better than I did.” With that, their whole entourage focused on Morrigan, whose eyes had not left Leliana and were by now more perceptively narrowed. To her surprise, however, Leliana did not see anger there. What she saw exactly, she wasn’t sure, but it wasn’t anger. Nor disgust.

Clearing her throat for effect, Leliana extended her hand and gave a bow, eyes never leaving the witch’s.

“Well then, will you do me the honour of this dance, Lady Morrigan?”

Leliana more felt than saw that most of the eyes in the ballroom were on her hand at the moment. If this was a few years ago, she’d be exhilarated… as it was, she was rather glad for the gloves on her hand that’d certainly prevent Morrigan (should she actually take her hand) from feeling just how nervous she really was.

Which was ridiculous. 10 years. She was hardly the same ‘girl’ she’d been last time they’d seen each other. And yet here she was, as enticed as she had been back then with the mysterious Witch of the Wilds. As nervous as she’d been the first time they’d been left alone at camp. The first time Leliana realised that she had developed quite the crush on the younger woman.

But it had been 10 years. Lingering looks and teasing words had long since been lost to time. It was ridiculous to still be feeling this way.

“Well,” Morrigan smiled. A small smile, for sure, but clear for everyone to see, and if Leliana was not very much mistaken (or counting too much on wishful thinking), quite the genuine one. “If I must.” She said in her usual brusque manner, making all those around them chuckle and Leliana’s smile reach her eyes. As their hands touched and Leliana straightened, her heart did double time, and she had to fight to keep a blush from rising to her face.

“Shall we, then?”

“I did just accept, did I not?”

“Indeed, you did.” Morrigan did. Which in and off itself was sign enough that Leliana was far too out of her game and need to get back to it

“Well, by your leave then, Your Majesty.” Morrigan said, exaggerating on her excitement for appearances’ sake, taking back control over her emotions.

“Oh yes, this is delightful! Go ahead!” The monarch clapped her hands, drawing even more attention as she went towards the balustrade to look down at the dance floor.

Taking a small, fortifying breath, Leliana started making their way down the stairs, Morrigan’s fingers gently clasped on her own.

Soon after they took the first few steps, Morrigan broke their silence. Morrigan did. Which in and off itself was sign enough that Leliana was far too out of her game and need to get back to it

“So, I assume you’ll be the one leading?”

Leliana almost laughed at that, but stopped herself just in time, letting only a smirk spread on her face.

“Well, I was planning to. If that’s agreeable to you, my lady?” She asked casually.

“Stop that.”

“Stop what?”

She could just feel her rolling her eyes at that, even if Morrigan had apparently learned to keep herself from actually going through with the motions in open view.

“The whole point of going to the damned dancefloor, aside from drawing attention to us, is that so no one can hear us. Stop the court talk.”

Leliana did laugh then.

By now they had reached the centre of the dancing floor, and Morrigan stopped right in front of her.

“How should I talk then?”

“We’re in a ball in Halamshiral! How many times have I heard you screeching about these situations?”

Leliana chuckled at that as she placed her free hand on Morrigan’s waist, the other grasping Morrigan’s more firmly.

“You want me to screech?”

“Of course not! But it is unusual to see you not making a single comment about everyone else’s clothes.”Morrigan said, placing her hand on Leliana’s shoulder, closer to her neck than one normally would.

Leliana masked her dry swallowing by giving the witch in front of her a once over, a playful smile coming up on her lips.

“I could start that right now with your dress, if you’d like.”

“Never mind then.” Was her immediate answer, though Leliana felt Morrigan relaxing at that. Humming satisfied, she let herself join in her calm as they started the first slow, easy steps of the song.

“’I’d sooner let Alistair dress me’, I believe were your actual words.” She laughed as she picked up their pace slightly.

“I really didn’t mean what I said before. Go back to being your weird formal self.” Morrigan quipped, making sure to place a scowl on her face. She couldn’t fool Leliana though; she’d been on the receiving end of her real scowls far too many times to not be able to recognize them.

“I did describe these exact details for your clothes, no? 10 years ago! Did you keep me in mind during all these years? Did you miss me that much as well, my dear Lady Morrigan?” She wasn’t even trying to mask the tone of her voice, and barely even realized what she’d let slip.

Despite what Leliana had told the Inquisitor earlier about masks and playing a part, she’d been right; Leliana had felt more like herself here than she had in years, and even more now, with Morrigan in her hands.

It couldn’t be helped, she supposed; she brought her memories from other times… happier ones, perhaps, even with the Blight. That year travelling with the wardens and their merry little band had been the best year of her life.

“Blast and damnation, Leliana. Go back to making small talk. ‘Tis a better use of your time and mine.”

Leliana openly laughed at that, heart beating as fast as it ever had, throwing Morrigan on a little spin before bringing her back.

“That’s the first time you’ve said my name to me. Ever, I think…”

If Leliana wasn’t paying so much attention to their steps, they’d be both on the floor then and there. As it were, she managed to plunge them in the classic and very dramatic swing dip. By the gasps and coos from all around them, she had managed to do so successfully, and they had indeed managed to gather quite a lot of attention.

“Careful now, Morrigan. We wouldn’t want you to crease your pretty dress, yes?” She asked, and there it was; that famous glare that she so fondly remembered. Though it did lack the actual ill intentions behind it.

A very hard pinch on her neck made her quickly pull Morrigan out of the dip. She picked up the pace, making Morrigan work to keep up as she went for some of the more daring manoeuvres.

“I’m surprised that all your time away from the court didn’t make you lose your touch at dancing, Sister Nightingale.”

“I’m surprised you’ve acquired such skills at all, Arcane Advisor.”

She was sure Morrigan would have shrugged had they been doing anything else.

“One does what one must to survive.”

“Indeed.”

Their words went silent for a few seconds as they spun faster and faster around the dance, the only sound coming from their mouths being a slight panting.

“How’s Kieran?”

Something fiercely protective flashed through Morrigan’s eyes at that.

“I hope he adapted well to the court?” She continued quickly, watching as Morrigan relaxed once more.

“Yes, though he did prefer to have a wee bit more freedom. ‘Tis fine though, he’s doing well.” She said softly as Leliana spun her. Morrigan didn’t need to ask her how she knew of her child. She certainly assumed that Mahariel had told her, and that the name had been learned by spies. Which was true.

“Anything on Mahariel?” Morrigan asked, as if reading her mind (she used to be quite good at that).

“Not for a few months now. You?”

“Not for a few years.”

As the song drew to a close, Leliana smirked once more.

“You ready for the grand finale?”

Morrigan’s eyes narrowed at her.

“What are you planning, bard?

Instead of answering, Leliana quickened up her pace, twirling Morrigan under her arm, spinning her away and then back in to finish with a low and daring dip, following after her so close that their faces were just a scant inch apart, right as the song finished and a truly thunderous applause started.

“Now, that wasn’t too bad, yes?”

“I hate you, bard.”

“Not yet, you don’t.”

“Wh-“

Before Morrigan could finish her phrase, Leliana, in a show of courage and impulse that she could simply not explain, closed even more the distance between their faces and pressed a very deliberate kiss on the other woman’s cheek, right in the corner of her lips.

Not wanting to give her a chance to recover and kill her on the spot, Leliana pulled them back to their standing position, taking one step back for a small bow. Morrigan automatically answered, before lightly, very lightly, taking back her hand and directing them to the stairs, under the sounds of animated and awed conversation. On any other circumstance, Leliana might have allowed herself to be quite proud.

As it was… well.

The silence remained between them until they were halfway through the stairs, and Leliana had started to seriously doubt herself. Her hands, which had begun to dry, were going back to being quite clammy.

“You’re ridiculous, Leliana.”

The spymaster could have laughed with relief at that.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, my dear Morrigan!” She said, smirking as she saw the other woman actually rolling her eyes. “Also, second time.”

Her hand being crushed was quite worth the exhilarating feeling she was experiencing at the moment. It had been far too long since she’d felt this alive.

As they reached the top of the stairs, they made a show of bowing and speaking rather loudly.

“Thank you for gracing me with your company for this dance and for the riveting conversation, Lady Morrigan. It was indeed a pleasure to make your acquaintance once more.” Leliana said, daring to bring the other woman’s hand to her lips for a brief kiss, barely touching her skin.

Morrigan’s eyes rolled again, a cross between an amused smile and a scowl on her face.

“The pleasure was all mine, Seneschal. It was good to converse with you once more. ‘Twas good fortune that fate brought us together once more.”

“May it not be the last time, my Lady.”

With a small smile for an answer, both of them turned away at the same time. But before Leliana could take more than one step, the witch spoke once more.

“I did, you know?”

Leliana stopped, turning around only partially. Morrigan was looking at Celene.

“Pardon?”

“Miss you too.”

Leliana froze, mind completely blank as she watched the witch make her way back to the empress.

She didn’t know how long she stood there, half hidden by the column behind her, rethinking everything that had been said on the dance floor.

Before long, what felt like a distant voice brought her out of her own mind.

A very, very excited voice.

“Leliana, that was amazing!” Josie somehow managed to sneak up behind her, Cullen right by her side. “Every single eye on this palace was on you! People actually rushed from other rooms for this!”

“They really did. Some of the guards even left their posts for it.” Cullen said, a small smile on his face.

Well, Leliana supposed, still utterly distracted, mission accomplished.

Now what?

Xxxx

Mission accomplished on all accounts, apparently. Lavellan had performed admirably, and pulled off something Leliana was not sure could ever actually happen. Brialla and Celene governing together was quite something. She allowed herself a small smile; Mahariel would have been proud.

She sighed as she overlooked the gardens, allowing herself to relax a little. Everyone was actually enjoying themselves on the ballroom now since all the mess was done with.

Light steps sounded behind her, but just a she began to tense up, she felt it. The smell of magic. Of wood, fire and wilderness that seemed to still be with her even after all these years away.

Morrigan.

Her heartbeat doubled again, but instead of nervousness, she felt light. Relaxed, even. Happy that she’d been reached out to.

“And here we are once more. Following a Dalish elf in events that shall change and shape the world.” Morrigan said.

“We also have a qunari, a dwarf, another elf, and a warden.” Leliana let an amused smile play on her lips as she leaned her hip against the balustrade, half turning to face Morrigan as the witch came to stand by her side. Rather closer than necessary, but Leliana would certainly not complain.

Morrigan raised an eyebrow. “And from what I heard, you also have an older mage that thinks she knows better than everyone else.”

Leliana let out a short laugh at that.

“We have you for that, my dear Lady Morrigan.”

Leliana was sure that the glare she received would have sent many running for their lives. Not her though.

Morrigan scoffed at her lack of response.

“I don’t think I know better than everyone else, bard. I know I do.” She said simply, and Leliana rolled her eyes.

“Of course.”

The two paused, looking out of the palace, to the far distance.

“And I’m not old.”

Leliana laughed at that, turning to look at Morrigan from head to toe, in a very deliberate way. The same way she had 10 years ago, which had almost earned her a fireball to the face for her trouble. Now, though, the only heated response seemed to be on the witch’s cheeks.

Was that a blush?

Leliana smirked, but said nothing.

“What?” Came, predictably, the cutting question.

“No, not old indeed.” She said lightly. “The years have served you well.”

“Stop your games, Leliana.” Morrigan said, rolling her eyes. Leliana allowed her smile to become truly open and genuine at that, wanting to hide nothing at the moment.

