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pxedpiper · 3 years

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Horizon (20)

Plot Summary: Once a princess of a kingdom you loathed to call yours, you have somehow found yourself aboard a pirate ship, stuck on the ocean waves. Now you try to figure out how to escape them, but as you continue to journey with them, you find yourself wondering if you even want to.

Pairings: Ateez x Reader (Kim Hongjoong x Reader)

Content Warnings: Mentions of death and sexual implications throughout the fic, nothing ever specified in detail

Previous / Masterlist / Next

A/N: I don’t even want to think about how long it’s been since the last update but I am here now with a longer chapter for you all so hopefully that will make up for it !! And perfect timing since Ateez just had a comeback (which is AMAZING AS ALWAYS)! Hopefully I can get the next chapter out sooner but I won’t make any promises rip.

Inwardly, you cursed again as you looked back at the shocked faces of your mother and father, a reunion you were very much trying to avoid.

Trying to keep your voice calm, you responded to them, “What are you doing here? Where’s (B/N)?”

“He’s back at the castle- Never mind him, (Y/N), we’ve been looking everywhere for you! What were you thinking, letting that dreaded pirate take you away like that? We didn’t know if you were alive or dead!” Your father was quick to turn attention back to the situation at hand.

“He was going to kill everyone on the ship if I didn’t go with him, I figured one life was better than however many were on the ship that day,” You answered back, keeping your composure. Internally, you were hoping that your parents wouldn’t notice who you were with- or what you were wearing, for that matter.

“Well, it’s very well good that Admiral Reeves found you,” Your mother sighed in what you could almost be fooled to be relief, “Months of searching finally paid off, especially since that Sweet who’d taken you up and disappeared on us, we should’ve known better than to trust any of those filthy pirates.”

“Sweet is dead,” You told them, trying to leave out as many details as possible, “That’s why he never showed back up.”

“How do you know that- and where is Admiral Reeves?” Your mother exclaimed, huffing slightly as she waited impatiently, “Honestly, he tells us he’d be here with our daughter and sure enough, she’s here, but he’s nowhere to be found! Maybe we should-!”

“Reeves is dead, too. The whole ship is currently sinking, probably already at the bottom of the ocean right now,” You cut her off, knowing this wasn’t going to lead anywhere good.

“What do you mean, he’s dead-?” Your father cut himself off once he noticed your appearance, “By, god, what happened to you?! You’re covered in blood!” Hongjoong’s jacket had opened up due to you having moved your arms, making the massive bloodstains apparent.

“My, god, (Y/N), are you alright?!” Your mother rushed to you, checking you for any apparent wounds, “How did you get so much blood on your clothes?! Are you hurt?”

“It’s not mine.”

“What?” Your mother looked at you, confused.

“The blood,” You spoke slowly, “It’s not mine. It’s Admiral Reeves’s.”

“Admiral Ree-,” Your mother still seemed lost until the meaning of your words finally seemed to sink in. She let go of you, backing away slowly, “(Y/N), you didn’t.” It wasn’t a question, but you could tell how much she was hoping for you to deny it.

Instead, you shook your head, “I did. I killed Admiral Aldrich Reeves, just an hour ago, in fact.”

“Don’t be silly, now, how could a girl like you possibly-,” Your father started to scoff at you, but stopped once he noticed the serious look on your face, “(Y/N), cease this preposterous joke this instant!”

“It’s not a joke, Father,” You looked at him with a neutral expression, “The precious princess of this kingdom has just committed murder. What do you intend to do about that?”

“(Y/N), what have you done?!” Your mother fumed, finally dropping the concerned parent act, “You’ve committed one of the gravest crimes you could ever commit, and to a respected admiral no less! How can we look our people on the eye with a murderer as their princess?! We have no choice but to disown you!”

“No choice? Please, you disowned me from the moment I was born, don’t act like you care now.” You laughed humorlessly, “And don’t make me laugh, looking your people in the eye. All you do is look down on them, ignoring their suffering and their disgusting acts so you can live comfortably up in the palace! Half of them don’t even know there is a princess because you kept me locked away for so long! Please, for once in your lives, stop acting more righteously than you are! I’ve been around pirates for the past six months, and they’ve all proven themselves to be better people than you!” It was at this point your parents realized who your company exactly was.

“…So, this is where you’ve been the entire time,” Your father spoke slowly, “You truly are the most disobedient child a parent could ever loathe to receive, hanging around the very people I taught you to be wary of.”

“I was wary of them, at least at first,” You stepped forward with a glare, rushing to defend your friends, “But then I realized that they weren’t the true monsters; they never were. The real monsters were the Royal Navy, kidnapping normal sailors and putting them through hell- did you know Reeves physically and psychologically tortured his crewmates? Did you know that some of them even died because of him? Innocent men who wanted nothing to do with anything lost their lives because of monsters like him who were the ones who truly deserved to die! Tell me, were you aware of this, father?”

Your father was silent before he answered, “You have to understand, (Y/N), sometimes the methods used by the navy aren’t the most… orthodox, but-!”

“But, what?! You curse pirates for kidnapping, stealing, and murdering, but here you are, defending it once it’s someone of your own naval force! You’re no better than the pirates you love to hate so much!” You fumed, finally letting the frustration that had built up with your parents over the years out. “You say you have no choice to disown me? That’s perfectly fine by me, I already found a new family anyway.” As if to prove your words, Hongjoong, Jongho, and Wooyoung stepped up behind you, all of them on edge in case your parents tried to pull anything.

“So, you’re just going to turn your back on us, on the kingdom, to go off and play pirate with our worst enemy?” Your father just scoffed at you, “Time and time again you’ve proven yourself to be a disappointment, but nothing ever came close to this.”

“Don’t talk about her that way,” Hongjoong stepped up, glowering at your father, “If that’s truly how you felt about your daughter, why even bother to look for her? If even I, your so called ‘worst enemy’, can see how amazing she is, how blind to your own children must you be?”

“Don’t bother, Hongjoong,” You shook your head, “It’s probably just as I thought; the only reason you went looking for me was for sympathy, wasn’t it? Wouldn’t look good if the princess was kidnapped and there wasn’t even an attempt to find her, would it? Should’ve just said I was dead and be done with it, make things a lot easier for the both of us.”

“(Y/N), if you go with them, it’ll be war,” Your father warned, “It’ll be the entire navy against a ragtag group of pirates, even if it is the Pirate King. There’s no way you could win, not in a million year.”

“Oh, and if I stay? What, would you throw me in jail or have me executed?” You challenged, “You’ve already said you have to disown me. Are you too proud to just let me go?”

“You killed an admiral, how are we supposed to just let you go?!” Your mother shrieked, “You’ll be a wanted criminal!”

“Better than a captive princess,” You retorted, gearing yourself to run at a moment’s notice, “If it means going to war, then so be it. We’ll be more than ready to face your army. I’m not afraid of you, either of you!”

“Enough of this, guards, capture them!” Your father ordered, the guards surrounding them making their move towards you, but luckily you realized the situation quickly and began to run back towards the ship, the others following suit as you made to get away.

“San, please tell me you’ve gotten everything you need,” Hongjoong demanded as soon as you were back on the ship, meeting up with the carpenter who’d only just made it there himself.

“Yeah, at least enough to be able to fix it while on sea- why?” San asked, but Hongjoong just shook his head.

“No time to explain, we have to go, now! Everyone, get ready, we’re leaving!” Just as you were pulling away from the dock, you could still see your parents running up toward the pier, their faces filled with anger and disappointment. All you could do was look back at them, your own face showing your determination to prove them wrong, until finally you couldn’t see their faces anymore and you flopped down onto the deck.

“Ohhhh, what did I just do?” You groaned, cursing yourself at your actions, “Please tell me I didn’t just do that!”

“You did, and it was bloody brilliant, if you asked me,” Wooyoung spoke up, “I’d never seen you so mad before; Other than when you first got here, of course.”

“Brilliant? I just declared war on my own parents!” You exclaimed, sitting straight up, “I’m not even the captain, what right did I have to do that?! Not to mention that there’s no way a single pirate crew can bring down an entire kingdom, this is insane-!”

You were cut off by Hongjoong grabbing onto your shoulders, “(Y/N)! Calm down! We’re going to be alright! If you hadn’t declared war, I was certainly going to by the way they were talking about you. And you know I wouldn’t lead us into a fight if I didn’t think there was a chance we were going to win.”

“She has a point, Hongjoong,” Seonghwa spoke up, “We’re just one ship, how could we go up against the entire naval army?”

“I never said it would be easy, but have you forgotten that I am the Pirate King? Come now, you must know me better than that by now. Besides, I know someone, someone who can help, though I admit I am… slightly hesitant to ask for it,” Hongjoong replied, his voice certain until the last sentence.

“Why? Because they might not agree?” Mingi asked curiously.

“No, because it’ll give him an opening to criticize me and I’m not exactly looking forward to that,” Hongjoong answered, “But if that’s what it takes, then I’ll do it. I’d rather swallow my pride than let us go in at a disadvantage.”

“Who is it?” You questioned, curious to know about the man who made even Hongjoong hesitant to ask for help.

“You’ll be meeting him soon enough, so I guess I could say it, though I’m really not looking forward to it,” He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, “It’s my mentor, Eden. The one who taught me how to be a pirate.”

“Ah, that’s right!” Seonghwa nodded, “He’ll likely be able to help. It may not give us the winning edge, but it’ll be something, at least.”

“And maybe we can go back to Elysia, try to see if we can squeeze anything out of Maddox,” Yunho added, “Better to try and fail than not try at all.”

“I’ve been wanting to pay a visit to Maddox again anyway,” Hongjoong frowned, “There’s some questions that need answering and he’s the only person who’s able to do it.” His eyes quickly shot to you before looking back towards the rest of the crew.

“I’d still like to go back to my family, if it’s alright with you, Captain,” Jongho spoke up, “It’d probably be for the best to let them know what’s happening, especially if we’re going at war with the kingdom.”

“Of course,” Hongjoong agreed, “If anyone else would like to see their families as well, I’m more than willing than to sail wherever we needed to.” He paused for a moment, as if waiting for an answer, but was met with silence. “Alright, we’ll head for Jongho’s family and then I’ll send for Eden while we’re there. No doubt he’ll take the chance to give me an earful…”

Later that night, you quietly climbed up the rope to the crow’s nest, now being quite adept at being able to do so without falling. Once you arrived at the top, you were shocked to find Hongjoong already there, seemingly waiting for you.

“Hongjoong? What are you doing here?” You asked, climbing up properly before sitting down next to him.

“I had a feeling you’d come up here, it’s what you always do during a stressful situation,” He replied, giving you a soft smile, “I figured we should probably talk about things, especially given everything that’s going on. And there’s something I wanted to bring up with you, as well.”

“What’s that?”

“How the hell are we from the same kingdom but never knew each other until that day at the auction?” In all the chaos that’d happened, you’d almost forgotten that you and Hongjoong had found out you were from the same kingdom.

“Well, I was a princess, and I was locked away for a long time, so it’d make sense we’d never met,” You reasoned, “I remember hearing about people thinking my existence was a myth, I was seen so rarely.”

“But that’s the thing, we did meet before, remember?” Hongjoong recalled, “In which case, it would’ve had to been then. But not once do I ever remember hearing of a princess, a prince, certainly, but not a princess. At least, not while I was there. I left when I was twelve, so you would’ve had to been born after that for me to not remember you, and clearly, you weren’t.”

“I don’t know, Hongjoong,” You shook your head, “I don’t remember you either, it’s not like I had the opportunity to. I’m not sure how we met before, but you’re definitely right, it had to be then…”

“If I can be honest,” Hongjoong spoke after a beat of silence, “I had a dream last night. One I couldn’t explain. It was the day I stowed away aboard Eden’s ship, but it was different this time. Before, I’d always remember running away alone, but this time, there were two other children with me. One boy, one girl. I woke up before I managed to get her name, but I have a feeling I know who it is.”

“Me,” You whispered, “But how? I don’t remember running around with anyone but my brother, let alone helping someone stowaway on a pirate ship.” Things were silent between you two before you spoke up again, “How…. How did you end up on Eden’s ship, then? Maybe if you tell me, then I can remember.”

“Being completely honest, I don’t remember anything from around that time very vividly, and I don’t like to, either.” Hongjoong sighed, “I was a slave, no parents in the picture. I used to be beaten within an inch of my life almost daily until, as I remembered it, I finally got the guts to runaway and snuck onto Eden’s ship. He found me almost right away, of course, but somehow he decided I was worth keeping around and ended up becoming my mentor. But if my dream is truly what happened, then you and I assume your brother saved me.”

“My mother always went on about how I wasn’t allowed out of the palace because I caused a scene in town, but I could never remember exactly what the scene was, and she’d never tell me,” You frowned, “But if what you’re saying is true, then maybe… that’s the scene she was talking about? It’d be very much like her to be mad because I left a slave get away. But then wouldn’t my brother remember as well? He’s never mentioned anything of the sort.”

“Well, you have said you aren’t the closest, maybe he does and just never talked about it,” Hongjoong wondered, “All this is mere speculation, anyway, at least until we talk to Maddox again. Let’s just hope we’ll actually be able to get some answers out of him.”

“All this is so complicated,” You laughed out, a bit out of exasperation, “To think this all started because you saw me at an auction.”

“It is hard to believe,” He chuckled, “But I don’t regret it. Honestly, that was probably the best decision I’ve ever made. I can’t imagine my life without you in it now.”

Pushing down the fluttering feeling his words gave you, you responded, “Neither can I. I’m glad, at the very least, I can be back on this ship with you. …I’m sorry, by the way. About not keeping my promise not to leave.”

“It’s alright, you’re back now,” He shook his head, hugging you close to him, “I’ll just have to make sure the opportunity for you to leave never comes again, is all. I plan on keeping you with me for a very long time.”

“That’s good, because I plan on staying with you for a very long time,” You smiled, “And this time, I mean it. No more running off without your permission.”

“Great, since you nearly gave me a heart attack with that stunt,” Hongjoong exclaimed, exaggerating his relief, “We really do need to talk about this hero complex of yours.” “Sure, right after we talk about yours,” You shot back, making him laugh out loud, you joining in right after.

He shook his head, grin still on his face, “We really are too similar, at least in that regard.”

“It’s not a bad thing,” You replied, “Just means we’re protective. Not a bad trait to have, I think.”

“You’re right,” Hongjoong nodded in agreement, “It’s not. But what is a bad trait is staying up all night. Come now, we’ll need our rest now more than ever. Let’s go.”

“Right,” You agreed, making your way to the rope ladder, “Good night, Hongjoong. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Goodnight, (Y/N). I’m so relieved to hear you say those words again.”

“Why is it that whenever you come back lately, it feels as though you don’t have any good news?” Chunhei sighed, setting down Kangdae, who quickly ran his way up towards you.

“(Y/N)! You’re back!” The small boy cheered, making you giggle in amusement.

“Of course I am, I’m part of the crew now, remember?” You responded, kneeling down so he wouldn’t have to look up at you.

Jongho ignored the scene, answering his sister, “Unfortunately, good news seems to be rather hard to come across lately. Has anything new occurred while I’ve been gone?”

“I’ll fill you in as soon as you fill us in, you all look like you’ve gone through a war zone,” She joked, before her smile fell at seeing all your serious faces, “What’s happened? What’s going on?”

“Get mom and dad,” Jongho said grimly, “We’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

As such, you soon found yourselves once again in Jongho’s living room, explaining everything to his parents and Chunhei. Once they’d heard you’d been kidnapped, Jongho’s mother gasped in shock.

“My god, (Y/N)! You aren’t hurt, are you?” She asked you, rushing over to you and checking for any major wounds.

“No, ma’am, I’m alright,” You chuckled slightly, “A little worse for wear, but nothing life risking. I’m healing up nicely thanks to Yeosang.” You could feel said boy straighten up beside you, likely gleaming with pride.

“That’s good to hear, dear, but if anything bothers you, come to me alright? I don’t like the thought of you being hurt,” She frowned, still looking over you just in case.

“I will, ma’am, thank you.” You agreed, satisfying her and making her sit back down. From there the explanation continued, and once you were done, you could hear a pin drop from how silent it was.

“Well,” Jongho’s father breathed out, “That’s a fine mess you’ve ended up in this time, eh, Pirate King?”

“It was inevitable anyway,” Hongjoong replied, “The Royal Navy’s been looking for a reason to start a full on war, we just beat them to the punch.”

“You do know this isn’t the same as the battles you’ve had in the past, do you?” Jongho’s father raised an eyebrow, “This is war. It’s not a simple business. There’ll be likely plenty of casualties, you might even be one of them.”

“I’m prepared to take on the consequences,” Hongjoong stated intently, “And it’s not like we’ll be going in alone. My mentor Eden has already agreed to meet us here, he’s on his way as we speak. He’ll likely arrive within the week.”

“We’ll also be going to visit Maddox, see if there’s any help he’s able to give us,” You chimed in, “It might not be much, but every bit of help counts.”

“Are you sure that’ll be enough?” Chunhei asked, looking extremely worried for her brother’s safety.

Hongjoong replied, “It’ll have to be. There’s not much else I can do, otherwise. But, I think it will be. I can’t quite explain it, but I have a feeling that things will turn out alright in the end.”

“Well, let’s hope that’s the case,” Chunhei sighed, “Oh, by the way, do any of you know a young girl around my age, Jiae?”

In a flash, Mingi’s head shot up, “Jiae? Did you say Jiae?”

