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canary3d-obsessed · 3 years

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Restless Rewatch: Nirvana in Fire, Episode 02

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff)

Warning: Spoilers for All 54 Episodes!

A Cunning Plan

Let's start by checking in with the in-progress schemes. Nirvana in Fire features many, many overlapping schemes that stretch across multiple episodes.

Princess Nihuang's Marriage: Princess Nihuang is betrothed to a dead guy, and that's fine with her. If she needs tender emotional care she's got Xia Dong. Xia Dong is married to a dead guy so this works well for both of them.

The Emperor wants to marry Nihuang off, because she's got a loyal heap of troops at the southern border, and he's a paranoid old fuck, who doesn't like anyone to have the power to overthrow him. Marrying her will sort of force her to hand her troops off to her impulsive younger brother, or something.

The Emperor has a soft spot for Nihuang, however, so he's allowed her to set a bunch of impossible conditions on the marriage, including a martial arts contest. NIF is a hybrid palace drama and Wuxia drama, so there are courtesans and backstabbing and sneaky maids and sneaky eunuchs but also, people can fly.

The two main power seekers, Prince Yu and the Crown Prince, have flunkies that they want Nihuang to marry, but their flunkies suck at martial arts, so if they want her to marry one of their dudes, there will have to be cheating.

Note that Nihuang's good friends Jingrui and Yujin are taking part in the contest to marry her, which might be weird, except they both know she can beat their asses so they seem to just be joining in for fun & prestige.

The fact that she doesn't want to marry either of these loveable cuties means that she's pretty serious about staying betrothed to her first love, despite his apparent deadness.

(more after the cut!)

Recruiting Mei Changsu / Killing Mei Changsu: Team Prince Yu wants to recruit Mei Changsu. Team Crown Prince wants to recruit him or kill him, if recruiting him doesn't work.

Mei Changsu acts like this is so tedious; all he wants to do is rest. But they only want to recruit him because he and his pal Lin Chen made them believe he is the answer to their problems. Whenever Mei Changsu acts annoyed at something, it's probably something he actually orchestrated. "Pork chops again?" (secretly buys more pork chops).

The Duke Qing/ Landgrab Case: In Episode 1, the Jiangzuo Alliance protected some witnesses against Duke Qing in an enslavement/land grabbing case. It's difficult for me to find anything about historical land grabbing in China because Google is full of 21st century land grabbing information. Anyway Duke Qing works for Prince Yu, so the witnesses are (whether they mean to be or not) on The Crown Prince's side. The Emperor has an interest in this case, because land grabbing is bad, apparently, even by corrupt-emperor standards. Xia Dong is in charge of investigating.

The Chiyan Army Case: This is the big conspiracy that the entire show is about. 11 years ago, the Emperor received evidence that Prince Qi, Lin Xie (Mei Changsu's father), and the entire Chiyan army were going to rebel. This was supposedly reported by Xia Dong's husband, Nie Feng, before Lin Xie supposedly killed him. The emperor ordered executions for everybody.

Prince Jing thought this was a bunch of bullshit and didn't hesitate to say so, which got him sent off to distant regions to do army things for years at a time, and landed him a place high up on the emperor’s shit list.

The Hazelnut Pastry Scheme: This is a small scale, benevolent scheme, in which Concubine Jing will eventually stop making cookies with hazelnuts in them, because Mei Changsu is allergic to them.

Ok, that’s the scheme roundup for this episode. On with the show!

Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting

After a quick expository chat between the Emperor and Gong Gao, laying out the reasons for the Nihuang Marriage Scheme, we go to Prince Yu’s place to watch superhot Meng Zhi, commander of the emperor's guards, whip some ass. Not, alas, literally. Despite his leather shoulder thingies and his handsome beard, and his commanding ways on a battlefield, when it comes to interpersonal relations he is pretty much a labrador retriever puppy in human form.

Meng Zhi is kicking the asses of Prince Yu’s fighters to determine if they're qualified to compete in the Marriage contest. They are not. He points out to the Prince that they can't put such terrible wimps into the competition because it will make the country’s defenses look weak.

This beatdown is observed by Prince Yu and by Xie Yu, who Prince Yu thinks is on his side. Xie is 100% on the Crown Prince's side, but is carefully hiding that fact; he has his son working for Prince Yu as part of his cover.

In determining how severe an ass kicking is, everyone talks about how many moves it takes to defeat someone, like it's chess. Meng Zhi can beat literally anyone else in the show. He's number two on the Langya List of fighters & we never meet #1.

Fe Liu Was Fast as Lightning

Mei Changsu is hanging out in the garden at Xie manor while Fe Liu jumps around. Fe Liu wants Mei Changsu to play Roblox with him, and pouts when MCS opts for staying in the garden and reading a book.

Fe Liu is utterly devoted to Mei Changsu; I really love their relationship. Fe Liu’s backstory isn't fully explained in the show, but apparently he was raised from an early age to focus on being extremely lethal, and didn't spend much time learning to talk or other skills, making him the epitome of the asynchronous/ gifted teen. Mei Changsu isn’t who raised him to be like this; MCS and Lin Chen rescued him, which is why he is now Mei Changsu’s personal murder pet.

Fe Liu is both a complete fantasy character and also a really believable teen, beautifully acted by Leo Wu, who DMBJ fans know from Tomb of the Sea, and who Xiao Zhan fans know from Battle Through the Heavens.

Fe Lui promptly gets into a fight with Meng Zhi, who's visiting Xie manor. All Fe Liu was doing was leaping about the rooftops like an assassin, but since Xie Yu is the sort of guy that a lot of people would like to kill, Meng Zhi doesn't think this is so good. They have a hilarious, entertaining fight with many, many wire-assisted moves.

They're pretty evenly matched, and Xie Yu watches them with extreme interest until Mei Changsu shows up and tells Fe Liu to stop. Xie Yu is watching because he needs to know how many dudes he should send to assassinate Mei Changsu. Answer: more. Always more.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately since it’s probably all part of MCS’s plan) Fe Liu's extreme skilz make it obvious that his boss is someone important. Mei Changsu discusses this with Jingrui and Yujin in an open-air setting where Jingrui's brother Xie Bi can totally hear them. In no time flat, father and son have reported his identity to their respective princes.

Over at Prince Yu's place, Qin Banruo and her awesome eye makeup join the party. She's Prince Yu’s advisor/manipulator, working for the (fallen) Hua kingdom, led by the (deceased) Princess Xuanji . She has a network of spies who work for her, that she deploys for Prince Yu's schemes. Her ultimate goal is not to help him, however, but just to fuck up the Da Liang Empire, which conquered the Hua.

(Nearly) Everybody Hates Jingyan

Xia Dong heads out on her assignment in the Land Grab Case, and Nihuang goes to see her off. They talk about gender expectations and how annoying it is to have to marry a dude, and briefly hang out being WLW goals with their mutual devotion, excellent fashion sense and deadly fighting abilities. Nihuang, in particular, wears the prettiest things and also stands at attention like she's commanding an army; I adore her.

They're interrupted by the arrival of Prince Jing, who is greeted cheerfully by Nihuang and eye-rollingly by Xia Dong.

He's wearing an awesome brass-and-blue armor that we never see again after this episode. It's too bad - it's a good color for him and it has a cool vampire cloak with a high collar.

Prince Jing takes the opportunity to snark at Xia Dong about her investigation and the Xuanjing Bureau’s penchant for inventing finding conspiracies, and then rides off before she can reply.

This leads Nihuang and Xia Dong to get into their chronic argument about the Chiyan Conspiracy and the Lin family, and then Xia Dong hits the road.

Prince Jing and his subordinates stand around outside the palace waiting to report to the emperor while the emperor ignores him. They get sweatier and sweatier while they wait. which makes me like the Emperor a little bit more.

Prince Yu and CP Xian are busy sucking up to the emperor as they look at a manuscript. They are a bunch of assholes and you can see that Gao Zhan isn't a fan of this bullshit.

Eventually Gao Zhan reminds/persuades the emperor to summon Prince Jing, whose brothers snark at him like a couple of 12 year old girls while he radiates manly vigor and handsomeness.

Consort Jin is bummed that she can't see Prince Jing for another 5 days, and her maid sidekick says random comforting things. This maid, Xiao Xin, is actually a little snake, who works for Qin Banruo's network. We don't learn that until sometime later.

All of the maids have this same hairstyle. If you are a westerner and you think this hairstyle is crazy, have a look at some Roman and Byzantine historic hairstyles. I'm not saying this hairstyle is NOT crazy, mind you; just that crazy hair was a feature of many, many historical empires.

Consort Jing has someone deliver her hazelnut cookies to Prince Jing; she doesn’t know about Mei Changsu yet so hazelnut is still on the menu. Nicest mom. Also smartest, helpful-est mom, as the story develops.

Suck-Up Contest

At Xie manor, Xie Bi tries to get Mei Changsu to go meet the Empress, who has stopped by with Nihuang specifically to meet him, as part of the Recruit Mei Changsu scheme. Jingrui says nope, fuck that, he's not going to be a pawn in your political games, fuck off. We get to see Jingrui being steely and righteous, which is both cool and hot. Nihuang should totally marry him.

The Empress is annoyed that Mei Changsu doesn't show up, and Nihuang is like, it's ok, I don’t actually give a fuck about meeting new men. But I did want to meet his murder puppy Fe Liu.

Grand Princess Liyang says they don’t need to bother meeting pugilists, despite her son being one and her supposed best friends/co-parents also being pugilists.

Grand Princess Liyang will probably be glad Mei Changsu didn’t come to her little party, once she realizes what tends to happen when Mei Changsu comes to a party.

Then we go to the suitor tournament, in which everyone more or less sucks.

The princes really want to go over to Mei Changsu’s balcony to meet him, and they have a hilarious silent interaction where they both try not to be the first one to move. They finally cave, and go together.

Then they compete to see who can be the most cringe and blow the most smoke up Mei Changsu's ass.

They ply him with gifts and flattery, which he mostly manages to resist.

Cookie Time with Granny

Then they get summoned to go meet the grand empress, who is (I think) the mother of the previous emperor, the grandmother of the current emperor, and the great grandmother of basically every highborn character of the current generation, including Nihuang and Yujin, although it’s not clear where they sit in the family tree. Historically, cousin marriage - particularly of maternal cousins - was no big whoop in China, so it's not surprising that a lot of nobles would share a great-grandmother.

The Grand Empress is a sweet lady with dementia. She can’t figure out who the hell anyone is. First-time viewers feel the same way.

Her dementia is pretty well depicted, unlike a lot of TV dementia, or at least it matches up to my experiences with my own elders. She remembers the distant past more vividly than recent times; when she understands who’s in front of her she connects with them emotionally, but she falls off track easily. And she projects the identities of people she misses onto people who are around her.

Like many other grannies, no matter who is visiting, she wants them to 1. get married 2. produce offspring 3. eat something, you’re so skinny

When Mei Changsu meets Granny she immediately calls him Lin Shu, either because she recognizes him or because she really misses Lin Shu, or both. She calls Nihuang over and joins their hands, and Mei Changsu grabs onto Nihuang's hand and holds it for a while.

Everyone thinks it's adorable that Granny has dementia and is confused about that guy who was horribly killed, except Nihuang, who was already checking Mei Changsu out and is somewhat verklempt. She might have to revise her anti-man feelings a little bit.

Everyone leaves, and Nihuang hits up Mei Changsu to take a walk with her, casually mentioning that she could have his hand cut off for touching her, but since she's not in the mood, he's ok.

She prods a bit to find out what he's doing in town and what he's up to. “Do you have a girlfriend? Like a serious girlfriend or just a stalker who works for you?” She asks him which of the two princes he's going to support, but they’re interrupted by a eunuch beating a slave child. That’s the price you pay for trying to have a date in the palace, I guess.

#nirvana in fire #langya bang #nirvana in fire gifs #restless rewatch nirvana in fire #canary3d-original #my gifs

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chaoticevilbean · 3 years

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What if....

Ahsoka decided to stay with the Order?

What if she looked at Anakin? Looked at her Master, the one who raised her and taught her, the one who told her what she needed to know and prepared her how he could. Looked at the one who she would die for in an instant, who she never wanted to leave. The one who battled tirelessly to save her, who she knew, despite the Jedi way, despite all the time he’d spent as a Knight, was attached to her.

What if she looked at him, as he held out his hand, hopeful, and decided she would do as he had done for her? She would be attached, but learn to be powerful enough to not fail. What if she took his hand, and stayed, not with the Order, but with Anakin?

Anakin is overjoyed, but also worried. He doesn’t know how being betrayed will affect her, how being hunted by clones will change her dynamic while fighting. So he decides to leave immediately to ‘scout’. A different yet familiar setting should help, and they’ll avoid actually battling for at least a little while.

They get on the ship, and Ahsoka sticks close to her Master. The clones are cautious. They all heard the stories and rumors, and also heard the accomplishments of the Commander. Wrongfully accused, wrongfully convicted, and still loyal, still strong. Her life, dedicated to helping others.

Ahsoka is fine, if a little quiet. She participates sparingly in the take-off briefings, and she’s absolutely silent when Anakin informs the Council of his entire plan.

Then Anakin sends her off to rest, so she can fully recover. He drops her off at her quarters, gives her the next day off. The night passes as it used to.

Then the clones comm Anakin in a panic. They say there’s something wrong with Ahsoka. “Come to the cafeteria! Quickly, general!” Rex’s voice is barely audible over the distressed shouts of his fellow soldiers. Anakin rushes over. He’s scared, scared that something has happened to the Padawan he only just got back.

He gets to the cafeteria to find all the clones outside a locked door. The key pad has lightsaber cuts on it, slashed the exact way he taught Ahsoka to do when she didn’t want anyone inside. Rex says that they were all heading to breakfast as scheduled, and Ahsoka was already inside. She seemed fine, but when she saw the clones, she freaked out. She started pushing the tables at them, blocking their way inside and forcing them out. She came closer only to slash the doors before jumping back.

Anakin tells them to go about their days as usual. They’ll have to skip breakfast for now, until Ahsoka is okay. All but Rex leave. Anakin accepts that. It takes a half hour to get inside, opening the door without the keypad and deciding against just cutting a hole through. Every table is piled haphazardly in the way, nearly falling on the duo.

Anakin moves them with the Force. Carefully but not gently. At this point, he can hear crying. He becomes less careful. It takes an extra ten minutes.

The moment he can, Anakin sprints into the cafeteria. It takes him two seconds to spot his Padawan.

She’s in the corner, curled as tight as can be, sobbing. She doesn’t react to the presence of her Master, but the moment she sees Rex, she wails, pressing further and further into the walls. Anakin motions for Rex to stand down, and the clone moves as far back as he can without losing sight of his friend.

Ahsoka lets Anakin walk over, eyes trained on the white behind him. She only looks away when hands start to gently pull her up, pull her in. She doesn’t fight, hiding in the safety of her Master.

“What’s wrong, Snips? What happened?’ She doesn’t respond right away, but there’s no rush here. When she answers, her words are broken, strained.

“I- I was- was back there, and I cou- couldn’t let them get me, but there were so- so many.” Anakin tugs her closer. His heart that had only begun healing from the recent events was breaking all over again.

“You aren’t, Snips, okay? I won’t let that happen again. As long as I’m around, you’ll be okay.”

Ahsoka takes a long time to calm down. It’s a good thing nothing was planned for this day. Rex stays back the entire time, thinking about the pain his sister-in-arms had been brought because he and his brothers refused to disobey orders. He wouldn’t do it again, he promised himself. He wouldn’t let anything like it happen again.

Anakin spends the day comforting Ahsoka. He asks her if she can stay in her quarters that night. She says she’ll be fine, but that’s their personal code for “I’ll push through it.” He lets her stay with him that night, taking the mattress from her room so she can have a bed.

Midnight comes, and Anakin wakes up suddenly. It isn’t a threat, so he stays still.

A smaller hand reaches up to grab his. It squeezes. He squeezes back.

The next day, Anakin never leaves Ahsoka’s side. Even when they have to, he waits for her, never letting her remain alone. The clones keep a bit back, the word having been spread about the Togruta’s fear. They don’t want her to be scared, not when she asks them for honest opinions, speaks to them like she does anyone else, knows each one of them by name and can tell them apart even when they’re wearing the same armor with no characterization.

The next night, Anakin learns about Ahsoka’s nightmares. She sits up, fast, and she’s crying again. He hugs her, whispering that he’s there, that she’s not in danger. They fall asleep like that, the Master and the Padawan, holding onto each other like they’d always done.

A month passes of the same routine. Ahsoka sticks close to her Master, and sleeps on the floor next to him at night. When the darkness gets too much, she grabs his hand, anchors herself with his presence. When the nightmares come, they wake up in the morning as if they hadn’t fallen asleep hugging. The clones gradually get closer, until it’s almost like normal. They’re lucky there haven’t been any battles.

Then the battle does come. They go up against an all-droid ship, and the droids manage to board. Ahsoka gets separated from Anakin, but they’re in the middle of a fight, there’s no time to find him, no time to panic. So Ahsoka goes to the next best comfort: the Force.

It takes all of two minutes to take down the remaining droids in that area. The clones are standing back in shock. In the moment she gave in to the Force’s power, she became a blur. Her mind was no longer filled with the memories of the very men she fought with turning on her. Instead, it was filled with thoughts of how each one had dedicated their lives to the cause, how every last one of the soldiers were literally born and raised for battle. So many had died thinking their sacrifice was worthless, unimportant. So many had died, period. Ahsoka would not let that number grow if she could help it.

With the Force guiding her every move, more powerful now that it was her second companion, she's ten times as strong. Without waiting for the clones to catch up, she rushes through the ship, taking down droids by the dozens.

Every last boarder is destroyed, with minimal casualties. The enemy ship blows up and they make it safely away. Anakin is glad when Ahsoka reaches him, perfectly fine. She’s still wary of the clones, but she can feel their good, their light.

The day after she tries again to let the Force guide her. She’s sitting near Anakin as he fixes a fighter ship. There are clones all around her. She feels the light once again.

Then she feels something else. A little switch in the minds of all the soldiers, one that will change that light to darkness in a heartbeat.

She tells her Master what she felt that night, just before they rest. He says they can tell the Chancellor tomorrow.

The holograph forms of Palpatine. Ahsoka slams her fist down to shut it off.

“What was that‽”

“He isn’t good.”

“What do you mean he isn’t good?”

“I.. don’t know. I saw him, and I just felt so much darkness. He isn’t good, Master.” Anakin accepts the answer for the moment. Then he calls Obi-Wan. The two relay their message about the clones. Obi-Wan promises to look into it. Ahsoka speaks up quickly, much more confidently than before.

“Don’t tell anyone but the Council. Please.”

Obi-Wan agrees.

The days keep passing. The nightmares are more frequent, if less painful. Ahsoka no longer sleeps on the ground. Anakin won’t let his little sister be in so much pain for nothing. The nightmares are better like that.

The clones get closer to their commander. They drop ‘hints’ about how they see her.

“Commander Tano is one of the best people I’ve worked under, hands down.”

“What about the general?”

“Listen, I’d die for either in a heartbeat, but if you forced me to choose, I’d pick Ahsoka every time.”

Ahsoka was sitting a table away in the cafeteria. Anakin smiled at her then, though it was more of a smirk.

“She’s basically one of us at this point.”

“I know. We might as well call her sister.”

Rex was walking into a briefing. Ahsoka hid her face in Anakin’s arm, blushing bright orange at the words.

She lets the Force guide her constantly. Anakin follows her lead, and they both find that their attachment to one another actually helps. They’re bonded through the Force, and they grow stronger as they grow attached to one another. There is no way they’ll separate anytime soon.

Ahsoka can temporarily leave her Master’s side. It takes a lot of courage, and Rex usually has to be nearby, but she pushes away her doubts.

One day, she’s walking with Rex, trying to see how long she can go before her fear grows too large. She still feels that switch, and she hates it. Hates that her friend could become evil in a second and she can’t even tell why. So she reaches towards it. Maybe she can get it stuck on the light side, or something of the sort.