“It is no game, Morrigan. Also, third time.”

Blush still in place, Morrigan turned to face her.

“Are you gonna keep count now?”

“Is it going to become a common enough occurrence for me to not have to?”

The question was not only about the name and they both knew it. Is this where they’d part ways once more? Or would they fight together again, side by side?

“Perhaps it shouldn’t. Maybe I’ll return to calling you bard. Or Sister Nightingale. Seneschal, even.”

Leliana felt a happiness she hadn’t felt for a long time settling deep inside of her.

Side by side it was.

She took a small step closer to Morrigan, their knuckles now brushing.

“I’ll stop counting, if you promise to keep saying it, Morrigan.” She said in a whisper, a little tremble in her voice at the boldness of her request.

Morrigan stopped for a few seconds, just looking at her. A look with so much feeling behind it that it reminded Leliana of how Morrigan had looked at her right before the fight against the Archdemon.

Without realising what she was doing, Leliana grasped Morrigan’s wrist as if to stop her from leaving again.

Once more, it seemed as though Morrigan had been reading her mind, because instead of recoiling as Leliana was expecting, Morrigan simply covered her hand with her own.

“Good. Seeing as I’m to live in Skyhold for the foreseeable future, it’d get tiring quite quickly.” She said, her dry tone failing to mask the fondness in her voice.

With a light squeeze on her hand (so light that Leliana thought she might have imagined it), Morrigan turned around and walked back towards the door, back to the party and to Celene’s side. Just before the witch crossed the threshold, Leliana recovered her senses, ignoring the blush on her own cheeks.

“I’m looking forward to working with you once more, Morrigan.”

The witch stopped.

“So am I. I guess wonders never cease.” She turned to meet Leliana’s eyes for one last time that night “Good night, Leliana.”

And with that, she was gone.

“Good night, Morrigan.” Leliana muttered to the empty balcony.

She turned to look over the gardens once more.

Morrigan had awoken something in her today, and she had no idea how the witch would feature in her day to day routine and responsibilities back home. This whole night had been almost an out of body experience for her; As if she was ten years younger again, flirting with danger, politics, lies, deceit, and with a wild apostate. And she’d loved it.

But tomorrow, they were to head back to the Inquisition. To Skyhold, where she was not a seneschal, but the spymaster. Where her responsibilities had weight, where her actions counted to their minimal details.

It had been a dream… a wonderful dream (full of murder, treachery and lies, but such was their life, and such was where she thrived in), but it had come to an end. Tomorrow, things would be back to normal.

Supposedly.

Leliana sighed.

What had she gotten herself into.

#morriana #dragon age inquisition #dai #leliana #morrigan #leliana x morrigan #morrigan x leliana #da fanfic #dai fanfic #fanfic #I love these two

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advernia · 4 years

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of cats, jade, honey, nightingales, and spilled ink — — a compiled assortment of ikerev drabbles i’ve managed to spit out last week during break hours - they're spoiler free + scenes with vague contexts because that's all i can manage to write recently lmao _(:3 」∠)_

stray cat conjuration theory || loki & alice prompt: rain, rain, rain // shady stuff under an open umbrella

her umbrella is a shade of red.

it's shade because you see, it’s hard to be too sure considering the conditions: the umbrella’s cloth is soaked through and through due to its heroic sacrifice of shielding two people from a sudden torrential rain, the sky above them is covered by a thick spread of dark grays and obscure blacks so there’s little to no lighting that equals to harder visibility, then there’s the overgrown trees with their -

- ki, are you listening?

… hmm?

he turns his head - it’s a slow twist of his neck from up, down, then a tilt to his left with a little push forwards; perhaps painfully deliberate - and voila, there she is in all her glory; a face he was getting fond of filling his vision: wide eyes framed by dainty eyelashes, a small nose resembling what a fine-made porcelain doll might have, round lips without a single trace of rogue yet have the natural color of an enticing peach, and… oh -

alice, he says almost in sing-song, your cheeks are red. like apples! are you okay?

the umbrella skews a bit to the right as she shrinks back, grip on the handle tightening - a bit of his arm is left exposed and attacked mercilessly by the rain, dry turning damp in seconds: it’s cold and frankly annoying against his skin, but there’s a quick solution to that, and that is -

w…w-wha… hey, loki?

yes, alice?

uh… do you mind moving back? a little bit? please?

aww, but my shoulder’s gonna get wet!

oh… i wouldn’t want that either, but… don’t you think you’re standing a bit too -

- a bit too what?

a step closer has their shoulders brushing up against each other and his face just a handspan away from hers, and he takes this opportunity to peer much closer at her eyes, and he sees that her irises are a brilliant shade of -

i… i-if you move any closer, i’ll leave you here to get drenched!

a pause. brisk raindrops hitting the umbrella fill it in, dull sounds of tap tap tap tap tap, then -

he breaks into light laughter, a foot moving backwards and upper body retreating, a safe breathing space in between them now visible again.

sorry, alice! I was just kidding… did I take it too far?

really, loki… is this how you treat people who share their umbrellas with you?

nope! it’s not everyday that someone offers to share their umbrella with me… even if their umbrella’s too small to begin with.

… does that mean you want to get drenched after all?

no way!

please speak well of me || ray & alice prompt: in memor(iam)y // a fragment of me on your skin

"now that i think of it, why did you call this necklace a 'collar'?"

the king of spades raises his head briefly, eyes shifting from the wordy official document in his hands to the woman standing in his office. she's by the bookshelves, small hands, lithe fingers intent on relocating the books from their former places to wherever she saw fit. pull out, set aside, dust away, evaluate possible positions, then insert back to the shelf. rinse and repeat, like dance steps: one, two three, four, and five.

around her neck, chain hidden by the collar of her blouse and ribbon, a sparkle of green shone. it showed itself occasionally, peeking out of the ribbon when she would begin to chase the dust away from the books and shelves with a feather duster. it doesn't mix, he muses, that red ribbon against that bright green. to begin with, why was her dress blue and her ribbon red? do they mix? then again, did he really need to know?

she was wearing it, anyway - that's all.

"... i don't get you," he replies, tossing the now-signed document onto one of the many stacks piled on his desk. he gets another document from another stack and tries not to groan when he's greeted by multiple lines of ink, beautifully dull and almost consuming the paper itself. "does it matter?"

"of course it does," she replies, tone and pitch of voice a little bit higher than usual. he can't see her facial expression, but he envisions a frown - or maybe a scowl crossing her features. either way, she's not happy. "a collar is something you would use for pets. or domesticated animals."

"i know."

"so do you see me - or think of me as one?"

his lips quirk upwards, a snort escapes him. "is that your question for the day?"

she stops to glare at him, a thick tome in her hands. "that's just cheating."

"it isn't," his reply comes off as casual.

she doesn't buy it.

"i can see you grinning, ray blackwell."

he laughs when his full name rolls sharply off her tongue.

"are you actually angry, or are you trying to act like my mother?"

♠ ♠ ♠

the king of spades learns that morning that alice the second can wield a five hundred twenty-three-page book with a thick hardbound leather cover like a training sword of the wooden variety, something that one could find in the black army's barracks.

sturdy and definitely not lethal.

he fails to account lethality for multiple hits straight to the head, though.

to his credit, she does apologize after she'd whacked him thrice. the book goes back to the shelf (without bloodstains), he mournfully clutches his head, she looks at him with worry.

"it's just that a necklace this nice," she says, fingers reaching up to her neck to clasp the jade in her palm, "doesn't deserve to be called a collar. it’s a gift from you, and i intend to treasure it when i get back to london.”

he’s not sure where’s the dull throbbing coming from now: it’s either from the back of his head, his ears, or his chest.

who cares, it hurts.

lather that honey on your tongue || blanc & alice prompt: ye olde pickup lines // romance in the eyes of the full moon

when he finds her, he sees her standing a few paces away from his house's backdoor, her hands set behind her back. her head is tilted upwards and her eyes reflect the moon over their heads: it's a large silver coin shining bright against a blackened sky scattered with stars.

he calls her name once - she turns her head, smiles and waves. moonlight casts a dainty glow on her facial features, making her skin seem softer and the blue of her eyes more vivid. he pauses for a moment before he walks to stand beside her.

"oliver told me you would be here," he says. "it seemed like you two had a pleasant chat before i arrived."

her brows furrow, lips purse themselves together. "i think oliver enjoyed it more than i did."

"oh? i would certainly enjoy myself as well, if i were in the company of such a beautiful lady such as yourself."

a pleasant smile lights up his features. one could not say the same for hers, however - her mouth has gone slightly slack, but she shook her head immediately and turns her head up back to the moon.

"i say, the moon is beautiful tonight," he says as he points to the sky with a gloved finger.

"but not as beautiful as i am, maybe?" she says, a lilt in her voice.

she laughs for a bit until she realizes that his eyes are on her: his eyes are wide open, his mouth slightly agape. heat flushes and colors her cheeks slightly.

"okay, i'm sorry," she splutters, angling her face away from him, "it's just that i mentioned to oliver that i get so flustered when you compliment me, and he said something along the lines of 'then why don't you beat the rabbit in his own game', and - "

" - and you decided to compliment yourself before i would?"

"yes, well - gosh, that sounded really awkward, didn't it? please forget i said anything."

he fixes her with a blank stare for a few seconds before chuckling.

"on the contrary, i can't deny your words."

her breath catches in her throat for a moment before she replies. "which ones?"

"you being far more beautiful than the moon will ever be, of course."

"now you're just exaggerating - i didn't even say half of that!"

"you didn't, which is why i took the honor of doing so."

he leans forward to take a lock of her hair in his fingers, pressing it to his lips with a smile.

sing sweet nightingale || sirius & alice prompt: i’m drowning in siren calls // my own two feet as a compass

that deep tone has engraved itself so distinctively well into her ears and mind that each time she would hear it, even if it was of the softest of murmurs, she would find herself looking for its source. it's almost unbelievable how it's become something like a reflex in such a short amount of time, making her feel quite sheepish. she was no dog, nor did she wish to give off the impression that she was a clingy lover constantly observing her beloved's actions... but time and time again, her body would fail her and she would always end up in another search for him.

whenever she would successfully find him, he'd pause whatever he was doing for a moment to greet her with a smile and a voice that soothes her sudden wanderlust. the sound is oh-so kind and noticeably happy so she smiles back, but somehow there's a lingering feeling of disappointment for herself.

so one day she tries to stop turning his way when she hears him from afar: whether she was at the kitchen and him just outside by the training grounds, she by the flowerbeds and he near the headquarters' entrance, or her in the saloon and him issuing orders by the hallways; she stifles the urge of her feet to drop everything and go to where he was. it's far from easy since she wants to hear more, but she tries her best and it actually works for a while - perhaps three days. it makes her feel a bit better about herself, but -

- it's all for naught when he literally corners her in her own room, back and wrists pinned against the wall. she breathes an inhale of surprise at the sudden action, turning sharp when he lowers his face so it's just inches away from her own. his breathing sounded strained, how strange, like he was in pain - oh dear, did something happen? could she be of help?

worry begins to flood her thoughts, but it's washed out without a care just as quick when his breath tickles her ear and he speaks to her with an urgency, demanding and agitated and frustrated but still so beautiful to hear -

why have you been avoiding me?

oh no, she muses but doesn't say - her body had involuntarily trembled out of sheer delight at the sound of his voice so close, heart singing loud and knees growing weak.

words don't dare crawl out of her parched throat.

trails of sea-foam ink || dean & alice prompt: that i hold dear // the chase for a permanent you

today before he leaves his home he walks over to that one drawer and collects every single letter she sent, keeps all those tiny envelopes complete with their barely torn seals inside a folder that fits snugly into his bag, then goes on his merry way.

when they meet for tea, he shoves the folder - and all those one hundred fifty-seven letters of four seasons - into her hands.