“Yeah, she came in sailing a couple weeks ago looking for her older brother, said he was a pirate. And since you’re the only pirates I know, figured I might as well ask,” She shrugged, “Do you know her?”

“That’s my sister, what on earth is she doing here?” Mingi asked, urgency in his voice, “Is she still in town?”

“She’s staying in the inn in the town, I’ll go collect her for you! I imagine you likely wouldn’t like to have a reunion where people would be watching, especially since I’m sure you’d have much to talk about,” Chunhei got up making her way through the door, “I’ll be back as soon as I can! Hold tight, Mingi!” Once she was gone, you could see the way Mingi was starting to panic.

“Mingi, are you alright?” You asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

Nodding, he started to take deep breaths, “Yeah, yeah I’m alright. Just… I wasn’t expecting this. I wasn’t expecting to ever see her again, and now she’ll be standing right in front of me soon. I don’t… I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, or say, or feel, and it’s all coming at me at once.”

“It’ll be okay,” You replied, grabbing his other shoulder to face you, “She’s been looking for you, so clearly she wants to see you. She’s likely missed you just as much as you’ve missed her, and she’s probably got the same thoughts going on in her head as you do. Just calm down, take a few deep breaths, and wait patiently. She’ll be here soon.” Mingi nodded again as he followed your advice, taking deeper breaths as the started to calm down.

It wasn’t too long after that a young girl, who you presumed to be Jiae, came running in, looking frantically, “Mingi!”

At once, Mingi was on his feet, rushing towards his sister until he was right in front of her, “Jiae!”

“Mingi!” In a second, Jiae had thrust herself into her brother’s arms, hugging him tightly as he returned it as much as he could, “I found you! Finally, I found you!”

“You did, you did!” Mingi beamed, pulling away to get a good look at her, “Look as how big you’ve grown! I can’t believe it…”

“Yeah, well, that’s what happens when we haven’t seen each other in years,” Jiae joked, tears coming to her eyes.

Mingi had his own tears as he asked her, “What are you doing here? What happened to mom and d-!”

“Dead,” She cut him off before he could finish, “They were blamed of piracy the same way you were, only they didn’t get so lucky. They deserved it, the rotten bastards, I’ve never forgiven them for how they framed you like that.”

“Who framed them?”

“Who indeed?” She answered back, “There’s a reason why I wasn’t framed either. I accused them anonymously, they never even had a clue. The minute they were hanged, I got on board a ship and made way to wherever I could that I could possibly find you. Anywhere that had a dock, I went on, looking for you as much as I could. Finally, all my searching’s paid off!”

“That was too dangerous,” Mingi frowned, hugging her close to him again, “But nonetheless, I’m glad to see you again, Jiae. I’ve missed you so much over the years, you’ve no idea.”

“Actually, I do have an idea, because I’ve missed you just as much!” She grinned, hugging him back just as tightly as before, “Now, care to introduce me to everyone?”

Eden arrived at the island within the week, just as was expected. If you were being completely honest with yourself, you felt a bit nervous at the thought of meeting him; this was essentially the man who raised Hongjoong, after all. You could only hope it went better than how him meeting your parents went down.

“What is Eden like, anyway?” You asked Seonghwa, standing next to him as you waited for the other pirate captain to board.

“Well, it’s a bit complicated,” Seonghwa tried to explain, “He’s not exactly the most agreeable person in the world, so you might not get along with him at first. But he’s a good man, truly, at least as good a man as a pirate can be.”

“That’s what you said about Hongjoong when I first came here,” You noted, “That he was a good man.”

“Where do you think he got it from?” This comment made you laugh a bit, “No, but you shouldn’t worry. Despite his attitude, Eden truly does care for Hongjoong and vice versa. The fact he’s meeting us here at all when it’d be in his best interest to stay away says so.”

“I see. Then it’ll be good to have him on our side,” You nodded, starting to feel less nervous.

It wasn’t long after until an older man with about shoulder length black hair appeared, a scowl on his face as he looked at Hongjoong and said, “And what a fine mess you’ve ended up in this time.”

“It’s not my fault!” Hongjoong instantly tried to defend himself, “I was simply just trying to protect my crewmate, they were the ones who declared war!”

“Yes, and whose wise idea was it to accept a princess as a crewmate, as if there wouldn’t be any consequences for it?” Eden raised an eyebrow, “You might be known as the Pirate King now, but I know I taught you better than that.”

“My god, you sound like his father,” You blurted out without saying, quickly covering your mouth as soon as you realized you’d spoken out loud.

“I’m not!” Eden argued.

“He’s not!” Hongjoong agreed.

“He is,” Wooyoung commented, the rest of both crews agreeing.

“Ignoring that,” Hongjoong turned away, trying to will away the red on his face, “It’s a more complicated situation than you think. I knew what the consequences were.”

“Tell me everything, then,” Eden ordered, “I’ll need a full rundown if we’re to have any chance of winning this fight.” After giving him a full explanation of everything that had transpired since you first boarded The Utopia, Eden nodded in understanding, “That’s quite a story. One I likely wouldn’t believe if it weren’t for the fact you were the one telling it to me, and I know you know better than to lie to me. So, what’s our plan of action then? Because me alone won’t give you the edge you need to win, though more numbers do help.”

“We’ll go back to Elysia and see Maddox,” Hongjoong stated firmly, “There’s bound to be at least some help he could give us. Having some sort of mystical help has to be some sort of leg up against the kingdom.”

“They’ve just lost an admiral, so that’s still a blow, even if only a minor one,” You added, joining the conversation, “And after that confrontation, I doubt they’ll be in the best mental state. Those are both advantages we can’t ignore.”

“But the same could be said of your mental state, Your Highness,” Eden responded, “How do we know you can keep your head clear and do what must be done to win this war?”

“Don’t call me that,” You warned, “I have no titles anymore. And don’t worry about me. I can handle this, especially since I’ve got the rest of the crew with me.” You could see Eden looking at you, seemingly scanning at you before looking back to Hongjoong as his eyes filled with what seemed like understanding.

“I see. Very well then,” Eden stated, turning back to Hongjoong, “You have me and my crew at your service. But don’t think that means you can order me around for no reason, I’m still your mentor.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Hongjoong rolled his eyes, “Now, if nobody has any objections, let’s make our way to Elysia! We leave tomorrow morning at dawn!”

“I’ll go let my family know,” Jongho sighed.

Mingi spoke up, “I will, too. I have to let Jiae know what’s happening and why she might not see me for a bit.”

“You just reunited with her, you won’t take her with you?” Yeosang asked.

Mingi shook his head, “No, it’s too dangerous. She shouldn’t be anywhere near a war zone. After the war, then maybe I’ll see about having her join us. For now, though, she should stay with Jongho’s family where it’s safe.”

San agreed, “That’s smart. That way, she won’t be alone either, she’ll have people to talk to. Especially since she and Chunhei are around the same age.” While they continued on with that conversation, you couldn’t help but notice that both Seonghwa and Yunho were both being uncharacteristically distant, Seonghwa excusing himself from the conversation and Yunho’s mind seeming to be somewhere else. It was then you remembered that they were the only two of the crew left that you still didn’t really know that much about.

Maybe it was about time that you fixed that.

#ateez pirate au #ateez fanfiction #ateez fanfic #ateez scenarios #ateez imagines #hongjoong fanfic #seonghwa fanfic #yunho fanfic #yeosang fanfic #san fanfic #mingi fanfic #wooyoung fanfic #Jongho fanfic

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cheryblossomdreams · 3 years

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A Discussion About Dramione

This is a very difficult ship in the HP fandom, alongside others like Drarry etc.

However, I think there is something to be said for it regardless, since I’ve seen a lot of anti-Dramione content with some valid points and a lot of non valid ones too, so I suppose I’d like a try my hand at rebuking some of them.

1. Dramione shippers romanticize abuse and bullying.

At first glance, it certainly looks that way. Draco Malfoy was a racist, petty, spoiled bully that jumped on every opportunity to bully Hermione Granger and her friends. He is not a good character. In the Dramione fandom, no one claims he is a good character either. Instead, the Dramione fandom recognized the canon potential for change in Draco and uses that to shape their fanfics. The largest majority of the fandom (There do exist those really young fans that don’t quite yet understand everything that will blindly defend him or create extremely problematic fanart, but they are truly a minority) acknowledges entirely all the wrongs Draco has committed, and they are many. Actually, in most Dramione fics, the writers go to great lengths to process the part of DHr’s past that was filled with hatred and insults. You can find examples of this in the fic Measure of a Man by @inadaze22. Also to the point, most of Dramione fanfiction is written and set in a time many years after the War, after their school years, where they’ve both grown, matured and become adults, changed by time and what they went through, so it is a null point to say Dramione shippers romanticize bullying when their content is almost always set in a time where Draco is no longer a bully and Hermione is no longer a victim.

What the Dramione shippers like to emphasize is the fact that even though Draco used to be a horrible person, he had changed and grown past that, owned up to his mistakes and is now a different man. That’s what the stories they write are about. He had the potential to change already established in canon that he used later through his life to become someone better Hermione could eventually forgive and love.

You’ll be hard pressed to find a Dramione shipper that would say that while they were still in school they should’ve gotten together. Absolutely not. The content most of the Dramione fandom creates is always set post-canon, at a time where Draco’s changed and grown up from who he used to be, and Hermione recognizes his change and forgives him.

She certainly doesn’t have to forgive him, she doesn’t owe him anything, but part of Hermione’s bravery and overall character is that she would have been able to forgive him when she realized he’d changed. Plus, he saved her best friend’s life at a critical point in the war and, even though he did nothing to help her because he literally couldn’t have, which is something I’m pretty sure Hermione would have been grateful for, even a little bit.

The Malfoy family saved Harry’s life TWICE in HP, in both extremely critical moments in the war (Draco lying at the manor, Narcissa lying to Voldemort), which is something Hermione wouldn’t have been able to just ignore and pretend like it never happened, because that’s not who she is.

There probably is a very small percent of the Dramione fandom who create problematic content, but every fandom and every ship has toxic shippers, besides they are simply not the majority.

2. Dramione shippers use Hermione to redeem Draco.

The redemption arc Draco got in HP is extremely flimsy at best, especially considering the amount of damage he’d done prior. He saved Harry’s life, yes, but he did nothing to protect either Ron or Hermione, so personally I wouldn’t harp on about that being much of a redemption arc at all. However, I don’t think any Dramione shippers use Hermione to redeem him. In the Dramione content the things he did wrong and the hurt he inflicted is something Hermione recognizes and then, through the story, eventually chooses to leave behind. Besides, she doesn’t have to redeem him, since we know from canon he’d grown out of his beliefs eventually, privately at least if not publicly (more on this later).

3. Draco had a choice in how to act, if he really didn’t believe in blood supremacy.

No, he didn’t. Let me break it down why.

When he was 11 years old and first coming to Hogwarts, he was too young to understand the beliefs his parents ingrained into him were wrong and harmful, he simply didn’t have the mental capacity to comprehend that. He was a child that hung to every word their mom and dad said and he acted accordingly.

As he grew up though, started going through puberty and maturing, he would’ve realized that blood supremacy is wrong. Let’s say this realization came when he was 14. Lucius and Narcissa weren’t with him at Hogwarts, so if he changed his behavior to reflect his new realizations, they wouldn’t have known, right?

WRONG.

Do you really mean to tell me that if Draco Malfoy, only son and sole heir to the Malfoy family, an extremely wealthy, influential family in the Wizarding World and its politics, part of the sacred 28, well respected and with a high status in society, suddenly started being kinder and friendlier to Muggleborns and Halfbloods, people wouldn’t talk? People wouldn’t wonder, get suspicious? That such news wouldn’t reach his father, who’s got eyes and ears everywhere (evident by the fact he was able to bribe someone in Hogwarts to buy his son a position on the Quidditch team). And how do you think Lucius Malfoy, a devout Death Eater, would have reacted to receiving such news? What do you think would have happened to Draco when he came home that summer?

Draco was never abused and I doubt Lucius would start then, but I am positive he would’ve been disowned, for betraying the values his family had upheld for centuries. Lucius is a staunch blood purist and he absolutely would cut all contact with his son (disown him) when news reached him Draco was making nice with Muggleborns and Halfbloods.

And Draco knew this, he knew how strict his father was, he knew how deeply he believed in blood supremacy and he knew the consequences for stepping out of line and being anything less than the perfect son.

What would a 14-year old kid do being disowned? Homeless essentially?

So, even if he had realized the wrongs of his beliefs and renounced them, he couldn’t have done that publicly, and certainly not with Hermione Granger or Harry Potter much less, seeing as Harry Potter is the nemesis of the man his father believes in.

By the time he reaches 15 and 16, Voldemort is already at full power again and living in Draco’s house. Now things get even worse. After Lucius fails to get the Prophecy in the Department of Mysteries, Voldemort decides he has to punish him for his failure by having Draco take the Dark Mark. By this point, Draco had abandoned ideas of blood supremacy, but at this point, what the fuck is he going to do? Refuse The Dark Lord? The Darkest Wizard in all of Wizarding History? The guy who is living in his house AND holds the lives of him AND his entire family hostage? Who could and would murder Draco’s mother and father and Draco himself if Draco disobeyed? The man who murdered a person right on Draco’s kitchen table and had Nagini swallow them whole?

Even if all of that wasn’t true, and it is, how’s a 16 year old kid going to fight off a house full of seasoned Death Eaters, proficient at the Dark Arts who will use Unforgivables on him, plus Voldemort himself, plus a giant terrifying snake?

At that point, Draco is left with literally zero choice but to take the Mark and obey his mission to murder Dumbledore.

He hatches several plots to kill Dumbledore, all of which fail. When they stand at the Astronomy tower, even Dumbledore himself calls all of his plots halfhearted and weak. Dumbledore offers him help, but Draco is very clear in his regret of the things he’d done and the fact there’s no going back now.

‘I have to do this, I have to kill you, or he’s gonna kill me.’

AND

‘What do you know about me? I’ve done things that would shock you.’

(I’m paraphrasing here, these aren’t the exact quotes).

At which point Snape shows up and kills Dumbledore in Draco’s place because of the Vow he made to Narcissa.

Any way you look at it, he really didn’t have any choice, even if he did at some point during school renounce his beliefs and grow past them.

4. He tried to kill Ron.

I’ve seen antis blame Draco for this one, which is a bit ridiculous. He did not. He had madam Rosmerta poison a bottle of wine, which he sent to Horace Slughorn, hoping Slughorn would pass it onto Dumbledore. Filch hadn’t noticed any traces of poison in it, because he is a Squib, he also didn’t doubt a shipment from Rosmerta, and so he just gave it to Slughorn. Slughorn kept it around and then later he was the one to offer Ron a glass of that wine. In Draco’s plan, Ron wasn’t ever even mentioned nor included in any way. It had been an unlucky coincidence for Ron, and Draco couldn’t have possibly known that Slughorn would hold onto the wine, that Ron would ever be around Slughorn OR that Slughorn would offer Ron that same wine. Sufficed to say, Draco never attempted to murder Ronald Weasley.

5. He did nothing while Bellatrix tortured Hermione.

We’ve been over this, what could he have done? He had saved Harry’s life earlier, but that one lie couldn’t of spared Ron or Hermione, their faces were too recognizable, even if Harry’s wasn’t.

A room full of Death Eaters, some of the cruelest, most dangerous ones mind you (Bellatrix Lestrange) and he’d be 17, if I remember correctly, still not even an adult, plus at this point in the war even more powerless (considering the fact the Malfoys had fallen out of favor with Voldemort, evident by the fact Lucius tells Draco that if they deliver Harry Potter to Voldemort, all would be forgiven).

What did you expect him to do? Leap into battle and try to fend off dozens of Death Eaters, effectively betraying the Dark Lord in the process and single-handedly getting his entire family killed, if not even himself?

Would you have done that? No, of course not.

6. Draco Malfoy is not redeemable.

Now Draco’s “redemption arc”, if it can be called that, is a powerful moment but it’s flimsy. JK didn’t really ever intend for him to be redeemed or liked either, but let’s take a look at it anyways.

It is canon that Draco stopped believing in blood supremacy at some point during their school years, though we can’t know exactly when.

How can I say this, when his behavior never indicated that?

Well, I’ve already been over why he couldn’t have suddenly changed his behavior, now let’s go through how I can claim it is canon.

The scene where Draco lies to everyone about Harry’s identity.

That moment could only exist IF Draco didn’t believe in blood supremacy anymore.

Think about it, if Draco was devout to Voldemort and his beliefs like his father, he would have had no problem or conscience to tell everyone ‘Yes, this is Harry Potter, hand him over.’ It would have been favorable to him if Harry died.

And let’s be clear, if Draco had said the truth in that moment, Harry would have died. He was captured, wandless (his is broken, when they escape the Manor he steals Draco’s), Ron and Hermione captured as well, he was entirely helpless and surrounded by powerful Dark Arts wizards and witches who would lead him directly to Voldemort the moment they got confirmation it was indeed him and that would have been it. Voldemort would have killed him. Voldemort would have won.

But that isn’t what happened.

Draco looked at Harry, recognized it was him (evident by a later scene where Harry straight up says that. “Why didn’t you tell her? Bellatrix? You knew it was me, you didn’t say anything.”) and at first, still unsure what to do, asked why Harry’s face was like that, and he’s told Harry just came in like that.

Draco says “I’m not sure.”

At that point Lucius grips him and tells him that if they gave up Harry Potter to Voldemort all would be forgiven, Bellatrix brings him closer to get a second look.

Draco knows all the consequences of what he’s doing at this point, he knows what he’s risking, the literal lives of everyone he loves, and what does he do?