Rex freezes when he feels it. The little voice in his head, the very reason he followed orders he hated, the reason he listened to Krell at all, suddenly disappeared.

Ahsoka didn’t mean to destroy the switch, but she was happy that it happened. The switch was meant for dark, and so the light destroyed it.

Rex looks at Ahsoka, who’s grinning that sharp-toothed grin at him. He’s glad the voice is gone, but he also wants to know what she did. He doesn’t want people messing with his mind unannounced.

“What did you do?”

“I got rid of the switch!” It doesn’t immediately occur to her that Rex doesn’t know about the switch. If every clone has it, then surely they know about it and simply didn’t know the use.

“What switch?”

“The one that was gonna turn you bad. Luckily I felt it after that big battle we had against those droids. Master Obi-Wan’s looking into it, but I wanted to see what I could do myself. I only meant to keep it from working. Apparently, I can get rid of it.”

Rex is still confused, but he’ll ask General Skywalker later. Instead, he grabs a passing soldier’s arm, pulling him into the conversation.

“Does he have one?”

“Yeah! Every clone has one!”

“Can you get rid of it?”

There’s a pause as Ahsoka’s eyes close, then the trooper stiffens. He was highly bemused, even more so now, but he can feel the difference. The constant need to follow orders now seems more like a choice.

Rex and Pint take Ahsoka throughout the entire ship, randomly dragging their brothers towards the Togruta and waiting for her to destroy their switches. Anakin finds them later, having gotten an update from Rex that the Padawan was fine. He’s happy for his men, and for Ahsoka. An hour into their crusade and the clones are coming to the trio, gathering to see what’s going on with only the assurance from their comrades that it’ll be worth it. It is.

Ahsoka doesn’t feel the need to find Anakin that day at any point. She’s ecstatic that she could help the troopers. Rex is glad his family is no longer faced with that voice compelling them. At least not on this ship. Not anymore. He tells her the thought running through each of their heads in replacement of that switch.

“Thank you, sister.”

Anakin almost completely panics on finding a crying Ahsoka, but she says they’re happy tears. Happy tears.

A quick visit from Master Windu is all it takes to undo so much work.

Ahsoka is silent as he visits. Windu asks how she’s recovering. She nods and moves behind Anakin just a little.

The clones notice the change in their sister. She tries to feel their light as she’s been doing for a while now, but the memories of that time, of when she thought no one cared anymore, no one but Anakin, they shove themselves into her heart, undoing the stitches that hold her together.

Windu only came for an update and a small resupply. He leaves within a day. It’s still too late.

Anakin starts thinking it all over that night, while he’s holding Ahsoka close and attempting to ward off her nightmares. Why would his Snips stay if she had so much pain associated with the Order?

He comes to the conclusion just before they have to get up. She stayed for him. If anyone else had asked, she would’ve left. She’d latched onto him for a reason, and they’d both helped each other recover.

If she was willing to stay for him, he’d leave for her.

He forms his plan mentally as he walks with Ahsoka to do their rounds. He’ll prepare a ship, stock it enough they can make it to a more neutral planet. He’ll leave a message for Rex to let him know what had happened. Then Anakin would breach the topic with Ahsoka and convince her that he was okay leaving. She probably wouldn’t mind never having to see the Council again.

It takes a week before Ahsoka can leave her Master’s side again. Rex is by her side as she leaves, but he glances back at his general in suspicion. The man had been acting weird.

Anakin records his message and leaves it on his desk. He goes to the hangar and starts prepping a ship. The clones ask what he’s doing and he brushes them off with a vague excuse. After all, he has a lot of work to do.

He goes to sleep knowing there’s very little work left to be done. Soon, he can help Ahsoka leave behind what has hurt her so much.

He doesn’t notice his message to Rex is gone.

Anakin sends his Padawan off with Pint and Fives before he goes to finish his preparations. None of the clones question him this time, but they seem to look at him in mild amusement. He wonders why...

... until he enters the ship to find it completely empty of the supplies he’d stocked.

He’s confused. It’s not like the clones to play a prank, at least not one like this. A throat is cleared behind him. He turns sharply to find Rex standing in the entrance.

“Uh, Rex. I thought you’d be on the bridge.” Rex doesn’t speak. He instead opens his palm to reveal a holodisk. Anakin’s message plays before their eyes. The Jedi says nothing, shocked that he hadn’t noticed the missing disk and nervous about his commander’s reaction. They both stand in silence for some time, until Rex finally breaks it.

“She’s our sister, and you’re our brother. She gave us freedom. We’ll use it to help you get yours.”

When the general and the commander walk off with smiles on their faces, the surrounding clones cheer. They’d all had to talk it over, and the agreement had been unanimous.

Ahsoka is briefed on what’s happening. She’s concerned, uncertain, and takes her time to think. She eventually agrees. With everything considered, it will be better.

They reprogram the ship, No one will be able to track them easily. Anakin, Ahsoka, and Rex plan. They’ll go to an uninhabited planet. They’ll land the ship and start building. If they can grow or craft things to sell, money won’t be a problem.

Ahsoka reminds them that the loss of the ship and its entire crew will lead to the Republic suffering in the war. Rex suggests helping discreetly. Anakin suggests something a bit more... radical.

They have skill on their side. If Ahsoka and Anakin can make their way to different Separatist planets, then maybe the duo can find evidence of the Separatists’ more nefarious deeds that were kept hidden. Seeing that they were lied to could cause some of the planets to turn to the Republic or neutrality, thus aiding in the war.

They begin their journey, taking the more obscure and isolated routes. All calls to the ship were blocked, and there was a team of clones assigned to making sure they weren’t tracked. Ahsoka declared she would teach some of her brothers the finer points of engineering and tech. Anakin declared that she would not, but he would. Instead, she could help them learn to craft some things, or study subjects outside of their war training.

They soon find that some clones are incredibly talented at art, and others at engineering. Rex understands physics better than any of his brothers, and Six-Piece ends up having to be dragged away from his agriculture books just to eat. The clones better at building make a forge out of the incinerator, and some of the others practice smithing. And when that goes wrong, a medical droid starts teaching a small group how to heal small wounds (and not-so-small wounds).

Some clones find that they really are made for fighting. So Ahsoka helps teach them to fight with swords and staffs and knives and every weapon they have onboard.

It takes two months to get to their final destination. A planet void of any sentient species, but with plenty of edible flora and fauna. They land the ship in a wide open space, and the real work begins.

They spend the first few days drawing up plans and unloading what they can. A few dozen clones begin to gather lumber and clear land for buildings. The next few days, those dozen are joined by more, and supplies are organized. They build a storehouse first, basically just a huge room. It will hold whatever they collect for now.

Six-Piece leads some of his brothers in clearing more land for farming. Pint starts collecting seeds. Fives draws blueprints for different tools and crafts. Ahsoka and Echo disappear for several hours one day and return with canine creatures of a scaly nature. Anakin nearly has a heart attack at the sight of the green and purple scaled animals following his Padawan. Rex almost entered a similar state, but managed to avoid it by scolding the two.

The canines were kept, and Echo and Ahsoka started training them to guard against threats and help out on the construction sites.

Within the first month, they have several rows of edible flora sown. The storehouse is built and filled with lumber. They begin reinforcing it. The ship is restructured and reorganized. The forge is upgraded the best they can, and the hangar is converted into an enormous workshop. Fighters are moved around to accommodate the new order, and several clones begin setting up work areas and tables.

They begin separating. Anakin realizes that they’ll need more rations if they want to last long on the planet. He sends some of the men to gather food and some to cultivate the land further. Then he finds the clones that seemed only meant for battle. He tells them to hunt.

They take the canines, begin training them for the trips. There’s plenty of animals to track, and plenty more that seem trainable, if only in the future. They report back with plenty of meat and a list of the more docile creatures. Who knows, maybe they can domesticate them like the canines.

The men start building more rooms to the storehouse, so that they can put the supplies in separate areas. Tools begin to be stored, the food as well. Fuel goes next, and Rex starts making cranes with his new knowledge of physics and Pint’s knowledge of engineering.

Ahsoka helps make the workshop, using the Force to lift the heavier items. Her and Anakin compile everything that isn’t necessary and doesn’t have much value to the group. They load what they can onto a transport and head for the nearest outpost. Out where they are, there are four near enough, and each is neutral.

They sell their wares. It seems what isn’t valuable to them fetches high prices at the market. They use the money to buy tools and rations, along with several books for the clones to read and some textiles. They leave quickly, not wanting to be noticed.

Clothes are made with the textiles, mostly for Ahsoka and Anakin since they’ll be going off-world the most. But some of the clones discard their armor for cloth, and some repurpose the armor for the canines.

Ahsoka names the canines Flurrians. She thinks it sounds cool. Anakin doesn’t bother arguing.

The crops grow faster than expected. The clones are ecstatic to have so much to do and it isn’t fighting.

A few find strange rocks. They crack easily with the new pickaxes their brothers fashioned from spare parts. The smiths melt them to make nuts and bolts and screws and tools and buttons and all sorts of small and large things to help. The builders finish making the storehouse, only to have to build more with all the new supplies coming in.

With the hunters bringing back animals (some simply captured so they can be domesticated), a few clones learn to clean and tan the hides. Some learn to cure the meat. Some begin teaching themselves to cook, and some to sew.

The smiths work together with their new metals to forge Anakin a mask. It looks like that of the notorious Boba Fett, but simpler and softer in the features, painted blue and grey and white. They make a little headpiece for Ahsoka, to wrap around her montrals.

Ahsoka discovers she can see around her with the Force. Anakin can as well, but he doesn’t find the need to use it often. His Padawan trains herself to connect with that sight constantly. She finds her montrals capture more sound, more waves that give her a clearer view of things nearby. Both the Force and her natural ability give her a boost.

A boost that leads to several complaints and near heart failures.

Apparently, being able to ‘see’ so well makes her entirely silent while moving around, unless she’s purposefully making noise. More than a dozen times, Rex screamed at the sudden ‘appearance’ of his sister. Anakin didn’t think much of it until he had his own minor heart attack one day. He tells her to find a way to announce her presence before she gets too close. She does.

It starts with Leo giving her a small stone he found on the ground.

“It’s pretty,” he justified. “I thought of you.” She attached it to the headpiece with help from Pip.

Then Pint handed her a shell, and Echo a feather. Beads and pebbles and scraps of metal, all handed to her because they were shiny or colorful. She slowly began to accumulate long chains of the items. The weight didn’t bother her as she gradually gained more and more prizes. Then one day, Ahsoka looked in the mirror and saw a young Togruta with a beautiful headpiece and montrals and head-tails covered in strings of trinkets. She looked eccentric, but also free.

She finds Six-Piece and he helps her make paint. She uses blue to highlight her face markings, brightening her appearance further. She’s happy.

Rex and some of the others make more paint. They decorate their buildings in colorful pictures and draw on each other’s faces. Ahsoka nearly cried when she saw Rex with paint matching her markings.

Anakin wears his helmet on trips or at night. He puts it on his belt otherwise. He makes retractable staffs that include his and Ahsoka’s lightsabers in the handles. Ahsoka’s can be separated, but is better as a staff when used as one. They would allow the blades to be carried with them, but not noticed.

As they expanded and learned how best to utilize the land, the large group gained a surplus.

“We’re going to have to sell these,” Anakin announced one day, standing in the storehouse that was packed.

“And we still have to go after some of the Separatists,” his little sister reminded.

“You’ll need new names, otherwise there’ll be bounty hunters and troops crawling everywhere,” Echo added, petting his favorite Flurrian, Sil.

“How about Socks?” Anakin smirked at the glare sent his way, but felt pure dread when the look mimicked his own.

“How about Sky?”

“Sky and Socks, sounds good to me,” Rex commented as he walked by.

The two former Jedi attempted to protest.

Sky and Socks begin a routine that becomes well-known to those who meet them. Each of the four outposts are visited at different times. The duo sells their crafts and supplies each time, and always use their money to buy more tools and more materials and more books.

And their wares are always incredibly valuable. Plants that can be used to make fuel, food that can’t be found anywhere else, metals that are so rare some don’t believe in their existence. It seems that the siblings (for that is what they are, as they assured their customers) didn’t know their items were worth so much. They start coming every month to at least one outpost, with the fact that they now know that one of the plants they grow is a highly efficient fuel and they won’t have to buy some for every trip.

Ahsoka often listens to the gossiping beings around her as her brother handles customers. She gains information on nearby planets and the frequent visitors. There are many criminals and bounty hunters around.

The first planet to turn is small. A mysterious pair of beings are said to have broken into the governor’s mansion and found evidence of his misdeeds. They sent it to the entire planet. The Separatists had been separating families and quietly getting rid of the governor’s opponents. The Republic gained a new ally.

Anakin and Ahsoka kept up their work. All planets they could reach quickly, they went and managed to convert to the Republic or to neutrality. Usually, it was to the Republic after the Separatists were proven to be traitorous. Some turned without evidence after hearing tales of what had happened elsewhere.

Sky and Socks always made it back home.

They made their own small civilization, with a farm and stables and workshops and storehouses and barracks.

Sometimes, Sky and Socks came across clones while traveling. The switches were destroyed, and the clones always agreed to go back with the two, even though they never offered, only explained what had happened to Rex Chief and his brothers.

Asajj Ventress came across them at an outpost while they headed back from a newly-aligned Republic planet.

Ahsoka hugs her, much more energetic with all the freedom and light she’s had. She gushes about the many good things that have happened to her since those dreadful days.

Ventress joins them. It takes less than a week before Ahsoka calls her sister. It takes a month before Witch joins Socks and Sky, dressed in a blue and black version of the Nightsisters garb.

Word gets around about the Clone Snatchers and Separatist Traitors.

The Clone Snatchers steal clones from battles, without any signs of struggle. The Separatist Traitors turn Separatist-aligned planets to the Republic.

There are bounties for both in both alliances. Both are wanted alive by the Republic, the Clone Snatchers so they can get their missing soldiers back and the Separatist Traitors so they can meet and possibly join forces. The Separatists want the Traitors dead or alive, preferably dead, and the Snatchers alive so that they can... ally themselves.

After only a month of radio silence from Anakin and his ship, before they established themselves so well, Padme heard the news. All that was known was that the Separatists had nothing to do with the disappearance. The senator was not pleased, and proceeded to call her husband as quickly as possible.

He picked up on the second ring, despite Obi-Wan never managing to get a call through.

“Padme, are you alright?” Anakin is calm, collected. Not at all troubled, it seems.

“Where are you?” the woman demands.

“Um... on our way to an uninhabited planet that we can land on and then live there.”

“Without me?”

“... Do you wanna know the coordinates? I kinda had to deal with changing alignment and reorganizing and reprogramming everything, and I sorta assumed you’d want to remain a senator?”

“Of course I’m going to remain a senator, but I’m still going to visit my husband.”

“HUSBAND‽ Rex, did you hear‽ Anakin and Padme are married! I’ve got a sister! Rex!”

“Is Ahsoka listening?”

“Yeah, she wanted to know why I would answer a call when we’re on radio silence.”

“So, why the change? I thought being a Jedi was everything to you.”

“No. The people I care about are everything to me. Ahsoka wasn’t going to be able to recover while constantly around the Order. Our marriage went against the code. The clones were always dying for what felt like no good reason. It makes sense to get away from what causes so much pain.”

“I understand. I’ll visit as soon as possible.”

“I call you when we land.”

FEEL FREE TO ADD MORE BC I MIGHT NOT (or might, who knows)

#star wars #clone wars #ahsoka tano #anakin skywalker #obi-wan kenobi #rex #mace windu #asajj ventress #republic #separatists #clones #flurrians #may add more later

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harukamitsuki · 3 years

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I don't think Lance should have swapped to the Red Lion.

TL;DR at the end.

Lance's connection to Blue was the first connection shown in the series, which makes it all the more meaningful, and it made no sense to the series own rules. Red is temperamental and difficult to control, which is why Keith was her paladin. I have defended Lance's piloting skills in a previous post, but he is not as good as Keith and does not suit the Red Lion. His affinity is water - as emphasised by the start of season 2. Red is aligned with water.

Plus, if he stayed in Blue he would have gotten a proper character arc by living by his own rules and standards and not in Keith's shadow. I know it was supposed to be symbolism - him accepting Keith as leader and not being selfish about it made him qualify as the right-hand man, but the others accepted him as well, despite ribbing Keith about it earlier.

If anyone should have gotten the role as the Red Paladin, it should have been Allura.

Allura as the Red Paladin would, not only make sense narratively, but would also seem right. Colour-wise, she's closer to Red's hue than Blue's, but honestly, I didn't really care about the colour match-up. What is important, is that it would seem like a much bigger deal than Lance accepting Keith as the leader. Lance hates Keith, but that's probably due to being constantly in his shadow and being compared to him, consistently reminded at the Garrison that he was only moved up because Keith was expelled.

Allura, however, has a deeper reason. (Lance's reason is still valid, btw, just not as big as Allura's). She hated Keith for a good portion of Season 2 because he is half-Galra. Obviously, to us, this is a shitty reason to hate someone. It's racism and the show doesn't handle this well. It doesn't handle a lot of stuff well, but whatever. She gives Keith the cold shoulder and Keith knows she hates him. He says so himself to Hunk and doesn't listen to his reassurances. Then again, Hunk was making jokes about something Keith was clearly sensitive about, so that may have had a hand in it too.

Now, I am not condoning her actions. She made Keith feel unwelcome in a team - a family - while he already has abandonment issues, (not that they knew that), and hated him for something he cannot control. Keith probably hated himself for being born. Both of them disregarded the fact that he is still a person with feeling and blood doesn't change that. Hunk too, as much as I love him, was also wrong in his 'Galra Keith' jokes, as if Keith was someone else entirely, when nothing changed apart from their knowledge.

However, what I am saying, is that Allura's reaction was, somewhat, believable and had a genuine reason - and a good one. The Galra Empire completely annihilated her species (as far as she's aware), betrayed the people she loved, and has monopolized entire planets and controlled them - forced them to work and even fight to the death for their entertainment. Apart from Ulaz, she hadn't a single good interaction with the Galra. One good person is not enough to change your opinion about entire races. I know people who are racist, proper racist, to their own race, no joke.

Allura's reaction was actually rather tame, especially compared to how extreme racism can be in the world, even now. She never rose a hand to Keith and kept it passive-aggressive. She gave him the cold shoulder and genuinely hated him, but she never hit him and she never deliberately sent him on a death mission. The Weblum mission was dangerous, but it was also a requirement and she didn't send him in alone. She may have refused to acknowledge his achievements, but she didn't blame him or accuse him of anything. It's likely that, when she saw him, all she saw was Galra. That being said, she wasn't a bad person, simply badly written. There are many people who hurt others for no reason - people who haven't been wronged in any way, but rate a community simply because they exist or they think they're lower than them or less human, which is wrong on so many levels. Allura, at least, had a good reason, though it should have been built on and written better.

In the end, Allura acknowledged her toxic attitude and apologised to Keith. This in and of itself does not make everything okay, but it's more than what Lance did, (virtually nothing except telling Keith that he has to be the leader). Allura knows she was wrong and sets out to make it right, and this development would have been solidified by her becoming the Red Paladin. Like, let's be honest. Lance does not treat Keith right and it's never explained why, in and outside of the show. He's the one antagonising Keith, even during their first proper meeting, and he's the only starting all the arguments, especially in season 2. Keith has been volatile too, I will admit, but he stops his behaviour in the second season. Lance is the one starting everything. Allura, however, stops her behaviour before it takes extreme lengths and becomes a better person and a better friend as a result. It's then that she calls Keith family for the first time, and becoming his right-hand would have shown how serious she was and how far they've come.