“you should do something about your penmanship,” he says like the professor he really was, and that just makes her frown. what - was her alphabet too round, the edges too curved? were the words, sentences, and paragraph alignments all wrong on each and every line, like how music notes would dance on staves?

“i’m sorry,” she says, but she’s not even sure what she’s apologizing for. maybe it was better to ask. “... is my writing too small for you to read?”

“i would’ve told you immediately if that were the case, rather than subjecting myself to eye strain.”

“is it too large?”

he holds himself from clicking his tongue. “it’s not an issue about size.”

“oh. then is it about how i write everything in a slanting manner?”

“no - you aren’t the first and perhaps the last person i would see whose penmanship presents itself in such a script-like fashion and objectively speaking, you are one of the agreeable examples of those writing in such a style.”

“uh-huh,” her head tilts to the side, she frowns. “then can i ask you what... well, you don’t like about my handwriting?”

he raises the teacup up to his lips. what i don’t like, he muses, is how light you write. what i don’t like is how the ink you used to write all those letters is dark enough to leave its mark on the paper but light enough for me to think that its fading, like touches of moonlight on a cloudy night. it reminds me of you and how you came to be in this world in the first place, and how easy it is for you to go back if you firmly decided on it. but what i dislike the most is the fact that i still have lingering thoughts of the possibility of you leaving when every single letter you have sent me has told me otherwise, all because your penmanship is as light and dainty as yourself.

“dean?” she calls out, voice something small.

unease unable to quell itself, he allows an amount of pure black tea to hold his tongue.

#ikemen kakumei #ikemen revolution #ikerev fanfic #ikerev alice #loki genetta #ray blackwell #blanc lapin #sirius oswald #dean tweedle #drabble.txt #yeeeouch haven't done much writing recently so these feel a bit rusty #... they're a shame to scrap tho... maybe the others should go on a queue too #i like how dean's piece turned out bc the analogies mmm

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gobydana · 5 years

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Could you do a reader x Jason where when he’s with the outlaws he comes across the reader who was his ex that he never got over and finds out that due to an accident she lost all memory of him.

Hope you enjoy. This got way too long but I think it turned out well. (side note, next time you might want to mention happy ending cause damn I had fun with this.)

Simple coffee shop stakeout, that was all this was supposed to be. Instead it landed him down a rabbit hole of memories once he saw her. Y/N looked as gorgeous as always as she drank her coffee and wrote. The memories, good and bad, were floating into his mind. No doubt he would regret it later as he got no intel on the store clerk who was suppose to be selling drugs. That’s why he came here, to watch that person. Not his ex, who he still very much loved.

He kept tabs on her when they first broke up/she left him with his heart in pieces since he was never around. He stopped because he knew it wasn’t good for him, but at this moment he thought elsewise. Quickly, he shot a text out to some mutual friends to see how she was doing. It was creepy he knew, but he just had to know she was okay. What he didn’t expect was to get a phone call that might change everything.

He exited the cafe to answer the phone, no use her hearing. Their mutual friend broke it all down for him, the accident and the memory loss. In fact he was worried about their friend being out as she still got loss sometimes walking home. Afterall, she didn’t move to Gotham till shortly before meeting Jason, so she doesn’t remember the city as well. Jason took that as a cue to keep an eye on her.

That night, Jason took his patrol of Red Hood towards the apartment she moved into after she moved out of his. It was a small flat with not a lot in it. Her job kept her traveling a lot. Now though it looked more lived in. Not like someone just using it to crash once in awhile. What was missing though was anything showing a story of the person who lived there. No pictures of her or anyone. She use to keep a picture of her family hung up but even that was gone.

In between patrol and gigs with the outlaws, he kept an eye out on her. He debated with Roy a lot. This could give him a chance to start over, fix the mistakes he made the first time. Yet somehow he couldn’t do that, knowing he was lying. If she gave him a second chance, it had to be on her own terms knowing what happened. Turns out though, fate had other ideas.

One night he was patrolling when he saw her. Two thugs had her pinned against a wall asking for money she kept saying she didn’t have. Anger burned in him as he got closer in full Red Hood gear. The thugs saw him and decided to run letting her go. It was no use as he slammed the first thugs ahead against the wall and shot the second thugs kneecaps. He turned around to see her still glued to the ground and shaking.

He couldn’t stand to see her hurt and scared. Blood was coming from an arm that got cut. He silently cussed while walking towards her. Quickly he bandaged her up and offered to walk her home. While this town still confused her foggy memory, she had heard of Red Hood often. Knew he wouldn’t harm her, so she took up his offer.

The walk home was quite. Jason felt awkward near, something that had never happened before. Her though, she kept the chatter up. That was something he missed about her, always keep a conversation open. SHe talked about her new job and how odd Gotham was. It wasn’t until they reached the apartment that he finally talked. He bid her goodnight and walked away. As he left, she thought she did something wrong. He left suddenly and had barely talked the whole. She chalked it up the hero lifestyle.

For the next few weeks he would follow her home, making sure she got home safe and then would go to normal patrol. If he wasn’t there, Dick or Barbara would watch. They knew it would help Jason. Both could see the hurt in his eyes though, the pain that was very present after the breakout not that long ago.

He thought he was sneaky, but her memory lost did not stop her ability to know when something was up. It didn’t take long before she figured he was watching her walk home. After a week, she decided to test her theory. For some reason she pegged him as a cookie type of person, so she left a plate on the fire escape. That night after Jason watched her walk into the apartment and turn her lights on he turned around. IT was the sound of the window opening that got him to turn back. A plate of cookies was left.

He laughed and debated going but he knew those cookies anywhere, they were his favorite she made. He decide to go check out, maybe she remembered.

“So is this like Santa? Put a plate out and get catch a Red Hood?” She asked while holding out a cookie towards him.

“Yep, just don’t let Black Mask catch on,” He joked back while shoving a cookie in his mouth. Same recipe and just as good as he remembered. “Why though?”

“Thought you might need it with the extra activities of watching me.” SHe mentioned.

“Well not many walk in this part of town at night alone. Not wise.” He stated.

“Yeah well I am not from here. Plus don’t remember much. My friends suck and don’t let me go anywhere alone, so the only chance I have?”

“What happened?” He found himself asking before he could stop himself. “Sorry don’t answer that if you don’t want.” He quickly added.

“It’s okay. Doctor says talking may help. I got in a car accident and hit my head badly. Lost memory of the last few years. My friends are annoying since they are always like do you remember? Like I can’t just please let me be. The worst thing is I only know what is told to me. For instance I know I was in a serious relationship but they won’t talk about it. Like keeping part of my life from me and ugh.” She said while sitting down in defeat on the window.

“I am sorry.” Was all he could say.

“Sometimes different things trigger it but lately I don’t know. Honestly I am trying to piece it together but need people to stop hiding stuff from me.” She said and then yawned. She wished him good night and went back in leaving him with the cookies.

That night he was munching on cookies while crashing with Roy. His head was so deep in thought that he didn’t hear Roy until a cookie was waved in his face.

“This is Y/n’s recipe, I know it.” Roy about shouted.

“Yeah I saw her tonight.” Jason said and then explained about his night. Of course this resulted in Roy jumping and demanding he should take his chance. Jason shook his head and told him he needed to get away. It was dumb following her.

It wasn’t until a week or so later that things took another change. Red Hood was doing his best at avoiding her, hell he was even at the opposite side of town. The Gotham rain was coming down heavier than normal and gloomy Gotham looked horrible. He was focused on a drug deal at the docks below when he heard the scream. It was a sound he only heard in his worst dream.

He ran towards the sound as quick as he could. THe rest of the bats could deal with the drug issue at the moment. He was running towards it with full force praying to every god he knew she was okay. A small part hoping the scream was all in his head, but that thought would soon be proven wrong. For as he ran around the corner, he saw her bleeding out under the dim street light with a thug rushing the opposite direction.

Roy, who he didn’t know also abandon the drug deal came up behind him. Without words spoken, the archer knew to chase the thug while Jason tried to stop the bleeding. The flash of red was the last he saw of his friend before he knelt down next to the person who first showed him what love was truly about.

He used his jacket to push against the wound in hopes the bleeding would stop. While thankfully the bullet went straight through, so not left somewhere for more damage, it created a second hole. More blood was soaking though and soaking the dark ground beneath them. A quick shout over the comns let him know that medicis were on their way.

He took off his helmet, hoping to see her better and give her some comfort. The sound of his robic voice through it was not helping them stay calm. He kept whispering words of sweet nothings truly hoping they would grab onto something and stay awake. Every time he saw their eyes about to close he would beg her to stay awake. He didn’t care if they remembered him or not at this moment, as long as they stayed alive.

“Y/N please just stay awake. Stay with me.” He kept asking. Most of the time they didn’t do much more than look at him. But if they did that, at least it meant the cruel world had yet to take them.

“It hurts too much.” They whimpered when Jason put more pressure on the wound. In the background, the faint sound of sirens could be heard. Help was finally coming if they hung on long enough.

“‘I know sweetie. Nightingale, I need you to hang one for me please.” He begged, letting his nickname for her accidently slip up.

“Jay,” she said while turning to face him, recognition in their eyes for a brief moment. “You came.” They whispered with the last bit of energy left. With that, their eyes closed and their heartbeat weaken.

“Please don’t,” He said as paramedics came up behind him and took them away, out of his arms. As they left, he could still feel her in his arms as the rain came pouring down. It was Batman who finally came to get him. Yet Jason couldn’t ask, too scared he already knew the answer.

Tagging: @the-shadow-of-atlantis @superwhoteen @batfam16

#jason todd #red hood #jason todd x reader #red hood x reader #batman #dc comic #reader insert #bruce wayne #angst #roy harper #red hood and the outlaws #if you do not ask for happy ending I will have fun with angst #red hood and arsenal

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marinetteplztakeabreak · 5 years

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The year is 2021. The first few episodes of mlb Season 5 were just aired. Tumblr’s exploding with fanfics and theories. The show’s new director is conducting cryptic polls about which friendships and teamups the fans want to see most. Adrien is finally realizing that his dad sucks and has gotten more direct in his small moments of rebellion. Kagami, Adrien, and Marinette have a group chat that’s 90% just elaborate plans for sneaking out. Marinette’s been getting better and better at acting normal around Adrien since the beginning of season four and she’s realized that regardless of romantic feelings, she desperately wants to be his friend.

Everyone’s posting about the latest episode, Lady WiFi 3.0, where Alya got akumatized because she was jealous that Adrien was stealing her best friend. Marinette was so busy panicking and blaming herself that she forgot to slip away and transform, which lead to half the episode being Marichat. Chat Noir had a few lines that may have implied he know that she was Ladybug and every word of their dialogue is now being picked apart by theorists. After they won the battle, there were copious amounts of communication and apologies from Adrien, who was immediately yelled at by both girls because “Adrien stop apologizing for hanging out with your friends you’re allowed to do that, you self-deprecating idiot.” The episode ended with Adrien becoming Alya’s secret behind the scenes co-runner of the Ladyblog, and he’s thriving at the chance to work without being directly watched by the public and she’s thriving at the fact that she has a dedicated co-worker who’s just as obsessed with superheroes (especially Ladybug) as she is.

