One of the young justice members is complaining about how their parents or mentors benched them after getting injured.
And Marvel snorting and saying that that reminds him of Phantom. And of course, the YJ crew, ask who that is.
“Oh Phantoms my big brother, pops never really understood our human halves or limits so…” and he just shrugs like he didn’t just drop Lore. And the teens smell blood in the water, they want to know more.
can i just say, it still makes me feel a little crazy how astarion, come act 3, still can’t quite put a name to his relationship with his partner, but he WILL tell them he wants to keep them both safe.
he won’t say i love you just yet but he will say forever, for good.
I know lots of folks have already done one of these! BUT! This is one of my favorite tropes, so... here are some of my faves! As a note, these largely range from ~vaguely medieval~ to incredibly well-researched SPECIFIC 'Medieval' to ~general regency ish~ to VERY Regency to various points in between. I am also aware of some as of yet unwritten but ~coming soon/eventually~ Pirate, Wild West, 1920s, and of course Medieval pieces coming out, so I MAY have to post an updated version in a year or so lol
Also... have one that's not here? PLEASE send it to me! Especially Medieval Fantasy. It's my FAVORITE and I KNOW there are more that I don't have/don't have saved and I'm very interested!
Golden Boy by trilliath
Rated E, Complete, 127k+
A Most (Im)Proper Proposal by Welsh_Woman
Rated E, Complete, 200k+
Entente by Siria
Rated E, Complete, 44k+
A Desperate Arrangement by mikkimouse
Rated E, Complete, 115k+
Foolish devouring things, build your castle in me by LunaCanisLupus_22
Rated E, Complete, 23k+
The Consort's Tourney by Lalaith_Quetzalli
Rated T, Complete, 12k+
The Wolf in the Tower by exclamation
Rated M, Complete, 57k+
Propriety and Pursuit by JenyaKeefe
Rated E, Complete, 27k+
The Wrong Hale by Dextrous_Sinistrous
Rated E, Complete, 77k+
The White Hart of Winter by DarkAthena
Rated E, Complete, 65k+
The Marriage Contract by Palendrome
Rated E, Complete, 12k+
The Omega Servant and the Alpha King by EmeraldTrident
Rated E, Complete, 2.4k+
Where the Real Beasts Are by kaistrex
Rated E, Complete, 109k+
I Made a Vow Out to the Dark by WhoGeek
Rated T, Complete, 22k+
I'm Not Asking Questions, I'm Taking My Chances by keldjinfae
Rated E, Complete, 80k+
Here are a few that I haven't had a chance to read yet, but the mere concepts have me in a chokehold:
Kingdoms Fall by Gia279
Rated M, Complete, 74k+
A Pauper's Prince (Revised) by Welsh_Woman
Rated E, Complete, 83k+
A Wolf's Heart by Palendrome
Rated E, Complete, 22k
Tangled Crowns by Halevetica
Not Rated, WIP, 37k+
A Winter's Knight by changez
Rated E, Complete, 5.5k+
I Won't Be Alone For The Rest Of My Life by blackorchids
Rated G, Complete, 1.4k+
And lastly, would I really be that bitch if I didn't rec my own?
Triskelion Reign: the Shepherd, the Lamb, and the Wolf
Rated E, WIP, 47k+
Tagging authors (i know of on here) so they know we out here loving and appreciating them! @Athenadark , @outtoshatter, @halevetica, @changez4sterek, @lalaithquetzallicaresi, you all write lovely works and I appreciate your efforts <3
It is said that all people have a partner, one that is predetermined; some are platonic soulmates, others romantic soulmates, but the main thing was that they were meant to be by your side, understand you, and not always support your decisions.
They were more like a kind of impulse control, someone to help you see beyond your choices and thoughts. While they were "meant" to understand you, that doesn't mean they supported all your decisions without complaint. Some would say they were there to help you be a better person.
But there was a catch: no one would know who their companion is until they die. Maybe it was a cruel twist of fate, that you would be forced to live your life without any clue as to whether you were doing it correctly. That you might never meet your partner in your life, that you would only have each other until all the stupid tests ended.
A way for the universe to say "fuck you" to humans who desperately wanted guidance on how to live. Or maybe, it was a way of telling them that there was no such guide, and that if they gave all the clues humans would never be free to make their own decisions.
So, maybe Jason Todd and Danny Fenton were the luckiest people on the fucking planet, for being the only ones who knew about each other, for being the only ones who could see that thread connecting them.