He still lies.

‘I can’t be sure.’

It’s a powerful moment for his character, BUT it’s not enough for redemption. The amount of pain and hatred he’d spewed for 6 years (I say 6 years because The Golden Trio wasn’t attending Hogwarts for year 7) is not redeemed by this one instance. His actions, letting Death Eaters into Hogwarts, likely torturing people on command of the Carrows in 7th year, are not redeemed by this moment, even if he did save Harry’s life.

However, though this instance doesn’t constitute redemption, it is telling of the fact Draco has changed, and changed significantly from the hateful, angry, spoiled, racist brat he used to be, which gives him potential to grow up into a different, better man.

Whether JK intended it or not, the way that was written makes Draco Malfoy more than redeemable, if not for the duration of the books, then later through his life.

Being a horrible person at one point in your life does not make you forever evil, does not mean you can not ever change. To prove this, I’d like to humbly request you to watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSH5EY-W5oM

Voldemort’s regime is very similar to Hitler’s Nazi movement, so this video is very fitting to my point and HP in general.

Here’s another three:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORp3q1Oaezw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw0vS0qvYo0&list=TLPQMTcxMjIwMjBZfqJdkbbQJw&index=2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4gly9n9RBo&list=TLPQMTcxMjIwMjBZfqJdkbbQJw&index=3

If you don’t have time to watch, let me sum it up for you.

The first video chronicles the story of a man who’d been part of the Neo-Nazi movement, managed to leave it behind and become an activist and overall an amazing guy now.

The other three links chronicle the story of Daryl Davis, a black man who’d attended KKK rallies and even met with the Imperial Wizard of the KKK Roger Kelly, somehow despite all odds became friends with him and eventually managed to get through to Roger Kelly to the point where this man (The leader of the KKK on a national scale) stepped down from his position and left the Ku Klux Klan.

That’s real life, something like that happened, truly happened, but Draco Malfoy is irredeemable?

PLUS, Draco is hardly the first case like this.

Take James Potter as an example. James was also a rich, racist, privileged white boy, and a bully. He’d bullied Snape severely, even set up a “prank” with his friends that would lead to Snape getting attacked by a WEREWOLF, putting him in mortal peril, with great potential of killing him, that required then a rescue operation.

James attempted murder, or if you don’t want to go that far, he set up a situation that quite possibly could have gotten someone killed, and he got to mature and grow past his behaviors and redeem himself, fall in love with Lily and have a wonderful son.

Why couldn’t Draco change when James had?

In conclusion, I think there’s a big diifference between what the Dramione fandom actually is and what antis think it is.

The heart of the Dramione fandom is about growing and changing and maturing and forgiving and falling in love despite the differences of the past.

It’s not about romanticizing bullying or toxic relationships, life is not black and white people, people can change and grow from their past actions and people can also forgive and move on.

There’s plenty of examples in the books of Harry and Ron mistreating Hermione and they all move past those instances (obviously that can’t be compared to what Draco did, I’m just making a point here).

I do acknowledge that the Dramione shippers have some bad apples among them, some problematic people that take it all too far, but honestly, every fandom and every ship has bad, toxic people so you can’t really use that against them.

All in all, things aren’t the way antis always present them, there’s a lot more gray there, and I hope this entirely too long post helped some of y’all see that.

#dramione #dramione discourse #pro dramione #a defence of dramione #anti dramione discussions

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engie-ivy · 3 years

Text

Remus Lupin is very young when he joins the Order of the Phoenix to fight in the war. Young, but not naive. He knows that war isn't an exciting adventure with heroic battles, but pain, loss and grief. He has known this ever since his boyfriend was killed by Death Eaters when he was just seventeen years old. It only makes him more determined to fight.

And maybe the things we lose really do have a way of coming back to us in the end.

Wolfstar angst, but with a sappy, happy ending!

Moody doesn’t look up from his paper, and answers in the most casual manner. “Do you remember Sirius Black?”

Do you remember Sirius Black. Remus has only ever talked about it with James, as James understood. Not the black hole that Remus’ future had become, but at least the loss, grief and guilt. Apart from that, and some worried enquiries from professor McGonagall from time to time, his friends have been extremely careful not to even mention his name around Remus. Remus had always thought that was rather exaggerated and unnecessary, but now, hearing his name so suddenly, so casually mentioned, he thinks they may have had a point after all. He feels like he’s been punched in the gut.

Always meant to come back

The young man, almost a boy really, barely twenty years old, blinks his eyes open. He squints against the bright light in the room, and tries to sit up, but winches in pain and falls back on the bed.

“Don’t strain yourself,” Alastor warns. “We’ve had a Healer patch you up as good as possible, but your body has taken quite a hit, with all those hexes and curses thrown at you.”

“What...” the young man begins to ask.

“You’ll be fine,” Alastor ensures him. “You’re just going to have to take a lot of rest, at least until your wounds have healed. Especially the cuts on your back, probably from a Lashing Hex, may be dangerous if they’ll start bleeding again.”

The young man looks at him for a moment, pale, weary-eyed, with a deep cut on his cheek. “You’re not a Death Eater,” he states.

Alastor laughs shortly. “No, rather the opposite I’d say.”

The young man just looks at him questioningly.

“I’m an Auror,” Alastor clarifies. “Head of the Auror’s office at the Ministry.”

“That can’t be.” The young man shakes his head. “That would mean...”

“You’re safe,” Alastor says.

The young man lets his head fall back on the pillow and closes his eyes, releasing a shaky breath.

After a short silence, Alastor finally asks the question that’s been at the forefront of his mind ever since finding the young man. “You’re Sirius Black, aren’t you?”

The young man opens his eyes again. “Yeah,” he replies.

“Everyone thinks you’ve been dead for at least two years.”

Alastor remembers the story. It was one of the first tragedies of the war. The disowned heir of the house of Black, only seventeen years old at the time, not even graduated from Hogwarts yet, murdered by a group of Death Eaters. The Black family was already high on the list of persons of interest, due to them advocating for blood supremacy and openly supporting He Who Must Not Be Named’s regime. Their eldest son, however, who had already been known as the first Black to not be sorted in Slytherin house, had fallen out with his family and hadn’t been living with them for over a year at the time of the murder. Or, well, alleged murder.

“Two years?” Sirius mumbles. “I don’t know whether it seems like yesterday that I was still living my old life, or whether being at school actually feels like a lifetime ago. Maybe both.”

“What I gathered from the story at the time,” Alastor continues. “Was that a group of students from Slytherin house had purposely leaked information to you that your younger brother was to be sworn in as a Death Eater, and without properly thinking it through, you left to try and stop him and get him away from that evil alignment.”

“I did,” Sirius simply replies.

“That was an idiotic plan,” Alastor says. “Going on your own to a place you knew would be infested with Death Eaters, to save someone you didn’t even know wanted to be saved.”

Sirius huffs a laugh. “You sound just like Moony when he was telling me not to go.”

Alastor doesn’t know what a Moony is, so he just continues. “You never came back. They caught you, or maybe it had all been a trap to begin with, as the Slytherins who spilled the information later all became Death Eaters, and maybe some of them had even already joined at the time. Either way, the word spread that you had been killed by the Death Eaters.”

Hogwarts had been in shock, Alastor remembers. Not only did the death of a schoolmate make the war suddenly seem so much more real, Sirius Black had been bright, promising, loved. It had been a blow to almost the entire school to lose him.

“That’s what happened. Well,” Sirius gestures vaguely at himself. “Except for the being killed part, obviously.”

“Why didn’t they kill you?”

“My irresistible charm?” Sirius attempts with a weak smile. “No,” he then sighs with a pained look in his eyes. “It was my little brother. He said he’d only join their cause if they agreed to let me live. Most of the Death Eaters just wanted to kill us both then, not deeming him very important anyway, but my parents didn’t have a second spare heir ready, so they couldn’t afford to lose another son. They convinced them to imprison me instead of kill me.” He lets out a bitter laugh. “That’s the only time the power and influence of ‘The Most Ancient and Noble House of Black’ did me any good. Although I have often wished they had just killed me. Some of them ignored me, others liked to taunt me, and a few immensely enjoyed hurting me.”

Alastor feels a rare surge of empathy. It was a cruel fate indeed, to be locked up for so long under those conditions, and he had only been seventeen, barely more than a child.

“So how did I end up here?” Sirius asks.

“We placed a Tracing Charm on Goyle, and noticed he was regularly visiting a manor in the countryside, on paper owned by the Rosier family. This made us believe it to be an enemy headquarters, so we planned a raid. We disconnected the house from the Floo Network and placed an anti-apparition charm over the whole premises, before we invaded the place. Unfortunately, the ones present were in possession of illegal Portkeys, I still have to ask Mundungus Fletcher how they could’ve gotten those, and managed to get away. Upon searching the house, though, we found you locked in one of the rooms, severely injured and barely conscious.”

“Of the people I knew, is anyone... Do you know if anyone has been...?”

“I wouldn’t think so,” Alastor answers. “To my knowledge, no one from your year at Hogwarts has been killed. I don’t think that there’s anyone you may have known among the victims.”

Sirius lets out a relieved breath. “I didn’t think there was either, as the Death Eaters would have jumped at the opportunity to rub it in my face had they hurt someone I knew, but still.”

“Of course, I don’t know about your brother,” Alastor adds. “As he’s not on our side.”

A flash of pain shows on Sirius’ face for a brief moment, but he quickly composes himself. “I’m sure Regulus is okay,” he mumbles. “If he’d been gone, I would’ve been dead.”

“The Ministry is doing a shite job fighting this war!” Sirius throws down the Daily Prophet on his bed. “Half of the people in this photo is either a traitor or under the Imperius Curse!”

Alastor glances down at the paper. On the front page is an article about Barty Crouch, head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and his plan to fight violence with violence and legalise the Unforgivable Curses. The article is accompanied by several photos: Barty Crouch and his family, some other high-placed Ministry officials such as Augustus Rockwood and Walden McNair, and the heads of the influential Mulciber and Malfoy families, who are often thought to influence, or bribe, the Ministry.

Sirius is getting better, and he’s already proven his worth by passing all the valuable information he managed to pick up during his imprisonment on to Alastor.

“And the measures that they’ve been taking are hardly going to be sufficient to win this war,” Sirius adds.

“Well,” Alastor replies calmly. “Considering how corrupt the Ministry is, it’s a good thing they’re not taking more measures.”

“How can you care so little? You’re part of the Ministry, and forced to fight a losing battle.”

“That would be concerning indeed, if it was really the Ministry fighting this battle.”

Sirius raises an eyebrow, prompting Alastor to continue.

“There’s another group that forms the real opposition to He Who Must Not Be Named. A secret order of witches and wizards personally recruited by Dumbledore himself, fighting the Death Eaters behind the scenes.”

“I want to join,” Sirius immediately says.

“What you’ve been true is enough to traumatize someone for a lifetime,” Alastor says. “Are you sure you want to engage yourself even further with this war?”

“Bollocks,” Sirius replies. “I still have great magical skills and abilities, I was the best dueller at Hogwarts and I know better than anyone how these Death Eaters think and operate. You need me. You want me. You don’t give a crap about my emotional state, or you wouldn’t even have mentioned it.”

Alastor supresses a smile. Sirius is right. Alastor is eager to get him on board, but he felt like he had to at least symbolically offer him a way out, never expecting Sirius to actually take it. Truth is, his only goal is to win this war, by whatever means possible, and he doesn’t have it in him to care about an individual’s mental health.

“Very well then. Come to think of it, you might even see some familiar faces.”

“Lily, you look so...”

“Remus Lupin, if your next sentence contains the word ‘big’ or ‘huge’, then in Merlin’s name, I will hex you.”

“Eh... radiant?”

A very pregnant Lily rolls her eyes as she sits on the couch across from Remus. “I’m a bloody whale, I’m completely bloated and I feel like I’m just peeing all day.”

“Isn’t she just glowing?” James appears at Remus’ side, staring at Lily like she’s the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen, which she probably is.

Remus chuckles. “You’re a very lucky man, Prongs.”

James sits down next to his wife, and Peter sits down next to Remus, while they all wait for the Order meeting to begin. The Prewetts arrive shortly after, and Marlene and Dorcas rush over to Lily to ask her a thousand questions on how she’s feeling. James just stares with an adoring, fond look, while Lily describes in detail how all her bodily functions have changed now she’s so very pregnant.

“Ah, to be young and in love,” Peter says.

Remus tries not to show any change in expression, but he can’t help his smile slightly faltering.

Unfortunately, Peter notices. “I mean, of course you know... I didn’t mean to...”

“It’s fine,” Remus says curtly. “Don’t worry about it.” His time of being young and in love is over. Yet, he doesn’t resent James for his happiness, just because his was taken away from him. After all, he knows that for James as well, not a day goes by on which he doesn’t miss him.

Professor McGonagall walks over to Lily to ask her about her due date, and Lily happily informs her that the baby is expected to be born this summer.

“From this September on, you’ll have eleven more years to prepare for Gryffindor’s next trouble maker!” James says.

“James Potter,” Lily scolds. “We agreed to not pressure this child about which house he should sorted into. That already goes into effect before he’s born.”

“Honestly professor,” James whispers too loud to professor McGonagall. “I already love this kid so bloody much. I wouldn’t even mind if he’ll end up in Slytherin!”

McGonagall chuckles. “You know, James, you really don’t have to call me professor anymore.”

James looks absolutely horrified at the idea.

Remus is glad they still see professor McGonagall so often. He doesn’t think he would’ve been able to make it through his last year at Hogwarts without her.

He’s always happy to see her, even though each time it reminds him of that one conversation. At first, he had been angry at him that he had gone anyway, and angry at himself for not realizing that of course he’d go anyway. Then, there had only been the anxious waiting for him to come back, until McGonagall had called Remus, James and Peter into her office and with more distress than he had ever seen her in, told them that he was not going to come back.

James had immediately started crying. Heart-wrenching sobs that went through the bone for the loss of his closest companion, his best friend, his brother. Remus had felt... nothing. It was like he heard the words, understood what the words meant, but did not comprehend what the words implied.

He hadn’t just lost someone he could talk to, someone he could trust, someone he could hold on to. He had lost a small home somewhere on the countryside just outside of London, with large fireplace in the living room and a small shed outside for the motorcycle. He had lost a large garden with an aviary for the owls and enough space for the dogs to run around. He had lost taking time off from working as a teacher and a Healer to spend a few weeks by the coast each summer. He had lost summer evenings in the garden, inviting friends over for a barbecue, a small Quidditch field in the backyard, little children running around. He had lost a future he never thought he could actually have, but had set his heart on anyway.

It took a week. A week of feeling nothing. A week of seeing the worried stares and hearing the constant whispers from his schoolmates. A week before the pain and grief hit him at full force.

He’s pulled from his thoughts by Marlene’s voice. “Remember, when Moody gets here, don’t mention the Rosier manor-raid.”

Peter rolls his eyes. “Yes, McKinnon. I don’t have a death wish.”

Remus shakes his head. “I can’t even imagine how pissed he must be about it. All that planning, just for each and every Death Eater to get away.”

“He’s gonna be livid,” Marlene agrees. “This is not gonna be a happy meeting.”

“I was so disappointed when I heard it,” Lily sighs. “It felt like we finally had something on them, and now we have to start all over.”

Remus wonders what kind of missions they’re going to assign people to this time. Lily has scolded him before for always volunteering for the most dangerous ones, but to Remus it seems perfectly logical. If he goes, his friends don’t have to go, and he has the least to live for anyway. He said as much one time. James had cried and Lily had yelled at him, so he doesn’t say it anymore. At least not out loud.

It isn’t long before Moody enters the room, looking as battered and grizzled as ever, and commands the meeting to begin. Everyone immediately gathers around the table, as no one, except Dumbledore and McGonagall when it’s absolutely necessary, dares to oppose Alastor Moody.

“Right. We have much to discuss,” Moody says in his growling voice. “First point of order, I’ve gotten confirmation regarding our suspicions about Mulciber, and we should from now on assume that each person working in his vicinity is under the influence of the Imperius Curse and cannot be trusted. Moreover, I received intelligence that Augustus Rockwood, Walden McNair and Barty Crouch Jr. are traitors.”

Everyone sucks in a breath of surprise and disbelief.

“Mr. Crouch’s own son?” McGonagall asks. “An accusation like that can put us in a lot of trouble. Where did you get this kind of intelligence, Alastor?”

“I obtained it from the Rosier manor-raid,” Moody replies, and another wave of surprise goes around the table. No one had expected Moody to bring up the failed attempt himself.

Remus frowns. He has never underestimated the enemy and he knows the Death Eaters aren’t stupid enough to leave a list of names of everyone who’s secretly a traitor. And if they did, it can only be a trap, but Moody must know that better than anyone.

“How?” McGonagall asks, apparently on the same train of thought.

Moody doesn’t look up from his paper, and answers in the most casual manner. “Do you remember Sirius Black?”

Do you remember Sirius Black? Do you remember Sirius Black? Do you remember Sirius Black. Remus has only ever talked about it with James, as James understood. Not the black hole that Remus’ future had become, but at least the loss, grief and guilt. Apart from that, and some worried enquiries from professor McGonagall from time to time, his friends have been extremely careful not to even mention his name around Remus. Remus had always thought that was rather exaggerated and unnecessary, but now, hearing his name so suddenly, so casually mentioned, he thinks they may have had a point after all. He feels like he’s been punched in the gut.