Now that months have passed since the season 4 finale aired, people are finally calming down. Mayura got so close to winning that she managed to take Chat Noir’s miraculous, discovering his secret identity in the process. Chat Noir didn’t end up telling Ladybug about this: partly due to fear that he’d lose his Miraculous, because he’s gotten so good at being a team with Ladybug that he’s afraid Paris would be in danger without him. Also, now that Ladybug is the guardian, she’s the only one who could choose a new Chat Noir and therefore would know the secret identity of anyone she picked. Also, it’s never been directly confirmed, but everyone’s pretty sure that he knows that Marinette is Ladybug, and without his Miraculous, he would lose his only means of defense if Mayura did hunt him down in his civilian identity and grill him for Ladybug’s identity. He also seems to think that he’s the less important hero and it doesn’t matter as much if he gets hurt or captured so long as he manages to protect his Lady. His decision spawned endless discourse, but everyone can at least see where he’s coming from. The heroes are doing their best but there’s obvious moments where they’re cracking under the stress and could desperately use an adult on their team. #givemarinetteanap was trending on Tumblr for a few days. Adrien had canonically acknowledged depression and has actual medical reasons to force his dad to let him interact with friends at times, although his father still does the absolute bare minimum.

A week ago, in the season 5 pilot, Natalie faked a coughing fit to stop Hawkmoth when he was about to hurt Chat. She’s still trying to take the Miraculouses and still wants Hawkmoth to succeed but she’ll literally die before any harm comes to Adrien, and she’s the only one who knows he’s also Chat Noir. Adrien knows that Mayura knows his identity but he has no idea that Natalie knows, so he’s confused about why she suddenly seems to understand why he’s exhausted after midnight akuma battles and even clears his schedule, so he can rest. She still rarely shows direct affection, but the small things are becoming more and more frequent and groups of dedicated fans are eagerly awaiting her redemption arc.

The amateur fashion business that Marinette started halfway through season 4 is taking off, thanks in part to celebrity promotions, from Jagged Stone to Clara Nightingale to Adrien Agreste. She’s under a lot of pressure dealing with actual money and orders and the stress of running a real business, but she’s clearly happy with it, and it gives her something productive to do with the time that she used to spend obsessing over Adrien. She also taught herself how to crochet for a project and now brings string and a hook with her everywhere to stress-crochet when anxiety spirals hit. It’s become something of a joke within the fandom but no one can deny that it’s a strangely calming aesthetic. The shine for Adrien in her room has been taken down and replaced with a wall of the designs she’s the proudest of, which caused a barrage of conflicting emotions for everyone watching.

Chloe has become a permanent part of the friend group as well, after she exposed Lila’s lies. She’s still has no filter and causes a few akumas when she hurts others’ feelings, but she’s genuinely trying to be a decent person, so she can make real friends. She also manages to pull Marinette out of an anxiety attack a few times by being ridiculously blunt and startling Marinette out of her train of thought.

The show openly calls Juleka and Rose a couple, they’re had a few on screen kisses and people make YouTube compilations of them saying the phrase “my girlfriend.” Half the class comes to them for relationship advice because they’re literally the steadiest and healthiest couple in the class. Also, it’s revealed that Chloe never had a crush on Adrien. She was literally just fighting Marinette for his platonic attention the entire time, which she thought was common knowledge. “Ew, why would I want to date Adrien, we’ve known each other since we were toddlers?” Someone asks Chloe if there’s anyone she does have a crush on and she says not really, no one in their class is even that cute, Ladybug’s low-key gorgeous though in a celebrity crush kind of way. Marinette is the only person in the class who’s actually surprised to find out that Chloe might have a crush on Ladybug.

Teamups with the Miraculous holders are becoming more and more common. Queen Bee has openly said that she doesn’t care about the danger of her identity being revealed and has become a frequent member of the lineup. Alix, juleka, Rose, and Nathaniel have each been given Miraculouses a few times, as well as several newly introduced characters. In an episode we only have a trailer for so far, Marinette is having such a bad panic attack that she knows she won’t be able to be Ladybug, so she discretely slips her earrings into Alya’s bag and Alya has to save the day as Ladybird. During a different high-stakes akuma battle near the end of season 4, Hawkmoth knew that he’d be causing a lot of collateral damage so he locked Adrien inside with heavy supervision to keep him safe. Unable to sneak away, he managed to slip his ring with a note into Chloe’s bag, because she was over for a business meeting and also the only person he knew that Ladybug would trust with a Miraculous. Chloe got to be Reine Chat for the day and she was surprisingly mature about it, listening to everything Ladybug told her and putting the Miraculous back where she got it after the battle was won She’d never admit it, but it was clear that she was genuinely scared for one of the first times in her life.

Now, the fans theories for what’s going to happen continue to pour in. The episode titles for the entire season were just uncovered. The finale is going to be Princess Justice parts 1, 2, and 3. The current predominant fan theory is that Sabine is going to have to be Ladybug for part of the episode and fight an akumatized Marinette. It’s been defended by so many long winding arguments that no one can remember if it’s a crack theory or genuine. The episode just before the finale is titled Emilie and it’s causing different kinds of massive panic throughout the fandom. The season trailers show tons of interactions between all sides of the love square. Adrien is going to break down in tears in Marinette’s arms at one point in the season. That trailer clip has also been overanalyzed to death at this point. Adrien has learned to bake macarons at the bakery and Marinette has learned to win a staring contest with Gabriel Agreste. All is well.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous lb #mlb #love square #chloe bourgous #nathalie sancoeur #adrien agreste #marinette dupain cheng #I don’t know if this counts as fanfic but I’ll tag it anyways #ml fanfiction #ml fanfic #alya cesaire #julerose #long post

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Complete Easter Egg and Reference Guide

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The following contains spoilers for The Umbrella Academy season 2.

The Umbrella Academy wears its influences on its sleeve. Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá’s original comic and the Netflix series it was adapted into pay a great debt to properties like X-Men, Doom Patrol, and even The Royal Tenenbaums.

Now for its second season, The Umbrella Academy is even more devoted to Easter eggs, references, and many other real life and pop culture homages. This batch of episodes takes the Hargreeves family back to the early ‘60s where they encounter a whole new host of inspirations.

“There are tons,” showrunner Steve Blackman says of season 2 Easter eggs. “We specifically wanted to sit down and say, ‘Here are the Easter eggs we want to put in, let’s make a list of them.’ They’re everywhere. I think the fans will get a real kick once you start realizing what we’ve put in.”

Follow along with us as we catalogue every possible Easter egg and reference in The Umbrella Academy season 2. Hopefully we can clarify a thing or two about this season along the way. And hopefully you, dear reader, can help point out what we surely missed.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 1: Right Back Where We Started

This episode takes its name from Maxine Nightingale’s “Right Back Where We Started From.” And indeed that song plays as the Hargreeves family arrives in the ‘60s and tries to acclimate to their surroundings.

The season opens with the lunar-induced apocalypse that kills billions of people on Earth. The world’s destruction was essentially confirmed at the end of The Umbrella Academy season 1 but is re-confirmed here. In the original comic book, the planet is destroyed midway through volume 2 “Dallas” when Hazel and Cha-Cha detonate a nuke they stole from Reginald Hargreeves’s stash. Thankfully in this season, just as in “Dallas,” The Umbrella Academy makes it safely back in time and gets a chance to undo things.

For organizational purposes here is where each member of The Umbrella Academy lands in the early 1960s, along with what movie is playing on the local cinema’s marquee:

February 11, 1960 – Klaus and Ben – The movie is Curse of the Undead.

1961 – Allison – The movie is The Curse of the Werewolf.

1962 – Luther – Movie not visible.

September 1, 1963 – Diego – Movie not visible.

October 12, 1963 – Vanya – The movie is Kiss of the Vampire.

November 25, 1963 – Five – Movie is still Kiss of the Vampire.

The song playing during this latest apocalypse is Frank Sinatra’s “My Way.”

This thrilling series finale-esque apocalypse sequence also provides viewers with a decent reminder of what each Umbrella siblings’ power is:

Vanya uses sound to generate enormous, explosive power.

Klaus can communicate with the dead and in this instance is even able to summon the ghosts of U.S. soldiers to do battle against the Soviets.

Luther is super strong. And surprisingly flame retardant.

Ben (still dead) is able to produce monstrous tentacles from his stomach. In the comic series it is explained that he summons monsters from another dimension.

Allison quite literally possesses the power of suggestion. Her phrase “I heard a rumor” bewitches whoever hears it to do what she says.

Diego is super accurate with knives and seemingly takes his combat training more seriously than anyone in the Academy. In the comics, Diego is able to survive without breathing but for the second season in the row that appears to have not made it to the TV show. “You got Jason Momoa doing that a hundred times better anyway,” David Castañeda told Den of Geek during a set visit.

Number Five can travel through time but obviously rather imprecisely. He uses that power on a smaller scale to pop through space-time during fist fights.

Hazel makes his triumphant and brief return to the series…looking somewhere between Nick Offerman and Gandalf. He likes to call Five “old-timer” because despite having his childhood body, Five is actually in his late ‘50s.

This time around, the world will end on November 25, 1963 – notably three days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas.

Diego trots out a Star Wars joke about Luke Skywalker’s daddy issues that obviously no one in the asylum is able to understand, with Star Wars 14 years away from release.

Diego’s friend at the hospital is new character Lila, played by Ritu Arya. Lila has no comparable character in the comic series and is purely a show invention. Arya is best known for her work in Humans and Last Christmas.

Klaus and Ben were in San Francisco for three years before heading back to Dallas. In that time, Klaus started a cult. California was a hotspot for cults in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. Klaus was a little ahead of the game.

Allison is preparing to participate in a sit-in with her Black peers. As early as the ‘40s but chiefly during the ‘50s and early ‘60s, sit-ins were tactics used by Civil Rights organizers in which protesters would occupy an area and refuse to move. Some of the most famous sit-ins involved Black Americans sitting at lunch counters or tables in all-white restaurants and requesting service. As Dan Fienberg points out in his season 2 review, Civil Rights organizers had largely ceased this practice by 1963.

The song playing during Diego’s time in isolation is a cover of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” by Daniela Andrade.

The song playing as Diego and Lila escape is “Comin’ Home Baby” by Mel Tormé.

Luther is working for Jack Ruby – an unlikely important figure in American history. Ruby was a well-known nightclub owner in Dallas who was tied to mob activities such as illegal gambling, drugs, and prostitution. On November 24, 1963 (one day before the world “ends”), Ruby approached JFK’s killer Lee Harvey Oswald as police were escorting him from prison to court and fatally shot him at close range.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 2: The Frankel Footage

The title of this episode is clearly a take on “The Zapruder Film.” The Zapruder Film is footage of the JFK assassination recorded by Texas clothing manufacturer Abraham Zapruder. It is believed to be the most complete visual documentation of the JFK assassination and was used by the Warren Commission that investigated the asssassination. It’s also become fodder for conspiracy theories.

