#yes i know red eyes are like The character trait. yes i’m so mad you need a prescription for cosplay contacts. the FUCK

[transmechanicus]

Until i go through the hassle of getting an eye doctor and a contact sizing appt, this is as far as my manga Kaworu cosplay is ever going to get.

#my stuff #yes i know red eyes are like The character trait. yes i’m so mad you need a prescription for cosplay contacts. the FUCK #my face #sparkle on its….monday? are you sure? #i triple promise i feel So Bad posting so many selfies #if it makes me look like less of a narcissist(in like the literal mythological sense) i wont be posting any more for around 2 weeks #if not longer #so yeah. enjoy. or don’t. it’s whatever😘🖤 #nge #evangelion #<- adding the tags like a Cosplay Professional lol #white hair

[hopeshoodie]

How come you don't like lottie and graham

It’s probably mostly the whole ‘the worst sin a fictional character can commit is being annoying’ thing. I personally don’t vibe with the ‘petty with very little introspection woman’ and ‘brusque standoffish arrogant man’ personality types. 

But more than that-

Lottie

Lottie in the first couple weeks of the game is absolutely intolerable. She's catty, rude, childish, and just generally mean to people around her. The girl code fixation is just an excuse to demand all the girls treat her like the main character without being critical of her own actions

She's incredibly selfish. She uses other people's things, makes messes, but then gets mad if people try to borrow her things.

She gets upset when people don't come to her with gossip, but is incredibly condescending to other people (rolling her eyes, making comments to Gary in group settings). I hate how she makes Operation Nope about 'poor me no one likes me'.

Even in late game?? She's still rolling her eyes and making sarcastic comments about Hope and Marisol, girls who at this point might be her friends.

Multiple characters TELL us in late game how much Lottie has changed, but like can someone give me a demonstrable example of her being changed? Like yes she saved Noah, but she had no other options that personally benefitted her. Yes she’s in less screaming matches, but tell me that isn’t just because she has the guy she wants.  Graham Is rude/uninterested in MC during the speed dating and only asks after Marisol, then through the rest of CA he makes it clear that he has no interest in making friends/acquaintances with women he’s not sexually attracted to. 

Him being testy about boat puns makes sense, but he's overly aggressive about stating in and enforcing other people not make them (and then later makes them himself??). Like he assumes people should already know that and snaps at them when telling them for the first time. I'm all for setting boundaries, but he just doesn't go about it in a considerate way.

Is the most aggressive about bullying Felix. Kassam has more of a reason to dislike Felix, but Graham’s always the one making comments, rolling his eyes, and yelling at Felix. 

Hates the sound of morning doves (sin)

His rivalry with Gary is dumb. I dislike Gary for it too, but the 'thing I like is better than thing you like!' and being condescending towards Gary sucks. He also is the first one to try to instigate physical violence, telling Gary to hit him.

The sex dungeon in the pillow fort thing /really/ bothers me. I totally get that it’s funny to flirt/make jokes by alluding to BDSM and I’m fine with that. But the way Graham talks about it makes me SO uncomfortable. First, him consistently saying it to people he doesn't know well makes me think he uses it as a personality trait, which RED FLAG. Where it's more about being 'the guy who's a dom' instead of just... Enjoying BDSM for its own sake. Second, I’m sorry but if you’re conventionally attractive you’re not good at BDSM. Only people who look like absolute nerds/dweebs are good at BDSM. Third, and most importantly, he disregards consent. He doesn’t just joke about making a sex dungeon in the communal blanket fort, he grabs rope and is genuinely disappointed/annoyed that people tell him to knock it off. People react with discomfort, and that in and of itself isn't enough to get him to stop. This man was what? Going to rig up Marisol? In front of god and everybody? 

When MC is on a Marisol route, Graham is shitty. Not just shitty in a 'this girl I like is being stolen away from me' way, but in a misogynistic homophobic way. He says that Marisol needs a "man like him" and then seems to undermine the legitimacy of MC and Marisol's relationship. He gets really nasty towards MC once Marisol chooses to switch, and it's just... Yuck.

#final queue #litg

[writtenfangirl]

Love Potion?

I SAW A POST WHERE A FICTIONAL CHARACTER FALLS IN LOVE WITH Y/N AND SAID FICTIONAL CHARACTER THOUGHT THEY WERE UNDER A LOVE SPELL AND GETS MAD AT THE NEAREST MAGICAL CHARACTER BUT NOPE THEY JUST CAUGHT THE FEELINGS™️

I thought for this pairing, I can introduce a new fandom. I know Harry Potter has been extremely controversial as of late but this series meant so much to me growing up. I complete disagree with JKR's views on transwomen and I highly believe that transwomen are real women. As far as I am concerned, Harry Potter is a collective fever dream that we all had as children.

Fred Weasley Fanfiction

Hogwarts during winter held a quiet beauty that couldn’t be compared to anything else, especially in the Gryffindor common room, at least, in Hermione’s opinion. Nothing could quite compare to the feeling of curling up in front of the warm fireplace, a drink by her side as she read tome after tome. It was her quiet, her sanctuary in the midst of the insanity that is usually brought about with her best mate fighting the darkest wizard in all of history.

Most of the time, the other Gryffindors knew not to bother Hermione as she was reading. She tended to get violent when she was forced to read the same paragraph over and over again. Although this time, she wasn’t being overtly bothered, hearing Fred, George and Ron arguing in the background didn’t exactly help her concentration.

“JUST ADMIT YOU DID IT!” Fred yelled angrily, his neck filled with angry red splotches, a common trait amongst the Weasley siblings whenever they got upset. “I SAW YOU SLIP SOMETHING IN MY DRINK!”

“I DIDN’T DO A BLOODY THING TO YOU!” Ron yelped as he dodged a fist that Fred sent his way.

“What exactly are they fighting about?” Ginny asked as she descended from the dorms and took a seat beside Harry, who was watching the fight, amused.

“Something about a potion,” Harry answered with a laugh. “It involves Y/N but I’m not quite sure how. You won’t try to stop them?”

“Not even mum can stop them if she wanted. She usually lets them tire each other out before she intervenes.”

Hermione’s annoyance soared. “If I have to read this paragraph again because—“

“YOU TROLL!” Fred yelled, lunging at Ron again before he was stopped by George holding him back. “I WILL—“

“ENOUGH!” Hermione said angrily, slamming the heavy book shut. She stood up, enraged, and glared at the fighting brothers. “What did Ron do that made you so angry that you’re fighting in the bloody common room while I’m reading?!”

Fred, George and Ron stared at her blankly. They looked almost comical. Fred’s hands were still in the air while he lunged at a cowering Ron with George’s arms wrapped around his twin’s middle in an effort to stop him from giving his younger brother a black eye.

“I didn’t do a bloody thing! Fred’s gone mental!” Ron accused.

“Mental?! I’ll show you mental!”

“STOP IT!” Hermione yelled before Fred could try and lunge at Ron again.

“Fred thinks Ron’s slipped a love potion in his drink,” George said, panting as he put his twin brother down.

“I don’t think it! I saw it!”

“You saw what you wanted to see,” Ron snapped. “I slipped water in your drink so you’ll finally see you like Y/N instead of following her around and whining and complaining about her every chance you could get!”

Fred blinked, dumbfounded. “What?”

As if on cue, the door to the common room swung open, revealing a gleeful Y/N, who strode into the room looking even happier than normal. Until, that is, she’d noticed the tense atmosphere.

“Everything alright, boys?” She asked the twins and Ron tentatively. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that the brothers were the source of the tension. Their usually pristine clothes were rumpled, their faces red and splotchy, making their freckles standout starkly. Ron’s hair even stuck out at the back from when Fred pulled at it in an effort to reach Ron.

“Y-yes,” Fred managed to stutter out.

Hermione cracked an amused smile. It was almost comical how Fred Weasley, the Gryffindor who always swaggered about and around the castle, fully confident in himself and his, arguably, astounding abilities, stuttered while speaking to Y/N, one of the politest, nicest and humblest person she knew.

“Alright then,” Y/N said, the smile rushing back to her face as she made the climb towards the dormitories. “I’ll see you two at Potions. I can’t believe I nearly forgot my cauldron.”

Fred stared after her, eyes wide, mouth even wider as Y/N began climbing the steps to the dormitory

“Yeah, mate. You’re not in love,” George said sarcastically, earning a snicker from Harry, Ron, Ginny and even Hermione.

“I don’t fancy, Y/N,” Fred grumbled when Y/N was out of sight.

“That’s not what we saw,” Ginny snickered. “My big brother’s in love. And with Y/N no less!”

“I am not in love with Y/N!”

“Oh no, of course not,” Harry chimed in with a devilish smile. “You only ever stare after her and always somehow comment on the smell of her perfume.”

“It’s not my fault she smells like vanilla and strawberries,“ Fred said, his voice entering a dream like quality.

“Oh, Freddie,” George tutted as he took one of the vacant seats by the fireplace. “All grown up and in love.”

“I am not in love with Y/N!” Fred insisted, taking another seat.

“I can’t blame you, to be honest,” Ron said taking another seat. “She’s got nice—“ Ron paused at the sight of his brother’s stare and reconsidered his next words. “…hair. She’s got nice hair.”

“Nice hair?” Hermione scoffed with an eye roll. “Honestly, Ronald, have you never complimented a girl before?”

“She’s really quite beautiful, isn’t she?” Ginny chimed in. “I heard, even Cedric Diggory likes her.”

“What?” Fred asked, perking up. “Diggory likes her?”

“Mm-hmm,” Ginny nodded. “I heard he plans to ask her to the Yule Ball.”

“Y/N isn’t into buff Hufflepuffs,” Fred said snapped.

“Buff Hufflepuffs who are terribly handsome, athletic, smart and a Tri-Wizard champion?” Hermione teased.

“I could have been Tri-Wizard champion. And I’m just as handsome and clever as Diggory.” The redhead said defensively. “Those aren’t qualities Y/N looks for in a boy.”

“Because you know so well what Y/N likes,” Harry mocked.

“I thought Diggory liked Cho Chang?” Fred frowned.

“Cedric likes Cho?” Harry asked, perking up. “I—“

“Looks like little Harry’s got a crush,” Fred smirked, glad to have the subject moved away from him.

“Don’t think you’re off the hook yet, Fred,” George smirked. “We’re still talking about your love for Y/N.”

“I—“

As though she was summoned, the sound of bounding footsteps interrupted Fred as Y/N skipped down the stairs, her cauldron and textbook in hand. The group openly stared at her as she descended, causing a self-conscious frown to creep up on her otherwise lovely face. “Why are you all staring at me? Is there something on my face?” She touched her face, looking for a dirty mark that the five other Gryffindors were surely starting at.

“No. Your face is perfect,” Fred said dreamily before clearing his throat to bring his voice back down an octave. George shot his twin brother a funny look, causing Fred to glare at him, which George only smirked at.

“Oh,” Y/N said, a little surprised at Fred’s response. “Thank you, Fred. Your face is looking rather perfect too.”

Fred beamed at her. “I am terribly handsome, aren’t I?”

Y/N rolled her eyes but a small smiled had begun to lilt at the edge of her lips. “Yes, you are terribly handsome, Fred.”

“You shouldn’t say things like that, Y/N,” Ginny teased. “My brother’s already big head will get even bigger. Soon enough, it might not fit through the doors of the common room.”

Fred scowled at his sister and threw a pillow at her head, which she caught easily enough. Ginny stuck her tongue out at her brother while Y/N laughed.

“We’ll see you at potions, yeah?” Fred said to Y/N in an effort to change the topic.

“Oh, speaking of potions, do you think you can cover for me? I might be a tad late. Cedric sent me an owl asking me to meet him by the lake. Said he’d like to ask me something.”

“Oh? Well, Snape won’t like that. You being late. You’re his star student.” Fred said at the realization that Cedric might actually ask Y/N out to the Yule Ball.

“Snape doesn’t like a lot of things,” Y/N said, letting out a bell like laugh. “Besides, Cedric said it was important for me to be there. He might need help with homework or his task. I’d feel terrible if I ignored a friend in need.”

“Homework,” Fred said dubiously. “Diggory’s smart. I’m sure he doesn’t need much help.”

Y/N shrugged, her smile still wide. “Who knows. All I know is that a friend is in need. The least I can do is help our school’s Tri-Wizard champion.”

“Harry’s a Tri-Wizard champion. Won’t you help him?” Fred said weakly.

“Oh. Uhm, do you need help, Harry?”

Harry shook his head, his sable hair flying. “Not at all. I’ve got Hermione and Ron to help me out. You should go. The longer you wait here, the later you’ll be for Snape’s class.”

Y/N beamed at the Chosen One. “Well if our second Tri-Wizard champion says so.” And she slipped out of the door.

“Harry!” Fred snapped the moment the door closed after Y/N. “Why would tell her that? Diggory’s going to ask her out to the ball!”

“I know,” Harry smirked.

“She’ll say yes!” Fred groaned, slumping in his seat, expression glum. “Of course she’d say yes! Even I’d say yes to Diggory.”

“You know what you’ve got to do, mate,” George said, nudging Fred’s elbow that rested on the red velvet armchair.

“What?”

“Chase after her and ask her out before Diggory does.”

Fred stared at his twin for beat before he leapt off his chair and ran out the door, leaving the others in his dust.

“Think she’ll say yes?” George asked the others.

“Oh, absolutely,” Ginny nodded her head vigorously. “Y/N likes Fred even more than Fred likes Y/N.”

Ron swore, dug into his pockets and handed a snickering George and a smiling Ginny a galleon each.

“You were betting on this?” Hermione exclaimed, clearly appalled.

“Mum’s in on it,” Ginny replied smugly. “In fact, everyone in the family is. It’s not everyday Fred gets a crush.”

“Percy even bet that Fred would never confess his feelings,” George added. “Bloke now owes me five galleons.” A devious smile slithered its way to George’s mouth. “He’d hate to know that I’m spending these five galleons on tongue-tied toffee.”

“Do you reckon he’s caught up to her yet?” Harry asked.

“Oh, yes. Most definitely,” Hermione answered.

The group paused briefly and let the ringing silence envelope them, waiting for a sign of life beyond the common room doors.

For a moment, there was no sound aside from the occasional echoing chatter of people passing by the Gryffindor Tower in an effort to get to class.

“Do you hear anything?” Ginny asked. “He should be cheering by now, right?”

“What if he got rejected?” Harry asked, horrified.

“Fred? Rejected by Y/N? That’s a bloody joke if I saw one,” George snorted.

After a few moments, they heard the sound of Fred’s lonely footsteps as he entered through the common room, a crestfallen look on his face.

“Oh, Freddie,” George said, a frown on his own face at the sight of his twin’s sullen look.

“Looks like, Y/N isn’t so nice after all,” Ginny said sadly.

“It isn’t her fault, really,” Fred sniffled as he took a seat in one of free armchairs. “I was just too late.”

“You can always ask someone else. I’m sure the next girl you ask will say yes,” Hermione offered.

Fred waved her off miserably. “No. I don’t think that’s necessary. Y/N’s agreed to be my date.”

“Oh, Fred. I’m sure if you—“ Ron trailed off as Fred’s words sunk in. “What?”

Fred’s once miserable looked blossomed as his eyes brightened and he released a loud laugh. “You all should have seen your faces! You looked more devastated than I did!”

Ginny let out a sound of anger as she threw one of the throw pillows towards her older brother who easily caught it with one hand as he continued laughing.

“You really got us there, Freddie,” George laughed good-humoredly. “I nearly fell for that myself.”

“She actually said yes? How’d you ask her?” Ron asked.

“Looking for tips so that you can ask someone yourself?” Fred teased.

“No.” Ron’s face reddened into a blush.

“I just asked her if she’d like to go to the ball with me and she said yes.”

“Did she look happy?”

“Elated.”

“And she actually agreed?”

“Of course. It’s not everyday I ask someone out,” Fred said with a confident grin.

“Now you know what your next challenge is, right Fred?” Ginny said, a mischievous smirk on her face.

Fred frowned. “What?”

“Making sure mum sends you proper dress robes so you don’t look ridiculous standing next to Y/N at the ball.”

And with Fred’s resounding groan, it seemed he agreed.

#harry potter #ron weasley #fred weasley #hermione granger #ginny weasley #george weasley #gryffindor #hogwarts #hufflepuff #raveclaw #cedric diggory #severus snap #harry potter fan fiction #harry potter imagines #fred weasley oneshot #fred weasley imagines #fred weasley x gryffindor!reader #fred weasely x reader #harry potter fic #wizard #witch #hp fandom

[spideyspeaches]

Heart made of glass ↬ t.h

A/N: Beta read by the lovely @hollandcrush​ !! <3<3

Request (Summary): can you please write one about Tom, who is on the filming process of cherry and has some emotional problems because he feels that his character is already part of his life, so he comes home very angry and in a bad mood, so he just snaps and creates a big fight with the reader and just says things that he obviously didn't meant, you know very angst, and at the end just very fluff.

Hope you like this anon! Lemme know your thoughts heh <3<3

Warnings: breakdowns, slight vomiting but it’s not graphic. I’m not in any way romanticizing or sexualising breakdowns. 

WC: 2k+ 

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Masterlist || Taglist

Tom was an ambitious guy. He took his roles seriously, no matter what his character was and who he played. It was an admirable trait, the way he both enjoyed his work and worked hard to earn a high place in such a place as Hollywood. 

You always took pride in how amazing and accomplished your boyfriend was, your heart swelling whenever you heard his name being mentioned in events and interviews. You enjoyed how he tried to diversify the movies he worked in. 

("I've been playing the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man for so long, it's about time I play someone different now." He once said in a Jimmy Kimmel interview. You were watching from the audience, smiling as the audience roared in affirmation. 

"Well looks like you took quite a big leap from playing a superhero." Jimmy said, smiling at the audience with his paparazzi smile. 

You knew the question was scripted, quite harmless, but you still noticed how his shoulder stiffened, his smile not wavering once. 

"Well yeah, I used to be a superhero and now I'm a heroin addict." He joked, winking at the audience as he ran a hand through his nearly hairless head.

He cried himself to sleep that night, burying his face in your chest as you shushed him. )

It always worked in his favour, with the incredible support his family and fan base provided. And he was always so humble about it. 

Filming Cherry, however, was way different than he thought it would. With filming Cherry came consequences that he didn't necessarily like. He knew what he was bringing on himself and his family when he was first introduced with the script.

(Contrary to popular belief, he didn't actually give out spoilers, it was just small promotional stunts that kind of took over as his reputation to spoil minor details.)  

The process was intense, getting into the mindset of "Cherry" was taxing, and people were beginning to notice it in him. He was more restless, tugging at his non existent curls when he thought no one would notice. 

He was more clingy, more appreciative of your body and you, letting you know that there was no sexual intent behind his acts of caressing your waist at random times. You didn't notice the change in his behaviour. 

He had always been like this, watching you with the most gratifying gaze a man could muster, his pretty brown eyes like globes of whiskey, staring at you with a muffled expression. You didn't notice. 

There had always been a cutting edge to his voice, you knew and adored it. Behind the British actor who played Spider-Man, he was your Tom. Your Tom who gave you forehead kisses and baked cakes with you and made silly playlists that reminded him of you and you of him, your Tom who worshiped the ground you walked on, your Tom, your Tom and your Tom.

(Sometimes you envied that he was an actor, so good at hiding any emotions he felt, it came easy to him, just another fake emotion like he was a face behind the camera.)

He was never aggressive towards you. Never. Even on tough days, he was soft, caring and understanding to the point where it made you mad, immediately making you feel guilty. He worked so hard and yet here you were, blaming him for being nice, never standing up for himself.

"Uh, Tom, Tom stop, wait." You grunted, pushing his shoulders as he scrambled away from you at your discontent. 

You held his face, his breath hitching, hyperventilating as he tried to get himself together. 

Ever since he had started filming Cherry, he had been away from you. And now that you were finally here, he had been all over you, making love to every inch of your skin, like it was a holy grail he had to find, caressing your warm skin under his fingers making you shiver as his nimble fingers wandered. It was the intimacy, sexual and quasi-sexual, that made you realise, that there was something wrong.

Sex- it had been a constant in your life other than Tom. But of course, you didn't live on it. It was but a fuel that strengthened your relationship, it was about discovery and showing your vulnerable sides. It was a reminder of the coffee dates and baseball matches. It was loving, gentle and raw, like a gentle breeze caressing your face.

But this, this was different. And you noticed. This, what you had been doing, it was fucking. It was aggressive and needy and it felt good, but at the same time, it felt different.

"Baby?" You asked softly, trying to meet his eyes in the dark lit trailer. It was late, way past filming times, the only time you got to see his vulnerable side. 

You should have been in his hotel room, but you were in his trailer instead. All alone in the all encompassing darkness, it made your heart stutter beats. 

"Baby speak to me. What's happening, who's doing this to you?" You ask once again, holding onto him firmly this time, his squirming frame making you loosen your hold. You didn't care that you were naked, he had already seen it all. 

Fiddling with the rough sheets, he huffed a heavy breath. And that was all it took for the dam to break. 

"Tell me how do you feel baby, you're starting to scare me." You urged. All you got in response was his muffled sobs. Pulling him forward, you let his head rest on your bare chest, rivulets of tears sliding down your warm skin, almost burning you like acid, his tiny hair tickling you, a very contrasting feeling. 

"I can't do it. I can't take it anymore." He sniffed, wrapping his strong arms around you, shivering at the contact. It was a cold night in Cleveland, and you were naked and he was crying. You were berating yourself for not noticing. 

"What can't you take anymore?" You hold him, tracing circles on his buzz cut hair, just the way you did when he had his curls. 

"I feel like I'm becoming him. I don't like it at all, I try and try but I can't." He sobs, shoulders hitching with each sob. You felt your heart break, the sounds of his cries sending daggers into your skin. 

How could you have not noticed? The lively sunshine of a man was almost an empty shell. The interviews with former drug addicts had been excruciating for you, pity, disgust, sympathy and every other sinful emotion swirling in your mind. 

You couldn't believe that you hadn't thought about Tom, of what an effect it would have on him. 

"Bub, listen to me, carefully," you said, shushing him as he continued to look at you, teary eyed and red nosed, snot dripping out of his nose,"you listen to me. You're strong and resilient and nothing like him okay? He's not you. You're Tom Holland. You're brilliant and brave and amazing okay?" 

"But I don't feel that way!" He said, his aggressive stance surprising you, "he's- he's…" 

"He's what?" You asked, a little too impatient. Muttering a sorry, you rub your palm on his cheek, kissing the soft, moist skin.

"I don't feel so good." He croaked, getting up suddenly, making a run for the washroom. You rushed after him, watching him as he heaved into the toilet. Rubbing his back, you muttered affirmations, curling besides him as he sat on the ground, his back to the cold wall. 

You got up to switch on the lights, feeling his hands tugging yours, a soft "stay" coming out of him. 

"Better?" You asked, feeling him now against your collarbone. 

"I shouldn't be this affected, this- this isn't fair. I'm overreacting, I'm sorry I worried you baby I swear I didn't mean to-" 

"Shh, Tom first of all, you're not overreacting okay?" You smiled, kissing his nose, moving towards his brows and his forehead, "It's perfectly reasonable. The role you're playing...It's not exactly picking daisies. Fuck you're playing a heroin addict Tommy, a broken soldier with PTSD, a breakdown was inevitable. It only shows that you're human." 

"Really?" He smiled, it looked more like a grimace, a plea for reassurance. 