James has gotten pale as a sheet and Lily has automatically grabbed his hand, while Peter is throwing worried glances in Remus’ direction. Professor McGonagall has her lips pressed tightly together, and is looking at Moody with a look that clearly says ‘you better have a very good reason for this’.

Moody, completely oblivious to the sudden tension in the room, just keeps talking. If his previous words had been shocking, it’s nothing compared to the effect his next words produce. “You must have heard of it, I believe some of you were at Hogwarts when the whole ordeal took place. As it turns out, he was actually held captive by the Death Eaters. We found him locked up in the Rosier manor in quite a state, but we managed to patch him up, and he was able to give us quite some valuable information.”

Remus hears the words, but can’t process their meaning. He just stares, waiting for Moody to say ‘just kidding’ or wake up from this dream. Nothing happens for a long moment, until Marlene breaks the silence. “But everyone gave the same account... They all said... How?”

Moody makes a dismissive gesture. “There was some family drama involved I believe. But he can tell you himself in due time. He has agreed to join the Order, actually.”

“You’re lying.” Moody finally looks up at hearing James’ angry tone. “I don’t believe you. You’re lying.”

“Calm down, Potter,” Moody replies. “We can talk about it after the meeting, if we must.”

Remus only realises he has stood up when he notices everyone looking at him. He gives Moody a steely look. “Let me see him.”

“Lupin, we’re in the middle of a meeting. We still have much to discuss.”

“I don’t give a fuck about your damned meeting!” Remus shouts. “Let. Me. See. Him.”

Moody regards him for a moment, and then nods.

Maybe Moody is tricking them as a test. Maybe Moody is delusional and there’s no one there. Maybe someone has tricked Moody and is leading them into a trap. Maybe Moody is under the influence of the Imperius Curse himself and is leading them into a trap. Remus goes over every option in is head as he, James and Lily use the Floo network to go Moody’s safe house. Every option except one. The one he doesn’t allow himself to even think of.

He realises that many option would put them in immediate danger, but he only cares for James and Lily’s sake. If this really is a cruel trick, it’d almost be a relief to be killed right after. Even without allowing himself to hope, he couldn’t handle the disappointment.

But they step into the room, and there he is.

In the living room, fast asleep on the couch, covered by a thin blanket. One hand dangling over the edge of the couch, the other on his stomach, his chest softly going up and down in time with his breathing.

He’s less muscular and a lot thinner than before. His face looks very pale in sharp contrast with his dark, now very long, hair, with a healing cut on his cheek and a receding bruise under his eye.

But it’s him, unmistakably him.

Odd enough, the first thought that occurs to Remus is that he has always wanted Sirius to grow his hair out and that he hopes he doesn’t cut it too soon. At this moment, he seems unable to form any other coherent thought.

Suddenly, he feels James’ hand on his shoulder, gently pushing him forward. “Go to him.”

Remus stumbles forward. He falls down on his knees next to the couch in front of Sirius’ face. He reaches out a trembling hand and touches Sirius’ cheek.

Sirius’ eyes, those eyes nothing can compare to, fly open. Startled, Sirius sits up with a bewildered look. He first sees James and Lily standing there, looking at him.

“Prongs? Evans?”

Then he turns his head towards Remus, and his eyes, filled with emotion, widen.

“Moony?” His voice slightly breaks.

“Hi,” Remus whispers.

Sirius reaches out and gently strokes his thumb over Remus’ cheek. Remus only now realises that there are tears streaming down his face. They stare at each other for a breathless moment. Then, at the same time, they move and wrap each other in an impossibly tight embrace, both whispering unnecessary apologies, as neither thinks there’s anything to forgive the other for.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for being a stubborn arse, I’m sorry I didn’t listen. I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t even say goodbye. I’m sorry I didn’t come back. I meant to come back. I always meant to come back.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there, I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t come and get you. I’m sorry I never came to bring you home. I gave up on you, and I’m so, so sorry.”

Eventually, James can’t hold back anymore and he flies forward to embrace is brother, and upon seeing him desperately crying, Sirius starts to cry as well.

When he’s more composed, James starts asking Sirius a hundred questions to check if it’s really him. Sirius effectively shuts him up by informing Lily that James stole one of her T-shirts in fifth year and slept with it in his bed for two years.

“I hate you so much, Padfoot! And I missed you more than you’ll ever know, and don’t you ever leave me again!”

This exchange is followed by Sirius going on for ten minutes: “Evans, you’re pregnant. You’re pregnant with a child. Prongs’ child. Evans, you’re pregnant with Prongs’ child. You’re having a baby. Prongs is having a baby. You and Prongs are having a baby. Together. You let Prongs get you pregnant.”

All the while, Remus is still sitting on the ground next to him, their hands firmly clasped together.

Eventually, they have to go back to the Order meeting, and of course want to inform the others. Peter will be ecstatic and professor McGonagall might cry. Lily kisses Sirius on his cheek and James hugs him again, after letting him promise five times that he’ll still be there tomorrow and he’s not going to disappear again.

“You know, Moony, if you want to go to the Order meeting, you’ll have to let go of my hand,” Sirius says with a small smile, without making any attempt of releasing his grip himself.

Remus smiles back. “No, I’m never letting you go again.”

#my tumblr writing #wolfstar #wolfstar fanfiction #wolfstar fic #marauders #marauders fanfiction #marauders fic #sirius black #remus lupin #remus x sirius #james potter #lily evans #jily #alastor moody #first wizarding war #hurt sirius black #james potter is a good friend #wolfstar angst

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gayoperatorgunclub · 4 years

Note

For the ultimate ship meme, Lion and Doc? I'm sorry, I'm LionDoc trash-

it’s all good!! whenever someone sends in an ask, i get an excuse to talk/write about one of my interests! really, it makes me so happy to be able to create content that people hopefully enjoy!! 💝💝💝

General:

How long will they last? - until the end of time, babey

How quickly did/will they fall in love? - it was love at first sight but then they started talking i do think it was some form of ~interest~ in one another at first sight, but then all that drama and lack of communication happened so they didn’t really allow themselves to even dream about the possibility of a relationship. HOWEVER! once lion joined rainbow and they talked their shit out like people who know how to cope, there was a period of a few months that is now referred to as The Four Months of Pining™, during which glaz did a lot of paintings where the subject (who usually bears an uncanny resemblance to doc or lion) is staring at something (or someone) longingly. he calls it his french period. when they finally get together, a LOT of money changes hands. and goes straight into sledge’s pocket (he was the only one who bet that it would take them this long). diana gets a brand new collar (handmade), bed (handmade), dish (handmade), and many new toys (some handmade, some store-bought. sledge’s craftsmanship can only get him so far)

How was their first kiss? - you know how the french are supposed to be super suave and confident??? and how gay people are trying their hardest but they’re just Not Good at things????? (i know these are stereotypes but stay with me). well, with their 5/8 french blood (i hc one of doc’s parents is fully algerian while the other is half french, half algerian), and their 4/4 gay blood, they have an 81.25% chance of success in matters of the heart. sadly, that 18.75% chance of failure came into play during this situation. picture it. doc and lion. romantic, home-cooked dinner. le festin is playing in the background. they’re holding hands over the table. suddenly, doc’s cat goes into labour. all hell breaks loose. lion is getting flashbacks to his son’s birth, so now he’s hyperventilating. doc carries him to the couch and turns on the fan so he can cool off and catch his breath, before carefully moving his cat, Rayie (arabic for gorgeous, pronounced rye-ah) to the living room in his handmade Birthing Box, then grabs a pile of blankets and a heat lamp and situates himself on the ground nearby so he can help her if she needs it. once the kittens are born (they’re twins!! Sadiqi is the boy, and Amirti is the girl!!!) doc makes sure they’re nice and warm and that Rayie is recovering, and gives her pets while she cleans her babies. once the happy family is all settled in for the night, doc walks over to the couch and just. lays down on top of lion. once he’s gotten over the adrenaline of the birth, he takes lion’s face in his hands and says “promise me you’ll be more calm if we ever decide to have kids” and gives him a BIG smooch while lion’s just short-circuiting like “does he know i have a son???? did i forget to mention my son?????? also what about these kittens??? are they not sufficiently childish to count as children????? DOES HE WANT KIDS????? does he want to marry me??????? wait why is he getting so clo-”

Wedding:

Who proposed? - lion. it was the day of their two year anniversary (yes i AM saying they got together the august after outbreak don’t @ me) and they were on vacation at doc’s family’s Secret Beach House. they were vibing on the balcony, watching the sunset, when lion suddenly clears his throat. doc turns to look at him and finds his boyfriend down on one knee, looking like he might flee to Bermuda. he’s reaching for something in his pocket. doc starts laughing. lion, completely misunderstanding his reaction, flushes and stammers out an apology. doc sees this, and immediately stops, though he’s still smiling gleefully as he catches lion by the biceps, then reaches into his own pocket and pulls the ring he was going to give olivier. they exchange rings, giggling like little kids, and spend the rest of the night making out on whatever surfaces are available.

Who is the best man/men? - for lion? montagne. (his son is the ring bearer and doc’s niece is the flower girl). for doc? rook. he’s so happy he gets to participate in his dad’s wedding

Who is the bride’s maid(s)? - for lion: finka. for doc: twitch

Who did the most planning? - both of them!! do you know how hard they worked to ensure the ceremony was valid in the eyes of both of their religions

Who stressed the most? - s e e a b o v e

How fancy was the ceremony? - Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big.

Who was specifically not invited to the wedding? - lion’s parents. they tried to call him during the reception but doc’s grandma grabbed his phone and started cussing them out, talking about dishonor and how they tried to disown him so they’re not his parents anymore, and besides, his new family absolutely adores him, so really, it’s their loss. once she hangs up, she pulls lion into a hug and he calls her his favorite, if only, grand-mère

Sex:

Who is on top? - who’s topping? lion. but sometimes doc gets bitchy so he gets to set the pace if you know what i mean

Who is the one to instigate things? - they are both lowkey horny 24/7 so 👀👀👀

How healthy is their sex life? - Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now (only because they do get to see each other fairly often. if one goes on a long mission without the other, once they get back they will bump it up to a 10 real quick)

How kinky are they? - Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s head

How long do they normally last? - idk long enough ig. maybe longer if someone feels they’ve been left ~unsatisfied~ they might go a few more rounds ;))

Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms? - ok it depends on what they’re doing but usually it’s one or two each, but on ~special~ occasions it’s either doc getting edged and denied for hours, OR doc getting forced to come over and over again until he’s begging for something, whether it be more or a goddamn break even he isn’t really sure. either way he’s crying and lion is consistently asking if he needs to safeword and otherwise checking in because they may like it rough but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t care

How rough are they in bed? - Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. Also, the wall’s so weak it could collapse the next time they do it.

How much cuddling/snuggling do they do? - No touching after sex | 2 | 3 | 4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory.

Children:

How many children will they have naturally? - unless someone’s hormones and organs get fucked, zero

How many children will they adopt? - probably none?? idk they’ve already got lion’s son and they’re both busy enough with work so

Who gets stuck with the most diapers? - NEITHER!!!!! DISGUSTANG!!!!!!!!!

Who is the stricter parent? - god i wanna say both. like lion and his attachment to rules??? but doc and his Mom Friend energy????? but ig lion BUT HE’S NOT STRICT TO THE POINT HE’S A BUZZKILL OR ANYTHING HE’S JUST RESPONSIBLE (he will NOT allow his husband and son to go vandalize the property of some islamaphobic brits, as much as he agrees with the sentiment)

Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school? - doc will only allow vandalism if it’s in the name of righteousness. meaning, he’ll allow their son to spray paint the walls of a goddamn walmart with shit like “eat the rich” and a portrait of robespierre and a guillotine, but it is a HARD NO on defacing places like the library or community center (unless he has a good reason to do so). lion spends his time praying and making sure his son knows which acts of civil disobedience are acceptable and which are distorting their goal

Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)? - doc. he (privately) dreams of retiring (eventually) and living out his lifelong dreams of being a househusband. so

Who is the more loved parent? - SHUT THE FUCK UP RIGHT NOW GET OUT OF MY HOUSE IM GONNA BEAT YOUR ASS. but ig lion??? BUT ONLY BECAUSE THEIR SON HAS KNOWN HIM LONGER. doc is half Dad and half Cool Uncle Who Gives Me Spray Paint And Tells Me To Make Myself Heard (to clarify, i know doc is a pacifist, but im kinda projecting my own sentiment of “we’ve tried to be peaceful but you wouldn’t give us the time of day. now that we’ve “acted out” we’ve gotten your attention, and rest assured, things are going to change.” he won’t hurt anybody, he’s just tired of having to be everyone’s “muslim friend” and educating people on things they could google themselves)

Who is more likely to attend the PTA meetings? - it used to be lion out of necessity, but when people started asking about his “wife” he was really torn between telling them that he and his son’s mother separated, but now he has a partner and his son seems very happy about it. when doc finally attends a meeting with lion, people really struggle to hide their shock. a few clunky but well-meaning “we support you”’s and “we’re sorry for everything that’s been going on”’s later, doc has used his charm to make friends with literally everyone. from then on, he is on pta duty on behalf of lion and his ex

Who cried the most at graduation? - lion! his parents purposefully didn’t show at his, so it’s a big deal for him to show his son just how proud he is. doc tears up a little too, but manages to mostly keep it together so he can support lion, who spends most of the day heave-crying about how proud he is into his husband’s shoulder. gustave just pats him on the back and tells him that they’ll run out of donuts if they don’t get to the concession stand soon

Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law? - doc. civil disobedience, baby!! he has never been caught. lion fears the law after his youth, so he tries to avoid any visits to law enforcement. he also can’t stand to see his son behind bars

Cooking:

Who does the most cooking? - doc. househusband, remember?

Who is the most picky in their food choice? - doc, but only because he can be a bit of a spice supremacist. he has to get his ingredients from these very specific farms and markets or else his great grandmother will begin manifesting in their house to curse them

Who does the grocery shopping? - doc, bc he does NOT trust lion to not just sweep all of the microwave ramen and kraft mac n cheese into the cart then sprint to self-checkout

How often do they bake desserts? - whenever possible. doc and maestro live by the philosophy “don’t do anything halfway” if they’re going to go through the trouble of making a meal, it will have multiple courses.

Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater? - doc is more of a salad eater but only for ease of consumption with halal laws. he adores filet mignon

Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner? - lion! maestro enlists himself as assistant head chef after walking into the base’s kitchen one day to find lion covered in flour and lying facedown on the floor, crying

Who is more likely to suggest going out? - also lion! though he’s memorized doc’s order at all of their favorite restaurants, so he usually just gets take out and puts on a big show of being a “tired housewife who works in the kitchen all day just for this one meal” and setting up the table so it’s all nice and romantic

Who is more likely to burn the house down accidently while cooking? - lion. he tried crème brûlée once. never again

Chores:

Who cleans the room? - lion. organization is everything to this man. doc helps with laundry and such, but for the most part he leaves organization to lion and his systems (think leslie knope levels of planning and organization)

Who is really against chores? - neither! they both understand that teamwork makes the dream work, baby!!

Who cleans up after the pets? - doc, since lion’s already asked him which color hanger should represent “clothes i can tear off my husband before we fuck” and he needs a Moment

Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug? - neither. they don’t own a broom

Who stresses the most when guests are coming over? - lion because of the deep-seated catholic urge to appear perfect in front of others, and doc because people will gossip, olivier!

Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning? - lion. he immediately called doc into the room and asked “is this your stash of drug money?” doc, who had been asleep because it was 3 in the morning on a saturday, just stares at him

Misc:

Who takes the longer showers/baths? - it is so bold to assume they don’t shower together to “cut costs”

Who takes the dog out for a walk? - lion is known in their neighborhood as the man who walks cats. there is a facebook page where people post pictures of him walking his cats. vigil is an admin

How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays? - LITERALLY EVERY HOLIDAY GETS DECORATIONS. lion makes his own for the muslim holidays since there really aren’t many “of good quality” in stores. when they first started dating, doc came home to find his house covered in ramadan decorations, and lion standing precariously on a ladder, trying to string up fairy lights while learning how to pronounce important arabic words. needless to say, doc cries

What are their goals for the relationship? - mutual joy and contentment!!!!

Who is most likely to sleep till noon? - doc. he’s sleepy

Who plays the most pranks? - lion, but they’re stupid ones like replacing certain pictures with danny devito. doc gets back at him by replacing pictures of jesus with ewan mcgregor, and putting yoda into his nativity scene. lion doesn’t notice

#ask #anonymous #r6s doc #r6s lion #doc/lion #ass alert!#could you tell i forgot whether or not lion's ex and son had names #thank you for interacting!

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multimetaverse · 4 years

Text

Jamie Johnson 5x08 Review

Tonight was one of the best, if not the best, Jamie Johnson eps so far. Dillon faced some of his toughest obstacles yet in his coming out journey and we got some sweet Delliot moments. Let’s dig in!