In the reality of The Umbrella Academy, The Frankel Footage is what Hazel slipped into Five’s pocket before he died. It documents JFK’s motorcade from the perspective of Dan and Ethel Frankel on Dealey Plaza. The Frankel Footage uncovers none other than Reginald Hargreeves holding an umbrella on the grassy knoll.

Interestingly, “The Umbrella Man” is a real figure in the complicated lore of the JFK assassination. A figure holding a black umbrella appears in the Zapruder film and at one point spins his umbrella as the President’s motorcade passes by. This led to theories that, among other things, the umbrella man was a CIA plant who signaled to Lee Harvey Oswald via his umbrella to fire the fatal shots. In reality, the Umbrella Man was discovered to be Louie Steven Witt in 1978. Witt said he brought the umbrella to the motorcade to heckle Kennedy. Kennedy’s father Joe had been a fan of Nazi-appeasing British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. A black umbrella was Chamberlain’s trademark accessory.

The Handler lives! A bullet to the head doesn’t do as much damage as one would think on The Umbrella Academy. “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo” from Cinderella plays as The Handler is spared from the incinerator.

The Handler’s boss at the Commission is a goldfish in a tank atop an otherwise human body. His name is “A.J.” and later on it’s revealed his last name is “Carmichael.” This comes directly from The Umbrella Academy comic where the head of the “Temps Aeternalis” is revealed to be a shubunkin goldfish named Carmichael.

“Well it finally happened – that gorilla DNA took over your mind,” Five tells Luther. This quick aside confirms that Reginald utilized gorilla DNA to save Luther’s life after a mission gone wrong.

“Who’s Diego?” Elliot (Kevin Rankin) asks Five. “Imagine Batman and then aim lower,” Five responds.

When Klaus meets one of his old followers in a holding cell and the follower asks for words of wisdom, Klaus replies with “Don’t go chasing waterfalls. Stick to the rivers and the lakes that you’re used to.” This is a lyric from TLC’s 1995 song “Waterfalls.”

All the “Children of the Prophet” have “Hello” and “Goodbye” tattooed or scribbled on either palm. This is in reference to Klaus’s tattoos of the same nature. In the comics, Klaus’s callsign is “The Seance” and those tattoos mimic the setup of most Ouija boards.

Reginald Hargreeves owns D.S. Umbrella in Dallas. We see him open this business in the enigmatic opener of The Umbrella Academy season 1’s final episode. That episode also seemed to suggest that he’s an alien.

Baby Pogo makes his first appearance! Pogo is a chimpanzee with the intelligence of a human. He was Hargreeves’s steadfast friend and probably the only positive influence in the young Hargreeves children’s lives. He was killed by Vanya in season 1.

Five finds an invitation to Hargreeves from the Consulate of Mexico and one Mr. Hoyt Hillenkoetter. Roscoe Henry Hillenkoetter was the first director of the CIA in real life.

The song playing as Diego fights his father is “I’m a Man” by Spencer Davis Group.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 3: The Swedish Job

“The Swedish Job” is likely a reference to the classic ‘60s action film (and its 2003 remake) The Italian Job.

Let’s talk about The Swedes a little more. The Swedes are not present in the Umbrella Academy comic book. They fill a similar role to what Hazel and Cha-Cha do in the second volume of the comic as agents of The Commission (or Temps Aeternalis in the book). But with the show having burned Hazel and Cha-Cha on season 1, it likely needed a replacement here. Most assassins in the Commission are colorful characters so The Swede’s pale weirdness makes enough sense.

“Sunny” by Boney M. plays over the opening montage of Klaus’s time as a cult leader.

Five is tracking soundwaves at Morty’s as that’s a surefire way to find Vanya.

The man holding a “The End is Nigh” sign is certainly an homage to Watchmen. Watchmen was influential for Umbrella Academy writer Gerard Way…and just about everyone else.

The Handler’s outfit as she intimidates a child at a pet shop closely resembles ‘60s fashion popularized by Jackie Onassis Kennedy – fitting given this season’s focus.

Five’s coffee obsession continues apace in this episode.

Klaus meets Dave, the love of his life, at Glenoak’s Hardware. Klaus had previously traveled to the 1960s in season 1 where he joined the Vietnam war effort and fell in love with fellow soldier Dave. Dave obviously has no recollection of it as it hasn’t happened for him yet. Or maybe it never will…time travel is weird.

The song playing at episode’s end is “Golden Brown” by The Stranglers.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 4: The Majestic 12

“The Majestic 12” is a real organization…or purported to be real by conspiracy theorists. It’s said that The Majestic 12 was created by Harry S. Truman in 1947 and made up of scientists, military leaders, and government officials to investigate alien spacecraft. Elliot describes the Majestic 12 as a “shadow government.” Of course Reginald Hargreeves would be a part of it.

The Handler recovered young Lila in London, England in 1993. She appears to be about four years old at that time. If so, that would put her birth year at a very significant…1989.

The music budget this season continues to be insane. The song playing as Klaus falls back into alcoholism and addiction is Styx’s “Renegade.” Obviously.

Luther is enjoying some Texas barbecue when he encounters Allison again. This leads to two relevant points.

Texas barbecue is the best in the country.

With Luther’s increased appreciation for food, The Umbrella Academy season 2 is paying slight homage to the comic’s “Fat Luther” storyline. Following the events of the first comic volume, Luther becomes complacent, depressed, and ultimately, obese. “There’s certainly a nod to that in this season,” Tom Hopper told Den of Geek. “There was a question mark over the fact that Thor did the whole thing already (in Avengers: Endgame.”

Diego meets his mother at the swanky Dallas party. When Diego and his siblings knew “Grace,” she was merely a robot created by Reginald. Here she is a living, breathing woman who knows her date by “Reggie.”

Harlan has a sparrow toy. Make note of this as sparrow imagery pops up a few times this season. Birds are all over The Handler’s clothing choices for instance. That ends up being tremendously relevant to the conclusion of season 2.

Sissy and Vanya share a kiss and then more. Vanya is the second confirmed LGBTQ Umbrella Academy member. “Having that be such a big part of the show and Vanya’s life is exciting for me,” Ellen Page told Den of Geek.

Luther just flat out loves drugs now. After his LSD trip in season 1, he follows that up with nitrous this season. That leads to this hilarious exchange with Elliot:

“My dad died too. He left me on the moon.” *howling, uncontrollable laughter*

The song at episode’s end is “I Was Made For Lovin’ You” by KISS.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 5: Valhalla

The episode’s title is named after “Valhalla,” a majestic hall ruled over by Odin in Asgard in Norse mythology.

Poor Pogo was a space monkey. The United States, U.S.S.R., and France launched dozens of primates into space from 1948 through 1996 (!!!) to test space flight’s effects on humanity’s close cousins. When Pogo’s space flight went poorly, Reginald appears to have resurrected him with a similar serum to which he gave Luther. Is it possible that Luther got gorilla DNA and Pogo got human DNA?

Luther took a bus trip to see his father in the ‘60s. And the map that displays Luther’s trip offers up an interesting clue as to the whereabouts of The Umbrella Academy. The Umbrella Academy is filmed in Toronto though it’s never mentioned what city Toronto is standing in for in the show. In the comics it’s known as only “The City.” Here, Luther’s bus ride seems to end around Indianapolis of all places. It seems as though The Umbrella Academy is in the Midwest.

Ambrosia was a gelatinous fruit salad popular in the ‘60s. It was and is an affront to humanity.

The team’s breakdown of the many ways they could have destroyed the timeline is amusing to say the least:

“Diego has been stalking Lee Harvey Oswald.” – Luther

“You’ve been working for Jack Ruby!” – Diego

“Allison has been very involved in local politics.” – Klaus

“Ok, you started a cult.” – Allison

“I’m just a nanny on a farm. I don’t have anything to do with all of that.” – Vanya

“Face it. The only healthy relationship in this family is when Five was banging that mannequin,” Klaus says. This is a reference to Five’s mannequin lover, Dolores, from his time alone in the post-apocalypse future.

Klaus, Allison, and Vanya dance to Sam Cooke’s “Twistin’ the Night Away.”

The song playing as Five and Lila fight is a ska cover of Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy” by The Interrupters.

The song playing as the two surviving Swedes consign their fallen brother to Valhalla is a cover of Adele’s “Hello” by Swedish artist My Kullsvik.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 6: A Light Supper

Reginald invites his “pursuers” to 1624 Magnolia Street, Dallas. This address appears to be a parking lot currently.

“So there was a Black president?” Raymond asks Allison of the future. There was indeed, Ray.

“Hold on I’m Coming” by Sam and Dave plays as Allison and Ray have their day out on the town.

“Sixteen years in the grave and you finally turned into your father,” Klaus tells Ben. Given the Hargreeves’s 1989 birth year and 2019 current year of the show, Ben must have been around 14 when he died.

Dave has already signed up for the Army ahead of schedule, suggesting that the Hargreeves’ presence in 1963 really is altering the timeline.

The song playing as the Hargreeves approach their Tiki Lounge meeting is “The Order of Death” by Public Image Ltd.

Ben can now officially inhabit Klaus. This is an evolution of Klaus’s power of being able to communicate with the dead. Robert Sheehan said of this development: “(Klaus) can’t be as selfish anymore because (Ben) has this thing over me that he can do. We have a lot of fun with it and stuff, but it’s kind of about sobriety. I think Klaus and Ben’s relationship is entirely about sobriety versus addiction, for somebody who’s lived with addiction for so long.”

As Five will tell Luther and Diego in episode 7, Öga for Öga is Swedish for “An eye for an eye.”

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 7: Öga for Öga

A candy bar in the vending machine in 1982 Oshkosh, Wisconsin is a “Pogos-Gogos.” Pogo was likely a famous pop culture figure due to his space flight…and ability to speak English.

When Five takes an axe to the Commission executive board in 1982 Wisconsin, it’s hard not to think of American Psycho. Aiden Gallagher is a dead ringer for a young Patrick Bateman.

The song playing as Ben experiences life in Klaus’s body is “Sister of Pearl” by Baio.

We find out the name of Klaus’s cult is “Destiny’s Children.” Klaus is really working his knowledge of ‘90s R&B groups here.

The song playing as Allison battles The Swedes is “Everybody” by Backstreet Boys.

“I heard a rumor you killed your brother,” Allison tells one of the two remaining Swedes. It’s not clear why she assumes that they are brothers. But the fact that the lead Swede follows through means that Allison was correct. Otherwise The Swede would have hopped on a plane to seek out his real brother to kill.

“It was a simple task – just be here! We didn’t have to kill a giant sea serpent, fight off an army of mutants,” Five says of his team’s failure to rendezvous at the right time to escape the ’60s. The “kill a giant sea serpent” could be a reference to a brief moment in the comic’s one-off issue “But the Past Ain’t Through With You.” Sometime in the past, The Umbrella Academy defeated a sea serpent that attacked Japan because it was insulted that a toy-maker make unlicensed plush toys of it.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 8: The Seven Stages

The FBI does have an office in Dallas but it’s about 10 miles away from Dealey Plaza and not directly behind the grassy knoll as depicted here. Or at least that’s what they want you to think…

Vanya is able to reflexively answer the FBI questioner back in Russian because Reginald Hargreeves was a strict teacher of foreign languages to The Umbrella Academy.

Grace finds photos of Fidel Castro, Lyndon B. Johnson, JFK, and a map of his motorcade route in Reggie’s files. This is a clear indication to her that Reggie is involved in an upcoming attempt against the President’s life. Grace also sees plans for a “televator.” This is the elevator teleportation device Reginald will one day build.