Seeing Allura, who, just the season prior, hated Keith's guts, accept Keith as her leader, the Black Paladin, become his right-hand, would have meant so much more. The symbolism goes even deeper. Red's first paladin was Altean and Black's was Galran. Need I say more? (No, but I will). Many of us were incredibly disappointed with the ending of Voltron, especially with Allura dying. The reason she died was to complete the circle, so to speak. The war against the Galra Empire truly started with the death of Allura's father, Alfor, and the entire species of Altea, and the war is finally ending with Allura and Honerva's death. That being said, it was just so insulting and pointless and nobody was happy. Instead of dying to complete the circle, Allura should have survived and broken the chain, for both herself and Red's own paladin tragedy. It was just a huge slap in the face for people who actually powered through seasons 7 and 8 and trusted the show to pull through and get its head together. I know that Shiro was supposed to get Black back, Keith goes back to Red and Allura controls the Atlas, but if that wasn't the plan, then Allura in Red would have made much more sense.

Additionally, the fight in that realm would have been more emotional if Allura was forced to fight her father and bring him back. Lance had no emotional attachment to Alfor, and I know that was the case with Hunk and Pidge, and Allura had attachment to all of the previous paladins, but still. Think about how heart wrenching it would have been for her to face her father, whom she loves dearly. he wouldn't have even recognised her and would have fought her with the intent to kill after his soul was trapped for 10,003 decapheobs/years. (I know they're different, but Allura says 10,000 years even when she didn't know what years were, so I didn't know if that was a mistake or not). Allura would not have been able to fight as well as she did against the Blue Paladin of Old.

Let's not forget that Allura was the one to convince Keith to take up the role of the Black Paladin. Of all the paladins, it was Allura who knew what to say; who knew why Keith was acting the way he was in season 3. Lance saw Shiro as his idol, Pidge as a legend, and Hunk as a mentor. Keith's relationship with Shiro is so much deeper than that. Shiro wasn't the youngest man to be sent into space. He wasn't someone to look up to. He didn't go to the Garrison because Shiro went there - he went there because Shiro convinced him. He doesn't see Takashi Shirogane, piloting prodigy, idol for all. He sees Takashi Shirogane, his best friend and brother, a man he can trust and how can trust him. Nobody else realises how deep this goes. Nobody but Allura. She's the only one to see how much Shiro meant to Keith. She's the one to call him 'irreplaceable' and she's the only one even by the end of the series, who isn't Keith, who has sacrificed something for him. Allura gave up her freedom for him by allowing herself to be captured, and then she gave up the crystal for his arm. Keith has saved Shiro many times, even his clone, and literally gave up his place in Voltron for Shiro. Allura trusts Keith and Keith allowed himself to trust her. She understands his pain when nobody else saw it.

Finally, Allura would have been inheriting Red from her father. Coran has explicitly said that Allura wanted to pilot Red due to her father piloting her. The Lions clearly have some amount of sentience, Red and Black especially. Black only opens themselves to Keith because he of Shiro. The first time, it's to save Shiro from death. The second, it's because Shiro wanted him to become the leader. Red only accepted Keith because he proved himself to her and has saved Keith many times while he's floating in space. She's described as temperamental, which suggest levels of sentience. Obviously, Red would have more of a soft spot for Allura, the daughter of her previous paladin, than she would for Lance, whom she only opens up to well into season 3 and is someone antagonised and even bullied Keith, her current/transitioning paladin. Allura also shows that she's fiercely loyal and is willing to give one up for the team.

Allura has sacrificed her only contact to her father, she has allowed herself to be kidnapped for Shiro, she has constantly exhausted herself for both her friends and strangers such as the Balmerans, she has given up the crystal in her crown for Shiro without hesitation, and she even dated Lance despite not showing any form of romantic attraction previously. (That last one was joke, obviously).

TL;DR - Lance has literally no reason to have become the Red Paladin outside of a rubbish character arc, and Allura has all the reasons. It would have marked an excellent character arc mid-point and would have set up a great ending, if handled well.

I have nothing but respect for the writers of Voltron for their work, especially after all the intervening of their higher-ups that caused many issues, especially regarding Shiro, Keith, Lance and Allura, who were all robbed of excellent character arcs. That doesn't mean I can't hate what came of it.

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gottawriteanegoortwo · 3 years

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Yancy x Illinois - First Impressions Aren’t Always the Best

I decided to try properly writing Yanois, just to see how I’d manage it. After rewatching Illinois’ scenes, I think he would get on the nerves of the Yancy I write at first.

Word Count 2,122

(Read more because Illinois talks so much...)

Happy Trails Penitentiary was renowned for its rehabilitation initiatives. They had a wide variety of classes and visitors to help prisoners. Educational courses, chances to learn new skills, pen pal projects. Many prisoners would never have the opportunity for such experiences, and it was an integral part of helping them prepare for a better life outside of prison when their sentence was finished.

There was one visitor that most prisoners in Yancy’s ‘Gang’ adored. His name was Illinois, a renowned adventurer and archaeologist. Between his job in the university and research trips, he only had time to visit once every few months. It worked in his favour, as those that wanted to visit were able to to hear the various stories that Illinois was more than happy to tell. Not only that, it would encourage the small ‘fan club’ among the younger prisoners.

It was one of the few events that Yancy avoided. Something about Illinois rubbed him the wrong way. He was so arrogant and cocky, acting like the world revolved around him. It wasn’t an act, either. Yancy had spotted Illinois speaking to the Warden on his first visit two years earlier, and he acted the exact same way as he did in the talk that happened that day. After that, Yancy decided he didn’t want anything to do with the adventurer. But if Illinois were to ever become an inmate? Yancy would make sure Illinois had the snot beaten out of him within the first week.

Unfortunately, a lot of the Gang were of the opposite view, especially those around Yancy’s age. To them, Illinois walked straight out of an adventure movie and lived the ideal life. What prisoner didn’t dream of going exploring in uncharted territories? It meant that they would frequently share Illinois’ tales in rec yard when he came to visit. Yancy would roll his eyes, but keep quiet. Let them have their fun.

Today was the day that Illinois visited the prison. It had been over three months since the last visit, so there was an excited buzz among individuals in the Gang. Yancy spent the morning bracing himself. There was a talk after lunch that the others would go to, which would mean the rest of the afternoon and evening would be nothing but historical chatter and “Illinois is so cool!”. He would grumble, but he would keep that to himself. It wasn’t fair to deflate their excitement. He went to the library, found some random book and focused on that for the day. Then, once they had their excitement, it would die down and Yancy could enjoy more casual conversation.

Which was the plan… Until Bam-Bam pleaded for him to go to the last talk of the day. It turned out that his shift clashed with the talk everyone else they knew went to, and he didn’t want to go alone. Begrudgingly, Yancy closed the book, returned it to the shelf, and followed Bam-Bam. A flaw of being a loyal friend was knowing when to swallow your pride and do something you would rather not do.

When you go to something with low expectations, it can be incredibly difficult to feel the time was used in a worthwhile manner. Some might have memories of a teacher they hated, or a family gathering they had been dreading. This was a similar position to what Yancy found himself in. One of the ‘classrooms’ had been adjusted slightly to allow various displays to take center stage, with the chairs in neat rows in front of it. Bam-Bam and Yancy claimed two seats at the back, allowing the greaser to slouch in the chair with his arms crossed. Then, once more prisoners had arrived, the talk began.

On and on Illinois went, droning endlessly in that slow drawl. Yancy wished he had a TV remote to speed up the talking a fraction. Was Illinois focused on making sure everyone could understand him, or did he want to prolong the joy of hearing himself talk? It might have been more tolerable if Bam-Bam wasn’t genuinely engrossed in the lecture. They could have made amusing comments throughout. Instead, Yancy was stuck. Sure, history was interesting, but Illinois really drove home the stereotype of boring history teachers. The ‘adventures’ even sounded cliché and fake. Maybe he should have taken the book with him after all...

A painfully slow half hour passed. Once the talk was over, Illinois would literally open the floor to the other prisoners. The chairs would be pushed aside and those that wanted to look at the items Illinois brought were welcome to do so. Yancy was dragged along to view the pieces. Most of the articles were dated to be approximately eight thousand years old. What caught Bam-Bam’s attention was a stone carving that vaguely resembled a cat.

“Ahhh, I see the ‘White Jaguar’ has caught your attention.” Yancy had to repress a shudder at the smooth voice interrupting their own questions back and forth. Illinois stepped over, resting an arm against the perspex container. “She’s a beauty, isn’t she? A miracle we even found her in the first place. She was why I wasn’t able to visit like I said I would last month.” Bam-Bam’s eager question had Illinois chuckle and shake his hand dismissively. “Oh, I’m sure you two gentlemen have much better things to do than hear about how I nearly lost my right hand in my most recent adventure.” When Bam-Bam insisted otherwise, Illinois smirked (and Yancy nearly gagged).

“If you insist. While on our recent dig, I noticed one of the ruins had a floor panel that looked a little different from the rest. It took a little persuasion, but I got that pesky stone up. There, sprawled out before me, was a staircase leading down into the earth. I picked up one of the torches and made my way down. Slowly, I delved deeper into the darkness. One step gave way under me to set off a series of poison-dipped darts, but I was able to dodge them all without breaking a sweat.” Illinois continued, dramatically regaling every single trap that he encountered until he found the White Jaguar. When taking everything around it, he surmised that the owner of the house had been a thief. The jaguar motif was familiar, as he had noticed something similar in a nearby cave that had been repurposed at the time as a sacred spot.

“- Now, this heart of this cave was still guarded by ancient jaguar spirits. They rattled the large statues as I approached, obviously sensing the treasure I carried. In the middle, there was a jaguar’s head carved out of stone. Its jaw was open wide and I couldn’t help but feel as though it was just the right spot for this precious lady. But then, skeletons of what I assume were magic users from an era long gone by pounced and tried to wrestle the statue off me, but I was too fast for them. At last, I reached the carved head, put the White Jaguar in the mouth… and the stone head moved, trapping my arm in a ferocious bite!” He gestured to the cloth wrapped around his right wrist. It was unwrapped just enough to show the healing bite marks. “It had the strength to bite it clean off, but relented when it realised what I had done by offering my arm as blood payment to return -”

“Wait wait wait.” Yancy’s interruption had Bam-Bam elbow him, but it didn’t stop the objection. “That can’t be right. If youse managed to bring this back to where it’s meant to be, why the fuck is it here?”

“An excellent question. This is my recreation of it. I am no thief. I return artefacts to where they belong. Archaeology has a rotten connection with thievery, and I try to rectify the mistakes of my predecessors.”

“So then this entire thing could be bullshit!” Yancy scoffed. “Bam-Bam, this guy just got bitten by someone’s dog and has made this pile of baloney to hide that.”

“Are you accusing me of being a liar?”

“Well, I ain’t calling you a ‘truther’, that’s for sure!”

Yancy was ready for a proper argument. In fact, he was hoping for one. Instead… Illinois laughed, and it wasn’t that typical ‘cocky chuckle’. It was a bright, genuine laugh. He could almost see Bam-Bam go starry-eyed at such a rare moment. Typical Yancy. Getting more attention from Illinois when he wanted to rile him up.

“I suppose it all does sound rather suspicious when you put it that way. Let me show you something.” Illinois gestured for the pair to follow him toward a display of photographs. Instead of pointing to these, he instead reached for his briefcase. A small photo album was pulled out. Yancy noticed that it was dated three months prior. While Illinois flipped through it, both prisoners could see what looked like an area that had been dug up. It matched the pictures in front of them of an excavation site. At last, Illinois found what he was looking for.

“One Guardian Jaguar, complete with the White Jaguar in its mouth. As you can see, the teeth have fresh blood on them. It was an… Oddly tranquil sight, despite the unfortunate situation.”

“So then why act like these are the real deal? People just take youse’s word for it?”

“Normally those that attend my talks know that what I show are my artistic recreations for purely educational purposes. I suppose I do take for granted that those who attend here are invested regulars.” Illinois gave a small shrug. “It’s an easy mistake to forget to remind people who might be new to my talks. I’m sorry if you thought I was a fraud, but I am the real deal. Too good to be true, yet here I am.”

“Yeah yeah, ‘sucks that I’m perfect as shit’, I get it. Least you knows not to make that mistake again.” Yancy rocked back on his heel with the intention of turning and walking away.

“Now now. I can’t let you walk off like that. Take this.” Another item was pulled out of his briefcase. “I made this smaller model of the White Jaguar as a ‘first draft’. I was intending on using it as motivation to my first-year students but… I think it should stay here with you.” Illinois took the opportunity to reach for Yancy’s hand. The small clay model was gently placed in it before Illinois curled Yancy’s fingers over it to keep it in place. His hands stayed where they were as he continued, “We think the White Jaguar was a symbol of good fortune. Perhaps it might bring you some good luck.” He smiled at Yancy, only to have the moment broken by the guard announcing that there were five minutes before the prisoners had to return to their cells for the afternoon count. Yancy took the chance to quickly leave the room without as much as a ‘goodbye’. At least his friend, who introduced himself as Bam-Bam, quickly thanked Illinois before darting out.

A few more questions were asked of him by other prisoners and curious staff; and then it was time to tidy up to bring everything back to the university. It was only when he reached the White Jaguar model did Illinois hesitate. There was something about that abrasive prisoner he couldn’t put his finger on. Was it because he seemed uninterested in the adventurer? Or was there something else? It was a rare moment that Illinois wished he’d had an excuse to chat to the prisoner longer. Maybe not here, but somewhere quieter. Just the two of them.

Huh… Was this what an attraction felt like? He joked about others falling in love with him so often, he wasn’t sure if this was payback for never returning interest in others. He was drawn toward a prisoner that seemed keen to dismiss his hard work and reputation. And worse! Illinois didn’t even know his name!

Then again… A good adventurer always loves the thrill of a mystery. Maybe he could try and find that prisoner next time he visited. Now that the university was open again, he’d be able to drop by more frequently…

For what it was worth, Yancy also had a mystery on his hands.

Namely, how to get away from Bam-Bam - who would not SHUT UP about their prolonged conversation with Illinois - and half the gang - who were incredibly jealous Yancy got a gift from the Illinois!

He dropped his head against the chow hall table with a low ‘thunk’. This was the opposite of getting the others to stop talking about Illinois around him!

#writersofmark #yancy #illinois ahwm #yanois #markiplier egos #(read-more is for tidiness! :D )#dramatic prisoner (Yancy)#cocky adventurer (Illinois)

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sapphicmsmarvel · 4 years

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JJ: Booktube

premise: dating jj and being a booktuber.

masterlist

Lets ignore the fact that JJ would be fired without a doubt from the FBI if this stuff actually happened and her life would be threatened by criminals.

-She knew that you were really into books.

-She just didn’t know how much. You two had met through tinder believe it or not, she was sick of being alone at night and didn’t want a fling. Luckily, you felt the same way and you two matched.

-The team did know that she was on Tinder, but not that she had officially met someone.

-Reid was sitting at a table on the plane, watching something on his laptop. But then she heard your voice, your upbeat, happy voice. She glanced back to see your bright and beautiful face holding a book. “What’re you watching?” JJ asked. Which grabbed the attention of Emily.

“A video on what books to read if you want to get into ‘young adult’ books.” Reid said, thoroughly focused on the beautiful woman on his screen.

“She’s pretty.” Emily saw you.

“She is.” Reid mumbled, blushing.

“Who’s pretty?” Morgan said, leaning over the back of the seat, “oooh who’s the cute nerdy girl?”

“A youtuber, and be nice.” JJ said crumpling a piece of paper and throwing it at him.

“Her shirt literally says ‘Nerdy Bitch’, I think she knows she’s one. She's hot too.”

-JJ quickly sent a picture of the screen to you. “My teammates think you’re pretty, have to say I agree.”

“OMG, please tell me you aren’t watching my videos 😭”

“I am now baby 😉”

“FUCK.”

She huffed a small laugh at your response, then continued watching with Reid.

-Little did she know you tweeted to your followers, “THE GIRL I’M DATING IS WATCHING MY YOUTUBE VIDEOS FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH HER COWORKERS. PLS KILL ME.”

-When she came home from that case, she wanted to hear all about your job, which you happily told her and tried to ignore your embarrassment over how she found out.

-Since then she has been a loyal subbie.

-You met the team and they were all very shocked that it was you that they were watching on their computer screen. They also all subscribed, and you had to make Rossi and Hotch youtube accounts because they didn’t know how.

-Your viewers knew of her, knew how you always called her “Rapunzel,” and she always called you, “Flynn” in response.

-But because you explicitly said you won’t be showing her because she asked you not to, you got hate comments for respecting your girlfriends privacy.

-When she came over one night, she saw all of the publishing houses boxes on your front step. She knocked on your door because she saw that your car was in the driveway. She got her key out of her pocket and opened your door. Then, she carefully put all the boxes into your foyer, as well as her overnight bag and shut the front door.

-What she saw next warmed her heart, you had fallen asleep on the couch with a book on your chest. She saw your tripod and camera, she realized you were filming a timelapse for a reading vlog. She remembered you telling her that you were filming one this week.

-She decided not to turn off the camera, instead, she gently took the book off your chest, placed a bookmark to mark your spot. Then she crawled on top of you. You were laying on your back, she laid her head in the crook of your neck, she giggled as she felt you wake up. You wrapped your arms around her, “hey baby.” You croaked.

-You felt her whisper against your skin, “you left the camera on, thought I’d give a little show of affection for those subscribers who think I’m a bad girlfriend.”

You sighed, “please tell me you haven’t been reading the comments.” “No, well, sometimes I do. Garcia sees them and gets mad.”

“So she’s the commenter, TheBlackQueen causing fights on my channel. Gotcha.”

JJ laughed, “oh god, I didn’t know she was doing that.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ve been liking her comments, not deleting them.”

JJ laughed at that, then you continued, “you want me to get up and turn off the camera? It should turn off in…” she didn’t have to open her eyes to know that you were looking at the red light on the camera and the clock on the wall behind it. “Oh jeez, five minutes maybe, it has a 40 minute timer before it automatically turns off.”

“No,” JJ shook her head, “I really need to just stay here, Y/N.”

“Okay.”

-When the video was posted, she saw the comments on it. There was not a negative one, of course there were ones making a comment about why JJ was just showing herself on Y/N’s channel.

-After that, she was slowly showing herself in your videos more. Handing you something, delivering a package to your little library in your home.

-She made a lot of appearances in your moving vlogs for your channel because you two moved in together. The kids also made a brief appearance but very vague, you didn’t show their faces.

-She was memed within your fanbase because of the faces she pulled while you were moving books, and her helping you move them, she was like “????”

-When she knew she wanted to propose to you, her and Garcia watched a couple of YouTube videos to learn how to use your camera, then they devised a plan to vlog the engagement together. The ring picking, her talking to the camera and introducing herself. “Hey as you can tell I am not Y/N, I’m her girlfriend, as you guys know we’ve been together for some time but I’m gonna propose to her!” She cheered, then the team in the background were like “finally!” and cheering as well.

Then she broke down the plan to them, “so, we’re gonna go to our favorite greenhouse in D.C. I shot some footage of picking her ring, which I’ll have her insert here,,,,gah I’m no good at this.” Then she continued, “so we have a friend who’s hiring some professional photography, which is exciting.” She did a lil shimmy, then Prentiss popped in, “hey! This is a friend of theirs and the reason our friend is hiring photographers is because we’re gonna be sobbing too much to take good photos, as well as he’s rich as fuck”

Everyone laughed at that.

“And, well, we’re going tonight, so wish me luck!” JJ gave an awkward peace sign to the camera and turned it off.

-She then handed the camera to Garcia who would hide and record the footage, the photographers that Rossi hired posed as regular ole pedestrians. The others hid in bathrooms, waiting for the text saying that JJ did it.

-JJ almost spilled the beans that she was nervous on the way over there to you. That would’ve ruined it.

-Luckily, the part of the greenhouse that you two had your first kiss in was empty. The fairy lights were lit inside, it looked beautiful.