This British kids soccer show continues to make history. We saw some very nuanced and mature discussions between Dillon and Elliot about being gay and coming out; how often on tv do two gay kids actually discuss their sexualities? Elliot gave Dillon some great advice and perhaps more importantly told Dillon that he was in fact brave and a winner on and off the pitch

You’d have to be daft to deny that Dillon and Elliot have crushes on each other after this ep. Seeing both Dillon and Elliot trying their best to look nice before meeting up with each other was cute and their handhold at the pitch was very sweet. Lots of soft smiles and longing glances and we even got a hug before Elliot left

Laquarn has confirmed that he’s not in any more S5 eps and doesn’t know if he’s back for the yet to be filmed S6. I can only hope he’ll come back. It would be a waste of great chemistry and an engaging character if Elliot was just meant to help Dillon with his sexuality before passing the torch to Ruby. He clearly left the door open for a future reunion when he told Dillon to call him when he was ready. Patrick confirmed in an interview today that he’ll be back for S6 and presumably Dillon will be playing for Foxborough or some other pro team. Being in a relationship would certainly be a good spur for Dillon to come out more publicly. And Elliot’s love of astronomy is a perfect set up for a date under the staahs

It’s true that the show has not really focused on ships in a big way; the most we’ve gotten was Boggy and Nancy and the low key Jack, Jamie, and Michelle triangle. But at the same time if Dillon can take Indira out and kiss Sienna then he should be able to date a boy he likes. It would be tragic if the closest Dillon gets to having a boyfriend or kissing a boy is Liam outing Dillon and claiming that Elliot was Dillon’s boyfriend and that he thought they were gonna kiss

And it’s a bit shady that Eric of all people is suddenly getting a female love interest out of nowhere. I just hope when the show eventually ends that it doesn’t turn out to be another Andi Mack where Cyrus was able to kiss a girl twice and go on dates with a girl and use the word girlfriend when none of that happened with a boy

Jamie Johnson really covered a lot tonight with Dillon. We had a very helpful run down of Dillon’s past with girls and the show carefully explains that Dillon never liked Sienna like that, he never wanted to kiss her, he never had a crush on anyone else like she thought, and he never liked Ruby as more than a friend (at least Duby shippers still have Alba and Liam for an Osborne-Simmonds ship). It wasn’t subtle but I think it was necessary to really drive home that Dillon is really gay and there’s no going back. And we got confirmation that Elliot was Dillon’s first crush, he’s obviously never beaten anyone up on this show and the way he phrases it makes clear that he’s never really thought about liking boys that way until very recently

And boy did this ep ever tackle homophobia. Graham Simmonds was seriously out of order this ep. He clearly didn’t want to believe Liam but Dillon using his aftershave already primed him to believe he was trying to impress someone, he just assumed it had been a girl. He really ran through the homophobe’s greatest hits collection: blaming Ruby’s gay parents, saying being gay was a choice, saying that being gay would end Dillon’s career, and disowning and kicking Dillon out for being gay. I suspect that quite a few of the parents watching JJ with their kids hold some of the same views or act the same way and this ep really holds up a mirror and reflects how ugly that kind of behaviour is. We also see Graham praising Dillon’s accomplishments and character right before Liam outs him which just exposes his hypocrisy even more. I do give the show credit for not shying away from Graham’s awfulness, it’s not going to be a quick change for him to suddenly accept Dillon and I’m excited to see his journey to atoning for his mistakes

Thankfully Mrs. Simmonds returned from her banishment to the shadow realm to tell Dillon she loved him and to tell him to return home. Shaun Duggan said he hoped this ep would be a lifeline for kids watching who may be living in homophobic homes (he also mentioned that CBBC rules don’t allow eps to allow on cliffhangers so he has to end an ep showing that the characters are at least physically okay)

It also challenges the audience, most of whom are probably young boys and men, as to whether they will suddenly stop liking Dillon just because he’s gay. It was a real gamble on the show’s part to have their fan favourite character and the effective second lead of the show come out as gay but it has the tremendous pay off of really making the audience question their assumptions and hopefully for some of them it will change their world views

Dillon and Elliot also discussed homophobia in sports. Dillon correctly notes that there aren’t any out players in the top professional teams. Shaun Duggan mentioned in a BBC interview that they like to bring on professional soccer players when they’re having the kids going through things but this time he wasn’t able to have anyone come on to help Dillon because there are no out players. So it falls to Jamie Johnson to basically create that reality themselves by telling Dillon’s story

Patrick Ward did a phenomenal job tonight and he really is the best of the kid actors. He’s mentioned in interviews that he did a lot of research by watching shows and movies with similar gay story lines. In particular his breakdown set to Behind Blue Eyes by the Who was very well done (and once again the show has great taste in music). And of course, Shaun Duggan did an amazing job writing this ep. He’s openly gay himself and that makes all the difference in bringing an authenticity and depth to this story line. On Andi Mack of the 5 textual gay eps only one, 3x11, was written by a gay man and not surprisingly that was the best written by far of those eps

We were 19 minutes into the ep before Jamie himself briefly showed up. And he was 5th in the credits tonight with Dillon and Elliot taking the number 1 and 2 spots. Actually this whole ep had a very small cast and only a few locations, it really helped focus this ep on Dillon. Having Dillon seek out Jamie is interesting in that they’ve been foils for each from the start. But also because it sends a message to have Jamie Johnson himself praise Dillon, it’s a way for the writers to speak directly to the audience through the title character

We’ll doubtless get some more development on Dillon’s story line in the rest of the season but they’ve done historic work so far. A lot of what we’ve seen so far: the depiction of homophobia, coming out to parents, and two gay kids discussing their sexualities has yet to happen anywhere on Disney. Hell this ep alone had more uses of the word gay than Disney has yet to have

I loved how extra the black and white boxing match cold open was. Not surprising that Dillon sees Mike as the supportive (and non homophobic) father figure he wishes Graham was

This was a big step backwards for Liam’s redemption arc tonight but at least at the end he didn’t seem to buying into his dad’s bullshit about them being the only men left in the house. Liam is by no means blameless but he’s also a victim of his dad’s emotional abuse and his pitting his sons against each other. That little meet up with Eric was interesting because they’re foils for each other in some ways and I’m curious to see what lies ahead for Liam and the U13 crew and for how Liam makes this up to Dillon

Looking Ahead:

Finally we get back to the real meat and potatoes of this show; online gaming! Looks like Mike is bored of gardening at the allotment and wants Jamie to get back into real soccer. We’ll see if Jamie makes into the online tournament

Again, not really sure why Eric suddenly needs Ayesha but we’re getting some Freddie anger over Eric choosing lasses over lads

Until next week Jamie Johnsoners

#Jamie Johnson #Delliot #Dillon Simmonds #Elliot #Ruby Osborne #Graham Simmonds #Liam Simmonds #Jamie Johnson Reviews

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peace-coast-island · 3 years

Text

Diary of a Junebug

Starfish in the sand

Collecting seashells is fun! Finding little treasures in the sand is something that never gets old. It's one of the little wonders of nature that keeps on giving.

Seashells are so cool and fascinating to look at. No two are alike and you never know what you'll find in the sand. Once in a while unique shells pop up in the beach, like these golden starfish ones. I don't know how long they'll stick around, so I try to collect a bunch to keep and give as gifts.

Jamie and Nedra have been staying at the camp for a while, enjoying the scenery and activities. It's been a long time since Jamie visited and this is Nedra's first time. A few days later Chrissie, Theda, Jean, and Emma joined us - which was why Jamie and Nedra stuck around.

So we've been having fun collecting seashells and doing craft projects with them. We made jewelry, decorated furniture, painted them, put together gift bags - there's a lot you can do with seashells! It's also nice to just chill and hang out with friends - especially Jean and Nedra as I haven't seen much of them since the entourage disbanded.

Jean's an actress and model with an interesting story regarding her family. Around the same time she joined the entourage, she had reunited with her father, who she hadn't seen in over 20 years. Up until she was around 5 Jean was raised by her mom. After she died, her dad decided to come back into her life and change his ways, abandoning the life of a conman. So he married his longtime partner and adopted Jean in hopes of starting over.

Unfortunately things didn't quite work out. Although Jean and her dad got along well, he fell back into his old schemes by stealing from heiress Agathe Dieudonne when he was going through some financial problems. The heiress forgave him since she took a liking to Jean and offered to send her to a prestigious boarding school in France so she can see the world. When her dad's old ways of living started to catch up with him, he and her stepmom decided to take up Agathe's offer so Jean could have a better life.

Over the years Jean kept in touch with her dad and stepmom through letters. Agathe doted on her like a granddaughter and used her connections to keep an eye on Jean's dad to make sure he was doing okay. Jean became aware of his past when she grew older, and the way she sees it, the conman and her dad are two different people. The fact that he tried his best and was willing to give her up so she could have a better upbringing is more than enough for her.

When she moved back to the states to pursue Broadway, Jean set out to reunite with her dad. It surprisingly wasn't too hard to find him and her stepmom as they happened to live on Peace Coast Island, not too far from where Jean was when she was in the entourage. Since then they've made up for a lot of lost time and Jean makes time in her busy schedule to visit often.

In a few weeks, Jean will be on tour for a show and one of the stops is the island. Coincidentally, Nedra's gonna be touring too and so she'll be performing a few nights at Starlight as well. The two became good friends through Jamie, becoming mentors for a drama program at Starlight Theatre as well as regular performers there for a time. Since the entourage disbanded they became super busy so it's nice that they finally got together for a long overdue meet up.

I told Jean about how Marlo's a huge fan of her and like Nedra, she's down to returning to the camp to meet her. We're still working out the details but Nedra and Jean will coordinate their schedules while I check in with Marlo and Don. It's gonna be fun having them all together!

Things have been the same old in Camellia according to Theda. Chrissie pops in for a visit every now and then, usually to bother Tanner or cause mischief with Lala, Theda, and sometimes Delwyn. It's good to hear that he's been doing much better these days - still, Edvin's absence continues to be a gaping presence.

Theda was right when she said that sooner or later, they'll move on and be okay - but it doesn't change the fact that what's gone is gone. And I fully agree with her.

Chrissie has also been spending a lot of time with Emma and her nieces and nephew, especially now that Emma lives about 15 mins away. She mentioned that Rocky and Lex have their hands full with the babies, which is why she's been bothering other friends. Emma doesn't mind as she's still adjusting to living in Cityburg, a drastic change of scenery after spending most of her life in a moderately sized suburban town.

Emma's doing a lot better since moving out and living with her brother Danny and his kids. She always got along with her mom's side of the family better than her dad's. Her mom's the type of parent who tends to be a bit overly critical of her kids but means well and just wants the best for them. As for Emma's father, he clearly favors her younger brother while putting Emma down for pretty much everything.

What prompted Emma to leave - aside from the threat of getting cut off financially - was something unforgivable her younger brother did. It's a fucking mess and if he keeps this up, I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up destroying him. It also didn't help that their father contributed by adding fuel to the fire.

Basically, the brother's one of those shitty tabloid people who profits out of ruining lives. The incident involved a close friend of Emma's, who died unexpectedly due to illness. The brother, who hated the friend for petty reasons, got a hold of Emma's phone, looked through her texts and took a lot of her conversations with her friend out of context to paint the friend and her family in a bad light.

In short, he turned a bunch of texts into "signs" that the friend was likely murdered by her family. He also revealed private information about the friend and how she was going through a rough time, claiming those as motives for why her family wanted her dead. He also made it look like Emma was the one to bring up the speculation, which the family knows is a load of bullshit. To those who knew the friend, it's clearly a pathetic attempt to ruin someone's name for clout.

As a result of the incident, Emma's mom had enough and kicked the father out, which Emma said was long overdue. As for her younger brother, her mom hasn't disowned him (yet) but she's made it clear how she found what he did despicable. Danny never approved of his stepfather and didn't get along with the youngest, so his reaction to what happened was along the lines of disappointed but not surprised.

Since I last saw Emma, things have improved a lot between her and Margie. Although they're aunt and niece, they've always gotten along more like sisters. While Rusty and Linda took quickly to having their aunt move in, there was some tension with Margie, though it had nothing to do with Emma personally. Margie was forced to grow up quickly after their other dad, Terry, and older sister Sherry, died last year, so things haven't been easy for the family.

With Danny having trouble balancing work and family life and Emma having problems at home, he decided to take her in. Emma says their mom has mixed feelings about it, believing that Danny's giving her an easy way out. If anything, I think Emma's a hard worker, but not in a way a capitalist society approves of it. In other words, capitalism can't profit off someone like her, so it sees her as useless. By living with Danny, an entertainer who not only understands what she's going through, but has also made a successful life for himself and his kids, Emma can freely pursue her creative passions without worries.

Right now, Emma's been working on creating content for her channel, posting journal with me videos and vlogging everyday life. She hopes to open her own sticker shop one day so Daisy Jane's gonna help her with that when the time comes. For now, she wants to focus on developing her art style by experimenting and studying other artists before getting into all that. I'm so excited to see where this will take her!

Chrissie and Theda have been really into making charms so that's what we're gonna do with the tiny seashells. I think the little starfish shells make the prettiest charms, especially on a bracelet. We also have some jewelry wire so I'm thinking of making earrings too. It's been years since I've made earrings so it's good to finally use up those earring hooks.

For the larger seashells, we're thinking of using them to decorate furniture. Theda used a bunch of seashells to decorate an old mirror she found while thrifting with Daisy Jane and it looks sooooo pretty! The decor and the gold paint looks like a vintage picture frame with the starry seashells giving it a sorta celestial vibe. I'm still not sure what to decorate yet but I'm considering one of the old bookshelves that's sitting in storage that has been in need of fixing up for a while.

Emma's been filming footage for her vlogs so I try to do a bit of everything so she can have the full camping experience. So far it's mostly sightseeing, crafting, and chilling with the campers. From what it looks like, Emma's considering splitting the content into two videos - one for seashell crafting and one for sightseeing. I'm flattered that she can get so much out of the camp!

Jean and Nedra find the camp a good spot to unwind from their busy lives. Before meeting up with the others Jean visited her dad and stepmom, who will see her again when she returns to Starlight for opening night. She also said the next time she drops by, she plans to come via plane as she's a pilot, like Chrissie. I think Marlo would die on the spot when she finds out that she would be in a plane flown by Jean Theodora!

Today was a low key day where we wandered around, enjoying the sights and taking it slow. We actually didn't do too much crafting today, which is fine as we tackled a lot of big projects early on so we were kinda running low on shells. So we ended up with a pretty good haul and a bunch of new ideas for craft projects.

No matter how busy or chill the days are, we always find ourselves back at the beach, searching for starfish in the sand.

#animal crossing #animal crossing pocket camp #Diary of a Junebug #headcanon ramble

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magic-and-moonlit-wings · 4 years

Text

Chapter 49: Assembling and Dissembling

Becoming The Mask

Bold italics are trollish.

+=+

There were, Barbara learned, two possible meanings for the word 'troll', depending on the context.

A Brief Recapitulation of Troll Lore, Volume 1 of 47 sat open on the table, along with a dictionary, and a sheet of paper where Jim had written out the trollish alphabet and the phonetic equivalent of each letter's sound in English.

Blinky had offered to teach Barbara to read trollish, so they could set up a book swap. He was intrigued by her medical textbooks. She was keen to learn more about this strange magical world she had found herself tied to. Jim had volunteered to teach Barbara instead, since living together would make it easier to work lessons around Barbara's unfixed schedule.

Trolls had a mostly phonetic alphabet. They didn't seem to use capitalization, but did have accents that appeared around certain words to indicate significance. Jim and Barbara had gotten onto this tangent when she noticed 'troll' was written in two different ways.

There was 'troll' meaning 'a person, a member of the species', which was the kind of troll meant by Jim's title 'Troll-Who-Is-The-Hunter'.

And then there was 'troll', usually prefixed by a tribe name, which meant 'member of the tribe'.

"The pronunciation is the same for both," said Jim. "The second one is probably what most trolls mean when they say Changelings aren't trolls, since we've been disowned and the Gumm-Gumms don't acknowledge us as full tribe members. Up till we get a Familiar we can't exactly pass as being a different species."

"Disowned?" Barbara repeated. No one had mentioned that part when she'd asked where Changelings came from.

(It might explain what Jim had said about not having a name before getting a Familiar, though, if trollish disowning involved stripping the person of their entire name rather than just the family name.)

Jim made an uncertain noise and wiggled his hand. "Sort of disowned, sort of presumed dead. Basically, after we're taken and altered, we can't go back to our first families even if we do find out who they were."

… What?

"I'm going to need you explain all of that. Starting with the –" god, which bit to even start with? "– with the 'taken' part."

"Okay?"

Jim shrugged and turned in his chair to face her more directly.

"So, Gumm-Gumms used to raid other troll communities, and sometimes they would take babies who would then be adopted into the tribe and raised as Gumm-Gumms. That sort of thing's happened with humans, too, right? And after the Gumm-Gumms allied with Pale Lady, they started giving some of those whelps to her, and she'd turn us into Changelings and swear us back into Gumm-Gumm service."

"Who's the Pale Lady? And why babies?" What was it with trolls and stealing babies?!

"Our Creator. You don't just get Changelings naturally; you have to turn a troll into one. It's safer the younger we are but it's still really hard. She's the only one powerful enough to do it."

Jim sighed.

"She disappeared centuries ago. There probably aren't going to be anymore Changelings after my generation."

That didn't exactly sound like a bad thing, from Barbara's perspective. No more kidnapped children, magically mutated to a point where members of their own species hesitated to acknowledge them as being the same species, kidnapping and stealing the faces and lives of other children in order to blend in …

"Anyway," Jim continued, "after a raid, any parents who'd lost their kids would declare them dead, since the Gumm-Gumms were too strong to launch a rescue mission against, and 'my whelp is dead' was easier emotionally – you know, for closure – than dealing with, 'if I ever see my whelp again, it will be as an enemy'. Since we're not old enough to remember our first families clearly, we can't track them down later, and since we're enemy agents by that point, it isn't safe to try."

He hooked an arm over his chair's backrest, which was beside him with the way he was sitting.

"I mean, that doesn't stop everybody, but those stories all end badly."