"Yes, really." You said, booping his nose, eliciting a giggle from him,"now, you better go to bed mister, you have an early shoot don't you?" You playfully scolded, kissing his lips, laughing as he carried you bridal style. 

"Tomorrow will be better." You whispered, kissing his eyelids, already closed, chest moving rhythmically as you counted his pulse, making sure he was completely asleep before slipping on your clothes, covering him with the thin quilt. 

***

"Is everything okay on set?" You asked casually, watching the crewmates work tirelessly in the daylight. 

You were standing next to Ciara on a prop jeep, fiddling with the water bottle held in your hand. 

"Hmm, as okay it can be with two people playing drug addicts." She shrugged, looking at you with a small smile. 

"Are you okay?" You asked, turning to give her your full attention, remembering your boyfriend's breakdown yesterday. 

"It gets… intense at times. Some scenes are hard to play, but we're okay. Mostly." She answered, taking your water bottle and chugging the water. 

"I'm not a therapist, but you can talk to me, you know?" You smiled, holding her shoulder as she gave you a bashful smile. 

"It's been tough on Tom. He's more aggressive, nearly had a breakdown during a scene." She said. 

"Yeah, that.. that happened yesterday too." 

"It was time, a person can only hold so much right?" 

"Yeah." 

You pondered her words, wondering if you could do anything to curb this. 

"I think I need help." He said one day while you were eating dinner. Harry, who was sitting next to you, looked up from his plate, giving you a knowing look before clearing his throat. 

"I'm gonna get some water." He said, waving awkwardly at you and getting up. You took that as a cue to scoot closer to Tom, running your hands through his camel hair. 

"That's very brave of you hun, asking for help." You smiled, kissing his cheek softly. You felt him smile, sliding closer to you, holding you by your waist. 

"I learnt from the best." He muttered in your hair, kissing your forehead. 

You felt his love that day, felt the way he ran his smooth fingers on your waistline, sliding across your thighs with care and softness you hadn't felt in a while. He was healing. It was a process, it took time but it happened.

***

You were walking across the library, his hand in yours, your hearts beating in silence. 

"How was your appointment?" You asked, shivering in the cold air. You rubbed your palms together, bringing your jacket closer to your chest, huffing the cold air. 

"It was good, much different from what the media portrays. She even showed me this meme she thinks you would like, look." He said, bringing out his phone to show you the saved meme. 

You laughed at his eagerness, kissing his lips as a final gratification. 

"Well it looks like you're having a great time. You have another scene left to do today in the evening so we better scram." You reminded him. 

You always did that, remind him of his schedule, reminded him to take a breath when he felt like he was drowning. You reminded him of home and what he had to look forward to.

"Why can't we have a lazy day today?" He whined, kissing your neck, making you giggle as it tickled. 

"You know you can't do that hun, you already took three days off." You snickered, poking his sides. 

"Well that sucks. I just want to spend my day with my girl, is that too much to ask?" He smiled, kissing your forehead, one hand holding yours, swinging back and forth, the other holding a large cup of coffee in a tight grip. 

You reached to loosen his fingers, taking a sip, slurping loudly, making him laugh. You decided you liked this laugh much better, it was breathy and free, a melody to your ears. 

You noticed how he was more relaxed and back to being that ray of sunshine. Back to being your Tom.

Thanks for reading! also as a side note- here’s a similar fic @itsallyscorner​ !!

#tom holland x reader #tom holland x reader fluff #tom holland smut #tom holland x reader smut #tom holland x actress!reader #tom holland x you #tom holland fluff #tom holland angst #spideygirl writes

[shivada-jade]

reply back

modern!au/idol!au

characters: aether, lumine mentions: venti, xiao, kazuha, barbara, azhdaha warning(s): swearing because lumine and aether are siblings

notes: i've been lACKING these idol au's so im gonna write more idol au's because i nEEED it

You were seven when you were introduced to the twins. Coming from a foreign land, you struggled with the language they spoke in, but they were patient with you and taught you their language and much more. The twins were multilingual and explained it was from their frequent traveling and relatives from different places.

You and the twins were close, but Lumine spent more time with you, making Aether whine a lot. He would always poke sticks at you and hide your legendary, full art Pokemon cards to catch both Lumine's and your attention. It does work, but Lumine's mad.

"Aether!" She'd scream with a lisp because of a missing tooth. "Stop doing that!"

Oh, but Aether is a sibling, meaning he'd play the 'innocent' card. "Stop doing what? What am I doing?"

In the end, you'd always have to call their parents when they fist fight at the sand pit. "Aether and Lumine's mom! They're fighting again!"

"Again?" The tall blonde sighed. "Thanks for telling me, hon."

After a good scolding, Aether and Lumine would be totally okay the next minute like nothing happened. You were used to their banter and rightfully took your Pokemon cards back. Lumine stuck a tongue out, blowing a raspberry at Aether when he turned his back, grabbing three large sticks.

"Fight me!" He cried with glee, giving one stick to his sister and one to you. "I will be the grand king of the sand pit!"

You vaguely remember the rest. Maybe you lost the 'sword duel,' or maybe you didn't, but what you did remember was this tall kid playing with his cat and eating the sand. Forget the kid, the only thing you remember is his cat's name called Azhdaha.

Your hands close your story book. You would never admit to your friends, but Lumine and Aether that you still read fantasy. The other kids in the neighbourhood would laugh saying what you were reading is a kid's story.

"So what if it's a kid's story? If you like it, read it," Lumine says aggressively while Aether opens the door for both of you.

"Lumi's right. They think they're all grown up, but they're kids too," he closes the door behind him, waving goodbye to your grandma rocking on the porch. "What's the story about anyway?"

You walk ahead, leading the two to a local mall. Every week, Aether, Lumine and yourself would spend Fridays and Saturdays together.

You and Lumine often joke how Aether doesn't do 'Saturdays are for the boys.' To which, Aether would scoff and reply with, "Boys who say that are stupid, not all but most. Saturdays are for spending time with people you care about. I don't care if they think I'm weak."

You step foot in the bus, tapping the card to pay for your admission. The twins, walk behind, doing the same and sitting next to you on the bus.

"It's called 'Songs of a Siren.' It's cool, you should check it out." You say, scooting a bit closer to the side so Lumine could have more pace to sit. The bus is packed. Teenagers littered inside, only a few adults were there including the bus driver. "Let's leave. Teenagers stink."

"...But you are one."

"Well-"

After the next stop, you push yourself through the crowd, trying to exit. Lumine pushes people, muttering a few 'excuse us' while dragging her brother. Your feet land on the concrete sidewalk and you finally breathe freely.

You see the twins finally get off the bus and tilt your head, "Let's go, the mall isn't gonna wait for us."

Entering the mall, the first thing you pass by is a clothes shop. You and Aether share a look, quietly doing rock-paper-scissors behind Lumine who's beaming to go inside.

Rock.

Aether chooses paper.

You droop to the floor because you're dramatic, knowing that once you go in the shop, you'll be the one carrying Lumine's purchases.

"Alright, Lumine," you say sighing. "Let's go shop."

You see Aether in your peripheral vision, pumping his fist laughing a quiet, "Yes!" when Lumine takes out her wallet.

"I know you did rock-paper-scissors." She counts the bills from her wallet, "But I'm buying for Aether which means even if you carry the things I buy, Aether's gonna have it much worse because he will be trying on everything I tell him to wear." She grins, settling with a black debit card.

After hearing this, Aether tries to walk in another shop to avoid dressing up for Lumine, but his sister quickly catches on and pulls him by the ear and walks in the clothes shop.

"Let's go!" She says to you, "These clothes won't shop themselves!"

...

"This one?"

"No, you look like grandpa in that outfit."

"Well what if I like looking like grandpa, huh? What are you gonna do about it?"

"Some people can pull off the sexy grandpa look. You're not 'some people.'" Lumine pulls out another outfit from the rack. "Try this one," she laughs, seeing Aether's horrified face and pushes him in the dressing area.

This is the ninth clothes shop you three go to, and you were starting to feel bad for Aether who had to wear every outfit Lumine wanted him to wear.

"Lumi," you say calmly, having trouble holding five shopping bags on each arm. She's on a shopping spree and you wonder how she gets all the money to buy these things. "That should be enough shopping for the day. I'm hungry."

The blonde lifts a hand. "Hold on a second," she smiles before banging on the changeroom door, "AETHER LET ME SEE THE FIT."

You can hear the loud sigh from the other side of the door as it slowly opens. He only peeks his head out, shyly mumbling, "This is embarrassing. I don't want to walk out like this."

Lumine rolls her eyes and pulls the door open, revealing Aether in a white dress shirt and dark pants.

Aether lifts an arm, inspecting the design. "It's a bit..." he pauses, thinking of a way to not offend his sister. "It's not my style." His eyes seek for your help to back him up, but you couldn't. The style on him looks so ethereal to him, and Lumine has the same idea.

His twin ran up to an aisle and picked out two accessories: a silk cloth and a floral pin. Lumine shushes Aether who tried to punch her.

"Shut up Aether, you'll look great." She pins the black rose onto the front of his shirt and ties the silk cloth around his neck. She steps a few steps back, making a rectangle shape to symbolize a picture frame and elbows you lightly. "He looks okay for once."

Okay is underwhelming, but to describe Aether better, he looks celestial. The warm studio lights hug every angle of Aether from head to toe. His golden eyes seem to brighten more and the outfit only accentuates his physical traits more.

From the corner of your eye you spot a tall-ish man who has been wandering past the same aisle but never picking anything up. He wears ordinary clothes- a T-shirt and jeans (rather stylishly), but you know from his incoming aura he's more than just an ordinary person.

You tap Lumine discreetly while still holding onto her shopping bags and tilt your head towards the man.

Aether, who keeps picking on the cloth around his neck goes frigid when the strange man walks up to him.

"Hey kid," he says cooly. He looks Aether up and down, lifting his shades to see clearer, and pulls out a small business card from his pocket. "You look like idol material. Ever thought about being a part of a boyband?"

Out of politeness, Aether takes the card and laughs nervously, "Not really" He looks at Lumine and you for help, but you two pretend to not know him when he turns to you.

The man shoves his hands in his pocket, blowing a bubblegum and popping it. His hair slightly tousles when he turns, waving a hand.

"If you ever do decide if you wanna be an idol, auditions are held next week at 10AM," he saunters off. "If they ask who recruited you, tell them a man by the name of Valentin did."

His lavender irises looks back once more before leaving the store, "The people from Teyvat Entertainment are introduced by my very hands. Don't disappoint me."

The automatic sliding doors open for him and he waves the store greeter a goodbye.

You see Aether's eyes scanning over he card Valentin gave. His lashes flutter quickly, signaling you and Lumine he was either shocked, or confused.

Lumine grabbed the paper, a habit she picked up due to being a twin and having to share everything with Aether who won't share. Her lips part, showing the card to you.

Teyvat Entertainment.

A company who created the world's famous DCKZ and the idol, Barbara. Teyvat Ent. has one of the youngest, top rookies of the year because of a group called TVT Dream. A company with many celebrities' and the business card is legit.

A store worker no older than your age meekly walks up to the three of you and asks, "Hey, uh. Are you ready to purchase your clothes?"

...

Aether shoves Lumine (don't worry she shoves him 10x harder) on the stairs while you watch from a safe distance.

You wave hello to their mom before waltzing into their home like you did many other times. You were their third child in their mom's eyes.

You slam the twins' room open and lay yourself on the bottom bunk of their bunkbed. "So do you wanna check Teyvat Entertainment?"

You fish out your phone from your pocket and hand signal for Aether and Lumine to come close to see. Your phone turns on, showing the lock screen of the twins in their embarrassing toddler moments then unlock it. Quietly laughing at the twins who have their faces beet red from the photograph.

"Why do you have that pic? DELETE IT."

"Did mom give that to you..."

You ignore them, opening up Google and typing in the Teyvat Ent. website and search their contacts. You ask Aether for the business card, comparing the two numbers side by side, and Valentin is indeed one of the scouts for the company.

You shut your phone off, hugging the two siblings together tightly. "Whether Aether decides he wants to be an idol or not, we'll still be the best of friends."

Lumine grins, squishing your cheeks, taking a closer look at you. "Well, duh. Are you scared we'll fall apart? No, if anything you should be scared we're never going to leave you alone even if you're 60 and married."

You pinch her cheeks and start to say something until you hear sniffles and coughing. You turn to Aether who was hiding his tears.

"Shut up, I'm not crying." He harshly wipes away the water falling from his eyes, "When I go famous, I'm going to give you my autograph so you can sell it and eventually get 20 cars and houses."

...

You were a teen when the dark-haired Valentin scouted Aether to be a trainee in Teyvat Ent.

You note that without Aether, their home is extremely quiet. It's odd not seeing Lumine scream at Aether for taking her hair clips. It's odd not seeing Lumine aggressively pull on the colourful flower hairclips on Aether's hair, just to get the clips back. It's so odd not seeing Aether is general.

Lumine scrolls through her phone, looking for furniture to add to her new apartment she shares with you. The only thing in the newly bought apartment is three mattresses, three plates, and three cups, just in case Aether visits. Though, Aether visiting is rare. His visits only happen during December for Christmas, but even then he had not visited. It's been two years since you and Lumine last saw him.

You stare at your last sent messages to the blonde boy.

▶ hEY. (threatening)

YO

▶ take care okay? lumine's worrying all the time for ur health bc she keeps watching yt vids on how idols over-do themselves from training

haha thanks for telling me

are you sure it's not you who's worrying 🧐🤧

the last thing lumi sent to me was "FUCK YOU"

▶ well the last thing you sent to her was "U BUTT"

▶ and she took that seriously

are you siding with her?

▶ yes

oh okay, frick you too seen three months ago

Your feet pad against the wooden tiles, grabbing a glass of water while scrolling through twitter. You lift the glass to your lips and almost choke from the water you drink.

You click the link on the phone with the title "Debuting boy band already claiming the hearts of many! Please welcome 4nemo!" Four boys stand in the picture, one being Aether.

You place your glass to the sink and run to Lumine, sitting next to her and who her your phone. She reads it over and visibly shakes. You swear she was about to cry until she takes the phone from your hand and starts throwing it, "AETHER THAT BITCH. HE DEBUTES AND SAYS NOTHING."

You're mortified and pull your friend away from your phone, "THAT'S A NEW PHONE, STOP." You push her away and run to your device, clicking on the link.

"One, two, three! Hello we are," Aether, the familiar blonde says.

His group members follow after him. "4nemo!" They say in chorus. One by one they start introducing themselves.

"Hi I'm Aether!"

"Kazuha," one says with a raise of a hand.

An energetic member steps up with a grin, "And I'm Barbisabeto!"

"He's Barbatos, forgive him." Teal undertones make it's way to the camera, "Hello, I'm Xiao.

The one with twin braids step up, mischievously grinning. "Please take care of us and support us during our journey through the music industry."

His teal eyes squint behind the camera, whispering to the member behind him. "Psst, Xiao. I can't read I'm blind."

Xiao rolls his eyes and steps up, slightly bowing, "Please support our debuting group, we will see you in our music videos."

But Lumine and you never paid attention to what they were saying. Both of you just started crying insults of endearment to Aether because he looks so... different. His face had mature and he's a real idol now.

Reality sinks in.

Now that Aether had a growing fanbase, it's going to be harder to contact him.

"Lumine, how are we going to talk to him now?"

Lumine ponders a bit, resting her chin on her hand before smirking. "Let's create an Aether hate page."

"Yes, let's do it."

After a quick recording of Lumine and yourself, you posted the video online, and soon enough, it goes viral.

Lumine laughs, replaying the video.

"This one's for the boys with the booming system," You say monotonously in front of the camera like what you said was a speech instead of a song. "Top down, AC with the cooler system."

Lumine comes on screen, flipping her middle finger at the camera. "When he come up in the club, he be blazin' up. This one is actually not for the boys with the booming system. This is for the BITCH, AETHER WITH THE BLONDE BRAID. Look at you with your ugly ass smile," She speaks in one breath and it amazes you. "Make sure you get millions of hits or it's all for nothing. Oh Aether's an ass."

The screen shows your hand scooping the phone up and waving good bye with Lumine still dissing Aether.

You nudge Lumine, showing a comment written at the bottom of the video, covering a laugh.

"who's aether?"

"huh??! aether?"

"lOL Why Does The Person On The Left Look Like Aether?"

"OH 4NEMO DABUTE. SHUTUP YOU ANTI. THEY'RE GORGEOUS. YOU'RE THE ONE UFLY" ➡ "ahisfdh you obvi didnt watch the whole video. she said "make sure get millions of hits"

Lumine grins, commenting at the people calling her ugly and Aether way better looking. "Lol, IKR. the one on the left is trying too hard to look like Aether. it's like shes tryna be a twin or smthn"

Though, because of your viral "hate" video, 4nemo's popularity sky rockets because of the unknown 'Aether' of the group.

...

Aether watches the video on the news channel, because that's how popular the video got. He looks at his manager, "Can I send a hate video back?"

"Aether, no."

But the winds are troublesome as the ocean, because a boy with teal tips on his hair snatched the managers phone, running and giving it to Aether. "AETHER. DO IT RIGHT NOW."

...

It was a shock to you seeing people follow your twitter account.

"LUMI, [NAME], IM SRRY I LOST MY PHONE AND DIDNT WANNA TELL ANY1 OR THEYLL GROUND ME," said the tweet, tagging you in comments.

Lumine doesn't have twitter, so when she looks over your shoulder seeing the tweet with her name on, she grabs the phone and locks herself in the bathroom, "R U FR AETHER?U DIDNT REPLY TO MY HAPPY BDAY. WE SHARE A BDAY DUMBASS"

She calmly unlocks the door, giving your phone back casually while you whine, "Lumine! This is twitter! They're gonna cancel me!"

"I'll cancel them back."

Ding! You receive a post with you name under the comments again.

hello, i have to apologize for our member stealing the manager's phone to tweet that. i swear that kid's the most responsible, but he's been triggered. #kazuha

You quickly type back, under the hashtag 'kazuha.'

"@/4nemo sorry uh thats one of ur members twin & shes mad that aether never gave her a bday present when she gave 1 to him #kazuha"

notes: psst here's where i got aether's outfit inspo when they were outfit changing at the mall

#genshin x reader #genshin impact x reader #4nemo #aether x reader #lumine #aether #lumine x reader #genshin fanfic

[afterartist]

Have a headcannon dump of a LU!centaur Au that’s been cycling in my brain for a week, I’m quite possibly going to write a fic/do more art,

You’re free to leave ideas or suggestions for this Au as well

(Wild doodle to go with at the end)

•–•Au Basics:

-this is heavily based off the @linkeduniverse Au by @jojo56830

Basically it’s the same but every character (even side characters but they’re not important) are Centaurian, this is finicky and involves things like Cervitaurs, mermaids and whatnot,

This is hevily based on living conditions and most races are born with natural legs, ie; hylians are born with two hylian legs, and their secondary legs will grow in around the age of four depending on the food and lifestyle they’ve had until then, the secondary traits are usually set in by the age of six where they will no longer have their original legs.

—-

Now the headcannons (this is just the links cause idk much about the Zelda’s so I have to do more research)

—-

•–Time•

- The old man is a Stag, no I will not take criticism on this

Time started off his journey a young deer cervitaur, barely grown into his fawn limbs before coming into contact with Fi,

Deer are often seen as prey animals and weak, but we all know Time is seen as the leader for a reason,

My man got mad strong horns and has kicked, impaled and stomped on more Moblins then any sane person should, while deers are often seen as weak you would have to be blind, deaf, three years old and an idiot to think Time any less then the powerful stag that would lay his life down for his family

-

•–Sky•

-Loftwing… kind of a no brainer for this one

Oh yeah, our sleepy king has butt wings and you can’t stop me,

Sky was literally found in a Loftwing nest and the majority of Skyloft secretly think he’s a Hylian Centaur instead of the other way around,

Learning to fly was the literal worst, his wings took a few more years to fully develop so he got to flying later then most, the fact that his wings sit at an awkward place on the base between his hylian torso and his Skywing back doesn’t help that fact

Yes he’s still perfected the art of flying while asleep, not even other Loftwing hybrids know how he does it

-

•–Twilight •

-He’s… hes a Wolf… it’s… it’s twilight… literally what else would he be?

He was actually a wolf hybrid before his adventure started and is honestly not sure how it took so long for the chain to even start to theorise his connections with Wolfie,

Wind guessed they were long lost brothers,

Fun fact, Twi is allergic to fur, it took him embracingly long to realise, ‘Oh, I thought the air was just meant to hurt’

Legend likes to call him a husky and watch as Twi goes on a rant about how they are completely different, this went on for months before time brought a stop to it

-

•-Legend•

-Pegasus… is this because I love the Pegasus boots? You’ll never know

The only reason sky knows how to preen his wings is because legend literally sat on him one day and showed him

In the ‘Not quite horse centaurs’ club with Wild

His tail was unfortunately docked in his third adventure, Wind used his ‘ Customary Pirate Rope tying skills’ to fashion him a fake tail out of foe hair (yes it’s pink) and braided him a new tail,

Legend won’t admit but that was the day he started trusting the rest of the chain

Likes to cuff Wars over the head with his wings, he quickly found out Wars’ wings hurt a lot more to get hit by then his

-

•–Warriors•

-DragonDragonDRAGONDRA-

His scales are literally brighter then the chains future (admittedly not hard to be)

Learned the hard way that his claws are sharp and for completely non related reasons has a wooden backscratcher he won’t tell anyone about

Runs hotter then the others Links, thus why he always wears his scarf, Legend jokes he’s as cold blooded as his blood,

legend regrets.

Has an unhealthy obsession with shiny things, his time in the army has helped him restrain from stealing freshly polished swords and amour but four swears they had a freshly cleaned dagger right next to them and now it’s gone-

-

•–Four•

-Minish?? More like biggish (that was bad I’ll see myself out-)

Still Has four legs like a mouse instead of the two that minish usually have, but has the fluffiest tail in existence

Actually wasn’t sure what Minish were before meeting them so was super confused for the first few years after developing

When Wind was confused on how to use their pronouns (they/them) correctly they told him to just picture four mice in a Trenchcoat (it helped Wind a lot)

Paints their claws/nails, each foot is one of the four colours, the blue nails are for some reason always somehow chipped, Warriors ends up lending them some of his nail Polish which is sturdier

-

•–Hyrule•

-obsessing over the idea that Rules’ Hyrule is basically Australia so Rule is a kangaroo

Kangaroos are evil deer, Rule is the exception

Kangaroos are terrifying and could be hit by a truck and walk it off, lest to say Time had a mini breakdown after watching Hyrule get punched into a tree by a Hinox, stand up, then carry on with his life without so much as a scratch

They still suck at cooking

If you say ‘shrimp on a campfire’ he will ring your throat until you meet Nayru face to face,

‘I may not know how to cook but I know they’re called prawns.’