There are five stages of grief but apparently seven stages of side effects from confronting one’s self in the same timeline. Five lists them out thusly:

1. Denial

2. Itching

3. Extreme Thirst and Urination

4. Excessive Gas

5. Acute Paranoia

6. Uncontrolled Perspiration

7. Homicidal Rage

As Vanya begins her LSD trip, the song that plays is “Pepper” by Butthole Surfers. Some of the lyrics are particularly apt for this season – “they were all in love with dying, they were doing it in Texas.”

Diego discovers that Vanya will be the cause of the apocalypse yet again in 1963, which makes an argument that The Umbrella Academy operates under Devs-style determinism.

Around the 23-minute mark someone holding a Cha-Cha mask can be seen off in the distance at Commission HQ. The individual’s face can’t be seen but it’s not out of the question that this could be Cha-Cha. Commission assassins appear to age in an unusual manner. Alternatively this could be an assassin who donned the cartoonish helmet before Cha-Cha. Showrunner Steve Blackman says that either interpretation is valid: “In the Commission, it’s always 1963, but it never changes time. So that very well could have been Cha-Cha holding the mask.”

In her LSD nightmare, Vanya is chastised by Reginald for wanting to live “a silly life on a silly farm.” One of the issues of “Dallas” is titled “A Perfect Life” and deals partly with Luther imagining a tranquil domestic life with Allison.

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 9: 743

The episode gets its name from the case number in which Five executed Lila’s parents on The Handler’s orders.

Klaus references Antonio Banderas in complimenting Diego’s hair. Diego is legitimately touched.

Much of this episode takes place in or around Dealey Plaza – the location where John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The sections of note in Dealey Plaza are the book depository where Lee Harvey Oswald fired his rifle from and the grassy knoll where some people believe a second shooter shot JFK. The Umbrella Academy doesn’t make a trip to the book depository but does briefly show the grassy knoll with Reggie Hargreeves and his umbrella. Luther and the two Fives spend most of their time in a parking lot behind the grassy knoll.

Fittingly, the song that plays as young Five fights old Five is “Dancing With Myself” by Billy Idol’s band Generation X.

Much of Vanya’s acid trip is set to Bach’s “Partita No. 2 in D Minor” on violin. There is a lot of violin imagery as well. This is fitting given Vanya’s aptitude for the instrument. She receives the villainess name “White Violin” in the comic series.

“Dad treated you like a bomb before you were one,” Ben tells Vanya. The final issue of The Umbrella Academy Volume 1 is titled “Finale, Or, Brothers and Sisters, I Am an Atomic Bomb.”

Ben also tells Vanya he died “17 years ago” which seems at odds with Klaus’s declaration that Ben died “16 years ago.” Klaus and Ben have been in Dallas for three years though, so Ben died 19-20 years ago, depending on who is right. The year is also 1963 so Ben technically won’t die for another 42 or 43 years. Time travel is weird.

Luther and Young Five send Old Five back to the very start of The Umbrella Academy series, which avoids a truly mind-bending number of paradoxes.

Though it was teased in the show’s first season, Reginald Hargreeves reveals himself to be well and truly an alien in the final moments of this episode. Reggie unzips his skin mask, discards it, and then violently murders his Majestic 12 colleagues at the Tiki Lounge for them killing Kennedy against his wishes. This is a bit of information that the comic book is shockingly upfront about, casually revealing on the series’ second-ever page that Hargreeves is an alien and never addressing it further.

Before they’re slaughtered, the Majestic 12 claim that Reggie has interests on the dark side of the Moon. Perhaps Luther’s trip to the moon wasn’t pointless after all.

The episode concludes with a new song from Umbrella Academy creator and My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way called “Here Comes the End.”

The Umbrella Academy Season 2 Episode 10: The End of Something

This is the first time we’ve seen Ben’s funeral. His little casket is covered with squid iconography – a tribute to his power.

The Umbrella Academy are now all suspects in JFK’s death. That’s bound to change the timeline, right? Indeed it probably does based on this episode and the season’s conclusion. It’s also interesting just how inherently suspicious each member of the Umbrella Academy would be to 1963 society. Vanya has an Eastern European-sounding name and can speak Russian. Diego is Cuban. Allison is a Black revolutionary. Luther is an enormous bare-knuckle brawler. Klaus is a cult leader. All intimidating stuff.

The army of Commission goons that The Handler summons to take care of the Umbrella team is full of colorful masks and helmets a la Hazel and Cha-Cha.

On our set visit for The Umbrella Academy season 2, Five actor Aiden Gallagher revealed that several characters would discover “sub-powers” Gallagher said: “I was talking to Steve (Blackman) about this, and how it works is in season one, we sort of get hints about all the characters powers and in season two, we really see more so the extent how far that can go. How different elements of each character’s powers actually means that they have this sub-power.” Diego seems to come across a subpower in this final battle when he appears to be able to stop bullets. Blackman explains the power thusly:

“If you think about Diego’s power, he can, with his mind, control trajectory of objects. Basically he likes throwing, so he can throw his knife and he can make it go in weird, odd curvatures and directions. All of them stopped their training in their adolescence when the family broke up, and they are still learning about their powers and their powers are still evolving. As I go through seasons we’ll see more of that. But moving a knife through the air – an extension of that is then being able to manipulate bullets through the air.”

Speaking of powers, Lila appears to have…well, all of them. Lila displays Vanya’s power, Allison’s power, and Five’s power in fights with each of them. But as Klaus, likely correctly, theorizes later, Lila can only mirror one of their powers at a time. Her ability is mimicry. Diego surmises that this means Lila is one of them – one of the 43 children born on October 1, 1989. That’s why The Handler went out of her way to kill her parents and adopt her.

Allison leaves a letter for Ray in a copy of Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon. A fitting book for the story of The Umbrella Academy and this season.

The song playing during the closing montage is a cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Games” by Parra for Cuva featuring Anna Naklab.

Luther calls Jack Ruby, presumably to convince him not to kill Lee Harvey Oswald. But Jack has already picked up his gun.

Ah, The Sparrow Academy. We delved deep into what the ending of The Umbrella Academy season 2 means over here. For now, know that The Sparrow Academy is likely lifted from Volume 3 of The Umbrella Academy comics, “Hotel Oblivion.” We say “likely” because the team doesn’t have an official name but it does invoke a lot of Sparrow imagery. The Sparrow Academy turns up at the very end of volume “Hotel Oblivion.” In the show, The Sparrow Academy seems to exist in an alternate universe created by The Umbrella Academy’s actions in Dallas. In the comic, it is implied that they are simply seven other extraordinary children born on October 1, 1989. This could prove to be the case in the show as well…save for Ben Hargreeves, who we are obviously already familiar with.

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sarsaparillia · 5 years

Text

title: dreadfully unsolicited advice summary: Leandra Hawke invites Grand Enchanter Fiona to join her for a cup of tea. — templar!au coda; Leandra, Fiona.

rating: t+ word count:3700+ genre: gen/family/angst sort of notes: anyway i love leandra hawke and you all can just deal with that. here’s part... ix holy shit

AO3 | FFN

—

The reports come in from Adamant nearly too fast for the Inquisition’s spymistress to keep up.

But only nearly.

Sister Nightingale burns oil ‘til midnight, and oftentimes much later. Thre news out of Adamant is grim; down near half the numbers they’d gone in with, which is still better than she had expected. Down to half is better than down to a quarter; she’ll have to send Charter on recruitment again.

(Wasteful, but necessary. Charter has a decent sense about people, and the Nightingale learned her lesson with Painter. Close, but not too close.)

She is halfway through skinning the next report when she almost spits out her wine for the laughter.

Oh, but the Maker has a very queer sense of humour.

Nightingale reads through the missive a second time, pleased when the letters don’t change. She cannot say she is not amused by the though, and she smiles an old killer’s smile.

She does owe Lady Leandra one back for that little stunt the Hawke matriarch pulled with the apprentices. While it had been a stunt that Nightingale agreed with in theory, it had still made her life markedly more difficult, and if anyone can appreciate how difficult Nightingale’s life already is, it is Lady Leandra Hawke.

Things used to be so simple, Nightingale reflects.

But maybe they had never really been simple, and had only seemed to be so, and the Maker has always been a cruel taskmaster. She thinks of her love, sequestered away in Denerim at the behest of another monarch, and does not have to reconsider.

Sister Nightingale yawns, stretches. Her spine pip-pop-pops, and the hour burns so late. Her eyelids droop.

But still: one last letter to write and send across the Waking Sea, and then she will rest.

—--------------------------------------------

Skyhold is much as Leandra Hawke had imagined it would be: a could draughty castle in the middle of the mountains, with a quickly-growing village sprung up at the bottom of the valley for trade, a truly impressive dearth of structural integrity and sense, and a very large number of Carta dwarves whom Leandra eyes shrewdly and thinks loudly in their direction, don’t make me write to your mothers, because I can and I will, do not test me.

(The Carta dwarves shuffle off. Leandra is appeased.)

But for all its drawbacks, Skyhold is big enough to house a proper mage tower, and has plenty of space for Leandra’s own charges. When they’d been riding up, the youngest of her templars had shuddered and shaken her head. Sommat’s not right here, m’um, she’d said, and Leandra had been inclined to agree.

However.

Her charges will be safe here, and there is no Divine to call the Exalted March that Leandra has spent more months than she can count dreading. Skyhold itself is walled in from all sides, which is both a blessing and a curse; they’ll see their enemy coming clear for leagues, but they’ll have nowhere to run if it comes down to it. And—

Well.

Leandra has missed her grandchildren.

“Liana, darling, don’t talk with your mouth full,” Leandra reminds the oldest of said grandchildren.

“S’rr’ee Gran,” Liana says, with a full mouth. All three of Leandra’s grandchildren eat as though they’ve never seen food in their lives before; if Leandra’s daughter was anything but what she is, Leandra would think that she were starving them. But the truth of the matter is that really, they’re simply all growing children, and they need energy to continue doing that.

Leandra reminds herself of the regular bill to feed fifty-odd mage children and six teenage templar-initiates, and tries to count her blessings.

Carina seems to have finished, because she’s started to push her food around her plate in a gesture very reminiscent of her mother. Leandra thinks that this is fitting: if Carina is Bethany in miniature, then Liana is Alistair, and Malcolm, for all that he is the youngest of the three, is Leandra’s own Marian exactly.

Her daughter’s children all each have their own mannerisms, but it’s rather amusing to see which one fits where, all the same.

And oh, but she does love them so dearly.

“What is it, Rina, sweet?” Leandra asks. “You look like you’re thinking about something.”

Liana looks at her twin, just as she always has done whenever anyone is addressing her twin. They exchange wordless glances, and then Liana opens her mouth.

Leandra holds up a hand.

“Lia,” she says, only a little stern. One day, they’ll learn. “Let your sister speak, please.”

Liana slumps backwards, put out. Leandra knows that she’s truly the one who forces them not to communicate in tandem as they prefer, but she also does think that Carina needs to learn to use her own words, and not always rely on Liana’s ability to interpret her ever thought.

They won’t always be able to do that, Leandra knows. She thinks of Revka only for a moment, and then she puts the thoughts away.