Barbara felt her breathing get faster and shallower. Oh no. Oh no. Had she – she had – no wonder Jim hesitated to call her 'Mom' anymore – pushing him away like she did must've stomped right on that sense of rejection, that fear of a parent seeing him as an enemy.

"We're getting way off-topic, though," said Jim.

His tone had stayed light and casual the entire time. He turned back to the table and the book and the page of notes.

"So, when 'troll' is spelled with this accent, you can infer that the word right before it is a tribe name, but the tribe names can also appear on their own. They all seem to have this same accent by the first rune," pointing to it. "At first, I thought it translated as a Significant Capital Letter, and it probably does, but it only seems to be used in this context, so it probably means 'this is the name of a tribe'."

+=+

AAARRRGGHH tapped the wall of the tunnel leading into Vendel's workshop, a hollowed-out space just within the Heartstone.

He tried to smile reassuringly at the younglings he and Blinky escorting. Mary and Toby smiled back. Claire and Darci tried, but their smiles looked as strained as AAARRRGGHH's felt. Jim was looking the other way, keeping AAARRRGGHH and Blinky and the humans in his peripheral vision while he watched for anyone else approaching where they were.

"Enter."

Darci had her arms crossed over the book the younglings had been writing, with stories about their families. AAARRRGGHH and Blinky had read it already. AAARRRGGHH didn't think it would sway Vendel on letting more humans know trolls existed, but the humans wanted to try anyway.

AAARRRGGHH was ready to physically carry all five of them back out again if they started pushing Trollmarket's Elder too hard, before Vendel could outright ban further discussion of the matter.

(They didn't have the other Changeling with them this time, so if it came to that point, AAARRRGGHH would be able to put Jim on his shoulders with the rest. Jim seemed protective of his fellow Changelings, so AAARRRGGHH had figured last time that Jim would be more comfortable being carried where he could keep an eye on – Enrique? Not Enrique? – and ensure the smaller one was being well-treated, and AAARRRGGHH didn't think he couldn't keep that strange canopied rolling chair secure on his back.)

Vendel was standing in front of his favourite chair, with a drink and a book on the armrest. Uh-oh. This might not be the best time to start asking favours.

"This is – about – what we asked before," said Mary. "About telling our families where we go, and who we see, here."

"I am still against it," said Vendel flatly.

"We hoping – we hope you will be more – more open to think about it," said Toby, "if you know more about our families. To know they can be trusted. Trusting?"

"Trusted," said Blinky. "You had it right the first time."

The humans would also have to be trusting, to accept that their whelps were safe among trolls, but AAARRRGGHH didn't think this was the right time to say, 'both work'.

"So we made a book," said Darci, holding it out, "with family stories. For you to read. To know them without meeting."

Vendel made no move to take the book.

"It's in trollish," said Claire.

There was another awkward pause.

Claire took the book from Darci and put it on Vendel's workbench.

"Will you read it?" she pressed.

"If I agree to read your book," said Vendel slowly, looking at each youngling in turn, "and once I do, I still refuse to expose trollkind to additional humans, you will accept my decision and cease to push this issue."

It was not so much an offer as a declaration.

AAARRRGGHH probably should've scouted out what Vendel was doing in advance, or something. Or maybe Blinky should've officially set up a meeting. Or AAARRRGGHH should've pulled them all out of there as soon as he realized they were intruding on Vendel's rare leisure time and so Vendel was going into the conversation already irritated.

The humans exchanged looks between themselves. He couldn't read most human expressions easily. AAARRRGGHH could recognize 'distress' from sheer exposure, and there was some of that, but there was something else mixed in as well.

"We accept your terms," said Claire and Darci, not quite overlapping. Claire continued. "If you give our reasoning full consideration and still find it lacking, we will not keep asking for permission."

Vendel picked up the book. "Then I will read it."

"So, to be clear," said Jim, after they left the Heartstone, "when he says 'no', you're just going to tell them without permission."

"Yeah," said Mary easily. Blinky spluttered.

"Just making sure we're all on the same page." Jim's jaw was tense. The lines on his armour pulsed closer to blue than silver. AAARRRGGHH wanted to reach over and pat his back, but Daylight hung there, and AAARRRGGHH had no desire to burn his hand on the magical sword.

Moving slow, so the Changeling could see him coming, AAARRRGGHH nudged Jim's side. Jim veered away.

+=+

"And Jim, stop by my office after school, please," Mr Strickler had said when class ended that morning. It was now afternoon, and Jim was dutifully reporting in.

Stricklander opened his pen to reveal the hidden key, and opened the partition between the mundane and magical sides of his office.

"How does that not mess up everything on your shelves?" Jim asked, gesturing to where the wall had slid away, to be hidden inside a hollow wall on a different story.

"It moves smoothly, and most of my curios have wide bases. I also added a few stability enchantments when I set everything up, in case of earthquakes, and those take care of the rest … Ask Dr Lake if she'd like some around the house, along with those security spells on the tunnel."

Stricklander opened the front panel of a box with an ornate, glowing crystal on the lid. He murmured while stroking the air around the crystal. Jim might have thought it was an incantation to unlock to box if he didn't recognize the crystal as an antramonstrum shell.

"I'm with Nomura," Jim said when Stricklander stopped chanting. "That seems like a risky thing to have in a school."

"It's well-behaved and well-contained," said Stricklander. "And it's not why you're here. You're here for this."

He held a blue stone, faintly glowing, with a colder light than the Amulet gave off. It was shaped like a pyramid with spikes near the point. Jim accepted the crystal and looked at the pyramid's base.

It had a pupil. Hazy, but there. Jim gasped and closed his hand around it. Stricklander did say he had access to …

"The Eye?"

"His Eye."

"It's … still living stone." Definitely not a sphere; were trolls' eyes not eyeballs or was the shape distorted from how it had been cut out of his face? "Can he still see out of it?"

"That would take very specific enchantments, which would need to be planned and cast before the eye was removed."

"… Have you ever done that?"

"No."

Jim stole a tissue from the box on Stricklander's desk to wrap the crystal, got his pencil case out of his sweatshirt's stomach pocket, and zipped Gunmar's Eye inside.

"I'm going to be out of town for a short while," said Stricklander. "The school is under the impression a distant relative of mine has passed on and I'm needed for the reading of the will and so on; nothing so time sensitive I couldn't arrange lesson plans for the substitute, but also something that might drag on unexpectedly."

To a more experienced agent, this might sound condescending, but Jim appreciated when Stricklander explained the reasoning behind his chosen cover stories. It gave Jim a better understanding of how to craft his own.

"The Janus Order will be answerable to Jennifer Smith in my absence. She'll likely continue the lockdown of the main base. I expect to return within two weeks … hopefully having acquired something else of use."

Maybe he has a lead on the Birthstone, Jim thought hopefully.

+=+

The Trollhunter came to Vendel's workroom alone the following night.

"Vendel, Elder of Trollmarket," he greeted.

Vendel braced himself; the last time the Trollhunter had used that stilted, formal tone, Vendel had been presented with a severed head, and the boy seemed honestly surprised not to be praised for such … Gumm-Gumm-ish behaviour.

Vendel had done his best to accommodate him later – it was an important victory, after all – and ensure the rest of Trollmarket would not panic over what their Trollhunter had done.

"I have the first of the Triumbric Stones, the Eye of Gunmar."

At least he had it wrapped in some kind of satchel this time, rather than flaunting the severed body part.

"Blinky said you would know what to do with it."

Vendel considered this. It was a few decades early in the Trollhunter's training, but it would be apropos. He went to a shelf and retrieved a black leather box, which he placed on his worktable.

"The Triumbric Stones, once gathered, must be cleaved. Humans cleave stones to unlock their beauty. I presume you already have some concept of cleaving stones to unlock their power."

"How you groom the Heartstone for healthy growth," said Jim. "Or the body, symbolically." He touched his own arm, indicating where one of Vendel's carvings encircled his bicep. Or did the Changeling have a carving there, too, in his troll form? "Or the body, literally, when a troll is transgender. Glug told us about King Quag. Or like when a troll is made a Changeling."

Vendel scowled at that – that obscene, blasphemous comparison to a sacred skill – but held his tongue.

"I guess that one is more like metamorphosis," Jim added, more quietly. Vendel took it as a peace offering.

"There are exponentially more elements than the humans have yet discovered. Their properties account for much of how magic works. Merlin's Amulet is a relic of unfathomable power. It is said, when he forged it, he made it malleable, so that each Trollhunter could combat dangers that even its creator could not foresee. I have, under my guardianship, a few remaining stones that Trollhunters past have used to unlock their potential."

Vendel opened the box. Jim leaned in, eyes wide and gleaming in the reflected light from the crystals.

"Stones that will grant nimbleness," the Aequati Stone, used by Araknak the Agile to traverse any obstacle;"a glimpse into your enemy's mind," the Omniscien Stone, used by Deya the Deliverer to stop Merlin from being so damned cryptic all the time, according to what she'd told Vendel's father Rundle after returning from her quest to punch the wizard in the face;"even the power to walk in daylight."

"Wait, why isn't that one in the Amulet always?" Jim asked.

"The Umbra Stone is particularly temperamental and difficult to wield. Most Trollhunters do not have time to learn it."

"Shouldn't that one be first priority?"

"The Trollhunter is rarely aboveground during the day." The current one was, but he was an outlier to the pattern in every other respect as well.

"And when they are, they die. Kanjigar might still be alive if he'd had this stone with him." Jim looked away from the stones and up at Vendel. "Give me the Umbra Stone. I will make it part of the Amulet forever. No future Trollhunter will be killed by sunlight then."

Vendel closed the box.

"You should learn to properly cleave a stone before you start altering the Amulet. You do not need the Umbra Stone. Show me the Eye."

Jim glared. For a moment Vendel thought the boy would grab the box and try to steal the Umbra Stone from it, though he'd have to guess which one it was. Instead, Jim opened the satchel he still held, and extracted the Eye of Gunmar from its soft white wrapping. Some of the wrapping tore on the crystal's sharp protrusions.

Vendel put the box away, pretending he didn't notice the Changeling obviously making mental note of where he kept it. He led Jim over to his grindstone and picked up a stone about the size of the Eye with a set of tongs.

"You should be in troll form for this. The subtleties will be easier to observe."

Nothing he had read in human books suggested they had an understanding or interest in stone shaping for purposes other than aesthetics or building construction. Also, Vendel had some idea how squishy humans were – he'd feel less unnerved by a troll standing so close to the grindstone, where chips could fly.

Jim went rigid as stone without actually transforming.

"I don't think that's a good idea."

Vendel rolled his eyes. "Would you prefer to have Blinkous or Aarghaumont present as a chaperone?"

"It's not that I expect you would hurt me," though, from the way he was inching back, he obviously hadn't ruled it out either, "it's more, what if someone else comes in and sees?"

"Without your armour, there would be nothing to see. Trollmarket is highly populated and popular. I doubt you look so unusual that you stand out to a casual glance." Blending in was part of what the Changelings had been designed for, after all. "It would not be the first time I demonstrated proper cleaving techniques to a visiting student."

Jim instead closed the faceplate of his helmet and turned his head to the entrance of Vendel's workroom. The entire suit of armour flashed blue as he did, responding to its wearer's distress.

… No, Vendel realised a moment later, when Jim physically pulled the Amulet from his chest to dismiss the armour. That blue flash had been the Changeling's transformation.

He looked so young.

Too young, in fact – the Battle of Killahead had been just over 400 years ago, and the whelp standing before Vendel now couldn't be even 200 yet –

"How old are you?"

"What? Probably a bit less than 450, why?"

Jim's brow ridges crinkled adorably – a Changeling should not be cute, but whelps were without trying – and then he made a sound of realization.

"Oh – oh, the age distortion. You've never met a 'young Changeling', have you? This is how old my Familiar would be if we never swapped, not how old I am. I'll start aging like a troll again once I hit human adulthood. Or catch up to the age I would've been without the age pause. We don't exactly have ways of testing those theories."

"… This is how young your human friends are, then."

"16 for a human is about 240 for a troll if I've done the math right."

He hadn't – he looked about half that age – although maybe humans had a delayed puberty? That didn't make much sense, for creatures so short lived, but it could happen. If they hit puberty in their second century instead of it marking their first – or, the equivalent thereof – that would at least make Vendel feel better about how ridiculously young the Trollhunter looked, a child should never have been even considered by the Amulet –

"… Should I switch back?" Jim asked, in English. He was wearing a human-like style of clothing, too, Vendel noted, as he started to get over the initial shock and take in more of the boy's appearance.

"No," Vendel decided. He picked the sample stone back up, having dropped it from his tongs when he'd been startled. "This is important for your education and your duties. Watch closely."

Jim was attentive, asking intelligent questions about how Vendel decided which planes to smooth and which angles to cut. Despite the boy's illusion of youth, Vendel felt confident allowing Jim to cleave the Eye himself.

(Stones always worked best for the one who cleaved them, no matter how well they worked for anyone else.)

When the shaping was done, Jim opened the back of the Amulet to insert the new stone, and Vendel saw another stone already in it. He thought for a moment that Jim had stolen the Umbra Stone already.

"What is that?"

"Uh … Remember when you let me bring a Heartstone piece to Draal? When I got it home, I noticed this tiny piece had chipped off. I didn't think he would miss it. I read in one of Blinky's books about Trollhunters putting stones in the Amulet and wanted to try. It lets me summon a knife." Blatantly trying to distract Vendel, Jim asked, "What do you think the Eye will do?"

"It's impossible to know for sure. Properly cut gemstones work in ways one can never predict – only discover."

"There must be patterns. Mineral type? Crystal lattice structure? Colour, age … nutrition?"

"The trollish classification of stones is rather more complex than the human one," said Vendel. "Minute differences in composition or the environment in which the stone develops can result in vast differences between two crystals of the same size and overall type. It is astronomically rare for stones to be identical."

Jim turned into a human again before he summoned his armour.

"I'm going to train and unlock the potential of the Eye. I will be back for the Umbra Stone."

Vendel watched him go, and slowly opened the book the human whelps had given him.

If they were really that young, no wonder they wanted their parents.

Honestly, it was a wonder their parents hadn't wondered where their whelps were wandering off to and beaten down the market door already.

If Vendel wanted to head off a human invasion, he needed to know who he'd be dealing with.

+=+

Previous Chapter (Heartstone pieces? In the Janus Order base? It’s more likely than you think)

Table of Contents

Next Chapter (Various characters grapple with insecurity for various reasons)

So, how about that latest Tales of Arcadia news, eh? Wizards release date, August 7th? Exciting! I'm not expecting it to change much of what's planned for this fic, but I said that about Season 3 and about 3Below, too.

I do know some stuff expected to come up which I want to know for other stories but also plan to ignore for this one: when exactly the Battle of Killahead Bridge took place, when Deya trapped Gunmar in the Darklands.

In this fic, as Vendel says, that happened 400-odd years before the main storyline, in the late 1500s, shortly before the trolls stowed away on the Mayflower in 1620. (And after Angor Rot got his soul ripped out by Morgana in 1297, because why would he need to protect his people from Gunmar if Gunmar was already trapped in the Darklands, huh, novel spin-offs?!)

This was a number I came up with back when I thought trolls only lived 1500-1600 years, based on tweet from Guillermo del Toro; and that Blinky was around 600 years old, as opposed to just having actively studied humans for that amount of time, based on that line about the human dances he's witnessed; and that Draal, obviously younger than Blinky, was either a whelp during the Battle of Killahead Bridge or not born until afterwards (rather than fighting in the battle) and that was a factor in why Kanjigar didn't want him involved in Trollhunting, because Draal was part of the first generation to grow up 'in peace'; and likewise Bular was a whelp during that battle, which was why he was the only Gumm-Gumm not trapped in the Darklands, or he was born after and sent to the surface by Fetch because he was the only one small enough, and either way he was basically raised by the Janus Order; and that trolls had an approximate 15:1 ratio with humans for age, based on the line about bowel control.

However, I have altered troll aging rates a little, based on the idea of Blinky participating in the Battle of Killahead. If he's 600-ish in 2016, that would make him only 200-ish in the late 1500s/early 1600s – which would also, proportionately, be the same age or younger than the humans are. (16x15=240)

So, how to have Vendel be scandalized at how young Jim is when a troll that age is apparently fit for combat? Shuffle the stages of development.

I decided, in this universe, trolls reach their full size a century or so before they actually become adults. So, a mid-adolescent troll would actually be 120, translating in human terms to be about 8 years old – still a child rather than a 'young adult'.

In other lore, I made up the names for the Aequati Stone and the Umbra Stone, based on mangled Latin for 'balancing' and 'shade' respectively. The Omniscein Stone, and Deya going on a quest to punch Merlin for being cryptic, came from the spin-off comic The Felled. 'Omnisceinstone' was all one word in the comic but that doesn't fit the pattern set up by the Aspectus Stone, the only one named on-screen in the show.

#Changeling Jim #Trollhunters #Tales of Arcadia #Becoming The Mask chapters #fanfiction #Dr Barbara Lake #Vendel #AAARRRGGHH #Mary Wang #Darci Scott #Tobias Domzalski #Claire Nuñez #Blinkous Galadrigal #Walter Strickler #My Fanfiction #Monday is fanfic day!

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saedii-gilwraeth-simp · 4 years

Text

I Knew I Loved You ~ Chapter 4

Love having to remind myself to post about five times before actually doing it.

Chapter 4: Arsinoe

~Glasgow, Scotland~

The invitation had come in the mail and had gone straight on her fridge.