-

•–Wind•

-Salt water croc for my salty pirate

Changed from lobster because I personally hate lobsters

Has claws and knows how to use them, preferably on the back of legend’s legs but has learned hooves hurt to take to the face

Has 3rd eyelid to be able to see underwater, so he likes to sleep like that sometimes and creep out whoever is on watch

Wild has attempted to eat him at least twice, both times Twi had to stop the because Wind was also curious

Sky only has two legs? Boo loser, Wind has 4 and a big tail that could snap your spine (it took wind several years to learn how not to trip over and he still can’t walk for long periods of time)

-

•–Wild-

-Lynel… Time is not surprised

In the ‘Not quite horse centaurs’ club with Legend

Honestly thought he was a horse until Flora mentioned ‘no Link, horse’s don’t grow horns out of their head’

Isn’t sure if he’s a gold Lynel or just blond (they’re just blond)

Also has a hint of orange in his blue eyes, eyes that glow red on bloodmoons

Unlike their hair they actually like to style their tail a lot, went they went to Gerudo town he was taught how to braid and bun it but can’t do it on his own so let’s Wind do it when he’s bored

Has small horns that Time had to teach him how to take care of, cause who knew horns need maintenance

Literally no one knows how his glider is able to hold him up… or how he climbs literally anything with ease even with his equestrian limbs

Was also one of the first to use Four’s pronouns correctly as they themselves use all pronouns (likes he/they the most tho)

—- Quick sketch of Wild cause I love them with all my heart

Anyway, it’s just a poorly thought out Au and I’ll probably work on it more but have this info dump for a second as I try to figure out what I’m doing with my life,

If y’all have any suggestions have at it,

I just hope my ideas aren’t as jumbled as I think they are

#linked universe #linked universe au #centaur au #linked universe time #linked universe sky #linked universe twilight #linked universe legend #linked universe warriors #linked universe four #linked universe hyrule #linked universe wind #linked universe wild #linked universe drabble #linked universe fanart #headcanon #linked universe headcanons #incorrect quotes #my art #art #fanart #fanfic #linked universe fanfic #botw lynel #lynel #linked universe chain #legend of zelda #legend of zelda au #loz #loz fanart #not me hyperfocusing on a new obsession

[fellowstrangetownappreciator]

The Strange Case of The Strangetown Metamorphosis

There is a mysterious Sim that appears in Strangetown.

That's like saying "there is a fish that appears in the ocean", I know, so I'll be a little more specific.

They are an adult whose memories show inconsistencies with those of their family members. Something is missing!

Alright. That's also not saying much, that's like half of the premades in vanilla, non-clean hoods.

They are immediately recognizable by their appearance and, dare I say it, have distinguishing features unique to them.

Well, that also kinda fits everyone...

They feature in more than one installment of the series.

Again, not that helpful. I mean, almost everybody from the base game hoods is (for better or worse) represented in TS3 or TS4.

They appear in TS2 for PSP!

Hmm...

They are a member of a wealthy family connected to science and paranormal.

And...

They are somehow connected to (possible) cloning.

I imagine that now you’re probably rolling your eyes and asking: Why didn’t I just simply say I was going to talk about Bella Goth?

Because... I’m not!

It’s Loki Beaker. In this mini-essay I’m going to speak about Loki, what is the mystery around him, what hints are there and what are some of the theories and which one do I fancy.

It’s basically a routine round of the popular game “connect EAxis’ oversights and glue them together into a headcanon”.

So without further ado, let me introduce you to:

The Mystery of Loki Beaker!

0: Preface: Loki who?

“As soon as he perfects his latest invention, Loki is sure to get the recognition he knows he deserves. In the meantime, he keeps himself busy by trying to assemble a nuclear reactor out of common household items.”

On the first glance, Loki as a Sim seems quite straightforward. He is a Knowledge Sim with a very eccentric personality. All his trait points are in the extremes, as you can see:

He is a scientist, a competent one at that, as proven by his high career level and the fun fact that some of the game’s horrible machinery you can buy for Aspiration points is attributed to his creation.

(It explains why are the Beakers the only ones who have the stuff lying around by default. It is normal for a Strangetown family to own a non-buyable reward object or two but those are career rewards, the Beakers are the only one who canonically own Aspiration points rewards.)

Even though he knows his stuff when it comes to his profession, he is very corrupt and tests his questionable projects on his captive, Nervous Subject.

To say that Loki is unpopular would be an understatement. No one but his wife Circe likes Loki, even his own sister is indifferent towards him. Yes, he has a sister. Her name is Erin and she also lives in Strangetown with a colorful collection of roommates.

Nothing mysterious about him so far. (apart from his eyebrows)

1: Characterization fallen apart

And then The Sims 3 happened. It was actually quite late into the game’s life cycle, the early 2013, when a beautiful nordic-themed world was released on TS3 Store. Its name was Aurora Skies and it featured Loki, Erin and their parents.

TS3 Loki is a child and Erin is a toddler.

Now I haven’t actually played Aurora Skies. I own (and love) TS3 but the price range for the Store worlds is too high for me, content-to-money wise. So there might be some hidden clues about the Beakers in their house or relationship panels that I haven’t been able to inspect but... not to sound cynical but I doubt it. I doubt such attention was given to detail of this family in Aurora Skies, as they don’t even have individual bios.

But... that is... fine? I mean, we have Loki’s TS2 bio...

Nope. Sure we do. And it would be fine if hair color and ambitions weren’t the only thing Loki and his younger self (from now on referred to as smol Loki) had in common.

Let’s take a look on smol Loki’s personality.

The first noticeable thing is that there is not a trace of Loki’s trademark villainy. He’s not Mean Spirited, he’s not Evil, he’s not even a No Sense of Humor Sim. His extreme neatness and hyperactivity are nowhere to be seen either. While it is true that TS3′s capabilities of defining personality are very limited as it picks “outstanding points” rather than a position of each trait on a scale, and it only has 5 slots (and tiny teeny 3 for children), it doesn’t make any sense still for the devs not to pick some more loki-esque traits for the precious slots they had.

Unless...

They didn’t care about Loki’s personality and there were no deeper intentions.

Unless the devs were trying to purposefully show us new angles of his character that either got suppressed while he was growing up, or manifest in ways that TS2′s scale system wasn’t able to show.

Could the Lucky trait in particular have had something to do with the change?

(Also, those traits of smol Loki are reason why I usually go for a Family Secondary Loki in TS2 and thus make Strangetown the purgatory of two unstable blonde Knowledge/Family sciency guys.)

We also must not omit that even though smol Loki didn’t display any of them, he still had all of Loki’s signature traits in him, as Loki in TS2 has his actual personality synced with the genetic one, meaning that there was something in there that caused him not to act so mean that got lost as he grew up. In other words, something brought up the worst in him.

And that’s not all. Smol Loki is not a regular TS3 child. You see, in TS3, premade children aren’t particularly known for being highly skilled experts. Neither are in TS2, for that matter, and it’s okay. It’s realistic.

Smol Loki has a skill maxed.

It is very rare for a premade regardless of age to already start with a maxed skill and I personally don’t know of any other premade children that do.

And it’s writing.

What does writing have to do with Loki? Does Loki write? Probably he has to, those academic papers aren’t gonna spawn out of thin air, but that’s not what the writing skill in TS3 (or the hidden writing skill in TS2) are about. They’re about creative writing only.

Ok, ok. How high is Loki’s Creativity skill, then? In TS2, skills are much broader, they more resemble skillsets than individual skills, and writing categorizes under Creativity. Bring out the skill panel!

Two. He has 2 points in Creativity. That is... low. That is actually very low, especially for a Sim that has supposedly been writing for fun since childhood. (and was a prodigy, while we’re at it) It is safe to say, I think, that if the player doesn’t make him do it, Loki doesn’t write anymore and he hasn’t been doing that for a long, long time.

While I would cynically admit that the dissonance in personalities might be just the lack of damns given from EAxis’ side, this seems to me too on the nose to be unintentional.

They would have no reason to bring the Beakers back without the “evil scientists” thing in mind. I mean, that’s what they’re iconic for. That’s what they’re recognizable by. (apart from their eyebrows)

So the person who was in charge of creating smol Loki probably knew they were recreating “Loki the mad scientist”.

So when they were picking the skill they use to demonstrate that this kid is gonna go far, they thought... “evil scientist = writing”...?

I would understand going for Creativity in general. I mean, Loki’s an inventor. That comes with the territory. But creativity as such isn’t really a skill in TS3. It’s divided to different activities.

Wouldn’t it make more sense just in general to pick logic, then? I mean, Loki isn’t that extremely logical by default but it is his second strongest skill and a feature unmistakably connected to being a scientist.

That’s what leads me to believe that writing plays a role in the story and it was chosen on purpose.

So how did a sweet little family-oriented boy talented with words transform into the ruthless catboy inventor we know and love?

And that, my friends, is the mystery of Loki Beaker.

2: A closer look at our environmentalist friends, the Beakers

If we want to get the full picture and come to a satisfying conclusion of some sorts, we need to inspect smol Loki’s surroundings. Maybe there is a clue to the continuous force or a traumatic event that shifted smol Loki’s direction in life?

Loki’s and Erin’s parents are named Gundrun and Bjorn. Even though their age would still allow it, they’re not present at the start of TS2′s Strangetown play, they’re long dead. Bjorn died before Erin became an adult and Gundrun died shortly before her son’s engagement to Circe. Because they died by the time Loki had (presumably) already long enrolled in his current life-path, we can safely rule out any tragic early death of parental figures scenario as a possible answer.

Gundrun is the only Beaker that canonically also writes. She has 5 points in the writing skill. She also shares some traits with Loki, namely the smarts and ambition.

But she has little to do with science and is way more business-oriented which is a trait she shares with Circe’s ancestors, for example her father. Maybe the families knew each other from business ventures even before they moved to Strangetown? It is stated in their memories that Loki and Circe first met when they were children. But I digress!

Anyway, I don’t see anything in Gundrun that would suggest any abusive behavior towards her son that might have triggered his drastic change. Possibly but not necessarily she might’ve been a bit absent but nothing out of ordinary.

And now the father, Bjorn.

Bjorn is the sciency half of the couple and works as an Aquatic Ecosystem Tweaker. Again, he has zero traits that would raise any red flags and he shares 4 out of 5 traits with either smol Loki or Loki. (I don’t know if Loki is a “natural cook” but he cooks quite well, so I think that counts.)

What’s interesting about Bjorn, though, is his speech that serves as a flavor text for the Aurora Skies store page.

(Image transcript: “Do it for science! Science is everywhere around us, but at Aurora Skies it’s not just something you learn; it’s something you do!  We need bright young minds to make the dreams of the future a reality. Even now we’re finding more uses for garbage to help the planet. Charging batteries, powering machines - the sky is the limit. Just this last year we created a modified Hot Air Baloon using garbage as fuel and turning it into pure air with a pine breeze scent.  Now you can have efficient travel and an amazing romantic adventure with no cost to the ozone (or your nose)! Every year we’re creating more and more exciting things in the world of science. Garbage-powered hearts, heart-powered cars, solar-powered cats; what will you think of next!  It’s all up to you. Do it for Science! Did you know? Hot Air Balloons are an epic form of travel based around the simple principle that hot air is lighter than cold air.  They lift in the air based on the heat system in the balloon. Increasing the temperature of the air inside the balloon makes it lighter than the air outside and the balloon begins to float.  More air is required to lift heavier things; that’s why the balloons have to be so huge! How cool (or hot!) is that?”)

From this piece of text we can see Bjorn’s passion and dedication to “green” science. Nothing in his traits suggests he fakes it, so I think it’s safe to believe that this peppy idealist is a glimpse into Loki’s father’s genuine self.

He might have encouraged his children to follow in his footsteps (”We need bright young minds to make the dreams of the future a reality.“) and smol Loki, who later in life seemed to have similar levels of enthusiasm (science is his One True Hobby), might have been receptive to that.

Now just close your eyes for a second and imagine an alternate reality in which Loki picked up where Bjorn left and instead of a energy-refilling machine that electrocutes you if you’re not happy enough, he invented “solar-powered cats”.

Still no hints on what could’ve messed Loki up, though.

Let’s take a look at the parents in TS2. Even though they’re not present and aren’t even resurrectable, they’re still coded in the game for purposes of genetics, memories and family trees, so some of their characteristics are salvageable.

And by the Watcher, they were both Romance Sims.

They were workaholic Romance Sims who cared about the environment and liked recycling (and Hot Baloons).

And they were both extremely Nice and very Sloppy, if their personalities on wiki are something to go by. Which they unfortunately aren’t, at least not completely because most ancestors don’t simply have “their own” personalities and use presets instead, so they tend to be quite similar.

The same goes for most of the Beaker clan, unfortunately. Fun fact is that there is no Knowledge Sim in sight (before Loki, of course). Maybe they weren’t a scientist family, but a bunch of Romance Sims who used to spend their free time in between woohoos saving the planet with eco-science. (3 out of 6 of Loki’s and Erin’s ancestors were Romance Sims, 2 were Fortune and 1 was Family)

But! There is one outlier. Her name is Gertrude Beaker. She is Loki’s paternal grandmother.

And similarly to her grandson, she certainly has a personality to remember.

She doesn’t use a preset, this is a personality that someone went and manually assigned (...or generated) for her. And she is Neat, Outgoing and doesn’t have a nice bone in her body. But unlike Loki, she has a sense of humor (which makes her even more dangerous, in my opinion) and is extremely Lazy.

She is a Fortune Sim and the only Beaker who shares the darker sides of Loki’s personality. (to be clear, I don’t mean their taste for cleaning but the round 0 of Nice points)

Because she doesn’t feature in TS3 at all, it is safe to say that she wasn’t in her grandchildren’s lives until the family moved to Strangetown. Could she be the corrupting influence on smol Loki?

As far as personality comparison goes, she seems to be the only possible culprit, the only one who’s personality shares the same unpleasant qualities he became infamous for. But! That’s not saying much. There is no evidence she actually did anything.

There’s not even any evidence that she ever met her grandson, given he has no memory of her dying which means she might have died before he was even born. That would be a solid evidence on the contrary and would rule her out. But I’m leaving some maneuvering space for theories here because she is the only Beaker ancestor with custom personality, after all, and that is suspicious.

That’s all the Beakers we know of if not counting Atom and Ceres, who came after Loki, so they’re not relevant to the question of his childhood. Or... are they?

3: And that’s when the trouble began

Another part of this question that might help us discern what happened to Loki is the when. All we know so far is that there is a big void of unknown between smol Loki and regular Loki and the point of transformation happened in there somewhere.

Thankfully, we have something to give us an idea. It’s this snapshot in storytelling pictures for the Beakers:

It shows smol Loki destroying a dollhouse. It seems to be in an impersonal environment of some sorts. The cheapest bed in the game is against a bare white wall, the window is hid behind blue curtains and there doesn’t really seem to be anything else but the dollhouse, a teddy bear in the background and that... very unpleasant bed.

It clearly tells us that Loki’s shift started in his pre-teen years.

And seeing that room which is definitely not in the Beaker Castle at 1 Tesla Court, it makes me think of a hotel or a cheap apartment the family was staying in while moving from Aurora Skies to Strangetown. Maybe the castle-like something the household inhabits at the start of the game wasn’t a property of the Beakers at all, maybe that was where the Salamises used to live and now it belongs to Circe?

Anyway, could it had been leaving Aurora Skies that sent smol Loki down an existential crisis and settling in the not exactly welcoming environment of Strangetown, enrolling in a local school, that sealed it?

But why all the stuff with writing? This would work with any other hobby but somehow it had to be writing and it’s our task to find out why.

4: Not your average tragedy

Now in our search we already have some ideas but it wouldn’t be thorough if we didn’t take into account smol Loki’s actual personality. I mean, we went into what traits he doesn’t have but what about those he has?

Namely Lucky and Family-Oriented.

I think Lucky is a very interesting choice. There’s nothing inherent about Loki Beaker that would make you go “that’s one lucky guy!” (if you don’t count his relationship with Circe as a stroke of luck, that is) and the same goes for smol Loki.

But... it could be a clue. His metamorphosis either couldn’t be triggered by trauma because he’s lucky and it would avoid him, or it must’ve been something tremendously horrid so he’s lucky he’s still alive.

Now we know we are searching for something that happened in his late childhood, verging on the start of his teenage years. His family was going through the turmoil of moving to a desert and he has already known his future partner Circe. Meanwhile Erin-

Oh, wait. Erin.

Smol Loki was Family-Oriented which implies he would probably have a good relationship with his little sister, as he would’ve naturally inclined to protect her and help his parents take care of her. But!

Not only do they have an amicable but distant relationship as adults but Erin seems to forget that Loki even existed in her childhood.

He has the usual set of memories of a sibling growing up well but she doesn’t, she has no Loki-related memories at all, not even of his marriage, which was a quite recent event.

Could the reason for Loki’s “downfall” be somehow related to his sister? Was there a dramatic event in which she lost a part of her memory?

5: Theories!

Ok, we’re finally here! Now I try to present some theories about what might’ve happened.

1. Burdens of the golden child

In Aurora Skies, Loki used to be the little wonder every relative was gushing about. With his father as an acclaimed scientist and a very liked person in general, there was little to no adversity his son had to face. He followed his passion and having nobody to really compare himself to, nor anybody who would terrorize him, he prospered.

But then the Beakers moved. Strangetown was... different. It was way smaller than Aurora Skies, so everybody inherently knew everybody and everybody had to interact with everybody... because the small space of a desert community didn’t leave them with any choice. And it was bleak and unfriendly. No one except for the Salamises knew the Beakers, so they found themselves under scrutiny from their new neighbors.

So Loki, who used to live thinking he was unique, was now sitting everyday in a much smaller classroom with Pascal and Vidcund Curious, whom he was immediately being compared to. But he wasn’t like the Curiouses. He was a kid of a scientist but wasn’t a science kid. He didn’t have much in common with Pascal who approached him and tried to befriend him at first but he wanted to. In Strangetown, nothing seemed to be cooler than being really, really into science. Pascal’s and Loki’s communication attempts were rather poor, though, and in the end, they never made friends. Loki slowly began to disdain the oldest Curious boy and it culminated a few years later in high school when Pascal made an attempt to woo Circe. It was even worse with Vidcund. Ever since Loki’s first day at the new school, Vidcund had been eyeing him with a disgusted look and Loki became quick to reciprocate.

In Strangetown, nothing seemed to be cooler than being really, really into science. Even Circe was on it! She was the only person his age he has know in Strangetown before his family moved in and he liked her. Not “like” liked her, yuck! But he thought she was cool. Her family used to visit the Beakers in Aurora Skies and they played together. She was a friend! Or so Loki thought. She seemed to like hanging out with the Curiouses much more.

In Strangetown, nothing seemed to be cooler than being really, really into science, yes. But not in the eyes of Buzz Grunt, the son of a general who lived in Strangetown. Their family were the self-proclaimed protectors of the hood but at the same time they weren’t shy to show a strong distaste for all that made Strangetown an important desert settlement in the first place. And little Buzz, although Loki doubted he understood the nuances, was very fond of asserting his dominance over his less sporty and hyper-masculine classmates.

Suddenly jealous of the Curious brothers, under pressure from both the adults and his peers comparing him to them and bullied by Buzz, Loki’s social life fell apart. He started having problems... and he came up with solutions. He has always liked science but from back then on he hyperfixated on it to prove everybody who picked on him for being a worthless parody of a science kid wrong.

Not only his social life and self-confidence were busted, though. Moving away from Aurora Skies to Strangetown that had much higher prices for housing because of the limited space, the living standards for the Beakers lowered. It was chaotic and uncomfortable. Plus, almost everybody in Strangetown was loaded. Why, Circe and her parents lived in a small castle! Loki felt like they’re the only “poor” family around and it played into his new-found insecurities.

And then there was Erin’s accident. She suffered a severe head injury and even though she fortunately survived, she was never... the same. She had issues with her memory. Loki tried to convince himself that he’s big enough not to cry but when they were visiting Erin in the hospital and she didn’t recognize him, he cried. It was his little sister! And... it was all his fault anyway! If he was quicker and pushed her to safety, she would’ve been fine! Or even better, he wished the car would’ve hit him instead.

Loki was becoming more and more snappy, focused on his grades and projects, unavailable. The siblings never mended their relationship, Erin, even though she recovered, never got to make new memories with her brother. Not remembering them growing up together, he was like a stranger to her. A scary mean teenage boy she didn’t know and, even though she was a very friendly child, she was too intimidated to willingly spend time with him. And Loki was always busy and moreover, he felt guilty and inexplicably angry, so he postponed approaching her, until it was too late, he was in college, she was in high school and it was too awkward.

And... there was no time to write anymore.

2. Gertrude the Neat and Mean (and Lazy)

Ok, Loki doesn’t have any memories of his grandma. But hear me out! Erin does not have any of him either and yet they met. This theory doesn't require any additional write up – he simply got under the influence of his 0 Nice points granny and she cultivated him to be just like her.

My personal take: This is maybe my least favorite theory of them all, even though it is quite straightforward. It doesn't take much into consideration and demonizes Gertrude, who as far as we know, might not done anything wrong.

3. The accident

This theory takes advantage of TS3's canon sciency machinery, namely Cerebralizing Brain Enhancing Machine 2.0.

It can, among other things, change a Sim's personality. There is (quite unfortunately, in my opinion) no chance of consequential failure in the actual game, the most it can do is to (non-fatally) electrocute your Sim. But...

Imagine smol Loki sneaking into his dad's laboratory, most probably at his workplace.

He was curious. Ever since his father showed him all the equipment in there, all he could think of was the machine that made people smarter.

Maybe it could make him smarter?

I mean, Loki knew he was already quite smart. At least, he's been told he was and he had no reason not to believe it.

But he could be even smarter.

He could be like his dad. Or his mom. Or Erin. Everyone was talking about how clever young Erin seemed. Loki was proud of her but part of him just wanted that, too.

So what if... he went to dad's laboratory, just for a little while, and made himself smarter?

He made all the necessary preparations. It meant to memorize dad’s schedule, so he knew just the time when he could sneak into the laboratory. It also meant to get a good costume so he won’t be recognizable on the security footage!

And then finally, he was ready. To infiltrate the laboratory was easy enough but it only made Loki more nervous. He was on the edge but determined. He wanted to make it big in the world. He needed to seize the opportunity. And fear... fear was there to be ignored! Hands, stop trembling!

His confidence grew a bit once he got to the machine itself. He knew how to run it thanks to his dad and it made him feel competent and ready.

Little did he know that there was a huge oversight. Although Loki could operate the technology on a very basic level, his knowledge went nowhere near deep enough for him to detect that the machine has yet another set of settings and those currently expect an adult user. It wasn’t configured for a child patient.

But unaware of that, the boy in his patchy dinosaur costume climbed on top of the machine and with his eyes wide open and his heart racing he connected the Brain Enhancer to his system. Then, with his hand sweating, he pushed a button on a remote he was clutching to.

When Bjorn, alerted by Loki’s screams, rushed into the laboratory, it was way too late.

As his terrified father was calling the ambulance, the child was alive and even still awake. He was too weak to cry. He just watched Bjorn, wishing for death and looking for signs of wrath in father’s eyes.

There were none. Only fear.

Physically, Loki Beaker managed to recover just fine. With the power of advanced medicine and plastic surgery, the burns he suffered were reduced to nothing but almost invisible scars.

But inside, he was never the same. Literally. Even though the procedure backfired horribly, it still worked to some extend - but even that extend was warped. Loki succeeded in giving himself the Genius trait but several of his traits were replaced also, including the Lucky trait that probably saved his life.

6: Conclusion!

I like Loki very much. (no sh*t, who would’ve guessed) He’s a very controversial and over-the-top character who tends to be rather unpredictable in the actual gameplay. I started writing this giant thing to find an answer to his backstory that would satisfy me and hopefully also some of you.

With a heavy heart I conclude I’m not successful.

First I have to admit I originally planned to present 5 theories instead of 3 but I scrapped 2 of them.

First was about Atom time traveling and replacing Loki, creating himself again and again in a time loop (would explain the huge personality difference between smol Loki and Loki-Atom) and it was very far-fetched but fun, alas I realized it was out of character for Atom, since he seems to love his sister and his Plumbot so much he would hardly leave them behind to pull that off.