-They had a flower there that the greenhouse called “the wishing lilly.” The owner of the greenhouse says that those lilies bring good luck, he wished on it then his wife was pregnant with twins, then he won the lottery and managed to build the greenhouse into something bigger.

-Per as tradition, you both closed your eyes to make a wish, but she opened hers and got down on the ground, Garcia quietly followed you guys in with the other photographers.

“Y/N..” she trailed off, you opened your eyes to find her kneeling on the ground, your eyes instantly filled with tears as your hands went up to your mouth. “Y/N, you are the light of my life, the Flynn to my Rapunzel, will you do me the honor and be my wife?”

“Yes!” You nodded and cried. She quickly stood up and pulled you into her arms.

-Garcia started crying and shaking, “yay!” You looked up to see her there.

“Oh my god, hi, there’s a lot of people in here.” You said seeing the two photographers and Garcia.

“Rossi hired photographers. And the team is waiting for a text to come in and congratulate us.” JJ laughed and leaned up to kiss your head.

“Oh god, I look like a mess!” You laughed, yet cried at the same time.

“We both do, baby. Welcome to marriage.” She slid the ring on your finger, just in time for photos to begin.

-At the end of the video, you made an introduction part for the subbies to meet JJ. Filled with questions and such to know her. Briefly mentioning her sons as well.

-After you two got engaged, you started filming fiance challenges, (my fiance picks my next read, my fiance tries to guess the plot of books based off their covers). Hell, you two even do some baking and cooking videos.

-Your marriage blew up on booktube, you two were The Lady Lovers on booktube, as you had been labeled. You both loved that there were so many people resonating with your love. You shared a pre wedding video talking about the insecurities you both had, and a talk about discovering sexuality when you’re in your mid thirties after a divorce from a man and having two kids. And you, someone who’s never been in a serious relationship, giving your advice to people.

-It was a big video and an emotional one. But it resonated with a lot of people which you both were glad for.

-Then your wedding video came out and everyone lost their shit. People were sending in love, there was a lot of adorable footage from the wedding, people crying.

-You even incorporated books into the wedding decor.

-While your career was quite different then JJ’s, people saw you as a perfect fit. You stayed home all the time, writing, putting videos up, writing reviews and partnering with brands on your channel, you were able to be there for the boys when she couldn’t be. She was all over the country constantly, she made it a point that every night before bed she’d watch one of your videos, and it helped that you sent videos to her of Henry and Michael.

-You were the calm to her storm, where her life was hectic and constantly on the move, she knew she always had a home waiting for her.

#Jennifer Jareau #jennifer jareau x reader #jennifer jareau x you #aj cook #jj criminal minds #Criminal Minds #criminal minds x reader #criminal minds x you #criminal minds x y/n

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breanime · 4 years

Note

Bre can I haz Coco Cruz plz 💞💗❣️ "Who did this?" "Why do you care?" "Can you forgive me?" Pretty plz with a cherry on top? Need some more of my loco Coco puff 😍🍰

“Loco Coco puff” LITERALLY made me lol. Amazing.

Your house was right on the border, just a few miles away from one of the main tunnels the Mayans used. Your family had worked with Alvarez for years, so when your parents moved back to Mexico and left you the property, you took over their partnership with the Mayans. It was a good deal, they provided you with protection and gave you a cut of their profits, and you let them dig holes under your land and use your place as a safe house. It was a win-win.

And you got to ride Coco like a fucking bucking bronco—which was a huge plus.

But you caught feelings—which was not a part of the plan.

Naturally, you tried to swallow them down, act like it wasn’t the highlight of your week when you got to see Coco, but it was hard. Especially since he only saw you as a warm body; convenient and accessible, but not essential to his life.

“I can’t always answer when you fucking call, you know?” Coco said, pulling on his pants. “I got shit to take care of, okay? I can’t be at your beck and call.”

“Who’s asking you to?” You asked back, covering your naked body with your blanket. “I’m just saying, it’s fucked up that you haven’t answered the last four times I’ve called, but you can show up out of nowhere like it’s no big deal.”

“That’s cause it ain’t,” he said back, shrugging into his shirt before throwing on his kutte as well, “What do you want me to say, Y/N? You ain’t my woman, I don’t answer to you.”

You bristled. He wasn’t wrong, but man… That stung. “I just thought…”

“Yeah, that’s your fucking problem,” he shot back, grabbing his keys, “you think too fucking much.” He walked out, slamming the door behind him. A few moments later, you heard the roar of his bike, and you knew he was gone.

Coco felt like a dick.

He knew he was being a dick when he stormed off like that, but usually he could brush the feeling off after a nice ride. But it didn’t go away. He knew he’d fuck things up with you sooner or later, he just hadn’t thought it would be so soon. Fuck.

He was fucking crazy about you.

You were smart, funny, loyal, beautiful—and the fact that you were interested in him blew his mind. So when Coco first had the chance to get you in bed, Coco took the fucking chance to get you in bed. He hadn’t thought he’d get another, but he did. And then it kind of became a thing… whenever the Mayans had business around your area, he’d stop by. And Coco could play it off—for a while—like he was just there to hook up and that was it, but the guys knew the truth: he wanted you—not just as this temporary fling, fun as it was, but he wanted you for real. And he knew he wasn’t good enough for you, so he did what he did best.

Lashed out and fucked up any slim chance he had of being with you.

It’d been two weeks since he’d spoken to you, and every night he checked his phone to see if you called or texted, and every night… you didn’t. Coco spent hours rereading your texts and looking at the picture he had of you. He’d taken it one night while you were asleep, you looked so beautiful, cuddled in his arms, he couldn’t help himself. And now he’d fucked it all up; classic him.

“Ay, Coco,” Angel popped his head in, interrupting Coco’s brooding, “We gotta go; there’s a problem in the desert.”

“There’s a problem in the desert?” Coco repeated, pocketing is phone. “What the hell are you talkin’ about, man?”

“Y/N was robbed.”

Coco was on his feet in a second, his heart racing. “What? When? Is she hurt? Who the fuck—”

“I don’t know, man, that’s why we gotta go,” Angel answered, “Come on!”

Coco was carrying three illegal weapons on him and was a convicted felon, but he broke every speeding law to get to you. Angel, Gilly, and EZ were riding with him, but he was leading the pack. His blood was boiling thinking of you being hurt, and the idea that someone—or someones—broke into your home and terrorized you… He should have been there. Or at the very least, it should have been clear to every lowlife, criminal derelict, and cartel peon that you were with Coco fucking Cruz, and therefore not to be fucked with. But it wasn’t—and that was on him.

When they pulled up to your place, Coco got off his bike without even turning it off. He heard the guys pull in after him, but he needed to get to you, needed to make sure you were okay. And if you weren’t—he was gonna raise hell.

As soon as he had his helmet off, Coco’s sniper eyes were picking up on the damage. Your front door was cracked, and the doorknob was missing. Someone had shot it off. The window was broken, and Coco could see glass on the floor inside. He didn’t bother knocking; he assumed you knew they were coming.

“Y/N—” he called.

He was greeted by the barrel of a shotgun.

Coco stopped, putting his hands up (it was a conditioned response). You were standing in front of him with a shotgun in your hands. “Fuck, Y/N, don’t shoot!” You sighed, putting the gun down, and that’s when Coco saw your eye. You had a black eye. He moved, his hand going to the side of your face, and he growled when you winced. When he spoke, Coco’s voice was low and slow. "Who did this?"

You scoffed. "Why do you care?" You batted his hand away, stepping back.

He blinked. “Wha—cause I—you—you’re my—”

“I’m your what?” You asked, leaning the gun on the wall, “I ain’t shit to you, Coco. You made that clear.”

“That’s… Fuck, Y/N… I…” Coco sighed. “I didn’t mean that, okay? I was being a dick, and I… I’m sorry.” He took a breath. “Please, mi dulce, just let me see your eye.”

You frowned but let Coco’s fingers brush against your eye and cheek.

He took another breath, trying to calm his building rage and channel it into focusing on you. “Who did this?” He asked again.

“Juan and his crew,” you answered with a shrug, your face still in his hands, “He took a bunch of shit, slapped me around a bit—”

“He’s fucking dead,” Coco promised, his blood running cold, “I’m gonna kill all of those bastards…”

You sighed, and Coco felt you relax against him. “I know you’re not… I know you don’t want to answer to anyone, and you think I think too much and read into things, and I promise, I’m not, I won’t, but…” You looked up at him, and your eyes looked so big and sad and scared, and Coco felt simultaneously murderous and guilty all at once. “Can you just hold me for a second-?”

Coco pulled you to him, wrapping his arms around you. This is where you belonged, and he fucking knew that. He always had. “I need you to listen,” he said, his voice muffled by your hair, “I know I don’t deserve it, but just… Hear me out. I’m a fucking dumbass.”

“I’m listening,” you deadpanned.

He chuckled, still holding you. “I was being a fucking pussy before, when I said you’re not my woman and all that shit… It was…” He pulled back, his dark eyes staring down at you. “I didn’t mean that shit. I want you—for real. And I should have said all this before this shit happened to you…” He cupped your face. “I should have been here. I should have protected you, hermosa. I never should have talked to you like that before, and I’m sorry.” He wanted to kiss you, but he wasn’t sure if he had your permission to yet. "Can you forgive me?"

You nodded. “It’s not your fault that this happened, Coco.”

“No, I mean I’m sorry for everything—for what happened between us before and for this,” he clarified, “I know I ain’t shit, Y/N, and I don’t deserve you, but I—”

You shut him up with a kiss, and Coco sighed into your lips. He held you as close as he could, and as he kissed you, he vowed to himself to always hold you like this—no matter how scared he was. You deserved that, and he wanted to be the one to give it to you. You were both smiling when you pulled back. He opened his mouth to say something sweet to you—

—but was interrupted by thunderous applause and cheering.

You both turned to see Angel, EZ, and Gilly in the entry way, clapping as you embraced.

“Fucking finally,” Angel grinned.

“Taza owes me 30 bucks,” Gilly added.

“Riz owes me 20,” EZ said, nodding.

“The fuck, you assholes were taking bets?” Coco asked, his arms still wrapped around you.

“Hell yeah,” Angel answered, sauntering into the house and carelessly stepping on the broken glass, “We knew from the get that Y/N wanted a nice cup of hot Coco…”

“And clearly you’re an emotional wuss who’s all heart eyes for Y/N,” Gilly said.

You laughed, and while Coco flipped them off, he laughed too. The guys spent the rest of the evening cleaning up your place before the others met them out there, and before they hit the road to track down Juan and his guys, Coco kissed you.

“You know,” you said, smiling up at him, “I’m starting to think there might be some benefits to being your girl.”

“Oh, baby,” he grinned back, “There are. The occasional murder is one thing, but the orgasms,” he leaned in, his lips brushing over yours, “that’s where I really shine.”

You giggled, kissing him.

“Don’t buy that shit,” Angel called from his spot on his bike, “He’s much better at the murdering!”

“Implying that my boyfriend has given you an orgasm,” you deadpanned.

“Hey,” Coco flicked your nose, “watch your mouth.” He leaned down and kissed you again. “The Boy Scout’s gonna stay and make sure you’re safe, and I’ll be back in a few hours, okay?”

You nodded. ��Be safe.”

Coco grinned back—there was still the tight coil of rage burning in his chest, but he was on his way to relieve it. Besides, he had you now, for real, and by the end of the night, every motherfucker on either side of the border would know:

You were Coco Cruz’s girl.

*******************************************************************************************

Thanks for reading! I felt like those prompts were PERFECT for Coco!

Everything Taglist: @encounterthepast @jigsawlover10 @gollyderek @charlylama @realduckvader @teacuplotus @whovianayesha @lexxierave @loveintheroyalfamily @fanfictionrecommendations-com @maxslime-blog @songforhema @lucielandss @themadhatter92 @christinawxxx @anabella-baby @blackcoffeeandgreenteaforme @luminex3 @ashkuuuu @luckysstrikes @carlaangel86 @floralpeaceofmind @dylanobrusso @iaintnofurry @ymariejp @its-my-little-dumpster-fire @mrsjaxtellerfan @holamor @drinix @rhabakoli @stories-you-wont-hear @king4thesirens @leahnicole1219 @evanlys19 @binbons-is-theloml @aikeia @bitch-imma-head-out @witchygagirl @geeksareunique @sparrows-books

Coco Cruz Taglist: @nyxxnoxx

#coco cruz x reader #coco cruz imagine #johnny el coco cruz #breanime's mini drabbles #mayans mc

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nyanberri · 3 years

Photo

I've finally finished the first set! It's the same kids again tho, lol. But next time will be never before seen characters! So I wanted to get everyone drawn in the Omniverse style so I could visualize it all properly and it also made for a good opportunity to tweak designs as needed. They're all heavily referenced from official art so I could get it perfect and it made for great practice too! Of course I added some personal touches to the art style too cuz if I didn't it would have bothered me too much, lol.

Anyway, below the cut are finally proper profiles for all the kids and some additional info as well!

M'kay, so before we get started on the kids' bios, it's important to specify this is an alternate universe. And I don't mean it's an AU of the Prime Dimension. This is quite literally another universe within the omniverse. It's a mostly untouched one that even Paradox, Eon, and Maltruant have never been to and therefore a lot of things are different while a lot of things are still the same tho. It's unofficially called the Feniverse cuz Fen is the main character, but it does have a more official name. I'm just, uh… not aware of what that name is yet, lol!

Anyway, the Ben in this dimension branches off from the development of Prime Ben. Anybody remember the fact that the very first Ben 10K episode said Ben became the way he did in the future cuz he killed Vilgax by ripping him to pieces? Yep! That's what this Ben did too! But obviously he doesn't end up exactly like that Ben 10K. But so this dimension's Ben is therefore officially labelled Slayer Ben since some people refer to him as 'The Vilgax Slayer'. And that experience did definitely screw him up pretty bad, which is why he's so different from both Prime and 10K.

So from left to right:

Name: Fenrick Fih Rook-Tennyson

Age: 13

Height: 5'1

Voice: Todd Haberkorn

Bio: Fen is Ben and Rook's son. He has always been known for being quiet, surprisingly wise for his age, and quite the troublemaker. In actuality, only two of these things are true. Fen is more calm than he seems and as a young child he wasn't much of a talker, giving people the perception that he's quiet. Unfortunately, Fen also has many great ideas that end up badly. However, his ideas always come from the desire to help someone or solve a problem, but he always gets caught when his plans fall apart, making it look like he causes trouble. Some people even accuse him of trouble he didn't start, not helping his reputation. And as the son of Ben 10 of all people, he tends to be held to higher expectations. His wisdom never ceases to amaze people either. Even Ben and Rook get surprised at the wisdom he recites, wondering where exactly he learned it all. Due to that, he tends to put up a fight whenever himself or someone else gets wronged. He especially defends his friends and fellow alien kids in town. Although his only true friends seem to consist of his childhood friend, Millie, and his cousin, Sven.

At the age of 13, Fen discovered his ability to transform into a couple dozen of Ben's aliens. He quickly aspired to become a hero like his parents, much to Ben's disapproval, who worries about his safety. Despite that, Fen wants to form a hero trio with Sven and Millie and become the next generation of heroes in the galaxy.

Developer's Notes:

Fen's almost always been the same since I first created him, with just a few design and character tweaks done to him. He used to have a talent for jewelry making but that was switched out for him being wise for his age. He was also a bit more generic as far as the upbeat and reckless young male protagonist with famous parents archetype goes, but he's been adjusted enough that he now stands out from that archetype. Or, at least I hope, lol. Also, funny thing to note, Fenrick is not a real name! The closest name there is is Fenwick and iirc, that's a last name! I considered changing it to Fenwick or even Fenick but Fenrick is too special to me. His, uh, unfortunate name even has an impact in-universe with him being embarrassed by it and some using it to make fun of him. Also in-universe, I chalk it up to Ben having a dumb moment by misremembering the name Fenwick and Rook not knowing any better to catch Ben's mistake. Also, if you think his hair style is stupid, good. That's the point. He wanted it like that when he was seven and Ben and Rook were like 'sure' and it's been like that ever since.

Name: Millicent

Age: 13

Height: 5'0

Voice: Jennifer Paz

Bio: Millie is Ester's daughter. Her biological father is a human who decided he didn't want to be a father and Antonio soon stepped up to fill the father role when he and Ester got married. She has been friends with Fen and Sven since they were all babies. Millie is the level-headed one of the group and has been noted as being oddly emotionless. Her tone of voice is almost always flat and she usually keeps a straight face when not looking nervous. She never intends to be rude, but she will bluntly say whatever comes to her mind to her peers. At the same time, she can be nervous about making bold decisions and hates being a part of any decision making. She either refuses to do anything, or apologizes profusely for making a decision even when nothing bad happens.

Due to being more human than Kraaho, Millie is perfectly capable of handling the temperatures of Bellwood. However, she is still a bit sensitive to cold temperatures and needs to bundle up more than others during the winter. She sadly cannot handle the heat in the Hot Spot for very long either. Much to Millie's dismay, she was not born with the Kraaho's stretching ability. No one can figure out why, but it's simply something she can't do. As a result, she considers herself a normal human and has resigned herself to the fact that 'normal' is simply all she will ever be. Despite this, she has taken up quite a big secret that contradicts her decision and expresses who she wishes she really was.

Developer's Notes:

Millie only ever had one design change with her outfit and slight adjustment to the way her hair works and she's been the same ever since. Since the beginning she was always calm and stoic and I've always worried that she doesn't have much of a presence or purpose, but now I feel like she plays off Fen and Sven well enough that she stands out thanks to them. I've always flipped back and forth between Fen and/or Millie having a crush on each other, but I've finally settled on them both just seeing each other as near and dear loyal friends. It ultimately works out better that way and doesn't cause conflict with Millie's personal story or Fen's real love interest(and the one other character with feelings for him). Her name also used to be Mina, but since I've now taken that as one of my own names, it felt really awkward to keep her as that. I used to have a habit of naming characters with names I wanted before realizing I could change my name in the future, lol.

Name: Sven Elijah Levin

Age: 12

Height: 4'8

Voice: Wally Wingert

Bio: Sven is Gwendolyn and Kevin's son and Jenny's older brother. Sven is a rather unfortunate boy. He is constantly terrified of everything to the point of running millions of 'bad ends' through his head. He can barely talk most of the time without being a stuttering mess and always thinks he's going to be in trouble for anything and everything he does. Everyone is certain he either has severe anxiety or paranoia, or likely both. Perhaps even more. Who knows. Sven tends to cling to his cousin, Fen, who he looks to for guidance and advice, most of which isn't anything Sven should actually be following. Because he is a grade below Fen and Millie, he's often left alone to deal with problems in his own classes, or really just panic about them. He does, however, have a close relationship with Zed and likes to be the one to take her out on walks in the afternoon. And not many people know it, but he's actually a pretty decent artist.

Even though he is an Osmosian thanks to being Kevin's son, no one knows what ability he may have. It doesn't really matter though, since he wants to stay out of any potential trouble that having powers could bring him. Regardless of that, he has an interest in magic thanks to Gwendolyn's expertise in it. He even sneaks peeks at her spellbook and the strange bag she keeps in her office that he can hear a voice coming from at night.

Developer's Notes:

Now Sven is a character whose personality has always been pretty much the same while his design was never consistent until reaching his current one. He was originally very anime looking and in a gaudy orange outfit that I regret even thinking about, lol. He looks much better in neutral colors. I guess there's not much to say on him though, which makes me worry he's a tad unremarkable, but perhaps it's just since I'm leaving out the things about him that are better left discovering on your own… if I ever get to finishing that fic that is… ahaha.

Name: Saki Boulais

Age: 13

Height: 4'11

Voice: Stephanie Sheh

Bio: Julie and Hervé's daughter, one of the more popular girls in school, and the most deceptive in town. Saki has gone her whole life, since the first time she told a successful lie, tricking people into thinking she's a completely innocent little girl who's never done anything wrong. This allows her to get away with anything she wants, and she especially enjoys getting Fen in trouble when they butt heads with each other. The two have even been enemies since they first met at age three and Saki pulled Fen's tail, he pulled her hair in return, and she managed to get away with claiming he started it. Their feud has even turned into murderous intent, which Saki refuses to hide.