“…Are we going to keep staying with the Grand Enchanter?” Carina finally asks. She pushes the food around her plate some more, brows furrowing together with the concentrated effort of it. “Or are you going to look after us, Gran?”

The Grand Enchanter.

Ah, Leandra thinks.

The Grand Enchanter is the reason, no more and no less, that Leandra has made the whole long trek all this way, to this godforsaken, better-forgotten place. Her grandchildren are part and parcel to it, certainly, and the scolding that Marian and Carver are both going to get, as well, but—

Grand Enchanter Fiona is Alistair’s mother, and Leandra wants to know why on the Maker’s green earth she’s only learning about this now.

“I think we’ll share that, darling,” Leandra says, lightly. “There’s no reason to uproot, not when your mother and father will be back so soon. How does that sound?”

All three of them brighten. Leandra isn’t offended; they’ve been uprooted enough, her grandchildren, and there’s no reason to do it with exception for her pride.

Leandra has never put much stock in pride. It only ever makes a mess, does pride.

“Thanks, Gran,” Carina says, very softly. She wiggles a little in her chair, reaching over to throw her arms around Leandra’s side in a haphazard attempt at a hug.

Leandra smiles. They really are a very wonderful set of grandchildren, and they’ll grow up to be wonderful adults, too; they’re shaping up for it already, Liana and Carina, and Malcolm is going to put Marian to shame with the trouble he’s going to manage to stir up, in all likelihood.

If Leandra were a better person, she’d probably try to put a stop to the trouble bit.

But she is not a better person, and Leandra privately thinks that frankly, the world could use a little more trouble, so long as it’s the good kind. Malcolm isn’t likely to try to set Orlais on fire, overmuch. And really, the Orlesians could probably use some well-planned ruckus.

It would certainly shake up their little Game.

Never let it be said that Leandra Hawke is not a petty person. She is. She simply hides it better than most other petty people do. Orlais is Val Royeaux is the Divine, and despite the fact that Justinia is dead, Leandra still hasn’t forgiven her yet.

Perhaps it is unhealthy, to enjoy spiting a dead woman so.

But Leandra is perfectly aware that the Divine had had the power to have stopped Knight-Commander Meredith in her holy silverite-greaved tracks, and she did not.

There are many things that Leandra cannot, will not, forgive, and this is among them.

And so, for the issue at hand: if Malcolm starts another holy war, it won’t be anything that Leandra’s oldest hasn’t already done first. She supposes that really, it could be far worse; Malcolm is arguably less feral than Marian ever has been in her entire life.

Leandra can hold her peace.

Right now, she has bigger things on her mind.

For example: how in the Maker’s hallowed name to convince Alistair to even speak to the Grand Enchanter once he finds out, because he will find out, and Leandra knows her son-in-law; the boy balks the second anyone so much as brings up the breath of who his parents might have been. This only gets worse, when whoever it is brings up who Alistair might have been. It would be adorable if it weren’t so frustrating.

Other lives, Leandra thinks, bemused. Other worlds. Perhaps what it would like to be dead; she wonders, sometimes, about how that long, nightmarish stasis down in the dark of the foundries would have gone, had her youngest not been there.

Yes, dead and dying and drowning all the time.

But—

She banishes the thoughts. This is not the time for them. She is here with her grandchildren, her little monsters, and they are not anywhere else. There is no loss to them. There is no pain. There is only bright clean joy, and love, a thick smear of love.

Leandra returns her attention to the table.

She can think on the little deaths of her own life later.

—------------------------------------------------

When the Grand Enchanters knocks on Leandra’s chambers, she leaves the letter she’d been writing at the desk with the ink still wet, and pulls the door open with a flourish and a smile.

An accepted invitation to tea, albeit a strange, hesitant acceptance all the same; this is far more pleasant than the alternative.

Leandra had prepared herself, for the alternative.

“Lady Hawke,” Grand Enchanter Fiona says. She is a slim woman with a low, musical voice that would be very lovely to listen to read. Her skin is pale, and her eyes are very, very dark.

“Oh, Grand Enchanter, please, come in! I’ve made tea,” Leandra says, gestures inside gently enough to coax a recalcitrant cat. “Thank you for coming. I wasn’t sure you would have the time, what with looking after the children.”

The Grand Enchanter relaxes minutely, and steps inside. “They have been no trouble.”

“No, I can’t image they would be,” Leandra pronounces, as she leads the Grand Enchanter to the parlour. “At least, not Liana and Carina. Malcolm—he’s very much like my eldest. Too much, perhaps. But I am glad they’ve not turned you off them entirely. They can be a bit of a handful, but I suppose you’d know that.”

The Grand Enchanter shrugs delicately. “Less than most.”

Leandra laughs, very softly. The tea set sits low on the trolley, laden with little teacakes and a large teapot that steams thinly. The cups are bone-china, brought from her Leandra’s own mother’s collection; Kirkwall’s dwarven artistry, again. “Give Malcolm a few years. I think he’ll give the Carta a run for their coin. Rina’s too shy for it, but Lia’s like her father.

“Is she?” the Grand Enchanter asks, perhaps a little too quickly, as they sit.

Leandra pours. Guests first, as she was taught. Pearlescent tendrils of steam drift through the air.

“Mmm,” Leandra hums into her tea, when they’ve both settled at last. “She is, yes. Less self-sacrificing, of course, but that’s not a bad thing. Alistair is liable to get himself killed, I don’t know how my daughter puts up with it.”

The Grand Enchanter’s knuckles are white as she sets her teacup down in lieu of an answer.

Leandra smiles into the brim of her cup, to hide.

Got you, she thinks.

“‘Ow so, may I ask?”

“Alistair? Oh, it’s simple, really. He loves my daughter more than life itself,” Leandra sighs. Truths. All truths. “It’s why I never objected, you know, even when he was still a templar.”

“I assume ‘e was not a very good templar?”

“My daughter is a mage,” Leandra says, a little wry. “He can’t have been that good at it, as they did end up married. Chantry law doesn’t mean much to either of them, I’m afraid.”

The Grand Enchanter makes a tiny noise, like a broken heart.

“I’ve been told he takes after his father,” Leandra continues, pretending blithe obliviousness to the Grand Enchanter’s growing melancholy. “But, you know, I don’t think that’s quite right. I met Maric, once, and they’re nothing alike. Frankly, I think Alistair takes after you.”

Leandra’s tea freezes in its cup.

(Oh, what a waste.)

“I am sorry, Lady Hawke, I do not follow,” says the Grand Enchanter, voice frosty.

“He has your eyes,” Leandra says, easily. “Liana and Carina do, as well. I’m sure you see the resemblance far more clearly than I, but it is there.”

“‘Ou told you?”

“A little bird,” Leandra tells her. “Oh, do sit down, Grand Enchanter, I didn’t invite you here to threaten you.”

The Grand Enchanter sits.

Slowly, jerkily, but she sits.

“I wasn’t lying when I said that Alistair loves my daughter more than life itself,” Leandra says, lightly, as she pours herself another cup of tea. She’d had the foresight to keep more than two cups on hand, and thank the Maker for that. It is a truly lovely Rivaini blend that Isabela ships out special from Llomeryn. That pirate of Marian’s is really the girl’s saving grave; Leandra doesn’t know what Marian would do without her. “I would never do anything to put them in harm’s way. Threatening you would be profoundly counterproductive! What would be the point?”

“Then why?”

Leandra sets her teacup down, very, very gently.

“You’re their grandmother, too,” she says. “I thought you might want to get to know them, as such.”

The Grand Enchanter slumps back into the striped salmon-and-cream silk of the pillows. “I do not have the right.”

“Of course, you do,” Leandra says, breezily. “They are your grandchildren.”

“I should not, then.”

“That’s a different thing,” Leandra says, delicately drinks her tea. “Please, Grand Enchanter, drink your tea. I only have so much, and it would be an atrocity to let it go cold and then have to get rid of it. It’s darling, I promise.”

The Grand Enchanter sips hesitantly from her cup.

Leandra smiles at her.

“There,” the Hawke matriarch says, all well-pleased when startled pleasure flashes across the Grand Enchanter’s face. It is very good tea, if Leandra does say so herself. “Now, tell me, why should you not?”

And, haltingly, the Grand Enchanter spills out the whole sorry tale. It’s a long one, and a sad one, and Leandra gasps and exclaims at all the appropriate parts. Even as her voice grows hoarse with use, the Grand Enchanter continues; she could give Varric a run for his money if she wanted to, Leandra thinks.

“But that—that is why,” the Grand Enchanter croaks the words, has to clear her throat. “He was better off without me.”

“But that’s untrue, isn’t it,” says Leandra, raising her eyebrows.

“Pardonez moi,” says the Grand Enchanter, and Leandra’s tea freezes over a second time.

(For burning Andraste’s sake, Leandra thinks. Orlesians.)

She pours herself yet another cup of tea; it pours still steaming. Thank the Maker for a good old-fashioned flame run. She’ll have to see if Sandal can’t do something about reinforcing this one, it has been such a delight.

“He’s not been better off without you, has he? It’s untrue to say he has,” Leandra says. “And rather silly, if you think about it.”

“I am an elf, Lady Hawke.”

“Yes, and he spent ten years in Redcliffe living with the mabari in the kennels and in the kitchens like a servant, and then he was sent to the Chantry to become a templar,” Leandra says, flatly. “Which was the worst thing for him, if I may say so. No child is better off without parents who want them.”

Grand Enchanter Fiona presses her lips together so hard that they turn white and bloodless. “You do not have any understanding of what it means to be a half-breed. He—non. You do not.”

“No,” Leandra readily agrees. “I don’t.”

“But?”

“No buts,” Leandra says, for this is true. She has no concept of what life would have been like for her daughter’s husband if he had grown up in his mother’s care, and she will not pretend that she does. “I have no idea what that would be like.”

The Grand Enchanter’s shoulders loosen infinitesimally. The acknowledgement seems to be enough. “I did not—I wanted to keep him. More than anything.”

“But?” Leandra echoes.

“But it would ‘ave been very selfish of me. Ferelden—” the Grand Enchanter closes her eyes, and her accent comes a little thicker than a moment ago with the pain, “—Ferelden gave ‘im a chance to be happy. And ‘e is ‘appy, is ‘e not? I cannot ask for more.”

Leandra looks steadily at the other woman for a long, heart-rending moment. There are so many things that Grand Enchanter Fiona missed; the twins, Kirkwall, Malcolm. They’re memories that Leandra wants for her to have, because they’re memories that she ought to have.

The question, as always, is about where to begin.

But—

Ah, Leandra thinks. There.

“Do you know how I knew that your son loved my daughter?”

Grand Enchanter Fiona lifts her head. Her eyes swallow all the light in the room, and Leandra adjusts her mental moniker: Fiona, now. Only Fiona.

“How?”

“I eloped when I was twenty-one,” Leandra says. “He was an escaped Gallows mage. Quite the healer, in fact, except when it came to healing himself. And do I promise, this is important—” Leandra breaks off to smile at the confusion on her companion’s face, “—because half the Hinterlands knew that my husband was the only healer worth a sovereign between Lothering and Kinloch Hold. They even had a special knock.”

Leandra pauses to exhale a dagger of pain. Think of Malcolm hurts, even after all these years. It might always hurt; she sees so much of him in Bethany. “Bless her heart, my daughter isn’t half so good as he was. but it happened sometimes after he died, even still.”

“And?”