The second was about Nervous and the corrupting power of Death he has inside that would slowly drive Loki and Circe “evil” even though it’s unclear whether they first adopted him with being a lab-rat in mind. But it would not make sense since a change like that would be visible on their personality panels. That’s not that important, though. What made me not include this theory is that it feels uncomfortably victim blame-y. It’s not directly since it wouldn’t be Nervous’ fault anyway but any attempt to shift the blame from Loki and Circe in this situation feels uncomfortable.

(To be clear, I don’t think the Beakers deserve demonization. In my opinion, the best way to treat them narrative-wise is like eccentric people capable of feeling love and doing good things sometimes, yet irredeemably self-centered, morally bankrupt and deserving a lifetime in jail for child abuse they have done on Nervous. Not one-dimensional but still villains and still objectively bad people.)

And those 3 theories above? They could’ve been better.

I think I like the first the most, even though I still feel like something is missing. I just tend to like relatively grounded explanations and this one doesn’t feature the supernatural nor any deus ex machina gadget.

What about you? And do you have any other theories? Sky’s the limit! It’ll make my day to hear them!

Whatever your takes are, they’re all valid.

#loki beaker #strangetown #premades #the sims 2 #the sims #simbrl #headcanon #ts2

[blossom-hwa]

hi! i really liked your sungyoon fanfiction, light the pyres—apocalypse aus are great. very nervous to ask for your 4th anniv event but could i perhaps get kang yeosang + the title "3 of hearts?" (if anyone reading here knows what show it's from ily!)

hi love! light the pyres is actually one of the works I'm most proud of so it makes me so happy to hear that you liked it! thank you for your request - I'm not sure what 3 of hearts it from lol (maybe one of my followers does), but I hope you still enjoy this!

4 year anniversary drabble game: send me a Stray Kids/The Boyz/Golden Child/Ateez member + a prompt (check out the post for ideas) and I’ll write a drabble for you!

I guess this could be seen as a sort of spinoff of Kingdom (read the series here) - I haven’t posted the next parts yet, but this takes place in the Queendom of Hearts, which is where Checkmate is set :D like Kingdom, it’s heavily inspired by Marissa Meyer’s book “Heartless” - the story of a queen who went mad over love >:)

Uh so TXT Yeonjun is technically here but please don’t take my characterization of him as anything even close to who he is irl.... just think of it as me taking just his name and slapping it on a character I made I’m sorry

~

Title: Three of Hearts

Pairing: Yeosang x gender neutral!reader

Word count: 1.6k

Triggers: mentions of blood and death (semi-graphic)

~

They said you were born under the three of hearts, a spell of kind fortune, a card of good omen. "Your child will be beautiful," the diviner said when she placed you in your mother's arms. "They will love deeply, and in return, they will be loved greatly."

It was a blessed birth for the Kingdom of Hearts, whose rulers, though loved, had not been able to secure an heir for many years. Already the conception of a child was a miracle - to have you born under such an auspicious card only heightened the excitement, cast even more light on a day already filled with laughter and joy. Your parents showered you with love, and as the years passed, you grew in blissful happiness, surrounded by those who adored you. And truly, it seemed you were the three of hearts personified - for with you were two boys, Yeosang and Yeonjun, your best friends, who followed you everywhere you went. 

It was inevitable, then, people whispered, that at least two of you would fall in love. 

At the age of six, seven, ten, even twelve, you could ignore this. You could play the innocent card that came so easily to those born under the three of hearts, bat your eyes and cock your head and ask “What do you mean?” in reply to the questions people asked - do you have a crush? I’m sure you do. It must be on one of the boys you’re always running around with, yes? But as you grew older and the question of to whom you would extend your hand in marriage became increasingly important, your eyes began to fixate on soft blond hair and warm brown eyes, smile widening in the presence of a deep, gentle voice accompanied by the loveliest sparkle in his eyes. 

The traits of a certain best friend and heir to the Kang family fortune. 

He offers a courtship under the flowering wisteria tree just under your window, pale cheeks tinted with blush as he stutters his way through a short confession. Your heart warms, lifts, bursts with joy as you accept with a smiling nod, rejoicing that you have found a match who will love you as much as you love him. Three of hearts, you think giddily - I will be loved as much as I give it.

The stages of courtship seem to pass by all too slowly and at the same time, all too quickly. Caught up in a whirl of fine clothes and presents and ceremonies, you fall asleep every night eager to wake at dawn, if only to see Yeosang’s face the next day. Every moment with him seems too short, and every moment with him feels too long. 

One afternoon under the wisteria tree, you complain of this. Yeosang laughs at your indignation, though when you go to hit his shoulder, he catches your fingers with soft, warm hands, before kissing your forehead gently. “It will be all right,” he murmurs, pulling away just enough for you to see the sparkle in his eyes. “We’ll have a lifetime together, after this.”

A lifetime. Born under the three of hearts, destined for a life of love and happiness, you believed it. 

So much, in fact, that you forget to watch out for the second best friend at your side. 

It never occurred to you to take caution with Yeonjun. He was your best friend. Even upon the announcement of your engagement, he only ever smiled and congratulated the two of you, knocking your heads together teasingly when you got too mushy for his taste. Yeosang even asked him to be one of the groomsmen when the wedding date was set. 

So you never notice the way Yeonjun’s gaze always lingers on you a little too long, the way his eyes darken whenever you place a chaste kiss on Yeosang’s lips. You do notice that he spends more and more time away from you, away from Yeosang as the wedding approaches, but it’s easy to put it down to affairs of the Choi family that you simply aren’t privy to. Perhaps something has gone wrong. Yeonjun would tell you about it in due time, wouldn’t he?

On the night before your wedding, you and Yeosang dance together under a sea of sparkling stars, white engagement outfits shimmering under the night sky. The people cheer. Your parents wipe away tears. You almost cry, too, wrapped in the warmth of Yeosang’s arms around your waist, his eyes smiling into yours. 

You part ways with promises of tomorrow and a lifetime hanging on your lips. When you finally fall asleep, it is to dreams of a beautiful future, complete with Yeosang by your side. 

Instead, you wake up in a world where he is dead.

They say the servant who found the body went mad afterward. You don’t blame them. When you saw the body covered in its rips and stains of red, it felt like a part of your mind simply disappeared. Scrambled. Something. All you could see was the body splashed with blood, unseeing eyes wide open and glassed with the sheen of death. 

And there’s no time to grieve, either, because the next day, the Choi family storms the castle with shouts of a coup and rebellion on their lips. 

All you can do is stare into Yeonjun’s stony expression as he orders the execution of your parents right before your eyes. 

He finds you in your rooms a week later, a beautiful prison of silk and satin that they took away so you wouldn’t hang yourself before he came. His eyes soften upon seeing you, but when he reaches out a hand, you slap it away. 

Only one word leaves your lips. “Why?”

Love, he says. Love for you. Love that burned fierce, hot, so unlike the soft warmth of Yeosang’s hand, love that burned so bright it couldn’t stand to fall second to the gentleness of Yeosang’s smile. His heart burned for you, beat for you, enough to plan all of this, enough to ask, even now - 

“Will you marry me?”

The wisteria tree outside your window is in full bloom under a bright, cloudless sky. A mockery of the day Yeosang asked for your hand and you gave him your heart. 

In the absence of blades and bullets, no one should underestimate the power that fingernails can do to raw skin and bone.

“You worthless, worthless human being,” you snarl, even as guards drag you back from Yeonjun’s bleeding face. “Worthless - worthless - I will never marry you -”

“You will,” Yeonjun snarls back, now a safe distance away from the blood caking your nails. “You will or you will die.”

You don’t die. You almost do, jamming the lock on your door and smashing the fortified window with a superhuman strength you believe Yeosang and your parents have lent you for one night, just one night before leaping into the branches of the wisteria tree, crashing to the ground in a heap of branches and flowers and glass. They nearly catch you - an arrow pierces your shoulder and another streaks so close it almost cuts off your ear - but you escape. And hide. For days, weeks, months...

Until you return with a sword and murder in your eyes, slashing through every guard on your way into the castle until you come across Yeonjun sitting upon your father’s throne, the crown of your family on his head. 

“Would you?” he whispers, the tip of your sword positioned over his heart. “Would you, truly?”

A blank smile curves your lips. “Of course,” you whisper. “Just the same way you would.”

They crown you queen with triumph in their eyes, songs of a royal who avenger their lover’s death when a jealous suitor got in the way. You listen to it with stony eyes and teeth gritted behind your lips, especially when they speak of the three of hearts, blessed above all, destined for a life of love -

There is no love left in your heart that wasn’t taken away with the death of Yeosang and your family.

You execute the Chois. You execute their allies. You root through the kingdom, imprisoning those with even a semblance of a relationship to the man who killed your love, who took the blessing of your card away. The songs die away, replaced by whispers of a queen gone mad with the loss of their love. Triumphant shouts of a blessed three of hearts turn into murmurs of a curse, a new meaning to your card - perhaps not one destined for love, but one whose life will end in tragedy. Pain. Suffering.

They are wrong. Your life was full of love, love that you gave on your own and love that was given by those around you. It was the cause of your happiness and the reason for your suffering - love killed Yeosang and your family, just as it killed the last bit of humanity in you. 

The words of the diviner mock your grief. 

“Your child will be beautiful.”

Not as beautiful as he ever was. 

“They will love deeply.”

Where did that get you? 

“And in return, they will be loved greatly.”

Where did that get him?

No longer do they speak of the three of hearts as a blessing, as a sign of blissful omen. Instead, they speak of it as a curse, a curse of love, a curse of madness, a curse of tragedy to follow at every bend. 

Good. They’re right.

The love that the heavens wrought never brought anything more than pain, anyway.

#destinyversenet #kpopscape #ateez #atz #yeosang #kang yeosang #ateez yeosang #ateez scenarios #ateez imagines #ateez oneshots #ateez yeosang scenarios #ateez yeosang oneshots #ateez yeosang imagines #ateez x reader #ateez yeosang x reader #yeosang x reader #kang yeosang x reader #drabble #angst #royalty!au #three of hearts #4 year anniversary drabble game #lina answers #anon #scriptura-delirus

[adamarks]

If one more person says simon snow should lose his wings i’m gonna lose my goddamn mind: a meta

Alright you guys, I’ve had ENOUGH. Simon cannot lose his wings unless you want him to break up with Baz, and this is why.

Let’s start with Baz.

This analysis is obviously Simon-based, and yes i’ll get there, but first we need to look at the biggest key we’ve been given to what Simon’s wings could possibly mean subtextually and metaphorically for the story at large. That key is: Baz’s vampirism. 

Baz being a vampire is constantly compared to/mentioned in tandem with his queerness in Carry On. In his first chapters, what are the three most important traits that we learn about him? 

he’s a drama queen

he’s a vampire

he’s hopelessly in love with simon snow

If you boil his character down until he’s basically just a stick figure, that’s what he is: an over dramatic vampire in love with Simon Snow.

We’ve all read the books, we all know this, and we all know he’s much more than that. What of it?

What’s important is that Baz’s vampirism is treated almost the exact same as his homosexuality. 

Hiding it from everyone, being ashamed of it, knowing what you are but being terrified of it. His dad being “definitely more disappointed in my queerness than my undeadness.” 

I mean, holy shit, let’s look at this bit in Carry on from Chapter 51:

“I think if I got married, to a girl from a good family, my father wouldn’t even care that I’m queer. “

This scene really hits, because how many times have you wondered “What if I was straight? Maybe this thing wouldn’t be as bad?” “What if i was just a straight poc?” “What if I was only gay and not trans?” “What if I was only disabled and not gay on top of it?” What if, what if, what if. Would my life be easier? you wonder. Would I get hurt less? Would people treat me better?

If Carry On is about self-realization, then Wayward Son is about the struggle of self-acceptance. 

Baz going to Las Vegas and meeting Lamb probably seemed familiar for some of you people that are LGBT+. It’s how you feel when you’re from a small town and you go to a big city like New York or Orlando or LA for the first time and you see gay people all around you. Flamboyantly gay! Gay people holding hands! Gay people kissing! Trans people that don’t fit the gender norms! Older trans ladies just walking down the street!

It’s exciting, it’s exhilarating. Your baby-gay brain is so confused because no one’s giving them dirty looks. They don’t look nervous or ashamed. Is this allowed?

The party in the penthouse is glamorous and beautiful and alluring and none of the humans there are scared or look like they’re in real danger. It’s because they aren’t. None of those vampires are there to kill people. 

This is where Baz’s fear of his own nature comes in. Let’s hear it for all you homosexuals in the crowd that are/have been terrified of being predatory. Of turning the gender you’ve been told all of your life you’re not supposed to want into pieces of meat. You feel ashamed for wanting physical intimacy. You feel wrong for wanting emotional intimacy. 

Lamb is the older gay that you meet/learn about/watch on youtube or whatever that makes you learn that no, you’re not inherently evil. Lamb is the queer history, the queer movies, the queer people that you discover that make you learn that “no, i’m not bad. I’m not broken. I’m beautiful. I’m beautiful.” 

Baz thinking the sight of Lamb drinking that guy’s blood being alluring and beautiful is crucial to his arc. Baz needs to see that all of him is beautiful. 

So homosexuality = Baz being a vampire? How in the flying fuck does this have anything to do with Simon?

Remember, Baz is our key. His struggles have been happening since book one. Simon just gained his “creature” status at the end of Carry On. He’s new to this. Which means we’re new to the subtext. Which means: let’s dive on into the next big point.

Our Big Bisexual Boy

Whatever label you choose to use for Simon is up to you. As long as we all agree he likes more than one gender then it’s whatevs. I’m going to be using the word bisexual for this meta, though. 

We’re all well aware that Simon is Struggling with his bisexuality in this book. 

“I still haven’t sorted out whether I’m still attracted to women or whether I ever was, or whether I’m some kind of Baz-only-sexual. But the cleavage at this place is abundant, and I’m not mad about it.”

(taken from chapter 21) 

Like....... y’know. We know. It’s... we get it. 

The important part of that quote is that it’s at the Ren Faire. The Ren Faire is the first time Simon’s had his wings out in public since god-knows-when, if ever. This is also the first time he really considers kissing Baz in the book. Kissing Baz in Public.

Any of you that have been to Pride probably got a little bit of the warm fuzzies during this scene. The faire brought back such deep memories of my first pride it was a little bit emotional. I talked to random people, people ran around in rainbow outfits. There was body paint! Stupid hats! Weird dye jobs! The classic pride-flag-as-a-cape look! I talked to so many people and 

“Everyone here is so friendly.”

(also taken from chapter 21)

Everyone was so nice to me.

Baz feels right at home; Simon is all smiles. The only one not having a blast is Penny and she’s (I’m sorry, Penny) the token straight friend in these books. 

I don’t know how Rainbow did it, but she made me relive my first pride through Simon, and I’ll never not be grateful for that. 

“Today I’m someone else entirely. Today I’m just a bloke with fake red wings.”

The Pride/Ren Faire parallels were pretty obvious, but I wanna get a little further into the whole “wings = being bisexual” thing. 

We’ve established with Baz that being a magical creature or whatnot is Gay, but while Baz is fully magical, Simon’s “half-normal.” Kind of. It’s a weird situation there but half-normal works for the argument. 

“’Smells like dragon... but also smells like iron. Another abomination!’” 

(chapter 35)

Now the word “abomination” is really fucking unfortunate in this context, but biphobia exists so idk man. I’m gonna start talking in gay/straight terms and I absolutely know bisexuality isn’t half-gay half-straight but we’re talking in metaphors and i’ll tie it together at the end so just stick with me, okay?

He’s part dragon, part Normal (kind of). Simon’s not like Baz where he’s absolutely, 100% a vampire. He has traits of dragons and humans. This is why it’s so bad that he hates his wings half the time. They are part of him. They may not be “normal” and he may have to hide them, but he can’t just cut off the gay part. Our queerness doesn’t define us, but it’s a defining feature. 

Penny says she wouldn’t be her if she wasn’t a mage. Simon wouldn’t be Simon if he wasn’t bi. 

The mistake Simon and almost everyone else makes during this book is that they think of his wings as these separate entities. There is no gay part and straight part of Simon Snow. All of him is Simon. From the tips of his toes to the tops of his wings, all of him is Simon. He might’ve discovered this part of himself during a tragic point in his life, but that doesn’t mean it has to be something bad. It doesn’t have to be something tainted. 

Sometimes you discover things about yourself during the hardest moments of your life. When you’re already down in the dirt, beaten and bruised, sometimes a mirror is put in front of you and you realize something. You realize you’re trans. You realize you’re gay. And sometimes you resent those realizations because they came to you at the worst possible time. “This is just one more thing on my plate,” you think. 

This series is about reclaiming the things that where taken from you by the ones that hurt you. 

Simon’s going to have to learn to love his wings, because even though they remind him of something that hurts-- hurts more than anything-- they’re part of him. They are him, as much as the rest of his body is. Simon’s going to have to forgive himself, and learn to love himself for all that he is. 

Because all that he is is beautiful. 

We all know it; it’s time for him to understand that.

All right, bitches. Let’s get to the bit we all REALLY care about. this is the one that really fucks me up my dudes. Because it’s Brutal. But anyways here we go.

His wings are the Big Baz Love 

What are the two things that Simon’s  considering cutting off in this book?

“That’s what I’m going to say when I break up with Baz.”

“Dr. Wellbelove said he could remove the wings. And the tail. Whenever I’m ready.”

(Chapter 2, Epilogue)

Yikes!

My guys..... Simon and Baz don’t kiss unless Simon’s wings are out.

I truly do not understand how some of you are out here saying Simon’s gonna lose his wings I really don’t. It’s stressful. I’m stressed. Ms. Rainbow Rowell, you have me stressed. 

His Wings! Are! His Love!

On Love’s Light Wings!

Goatman dances his nasty little fingers all over the bridge that is Baz’s ass? Wings out, uses his tail to help kill the guy. Lamb is hitting on Baz too much? 

“’Spell my wings off.’”

(Chapter 45)

In the airport, when a lady is giving them the “don’t be gay” stink eye he immediately checks to make sure his tail is hidden. 

Baz can’t spell his wings off, guys. 

Baz can’t spell his wings away.

“’Snow needs you to cast your angel spell on him. I hid his wings for breakfast, but they’re still there.’“

(Chapter 19)

In Chapter 41, the biggest kiss scene we get, Simon wraps his wings around Baz to hold him. He’s embracing him in his love guys. Guys. 

Have you people noticed how i’m suddenly less articulate? It’s because i’m in crisis. Set me on fire I wouldn’t notice. I’ve been living with this terrible knowledge.

The first scene we finally see them kiss is after the scene at the Ren Faire when Simon’s wings are finally out and he finally got to fly.

“Simon catches up with me and traps me against the car. He’s kissing me before I see it coming.” 

Simon is so dtf in this scene Penny throws a water bottle at them, and it hits him in the wing. 

“’So hot,’ Simon Says. ‘Got to see you fight without picking a fight with you myself.’

Bunce throws a plastic bottle over my shoulder, and it smacks Simon in the wing.”

(Chapter 22)

She had to smack him right in the love for him to calm down, my dudes, my guys. Do you realize how hard it was for me to annotate this goddamn book with this knowledge? Every. Single. Time. Simon stretches a wing or flaps them around it’s about Baz. It gets to the point where you have to put the book down or you’re gonna explode. 

Simon’s wings are always out around Lamb. He’s jealous as hell and he hates that motherfucker’s guts. The only real injuries Simon sustains in this book are to his wings and they’re almost always when Baz gets hurt too. 

When did Simon get his wings? Only a day after he first kissed Baz.

Simon’s love for Baz is so big and so obnoxious he can’t hide it. His wings and tail have spikes, because that’s all Simon knows. He’s rough around the edges, he’s been hurt, he’s been used.

He’s never been in love before.

His love is spiky; it’s loud. It’s hotrod red and you can’t miss it when it’s out. Baz can’t see it, because Simon’s tucked it away. He hasn’t flown with it. He hasn’t wrapped it around Baz in so long. He doesn’t know how to handle a love this big, where to put it, when to unfurl it. 

Simon gets jealous. He gets scared. He’s insecure. He wants so dearly to finally give to someone instead of feeling like he’s just giving in. Like he’s still just taking from Baz.

What do you do with wings? 

How do you find somewhere safe to fly?

The Resolution.

I said earlier that if Carry On is a story of self-discovery, Wayward Son is a story of self-acceptance.

Simon has to love himself, and learn that his love for Baz is a good thing. As he accepts himself (and his dragon powers evolve go read my dragon simon meta it’s good.) he’s going to start to shine. 

This is a story being told to us with nothing but love. This is a story about a boy that’s his own worst enemy-- as all of us often are. It’s so scary to accept our wings. It’s so scary to accept our fangs. Especially when they’ve come out of such a hideous occurrence. 

We need to accept these dark times and acknowledge that maybe, just maybe, we were made more beautiful because of them. Maybe the light we give after we’ve been in darkness is more vibrant, because we know how scary the dark is. The things that happened to us were horrible, and hideous, and terrifying, but we aren’t. We’re different from how we were before, but we’re still beautiful. 

Simon Snow is going to accept himself.

Simon Snow is going to accept his past.

Simon Snow is going to finally, finally tell Baz he loves him.

And for the first time, Simon Snow is going to see that he’s beautiful.

If you’ve liked this meta you should also check out this one where i explain how they’re finally gonna get their relationship together. Also the one about the scarf

Special thank you to @singerofsimplesongs for listening to me howl and screech about this damn thing. 

Tagging some people that might be interested!

@neck-mole @watfordwallflower @carrybits @theflyingpeach @fight-surrender @shitty-posty-times @wisest-girl @slaying-fictional-dragons @gucciglitzy

#carry on #wayward son #any way the wind blows #rainbow rowell #simon snow #snowbaz #baz pitch #Penelope Bunce #tyrannus basilton grimm pitch #tyrannus basilton pitch #wayward son spoilers #meta #wayward son meta #carry on meta #this will end in flames #agatha wellbelove

[ectonurites]

Okay, so I kinda wanna know your thoughts about how weird the fandom portrays the bat characters. Canon is ... not my favorite, but it actually offers a lot of nuance to the characters that I think makes them all interesting. Unlikable, but interesting. I noticed fanon tends to boil the batkids all into these superflat caricatures. Like, cereal obsessed manchild Dick Grayson or bad boy who's literal crimes are only because of the lazarus pit Jason Todd. Its not really a major problem, just weird

Oh I have a LOT of thoughts about this. I try so hard not to shit on how other people interact with content because like, it’s comic books! We’re all just here trying to make the best out of a mess of stuff and have fun, but admittedly a lot of fanon stuff drives me fuckin’ nuts as someone who reads a ton of comics.

Like, I like memes, obviously, I draw tons of memes with the batfam (+ yj) characters and make lighthearted jokes etc etc, and honestly if it’s just for jokes then I don’t mind people having whack interpretations of the characters quite as much. The thing that drives me up a wall though is like... when serious works and analysis and discussion are very clearly based on just the fanon interpretations without any bearing on canon aside from what you could skim from a wiki page, and it’s spoken like it’s fact! There’s ‘having fun with jokes that aren’t taking things that seriously’ and then there’s ‘blatantly mischaracterizing based on misinformation’. Way too often I see things fall into that second category.