You are cordially invited to celebrate the union of;

Juillenne Avery Milone & Emilia Eden Vatros

Maple Valley, Gorski Kotar, Croatia on the 18th of November

The invite had also come with a letter from Jules demanding that Arsinoe be her maid of honour, which had ultimately led to a desperately needed FaceTime call with her best friend. Arsinoe didn’t even say hello when Jules picked up.

“We were on the phone two weeks ago and you didn’t think to inform me that you and Vatros were finally getting hitched?” Arsinoe asked impatiently, but she couldn’t wipe the smile off her face. Jules and Emilia had found each other not long after Arsinoe had returned from her service overseas and had hit it off nearly instantly. It came to no ones surprise that they were soulmates, only being confirmed after Jules and Arsinoe had gotten their complementary infinities. Arsinoe occasionally laughed to herself that Emilia had an A on her wrist, considering how Emilia and Arsinoe clashed nearly constantly.

“Admittedly, it was 3 am and I was more focussed on your issues. How is that going by the way?” Arsinoe tried to school her face and succeeded enough for Jules not to give her shit about it. Their makeup ice cream date had gone great and Arsinoe had looked like a smiley idiot for the next two days. They had gone out at 1:30 and and spent so much time talking that they ended up having dinner at 7. She hadn’t gotten back to her place until nearly midnight.

But she wasn’t telling Jules that.

“This call isn’t about me so fess up. Now, tell about the wedding. Why Croatia? Why November? How long have you guys been planning this? Yes, I’ll be your maid of honour, is Emilia there so I can give her another shovel talk? And what have your families said about it?” Jules smiled at her questions before ticking them off on her fingers as she answered them.

“Emilia’s family is Croatian and it was closer to you than Sydney, November because it was when we could get into the venue we loved, we’ve been planning it for about a year even though we weren’t officially engaged, I’m super ecstatic you can be my maid of honour, Emilia is at the base and our families are all losing their shit in a good way. Now, my turn. How did your date go? Is he treating you good? Have you had sex with him yet? What was his name, age and occupation again? Has he asked about all of your tats yet? On a scale of 1-10 how hot is he? Is he there to be given his first shovel talk? And will you be bringing him to the wedding?” Jules ran her questions off quickly, making Arsinoe laugh before she answered.

“The date went good, he is treating me like a princess so far, no we haven’t had sex, his name is Billy, he’s 28 and a lawyer, he has yet to ask about all the tats yet, he’s a solid 8 and a half, no he is not here right now and we’ll see about the wedding” Jules’ nose visibly crinkled at the fact Billy wasn’t there to get cursed out by an overprotective Paralympian who could probably beat the shit out of him is she wanted to.

“Are you gonna tell him about,” she paused and ran a hand under her left boob, where they both knew Arsinoe’s most important tattoos were, “or are you gonna wait until he asks?”

“I don’t know yet, Jules. I just… things have been going so well, y’know? And I really like him but what if I tell him about them and he realises that he doesn’t want someone with emotional baggage like that?” Arsinoe sighs and lies back on her bed. Jules gives her a sympathetic smile.

“How do you know he doesn’t have emotional baggage of his own that he’s hiding from you?”

“A guy like that? I don’t know Jules… and besides, I feel like you’re deliberately changing the subject. Tell me about how drunk you want me to get you for your hens night or is the athlete too scared of a little alcohol?” Jules laughed but let her steer the conversation away.

Can I come over? The text from Billy reads. Arsinoe frowned at it. It was nearly midnight. Still, she picked up her phone.

Sure. R U OK?

I’ll let you know when I get there he followed that with a kiss emoji and Arsinoe rolled her eyes and put her phone down, not noticing the stupid way she was smiling.

When she pulled the door open, the look on Billy’s face had her crooking her head. He looked angry and tired. She silently let him in and led him to he living room, leaving him there to go make two hot chocolates.

“Are you okay?” She asked him as she sat next to him on her couch. “Did something happen at work or something?” Billy sipped his hot chocolate and took a deep breath before he answered. Arsinoe didn’t miss how his hands are tight enough around the mug that his knuckles are white.

“My father’s company is being sued for money laundering and of all the law firms in the city he could have chosen to represent him, he chose my one. I haven’t seen him since I got custody for Jane and I’m convinced that he is just hanging around long enough for me to punch him and get fired so I can come crawling back and take over the company when he kicks the bucket. I just, I hate him and I probably shouldn’t because he’s family right? And I know we’ve only been together for a couple of weeks but I don’t want to put Jane in a relapse because I bought him up to her and I wanted to talk to someone about it, so sorry,” Billy ranted to her before taking a deep breath.

“What happened with Jane and your father that made you hate him so much?” Arsinoe took the mug out of his hands and put both his and her mugs on the coffee table before pulling him closer to her so that his head rested on her chest. He took another breath.

“You already know that Jane is my little sister. I just didn’t mention that she is gay. She came out to me just after I left to study law instead of business like our father wanted. About halfway through my second year of law school, I get this call from Glasgow Royal to say my sister was hospitalised and requested that I be the one called,” Arsinoe felt her throat close slightly at where she thought this story would be going as Billy looked like he was struggling to speak.

“She had come out to our parents and my father… my father beat the shit out of her. She wasn’t 18 yet so I sued his ass off for custody and I won, so he disowned me as well, thinking that I would leave Jane and come crawling back for the family fortune, but I had been working enough that we were okay. In the end, it took a massive toll on Jane and she had to start going to therapy to work through it all. She’s okay now and I intend to keep it that way but I wish our father would have pissed off and never come back near me in the first place,” Billy’s shoulders shook and Arsinoe held him closer.

“I won’t say I’m sorry because I know from experience that it doesn’t help, but I’m here, I promise, okay?” Billy nodded and wrapped his arms around her waist.

“Can I ask about one of your tattoos?” Billy asked her an hour later. They were lying on the couch pressed chest to chest, lazily sharing stories from their childhoods, but that question gave her pause.

“If you can see it on me then you can ask about it,” Billy smiled and held up her right hand, kissing the tattoo on it.

“Why do you have a paw tattooed on the back of your hand?” Arsinoe laced their fingers together before she spoke.

“After I was discharged from the army, I had a really bad anxiety problem, especially in large crowds, so I got a service dog. He was this big chocolate lab I called Braddock and he helped a lot. When I moved to Glasgow, I left him with my best friend but he was a big part of my life so I wanted to always have him with me where I could always see it. Why?” Billy chuckled softly.

“When the tattoo appeared everyone said that soulmate was part of some gang with a stupid symbol,” Arsinoe giggled at that, her whole body shaking.

“Maybe that’s what I’ll start telling people,” Billy hugged her tighter, a bright smile on his face.

#three dark crowns #one dark throne #two dark reigns #five dark fates #kendare blake #queen arsinoe #billy chatworth #billy x arsinoe #jules milone #emilia vatros #jane chatworth #ikily

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prorevenge · 5 years

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Racist mom tries to bribe son to dump me, I gain power over everything she cares about.

This is gonna be a LONG post lol, may have gotten exact timing sequences out of order.

Met a guy that we had mutual friends with and invited him to hang out with my friends and do fun stuff. Later learned he was not even allowed to hang out with my crowd cuz his mother was the very strict and hypocritical sort who thought everyone else was inferior to her precious kids. Guy was telling them he was doing work or something. Eventually he told them he wanted to date me and they flipped. The dad doesn’t have much say in the house and the mom (EM) was livid.

You know how Amish people don’t like rock and “sinful” music? Or females that wear shorts and tanks? Yuuup basically her. She went through my social medias and literally compiled and printed out giant lists of every country song I’d ever posted or concert I’d been to or clothing she thought was too provocative along and gave it to the pastors at both of our churches. EP called MY mom at 2am a couple times to rant and rave about “how could she let her daughter do such sinful things and flirt with boys yada yada yada”. She made racist remarks to Guy (I’m a super cute half Asian half messican, and all of his family is pale white golden haired angels) and even asked him if I’d molested him (I’m 5’ 2” and he’s literally a foot taller than me) and if that’s why he wanted to date and marry me. He was still at home and they went on a family trip to Colorado. Or as it turned out to be an exorcism style prayer meeting over Guy because EM just knows there must be a demon or something wrong with him. Oh and this was only within a span of a few months while he saved up to move the hell out.

Nope not over yet. EM then was harassing his work, his new church pastors (mine), his friends, got one of his business partners to leave him with lies that Guy is “bipolar” and “Schizophrenic”, thankfully most of the people had our back and we had some good laughs over what outrageous things they told us. Even driving an hour and a half to his apartment (I know dumb move to let them know where he moved to), in the middle of the night a couple times to harass and berate him and blubber about how everyone would judge her and how her reputation was going to suffer and church standing, she even dragged his two younger siblings into it all and told him they were heartbroken that he moved out and all the reasons he needed to move back home. Cue even more fun, one night he was just done so when they showed up to again try and bully him into moving back home or at least dumping me, he just up and left. Got in his mini and drove away. AND THEY FOLLOWED HIM. Unbelievable right? He used to race his mini so he lost them pretty quickly and booked it over to where I lived and spent the night there. I know, why not call the cops right? Well there was no physical damage or threats thereof. Yes she’s been verbally and borderline physically abusive to him growing up, think patriarchy super conservatives but it’s a matriarchy. At one point EM asked Guy what it would take for him to dump me, what amount of money could she pay him (Guys dad makes buttloads of moola, yeah those kind of people) to get me out of his life and for him to move back home. SHE TRIED TO BRIBE HIM TO LEAVE ME. She’d threatened to disown him and all the typical rich EP stuff before and knew he didn’t care. EM even called all his guy friends and asked if Guy has ever had any “homosexual” tendencies etc. Next month Guy proposed, and EM was SO MAD that she heard about it for the first time from a mutual friend congratulating her on the upcoming wedding! So of course she calls all the pastors and REEEEs about how we’ve been living in sin (kicker, we hadn’t even done the dirty dance but she didn’t bother asking) and telling everyone that they shouldn’t attend the wedding etc. Yea call us prudes :p EM also printed out all the reasons why I wasn’t good enough for her son and handed those out like candy to church leaders. Then when that had no effect she switched tactics and did the same thing with all her reasons why he was immature and shouldn’t get married and should move back home and be parented. Still no effect, except my dad at a huge meeting where she tried to distribute those, gathered them all back up and handed them to her and told her to stop slandering us and said how ungodly that was. And she stood there baffled and all the other people present agreed with my dad and told her to put those papers away. EMs exact words “but but I thought the very reason everyone is here is to show Guy why he needs to leave that girl and move back home!” I couldn’t help a giggle and a few other people couldn’t either. That meeting is a whole nother story, it was hilarious.

Where is the revenge you ask? Well all that was just the tip of the iceberg of course, but the revenge has been pretty simple. Spend a few obvious nights (SLEEPING ONLY) at his place, just to trigger her, but ofc our pastors and friends knew we’d committed to abstinence our entire lives up to the wedding (hella yea wedding night was killer) and other things like that to get under her skin but nothing that anyone else thought was bad. Very publicly plan and execute a HUGE wedding (over 500 people) and tell everyone about how our relationship is so beautiful and holy and how Gods destiny brought us together yada yada. She made a couple extra hoops for our pastors but we jumped through them with flying colors and everyone except her thought we were the cutest most Christian kosher thing. So basically to save face she had to fake smile and accept all the congratulations and be secretly embarrassed that we didn’t invite her to the wedding showers (she said she never wanted to see me and wouldn’t go to the wedding) and made excuses as to why she hadn’t gone, EM couldn’t tell her friends that we hadn’t invited her now could she? She went after the best man too and he almost decided against being the best man she was such a hassle and he was a pushover, but I told him the best passive way to deal with her is tell her that he wants to be there for his friend and how could she argue with that? She didn’t. But of course, what’s better than forcing her to attend the wedding but not allowing her to ruin it? Extremely petty I know, but I’m a drama llama and have enjoyed 98% of all this. I of course get ahold of EMs own mom and get to know her and she’s very sweet and loves me to death, along with Guys siblings and his dad, as many of EMs own friends and their families etc. So everyone loves me and when we invite them all to the wedding, they strong arm her into coming. I have my cop friends who have been having a heyday hearing about all this drama coming in for the wedding, one of them I make my MC so if she tried anything, not only would they take care of her swiftly, but she would also deeply embarrass herself because there was no denying that there were 500+ people there who loved Guy and I, including a lot of her friends. The ceremony was great, went off without a hitch, oh wait... I am not a bridezilla so if anything went wrong it was fine and the drama was cracking me up, I was a little disappointed she didn’t try anything drastic, but I could see on her face the entire time that EMs smile was sooo fake, and I got reports that she was seen crying outside later. Watching people congratulate her was priceless. When my own friends congratulated her a few of them later told me that she seemed surprised that I had any “respectable” friends (her literal words) who thought well of me. And no I’d arranged her to be only in one photo so she couldn’t ruin any others.

Oh and our wedding day was only the 3rd time she’d ever set eyes on me. She was against me from the start for almost a year without ever having spoken a word or ever seen me in person. Take that EM. To this day I have no idea what was her real beef with me. Happy ending: now that I provided the first grandkids, to my chagrin they’re like baby Targaryens they’re so white, and of course she’s too “young” to be a grandma so she’s called “nana”, but we laid down ground rules and she knows we will ostracize her at the drop of a hat, and she has kissed butt so hard and to her credit done her best to mend everything without ever really actually mentioning any of it. It’s great. We have holidays and fun visits in between and she showers us with super expensive gifts and will drop everything possible to help if we need anything. I think we’re friends now. One day I think she might bring it all up and try and play the victim, idk, but she’ll be hit with a carefully detailed account of everything that went down, in case her memory “fails” her. I can forgive but I’ll never forget, after all, I got my delicious revenge. Power over everything she holds dear and the evidence to expose whatever she hasn’t already done by her own dumb self and absolutely ruin her reputation and community and church standing. I feel really good right now

TLDR entitles mom wants to be petty about me dating her son so I take petty to another universe levels and crush her with epicc facts and logic and hold all the cards to ruin her life now

(source) story by (/u/cyborgurl)

#prorevenge #by /u/cyborgurl #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

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rosettahart · 5 years

Text

Glass-says: Chapter 8

Chapter 1, Chapter 7

Ao3 link

Summary: Its opening night, but Roman is not exactly feeling like his fabulous self.

Warnings: Mentions of Disownment, Homophobia, Loneliness, Feelings of Inadequacy and Self Doubts.

Chapter 8

It was opening night tonight. The weekend had left Roman exhausted after the countless hours of work and studying he had done. Sustaining himself wasn't going too well. On the weekend he worked as a server at a fancy little restaurant in the city and for his second job he worked for this grocery delivery app service in which he would buy and deliver groceries. He could take on orders whenever he had the time to and maybe it didn't pay as well as he would have liked, but he could take on as many orders in a day as he wanted to as long as he completed them in a timely enough manner.

Currently, Roman had no running water or electricity at the house as his parents had called the companies only a few hours after they had disappeared over a month ago with his siblings. All the furniture remained and the house hadn't been put up for sale until last week after they had finally come back for everything and moved it out.

Roman came home last week after school to an eerily empty house. Even his room was left with hardly anything other than his clothes scattered all over the floor. Some of them were torn. Then there was the mirror. The full length mirror he kept in the corner of his room. It was different, though. He used to feel confident when checking out his reflection in it or going over his lines for whatever play his school was performing in front of it, but now?

Vulgar and hateful words and slurs were scribbled all over it. There was no doubt in his mind that it had been written by his own Father. And maybe Roman didn't have as good as a relationship as he had wanted with his Dad, but he never could have imagined that the fact that he was gay would be able to twist his Father’s love for him into hate in an instant. Luckily, he hadn't been there when he had found out or Roman very well could have been beaten to death right then and there.

Roman had come out to his Mother first, on a day he had been feeling a little extra confident in himself. Her expression quickly turned grim and serious. She told him to leave and take his car with him and not to return to the house until she texted him. He ended up staying in a parking lot that night. He didn’t get any sleep with his brain going a mile a minute about what would be waiting for him when he did return to the house. He should never have believed for even a second that he would still be loved and accepted by his family after revealing his sexuality. How had he been so naive?

For a while now, Roman had been struggling to save up money; what with his monthly cell phone bills, gas and food, and as it was becoming colder outside and he had no heating, he had invested in some heavier blankets. He had gotten an inflatable mattress with what extra money he had when he had been left without a bed last week. Luckily, Roman could use the school's locker room showers to freshen up during the week, but he would have to suffer through the weekends. Now, however, he was finding himself in a tough position. He was pretty much squatting in a house that could be sold at anytime. If his comfortable shelter was taken away, then what would he do? He could stay in his car for a while, but how long? Would he be able to find an affordable place to rent that would also be close enough to the school with what he was making? Or would he have to get another job? Would he need to dropout of school in order to support himself? He was only sixteen and he already had to worry about financial stability. Why couldn't he have just kept his mouth shut!?

Roman let out a frustrated sigh as he shifted his car into park. The tank was running low on fuel so he would have to refill it soon. More money he would have to spend. He collected his bag from the passenger seat that held a change of clothes and some essentials to freshen himself up with after the performance.

Leaning back against the seat, Roman took a moment to compose himself. He glanced over at the school. He would have to go in there and pretend everything was fine, as usual, but he was just so tired. So very, very tired. Tired of working, studying and practicing. Tired of lying and having to put on a fake smile. Tired of waking up screaming in a cold sweat. Tired of being alone… He missed all his younger siblings, but he didn't know if they missed him. Why would they, when they had each other? What was there to miss?