On a lighter note, Saki always has the company of her two best friends, Rachel and Diane, who will gladly join her in her tormenting of others. Saki even greatly admires the most popular girl in school, Fiona, and whoever the mysterious new hero girl, Miracle-M, is.

Developer's Notes:

Yes, Saki was always meant to be That Bitch in the cast. I feel like it's unrealistic to have all next gen kids be friends and get along with each other. It's perfectly believable to have some of them dislike, and in Saki and Fen's case, even hate each other. It makes it more interesting with them being Ben and Julie's kids respectively too. Adds good drama, lol. But anyway, really the only thing that's changed about Saki is her hairstyle and some other slight design tweaks like her necklace, shorts, and shoes. I also just recently changed her colors from purple and blue-ish purple to just blue so that isn't not all three girls here wearing purple. She also looks better in blue and it contrasts nicely with Julie's pink imo. I suppose I do worry about her being disliked since she's so antagonistic and with her being Julie's daughter, I really hope her character doesn't send the wrong message since I genuinely love Julie a lot. It really is just For The Drama Of It All. I think it's really fun to watch her go into full 'Murder Fen' mode too. Very fun to write, lol. Oh right, also Boulais is my headcanon last name for Herve. I just wanted her to have his last name but he doesn’t have one! So I had to pick one for myself.

Name: Jennifer Elizabeth Levin

Age: 10

Height: 4'6

Voice: Brina Palencia

Bio: Jenny is Gwendolyn and Kevin's daughter and Sven's younger sister. She is surprisingly serious and stoic for her age. She gets annoyed by her family's constant 'abnormal' status and wishes everyone could just act normal with no weird events happening. She throws herself into school work as a means to keep herself out of it and tries to keep her personal life at school with friends far away from her life involving family. She seems to have a quick temper, but really she just acts that way to get what she wants since she knows it works and in the hopes that she can use it as an opportunity to vent her frustrations. She hates getting involved in her brother and cousin Fen's antics, but sometimes her no nonsense attitude is needed to resolve a situation. She has a strange obsession with eating bread, finding it the perfect food and almost always exclusively eating something with bread involved. Gwendolyn definitely worries about her diet, but Kevin finds it harmless.

She may not have the spark like her mother, but she doesn't dare confess that her status as an Osmosian became very apparent just recently. As a result, she has a stash of broken objects stuffed under her bed and cracked floorboards that she covers with her rug.

Developer's Notes:

Jenny went through a decent redesign. Character wise I feel like I still don't have some things etched in stone for her as I still haven't gotten to the point in my writing where she does anything of interest. She could honestly probably end up pretty different from her bio here if I'm not careful, lol. The characters write themselves as they say after all! But I definitely prefer the newer Jenny compared to the previous way I envisioned her character, which was designed to fit a character type I actually hate just cuz I felt it worked for her. Thankfully I can avoid it tho with the big overhaul I did after returning to these characters. And I do like Jenny cuz I like writing her dialogue, but it still feels like her character is still that of a person I would not wanna be around, lol.

Name: Bevel Tennyson

Age: 20

Height: 5'9

Voice: Dee Bradley Baker/Yuri Lowenthal

Bio: Bevel is the youngest of the Big Chill offspring born twenty years ago. They were in an accident involving a passing spaceship on their way to Kylmyys that damaged their right wing to the point they could no longer fly. It's suspected the wing has severe nerve damage, making Bevel unable to unfold it as well. Their siblings helped them make it the rest of the way to Kylmyys, but over the years, the dangers of Kylmyys left the siblings with only Bevel and the eldest two, Emboss and Curve, remaining. As they got older, Bevel could never forget their only memory of their parent, who the others didn't remember. A desire to reunite with their parent caused Bevel to make the lone decision to explore the universe in search of their parent.

Bevel is a very cheerful and sweet person, but their secluded upbringing and lack of knowledge about Earth makes them very naive. They will believe anything they are told and have a very black and white moral view due to not understanding nuance. They have strange habits that appear unnatural in their attempt to act human and have an intense craving for Earth candy. They have also taken up being a mercenary to get by after leaving Kylmyys and once they join the Tennyson family, Rook suggests they use the skills they've picked up to become a Plumber, but that's an idea Ben isn't fully onboard with.

Developer's Notes:

Right off the bat I want to shout out that his old human design used to keep the Necrofriggian antennae. I still think it's a cute design even tho it wasn't canon compliant with the antennae. The only things that have changed about him too are just that, his hair style, and his shoes. Plus I stuck bunny ears on his hoodie recently as a shout out to those antennae he used to have. Otherwise he's always been the same. And I guess I haven't explained why he has a human form, but that's also an answer to discover later. I didn't draw his Necrofriggian form tho cuz we should all know what the UAF design looks like(and yes I am screwing with art style difference bullshit cuz OV Big Chill is not real and you cannot convince me otherwise). And I also just realized his pronouns aren't matching up in this section so I should add his official pronouns are he/they, but characters refer to him by he/him and narration uses they/them. He is still a Necrofriggian and therefore doesn't do the whole gender thing after all. Which is why he's fine with anyone viewing him as whatever they want to too. He just goes with it. That's also why he doesn't get what's weird about him calling Ben 'Mother' after he learned the word, lol.

#staff so help me if this disappears from the tags EVER we will have a problem #ben 10 #ben 10 oc #fenrick (oc)#Millie (OC)#Sven (OC)#saki (oc)#jenny (oc)#bevel (oc)#my art #artists on tumblr

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m4gp13 · 4 years

Text

(short list of interesting aspects of Ethan’s character because there’s so much that can be done with him but i can’t write so the most i can do is occasionally remind people he did more than just die)

Despite assumptions he’s really not that motivated by revenge. Every time he talks about his goals he just talks about the minor gods deserving better. In the end the thing that redeems him is letting go of any petty (or not) grievances against the gods and doing what’s necessary to restore balance. There is a ton that can be done with this alone.

Also his relationship with his mother is a little confusing. I mean, she took his eye and he stays loyal to her cause until his death? He spends a lot of time defending her to Percy during the peace talk and the only thing stopping him from just stabbing Percy is Prometheus. He literally tried to stab the guys he just saw destroy a whole bridge over some mildly offensive comments about his mum and we never get any more information about their relationship?

What the fuck was he doing before he joined the army? Percy says his eyepatch looked a few years old and Annabeth said he’d been at the Hermes cabin “years ago” so what was he doing all that time? I doubt he spent the entire time in the labyrinth because the only other person we saw survive that long on their own down there was Nico, a son of Hades with Minos to “help” him. Was he conflicted about joining an army and procrastinated it? Did he get lost trying to find Luke? Was he just really slow?

Percy was being attacked on all sides by numerous forms of attack and got chased around by those two gorgons for probably weeks, all of which missed his achilles heel, but Ethan just immediately zero’s in and gets it right first try? And that’s it? We don’t get any more info about what powers he may have, if he can zero in on any powerful foes weak spots, if it’s just a one time thing or just an achilles heel thing? Were Annabeth and Percy not concerned about what else thing guy might be capable of? Like surviving exploding boats and collapsing bridges, maybe?

He was super cagey when Annabeth asked about his eye after the arena but then just tells Percy the whole story when he wakes up Kronos. Don’t know what’s up with that but i am curious. Does he have a criteria people need to meet before they get to know about his eye or was he just caught up in the moment and it slipped out?

Also this kid really, really needs a hug even in the beginning. The amount of times Rick has mentioned him cowering in fear has me genuinely concerned. Did something happen that made him so jumpy? Was it the eye thing?? or maybe something that happened before he joined the army.

Speaking of the army, does he have some prestigious position or something because he seems to do a LOT of important shit. He was the one ordered to capture Beckendorf when Selina told them the boat plan, he was the one sent to retrieve the sword of Hades, he was there to guard Prometheus during the peace talk AND he was the only person in the entire army that was ordered to go with Kronos to Olympus. Not a minor god/goddess, not another Titan, not some powerful monster. He chose Ethan to be there during what he thought would be his ultimate victory and I am very curious to know why Ethan was the number one choice.

Also we really don’t know much about Ethan’s relationship with the other demigods which is something i really think should be explored. the most we know friend wise is that he might have had a good relationship with Luke pre-Titan army mostly because of that “he’s still fighting you, isn’t he?” line.Him sitting around the fire with the other half-bloods suggests he had friends but they just sat in silence (maybe they were feeling a bit somber after watching Percy crush a large portion of their demigod forces at the bridge) and there was that shit who thinks they’re a fucking comedic genius with their dumbass “nice knowing ya” comment and I don’t know about Ethan but I am NOT making friends with the fuckers who think it’s fun to take the mickey when your pal is about to get their ass kicked by an evil, immortal, prick.

What the fuck is up with his mortal parent, like, sir I don’t know if you’ve noticed or if you’re even alive but your son joined an army and is now trying to kill god. I normally don’t tell people how to parent their kids that does seem like something you guys should talk about.

Also, the one i have thought about most; WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED AFTER HE DIED.

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beautifulterriblequeen · 3 years

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If your Runaan is King theory is true, do you think there might be any parallels between Runaan and Lain friendship and Harrow and Viren friendship (before Viren was taken over by dark magic)? And if Harrow died before he and Viren drew apart, would he have asked Viren to take care of his kids (same way Lain did with Runaan)?

Oh man, this is such a fun question! Gosh gosh gosh. I think there should be parallels there, yes! Lain is Runaan’s BFF, and Viren was Harrow’s. Like, that parallel is already there. The BFFs have/had a wife, and the leaders have had spouses too. There’s a group of four for each of them, two couples, with these pairs of men as the closest friends.

Both sets of relationships are complicated, and though we know a bunch of the issues Viren and Harrow have dealt with, we really don’t know much about Lain and Runaan’s friendship or how it’s affected their friend group and marriages, aside from two things: Lain got Ruthari together by encouraging Runaan to tell Ethari how he felt, and Laindrin trusted Ruthari with Rayla’s upbringing. That’s kind of all we got so far.

But I would love to see a handful more really key mirrors and parallels in place. Some things that are the same, and some that are different. That’s really how this show’s characterization works, so I’m practically expecting it.

Viren and Lissa divorced because Viren was creeping her out with his dark magic, apparently. Lain and Tiadrin are still together, and they fight as a dedicated battle couple. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t face some kind of crisis moment too, where maybe Lain had a hard choice to make and Tiadrin decided to support him instead of pull away--or maybe Tiadrin was the one making the choice.

Maybe it involved having Rayla? Or joining the Dragonguard? If Lain was the one invited, and he really wanted to go, Tiadrin would have to choose between staying with Rayla or staying with Lain. That’s a big echo of Claudia’s “Don’t make me choose!” right there, so maybe there’s something to that? (I have an angsty hc that Runaan, as the assassin leader, sent them both to the Storm Spire for many reasons. If one of them was to prevent Tiadrin having to choose, and if he chose to suffer the loss of both so they could remain together, gosh...) If they struggled with a decision and then left together, then Runaan and Ethari would have to support their friends’ departure while trusting that they’d be stronger together. Oh man, the feels.

Harrow and Viren are both men who will do things on their own if they must. We saw Sarai as more of a “I can go with you or leave you to your folly but clearly you need my help” kind of person when it came to the Magma Titan mission. And iirc there’s a tweet out there saying that Tiadrin and Sarai would be great friends if they met under peaceful circumstances.

So maybe Tiadrin, with her tactical mind, has the same approach as Sarai, and Lain is more of a “Dude, bro, dude, let’s just do the thing, bro my dude my guy, I gotchu.” He’s very supportive, but that can also become enabling if it goes a little too far, so maybe Lain has gotten Runaan into some tight spots, or at least not talked him out of said spots, over the course of their friendship? And it was Tiadrin who saved their butts, which she does not let them forget. I can see Sarai teasing her boys about their follies and her needing to save the day, too, gosh I love that.

We don’t know what kind of societal role Lissa had. I’ve been assuming she didn’t fight like Sarai did, but I could be super wrong on that. If she isn’t a combatant, then she actually kinda parallels Ethari. Three fighters and someone who doesn’t fight, but with the pairings are swapped. That just adds more possibility to the paralleling options, though.

And I’m wondering, maybe Runaan and Ethari had a moment like Lissa and Viren, where Ethari might’ve had to choose whether to stay with this stabby idiot after he saw something very unpleasant. Perhaps it was Runaan getting his scars? Viren sacrificed someone (presumably) to save Soren’s life. Perhaps Runaan nearly sacrificed his own on a mission. There’s a really dark parallel with these two about how little they value life--extra ironic and complicated for Runaan as a Moonshadow--and I can totally see a big scary moment happening where their spouses realize exactly how different their loved one’s philosophy is from their own. Except that Ethari stayed and Lissa left. and now Runaan has gone but Viren remains, aaaaa

I wonder how the other couples might’ve played out, there. When Viren and Lissa split, how did Harrow and Sarai handle it? What did Harrow try to do for his friend? Did they try to reconcile the couple? Probably. That could’ve felt like political pressure to Lissa. And I wonder if Harrow even knew what Viren had done to save Soren’s life, that he killed someone. I bet Viren wouldn’t tell him that part. Maybe he even lied, because his need to be Harrow’s friend, to be close to power and allowed to practice his magic, was so strong.

Lain and Tiadrin would’ve tried to talk to Runaan and Ethari too, I’m sure. They’re both assassins, just like Runaan, so they’d see his side, and Ethari might’ve felt very pressured as well, to just submit and go along. Not just as a freaked out spouse, but as the craftsman who made weapons for the assassin leader and for others, keeping them safe. If he left... who would keep Runaan safe? That’s kinda sus, bro. But I can see the Moonshadow logic in it.

Viren has attached himself to Harrow as friend and protector, and he’s dedicated years of his life to helping Harrow protect their people. Possibly Lain had the same motivation? “This guy’s important, so I wanna be his friend and help him out with that.” That’s not a bad thing at all. Viren’s motives were a little tainted by dark magic. Maybe Lain’s a stand-up guy. But maybe he also has some kind of self-interest involved in being Runaan’s best friend, too. Moonshadows be complicated.

tl;dr: Yes anon I am very here for an interwoven, complicated friendship between Lain and Runaan that involves spouses and plenty of good and bad history, similar to the long and complex relationship between Harrow and Viren. I am jonesing for more moonfam backstory so bad.

As to your other question, I do think that Harrow would’ve wanted to entrust his children to Viren before he and the dark mage drew apart. The question that arises for me is: when did that begin?

I think it began with Sarai’s death. Harrow had his own plan, but he trusted Viren and did it his way, and he lost his wife in the process. Fifty thousand lives is a lot more than one life. But that one life was the most precious one to Harrow, and it made the sacrifice personal in a way that losing fifty thousand citizens never would be.

Harrow might still have given his kids to Viren. But Amaya was also a choice. The general or the mage? Neither are super safe for a childhood environment.

Interestingly, in this parallel, Amaya is a lot more like Runaan: the fighter, who would’ve trained Callum and Ezran to fight because they grew up in such a dangerous environment. I wonder if there was another option for Laindrin to give Rayla to, one that was more magical, or more dubious? Lujanne comes to mind! Hah, can you imagine? Crikey!

I think that if Harrow and Sarai needed to give their boys to someone, Sarai would advocate for Amaya and win: “With troops like Gren and Corvus and the whole Standing Battalion to protect and raise them, there’s no safer place in all of Katolis!” It sounds like something Tiadrin would say about leaving Rayla with Runaan and Ethari, amidst the assassin corps. It’s not ideal by miles, but I can see why she, as a warrior herself, would see safety and a like-minded community as the strongest benefits.

If it was only Harrow, after Sarai died, it might still be Amaya, because his trust in Viren had begun to fracture, but it’s hard to say. I get the feeling that Harrow has never really seen Viren as dad material, even though he has kids. That hug thing in the S1 novelization was really weird, and I will never unsee Viren saying “familial clasp.” Viren, why are you like this. Anyway, Harrow might just decide that leaving his kids with a guy who literally doesn’t know what a hug is, might not be the best move for their emotional development.

He’s a good dad, an angry widower, an iffy king, a great jokester, a loving husband, and a loyal friend. He’s as complicated as Runaan is, kings or no. But I hope that he and Viren had many years of true friendship, just like I suspect Runaan and Lain have had. Positive, healthy relationships are good for everyone.

Please though, TDP, moonfam friendship stuff. This parallel is begging to happen and things don’t feel balanced without it. What’s that, there’s not enough time?

*magically sprinkles five extra minutes onto each episode* Reality schmeality.

#asks #viren #harrow #lain #runaan #tdp parallels #king runaan #moonfam #amaya #rayla

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western-writer · 3 years

Text

Betrayal Beyond Forgiveness

Fandom: Far Cry 5

Warnings: cussing, descriptions of injuries, mentions of blood and death

Summary: The Whitetails conspire against Rook out of fear but things don't go the way they expected them to go.

A/n: Finally! I've been trying to produce content for the longest time but I couldn't finish anything to save my life. But here this is and I'm very happy with it. I also didn't proof read this but will be going back through as time goes on to edit things. Enjoy!

Betrayal is a funny thing. The stinging, burning sensation that pools and spreads like electricity throughout your chest and settles into a pit in your stomach. How it feels when that first jolt of Earth shattering realization leaves you reeling. Questions racing in your mind, yet somehow you’re unable to think or choke out the words caught in your throat. It’s funny because betrayal always comes from those you would least expect. That's what betrayal is. You enemies... you expect that much from them. You expect them to try to hurt you. You expect them you screw you over. But when it comes from those closest to you... it cuts deeper than you could imagine.

Rook would’ve expected something like this from Jacob - a set up. But the Whitetails? Eli? Rook couldn’t wrap her head around it.

It was just supposed to be a simple extraction of supplies the cult had taken. Stealth is her specialty, after all. Rook dropped the Peggies quick - almost too quick. To Eli’s dismay, this only drove his point forward and confirmed a suspicion he had for quite some time. Jacob’s trails had changed her and, the cult having been mostly under control, it was time to put her down.

Eli and Tammy watched her on his cameras as she worked. Tammy wore a “I told you so" look as Eli ignored it. With a heavy sigh, he raised his walkie talkie to his mouth and spoke. “We proceed as planned. I’m sorry, Dep.”

Having no idea of this so-called plan, Dep went through the plan as she was told. The area is secure, now she needs to check to see if the supplies are there.

This part felt a bit strange to Rook. Why should she check to make sure the supplies are there? If they sent her out on his mission, wouldn’t they already be sure they’re here?

Rook ignored her warnings going off in her head and she opened each container. Her heart dropped as she heard the familiar click and she knew what was coming. She had just triggered a count down to a bomb explosion.

Thinking quickly, Rook turned and sprinted away as fast as she could, but she wasn’t quite fast enough. The explosion went off behind her, sending Rook flying through the air.

Eli thought the plan had gone off without a hitch as a Whitetail checked her pulse and found no sighs of it. “I think she’s gone, boss. I think the plan worked.” Eli could only hope that she died a quick death. Tammy breathed a sigh of relief.

“It’s better this way, Eli. She would’ve been a danger to us all. I’ve seen what happens to people after they go through those trails. Now it’ll look like she went down a hero. No one will know.”

Eli sighs, getting ready to announce her death, but there’s one problem.

Rook didn’t die in the explosion. She was knocked unconscious and came to just in time to hear about the conspiracy to kill her. She laid there for who knows how long just letting it sink in. Her head throbbed, probably due to the conclusion and she’s pretty sure she has a few broken ribs. Rook was pelted with shrapnel and is bleeding from multiple wounds all over her body. Multiple bones are horribly damaged.

Jacob, she would’ve expected to do something like this. Not the people she called family. Not after all that she’s done for them. The Whitetails are playing with fire and if she lives through these injuries, they’re gonna get burned.