Now, a lot of people in the batfam fandom don’t... actually read comics (or at least not frequently) and that’s not even a bad thing necessarily, like you’re 100% allowed to enjoy content however you want to! (I don’t wanna be gatekeepey, especially since comics are confusing to get into)

But the problem is that when a lot of people aren’t reading the comics, then the people who do’s opinions have a lot more influence if they’re loud enough. All it takes is one person who read something and interpreted it a specific way that might not even be correct, and then it can echo chamber and suddenly half the fandom thinks it’s 100% canon that way because ‘oh so and so said that and they actually read it’.

I also think that’s a problem with the popularity of out of context panels/blogs, while they are super funny sometimes, when people make assumptions about characters based on just a few things without context... it can lead to problems. If enough people say something enough times people just... start to think it’s true, even if it exists entirely devoid of context which changes the meaning.

Like, for example, according to canon there’s no actual confirmation Tim stalked Batman on foot for an extended period of time! We know from Lonely Place of Dying that he followed him once to get a picture to convince DIck that he still needed a Robin. Otherwise his ‘stalking’ & how he figured out Batman’s identity was more through media appearances (like newspapers and tv). This is wildly different from the common fanon idea that little Timmy was sneaking out regularly to follow Batman & Robin around with his camera.

I primarily blame Geoff Johns for this misconception because of these panels in in tt 2003 (from issue 29)

But like, think about it for a second, literally how would Jason know that? This is one of the first times he’s ever interacting with Tim, and he was dead/catatonic when that would have been happening! He is either making a wild assumption or perhaps Talia told him this when she told him about Tim, whichever of those it was it’s secondhand information not something he witnessed. Taking his word as fact here makes no sense, he was just trying to get under Tim’s skin while fighting him. But seeing those panels out of context if you haven’t actually read Lonely Place of Dying/only read a vague summary of it, and don’t necessarily know the details of the Jason situation, it could absolutely lead you to believe otherwise!

Dick as a cereal manchild is a weird one because like... okay yeah sure he likes cereal, I can think of like two panels I’m too lazy to find right now off the top of my head of him having it, but... that’s not something we see all the time! Its not like Ollie & his chili (which IS a running joke- seriously I have not read that many Green Arrow comics but the amount of times I’ve seen that man bring up chili in just in the few things I have read is wild. there’s even an official recipe. his chili has it’s own dc wiki page). Then, because Dick isn’t quite as emotionally closed off in the same way the rest of the batfam tends to be, people project literally all the pent up feelings onto him, making him this hug-crazy crybaby manchild... again it’s just very clear people who perpetuate those ideas (outside of like, maybe as jokes) haven’t actually fully read that many comics with him. I’d also even blame the Young Justice cartoon version of Dick for some other traits fanon Dick has, bc that version of him is def a bit of a Hot Mess™️ once he’s Nightwing 

Jason I understand misconceptions about probably the most because of how wildly inconsistent his writing was before the new 52 and how consistently Not Great it was once Lobdell took over. Jason’s one of the few characters I have read like, 90% of appearances for so I’m speakin’ from experience here. But still... acting like Jason as Red Hood is just a ‘bad boy rebel’ that could have a relatively happy connection with the whole Batfam is fun but unrealistic. You can not blame everything on the lazarus pit... he still has killed people! Lots of people! Willingly! Yes he has reasons and when he’s being written well it’s clear that he’s not just ‘random murder happy’ but rather ‘I kill when I feel they deserve it and that it’s necessary’ which is what keeps him an anti-hero rather than a full fledged villain most of the time, but that still keeps him so at odds with the rest of the Batfamily! Writers in more current continuity have had him compromise by only using rubber bullets in Gotham so they can have him interact with the family, but he’s still killed and will do it when he deems it necessary.

Also like... at the time of Under The Red Hood in the comics... theoretically... he hadn’t even been in the lazarus pit for well over a year. Go read Lost Days (it’s short! And except for the thing with him & Talia towards the end of the last issue it’s pretty good!), he spends a lot of time traveling the world and learning things/training before the events of UtRH. Yes you could interpret there still being some Lazarus influence going on there but I think the movie version of UtRH especially leads people to believe there’s a lot less time between his dunk in the pit and his first actions as Red Hood.

Fanon also has a lot of ideas about pit madness that vary wildly from what we have seen in canon, like yeah it’s been said to be a thing to some extent, but there’s not really the Danny Phantom Glowing Green Eyes™️ or anything like that... it’s fun to explore cool new ideas for sure but I just think it’s important to recognize the distinction between things that are actually canon and things that are popular fanon. (Also there are things that fall somewhere in between, there’s definitely stuff that isn’t 100% confirmed canon but could still be plausible/has been hinted at by some writers/is only canon in some settings)

Other things that drive me nuts are ‘quiet does-no-wrong angel Cass’ and ‘the Normal One™️ Duke’ because those just make literally no sense if you’ve read any comics with either of them... but fan content either does those versions or just completely ignores their existence a lot of the time! So! That’s a whole bigger problem!

In general though, this is fandom it’s not like this... matters that much on the grand scheme of things in life, we’re just people on social media talkin’ about comics. And this kind of misconception/flattening of characters does happen in literally every fandom ever. But it still does suck to see characters that have a lot of nuance and interesting history to play around with get reduced to a few traits that aren’t even actually that relevant to who they are.

#batfam #pls dont kill me for sayin al this again im not telling anyone how to enjoy stuff JUST my thoughts

[rebelcap]

No, no, no, yes.

Bucky x oc. (Luna Vega, woc, slightly enhanced)

Sweetheart, I’ve been checking on you since 2014.

Luna does and Bucky knows, she’s been there since the beginning. When the winter solider becomes Bucky again. Even before Steve and certainly after Steve.

They start to wonder if…

PART 2

One.

The TV was silent, illuminating the little living space that goes up to the little kitchen, the light of the door was on. Bucky was lying on the floor, absently watching the TV, the news, and all going to shit since everyone came back—and some left.

His eyes perk up to the door when he hears the elevator door opening up and steps walking towards his apartment. Bucky stood up and heard a voice speaking from outside.

“It’s me, open up.” Luna talked from the back half of the hallway, knowing that he had already heard her coming. He groaned, annoyed as he looked around from some of his clothes. “Bucky,” she spoke again as she reached the door.

“One second!” He shouted and grabbed a shirt and some sweatpants from the one-seat couch beside his bed.

“Are you with someone?” She asked and Bucky opened the door and found her staring with a shit-eating grin. “Are you flipping your wig with some broad?” Luna wiggled her eyebrows at him, hitting him with the forties slang.

Bucky took a deep breath and stared at her face for a moment and declared. “I hate you.”

“No, you don’t. You need to get laid,” She exclaimed as Bucky moved to the side to let her in, he went back to the floor as she sat down on the couch.

“I tried, online dating is… overwhelming and weird.” He mumbled, looking at the muted television.

“Like Tinder?,” She asked, looking around for the remote, Bucky hummed. “You’re too old school for that.”

Bucky rubbed his face and observed the woman sitting on his couch, slouched and absently changing channels. “How did it go?” He asked referring to her latest mission.

“Could be better,” She said and Bucky rolled his eyes.

“Explain.”

“Intel was shit, my package got shot—he’s fine though.” She said without taking the eyes from the TV. “I tried to link up with the other guys,” Luna said looking at Bucky, talking about the rest of the Avengers.

“Had any luck?"

"Well, the kid, hulk and Clint, and the ant dude are doing okay and I don’t know about the ones in space because SWORD revoked my level 9 privileges that I had on SHIELD. And Wakanda is all good.” She made a face of disgust. “I can’t find Wanda or Strange. Probably doing weird shit around, whatever.”

“Now you’re checking on me?"

"Sweetheart, I’ve been checking on you since 2014.” She joked but they knew that it was real. They have history, the first time they met was obviously when Bucky was the winter soldier. She was a black ops operative on SHIELD, worked along with Steve, Natasha, and the STRIKE team. On her last mission, she started suspecting SHIELD was compromised by Hydra because her target had expressed it.

“You’re another HYDRA puppet, thinking you’re doing the right thing. SHIELD is not more.”

Before she could even press the issue and ask questions, her orders came through. No prisoners and was forced to terminate him. They sent her home on obligatory leave because she had sustained severe injuries in that mission. After Nick Fury was shoot, they brought her back, Secretary Pierce gave the order to put her on a wash down super-soldier serum to heal her injuries, something that she had no idea and they did that without her consent… but it worked perfectly and increased about a 25% her strength, stamina, and abilities —a little above average than the regular men.

All the pieces fell into place as soon they gave her orders to capture Steve, Natasha, and Sam. That’s when she knew that HYDRA had infiltrated SHIELD, at first she was only going to play along with them to gather intel that she planned to feed to Steve to bring them down. But it all cemented it together when she met The Winter Soldier, realizing that it was Bucky.

So she stayed for Steve.

But when Bucky pulled her out of the Potomac, injured and lost, feeling that he could only trust her—she helped him to get back on his feet and leave the country with a promise to not tell Steve that she knew about him.

“I won’t tell anything but keep in touch, Bucky.” She told him. They were in her car after she arranged a safe passage on a fishing boat to Europe.

“I will, Luna, I will.” He promise.

And he didn’t break that promise, even though she knew that Steve would never forgive her about it, not until after the shit that went down with the accords.

“I miss him,” She said almost in a whisper. They never talked about Steve, it’s been six months since he chose to leave their asses. “I still can’t believe he left us stranded here.”

“You still mad at him?,” Bucky asked.

“Yes, he just… left, no goodbyes, no explanation. Just…” She shrugged. “I know he loved her, I know. But we went through so much—” Luna cut herself off. “And then leave me with your traumatized ass.” She joked, Bucky laughed.

“Ah screw you, I’m doing therapy. Mandatory but still,” He rolled his eyes and turned around to look at the TV again.

“And how is that going?"

"It’s going. I…” He took a pause. “I’m making amends."

"That’s good,” Luna said and noted the expression on his face and knew what he meant with amends. “Who you killed?” she deadpanned.

“I can’t do anything illegal, I can’t hurt anyone—But I’m taking back the power I gave them, maybe bruising them a bit.”

“Hell yeah, do you boo. Hunt those sons of bitches,” Camila Smile, hyping him up. Bucky actually smiles as they high-five each other. “I’m on your make amends list?"

"I don’t have amends to do with you.” He frowned.

“You pushed me off the helicarrier.” Camila pointed out, which was true.

“You were annoying me,” Bucky said, which was also true.

“You almost killed me.” She made a solid point and Bucky shrugged it off.

“Sam grabbed you mid-air.”

“Yeah, then he dropped my ass too,” Camila explained and pointed out. “Because someone plucked the wing off his suit.”

Bucky rolled his eyes at her, again. Shaking his head and Camila smile.

“I ain’t telling you sorry.” Bucky smiled, playing along.

“I’m talking with your therapist.”

“She’ll put you on therapy.” Bucky looked at her, smiling. “You’re fucking crazy, you know that.”

“It’s a character trait, Bucky.” She laughed. “Besides, you like me a little crazy.” Camila teased a little.

“You know I do.” He agreed, looking at her with a smile on his lips. They both fell into a comfortable silence until Bucky blurted, without even thinking of the ramifications of saying something like this to her.

“I have a date tomorrow, at ten."

"What did you say?” Camila explained, turning her body to Bucky to hear him more correctly. “Did you say date?” Her short Bob fell exactly to her shoulder and bounced around as she hopped on the couch, kinda excited—acting like a freaking chihuahua.

“Yeah, I’m already regretting telling you. You’re gonna jinx it—

"What?,” She shouted, interrupting. “Aren’t I the one who’s been trying to get you laid all this fucking time?"

Bucky rolled his eyes once again, acting like a grumpy old man—well he technically was and said nothing. That was okay because Camila was going to answer it herself.

"Me!, so no… I’m not gonna jinx it,” She threw the remote at his chest and Bucky glared at her.

“That fucking hurt.”

“Don’t be a pussy. Who is she?, I know her? Is she cute?"

"It’s the girl from Izzy,"

"You asked her out?” Bucky looked at her and made a face and proceeded to tell her how Yuri set him up. Camila made a face and then laughed. “Look at you, finally you’re out of your millennial old dry spell.

” It’s just a date.“ He quickly interrupted her.” I haven’t had one since 1943.“ Bucky panicked a little, shuffling on the floor.

"Nah,” She hummed and shook her head, quickly getting up from the seat. “Come on,” Camila said waving his hand in front of him. Bucky frowned as he looked at her, confused.

“What?"

"You’re taking me on a date, I won’t let you go unprepared. You’re my friend I won’t let you fail.” She extended her hand at him and Bucky didn’t bulge. “Buck, come on” Camila pouted a little bit, giving him a little flirt and Bucky’s face got red. “Please?” She batted her eyelashes at him.

#bucky barnes x poc!reader #bucky barnes x female reader #bucky barnes x you #bucky x y/n #bucky fanfic #Bucky Barnes #Sebastian Stan #the falcon and the winter solider #The falcon and the winter solider fanfic #anthony mackie #The falcon #sam wilson #Bucky Barnes x OFC

[ryttu3k]

Hello naughty children it's Gehenna time.

...which means I'm going to read the book properly this time and write notes on each scenario, partially for my own reference, partially in answer to an ask from @rayshell22livejournalcom​ from about a zillion years ago. Sorry about that!

Mood soundtrack: Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F# A# ∞; Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven; Yanqui U.X.O.

Prelude: Netchurch is an interesting character. Very skeptical, despite, well, the entire setting, although that's definitely, uh, broken by the end. Feel very sad for Afifa, who was a pawn in all this. Creepy babies galore!

Introduction: "While Vampire favors that futile, tragic, and - we'll say it - angst-heavy conclusion" - lmao you don't say. Although I do like how they have the consistent golden rule that if you don't like it, just ditch it! (Of course, the Gehenna scenarios as a whole have been completely retconned anyway by v20 and v5, so this entire book is a good example of taking what you want from it and ignoring the rest.)

"Some people are on opposite sides of this thing. They're elders who don't want to knuckle under to the Antediluvians (most elders will accept their proper place in the heirarchy again with the rising of their progenitors) and poor, misled souls who bought into the lie and are pissed about it (paging Mr. Pieterzoon). Bottom line: the Camarilla collapses like Enron/WorldCom as the worthlessness of its foundation becomes public knowledge. Chaos ensues among the vampire community, princes find themselves besieged by their own locals, and it's all a big clusterfuck."

Have I ever mentioned I love how VtM phrases stuff? Also F to Jan.

I like how they have a masterlist of what's actually going on with the Antediluvians. Spoilers ;D "For example, note that [Tzimisce] is simply referred to as [Tzimisce]. Even here at the game studio, our limited mortal minds weren't able to comphrenend the creature's real name." Lovecraft only WISHES he had eldritch abominations this spooky! Ennoia is 'Active and scary' and apparently spooks the devs just thinking about it. Makes sense. "Giovanni (Augustus Giovanni): Augustus is a pig, and he should probably die as one of the early events of Gehenna. He's the youngest of the Antediluvians and probably possessed the greatest ego (in mortal terms), so it'll be cosmic justice when he eats it." I love how no one likes Giovanni, even his creators. Malkav may or may not BE the Madness Network, in which case they cease to be an Antediluvian and just become... a part of the Malkavians, I guess? Absimiliard may or may not be chilling at the bottom of the ocean, because mood. Tremere / Saulot is definitely a fun one to play with, yeah. Although, oof, if Saulot ever gets control of their shared body, he's going to be fucked up if [Tzimisce] activates, so. Probably better to create a nice fresh body, like what BJD suggests with the child Saulot.

Chapter 1 - the lead-up: Basically a rundown of the signs and how they're interpreted. "An angel dies: How does an angel die? Who has the gall to rise up and slay one of God's firstborn? Or perhaps this is another metaphor. An angel could be a pure and gentle creature, or then again, it need not be one of God's angels (not that God's angels are necessarily pure and gentle). A feared and particularly vicious Necronomist Tzimisce, Sascha Vykos is sometimes referred to as the Angel of Caine. Many would rejoice the night that Vykos died." Hey rude :( I vote they kill Michael instead. He wants to be an Archangel? Fine, he can fulfill a prophesy XD

Honestly I really do dig that Ennoia Earthmelded with the entire planet. You can go so many directions with that, good or bad! Ennoia as The Beast Below, or Ennoia as Gaia? (Wow, that'd really fuck with the Garou XD) I love how the general consensus on Haqim is like, no one knows if he exists or not but lbr Ur-Shulgi is bad enough. Kinda dig the idea of the Toreador ante, Ishtar/Arikel, being genderfluid? I mean yeah essentially demigods have no need for gender anyway, but the constant debates over whether the Toreador ante is the female Ishtar or the male Arikel (or, uh, was it vice versa?) does lead to some interesting concepts. Ooh, similar to [Tzimisce] being linked to its entire clan (and the Tremere, anyone who's ever taken part in the Vaulderie, and anyone who knows Vicissitude), [Lasombra] may be connected to anyone who knows Obtenebration? [Ravnos]... yeah, probably dead. F to the clan. And yeah I think [Tzimisce] is flat-out the scariest one of all, and probably the one most likely to actually start the apocalypse, lbr.

Ugh this is one of the books that calls Sascha 'it' :-\ Do not like. ...Also do not like the suggestion that they're an unknowing agent of the Eldest, given, uh, the last chapter of the DA Tzimisce novel. Shoo! Shoo! You've ruined their unlife enough as it is!

Epistolary material! I do dig those. Most interesting: a letter to Sascha mentioning apocalyptic visions of New York but with the Carpathians in the background, and an anonymous letter to Hardestadt warning him of one of his line tearing down a castle that the writer feels believes the Camarilla. GO JAN FUCK IT UP.

And on to the scenarios themselves!

Chapter 2 - Wormwood: This is an interesting one. Literally a Biblical vengeance - God takes a good look at the Children of Caine and goes, "Well, this is fucked up", acknowledges that Caine never really sought true forgiveness and repentance, and sets forth Wormwood, the Red Star. The truly repentant are saved, the rest just. Die.

Herald here is a dhampir girl named Alia - thinblood father, human mother. When she's twelve, she becomes God's chosen, basically. Traveling with three thinblood guardians, one night, she's approached a Gargoyle named Ferox with True Faith, who sees himself as a fallen angel. And Alia offers him a way of redemption - find the chosen true believers, wait out Wormwood, receive judgement. Anyone can seek sanctuary, only the true believers and the ones genuinely willing to repent will survive the judgement itself. Alia and Ferox set out to find the other chosen ones.

Whew. Very full-on - the players remain in one place with a whole bunch of other vampires for forty nights. I mean, that's a test in and of itself XD All welcome! (Except infernalists and the antediluvians and Caine himself. They're fucked no matter what.)

Like. All welcome XD "Some Storytellers might feel that this character roundup could get too silly, suddenly having all these celebrity Kindred get together for a big slumber party, and they would be correct." Fuck that give me a slumber party AU XD

Am very glad about the note that the vampires inside only lose one blood point per 10 days, rather than every day. Otherwise, uh, it'd get gory.

Yeah, this is a really interesting scenario. Very character-focused, very introspective. All about the characters trying to work out what it means to be good people - not the strongest vampires, not the most powerful, but good people. Are they worthy of salvation? That's the crux of the story. Of course, it's very, uh, Biblical, heh, but it's first and foremost about morality and redemption. I dig it.

Also, giant vampire slumber party.

Chapter 3 - Fair is Foul: Ooh, this is a Lilith vs Caine scenario.

This one has the Withering hit in weird ways, including clan-specific ones - like the Banu Haqim only able to feed on vitae, then only able to gain sustenance from diablerie. Gangrel turn even more animalistic. Lasombra take to the seas, Obtenebration ripping holes straight to the Abyss. Malks, uh, leak madness. Nosferatu get even uglier, Toreador devolve into debauchery. Tremere develop third eyes, and yes, I did laugh out loud when I read that. Tzimisce... hmm... get a bit, uh, uncontrolled. And Ventrue find they can now only feed on... other Ventrue. Fun times!

"At your discretion, Lilith might be particularly vulnerable to Jewish True Faith, as the Jewish tales about her are the source of nearly every negative sentiment ever directed against her in writing. As a result, most orthodox Jews bear Lilith great contempt for defying her husband and her God." Yeah ngl I think she's pretty dang cool and I can just see, like, most of my ancestors facepalming at the idea XD;; Fuck obediance you do your own thing.

"Trying to work out traits for Lilith, Lucifer, Caine, or any of the Antediluvians would just be a waste of our word count and your time." I like the time they published a guide for fighting Caine. It was two words. "You lose."

Ah. Okay, Saulot in Tremere's body being taken over by the Eldest = scary, because have you ever been attacked by an Antediluvian wielding Thaumaturgy, Valeran, and Vicissitude at the SAME :) TIME? :) Yeah :)

Really dig the idea of Abel showing up as the first Wraith. The forgiveness element.

Overall, this isn't my favourite scenario, I think? It feels very chaotic, and while it's probably the most traditional to play, I'm not sure how much it literally challenges the characters, unlike the sheer soul-searching...ness of Wormwood?

Chapter 4 - Nightshade: Chapter starts with, "We all wear masks" and my first thought was "boy you have no idea" XD

Awww yes this is the masquerade break scenario! See here for my thoughts on that and how the Nephtali could be adapted to v5, heh.

Yeah okay earthquakes, volcanoes, and riots are normal enough. A horrible blood virus where it appears some flesh-like thing is living in people's veins and feeding off their blood sounds like something that starts with T and rhymes with Shzimitze. ...Probably. No one knows how the fuck it's pronounced anyway. Oops, those riots are apparently over the existence of vampires. Yeah that'd be... unfortunate. And more earthquakes, this time due to Kupala vs the Eldest. Whew. Red star, yep, standard. MORE earthquakes, this time due to the Second City rising. Sounds legit. Bad times all around!

The details on breaking the Masquerade are interesting. Basic emotions: denial, rationalisation, fear, anger, acceptance. The acceptance one is interesting, because I can definitely see some jumping to it straight away.

So, on to the scenario itself! Jan recruits the players to fight the... uh, mass under NYC. This is the corpse of the Eldest, which is more or less a giant fungal infection held together with Vicissitude, which frankly is just icky. This actually is  canon-compliant with BJD, since it apparently has only just... dissipated? or whatever there, or if it still remains, it's no longer conscious. In this one, its soul flicks back to Tremere's/Saulot's body and wakes up, and basically every Tzimisce, Tremere, and anyone who has ever drank Tzimisce blood (which would be the entire Sabbat via Vaulderie) spontaneously frenzies. Godspeed. Cyscek, a Tzimisce methuselah, helps defeat the, uh, blob at the expense of his life, and warns with his last words, "The Dragon rises. You must stop it. Find Vykos. [They] know." (Okay yeah the text says 'it knows' but also fuck that.) Ooh, plot point!

Aaaand then they retreat from the battle, exhausted, only to find the whole damn thing broadcast on every TV screen, vampiric Disciplines and Cyscek dusting and all. W h o o p s.

Lots and lots of details of a major masquerade breach here. Hardestadt shows up and tells Jan he's proooobably gonna get Final Death for, you know, trying to save the world. Gonna share this bit because it's Very Satisfying.

Please refer to my tag #hardestadt has no rights ;D

Anyway! The characters now recruited, Jan leads them back to London for the Convention of Fire. He's working with Calebros and... like a bunch of others, probably anyone can end up here, so long as they want to actually help and not just fall apart like the remnants of the Camarilla (trying to diablerise their way into keeping power) and the Sabbat (...ditto tbh). Those definitely in attendance are Ambrogino Giovanni, Hesha Ruhadze, and Fatima! And lbr the Nod Squad are probably there too. As if Beckett would pass up the chance to NOT witness what's happening with Gehenna. And Anatole is literally a prophet of Gehenna! They found the Nephtali, led by a council of twelve, with Jan at the head. Name means 'the highest point' or 'no further' - as in, Gehenna goes no further than this.