Roman shook away the thoughts as best as he could. He really needed to get changed and warmed up for the musical. There were less than two hours until the curtains would open and the play would begin. It would take about an hour to be made up in order to look the part of the character he was to portray. Even then that was just a rough estimate with how hectic backstage could get with upwards of twenty people needing to be made up to fit their roles running around.

He got out of his car. He could do this. All he had to do was think happy thoughts. Just like Wendy, John and Michael in Peter Pan. Except you know, it wouldn't be so he could fly off to Neverland and forget his problems and possibly hang out with Peter and the lost boys… That would be heaven though, especially if he found someone who swung in his direction… His life wasn't a Disney movie. He dreamed it could be, but it just wasn't. He had to think positive thoughts, even if those seemed to be in few supplies these days. Roman needed to act like everything was okay and what better way than to ignore his current situation? If only it were that easy.

“Hey, R! You excited about our first performance?” Paris asked cheerfully, coming up seemingly out of nowhere from behind Roman and immediately going to wrap her arm with the other thespian's. “Cause I know I'm especially excited to perform that one scene together in front of an audience. What about you?”

“Of course, I am! We've been rehearsing for hours upon hours and now we're finally going to entertain a live audience, who are paying to see us perform!” Roman gushed, casually escaping Paris’ grasp to gesticulate animatedly.

It was almost like a switch was flipped the moment someone interacted with Roman. It had grown too easy for him to fake a genuine smile for others and seemingly turn his energy from a one all the way to a ten. But he had to, because he didn't need help. He could take care of himself and his own problems! He was strong and he needed others to see him that way, even if most days he didn't actually feel like he was… Because most days there would be this tiny voice in his head just begging him to reach out to someone, anyone that could make things alright again. For someone to take him in and take away his problems. To hold him tight, whispering reassuring words into his ear that he'd never have to be alone ever again. To feel alone ever again.

“-R?” Paris’ arm was intertwined with Roman's again, when he returned his attention to the world around him.

“Hm?”

“You coming to my party this Saturday or not? The hot tub will be running and there will be plenty to drink.” Paris persuaded, pulling Roman down a little so she could bat her eyes at him, a mischievous smile on her face.

Roman turned his gaze away uncomfortable with the look in his classmate’s eyes and staring instead at the theatre's doors. “This Saturday?”

“That's what I said.”

“The cast party's that night though…”

Paris rolled her eyes. “So? The cast parties aren't mandatory. Beside my party is going to be much more exciting than a lame hangout between cast mates.”

“Cast parties are not lame! They celebrate a productions end and everyone who worked on it, no matter what their role in the play was! Without every member of our company, whether it be the main actors or the people who work the lights and sound, we are all a team! Putting on a musical or a play takes a team, Paris! So sorry, but I think I’m going to the cast party this Saturday and I’m going to have a lot more fun with the crew than I would if I were to hang out with you and a bunch of drunk strangers.” Roman retorted, heading into the theatre.

“Strangers? They're your friends, Roman! But maybe you've forgotten that since you've found new ones. You know what, I don’t even know why I have a crush on you anymore!” Paris argued, drawing everyone's eyes to the pair with her raised voice.

“My friends? Really!? Since when? Because last I knew they've only ever been your friends, not mine!” Roman challenged back.

“Well, that's your fault! And are you really going to just ignore the fact I'm interested in you!? I thought we had a connection, but apparently I just imagined that, huh!”

“I don't know where you got that idea from. I have never been interested in you that way, Paris… Look can we just-”

“Never been interested in me? That's hilarious, Roman. Next you're going to tell me that you're gay for Virgil and that you'd much rather get all gross and freaky with him than be with the hottest girl in school.” Paris chuckled darkly, gesturing up by the soundbooth at the frozen emo.

Roman immediately tensed at Virgil's startled expression, his eyes averting to the floor. The words gay, gross and freaky, repeating themselves in that vicious tone, making him feel disgusting and wrong.

“Well go ahead! No one's stopping you! But I'm not going to just stand around and act all in love with a filthy jerk like you!” Paris snarled, slamming the theatre door behind herself.

The room filled with an awkward silence that quickly turned into harsh whispers as Roman made his way backstage to get ready. Looks like he'd be acting opposite Amara instead.

Roman dropped his bag next to a stool and took a seat in front of one of the mirrors. He ran his hands through his hair, leaning his elbows against the counter for a minute. He just needed a minute. One minute was all he should need to compose himself and his thoughts. Taking in and letting out a deep steady breath, he opened his eyes to look up at the mirror.

A minute wasn't going to be enough.

Roman could practically see the words written over the reflective surface, reminding him of how disgusting he was. He stood abruptly, nearly knocking over his chair. He needed out now!

“Roman? You o-”

“Yeah, just need a minute.” Roman cut off his castmate, hurrying away while also trying not to come off too frantic.

He needed space. He couldn't break down in front of everyone. He was stronger than that!

Roman had just about reached the exit of the theatre when the director called after him.

“Ro-”

“JUST A MINUTE!” Roman wailed, pushing through the door and taking off in a sprint towards the stairs, his vision blurring.

No one would go looking for him in the bathroom upstairs.

At least Roman hoped no one would...

Author's notes: So this chapter was fairly heavy... It was going to go in a different direction and end on a better note, but it would've been like twice the size of a normal chapter. Don't worry though the next chapter will be a much softer one! Anyways thanks for your patience and thanks for reading! -Danielle

Chapter 9

Taglist:

@kittiebrick

@absolutesandersidestrash

#sander sides fanfiction #sander sides #sander sides fic #patton sanders #virgil sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #thomas sanders #ghost au #romance #ts patton #ts virgil #ts logan #ts roman #glass-says #rosettahart writes

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rafecameron · 7 years

Text

Home For Summer (Jonsa)

Hogwarts AU fic requested by @kingsnovv

Jon is disowned by his family after being sorted into Gryffindor. He’s spending his fifth year summer with the Stark family when he finally plucks up the courage to make a move on his best friends sister.

Squint to see throbb. Really squint. (mentioned)

Jon sits in the middle of his bed cross legged as he watches his roommates pack their cases and chat away to one another. He got along with his roommates well enough, but he could never stop himself from feeling down when he watched them all excitedly packing every summer. They would all be talking about seeing their family, and about all the things they planned on doing during the break.

During summer breaks Jon would usual find himself at a foster home somewhere or another, they were decent enough but nothing to get too excited about. He never made friends there, he was never the best at making friends under any circumstance but he definitely didn’t see the point when he knew he’d never see them again. He ended up in a different home each summer.

This summer, however, he had been invited back to a friends to spend the break with his family. Robb was one of the first people to befriend Jon the moment he had gotten sorted into Gryffindor. Jon was glad for this, as not a week after he had been sorted he received a letter from his father telling him not to come home again. He was from a family of Slytherins, and although he knew they’d be disappointed in his sorting he never imagined he’d be disowned for it. For something out of his control.

Robb had read the letter over his shoulder and told Jon that he could be his family instead, so that was how they became best friends right from the start, and things hadn’t changed as they grew older. Every summer Robb would invite Jon back to his for the break and every summer Jon would decline.

This year, he tried to convince himself that the reason he said yes was so that Robb could stop bothering him about it. It definitely had nothing to do with the fact that Jon got butterflies every time he spoke to or even saw Robb’s sister Sansa. It’s not that he wanted to be closer to her and spend as much time with her as possible.

“Have you packed yet Jon?” Robb asks as he appears at the end of his bed, resting his hands on either side of the bed frame as he spoke.

“I packed last night when you were sneaking off around the castle.” Jon states with a small smirk as his eyes meet Robb’s.

Robb rolls his eyes but lets out a laugh nonetheless, “I invited you to come!” He grins, “Not my fault you’re too much of a prude to sneak out.”

Jon chuckles and shakes his head, “Well someone has to earn the house points so that you and your siblings can lose them all.”

“Hey I win just as many as you!” Robb argues.

“Yes, and lose twice that amount.” Jon grins back, “Have you finished packing? We should probably go down to dinner, I can’t imagine we’ll eat much until tomorrow night.”

Robb glares at him but nods his head and quickly returns to his bed to slam his case shut and rest it on the floor beside his bed. The pair made their way down to the dining hall, using the shortcuts they had managed to find in their first year when they got lost.

Most of the Gryffindor table was full by the time they got there and they found seats opposite Sansa and Arya, who were arguing as usual. The girls stopped bickering when they noticed the boys sitting down and Sansa gave Jon a wide smile.

“Are you excited for the summer Jon?” She asks as she reaches for the bowl of mashed potatoes to start filling her plate, “I’ve been thinking over things we could do! There’s a field close by where we can practice quidditch, we usually do that a lot.” She hands the bowl to Jon with a smile, “Mum said we can visit Diagon Alley too, and there’s a zoo close by! Muggle animals are so interesting!”

“Sansa. Jon doesn’t want to be bored to death with your elepants.” Robb rolls his eyes.

“Elephants Robb! Not elepants! Have you ever used a phone, Jon?” Sansa asks.

Jon raises his eyebrow and nods his head, “They had them at one of the foster homes I went to once…I didn’t have anyone to phone from it though.”

“Dad’s just brought one. He’s introducing us to all these wonderful muggle things. It’s so much easier to use the phone than send a letter with an owl, I don’t understand why we don’t use them here.” Sansa shakes her head.

“Because we don’t need them! Owls are perfectly fine!” Robb argues.

“Robb’s scared of phones.” Sansa smirks causing Jon to laugh at his friends annoyance.

“They’re unnatural.” Robb huffs and returns to his plate, deciding to ignore Sansa for the rest of the dinner.

“I’m sure the summer’s going to be very fun, Sansa.” Jon reassures her causing the girl to smile wide and nod her head.

Sansa chats away for the rest of the dinner to anyone that would listen, but it only seemed like Jon was interested in what she was saying. On their way back to their common room Robb accused him of sucking up to her.

“You’re my friend, you don’t need to kiss ass to my siblings.” Robb states.

“I’m not kissing ass! I find your sister interesting and she has a lot of things to talk about, I like talking to her.” Jon replies with a shrug.

Robb sends him a glare, “Well you best not be hovering around her the whole break, or I wont be inviting you again!”

“You’ll be busy with Greyjoy anyway.” Jon rolls his eyes with a scoff. Jon didn’t like Theon, and it wasn’t just because he was a Slytherin, but he just didn’t trust the boy. Something was off about him and everyone but Robb could see it.

“Not until the last two weeks.” Robb reminds him, “And you best be kind to him! It took me years to persuade my parents to let me invite a Slytherin home for the holidays.”

“I can’t imagine why.” Jon rolls his eyes, taking the steps up to their dorm room two at a time.

“I don’t see why you all have a problem with him.” Robb continues as he follows Jon, not taking the hint that Jon no longer wanted to talk about him, “He’s done nothing wrong to any of you.”

“In our second year he put me in a leg locking curse and left me in the hallway for a whole night.” Jon reminds him, opening the door to their room and striding over to his bed.

“That was an accident.” Robb huffs, sitting on the edge of his bed to look over at Jon.

“How was that an accident?” Jon raises a brow.

“He was aiming for someone else, you got in the way.” Robb shrugs as he begins getting ready for bed.

“And that’s what he told you?” Jon laughs, “I have no issues you being friends with him, Robb. I’d rather you weren’t but there’s not much I can do about it, but that doesn’t mean I have to like him.”

“It doesn’t mean you have to be horrible either.” Robb counters before turning his back on Jon to get ready for bed and essentially ending the conversation.

~~~

Jon watched the fields roll past as the train screamed it’s way towards London, it felt strange to be leaving for the summer and not going to a random home somewhere, but instead he was going to be surrounded by friends. It was a nice feeling, but he was also extremely nervous. He’d never met Robb’s parents before and he was worried they wouldn’t like him, would they send him away if they didn’t?

Jon was ignoring the conversations going on around him. Sansa had disappeared half way through the trip to go and say goodbye to her friend Margaery and Robb had gone not too long after that to find Theon, so that left Jon with Arya and her friends. He got along with Arya quite well, but he wasn’t interested in her squabbles with her friends about chocolate frog cards.

The train journey seemed to drag on ten times longer than it normally would but finally they were coming to a halt at the station and Jon was standing up and collecting his things. Arya grabbed his arm and dragged him out into the crowds and onto the platform, frantically looking around for her parents.

“They’re probably still on King’s Cross.” She says and pulls him towards the wall.

Jon followed her out onto the muggle platform, looking around to spot Robb or Sansa. “There!” Arya shouted and pulled on Jon’s arm, pulling him towards a couple stood with two children off to the side of the crowds.

The couple smiled when they noticed Arya and the women pulled her into a hug. “This is Robb’s friend Jon.” Arya tells, her voice muffled by her mothers tight hug.

“It’s good to meet you, Jon.” The man said holding out his hand for Jon to shake, “We’ve heard a lot about you. Please, call me Ned.”

Jon nods his head, “It’s good to meet you too.” He replies.

Her mother introducers herself and then the two boys at her side just as Robb and Sansa appear behind them, being pulled into equally tight hugs as Arya had.

Jon followed them through the streets of London all the way to Diagon Alley, Ned said they would be using the floo network to get back home as it was the quickest and easiest way. Jon had never used the floo network before but he knew how it worked. By the time he was done been shook and spun around and had fell out of the fire place into the living room he felt positively sick.

“Never floo’d before?” Robb grins, crouching down to look at him, “You look a little green.”

“Just a bit dizzy.” Jon mumbles and slowly sits up looking around, he brushes the dust from his clothes and instantly feels bad when he notices the black smudges on the pristine white carpet around him.

“Don’t mind that,” Robb says as though reading his mind, ‘Mum’ll sort that out. C’mon I’ll show you to your room.”

Jon finally manages to gather himself and get on his feet, hurrying to catch up with Robb as he takes long strides through the house. It was much bigger than Jon had expected and he was starting to think the Starks were a lot richer than they let on, that made him feel even more out of place.

“My rooms just down there.” Robb states as he opens a door and motions Jon inside, “Get yourself comfy, make yourself at home…Do whatever you want.” Robb shrugs, “I’m going to nap.”

Jon furrows his brows as he watches Robb enter a room just down the hall from him. Robb Stark could sleep anywhere at any time of the day, it was amazing really. He’d once fallen asleep against a rock during one of their care of magical creatures classes, Professor Grubbly-Plank had insisted they leave him there.

Jon set himself the task of unpacking and sorting his things out, it didn’t take him long and after a short while he found himself sat on the edge of the bed looking round feeling lost. He was pleased when he heard a knock on the door and even more pleased when Sansa poked her head around.

“Would you like me to show you around, Jon?” He asks with a hopeful smile.

“That would be lovely actually, Sansa.” Jon nods and stands from his bed, “Your brothers gone for a nap.” He laughs.

Sansa rolls her eyes and links her arm with Jon’s as she leads him down the hall way, “I saw him sneaking out again last night, probably to see Theon. He’ll get himself expelled if he’s not careful!” Sansa sighs.

Sansa first walks Jon around the house, taking him into every room in the house, even the ones they never used. She felt it necessary to show him everyone’s bedrooms, much to Arya’s annoyance. Her little brother Rickon followed them around for a while until he realised he was getting no attention from them and instead ran off to find another sibling.

Sansa went on to show him the garden and the green houses, where her mother liked to grow plants and vegetables.

“She needs a hobby to get away from dad sometimes.” Sansa explains as they walk through the greenhouse and look at the plants and flowers, “His love for muggle things can get a little much sometime.”

Jon chuckles lightly and stops by the door to the greenhouse, “I can imagine. But it’s nice when people find things they’re interested in.”

“Isn’t it?” Sansa smiles as she appears in front of Jon suddenly, she places a hand lightly on his arm, “I’m glad you’re here, Jon.”

Jon looks down at her hand and then back up to her, “I’m glad I’m here too Sansa.”

Sansa chews her lower lip lightly and takes a small tentative step forward, bringing her closer to Jon.

“What are you doing?” Jon asks quietly, “Robb wouldn’t-“

“You’re really thinking about my brother right now?” Sansa laughs lightly, “Perhaps I have the wrong idea about you.”

Jon smiles softly and shakes his head, “No, you don’t.” He chuckles.

Jon finally gathers his courage and put’s his sensible thoughts to the side for a moment and lifts a hand to the back of Sansa’s head. He tangles his fingers into her auburn hair and pulls her closer, crashing his lips against hers in a long awaited kiss. Sansa melts into him and wraps her arms around his neck, pulling him impossibly closer as they deepen the kiss.

“You’re been here for an hour!” The shout suddenly breaks them apart, Sansa turns beetroot red and Jon’s head quickly whips around to make eye contact with Robb, “An hour!” He repeats.

“I thought you were napping.” Jon raises an eyebrow.

“I thought you weren’t going to follow her around!” Robb sighs and throws his hands up in defeat, “Fine! Have each other! You wont help me pull pranks anyway!” he huffs as he turns around and walks off.

Jon rolls his eyes and lets out a chuckle, looking back to Sansa with a small smile, “That went well.”

Sansa giggles softly and nods her head, “I think he knew anyway.” She shrugs, “He’ll have Theon to keep him company soon anyway.” She adds on before leaning forward and kissing him again.

If Jon had had any doubts about coming home to the Starks this summer they had all been demolished the minute Sansa’s lips met his and he was sure he’d be coming back for his next two summers as well.

#two fics in one day!!#jonsa #game of thrones #game of thrones imagine #jonsa imagine #harry potter #harry potter au #imagine #robb stark #jon snow #sansa stark #oneshot #prompt #mywriting

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