“Deputy, Deputy, Deputy...” Jacob’s disapproving voice rings in her ears. “Bet you wish you listened to me now, huh?”

Rook opens her eyes a little bit, fighting off the drowsiness threatening to take over. Her vision is blurry and her ears still ring intensely from the explosion. She'll be surprised if she doesn't have some sort of hearing loss, even despite the ear plugs she wears.

It was sad seeing the fearsome Deputy laying here in a pool of her own blood. Having been betrayed by none other than the Whitetail Militia. Pathetic, really.

Rook, being the stubborn woman she is, struggles to sit up, only to have Jacob slowly push her back down. He cracks a smile, finding a bit of amusement in this.

“What do you want, Jacob?” she tries to hiss, but it comes out weak.

Jacob sighs. “I tried to warn ya. You didn’t wanna listen. Now look where you are. Alone. Dying. How does betrayal feel?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Rook manages to growl.

Jacob laughs. “I’ll hand it to ya, kid. You’ve got some real nerve. I can respect that."

Rook coughs, blood ozing from between her lips and she rolls over. Jacob watches her, almost like he's studying her as she spits out the blood. There's not a lot, but it's enough for Rook to be concerned.

"You have blood in your lungs," he tells her.

"No shit," she rasps. "Why... are you here?"

Jacob chuckles, wiping some blood from her mouth. "I hear everything, Deputy. These are my mountains, after all. I heard the whisperings. I'm honestly surprised they followed through. Their plan would've worked perfectly had someone bothered to confirm that you were dead. They just screwed themselves, didn't they?"

Rook nods slowly, beginning to wheeze. Jacob sighs.

"I guess I've screwed with you enough. C'mon." He extends his hand down and slide it under her back, lifting carefully.

"W-what're you doing?"

"I can't let them go and kill my best weapon, now can I?" He puts his other hand under her back and lifts her up. Rook doesn't bother with trying to struggle or fight him. She doesn't want to die. Not yet and certainly not because of people she would've given her life for.

Jacob picks her up, carrying her as gently as possible as to not injure her further. She rests her head on his shoulder, feeling oddly comforted.

Jacob felt oddly bad for the Deputy. It was never a feeling he expected to feel toward the young rookie. He felt her breathing against him, slow and raspy, pained. Anger burned inside him. Maybe he had a soft spot for her. He has to admit he holds a fair amount of respect for her. She's doing what most people couldn't, wouldn't, or would die trying to do. If he's being honest, he feels responsible for putting her in this situation, but at the same time, this is exactly what he wanted so why does he feel so guilty?

News of Rook's death shook the county. Everyone felt the sting of the loss all while she laid at the Vet's Center recovering and healing. Deputy Pratt stayed by her side the whole time in utter disbelief that the Resistance would do that to her. It took months for her to be well enough to stand and walk around but once she crossed that threshold when healed quickly, though, her loyalties had shifted just a bit and she would never be the same again.

Jacob tried to persuade her to forget about the Resistance. "After everything they've done to you," he said.

"It wasn't the whole Resistance, Jake," Rook defended them. "Just the Whitetails. And that still doesn't change the fact that what you and your siblings are doing is wrong."

Jacob just rolls his eyes. "If one part of the Resistance did this, the rest could easily too."

"The actions of the Whitetails don't speak for everyone, Jake. There's still parts of the Resistance that have fought beside me and some people have given their lives for me. I can't just forget that."

"Sometimes I think you're too loyal, Rook. I really do."

Now it's Rook's turn to roll her eyes. "Whatever you say, Jacob. I need answers and I intend to get them, whether you like it or not."

As Rook made her way out of the room, Jacob felt compelled to call after her, so he did. "Hey!"

Rook stop, turning to face him, seemingly annoyed. "What?"

"I just don't want them to burn you again. I don't want you to waste your energy on people that would literally murder you after all you've done for them. What if when you show up, they freak out and actually do kill you? I didn't save you just to have you be killed."

Rook would've be irritated with him if it weren't for the shock overriding her senses. This kind of vulnerability was incredibly uncharacteristic for Jacob, yet here he was. He showed her a side not many people had ever seen. His caring side. A side to him many people would argue is nonexistent.

Rook was confused at where the sudden concern came from but decided to brush it off - for now.

"It'll be okay, Jake," Rook responds, using her nickname for him to ease the tension. "They'll be too shocked to do anything."

Jacob watched her leave and sighs. At this point he feels a sort of obligation toward her and keeping her safe. The feelings confuse him greatly and he's unsure what to make of them. All he knows is that he hates it.

Rook stands in the doorway behind Eli, waiting for the perfect moment to make her presence known. She fights the angry trying to explode in her and reminds herself: you're here for answers, not to start a fight.

"Hey, Eli..." Rook says softly, making the man stop dead in his tracks and turn slowly.

"Deputy...?"

"Hey..."

With just a few strides Eli had closed to distance between them and hugged her tight. He was genuinely relieved to see her and know that he hadn't killed her. Guilt thumped in his chest like a drum as he held onto her.

"I thought you died..."

Rook had to admit, his embrace felt good. She wished she could forget the deception.

Eli pulls back and looks Rook in the eye. He notices that one has obvious damage to the cornea. Rook catches onto what he's looking at.

"Some, uh, some metal shaving managed to find their way into my eye during the explosion. Don't worry, it only took about 30% of my sight in that eye. My hearing though... I have about half of what I had."

"Dep - I am - I am so sorry."

"I also lost about 25% of my breathing capacity. Major concussion that will effect my cognitive function for the rest if my life. Broken skull and major brain bleeding. My left knee cap basically had to be rebuilt because of how shattered it was when I landed on it after the explosion threw me. My right ankle was broken, both wrists, my left femur, and both my radius and ulnar were pretty well mangled. Did I tell you that not only were multiple organs bruised, but my kidney had ruptured just a little bit? Oh and I had a ton of tissue damage, but I pulled through."

"If anyone could've done it, Dep, it was you."

"Yeah, it was me," Rook chuckles humorlessly. "After being left for dead on the ground... left to bleed out or die of organ failure... you'd never guess who found me but that doesn't matter right now." Rook takes a few steps into the Wolf's Den and looked around. The place was seemingly empty. "What matters is..." she trails off, turning to face Eli. "why'd you do it, Eli?"

A look of shock is plastered of Eli's face as he takes a step back. "D-do what?"

"Set me up, Eli. Why did you set me up? Why did you try to kill me? After everything I've done for you and this fucking county."

"I-I'm sorry, Dep. I really am. You were dangerous, or at least that's what they told me."

"You're smarter than that, Eli. Or at least I thought you were. Letting someone manipulate your thoughts like that... Who was it, hm? Was it Tammy? You know she never liked me."

"After the trials Jacob put you through-! She was terrified that he would use you against us. And I saw it Dep. How you took all those cultists down... it was unnatural."

"Are you fucking kidding me!? Seriously!? I have been fighting for my life, Eli! I've had to change to adapt my methods to fucking survive and you wanna say I'm dangerous because I had to get better? You really don't understand what I was up against. While you got to sit in here I was out there doing anything and everything you wanted me to do." She points to the door. "I was being kidnapped and shot and beaten. I killed for you and I wpildve DIED for you but THIS is how you repay me!? Fuck you, Eli. I thought you were family. I THOUGHT I could FUCKING TRUST YOU."

Rook steps forward, shoving Eli hard and he stumbles, falling to the ground. Rook stalks over, kneeling down next to him.

"You thought I was dangerous before? Get a load of this. Jacob saved me. That's right. Jacob. You know how much damage I could do if I wanted to? All I'd have to do is tell him where this precious hideout is and he'd come down on all of you so fast and so hard that you would never know what hit. You all would be dead before you could get your radio out. The Whitetails would be extinct and all it'd take is just a few words."

"You wouldn't dare," Eli hisses, glaring at her.

"Wouldn't I, though?" Rook answers dangerously. "All it'd take is a few words and your life would be snuffed out much like you tried to do to me. You involuntarily gave me so much power, Eli. Guess next time you'll check my pulse yourself, huh?"

"Dep... please."

Rook sighs, standing up and turning away from him. "And even though you'd fucking deserve it, I won't do that. But I will tell the rest of the Resistance what all of you did and let them decide what to do with you."

A crushing weight falls onto Eli. "I'm sorry, Dep. I really am. I never wanted any of this to happen."

Rook sighs and places her hands on the table in the main room. "You know I can never forgive you or any of the Whitetails for this, right Eli? I would've given my life for you guys... How am I supposed to forgive this? No. I can't. I just can't."

"I understand, Dep... I don't blame you."

Rook takes a deep breath and turns to him again, seeing that he has gotten to his feet. "I've been doing some talking and I've managed to talk Joseph down. They're not leaving but they'll stop targeting and recruiting unwilling participants as long as the Resistance leaves them alone."

"What does that mean for you, Dep?"

She smiles a bit. "I don't know... I mean I just experienced life altering trauma, both physical and mental. I have permanent brain damage. Another bad hit to the head could kill me. So I guess... early retirement. I'm partially blind, can't bear for shit anymore and get winded by walking for extended amounts of time so it's really my only option."

He wanted to say it again. He wanted to apologize until he lost his voice. He couldn't believe he had been so dumb. She will never forgive the Whitetails and neither will he. He will never forgive himself.

"Goodbye, Eli," Rook muttered as she left the bunker. All Eli could do is watch her leave and prepare for the chaos that is about to erupt. The Resistance will be furious with them. They'll be luckily if the rest of them don't kill them.

Rook found herself back at the Vet's Center and questioned herself for a moment before going inside. She could've gone anywhere but she chose here. She chose to come back.

Jacob is waiting for her as she enters his office.

"They thought I was a danger to them..." she mutters.

"Why?"

"Your trials... they thought you'd use me against them."

Just as Jacob feared, they had caught onto his plan. But she would never know that.

Surprisingly, Jacob walked over to Rook and hugged her.

She was stunned and almsot pushed him away before accepting the affection. God knows she needed it after the last few months she had. She never thought she'd find comfort in Jacob Seed but here she is.

And as for Jacob, feeling the younger woman in his arms did something to him. He didn't want to let go. He didn't want her to go. And he would do anything to make sure she didn't.

Some things are better left unsaid and Jacob is sure that this is one of them.

#far cry 5 #jacob seed #deputy rook #jacob seed x f!deputy #the deputy #my writing #junior deputy #far cry 5 writing

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vigilantesanonymous · 4 years

Text

clean - klaus hargreeves

Diego is your best friend, and he asks you for your help, the one and only favor he’s ever asked of you. The catch? It involves helping his addict brother get clean.

Warnings: addiction, alcohol, mentions of an abusive relationship

Word count: 4900

***

A favor. That’s all that Diego mentioned in his text about why I oh so urgently needed to meet up with him. That’s Diego though, curt, short, and to the point. Elaboration was not his strong suit, never had been.

“You need to get a real place to live, Diego,” I say, looking around the cramped room that reeks of sweaty dudes and menthol muscle cream. “I mean who are you, Rocky Balboa?”

“Hey, I’m doin’ just fine. Mind your own business,” he snarks, obviously butthurt that I don’t revel in the aesthetic of living in a gym as much as he does. “I asked you here to see if you could do a favor for me,” he says, his tone suddenly shifting to serious. “It’s about my brother.”

Diego Hargreeves, in my years of knowing him, has never talked about his family. I know they exist, from all the splashes in old newspapers about the Umbrella Academy. But he would be damned before actually speaking about any of them. Any time that I tried to tease out some information about the strange family that Diego was apart of, he clammed up, changing the subject to literally anything else. So the fact that he wanted to ask me a favor involving his brother had me start to wonder if Diego had been replaced by a clone, a carbon copy of the man who had erased his family from his life.

“Which one?” I ask, slightly confused. “One, four, five, or six?”

“Klaus,” he responds. “I um, I really need your help with him.” Diego rubs at his forehead, his go-to body language for when he’s stressed. “This isn’t easy for me to ask you this, but you’re my closest friend and the only person that I really would trust with him. My brother Klaus is a drug addict, and he got caught, again, buying pills off of some loser. I’ve tried talking to him, talked about getting clean and sober, I know a few of our other siblings have talked to him, but nothing sticks. He just won’t listen to us,” Diego says through gritted teeth. “He’s in jail right now, and I’ve been talking to the ADA to see if they’ll let him out easy if he gets clean. But they’re being really strict about it, and they won’t let him out unless someone really helps him get clean. They’re going to make him get checked weekly, make sure nothing new is in his system. It’s going to be rough.”

“So where do I fit into all of this?”

“That’s what I’m getting to.” Diego has never been one to ask for favors, especially not one this grave, and I can tell it’s painful for him to get the words out. “You’re one of the most kind, patient, loyal people I know. If anyone can help Klaus kick this, it’s you. So, I’m asking you if you’ll help my brother get sober.”

“Diego Hargreeves,” I sigh heavily. I didn’t know on my walk over here that I would be enlisted to become a one woman sobriety clinic, but I owe Diego my life. So anything that he asks of me, I’ll do it.

“I know it’s a lot that I’m asking of you,” he starts, but I cut him off with a shake of my head.

“You know I can’t say no to you, you bastard,” I chuckle softly. “I’ll help your brother. I can’t say that I’m going to succeed, seeing as he sounds like he’s a real pain in the ass, but I’ll help you.”

Diego reaches out and smothers me in one of his rare hugs. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou,” he breathes, giving me a final squeeze. “You don’t know how much this means to me.”

“Don’t thank me just yet,” I note. “Let’s get your brother out of jail first.”

~~~

Klaus has himself flung dramatically over the bench in the cell, his skinny arms flung to either side of him. Well- it must be Klaus because he’s the only one in the cell. I notice that he has a few tattoos, and more than his fair share of puncture holes around the inside of his elbow. His outfit it… Excentric. A crop top and pants so tight they might as well be painted on him.

“Get up, asshole,” Diego barks.

Klaus looks over lazily, his energy shifting as he sees his brother. He bolts upright, a grin lighting up his features. “You’ve come to rescue me!” He cries as soon as his eyes fall onto Diego. He then turns to me, his expression becoming more coy. “Well Diego, I didn’t know you were going to bring your side piece. I would have cleaned myself up more for a proper introduction.”

Diego and I both look at each other, disgusted. “There’s no way-” “We’re not fucking-” We say at the same time, which only amuses Klaus more.

“Why’s she here then?”

“She’s going to get you sober,” Diego says with a devilish smirk.

“Ah, so she’ll be my keeper then,” Klaus grins.

Diego rolls his eyes. “Look, she’s a good friend of mine, so if you try to pull any bullshit with her-”

“You’ll skin me alive or something like that. Whatever, Knife-Boy.” Klaus dismisses Diego with a wave of his hand.

“Promise me.”

Klaus raises his right hand, cocking his hip to the side. “I promise, okay? Scouts honor. I will be a delightful little cherub and do nothing except focus on becoming squeaky clean and sober.”

“Good. You better.” Diego gives Klaus a knowing glance before turning back to me. “Okay, he’s in your custody. Let me know if you need anything.”

“Will do,” I agree, swinging my keys around on my finger. “Alrighty Klaus, let’s get going.”

Klaus and I walk out into the crisp autumn air towards my car in the jail’s dinky parking lot. Despite the weather, Klaus was arrested in a crop top and sinfully tight black leather lace up pants. He shoves his hands in his pockets, goosebumps littering his arms. He shivers slightly. “If it gets any more cold out here, my nips might show.”

I laugh and shake my head at him, unlocking the door to my car. “That’s inappropriate. I’ll have to get you a change of clothes; I run a modest household,” I tease.

“Oh wonderful, I can’t wait for our stay together to begin, then,” Klaus says, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I’m surprised that my brother hasn’t tried to steal this car from you,” he notes as he swings himself into the passenger seat. “I don’t know a whole lot about cars, but this looks a hell of a lot better than that shitty vintage beater he’s got.”

“I know,” I reply. I drive a white ‘72 Ford Mustang, and on more than one occasion Diego has commented on how pretty my car is. I stick the key in the ignition, the roar of the engine a sound that never ceases to comfort me.

“So what’s the plan?” Klaus asks me. He starts toying with the knobs for the radio, switching from one station to the next. “Find a sleazy hotel, snort some coke, have wild sex?” His eyes glitter with mischief as he says this.

“Yeah, don’t you wish,” I retort.

Klaus huffs, folding his arms and slouching down in the passenger seat to pout. “Well you’re no fun,” he sighs. “Can we at least get some cigarettes and take out for dinner?”

“Why don’t we establish some ground rules instead?” I suggest, laughing as he groans loudly from his spot in the passenger seat.

~~~

Something I learned very quickly was how feisty Diego’s brother is. Klaus did not take to sobriety well, and made it very clear and is very vocal that he was not going to get clean without a fight. Within the first day, he had cleared through all the liquor I had stored under my bathroom sink (for when I was having a rough day myself). He was suspiciously quiet for how talkative he had been in the car, which made me nervous. And low and behold, when I went into his room to check on him, he was laying on the floor, giggling to himself and reeking of whiskey. I dragged him to the bathroom and forced him to puke (“Kinky,” he slurs as I hold his head up by the hair. “You know, you’re sexy when you take charge like this. Maybe pull my hair a little harder,” he jeers, clearly enjoying making me flustered by flirting with me. “You having fun? This won’t be so funny in a second, smartass,” I snap. Klaus thought it was a great joke until I shoved my fingers down his throat and he starts purging himself of all my booze).

That was the other thing: the relentless flirting. Whether he was sassy, or he wanted something, or wanted to throw me off guard, or even when he was in one of his sweeter moods, Klaus would always make some kind of remark that never failed to make me blush. After a few days, I should have grown accustomed to it, expected if from him even. But I didn’t, and every time he would say how hot it was that I was taking charge and keeping him from downing as many pills as possible to get high, or when he was shaking and barely coherent and suggesting a sexual exchange in order to get his fix, I would find myself red in the face. I tried to shake it off and chalk it up to him just buttering me up so that he could get what he wanted, but it didn’t always seem that way. Sometimes I would catch him staring at me for a beat too long, his usually mischievous look replaced with something softer. I didn’t really know what to make of it.

“Ah, there she is!” Klaus cries as I walk in the door. He pops up from the couch a little too quickly for my liking for his current state. He’s so close to being done with the ugly stage of withdrawal- the shaking, sweating, screaming in your sleep and calling me a bitch because I wouldn’t get him something to get high with- stage. It’s made him a little worse for wear; he’s shaky and lightheaded because of the lack of drugs in his body. Only a day or two more and it should be out of his system completely. “My little angel! Did you get any snacks for our movie night?”

I feel my face heat up as I root through the convenience store bag for his cigarettes. “Yeah, and I got you a present too.” I hold them out to him, Klaus eagerly snatching them up like a child on Christmas Day.

“Oh, bless you and your beautiful face,” he says gratefully.

“They’re for us to share,” I say as I dump out the contents of the bag onto the counter. Smoking is the only vice that Klaus and I share. Klaus makes fun of me for it, saying that I smoke for the aesthetic of it, whereas he smokes because he’s an addict. I actually picked up smoking to temper my anxiety- the ritual of taking a drag, forcing myself to breathe slowly and surely helps calm me down a lot.

Klaus leans against the counter, lighting up a cig. He takes a deep drag, letting the smoke tumble from his lips. I stand mesmerized as I watch it tangle through the curls in his hair to the ceiling. The slight tremble from his hands stills as he absorbs the nicotine, and I see as the tension starts to ooze out of him. He takes a few more drags before offering it to me.

“I really can’t thank you enough,” he says as I take a puff of my own. “That nicotine really hit the spot.” He shuffles over to me and gives me a quick peck on the cheek, his facial hair tickling my face as he does. “A token of my appreciation.”

I giggle, playfully blowing smoke at him. “I’m glad I could make your day, Klaus.”