Oh lmao here we go, the scene I mentioned earlier - Jan vs talk shows.

F to Jan.

Tremere's body (inhabited by Saulot) disappears from beneath the Vienna chantry. Tremere's body, with [Tzimisce] now well in control (having overtaken Saulot; Tremere, meanwhile, has taken over Goratrix's body, with Goratrix's mind stuck in a mirror... it's complicated), wipes out the Vienna chantry. RIP to the Vienna chantry, which doesn't survive in either timeline tbh. Hey, I wonder if that means that Saulot (in Tremere's body) is dead in v5? Etrius manages to escape and reports that the Eldest is now on the way to Ceoris, where it'll call all the remaining Tzimisce to it to become, uh, a part. Pleasant.

Everything between Krakow and Bucharest is straight fukk’d. Ceoris is the centre of all this - IIRC it's somewhere in the southern Carpathians, nearish Brasov. Either way, hell of a fight results with what can only be described as an eldritch abomination, finally both managing to destroy Kupala (the Eldest's goal) and reducing The Thing down to a human-looking body. This bit is interesting! Tremere (in Goratrix' body) and Etrius take one look at each other. "Master..." "I... I know. But where the hell is Saulot?!" Good question, because he sure ain't in Tremere's, uh, former body any more, which was in fact what was fighting them the whole time. Either way, Tremere-in-Goratrix'-body leaps at [Tzimisce]-in-Tremere's-body and diablerises his, um, former body, which must be weird as hell, then tries to turn on the characters and his powers fuckiNG FAIL. EAT SHIT TREMERE. And then the players kill him too and realise that over the course of one night they've destroyed the demon Kupala and two Antediluvians, Tremere and the Eldest. Not bad. This is the battle that causes that second lot of earthquakes I mentioned earlier.

Back to London! They find the mirror containing Goratrix amongst Tremere's belongings. Poor fucker sorry not sorry.

And now the players receive a summons to escort someone from Montreal to the Nephtali headquarters in London! Namely, a Tzimisce named Myca Vykos~ They've recently defected from the Sabbat and want to help take the Antediluvians tf down. (Note: the book here has reverted to using he/him pronouns since they're back in their original form, I'm going to keep using they/them because biological sex does not determine gender identity or pronouns goddammit. ...Anyway. I AM going to use the name Myca since that's the name they're using themself, mostly because, uh, 'Myca' is a bit less noticeable than 'Sascha Vykos', haha.)

So Gehenna has started. Myca's woken up in their original form and being like, "Hey you know what I am preTTY SURE I don't want to serve the Eldest" and promptly joins the Nephtali.

From New York to London to Romania to London to Montreal to London (...London is a hub world apparently), now off to Turkey, to Kaymakli! Which is actually a real place, my brother's been on a tour there. Anyway, this is the part of Kaymakli that they don't show the tourist and that's been sealed shut with lots of angry Cappadocians instead, so that was fun. Presumably Kapaneus hasn't been chilling out there in this one.

Also Colombia has completely been overtaken by the Sabbat so that sucks.

Into Kaymakli! Which usually doesn't let Cainites back out so it may be one-way. Don't worry, there's a ritual for that. At the bottom, they find Augustus Giovanni! Who is pissed off he never actually got to eat Cappadocius' soul and so wants to eat God instead.

As you do.

The book very strongly encourages the players to kill him. Just 'cause. Which is a mood, tbh. Killing him also reveals a beaten, bound Nosferatu, having been Giovanni's most recent food source. An F for Okulos. He's been there for four years, having managed to get a lost fragment of the Book of Nod for Beckett, who promised to come back for him and. Didn't. Which is just rude tbh and I can kind of understand why Okulos ends up betraying Beckett in the Gehenna novel but anyway. (Not canon as of v20, he's perfectly present and chill in BJD.)

End results - the fragment that Okulos went to retrieve shows how to restore the Second City, which holds a complete Book of Nod and may hold the key to stopping Gehenna. It's in Enochian so your player characters probably won't be able to read it (book suggests asking Sascha or Ambrogino). Next stop, Egypt, and a meeting with Hesha Ruhadze! Man this scenario has a lot of signature characters. It also suggests getting third parties in here too, so Beckett would actually be a really good choice. Either way, they find the probable site, and suddenly, a Second City.

Archeologists make grabby hands. Beckett, somewhere, is probably crying in joy. They find a vial with some very old blood in it that they definitely shouldn't drink because otherwise they'll explode (the book uses Sascha as the example here XD;; ). Along with some mystical enscriptions, they return to London and get to work on the prophecy - namely, it suggests that 'the gentle one' (likely Saulot) will die at the hands of another, but arise in a new form, and will stop Gehenna that way. Etrius, one of the only Tremere left and having joined the Nephtali, goes 'fuck it what do I have to lose?' and goes to find whatever new form Saulot is in (potentially can also involve Goratrix here).

Hm. Well. Saulot is apparently in a research centre outside Sydney. Apparently we're mostly chill with vampires, aside from Christians XD Go figure!

Apparently it's a cloning facility. One of the rooms had, past tense, a child, successfully cloned six-year-old, who was in perfect physical form but vegetative from birth. Religious characters will pick up that it's because the kid's body didn't have a soul. Now, it does - Saulot's. Having been thrown out of Tremere's body when the Eldest took over, his soul fled until it could find the most suitable vessel - a soulless cloned body. No actual soul to have to subdue. Saulot ends up reborn, albeit in the form of a six-year-old and without any memories. Turns out, the child was taken by a cult of Thinbloods, believing him to be the messiah.

Sydney's messy situation gets described here! Short version, Sydney's Prince is/was Sarrasine, who was a Toreador. Except he wasn't a Toreador, it was a fairly open secret he was only POSING as a Toreador - he was actually a Caitiff. (Except he's not actually a Caitiff. He's a sixth-gen Setite. Sydney is Like That, yes.) Given Sydney's independence from the sects and its apparent Caitiff Prince, it's become a major site of Caitiff and Thinbloods, which Sarrasine is just thrilled about but can't do anything about because he doesn't want to actually go 'lol I'm a Setite'. Anyway, either way, everyone is unaware of Saulot's return, so the players seek out the little boy, who's pretty spooked and confused. Asks the characters, "Who are you? What is this place? What do all these people want?" and his third eye opens. Tada! Salubri Antediluvian, and like the prophecy mentioned, he's 'unholy' and 'a mockery in the face of God' - a clone.

Back to London with kid!Saulot. The Nephtali have been trying to work out what tf is going on. A researcher tried drinking from the vial. It was messy. The characters might get some downtime. Sarrasine's followers may attack to try and get the kiddo back. Either way, everyone goes to bed, and wakes up to find a Darkness having overtaken the sun, which is generally not good for anyone, and Lasombra characters are just, feels bad man. The Veil of Darkness means vampires can be up 24/7, along with other things that don't like sunlight, and I imagine things like... plants not being thrilled. Also probably very confused animals. I'm not sure if it's like a dark atmosphere, or a physical body between the sun and Earth that just eclipses it whatever vantage point you look from, or what? Disciplines like Auspex, Obfuscate, and Obtenebration go a bit fucky. Then, a few days later, everyone feels a... Summons. For low-generation vampires with still-living Antediluvians, it's strongest. Higher gens with destroyed Antes, not so bad. So I'm sure you can guess what's summoning them.

Yep. Antediluvians. Banu Haqim are getting summoned to Alamut instead so Ur-Shulgi can turn them into an army against the Antediluvians, so godspeed resisting that, Elijah.

Off to the city of Gehenna (it's nearish Jerusalem). Elders of all stripes have been heading there to kill their childer in hope of being rewarded by their Antediluvians to get their powers restored, which is terribly rude. Indeed, the Antediluvians basically go, hey, can you not, and also can you start Embracing more childer for our armies, because they're not very nice either. Pretty much all the characters have been summoned for their crimes against the Antediluvians, and now they're gathered before them - Set, [Lasombra], Ennoia, Absimiliard, Malkav (as like... a cluster of identical little girls with glowing eyes because of course Malkav would use the Creepy Child trope), and [Toreador], who's so beautiful no one can tell if they're male or female. When the players and child!Saulot get there, they question him, but he's literally a six-year-old boy and is spooked. He also has the vial, somehow. Set takes it, and Kiddo says, "Don't drink it. You'll burn up." So Set makes Kiddo drink it instead, because he's a nice guy like that.

Kiddo's third eye opens. A giant black throne appears. The dozen small girls that are Malkav say, "Father's home." Kiddo!Saulot says, "No, Father's dead." Girls start screaming so loud people start bleeding thick black blood from their ears and doesn't stop until Set kills all twelve. A random stranger, now with their glowing eyes, steps forward and basically goes 'wow rude'.

Powerful beam of light appears. The Antes (aside from Kiddo!Saulot) writhe in pain. Angel appears, asks Saulot if he's willing to atone for all vampires. He agrees. Throne explodes, Antes fuckin' die, and everyone promptly frenzies and tries to eat each other, because vampires. In the aftermath of that, vampirism basically... ends. The player characters may be rewarded by becoming human again, as do a lot of Thinbloods, but most everyone older just, uh, dies. Vampirism ends, but the Earth has been saved.

That is... hmm, bittersweet, I think. It's a pretty compelling chronicle, very dramatic, but it's much less character-based and is more, 'the characters get dragged along to Do Shit'. I kind of like the idea of it being a story involving the characters we know, but for original characters, I think Wormwood is a much more compelling scenario so far.

Chapter 5 - The Crucible of God: Okay I'm tired now and this is the 'rocks fall everyone dies' scenario so gonna skim-read this one.

This is the chapter that introduces the level 10 power for all disciplines - Plot Device. The Antediluvians can do shit because they feel like it. Whew. Also, if an Ante spots anyone of their blood line, they can just make them... explode and their blood gushes into their mouth. Monch monch. Spot another clan mate? Roll to avoid frenzy. Just woke up? Roll to avoid frenzy. Good times!

And then the Tzimisce Antediluvian awoke as a mass of Vicissitude flesh fungal infestation with tentacles and lampray mouths and stuff and ate anything in reach until it ate, uh, every living thing in Manhattan. In one night. Bad day tbh. Eventually it burns when the sun rises, but what's left underground is still there and shit's still messed up. Like picking a leaf off a dandelion and it starts bleeding. Trees with faces, swarms of insects forming into eyes and watching. Nice and creepy. In the aftermath, it's basically infecting every life form on Earth with Vicissitude, which is distinctly uncool.

Absimliard has an animal army and currently looks like a giant humanoid jellyfish.

Oh boy here's the Banu Haqim part XD;; Interestingly, it's a lot better for them! Haqim doesn't eat his childer, they feel themselves strongly bonded to him but still maintain their own minds and wills. Downside, anyone who doesn't follow Haqim alone gets hunted down so he can eat them, so Ur-Shulgi's probably having a field day at being vindicated and poor Pyre/Elijah is hiding tf under the bed. Plus side, it only lasts a few months before something kills Haqim, so hey! And there's genuinely a way to become human again, especially for high-humanity, high-gen vampires, so that actually would be a genuinely good outcome for Pyre/Elijah.

Malkavians end up as a giant hive mind. Like, more than usual. [Lasombra] covers the world in darkness, then it stops. Ennoia merges with the entire planet and starts eating people. And vampires. And Methuselah. And other Antediluvians. She's kinda hangry at this point.

Tremere attempts to rule the entire world using the Human Genome Project as the true name of the entirety of humanity. It lasts about two minutes before [Tzimisce] turns him into a meat crime, along with, uh, the entire rest of the world, aside from the players, who were part of Tremere's ritual and thus immune from it.

Also Saulot, who they just met in the form of a little old man.

Turns out, he planned it all along. Lured Tremere to him, knowing that his body was tainted by using Tzimisce blood to become a vampire. Knew that when the Eldest returned, he'd be succeptable, and Saulot would be able to bounce out when the Eldest took over. Now, he can lead the characters in the only way to stop Planet Tzimisce, which is, uh, prayer and letting themselves get eaten. Could actually work! And you end up human again in the bargain!

End result - all vampires gone. Some of the more human ones do end up human again. Either way, world's still fucked. Open Antediluvian rule for several months has destroyed most of humanity. There are still remnants - former Malkavians who are still a bit weird, former Tzimisce who are a bit... Vicissitudey. Ennoia's still around! She's mostly chill except when she occasionally feels like rearranging landscapes. Otherwise, it's time to recover.

Alternate endings - that last one wasn't depressing enough, so here's a scenario where All Is Tzimisce, here's one where there's global extinction of literally everything except the player characters who gradually drop into torpor and never recover (or just flat out burn if they're outside), or there's one where the players are the only vampires left and start a new cycle with them as the new Antediluvians or something, oh and Caine's still kicking and is Very Displeased that God won't let him die already. Gooood times!

Rest is how to basically play it, and character sheets. Which go back to calling Sascha ‘it’ again *sigh* (And using the whole alien look despite explicitly mentioning that they look human again. Of course.)

So, final thoughts! Gehenna is... an interesting scenario. Lots of possibility for introspection. It’s very... apocalyptic, and that may bother a lot of people, since, well, for the most part, it’s going to be the end of playing your character as a vampire. Which I figure most people are playing Vampire the Masquerade for. So it’s basically either a hell of a finale, or you just don’t make use of it.

Favourite scenario did end up being Wormwood. I just really like the introspection and opportunity for hope. Did also enjoy Nightshade, but in a different way, I think? Like for Nightshade, I’d rather read it as existing characters working together, maybe as a novel, whereas for Wormwood I’d want to play it since it’s such an intensely personal kind of thing.

(I also still want a slumber party AU ngl.)

#vampire the masquerade #vtm #gehenna

[bi-naesala]

A well-earned break

Fandom: Yakuza

Rating: E

Warnings: /

Relationships: Han Joon-gi/Zhao Tianyou, Kim Yeonsu/Zhao Tianyou

Characters: Zhao Tianyou, Han Joon-gi, Kim Yeonsu 

Additional Tags: Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Quickies, Blow Jobs, Nonbinary Zhao Tianyou 

Summary: 

Zhao takes advantage of a break during an Ijin Three meeting to have some fun with Joon-Gi Han.

(Also on AO3)

It’s during situations like this one that his father’s words echo in Zhao’s head: he has no patience, which is a bad trait for a leader. Well, guess what, pops? He is a bad leader, and no working on his flaws will ever fix that, even if he were willing to try it.

Though, he supposes, if he were more patient, maybe this meeting wouldn’t be so excruciatingly fucking boring. This isn’t even Liumang business per se, but more like something that the Geomijul and the Seiryu clan should’ve been able to solve between them, but politics are politics and Zhao, as much as he doesn’t want to be there, isn’t so foolish not to remain, lest they disrupt the carefully crafted equilibrium between the Ijin Three.

Still, if there was a way to make things less boring, they surely wouldn’t be upset about it…

Taking advantage of a well-earned break, he goes to hang in the lounge with some of their boys, as well as members of the Seiryu clan and the Geomijul, when a stupid idea comes to him. It’s not mortal - because Zhao’s aware that, if he dies here, it would mean war - but it could still be dangerous, which in their humble opinion makes it even more alluring.

He scouts his surroundings, and he’s surprised to see that the person he’s looking for is actually here, which is weird because he’d usually be attached to Seong-hui during times like this, but Seong-hui isn’t here.

Oh well, it’ll be easier for him to approach him at least, which he does immediately.

 “Are my eyes deceiving me, or is that Joon-gi Han? Shrinking from his errand boy duties?”

If Zhao has managed to get a rise out of the other, there is no sign of it on his face. Stoic son of a bitch.

“Zhao-san,” he greets him, in that usual polite tone of his, lightly bowing his head.

“C’mon Han-kun, there’s no need to be so formal,” Zhao states; after all, his dislike for this kind of stuff is well known.

“Nonetheless, hierarchy exists for a reason, and it would be uncouth of me not to respect it,” Joon-gi replies, though he quickly adds, “And to answer your previous question, no, I’m not ‘shrinking’ from my duties. I’m exactly where I need to be.”

Cryptic answers are Han’s specialty, but at least it’s enough for Zhao to understand that, whatever he’s doing, he’s doing it under Seong-Hui’s orders. Interesting.

“Then I suppose I couldn’t steal some of your time?” they ask, exaggerating his innocent demeanor so that he’ll make Han suspicious.

It works: Han narrows his eyes at him, though no matter how hard he’s trying to keep a neutral demeanor, Zhao can see through his bullshit. He knows he’s intrigued. If Zhao has picked on the signs correctly - and they usually do - then his interest for the other is reciprocated - and how could it not be? They’re both quite attractive after all.

“What for?” Han asks, and yet he hasn’t explicitly said no. If Zhao had felt like showing all his cards, he would’ve smirked at that.

They take a step closer. “Don’t you think this meeting’s boring? Personally, I hate that we’re stuck in here at least for another hour,” he says.

Joon-gi Han doesn’t say anything, but he raises an eyebrow at him, a silent invite to continue.

“Well, if you’re so interested, I might share the idea I’ve just had after all…”

  “I-I don’t think we should do this here,” Han suddenly mutters.

What comes out of Zhao’s lips in an amused huff. “Could’ve said it sooner, huh?”

Did he really just wait for them to get inside one of the bathroom stalls and for Zhao to drop to their knees before having second though?

“If you really don’t want to, fine, but man, what a shitty timing…”

If Han is really getting cold feet, Zhao will stop, but this doesn’t mean that he won’t be a bit sad about it - though he’ll never openly show it because that would be admitting that he’s not as above everything as he appears.

Joon-gi Han stays silent for a moment, probably thinking about the repercussions this affair will have. Always the overthinker.

His answer, though, surprises Zhao.

“Very well. Carry on.”

“W-What?” Zhao stutters, taken aback by the sudden change.

“Do I need to repeat myself?” Han asks, only to then smirk. “Unless you are the one who’s having second thoughts…”

This little…

Zhao furrows their eyebrows, and a frown appears on his face before he can stop it and keep his usual laid-back demeanor. As he reaches Han’s pants and fumbles with the belt, there’s only one thing they can think.

“I’ll show you.”

 They do indeed show him, given the way Han is barely able to keep his voice down, even going as far as to cover his mouth in order to muffle those little noises that, despite his best efforts, still come out.

Zhao isn’t perturbed by any of this shit, and keeps sucking his dick like a champ. He keeps it quite simple, only pulling a few tricks when it looks like Han’s getting used to the rhythm he’s dictating just because they want to keep him on his toes; it’s not often that he gets to see the Joon-gi Han like this, with his guard lowered, and he intends to make the most of it.

It’s an intoxicating feeling, Zhao can’t lie. The more Han loses his composure, the more addicted they feel to it.

 When Han’s hand shoots to grab their hair, Zhao knows he has him wrapped all around his finger, and so he begins to slow down, right when Han was beginning to feel close to the orgasm.

He almost smirks at the frustrated huff that he lets out, but no matter what, Zhao will not go faster than this. Well, there is something that could give them an incentive, but Han has to say it first.

“Zhao-san.”

Cute, he’s calling for him now, but unfortunately this isn’t what Zhao’s waiting for.

“Zhao-san… faster.”

Closer, but still not it.

 Taking pity on him, Zhao pulls away, gaze fixed on his face. “What’s the magic word?” they ask, pointing Han to the right direction.

At first Han remains silent, but the need to come soon takes over whatever sense of dignity or shame he must be feeling right now. Zhao almost wants to take a picture of him, to immortalize how red he’s become - and he can’t even look at him in the eyes!

“Faster… please…”

“That wasn’t so hard, wasn’t it?” Zhao teases him, though he’s merciful enough to wrap their lips around Han’s dick again, sucking it way harder than he was doing before.

 Now that he’s actually putting some effort in this blowjob, Han doesn’t last long.

You’d figure that someone so intent in trying to make the least amount of noise possible would keep it that way throughout the whole ordeal, but Han half-shouts that he’s close, surprising even Zhao. He either has a secret exhibitionism kink, or Zhao must’ve driven him so mad that he’s not noticing how loud he’s being. Zhao hopes it’s the second.

Knowing that they can’t make a mess - not that he truly needs an excuse to do this - Zhao doesn’t pull away when Han comes, swallowing everything. Only then they pull away, making a show of licking his lips just to fluster Han further, succeeding of course.

The expression on his face is almost comical as he watches Zhao. Is he going to act scandalized now of all times?

In response, Zhao flashes him a smile, and that seems to get Han out of his trance, as he helps him up. Zhao’s lucky their joints don’t crack, but damn it doesn’t feel good to suddenly stand after staying on his knees for such a long time. Eh, they’re not as young as he once was; being almost thirty, he’s basically decrepit now - mental note: never say something like that near chairman Hoshino, or he might get offended or worse, he’d try to lecture them.

 “Zhao-san… Um…”

Han’s voice is enough to bring Zhao back to the present, saving him the embarrassment of going on a tangent in their head about aging. Right, he’s still in the bathroom with him.

He recovers immediately, diverting Han’s attention by lightly patting on his cheek. “So? Good, huh?”

“I fear saying so will only succeed in further boosting your ego,” Han replies, matter-of-factly as always. “But… it was.”

“Aw, thank you Han-kun~” Zhao replies, purposefully standing way too close to Han than he should, just to elicit another reaction out of him, but he wasn’t expecting Han to grab them by the neck and draw him for a deep kiss. They can’t help but to let out a noise of surprise, which cause Han to smile against his lips, but oh well, it’s not like Zhao can complain about it.

Wouldn’t you know it, not only he has a nice dick, but he’s also a good kisser.

 As much as Zhao would love to spend whatever time they have left here, kissing Han and maybe going back to do something more, he knows that he has a duty to attend to, no matter how much they don’t want to do it, so he has to unfortunately pull away from those sweet, sweet lips.

“Well, as much as I’d love to stay here, we should go back,” they say, then. Han nods, but it’s hard for Zhao to understand how he feels about it; he hopes he’s going to miss this closeness too.

“Yes, Zhao-san. It would be wise to join back with the others.”

 After getting out of the bathroom, Zhao still attempts to make some small talk, because lord forbids he keeps their mouth shut for once.

“You know, you don’t have to call me Zhao-san all formal like that, especially while I suck you off. Makes me feel older than I actually am.”

“Even if I wanted to, I cannot,” Han replies. “I have to respect the chain of command, no matter what.”

“Didn’t see you thinking about that back there,” Zhao teases him, pointing to the bathroom with their head. He almost laughs at the offended expression on Han’s face at his words.

“Well…” the other begins, clearly trying to find a clever comeback. “That was an exception,” is what he comes up with, before beginning to walk away.

If he walks faster, they might be able to keep up with him, running after him like a schoolgirl with her senpai isn’t something Zhao would do, so he stays behind.

“Oh, come on, don’t act like a child!” they shout after him, but Han doesn’t stop his tracks, not that Zhao expected him to do so.

“Well, that was fun anyway! Call me if you want to do it again!” he adds, then, but this time as well he gets no reaction from Han, though they notice that his step falters just for a moment, so he must’ve breached through.

 After this nice diversion, unfortunately they have to head back to the meeting, but now his mind feels lighter at least. He’ll be able to handle another few hours of this bullshit.