Leandra laughs. “And one day, when Alistair came to walk Bethany to the Chantry for services—because they’d taken to doing that to have more time together, if you can believe it—we had one of those visitors. A dying little boy. Alistair walked in without knocking, and my daughter’s magic was everywhere. I thought my heart was going to stop. A templar in my house and my mage daughter, with her hands glowing on some boy’s chest!”

Fiona inhales like a knife-cut.

Leandra sips her tea, continues. “He looked at her, and all he said was, what can I do?’.”

The remembering doesn’t hurt so much, Leandra realizes. Somehow both the most transformative and the most terrifying moment of her daughter’s life, she’s sure, and now it only makes her smile. She shakes her head, the crows’ feet at her eyes creasing deeper. “But that’s when I knew. He’d have done anything for her.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because that little boy’s mother was an elf,” Leandra says. She wonders, idly, where they are now. “Perhaps it still matters to some people, but it doesn’t matter to my daughter, and I doubt even more it matters to your son.”

“What is your point, Lady Hawke?”

“My point is that you ought to give them the chance to decide for themselves, rather than just pretending that it all doesn’t exist. You don’t stare at Alistair, I would hazard, but you certainly do stare at the twins, and you’d let Mal get away with murder. It’s very telling, Grand Enchanter.”

Fiona manages a smile at the mention of Leandra’s grandson. “He is very solemn, for someone so small.”

“He’s going to drive them stark raving mad, I think,” Leandra says dryly. “He really is just like Marian was, when she was that age. Poor dears. They have no idea what’s coming.”

“Would it not be better to warn them?”

Leandra laughs again, eyes sparkling. “No, I don’t think so. Learning each other through it is half the fun!”

Fiona is very skeptical of this. “I truly do not think so, Lady Hawke.”

“Call me Leandra, please,” Leandra says, smiling out of the corner of her mouth. “But stories aside, we do have a practical matter on our hands, and it does need an answer.”

Fiona tilts her head in question.

“Do you want to tell him, or not?” Leandra asks. “It does change where we go from here, after all, and it’s no small decision.”

Grand Enchanter Fiona makes a noise like a wounded animal. A flicker of regret goes through Leandra; regret, and pity, and yet—resolve. They all deserve a denouement, and Fiona, in particular, deserves to call her grandchildren her own.

But—

“Not yet,” Fiona says, whispers, an endless maw of grief inside of her. “I cannot—not yet.”

“Yes,” Leandra agrees. She pulls herself back from the brink, because she is not Marian, and she understands that sometimes, people need time to come to terms with what they are. “Perhaps not yet.”

—----------------------------------------------

Leandra’s children return from the desert more or less in one piece, which is nothing less than she’d expected. Marian’s run off without even saying hello, and Carver is apparently the new Warden-Commander of Orlais—Leandra is going to have some words for the First Warden, when she gets around to penning the self-important twit a letter—but Bethany and Alistair seem to be alright.

This lasts all of a day, and then Leandra finds out that Sister Leliana has taken it upon herself to make Alistair aware that he is not, in fact, an orphan.

Leandra would applaud the Nightingale for her impeccable timing, except that Alistair is not, actually, an adversary!

That girl, Leandra sighs.

Knives before niceness. It never works the way a person expects it to. The Nightingale might be the Inquisition’s spymistress, but she still has so very much to learn. The only thing to do, now, is to find Fiona and to inform her of the coming ballistae. There is not much time; they need to decide how they’re going to go about this, and they must do it quickly, before the news hardens Alistair to the possibility of a reconciliation, entire.

They are all, Leandra thinks, so very, very young.

(Timing, Nightingale, Leandra thinks, wearily. Timing!)

And as such, Lady Leandra Hawke gets up from her desk, and makes her way outside.

—

fin.

#dragon age #leandra hawke #fiona #templar!au #seriously this won't make sense unless you've read the rest of it #but ANYWAY i love leandra hawke so much

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knightingale-xiv · 5 years

Text

Nightingale's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Really Bad Week: Day 4

Chip, having now dabbled in revolutionary theory, had set part of his plans in motion. He needed some rough and tumble characters to help him overpower the guards at this prison. By his count, there were at least 50 armed Garlean soldiers here and ready to rumble. The bangaa, Tongo not included, had roughly 30 in their numbers. There were only 5 viera in the prison, and the other 60 or so prisoners seemed to be mostly Hyur with sprinklings of Elezen and Roegadyn. If he could get everyone on board, they would easily outnumber the Garleans and be able to bust out...

The only problem was the aether dampening collars and the lack of equipment. Not everyone was a hand-to-hand specialist like Chip, and not everyone was fit to fight without Aether. In fact, roughly half of the prisoner population seemed too weary and hopeless to fight at all...This was the fourth day of Chip's captivity and so he would have to spend this time rallying who he could.

Kaja was busy recruiting the able bodied resistance fighters that she trusted. Chip had to have meetings with them to convince them he wasn't insane...And they still weren't entirely convinced that he wasn't. Getting an army to fight for him off the bat wasn't what he was expecting though. He needed to spark something serious, and to do that he needed a few good individuals to back him up and be ready. Kaja was one...Tongo was going to be the second.

Chip had to admit, he was nervous about meeting with the behemoth of a bangaa. Kaja had spent most of the morning on their shift telling him about all the horrors that came with the bangaa warrior. He had apparently eaten a guard and personally put a few of the other prisoners in the infirmary. The Garleans had tried to execute him, but it evidently didn't take. They decided to keep him around as he was a good asset and worker when docile and not bothered...and when left hungry. Tongo only got one meal a week, and that was yesterday.

This gave Chip an idea. If he could sneak his meals to Tongo at night, he may be able to convince the bangaa to join his cause. He set out to do so tonight, a bundle of nutrition bars and a biscuit under arm. Fortunately, stealth was one of Chip's strong points. Manuevering through the camp without being seen was child's play, and he found Tongo's cell easy enough. The brute had to be kept seperately from other prisoners to avoid conflict.

Chip went up to the barred window at the back of the cell and peered inside. Tongo was asleep on his mat, snoring a low rumbling snore. What a freakin' monster...It was kind of exciting.

"Psst...Tongo." Chip called, knocking gently on the bars. The sleeping giant didn't so much as stir. Chip couldn't blame the guy, it was like...Midnight. "Tongooo!" Chip whispered a little louder, flicking a pebble ay the bangaa. The warrior snorted and shifted, slowly rising to a seated position. He looked around slowly for the source of the noise before seeing the white haired Hyur at his window. "Come here for a second, please!" Chip called and waved.

Much to Chip's surprose, Tongo obeyed quietly and lumbered to the window, crouching down so his massive face could peer through the bars at this little person.

"What do you want?" The bangaa giant's speech was slow and deliberate, like he was thinking about each word for a second before saying it.

"I wanted to give you this." Chip pulled the bundle from under his arms and slid it between the bars. It looked small in Tongo's fingers as he reaches to grab it. The bangaa slowly opened the bundle and sniffed at the food inside.

"Food?" He asked, dragging out the 'oo' sound a little. It was kinda adorable...he was like a giant puppy. "Why?" There was slight suspicion in Tongo's voice. "Are you not...afraid of me?"

"Afraid? Nah, I just saw that you don't get much food, and get dragged around on a chain all the time. Figured you'd need some extra grub is all!" Chip grinned up. "Everyone says you're some sort of monster, but I don't think so..."

Tongo took a good long look at the hyur...What a strange boy. He sat down with a soft thud and began eating, never taking his eyes off Chip.

"I'm Chip, by the way." He stuck his hand through the bar, and Tongi shook it with surprising gentleness.

"Tongo..." the goliath mumbled through a mouthful of nutrition bar. Chip grinned and rested his chin on the sill. He spent a few hours talking to Tongo and learning about him. Evidently, Tongo wasn't as bad as the Garleans said.

"I did not want...to hurt anyone..." Tongo rumbled. "Guard and inmates...hurting other people..." he explained, looking down with an expression that Chip could only describe as shame. Chip smiled sympathetically and nodded.

"Yeah, I know the feeling... I've had to hurt people too because they were hurting others...I think I'm going to have to do it again here soon." Chip looked over his shoulder. Guards were patrolling all night, but they were starting to get closer. "I have to go Tongo. I'll visit again tomorrow!" Chip promised with a grin. Tongo slowly nodded.

"I will look forward to it..." he murmured before laying back down and preparing to sleep again. "If you fight to protect...then it will be ok."

Chip smirked then hopped down and began sneaking through the camp, pleased with how the exchange had gone. Tongo may just come around and help him after all! With a stealthy skip in his step he made his way back to his barracks. He was pretty close when he heard a very unwanted sound...

The high pitched wail of the alarum.

He looked around, expecting a spotlight to shine down on him, but saw nothing aimed his direction. Instead, a light was shining down on another hyur that was sprinting through the yard. The hyur had a hooded work jacket on, so he couldn't make out his features, but based on how he was running he was definitely terrified.

Chip knew that if he went to help he would jeopardize his own plans...but someone was in trouble. He cursed his nature and took off quietly on an intercept course. The man was managing to zig zag and occasionally lose the light, but guards were shouting and closing in.

The man panted and wheezed as he sprinted, looking over his shoulder occasionally to see his pursuers. He wasn't going to make it! He only freaked out more as a pair of hands shot out of the shadows and dragged him behind one of the barracks. He screamed a muffled scream into the palm of a young white haired man with very intense blue eyes, before realizing he was another prisoner.

"What in the world are you doing?" Chip hissed, looking out at the scrambling guards. They wouldn't be safe for long. They would find them both in a matter of minutes.

"I-I was sneaking into my wife's barrack! She's pregnant and I...I..." he began to tear up, grasping at Chip's jumpsuit. "I already have my strike...please, they'll kill me! You have to help!" He begged. Chip sighed and placed his hands on the man's shoulders.

"Relax...give me your jacket..." he murmured, pulling it off the man. "Wait for thirty seconds then make a run for your barracks." The youth ordered, slipping the jacket on and pulling the hood up.

The man was dumbfounded. This stranger was actually going to help? "Who...who are you? Why are you saving me?"

Chip smiled and gave a non-chalant wink. "Cuz that's what heroes do. In case I don't make it back, find Kaja the Viera and tell her that Chip has been taken and to get ready for the show. Can you do that?" He asked. The man nodded dumbly and crawled into the shadows. The guards were getting closer.

Chip could hear one getting closer and waited before springing out and cold clocking the guard. The man went down with a cry of pain, and Chip nearly went with him. He was a staggering mess in combat without his aether. Still, he had to do the best he could. He whistled and gave a rude gesture to the other guards and the spotlight before taking off. The shouts went up and the men began to give chase. He hoped the Hyuran guy could make it back safely...

He ducked through walkways and around corners, doing his best to try and lose his pursuers. Things seemed to be going pretty well! Even with his reduced capabilities, he was making pretty good time! He whipped around a corner and began running through a narrow alleyway. He could see his barracks! If he could just clear the alley, he was home free!

He grinned in victory as he neared the exit, but was startled to see a large black blur speeding around the corner at his face. He had no time to dodge before it collided with his nose and he went down, slamming his head against the hard dirt and blinking. Everything was fading as unconciousness threatened him...The last thing he saw before the darkness overtook his vision was the grinning maw of the Roegadyn guard...

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Final Day

#ffxiv #balmung #chip wayman #nightingale #resistance and rebellion

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