“Well, there’s always something you could do to make my day,” he grins, giving a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows. He hoists himself onto the counter, feet dangling. He positions himself over me so he can see what else I grabbed for us. Giggling softly to himself, he leans back lazily as he watches me put things away in the kitchen. “Yeah, I’m pretty easy to keep happy. Smokes, yummy food, and someone to love me.”

Before I could respond, my phone started ringing. Diego, probably prompting me for another update on Klaus’ sobriety. I mentally scream, annoyed that I can’t seem to ever get to the bottom of Klaus’s flirting. Reluctantly, I walk down the hall to answer the phone, wishing the whole time I just would get the courage to deny the call and see what Klause really means.

“Star China is absolute trash,” Klaus says, shaking his head. “I refuse to eat it. We should get takeout from that place that’s called Little Hong Kong or something. Their egg rolls?” He kisses his fingers, blowing it towards me. “Absolute perfection.”

I can never beat Klaus with his antics. They definitely have added to my experience of living with him. He always finds a way to overembelish an interaction, which keeps me on my toes. “Fine, we’ll get your fucking takeout place,” I say with a laugh. “But I want noodles.”

“Wait! I want noodles!” Klaus whines. “Can I have some too?”

Klaus and I take a few minutes to negotiate what to order, Klaus perched over my shoulder as he reads the menu. His breath tickles my neck, causing my heart to start beating out of control.

I pay for delivery, Klaus hopping up and down behind me as I gather all the food from our driver and shut the door with my hip. “Thank God,” Klaus moans. “I’m starving. I mean, I could practically wither away with how hungry I am.”

“Oh, shut up,” I laugh. “I feed you. It isn’t my fault that you choose not to eat vegetables.”

He snatches one of the boxes of takeout from me, grabbing a fork and heading for the couch.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

“I like to be comfy when I eat!” Klaus calls back, already shoveling food into his mouth.

I roll my eyes. He’s always distracted by something, whether it’s Ben talking to him or the TV, which causes him to get crumbs everywhere. But he’s already rooted himself to the corner of the couch, his feet tucked underneath of him as he devours his chicken lo mein.

“Okay,” I agree, setting the other food down on the coffee table. “But if I find any crumbs someone is picking them all up, and it’s not going to be me.”

“Ben?” Klaus asks, pointing to the chair across from him.

“That’s kind of rude to pin the chores on your dead brother,” I retort.

“Don’t back him up!” Klaus cries, which only makes me laugh more. I decide to sit down next to him, making it easier for us to share food. Well, that, and I will take any excuse to be close to Klaus. “I was planning on sharing some of this, but now I’m not going to,” he huffs defiantly.

“Oh, come on Klaus. Please?” I lean against him, hoping that batting my lashes will win him over.

Klaus stops for a second, taking me in. He looks me over and grins, jumping back into his character. “Oh, fine. I can’t say no to a girl as pretty as you.” He twirls some noodles around on his fork, holding it up to feed me some.

I take the food from him, positioning myself so I’m leaning against him slightly. Klaus moves some of the cushions so that I’m leaning more on him than I am on them. He takes advantage of the way we’re sitting to steal a piece of shrimp from me, his eyes twinkling with delight as I turn to look at him, but I don’t call him out for it.

“Y’know, out of all of my siblings, I could argue that Diego is the least conversational,” Klaus notes as we sit nestled together on the couch. “So how on earth did a nice girl like you become friends with such a hard ass like him?”

I pick at my noodles, moving them by pushing them into a pile and then placing one on top of the other. “It’s kind of a long story,” I say, not really answering the question. I don’t really want to talk about how Diego and I became so close. Diego’s one of the most important people I know, and I owe him my life, but reminiscing on the finer details of how we developed our bond wasn’t something I wanted to focus on.

Klaus shrugs. “Well, I’ve got time. I’m all ears. I mean, I really couldn't leave if I wanted to. Not that I do, of course.” He shifts closer to me, his bright green eyes locking earnestly with mine. I can’t bring myself to turn him down. He’s looking at me supportively, almost like he knows that there’s something sensitive tied to my friendship with Diego. “I was working at a bar he would go to a lot between calls, or if he just wanted some time off from being a self-proclaimed super hero,” I start slowly. “And I was dating this guy at the time. And he and I move in together, because I’m young and naive and I think that even though there’s a million red flags, that moving in together is going to solve all of our problems. But he starts getting rough with me- real rough. So one night we’re fighting, like top of our lungs screaming at each other, and I just get this feeling like…” I stop to rub at my temples. Thinking back to that night brings back so many memories I prefer to keep buried. “I felt like that was it. He was going to kill me. I don’t really remember how I got away from him, but I locked myself in the bathroom and called Diego, just saying that I needed to get out of there and someone to be with me. I knew the police took too long, and I was scared out of my mind. I went back out of the bathroom, and he was choking me, saying that I would leave over his dead body. And then, in a moment of pure poetic irony, I see a knife sink into his jugular.” I chuckle darkly.

My mind flashes back to that night, the images reeling like a silent film. I remember how dark it was in the apartment, what little light illuminated his face was starting to blur around the edges as I lost more and more oxygen. And the thick thunk sound as Diego’s knife sunk into his neck. The way he stumbled back, grasping at it like that was going to do anything. Me sinking to the cold, hard floor, coughing and trying to catch my breath. My head pounding, my vision coming back, the feeling flooding into my extremities. And Diego, silently slinking forward out of the shadows as my boyfriend bled out on the floor, his eyes hidden beneath his Academy mask.

“Good old knife boy,” Klaus chuckles darkly. “I’m sorry though,” he says seriously. “You don’t deserve that. I mean nobody does, but especially not you.”

“It’s okay,” I say, but we both know it’s not.

Klaus silently pulls me into a hug, resting his chin on my head. I feel small but safe in his embrace. “So how come you guys never got together?” I appreciate his attempt to change the subject, even though it’s one that still makes me feel a little awkward. He tries to sound blase about it, but I feel like there is a twinge of something else to his tone. “Diego is one of my best friends, and I’m forever grateful to him, don’t get me wrong…” I taper off. “I just… I know that he could never see me as anything but the way I was that night. When he saved me. And in some ways, I appreciate how protective and respectful he is to me. But if I’m with someone, I want them to see more to me than just that. I know he couldn’t ever do that with me.”

Klaus hums in agreement. “I can see that. Diego is a good guy, but he definitely takes the vigilante hero role to a whole new level. I think that’s what ruined his relationship with the cop lady-”

“Patch?”

“Yeah! That one.”

“Yeah,” I agree.

I can tell Klaus is looking at me out of the corner of my eye, but I don’t care right now. I feel weirdly distant all of a sudden, like I need some air and space or something. “I think I’m going to go to bed,” I say, almost mechanically.

“Okay.” Klaus gives my hand a little squeeze. “Sweet dreams.”

“Thanks,” I whisper, but I’m sure he doesn’t hear it.

Thinking about my ex always puts me in a bad place. That’s why I try to avoid it as much as possible. And that’s why I always keep alcohol around. Is it healthy? No. But I’ll be damned if I have to stay up all night with these thoughts and not get any sleep because of him. One thing I got at the convenience store that I didn’t tell Klaus about was the liter of my friend The Captain, Captain Morgan to be exact. I start throwing back shot after shot, making a face as I do, the sting of the alcohol making my mind melt slowly. But after a few, things start to loosen up, relax. And I feel like I can finally sleep because my thoughts are so spaced out, floating loosely in my brain.

I feel myself bolt upright in my sleep before I fully realize that I’m awake. In my drunken stupor, I realize it’s Klaus screaming in his sleep that’s woken me up. Again. Poor thing, I think to myself. Maybe he needs someone with him right now. I throw my legs over the side of the bed and walk down the hall to his room.

He doesn't hear me come in at all. “Klaus,” I whisper. He stays asleep, his face screwed up with fear.

“No… No…” he murmurs. “Please Dave, stay with me.”

“Klaus,” I say again, firmer this time. I give him a little shake, to which he gasps as he wakes up, his fingers digging into my forearms.

“Holy shit,” he breathes. “Fuck, am I glad you’re here.” He whispers it like a prayer. Any of the usual giddiness and antics is gone from Klaus’ usually bright eyes. Instead, he looks scared and exhausted, the kind that builds up from years of torment and pushing down emotions. He releases me from his grip, falling back on the bed with a faint thud.

“Move over,” I instruct. Obediently, Klaus scoots over so I can fall into bed beside him.

For once in his life, Klaus is doesn’t have anything to say. I hear him panting, still recovering from his nightmare as I scoot around until I get comfortable. I look up at him to see him staring back down at me.

“What’s wrong Klaus?”

He looks down, his long lashes tickling the tops of his cheeks. “It was just… A really bad nightmare, that’s all.”

“You wanna talk about it?”

He shakes his head. “Not really.”

I hold my arms out to him, silently offering to hold him. Klaus accepts, shimmying himself into my embrace. His skin is cold and clammy from sweat and fear. I put my hand on his chest and can feel his heart thumping hard and quick, the way it does when you’re terrified. I feel him trying to relax in my embrace.

“You smell like booze,” he says softly. I sigh, glad I can’t see his face. Whether it’s a smug smirk of perfect me being not so perfect, or a scowl of disappointment, that was honestly the last thing I needed to see right now.

I let out a weary sigh before responding. “Well, you’re not the only one who’s been having a rough night.”

“I’m not judging,” he says quickly, almost nervously. “Trust me, I’m the last person who would.” He flips around to face me, snaking an arm around my waist. “If you tell me about yours I’ll tell you about mine,” he offers earnestly.

“Maybe in the morning,” I suggest. The alcohol is coming back to haunt me, and my brief moment of coherence is wearing off now that I don’t have to attend to the screaming man. I feel tired, and I’m comfortable in bed tucked next to the man that I’ve grown to love. Love. Loving Klaus is a scary thought, but I don’t want to over analyze it in the state I’m in. That could be saved for later. “I promise we can in the morning if you still want to. I’m just, I’m really tired Klaus,” I admit.