And so they settle down at the business table and lets Seong-hui and Hoshino discuss what they need to discuss, all while his mind is pleasantly blank, focused only on remembering the sweet sounds that Joon-gi Han made while their lips were wrapped up around his cock.

Man, that was fun. The only downside is that he won’t be able to brag about it, because if word goes around of what happened, both his and Han’s reputations would suffer from it. Oh well, at least he can be internally proud of himself.

 They wonder if Han will ever be willing to repeat the experience; as for him, he knows for a fact that he’d love to do it again, and maybe even beyond a hushed blowjob inside a toilet stall.

Oh well, he won’t get an answer just wondering about it, but they’re not worried about that, because of course he’ll try to ask Han again - see, having no sense of shame does help in life!

Despite their effort, he can’t contain a small smirk on his lips, though they’re quick to cover it with his mouth, pretending he’s pondering on what is being discussed.

 This is going to be so much fun.

#zhaohan #tianyou zhao #joon-gi han #yakuza #rgg #yakuza like a dragon #spicy #mine #kim yeonsu #my fics

[halothenthehorns]

THE MADNESS OF MR. CROUCH

Sirius still didn't really look like himself as he collapsed back into his seat, there wasn't enough energy around him like there should have been. It was clear to all, that the more that was shown of this after Azkaban Sirius, their Sirius would continue trying his very hardest to act in as exact opposite as possible in his efforts to prove it wasn't going to get to him. In fact, just to put himself in even a slightly better mood and keep as much attention off of him as he could for a time, he exclaimed, "I think we should give Lily a Marauder's nickname!"

"Why?" Remus chuckled, not knocking the idea, but laughing that this came out of the blue.

"I like it," James said at once, taking no time to warm to the idea. "She's been unofficial since her and I got engaged, this would make it official."

"And what would you suggest?" Lily wrinkled her nose at the boy's, feeling beyond flattered that they were doing this, but never missing a chance to tease them. "Mrs. Prong's? I think not."

"No, no, it's got to be better than that" James sighed, running his hand through his hair in thought. "What about Willow?"

    "Isn't that a tree, why would you go with that?" Sirius snorted in surprise.

Quickly moving past, he kept shooting off, "What about Petal, she is my Lily flower."

"What about Doe." Harry offered with a faint smile, trying to restrain how immeasurably happy it made him to witness this. When he received a few blank looks, he shrugged and said, "What, it's a female deer, and you guys all got named for your animals, shouldn't she be the same?"

"Yeah, but that's not very subtle," Sirius said, his head cocked to the side in thought.

James snorted, "like Padfoot is? Or Prongs? Remus' is practically smack you in the face obvious."

"Well If I get one then so does Harry." Lily quickly shot off.

"What, no," he automatically tried to protest, going beat red in the face, but James waved him off at once saying, "but of course, I would have said something sooner, but I can't come up with a good one for him either."

"You really don't like Bambi?" Remus wheedled, a smirk still threatening to show.

"What's that got to do with a deer?" Sirius demanded.

Several other things got circulated, and Sirius sat back in satisfaction his plan had obviously worked, now trying to hide his own amusement at Lily correcting.

"-we are not calling him PJ, or MJ for that matter, come up with something more original."

"If you like referring to a baby deer so much, let's call you Fawn," Remus shot at her.

"That's as ridiculous as you trying to call James Comet, or Prancer. What's with all the deer themes?" Sirius insisted. "What about Wildfire, or Brighteyes. Both compliment her physically, and you know those would translate into her animagus."

"I like Roan, as my actual guess for the deer she'd turn into would be a red deer," James offered. "And what about Fleetfoot for Harry? Deer's run on their toes, it fits." *

Sirius was clearly fixing to return with something else, but then Lily finally cut across and insisted, "I was going to serve lunch after this next chapter, if you actually want to eat why don't you get along to the book mister."

Sirius pouted at her for ruining his fun, but the hold of food over his head finally won out and he forcefully started his chapter with only a bit of unease still lingering in him.

The three of them went up to the Owlery the next day to send that letter to Percy, using Hedwig to give her something to do.

"You'd think she'd enjoy the time off," James rolled his eyes.

After that, they went down to the kitchens to give Dobby his new socks, the elf was ecstatic.

Lily was beaming with pleasure, so proud of her boy for turning around and giving Dobby back something for all the help he'd given.

Squealing about how Harry Potter was too good to him.

"Nah, he deserved them," Remus smiled, "otherwise it really did seem like you weren't going to be doing that task."

Harry didn't disagree, but still he asked, "How do you think Dobby even knew to grab that for me?"

"He mentioned he heard the teachers talking about it," Lily reminded, "so he probably got the idea from them and filched it from Snape. Does not seem out of character for him to do anything to help you."

Harry agreed, but still couldn't quite erase that nagging feeling he had that he was missing something from this exchange.

Harry returned that Dobby had saved his life with that gillyweed,

"Maybe literally," Sirius muttered to himself, none of them still wanting to think what would have happened to Harry if he hadn't completed that stupid task.

while Ron asked for more eclairs.

Hermione scolded he'd just eaten breakfast,

"And why should that stop him?" James demanded of no one. "Are you telling me she doesn't eat dessert after every meal?"

yet another platter full of eclairs had already appeared via the other house-elves.

Harry asked if perhaps they should ask for even more extras to take back for Snuffles.

"Yes," everyone but Sirius instantly agreed, while he honestly looked disappointed at Harry.

"A little conspicuous don't you think? Food isn't usually sent to the mountains."

"Shut it and say thank you," Remus snapped instantly, squirming in unease that Sirius was starting to act as paranoid as he was in the future.

Ron agreed to the idea at once, they could use Pig so he could have something to do. The house-elves were already scurrying around for the order.

"Even Hermione can't argue with the good of that," Lily smiled.

Hermione turned back to Dobby and asked how Winky was doing?

Dobby's enthusiasm vanished at once as he gestured to the fireplace, where at first the elf was indistinguishable from the blackened bricks.

"Eesh," James muttered in disgust. House-elves were normally very clean creatures, it was in their nature, and the thought of one falling this far really boggled his mind.

Her clothes were falling apart they were so unkempt, and she had several empty butterbeer bottles all around her, a mostly empty one in her hand as she swayed on her stool.

Dobby told that she was drinking at least six of those a day.

"Is she actually getting drunk off of it?" Harry asked in surprise, thinking there must be something really odd for house-elves to be having reactions to a nonalcoholic drink.

"I honestly have no clue," Sirius raised a brow in surprise, "I've never known one to drink it. They usually just eat whatever they're masters say they can, and I've never known one to allow them to have a butterbeer."

Harry told that it shouldn't be strong enough, but Dobby corrected it was to their kind.

All of the elves around them now were giving disapproving looks to the pair of house-elves as they began edging away to perform other works.

Dobby continued explaining that Winky was still pining for her old master, she hadn't accepted Dumbledore as her new one yet.

Lily gave a pitiful sigh for the poor thing, also wondering on if Dumbledore knew how bad she was? She liked to think he wouldn't really leave her down in the kitchens to mope all day like that, but then again, what else would he be expected to do with her? He'd hardly kick her back to the streets.

Harry got a sudden idea about Winky, and turned to ask her if she knew what Crouch might be up to these days.

"I can't see how she would," Remus said in surprise, the former house-elf of the guy had never even crossed their mind. "Crouch only started acting like this loony self after he sacked her."

"I'm sure Hermione would just love to point out how much he deserves this just for that," Sirius smirked.

Further talk of Crouch was not making anyone better, and though it wasn't the elf's fault at all, they were all desperately hoping Harry would drop this very soon so they could move away from this.

Winky focused bleary eyes on them as she hiccupped her way through asking about her master not coming up to school anymore?

Harry confirmed he'd heard reports about him being ill, and Winky began sobbing how Master needed his elf!

Hermione tried to cut in, saying plenty of people got along with their housework.

"Well sure, but magic just can't do everything," James sighed, his mind flickering back sadly to his mum always giving him chores on his holiday. Now that she was gone, he was surprised how much he missed the menial tasks, and her lectures that elbow grease was as good as any spell he would try using.

Winky was distraught at the notion that was all she did, still hiccupping at every other word about how she kept his trust and his most important secrets.

Sirius rolled his eyes in derision at the idea of, "who confides anything in a house-elf? I can't imagine Crouch using her like a diary. Sure he'd talk openly with her around since she couldn't go spreading whatever he told her not to, but I think she's exaggerating her own worth now."

Lily gave him a hateful look for that, he still somehow managed to sound far to condescending of the house-elf kind.

Harry was on his mum's side, there was something very ironic in Sirius thinking house-elves shouldn't be bothered with secrets and tasks...

Harry tried to ask for more, but Winky glared mutinously at Harry, telling him off for being nosy in between her slurring.

Dobby jumped to Harry's defense at once, telling Winky off for calling Harry Potter nosy!

"Well this is certainly interesting," Remus couldn't stop a curious smile lighting him. "House-elf versus house-elf, against two people who aren't even technically their masters."

"I'm sure you'd just love to do a whole study over this," James snorted.

"I'll admit, this is fairly unique," Sirius agreed.

Going on to say Harry Potter is brave and noble, and not nosy!

Despite his own blushing at the praise, even Harry couldn't stop a light laugh along with the others at that last trait he'd own up to.

Winky was being adamant, still hiccupping after every word about how he was putting his nose in her master's business, but Winky kept her silence no matter who asked-

Sirius was going cross eyed with annoyance at having to read so many hic's. Couldn't someone shout boo at her already and scare that off, Winky was certainly tipsy enough she'd fall for it.

then suddenly she slid off the stool and fell to the ground snoring.

"Or that," Sirius said aloud with a happy little laugh, refusing to explain himself to the others just to annoy them.

The now empty bottle rolled away, and a few house-elves came over to tuck a blanket around her, hiding her from sight.

"I'm sure that's their favorite part of the day," James shook his head, "when they can put her in her place."

"You two are depressing me," Lily scolded them both, still trying to find the sweetness in the gesture they were putting a blanket over her even when they didn't like her.

One elf turned to apologize for Winky, asking they not think of the lot of them like her.

"Hermione's the only one who's trying to," Remus had an odd look in place, "which is ironic, considering she's trying to force them all to act that way and not acknowledge they all have rather unique personalities."

"Honestly hoping you two have a discussion about this someday," Sirius told him honestly, if only for the fact that would mean Remus was back in the picture at all.

Hermione tried to explain for the poor thing that she was unhappy, couldn't they try helping rather than just covering her up.

The elf shook its head, saying they were too busy to be unhappy, there was work to be done and masters to be served.

"Well that was just depressing," Lily sighed, having finally admitted that though house-elves seemed to live for their work by their very nature, couldn't they at least have a side hobby or something. They shouldn't have to live for their work twenty-four seven, and should be allowed to grieve or other instances when the time came. Then she honestly wondered if, like Dobby's unique reaction in being happy of his freedom, was Winky even having these emotions at all just as circumstantial? Had studies ever even been done to show the emotional range of these creatures? She'd never heard of one, and now added it to her list of growing projects.

Hermione lost her temper on them, telling all within ear shot to listen to her, they had just as much a right as wizards to clothes and wages!

Sirius sighed and rolled his eyes, wishing he'd taken the time in that cave to talk about house-elves with Hermione rather than Crouch.

Just look at Dobby!

Dobby begged her to leave his name out of this.

"I don't blame him," James was surprised at himself how upset he felt on Dobby's behalf, the poor guy was already an outsider by his kind, Hermione was only making it worse just then.

All of the happy smiles around them vanished at Hermione's declaration, and were suddenly eyeing her as if she were mad.

"From their perspective, she is," Remus agreed.

An elf appeared from the crowd with a ham, and a dozen cakes for Harry to leave with.

Despite the paranoia ringing in the back of Sirius' mind, he wasn't going to deny how warmed he was at Harry considering him like that, ham always sounded better than rat.

Then said ungraciously good-bye, and many tiny little hands were forcing all three of them out of the kitchens.

"Wow, George's prediction came true, Hermione did start a riot in the kitchens," James raised a brow.

"Just in the opposite way of how she meant to," Remus shook his head.

"Credit, we've never been thrown out before, so you did something else we never have," Sirius couldn't stop a bit of laughter.

Dobby called one last thank you for the socks as he vanished from sight.

Ron was angry with Hermione at once, pointing out they wouldn't like them visiting anymore.

"And why would that stop you coming back?" Sirius asked. "You can still pop in and visit, they'd just be a little more bitter about being polite. It's still in their nature to serve you though."

They could have tried to find out more about Crouch from Winky.

"I don't see that happening though," Remus disagreed.

Hermione snapped he didn't care about that, he just wanted more food.

"Yes, and?" James asked, wondering what other reason there was.

The two were irritable for the rest of the trip back upstairs, so Harry went off alone to send the food to Sirius.

"Here I thought you said you were used to it," Lily sighed.

"Doesn't mean I always enjoy hearing it," Harry shrugged.

Pigwidgeon was too small to take the lot, so Harry got a couple of school owls to help.

Sirius still couldn't stop a grimace, the more owls the more obvious the delivery and only proving his point further.

Once they were out of sight, Harry leaned against the windowless ledge and stared out into the grounds, Hagrid's cabin visible. The man was out front his hut, digging up what looked to be a new garden.

"Wouldn't be that surprised," Lily smiled happily, thinking she'd have loved nothing more than to listen to Harry simply watching the going on's of the grounds for hours from his perspective, it would have been far more enjoyable than half the death defying stunts he was usually in otherwise.

Maxime soon made an appearance,

They all got a haughty look about them for that at once, none of them wanting to hear from her after the way she treated Hagrid, and honestly half convinced it was still her fault he'd ended up in the papers like that.

and looked to try talking to him, but Hagrid hardly spared her a glance, and she soon left.

"I'm loving all the colorful things he could have said to her," Sirius gave a not so happy smile.

Lily liked to think Hagrid would have been a bit more of a gentleman and just kindly told Maxime to move along, but honestly she wouldn't put it past him to say something worse either, she sort of deserved it.

Instead of going back to the Tower, he instead stayed late into the night watching the lawns until everything faded to black.

By breakfast Ron and Hermione's argument had ceased, most likely because despite Ron's prediction, breakfast was as good as ever.

"I could have told you that," James chuckled happily.

Harry loaded his plate with all the bacon and eggs he usually did.

Sirius groaned and rubbed at his stomach, food had been mentioned far too often already for his stomach's liking.

Lily sighed, she knew that was coming, and decided she really would start thinking about lunch after this chapter.

Mail arrived on time, and Hermione began looking around expectantly.

When asked, she told that she'd taken out a subscription to the Daily Prophet.

"Honestly I'm stunned it's taken her this long to do so," Remus agreed, "I'd half expected her to do it back in first year when she first found out about them."

She was sick of getting all the news from the Slytherins.

"And there's that," Sirius nodded along, thinking it was poor form on Harry's part to always have to wait on his enemies to find out these important things going on.

An owl did indeed arrive for her, but so did half a dozen others.

"Err?" Lily said in surprise.

"Did Hermione subscribe to a few other papers as well," Sirius tried to say before trailing off in confusion.

Harry asked how many subscriptions she'd gone for, but Hermione had no clue what was going on as she tore open an envelope. Then she blanched.

"That's not an encouraging start," James winced.

She quickly flipped the paper around to show them, and it wasn't a handwritten letter, but a jumbled note clipped from newspapers detailing what a wicked girl Hermione was toying with Harry's life.

"Ouch," all five of them winced for poor Hermione.

"I can't believe this," Lily snapped, "people are actually sending her hate mail? Because they think they have the whole story when they've never even met her."

"Welcome to the media," Remus reminded bitterly, "where people will instantly believe the worst."

Hermione was going through even more, getting angrier with every one that was just like the previous. Then she got to one that made her yelp in pain as a yellowish liquid came pouring out over her hands, causing her skin to boil.

"What the bloody-" James began in outrage, thinking if someone had actually sent Hermione a cursed letter for this mess Skeeter had started than someone was really going to have a problem from him.

One sniff showed it was bubotuber pus.

"Oh that poor thing," Lily crooned, already having to fight down the urge to shield Hermione and rush her off for help, she could only imagine how painful that was.

"I'm going to hex someone's brains out," Sirius growled at anyone doing that to a kid. Hermione hadn't always been the top of his favorite people, but even he'd never disliked her this much, and all over a stupid article!

Tears sprang to Hermione's eyes with pain as she tried to wipe it off, but her fingers were already swelling and sores were appearing in her skin.

Harry was starting to go red with rage that someone had caused that kind of pain in his friend, when she hadn't done anything to deserve it, and this was all Skeeter's fault!

Harry promised they'd tell Sprout where she was as she sprinted off for the hospital wing, while Ron whispered that he'd warned her.

"Is now really the time for I told you so's?" Remus demanded.

"He's paying back Hermione for all the times she's done it to them," Sirius sighed.

He was still sorting through the opened letters, clearly worrying as he told that she'd better watch out for herself.

"Or just not open any mail any time soon," Lily agreed through gritted teeth.

"I for once actually wish Hogwarts would screen these kids mail or something," James shook his head with depression. "Even Death Eaters never sent cursed mail to students."

They went through Herbology subdued without their friend, and traipsed down to Care of Magical Creatures in the same mood, which didn't improve when the Slytherin's were seen approaching. Pansy was already giggling and whispering about something, and her mood only seemed to improve when she called to Harry where his girlfriend was? Why had she run out of breakfast crying, had they broken up already?

"I don't believe Pansy's ever had the pleasure of knowing what bubotuber pus can do to you," Remus began pleasantly enough.

"There's an egregious lapse on her part," James agreed with a heavy smile, "I do hope someone passes along the message to a set of twins. She really needs to be set right."

Sirius thought that was being too kind, he wished he could be the one to set the lot of those Slytherin's right, but it was a good starting point.

Harry turned away to ignore her, not wanting to give the satisfaction of knowing how much damage that article had done.

Last lesson had ended with Hagrid promising they were done with unicorns, and the fact that the first thing Harry spotted was more boxes this time wasn't encouraging.

"Err oh," Sirius hummed, fear that the skrewts had somehow created another clutch of eggs. They'd all really been hoping Hagrid had learned his lesson before.

Harry's first thought was more skrewts, but once he got a look inside, he saw fuzzy little black creatures with long snouts and feet like spades, all blinking up at them happily enough.

"Nifflers," Remus beamed at the admittedly adorable mole like creatures of havoc. "I've always loved the root word of them, niff, which means to pilfer. They were originally bred by Goblins to help them in their search for-"

Lily reached over and placed her hand over his mouth with an obvious look, while he pouted and jerked away.

Sirius wasn't even bothering to hide his laughter, they'd all told Remus more than once not to go spouting off those kinds of facts until after Hagrid had explained whatever so that they wouldn't have to hear repeat information.

Hagrid greeted them all, before saying today's lesson was over nifflers. They were found in mines and loved sparkly stuff, one such even demonstrated by suddenly leaping to its feet and going for Pansy's watch. She shrieked and jumped away just in time.

All five of them laughed at that, it was small payback but dearly loved.

Hagrid was still going, saying these little treasure detectors had a job today. Each of the students were going to pick one, and they were going to find the coins Hagrid had buried over there.

He gestured to the upturned soil Harry had seen Hagrid working on yesterday.

"Never let anyone say Hagrid doesn't do interesting lessons," Sirius vowed, his eyes shining with light at this. "All Kettleburn did was a demonstration for us, had a gold coin being moved around while the creature followed it."

After a warning for them all to tuck away their own shiny valuables, Hagrid promised a prize to the person who got the fastest niffler, and then they all stepped forward to pick one.

Harry picked one up curiously, and its long snout at once went sniffling around his ear.

Lily giggled childishly, at the image.

James couldn't resist making the crack, "good luck of it finding anything in there."

"Gee thanks," Harry laughed.

It was really quite cuddly.

"No we're not getting one Lily," James said at once when she looked to asking. "Ask him why not," gesturing at Remus to continue.

He crossed his arms and gave them all a look that plainly said, 'oh, now you want me to talk?'

"Well, just take my word for it then," James concluded.

Hagrid did a quick count before they began and realized they had an extra, asking where Hermione was?

Ron explained she'd had to go to the hospital wing, while Harry promised he'd give details later, Pansy was listening.

"Guess I'm just happy she didn't witness it," Lily sighed, "it would only make things worse."

The class was highly entertained as the little creatures went diving in and out of the dirt like water, always coming up with a new clutch of coins. Ron's was by far the fastest, his lap was soon filled with the gold.

"Good for him," Sirius beamed, thinking as small as it was, it was good for him to have even this small little win.

Ron was enthused with the idea of even buying one for himself.

James was all the more pleased Ron had now asked, since Moony was giving them all the silent treatment.

Hagrid at once deterred what a bad idea it was, they were house wreckers.

"He could have gone into a lot more detail," Sirius said, giving Remus an obvious look, "but picture that thing going into every corner of your house collecting anything it wanted and tucking it away. You can't really train them either."

Lily deflated on the idea, even if she did still want to see one in person eventually.

By the time all the coins had been found, Hermione made her slow approach, her hands heavily bandaged.

Hagrid didn't notice at first as he was telling off Goyle for trying to tuck his coins away into his pockets,

"Why am I not surprised?" James rolled his eyes in disgust.

saying it wouldn't do him any good as it was leprechaun gold, it would vanish in a few hours.

"I'm actually not surprised by that," Sirius agreed, it didn't seem like Hagrid to be playing around with real money.

Ron's niffler had indeed won, and he was presented with a large bar of chocolate.

"Best prize he could get," Sirius smacked his lips in appreciation.

Class was dismissed, and the three of them hung behind, Harry and Ron making sure all the nifflers were put back in their boxes while Hermione told Hagrid what had happened.

Harry spotted Maxime looking out her carriage window at them.

"Serves her right," Lily huffed, she hoped Maxime regretted this forever.

Hagrid shook his head sadly for her, telling her not to worry too much about it, he'd gotten the same hateful letters about him at first.

"What is wrong with people?" Lily flushed anew with hatred. "He didn't ask for his parentage, Hermione never got to tell her side, but these people can just send those terrible, possibly dangerous things. What if Hermione hadn't been able to go to the hospital wing?"

"I wonder if that pus would even have any effect on Hagrid's skin," James scratched absently at his face in thought, then flinched away from his wife who was sending him a very obvious 'that wasn't my point'!

Hermione was shocked as Hagrid quoted a few, but Hagrid brushed it off as them all being nutters. Hermione would do well to just burn the lot if they came again.

On the way back to the castle, Harry told Hermione about the lesson she'd missed.

"Oh that's right Harry, just rub it in," Sirius rolled his eyes.

Ron didn't speak the whole time on the way to lunch, and Harry jokingly asked if he'd gotten the wrong flavor chocolate?

"No such thing," James shook his head at once.

Ron instead asked Harry why he'd never mentioned the gold?

"Why would Harry tell Ron about the leprechaun gold?" Lily asked in surprise.

"Harry didn't even know," James suddenly recalled telling him this back at the Cup.

"Was Ron planning on stealing some?" Sirius asked redundantly.

Harry asked what he meant, and Ron elaborated all that leprechaun gold he'd given at the Cup to pay back those Omnioculars. Harry hadn't ever mentioned it disappearing.

"Uh oh," the five of them muttered, even Remus involuntarily as they all realized this was coming pretty late after the fact, but it still might upset Ron.

Harry had to cast his mind back to realize what Ron meant, that then quickly pointed out he hadn't noticed till much later, he'd been busy looking for his wand.

Ron stabbed at a potato as he bitterly said how nice it must be to be so rich you didn't notice a pocket full of Galleons going missing.