Personally neither of them felt lucky, dying was horrible, but at least the thread helped them feel less alone. Maybe someday one of them would be brave enough to follow it.
i wonder how the rest of the world/solar system/wherever people were living at that point responded to the radiation leak on red dwarf, if they all knew it was a radiation leak that wiped them out or if that info didnt get back to most of them, if its remembered as a historical event like the titanic or chernobyl, or if its a mystery that spirals into a bunch of mad conspiracy theories like the bermuda triangle or the loch ness monster
does it go down in history as "the mysterious case of the disappearing crew of red dwarf" or is it commonly known as "the red dwarf radiation leak tragedy"? did holly manage to get the information back to them?? or did they not even know the crew disappeared at all & just saw the ship start ominously floating out into space without any explanation
if they do know it was a radiation leak do they know why it happened?? do they know it was because rimmer didnt fix the drive plate properly & if so did he become a historical figure as "the guy who wiped out the red dwarf crew" or do they just know it was a botched drive plate with no other specifics??
did they know there was still a guy in stasis on the ship who had survived?? did they ever try to go on a rescue mission to get him?? did they find out about the cat race evolving on the ship???
Why was finding Stede's letter so important for Ed?
Real talk, I adore the season 2 finale and to me the rush is worth it to have a safe ending place. But this episode is so overpacked, and Ed goes through such an incredible character arc and I love it, so here goes my rant on why he burst into tears and screamed at the forest when he read Stede's letter.
Ed is all goddamn over the place in the first part of this episode, tossed about by his insecurity and baffled by what is safe and what is unsafe. He has a voiceover about how amazing being a fisherman is, then ends up regressing into childhood trauma when another father figure freaks out over dinner. Ed doesn't even choose to leave the fisherman fantasy: the fantasy gets shattered and he gets fired in a high-speed parallel of Stede trying to go home (return to a safe, simple life) and finding he doesn't belong there in S1E10. At least Ed does manage to not drown in self-hatred on the way out.
And then Ed returns to the pirate safe space, only to find that it's been invaded and taken over. And that his selfishness, the low self-esteem that distorted his view of reality and his relationship, may have had real consequences for someone he loves (another parallel with Stede, this time early season 2). Ed may have been off pretending to be a "dirty old fisherman" while Stede died.
What was safe is now unsafe. All Ed has left is himself--so he really looks at himself.
At the fact that the kraken is always there, no matter what clothes he wears or how deeply he tries to bury it. He can fight that and run from it, and end up losing everything. Or he can embrace it, and figure out what comes next. Be what he was made by his past, however dark that past was.
But Ed's past wasn't all darkness. Ed walks onto the beach and gets a letter from the past, and suddenly there is something safe again in his world. Something worth killing for.
Ed first started falling for Stede through the stories Stede built around himself, stories formed by boastful encounters with Izzy, muttered hallucinations, and trinkets decking his ship. Back then, Ed didn't believe he himself was a good person, didn't believe he could have friends. But Stede told him stories about friendship and treasure maps, and Ed took these to heart and told stories to match, and Ed found truth through the fiction.
Then Stede left, and those stories fell away for Ed. Ed embraced the story of the kraken, of Blackbeard. Instead of a story about love or survival, he wrote a story about an impossible bird, a raiding record, and a treacherous crew--and mourned a story about lost love.
But Stede kept writing stories. He poured himself into his letters, poured his heart into sustaining his connection to Ed in spite of all the obstacles.
Ed didn't believe in this story after Stede came back, even though he wanted to. He kept emotional distance from Stede, avoided risks, and bailed after two days. Because Ed didn't trust that their bond was solid, that their story was something that could survive Ed's darkness, insecurities, and damage. Didn't trust that what Stede said this time, he had truly thought about, and meant with all his heart.
Stede didn't get how insecure Ed was in all this, because Stede was just so sure of Ed, and of their love. Stede believed in his story with his whole soul, and Stede's stories have a way of creating reality--after all, the whole crew of the Revenge became "real boys." But he couldn't figure out how to communicate this to Ed, to let Ed believe it too.
And then, at a moment where his identity is fractured and re-forming, Ed finds this letter. And just like that, there's a solid ground of story beneath his feet.
Because there was, in fact, solid ground beneath his feet all along.
Ed's and Stede's relationship, like all relationships, is hard. But they formed a real bond of love in season 1, and like Mary Bonnet said, being in love is easy. Ed can trust it--like he did before, but for real this time.
Ed's figuring this out ruddy late. He and Stede didn't communicate these things to each other when they had the chance, and now the chance may have slipped away. So now, Ed yells his feelings at the world and runs off to try to find his person.
When Ed finds Stede again, he doesn't hold back anything. He doesn't hesitate to kill, and he doesn't hesitate to drop his sword when he reaches Stede. They're finally face to face, in every way. Finally balanced, and seeing each other clearly, and able to communicate.
And, for the first time since he and Stede reached each other this season--for the first time since his vision in the Gravy Basket really--Ed is utterly vulnerable.