Klaus nods, silently agreeing with me. “Okay,” he says softly. “I’m tired too.” Hesitantly, he nuzzles himself into my embrace, placing his face in the crook of my neck and wrapping his long skinny arms around me.

~~~

Most mornings, I wake up headache free. This is not one of those mornings. I peel my eyes open, not understanding why I’m not in my own room and why the fuck is Klaus here?!

“I tried not to move around so I wouldn’t wake you up,” Klaus admits as he watches me grasp at my throbbing temples. He must have been watching me for a while, which I find oddly sweet instead of strange. “How are you doing, sport?” He’s sat up slightly, looking down at me with tender eyes. His dark hair is fluffy and sticking up slightly on one side from sleeping. Klaus is warm too, and I reflexively scoot towards him, he silently shifts to accomodate me.

“Not well,” I answer gruffly. Then I start to put the pieces together. Drunk me really stumbled all the way to Klaus and slept with him? God, I need to never do that ever again.

“Someone’s a little cranky,” he teases. “I can’t believe you didn’t share though!”

“Klaus!” I snap. His face falls, immediately sorry.

“I shouldn’t have asked you all that stuff last night, huh?” He asks softly. “I’m sorry I brought it up. His ghost just keeps following you around though, and he was being so annoying with the accusing and bitching and-”

I sit up so fast that I feel woozy. “Did you just say that my ex-boyfriend’s ghost is following me around?”

“Um, yeah?” He says it so plainly, like it’s common knowledge. “Did- Did Diego seriously not tell you about our powers? They’re kinda like the whole reason that I’m fucked up literally all the time. Both literally and metaphorically.”

“No Klaus, he didn’t mention the powers or the seeing dead people thing,” I sigh.

“I’m really sorry,” Klaus says softly.

“What? What are you sorry for?”

“I just- I’m sorry that Diego dumped me on you, and that you’re trying to take care of me, and that your ex-boyfriend is a piece of trash,” he says a little bit louder to an empty space in the room. “I know I can be a lot. But no one has ever been this kind to me- well, scratch that. No one has been this kind to me since Dave.” He rakes his fingers through his hair, trying to find the words to tell me what the hell he means. “What I’m trying to say is- You’re a really amazing person. You didn’t have to help me with all of this, getting clean, you didn’t have to come to see if I’m okay when I’m having nightmares.” He slips my hands into his, rubbing his thumbs soothingly over the back of my hands. “I like you a lot. Like, really like you a lot. I’ve been really scared of being vulnerable with someone after Dave but, you make me feel not so scared.”

“So all the flirting was real?” I ask. I feel slow, my brain processing what I’m hearing a few beats too late.

“Of course it was. You’re fucking hot!” He cries, both of us giggling. “Um,” he swallows, flinging back to seriousness. “If you would want to like, be an item, or date, or something… That would be cool.”

I giggle, sliding a hand up to cup his face. He flicks his gaze up to meet mine, his green eyes melting into mine. I lean in and press my lips to his firmly, Klaus immediately melting into the kiss. He makes a little squeak of excitement as I pull him closer to me, grinning ear to ear when I pull away.

“How’s that for an answer?” I smirk.

“I don’t know, I think I’ll have to check again,” Klaus says before pulling me in for another kiss.

#klaus hargreeves #the umbrella academy #klaus hargreeves imagine #klaus hargreeves x reader #klaus hargreeves fluff #klaus hargreeves x oc #diego hargreeves #diego hargreeves imagine #the umbrella academy imagine

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bourgeoishellion · 4 years

Text

I rant about a manga I read

I’ve been crying over +A no Tachiichi by Geni Yuu for the past few...hours. That’s actually quite a few literal hours I’m talking about, and I will never divulge the exact number because at this point it’s a long tantrum.

I love this manga, and I will stand by it till the end of time. I reread it with tears in my eyes and sobbed even harder the second and third time. So, listen to the synopsis:

Satoki Houma is an imaginative girl who enjoys shoujo manga. She has long comes to terms with the fact she will never be the type of girl that is the heroine of a manga purely because she isn't pretty, and she has decided she prefers to watch events unfold rather that get involved in any case. However, in the perfect shoujo manga twist, one day she gets dragged to an alternate world where the people have summoned a Holy Maiden to save them! Except so did her classmate, Haruka Toudou, who fits the exact model of a Shoujo Protagonist. Naturally, Satoki is overlooked for Haruka except it's not Haruka who has the powers of the Holy Maiden they wished for. What will Satoki do!?

Okay. It actually sounds pretty basic, cliche, and it’s the summary I tend to think, oh. . . one of those. Boring, but maybe it’ll surprise me.

I’ve been reading too many of the same kind of isekai manga lately, the overpowered and overly justified protagonist has been getting old. But this...

This is exactly what I’ve been looking for for ages.

Obvious spoilers for the ending, which is all I’m really going to rant about because I need to get this cry out or else I’m never moving on with my life...

So, Spoiler Alert: Satoki ends up returning to her own world.

That was one of the things I was looking for in an isekai. And I’ve never been more sad to have found such a perfect manga that could grant me this.

Satoki finds out that while she has stronger powers than Haruka (due to her imagination), she has a more limited fountain of power to draw from. So she can create all these fantastical, marvelous weapons, but Haruka can only create what others imagine (or something like that. It’s later explained she can also utilize this thing called memory, but what even is that? lol).

However, the more she creates, the less “mana” she has, and it can’t replenish itself.

Haruka, on the other hand, as the true Holy Maiden, has an unlimited source of mana.

So, in the end, Satoki really wasn’t the Holy Maiden. She really did trip into this other world. The Priestess tells her that the only thing keeping her in the world is the mana she has, and that once it runs out, she’ll return to her own world.

And this is great news, really! Satoki has always been left out, always been just a little less important, hasn’t made so many good friends that she would overlook the pros of going back home, nor does she believe she would leave a lasting impact on the minds of everyone she met in the story. So, overall, the fact she can go back home is a positive!

Right.

Right!?!?

NONONONONONONnodnONAFNSLDL;KJ.

Sorry, I’ll try to be a little less shaky from now on...

See, she ends up with enough mana to create a useless small thing, so the “final battle” has to be fought alongside Haruka, so that with Satoki’s imagination and Haruka’s unlimited power they can defeat the enemy!

It’s a great plan. Satoki has been forced to pretend to be the Voice of God for a while now, so she even has the important minor role of declaring Haruka the Holy Maiden (it’s a whole thing).

After declaring Haruka “The One,” mid-battle, while they are still being attacked by both a bloodthirsty demon king and a power-hungry prince AT THE SAME TIME, Satoki decides to peace out.

And it makes a lot of sense. She does tend to be surrounded by blunders, she really should take the opportunity to leave while she still can! So she has a wonderful goodbye scene with Haruka and gives her a paper mache sword that is shiny (which is all she can do with the power she has left).

That was wonderful. Great moment. Now, just wait for whatever will take her home to take her hom-WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, HARUKA IS NOT THE ONLY TEARFUL GOODBYE YOU HAD TO GIVE!

But of course, Satoki is a fucking idiot, she couldn’t have realized that, yes, other people wanted to say goodbye to her! They would have loved to have a moment to talk to her, to say their farewell, thank her- ugh.

So, the mage Miva and the fake Maiden Luce are obviously who I’m talking about here.

I fell in love with Luce the moment she appeared in the manga (relatively late) because she was so obviously taken with Satoki. While everyone often had something/someone more important than Satoki (even Haruka was more preoccupied with her love life), Luce made it clear that Satoki was important to her!

Sure, she was taking the minimal (it was actually pretty big though!) risk by taking Satoki’s side against the prince, but it was for her! She was important to her! She and Satoki were friends through and through.

But the dumbass thought that Luce was just taken with how much of a pretty boy Miva was. Oh yeah, she’s totally into the stupid mage she just stared down and not totally loyal to you.

And Miva. Oh, Miva...

Lemme just...rehash what happened from the moment Satoki summoned that stupid paper mache sword.

She said goodbye to Haruka and they did the friend thing.

And then Miva grabbed her shoulder, because she just did something stupid. He straight up asks, “Why did you make such a weird decision!?”

And we have to respect that, for once in this miserable joke of a journey, she made a fucking choice of her own volition, no advice, no suggestions, she chose this herself. She thought it through and decided...hey. This is when I want to go.

So, Miva is obviously a little messed up here. Satoki is leaving. Like, right the fuck now. She didn’t tell anyone she was going to do this, and now there’s no turning back!

Before the battle, Miva had told her that he wanted to talk to her. He wanted to tell her something. But now, there’s no god damn time, she’s on the verge of leaving forever.

And Miva is trying his damnedest to talk to her but...they’re in the middle of a fucking war.

The Prince orders their arrest and death or whatever, so they have to dodge that shit.

And as they do, Luce drags Satoki down to the floor and let’s her know she is the worst best friend in the history of best friends because What the fuck? “You were just gonna leave without saying goodbye? Was I the only one who thought we were friends?”

And what a time to find out your friend is your friend (even though its been obvious from the first chapter she appeared in and even though she has told you several times in direct fashion that you should be more decisive for your own good, which is something only your friends have done, ugh-)

Anyway, Luce and Satoki get a somewhat half-assed goodbye, but it’s still nice. For the last time, Luce tells her to grow a spine and not depreciate herself.

Miva comes back, and he has something to say. But oohhh, look, the king is over there, Satoki has to know if he’s on their side or naw even though she shouldn’t care, she’s not staying long enough for it to matter!

Miva does a quick explanation but “Anyway, [he] has something to tell [her]!” but oh wait, demon king is throwing shit at them now, fucking duck. Miva saves her life with magic and time is running short, honestly, it’s kind of amazing Satoki is still here at all. How much lag does this magic have?

Satoki’s worried about the ongoing battle around her, but Miva grabs her arm and pulls her in.

“Wait...WAIT!!!” Please, Satoki, just- hear him out, please...

He let’s her know in too many words that this whole speaking mess is a mess because she chose such a stupid time to go home! I just...lemme write this out, okay, his dialogue fucking kills me...

“It’ll be fine, just listen to me!! Look! It’s because you’re trying to go home at a time like this that things keep getting in the way! We can’t even talk like this! Properly!”

“Talk?” she asks (YES TALK).

He has hold of her arm, and he pulls her in to TALK PROPERLY but.

Her arm...disappears. Her hand is gone. She’s going. He’s out of time.

He stared at the spot where her hand is supposed to be while she says the stupidest thing, “Oh, you’re right! I’m sorry, I forgot to thank you properly...”

The silly mask she was wearing to speak in public cracks and breaks apart, which confuses her.

“...We really...don’t have any more time to talk now, do we?”

Why is she so worried about her mask, why can’t she look at his face? He looks so fucking devastated, and it’s actually the most emotion we’ve seen on his face since chapter one, listen to him.

“I never said anything because I didn’t want you to become spoiled and dependent on me,” a justifiable fear, but it’s hitting hard, “but you’ve really worked hard. More than enough-” She has, maybe he should have had more faith in her, however, he probably did everything just right.

An explosion behind them. Battle’s still going as he speaks, she’s obviously not paying attention.

“Well...your work...” he says.

It’s always been about her “duty” when they speak, they’ve never spoken about anything else.

The knight wants to step up to fight the demon dick, and Satoki is worried about that obviously bad idea, and she yells at him not to do that. She is not. Listening. He’s still talking...

“...your work...isn’t what’s important...” She’s not listening.

“What? Oh no, Roswald-san, you can’t! You have to-” She’s not listening.

“...what is important...” She’s not listening.

“I’m telling you not to go!” She’s not even part of the same conversation.

Miva looks on, obviously giving up on telling her anything. There’s too much going on. She’s so easily distracted. Her hand is gone, she’s disappearing for good, and she’s not even paying attention to him.

“Satoki,” he puts his hand on her head. She finally looks at him, she finally listens. He smiles at her for the first time. “You did well.”

“MAS-”

And then she’s in her school hallways, absolutely alone.

“-ter. You smiled...”

She’s back. She meets up with her normal high school friends again.

The End.

This fucking killed me. This is actively killing me, right now. It’s so fucking unfair. Miva and Luce deserved so much better, but Satoki never even thought about them. God dammit.

This calls for another hour of sobbing uncontrollably. There’s absolutely nothing else after this. We left mid-battle, Miva had the saddest farewell and even Satoki admits that was an unsatisfying way to end things, but I expected it. I was expecting it to end like this ever since we found out she could go home, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less.

This is just the sort of protagonist she is, it was done so well, and it sucks...

This is actually it. The End. She has the manga in her hands, so she probably knows how things sort of ended up for Haruka and maybe even Miva and Luce, but we don’t. We don’t even get to know what Miva really wanted to tell her, though I have a guess...

Satoki is just a bit more decisive, but is otherwise unchanged and has returned to her world. Miva and Luce never got to see her again.

I know for sure that if they could have chosen who of the two “Holy Maidens” they would have preferred stay, Haruka would not have been their choice. And that makes me so sad.

The worst part is, there really is no reason it would have been better for Satoki to stay. This is actually the best possible outcome. I just wish...they’d had more time.

This is an unpopular manga. It’s been read by few people, and many of the people who read it were disappointed in the story because it had a premise that implied the cliche, yet it ended so. Anticlimactically.

So, there really is nothing after this. Not even fan content, it’s so short and unknown I think there’s actually only two fanfictions (one in spanish, another a crossover, neither what I need right now), no fanart, no doujinshis, nothing. It’s over. It’s done. It was perfect, the. End.

It’s exactly how it was supposed to end.

I’m so sad.

I’m probably going to draw something tomorrow. Maybe I’ll start and never finish a fanfiction. Maybe I’ll just let it go.

#The End #+a no tachiichi #+alpha no tachiichi #isekai manga #sad #sobbing #rant #spoiler alert #ending #my eyes are swollen #and red #Miva #Luce #Satoki #they deserved better #satoki is an idiot #stupid stupid stupid

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norelationtoatticus · 5 years

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So...........anyone want to read my long, hyper-excited essay on why Sansa and Tyrion belong together, using character wound theory as evidence?

No?

Too bad. Here it is anyway. I have high-key shipped these two for years, alone in the darkness, because everyone thought I was crazy. Well, I don't look so crazy after that hand kiss, now do I?! (To all of you fellow long-time Sanrion shippers out there: I salute you.) Some people are just starting to ship them after that last episode. Some don’t see it at all and think that the idea of them together is off the wall and out of nowhere. I am here as a longtime weird-o cheerleader for these two to offer some perspective. Ship them or don’t, live your life! But they are definitely not coming out of nowhere. And here are 1500 words explaining why!!!

(lololol...I have a problem, guys.)

Anyway, here's the essay. I’m putting this under a cut because the last couple of paragraphs do contain spoilers for the most recent episode, Season 8 Ep. 3.

First, an intro to character wounds, in case you are not a writer type or have not studied this concept.

When creating a character and setting them on their inner journey, one aspect writers tend to develop is the character's wound. A wound is a dark, sucking abyss in a character's psyche that influences all of their actions and choices. Typically, it comes from some sort of trauma in their past. This wound is all-encompassing. It affects their relationships, their decisions, their journey, as they seek (usually unconsciously) to fill or heal the wound. It's like a black hole around which the character's personality and motives swirl.

The reason why I think Sansa and Tyrion are completely perfect for each other? They have complementary wounds.

Let me explain.

Tyrion's wound is that no one has ever wanted him. I mean that on a multitude of levels. His father and sister detested him, made it quite clear that they did not want him in their family. They spent years telling him that his mother had died rather than have to raise him, which is awful and not true, but of course he has internalized their abuse. Even Jaime, who loves him, sides with Cersei and Tywin when it matters most. He loves Tyrion, but Tyrion is never his first choice. Even though Tyrion is obviously the most clever person in King's Landing, no one wants his advice or council. He's made Hand of the King, but immediately gets demoted as soon as his father comes back. Sexually and romantically, no one has ever wanted him. (In the show, anyway. Remember, he does not know the truth about Tysha in the show.) Even though he is one of the more sexually active characters early on, both he and the narrative make it a point to really hammer home that all of his experience is with prostitutes. He has never had a romantic or sexual relationship with a woman he didn't have to pay. All of this motivates him. This is what ties him to Daenerys, what keeps him loyal to her even when he really doesn't like some of her choices; he stays with her because she chose him. She threatens him, questions him, doesn't listen to him, accuses him of treason, and does a lot of things that Tyrion is not comfortable with. But he stays. Because she chose him. This is his wound. No one has ever wanted him. He has never been anyone's first choice.

Sansa's wound is that she has spent so much of her life as a prisoner, unable to make her own choices. That has been her entire journey. She went from being a prisoner in King's Landing, to a prisoner--albeit one with a bit more agency--with Littlefinger, to being a prisoner in Winterfell. She has been caged, trapped, forced into two marriages, used as a political tool by people like the Lannisters, the Tyrells, and Littlefinger who only see her as a pawn. She has had her bodily autonomy violated in the worst ways. She has been beaten and raped. Everyone took away her right to choose. Every step of the way, Sansa clawed and scraped to be able to make just a few choices of her own, to grab just a bit of her agency back. But for a long time, she was making whatever small, survival-based choices she could within the confines of various cages. Even now, she is bound to serve the choices of people who are more powerful than her--people like Daenerys, but also Jon. She is much freer now, and we have seen her taking up space and making choices for the past two seasons, at least. But she has more to do if she's really going to come into her own and take charge of her role. This is Sansa's wound: her imprisonment, the stripping of her agency, her lack of free will.

See? They're complementary. They're a matched set. And they offer each other a path to healing:

Sansa needs to make her own choices. And Tyrion needs to be chosen.

What a lovely symmetry. It's like something deep in each of them has been calling out for the other.

There's more, too.

On their awful, painful wedding night all those years ago, Tyrion was handed all of Sansa's agency. Now, let's be very clear: not raping someone should not be a high bar standard we're celebrating. That's awful. But in the world of GoT, where rape is so common place and lightly-used, I genuinely don't think many men would have done what Tyrion did. And then he did something even better. Sansa had been trapped, imprisoned, for a while by that point. She had no freedom, no choice. Tyrion had all of her free will held tightly in his grasp. He could have done anything to her, and no one would have blinked. But not only did her refuse to do anything against her will, he took it a step further. He handed some of her freedom of choice back to her. He didn't just refuse to abuse her. He actually literally said, "I will not share your bed until you want me to." Until you want me to. He handed a little bit of power back to her in that moment, and he never once tried to take it away again, even when Sansa said, "What if I never want you to?" To be clear, I do not ship them in this time period. Not even close. This marriage was awful, even though they found some kindness in it. Sansa never could have learned to love Tyrion back then. She was a child. They had both been forced into the marriage. And she was so ruthlessly trapped and imprisoned in King's Landing, there was no way she could ever feel anything but fear and hate while she was there. But now? With some years of distance? With some growth for both of them? When they're both free to choose it? I suspect real feelings could grow between them.

Until you want me to... ...What if I never want you to?

You know, she never actually said no, never. Maybe she just need a lot of years and a lot of change...

There's also just the fact that they really complement each other, in terms of personality and what I think they would each want in a partner. Their minds and the way they think are a matched set. They're both very intelligent, ruthless when they need to be, and yet kind and good at their cores. Sansa is one of very few people in the world who can stand up beside Tyrion, match him wit for wit, cover his blind spots, act as a real partner to him. And Tyrion is literally everything Sansa has ever wanted, exactly the kind of man she admired in all the romantic songs: a brave, noble, handsome, heroic lord with a heart of gold. She just had to do some growing before she could see all of that in him, because he’s not exactly conventional.

Anyway, long story short, Sansa and Tyrion are legit perfect for each other. This is why I ship them. This is why you should be shipping them. (Please, good lord, more people ship them. There is not a whole lot of Sansa/Tyrion fic, and I really don't have the time to write it all by myself, guys.)

Do I think they're actually going to get together in the show? Maybe! Maybe not! Who knows! I won't be upset if they're not actually canon. I still love the pair. This show doesn’t do romance super well, and romance is not often a priority, so I am definitely not holding my breath. But I do have a few thoughts.

As to whether or not they're actually going to get together on the show, a few thoughts from the last episode:

1) The damn world was ending, they were all about to die, this was not an opportune time to be flirting with each other! But did that stop them? No, it did not.

2) The moment that they shared in the crypts, backs to the wall, side by side, and sure they were about to die, was one of the most intimate moments this show has ever given us. These were two people who deeply understood one another, acknowledging without words that there was a whole world of things left unsaid between them. That hand kiss? So tender. So loving. And yes, of course you could take that scene as platonic. Maybe it was. Quite possible. But, in my defense, I know and follow a whole lot of romance authors. Most of the romance authors I know saw that moment as deeply, wildly romantic, even if they had never shipped this pair before. So there's that, from a bunch of people who write romance for a living.

3) Sansa told Tyrion they would never work because of his loyalty to Daenerys. This felt...um...first of all...like a hell of a conversation to be having while you think the world is ending. I would not be surprised if Sansa was laying some ground work, trying to get ahead of the curve in grabbing Tyrion to her side in case they actually survived. It made me think Sansa has Plans ™ . But also, this one feels obvious, tbh. The show has been building up a conflict and a tension between Tyrion and Daenerys for two seasons now. He has made a lot of bad calls that have her questioning his judgement and loyalty. She has made plenty of her own bad calls that have him questioning whether she is fit to rule.They are ready for a blow out. And if Sansa presents another option? If Sansa is there as someone who wants him, wants to choose him, wants to love him? I suspect Tyrion’s loyalty won't be split for long.

#sanrion #sansa/tyrion #sansa x tyrion #game of thrones #sansa stark #tyrion lannister #game of thrones spoilers #mine

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whitecrossgirl · 5 years

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Erised

AN: The one AU that binds, unites and links all fandoms. I’m not ashamed of this. Or that I’m listening to the Starkid soundtracks while I’m writing this. I hope you like it.

Hogwarts AU

Jaime could hear the wheezing threats of the ancient caretaker as he ran down the dimly lit corridor. Most of the candles had gone out and lighting his wand would give away his position. He had had the sense to cast a Muffling Charm on his feet so he could walk without making noise but he was yet to master the Disillusionment Charm which meant he had had to run when he rounded the corner and was spotted by old, wizened Mr Frey. Jaime hadn’t meant to stay out so late, he had been practicing in secret on the Quidditch pitch; training and strengthening his left hand. Everyone thought he would have left the Gryffindor Quidditch team after the accident that had resulted in the loss of his right hand, how could he catch and throw the Quaffle and keep control of his broom with only one hand? However Jaime had worked hard to earn his reputation as the best Quidditch player and he aimed to keep it.

“Place to hide, place to hide,” Jaime muttered to himself as he flung aside a tapestry, revealing a passage and a staircase. It took him out somewhere down around the dungeons. Not the ones by the Slytherin Common Room or the Potions department. He didn’t know where he was but he was certain he was far from Frey. Mentally planning his route back to Gryffindor Tower, Jaime rounded a corner and crashed into Brienne, sending both of them to the floor with a loud crash and yell.

“Jaime?! What the hell?!” Brienne demanded as Jaime shushed her. Brienne glared at him but the sound of running footsteps made them jump to their feet.

“I’ve got ya this time Lannister! I’ll hang you by your ankles!” Frey threatened as Brienne grabbed his arm and pulled Jaime towards a doorway.

“In here,” Brienne whispered, unlocking it with a muttered Alohomora. The pair rushed inside and Brienne silently shut the door again, pressing her ear against it to wait until it was quiet and the footsteps faded away. “What are you doing out so late?”

“Quidditch practice,” Jaime replied. “Why are you out of bed? You never break any rules.”

“I was covering Prefect Duty for Jorah, he’s in the Hospital Wing. Got a bad bite from a Venomous Tentacula in Herbology.” Brienne answered, her ear still pressed to the door. “I think he’s gone.”

“Give it a bit more time,” Jaime advised. “He always lurks when he thinks that he’s got you trapped.”

“You would know that,” Brienne retorted, brushing a speck of dust from the badger emblazoned on her robes. Jaime smiled to himself; Brienne was the literal embodiment of a Hufflepuff; honest, hardworking, determined and a loyal friend. They had become friends since an incident in their First Year involving a dare into the Forbidden Forest, the Acromantula that lived there and a Bat Bogey Hex. Brienne was the only one who knew that Jaime had chosen to be in Gryffindor. Almost all of his whole family had been in Slytherin, including his twin sister Cersei. Despite their family crest being a golden lion on a scarlet background; his family had always taught them that Gryffindors were arrogant, reckless idiots who were not worthy of their time. To Tywin, the only other acceptable house would be Ravenclaw; solely because Joanna had been a Ravenclaw in her time at Hogwarts. Jaime had seen it as a chance to be something more than his family name, to be his own person; more than Tywin’s son, Cersei’s twin, Tyrion’s brother. He wanted to just be Jaime, so that’s what he was.

Just Jaime.

“What can I say; we’re brave, daring and break all the rules.” Jaime quipped as he lit his wand. “I wonder why this room is locked.”

“I heard Tormund hid his three-headed dog somewhere in the school.” Brienne replied and Jaime laughed.

“Come on Brienne, if Tormund had a three headed dog, he’d be taking it everywhere with him.” Jaime said as he looked around the room. It looked like one of the several unused classrooms in the school; tables and chairs were pushed against the wall. There were boxes labelled with different and ancient potions equipment, outdated Defence Against The Dark Arts books, a shaking box labelled The Monster Book of Monsters. A twinkling out of the corner of his eye caught his attention and Jaime turned his wand towards the source.

A mirror was standing against the far wall. It was taller than both of them, it’s ornate and furnished golden frame seemed to be tarnished and faded with age. The frame was dusty but somehow, there glass was spotlessly clean. Across the arched curve at the top of the mirror was something written but neither of them could understand what it said.

“Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi,” Jaime read aloud, stumbling over the pronunciation of nonsense words. “Do you think it’s written in Old Valyrian or something?”

“I’m not sure,” Brienne replied; she got an eerie feeling from the mirror. It had to be a powerful or dangerous object to be hidden and locked away in a dungeon that no one had been in for a long time. There were enough day to day risks at Hogwarts without looking for more. “Jaime, we should go. We shouldn’t be here.”

“You let us in.” Jaime countered as he examined the words again but not finding any more sense from them. Instead he glanced at his reflection. Initially his reflection looked identical to his own. Until he spotted it. The only difference between his reflection and himself.

His reflection had two hands.

“Jaime?” Brienne prompted as Jaime stepped closer to the mirror. Another shape was appearing beside his reflected self. Tall, blonde with sapphire blue eyes and dressed in Hufflepuff robes. Brienne. He could see Brienne in the mirror.

“I see something.” Jaime said and Brienne shook her head. Jaime looked at the frame again, this time the first word caught his focus. Erised. A vague recollection of Tyrion mentioning a mirror named Erised stirred in his memory.

“Probably your reflection. It’s a mirror after all.” Brienne countered. “Jaime, we need to go.”

“Not yet,” Jaime argued as the Brienne in the mirror took his right hand in hers. His mirror self smiled at her and pulled her into his arms. His suspicion was correct. This was it. This was the mirror Tyrion had talked about. “It’s the Mirror of Erised!”

“The what?” Brienne asked, her rush to leave now compounded by her curiosity. She had never heard of such a thing before.

“The Mirror of Erised! A famous mirror! Legend has it that it shows the person who looks in it-“ Jaime trailed off as he looked into the mirror again. Mirror Jaime and Mirror Brienne were kissing and he felt his heart ache at the sight; a feeling of longing he had never felt before.

“Shows them what?” Brienne prompted, now curious about what Jaime could see in the mirror to have him looking so captivated and unable to look away.

“It, it shows them what they want most in the world. Their heart’s desire.” Jaime finished, a slight blush creeping across his cheeks as he looked at the smile on his reflection’s face. He looked so happy, so carefree, so, so in love!

“Erised, it’s ‘desire’ spelled backwards.” Brienne realised, stepping forward and studying the text. “It’s all written backwards and the spacing of the letters are wrong.”

Jaime held up his wand and together they read what the mirror’s message really said. “I show not your face but your hearts desire.”

For a few moments they stood in silence, basking in the moment of having discovering a rare and powerful magical object. It was the sound of a distant door slamming that brought them back to reality. How long they had been in the room, they didn’t know. But it was time to go.

“Let’s go!” Brienne said as she walked over and took Jaime’s arm, tugging him away from the mirror. As she did, Brienne looked in the mirror and saw Jaime’s expression looking back at her. He was wearing a cheeky grin and his emerald eyes were glinting with happiness. Yet when she turned her head to check, Jaime was now looking at the floor, rubbing his eyes with his left hand. Why did she see him in the mirror, not herself? What did that say about her heart’s desire? What was Jaime’s? What had captivated him so?

“That mirror is incredible.” Jaime said as they left the dungeon, locking the door behind themselves.

“I don’t think so, powerful yes. But I don’t think we should go to it again.” Brienne advised, leading him down the corridor, eyes and ears strained for any sound or sign of Frey.

“But-“ Jaime protested before Brienne tightened her grip on his hand. She was still holding his hand. Jaime squeezed it back and missed it’s warmth as she let go.

“There’s something weird about that mirror. I think it’s been locked away for a reason. We can’t go back there. Promise me Jaime,” Brienne said as they walked back towards the Entrance Hall.

“I promise,” Jaime replied. He would keep that promise, he wouldn’t go looking for the Mirror again. Part of Tyrion’s story about the Mirror of Erised spoke of how many powerful wizards and witches had faded away in front of the mirror; so caught up in the dreams and longing for their heart’s desire that they forgot the world they lived in. As Jaime watched Brienne disappear towards the Hufflepuff dormitories; he felt a renewed sense of determination as he made his way back to Gryffindor Tower.

He had promised that he wouldn’t go to see the mirror again.

But he hadn’t promised that he wouldn’t try to make what he had seen a reality.

#game of thrones #fic #braime #jaime x brienne #Jaime Lannister #brienne of tarth #hogwarts au #mirror of erised

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