Harry opened, then quickly closed his mouth sheepishly. Truth be told, the thought never had crossed his mind again, as he'd just defended he'd been far more concerned about his wand, and then after the whole event seemed spoiled.

"Ron's just being too sensitive," Remus sighed, breaking his silence, he was getting bored anyways. "I doubt he would have noticed either if it had been his wand."

"It speaks," Lily grinned.

"Apparently about anything other than Magical Creatures," he rolled his eyes at the lot of them.

Harry tried to remind Ron about the important rest of that night, but he was still stuck. Saying Harry shouldn't have given him that hat for Christmas.

"Oh come on, don't tell me Ron's really going to linger on this," Sirius pouted.

"It really was just an unfortunate happenstance," James winced in agreement.

Harry instead tried to convince him to forget about it, but Ron bitterly stated that he hated being poor.

"How do you even respond to that," Lily muttered to herself, keeping her voice low enough Remus wouldn't hear as he'd clearly realized he'd chosen a poor moment to speak up again, he knew better than anyone this wasn't a feeling you ever really just got over.

Continuing he couldn't blame Fred and George for what they were doing, trying to earn some money. He wished he could go buy a niffler and get rich.

"Would not make his situation any better," Remus sighed, "not all the shiny things they find are worth money."

Hermione tried to make a joke they'd be sure to get him one for next Christmas then, but when he still didn't look any better, she instead pointed out it could be worse, he could have bubotuber all over his fingers.

"There's the bright side," James tried for a winning smile.

Hermione was having difficulties eating her own meal, her hands so swollen she couldn't maneuver her fork and knife.

"She should have just had soup that night," Sirius winced.

"I don't think curling her fingers around a spoon would be any better," Lily sighed.

She dropped them quickly enough and burst out in anger how she was going to get that Skeeter woman back.

"Can not wait to hear that," they all agreed enthusiastically, Harry more than anyone with utter conviction it would happen.

Over the next few days, hate mail did continue to come for her, but in Hagrid's advice she tried to get rid of it all. That didn't always work, as some sent howlers, which screamed at her loud enough that the whole hall knew of the event even if they hadn't read about it.

Harry was trying to encourage her it would all die down, like that stuff about him had.

"Still infuriating they believe it at all," Lily snapped.

Hermione was still furiously curious how she was even doing it, listening in on these things when she shouldn't have even been there.

"Hopefully something illegal enough Skeeter won't ever be able to write again," Sirius grumbled.

Harry had an absent smile of agreement in place, thinking on how right Sirius was.

She hung back in their next DADA class, though no one else did as they sprinted for the door. They'd all been treated to Twitchy Ear hexes, Harry still having to hold his down to stop them moving.

"What on earth is the point of that spell?" Harry muttered in agitation. It was certainly annoying, but hardly the best tool he'd heard of for Defense.

"Some spells are created for the sole purpose of not actually having a bad impact when landed," Remus happily answered, and Harry had a flashback to Professor Lupin now more than ever. "When you learn a shield charm and such, you only hope if the spell doesn't work, it won't leave you harmed as much."

Harry nodded in understanding, knowing he'd never have asked Moody such a question, he was too afraid to ask the old Auror what the point of any spell was the way he went on.

Hermione caught up to them, made sure Harry could still hear through his clamped ears, and told that she'd asked Moody, he hadn't seen her anywhere near the judges table, cloak or otherwise.

Ron asked if there was any chance she'd drop this?

"Why would she?" Sirius asked, aghast with once at Ron.

"So she doesn't get even more hurt," Lily sighed, some lingering fear for Hermione still there she could be getting in over her head, going after such a powerful woman with such a following. There was always the chance even if Hermione did find something out, it had to be something so irrefutable Skeeter couldn't write it off as the payback of a 'silly little girl.'

Hermione snapped no at once, she was going to find out how she'd heard all that stuff!

Harry offered maybe Skeeter was bugging people.

Harry felt his tongue curling in his mouth, his jaw doing a wonky number in regret of himself saying that for some reason... and was thankfully distracted from his own dilemma by his dad cocking his head to the side in confusion.

Sirius said back, "I'll explain if the book doesn't in a second," thinking Ron wouldn't know any better than Prongs.

Ron asked what good fleas would do?

James gave a happy little laugh, both that he hadn't been the only one to not get it, and that had been what he was thinking.

Harry explained about recording devices while Hermione shot down the idea.

James pouted, but admitted he was fine with the answer for now even if he was interested for more.

Demanding to know if they were ever going to read Hogwarts, A History?

"Why would they?" Remus smirked, "she clearly has it memorized, they can just go to her for it."

Ron asked why they'd bother, since she knew the whole thing.

"Shut it Padfoot," Remus said instantly before Sirius could mock him.

Hermione answered that electrical devices didn't work at Hogwarts, they went haywire around so much magic.

"Is that why Hogwarts doesn't have phones?" Harry asked in surprise. He'd always thought the castle was just being traditional with the owls and such, not that there was an actual reason for them.

"Yep," Lily agreed, "even outside of Hogwarts, in just plain wizarding houses, anything that relies too heavily on electricity won't work. It's why purebloods are so unaware of them in general, it's not that they refuse to learn about them, they've just never come across them."

"I can vouch for that," James nodded along.

Rita wasn't using anything muggle, if only Hermione could figure out what she was doing.

Ron pointed out they had enough to worry about without adding a vendetta to the list.

Hermione snapped they didn't have to help, she'd figure it out on her own!

Harry did honestly feel bad for her, he knew he and Ron would have tried to help if they could, but they were a little too worried about the payback Rita had already done. That's all they needed was for even more bad things to arise and hit them, but clearly Hermione cared nothing for the consequences.

She marched off, and Harry had no doubts she was heading for the library.

"I agree," Remus chuckled.

Ron asked what the odds were she'd come back with I Hate Rita Skeeter badges.

"I'd wear that prouder than a S. P. E. W. badge," Sirius said with chipper.

"IHRS actually sounds pretty cool anyways," James agreed.

Hermione didn't ask for their help again on the subject, and both were grateful as they didn't have the time to help if they wanted to. Both were hardly treading in their mountain of homework.

"I'd rather find ways of revenge than focus on homework," James scoffed.

Harry didn't understand how his friend had the time for anything extra as he focused on his workload. Still, he made time at least several times a week to send more food up for Sirius.

Sirius couldn't stop a little hitch of gratitude in his throat for that no matter how much he insisted it was unnecessary aloud to him.

Harry just gave him a challenging look back, stating, "If you're going to be sticking around me at your own risk, the least I can do is help however I can."

Sirius could have kept arguing, but he was so touched, and honestly it was a moot point as of right now.

After last summer, Harry had not forgotten what it felt like to be continually hungry.

Lily shivered slightly as she avoided looking at both boys for a moment, growing more and more wary the longer the parallels between those two continued. She'd never wish anything remotely like Sirius' life on Harry, yet that's what seemed to keep happening.

He kept sending notes as well, telling there was nothing new and they were still waiting on a reply from Percy.

It came in the form of Easter Eggs, passed along from Mrs. Weasley and Percy at once. The boys were the size of dragon eggs and filled with toffee. Hermione's was hardly bigger than a chicken's egg.

"Oh she didn't!" Lily burst, turning the growing worry she had for Sirius into outrage on this. "Molly did not really believe this of Hermione!"

"I'm not that surprised," James crinkled his nose up in agitation, "if she believed that tosh about Harry the first time, she'll believe anything."

"I do not understand this woman," Sirius shook his head sharply, "she knew what was written about her own family wasn't true, but readily believes the same woman about kids she should know better!"

Hermione eyed the egg for a long while before asking Ron if his mum could have read that article?

Ron said it was a possibility, around a mouthful of toffee.

Remus shook his head pitifully at Ron not taking a bleeding hint, he really thought that the friend should have offered his own egg in compensation for his mother acting like a prat.

Harry distracted her by reading Percy's letter, which was short and irate.

"It takes talent to make a letter irritated," Sirius agreed.

Stiffly written out that as he told the Prophet, Crouch was taking a well-deserved break. He knew his boss's hand writing of course, so he knew the instructions he was being given were genuine. Please stop spreading rumors otherwise, and don't contact him again unless it was important. He at least signed off with a Happy Easter.

"A very happy holiday to you too," James huffed, even with Percy gone he'd still managed to be an irritation to them all with his unhelpfulness.

The start of the summer term would normally have meant that Harry was training hard for the last Quidditch match of the season.

"Don't remind me," Sirius groaned like he had a bad stomach ache, missing that sport even more with all the stressful things they'd been dealing with lately.

Instead the approach of the last task was coming, brought up by McGonagall telling him to go down to the Quidditch field tonight at nine.

"Why?" James narrowed his eyes, with some excitement and some worry he wasn't even sure himself.

"It's a big, obvious place the foreigners can find?" Lily offered, though honestly the Entrance Hall would make more sense if that was so.

"Anybody else wondering why all the events are on the 24th of their month?" Remus asked to try and change the subject.

"To be extra cruel, leaving them at the end of the month," Sirius muttered belligerently.

Bagman would be there with further instructions.

"Why did it have to be him?" James huffed, this night getting worse and worse as that's all he wanted, more paternal advice from Bagman.

At the set time, Harry headed down and met Cedric on the way. He asked if he had any ideas what was coming, and Cedric told that Fleur had been telling him about some tunnel challenge, they'd be looking for treasure.

"Wonder where she pulled that from?" Remus asked in surprise.

Harry said he could deal with that, he'd just ask Hagrid to let him borrow a niffler.

Lily had a little vindictive smile in place as she said, "I think Maxime's making up some tosh, claiming she spoke to Hagrid because that's what she saw him working on."

"If the only reason she ever liked him was because of his dragon help in the beginning, then I'm all the more happy it's been broken up," James scowled.

They made it down to the stadium, but quickly stopped short when Cedric exclaimed what they'd done to the place!

Sirius straightened up in agitation at once, his eyes narrowing viciously. Even if he didn't currently like Cedric, he was a Quidditch fan, and on the Quidditch field making that kind of exclamation was not a good thing!

The once smooth, green field was now jutting with crisscrossing walls in every direction.

"They didn't!" James spat in disgust.

"How could they," Harry bemoaned, thinking if this was the result of their not being constant practices on it, he'd ask his team to go down there at once even on top of their homework.

Upon closer inspection, Harry saw they were hedges.

Then something snaked down Harry's spine, wrapping tight around his lungs and suddenly leaving him breathless with fear. The impact of the third task suddenly being all too real were making spots appear in his line of vision, insisting something truly awful was going to happen in the thick of those hedges, something about him and Cedric...

Someone called to them from the center of the field, and they noticed the other three waiting.

Fleur smiled at Harry's approach.

"There's the bright side of that task," Sirius said with absolute chipper, still agitated enough about his pitch he didn't notice Harry's internal dilemma. "Fleur doesn't see you as some little kid anymore."

When Harry didn't respond, Sirius just put it down to him being too flustered to say otherwise.

She'd been doing a lot of that since he'd 'rescued' Gabrielle.

Bagman greeted them by exclaiming over the place, saying when the time came Hagrid would have these things twenty feet high! All while bouncing with enthusiasm.

"When is he ever not?" James huffed.

Upon correctly reading the looks of the two Hogwarts boys, he quickly promised the place would be put back right once they were done with it.

He asked if they could guess what was coming, and after a beat of silence, Krum said it was a maze.

Bagman congratulated him at once, saying their last challenge was a straightforward maze to the Triwizard Cup, the first to touch it won.

"Joyful," Lily sighed without emphasis, her mind already offering up a few horrid plants from Herbology she remembered that she was sure was now going to feature in this thing. All not even seen by Harry until he reached the highest greenhouse levels.

Fleur asked if the maze was really it?

Bagman did add on that Hagrid would be giving a few creatures to make it an extra challenge,

"Oh just kill me now," Remus blanched in horror at once, anything Hagrid would be providing would leave anyone but the man himself running for the hills.

"Not happening Moony, I'd miss you too much," Sirius sighed as he fidgeted uneasily with the pages, honestly agreeing with his friend anyways.

plus some spells and enchantments they'd have to get past.

They'd be let in in order of their points, so the Hogwarts boys first, then Krum, then Fleur.

"I guess that's a slight advantage," James sighed absently, he'd honestly been wondering what the point of those points were.

"Really says something about Harry that he's tied for first place," Lily gave her son a warm smile, even as unprepared as he'd been for all of this, he was still managing to hold his own in this competition.

Harry gave her a lackluster smile back he in no way felt.

They'd all have a fighting chance on the inside, pointing out how fun this would be.

"I am going to strangle him," James emphasized every word, he couldn't have been more clear if he'd tried how much this bloke was annoying him with his constant enthusiasm for all of this.

Harry, who had real world experience with the kinds of things Hagrid would be offering, thought fun was the last word he'd use.

"At least Harry agrees with us," Sirius gave him a wane smile, for the first time noticing Harry wasn't exactly paying too much attention. Still, if he didn't want to speak up, he wasn't going to force him to.

They were all dismissed, and as Harry turned to leave, Bagman tried to catch up to him.

All five of them groaned in annoyance at this. Even if it was part of the Tournament, and it really wasn't feeling like that since they hadn't found a single hint he was doing this for the others, it was never not annoying from the man.

He was beat by Krum tapping Harry on the shoulder.

"Timing," Remus grinned absently, suddenly as on edge as everyone else what Krum could be up to.

He asked if he could have a word, and Harry agreed.

Bagman offered to wait for Harry, but Harry told him not to bother, he could find the castle on his own.

"Are you sure?" James eyed his son critically, "because I sometimes get worried about that."

"I'm sure I can ask directions from Krum if not," Harry said back solemnly, the joke losing something in the delivery because he was still so distracted by whatever horrid thing was going to come up in the last task, but trying his hardest to ignore it for now.

Harry and Krum left the stadium, but Krum did not set a course for the Durmstrang ship. Instead, he walked toward the forest.

"What's he up to?" Sirius narrowed his eyes at the pages and alternately giving Harry a scrutinizing look.

Harry shrugged without too much concern, and Sirius decided he'd been harping on Harry enough about safety lately, he didn't really think Krum would do something in front of the castle...right?

They passed Hagrid's and the Beauxbatons carriage before he stopped in the shadows of the forest. Harry asked why, and he said he didn't want to be overheard.

"That's not ominous at all," James murmured, suddenly right in line with Sirius' thinking.

When he did stop, he turned to ask Harry what was going on between him and Hermione, still mispronouncing her name.

All four of those around Harry cracked up laughing, while he glared at nothing in particular. He was just so happy for them thinking this was funny, while he was honestly even more annoyed Krum thought that was as true as the rest of the world.

Harry had expected something much worse from this set up, just stared for a moment before declaring nothing! It hit him all over again how much taller than him Krum was.

"You think he'd punch you out if you said otherwise?" Sirius asked in an almost conversational tone.

"I wouldn't have thought he'd really like Hermione that much," Remus returned.

He promised they were just friends, she wasn't his girlfriend, and never had been.

"And never will be," Harry added on meaningfully, unable to picture her as anything but a sister.

Krum pointed out how often she talked about him.

"Because we're friends," Harry said in exasperation, the memory of telling all of Hogwarts this making him think he was probably being too harsh on Krum as he cracked.

Harry insisted it was just because they were friends.

Harry was finding this all hard to believe that the acclaimed International Quidditch player was looking at him as a rival.

"Well you certainly are on the field," James said pompously, all of Harry's Quidditch wins swimming to the surface, "it's not that surprising off."

Harry didn't agree, on either front, but wasn't going to argue either.

Krum struggled to get out one more question, trying to ask if Harry had ever...

Harry understood, and instantly said no.

Krum finally looked appeased, instead telling Harry he'd seen him during the first task, he was a very good flier.

Harry blinked in surprise, somehow a world renowned Quidditch player saying that still didn't feel as big as his dad saying that, though both equally went over his head as he still wasn't sure why they thought that.

Harry thanked him, exchanging the compliment and saying how he'd seen him at the Cup, beginning to ask about that Wronski Feint- but quickly stopped when he spotted movement in the forest behind Krum.

Knowing what bad things could be in there, he spun Krum around.

"Poor guy could be in for some real trouble," Remus agreed at once, suddenly wishing he could shoo the two out of there.

Krum asked what was wrong, and before either had a chance to do more, a man stumbled out.

"Err," they muttered in surprise, but it was better than a beast.

For a moment, Harry didn't recognize him . . . then he realized it was Crouch.

"It was what now?" Sirius yelped, looking suddenly likely to chuck the book in the flames the moment that name came back up. The residual hatred of what he'd done, or was going to do and not the point, to him leaving Sirius with a nasty curse on the tip of his tongue.

Still, the moment was truly odd enough that he pushed past his own vile at his abrupt entrance and read on to hear why.

It was clear he was worn from traveling, his robes were ripped and he clearly hadn't washed in days.

While Lily could not garner up much sympathy for a man who gave people to dementors like it was nothing, she still couldn't help the edge of curiosity in her voice rather than wanting to scream it, "what happened to him?"

"Sounds like he was attacked," James raised an almost triumphant brow, "maybe he was on the grounds snooping around again and something in the forest got him." He did not sound the least bit concerned, if anything the opposite that Crouch had gotten away.

He didn't even seem to see them, babbling wildly at a nearby tree instead. He now resembled a beggar, and Harry's mind flashed back to a rant Vernon had once given to what he'd like to do to people like this.

"I have never in my life wanted to hear Vernon's opinion on any subject," Remus scowled hatefully, "but even I won't deny I'd hand Crouch over to Vernon like that." At least Vernon would be inflicting the pain on someone who deserved it.

A few creatures came to the boy's mind of something that could have possibly bitten Crouch to cause him to be so delusional, at least one of them big and nasty enough they hoped Crouch wet himself before he was bitten and somehow managed to escape.

Krum asked if this was the same judge from their Ministry?

"Sadly," Lily hissed with disgrace.

While Harry nodded his answer he edged towards Crouch, who was paying them no mind as he told a nearby tree that once Weatherby was done with that

That was so unexpected Sirius involuntarily laughed that Crouch was still calling Percy that, which quickly fizzled out as his mind quickly realized he was supposed to be plotting imminent death for the guy.

he needed to be sending owls to others as well, going into a list of tasks.

Harry tried to get his attention, but still the man seemed convinced he was talking to Percy.

Harry took another step closer, as Krum asked what was wrong with him?

"More than I care to list at the moment," James snapped instantly.

"Or did he mean in the moment?" Lily scowled, "because that I have no clue, and no real care."

Harry began to say he wasn't sure, but instead they should-

He was cut off by Crouch coming forward, grabbing a fistful of Harry's robes and dragging them face to face.

Sirius felt a guttural noise escape his throat in protest of that guy grabbing hold of Harry like that, he was suddenly wishing Padfoot had been on the grounds this night, not only was he owed some payback, but he hated the idea of Harry being out there at this moment in time.

His eyes still remained unfocused, but now his voice was strained for every word as he begged to see Dumbledore.

Harry promised they could to go him, but Crouch didn't even seem to hear him as he insisted, pausing after every word that he'd done something stupid,

Lily was finally starting to feel a wisp of unease for the man, side along with her hatred of him. She was getting very concerned at his actions, and did not want Harry around him any more than could be helped in case he somehow got worse, like violent.

he had to tell Dumbledore.

Harry tried shouting to emphasize they could do just that if Crouch would just let go.

Instead, Crouch asked who Harry was?

Under any other circumstances, Harry would have laughed, as he loved nothing more than to not be recognized, but as memory of this was being replaced, he'd never found anything less laughable.

Harry promised he was a student at the school, looking to Krum for some help, who was still hanging as far back as he could.

"Some backup," Remus grumbled, Krum not exactly endearing himself further to them.

Crouch asked if he was his?

Harry said no even as he had no idea what that meant.

Harry looked around hopefully, but either they were still too angry at Crouch to consider what he could mean other than a madman's rambling, or they had no idea and Harry wasn't in the mood to ask which.

He got out one last time he had to warn Dumbledore, before switching back to conversing with Weatherby about how he and his wife and son were due to have tea with Mr. and Mrs. Fudge later that day.

Sirius shook his head pitifully as he got all that out, unable to decide which he was more maliciously happy for, Crouch's moments where he tried to beg forgiveness from Dumbledore for all the things he'd done, or these moments of delusion where he still seemed convinced he had a good life. Both would snap eventually and he'd turn back into the heartless monster he really was.

Crouch was now talking fluently to a tree again,

"There's a sentence I never thought I'd hear," Remus shook his head.

and Harry was so surprised he didn't even realize he'd been released.

Crouch was still babbling on about how proud he was of all twelve of his sons O. W. L. grades.

Lily bitterly turned that in her mind, wondering just how proud Crouch really was, or if he even cared above the achievement and not the boy himself getting the marks and making his father look good.

Harry began backing away, telling Krum to stay with him, Harry was going to get Dumbledore since he knew where his office was.

"I'd just leave him there," Sirius said in no uncertain terms.

Harry gave him a wayward look, but didn't respond. No matter how angry he himself was at the man, he'd never just leave someone in that kind of situation.

He turned to leave, but Crouch seized hold of him again, this time clinging to his knees as he begged not to be left alone! He was back to talking brokenly, every word a struggle as he told how he'd escaped

Sirius sensed someone was about to interrupt him in confusion, this didn't feel as comical or lording anymore, there was something almost sinister in that wording, but Sirius ignored and didn't let the comment rise nor did he allow himself to stop in confusion until he got it all out.

had to warn Dumbledore, it was all his fault, Bertha dead his fault, his son all his fault, had to tell Dumbledore that Harry Potter, Dark Lord stronger, Harry Potter...

Sirius finally looked up, blinking in shock to indicate he was done.

"Did he say he knew Bertha was dead?" Remus narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "why on earth would he know about that? The only ones who should..."

He trailed off, either because it was obvious or he was too appalled to say one of the names was anyone's guess, but James had a much more important question, "what's this about you?"

"Don't know," Harry practically whispered back, hearing the truth in his own words, "nothing good."

Sirius felt chills tracing his skin, he didn't find this nearly as funny or pleasurable at Crouch's expense anymore, the venom had actually dripped right out of his voice in his fearful curiosity to read what Crouch was on about.

Harry forcibly wrenched himself free this time, telling Krum to stay here with him while he went for Dumbledore.

Krum called after his retreating form to hurry.

"No, he's going to take his bleeding time," James huffed through his nose, starting to feel twitchy at all the bad this could be. Nothing was adding up with this man lately. There was just no way he could really be a Death Eater, but then how else would he know about Bertha? He'd been acting off since the beginning of the Tournament, and it wasn't just them, everyone had been saying so. James honestly wished Harry had stuck around and tried to ask him some of these questions, Crouch seemed out of it enough they may have even gotten an answer.

Harry made it to the stone gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office and tried to use the password sherbet lemon.

"Oh crap," Remus winced, clearly Harry didn't know that changed every year, and Harry didn't know the new password.

"Wasn't a bad start pup, but now go for McGonagall," Sirius quickly agreed, then turned back to the book in hopes Harry would do just that.

When the statue didn't move, Harry yelled at it to move!

Lily felt a bubble of laughter wanting to erupt up her throat, nothing magical had ever just moved because you shouted at it, but the humor quickly died as she realized how panicky Harry was.

But nothing at Hogwarts had ever moved just because he shouted at it. Instead he began heading for the staffroom?

"Even better," Remus agreed, "there's almost always a teacher in there, and just as close as McGonagall's office which she might not be in right now."

He only made it a few paces away before someone behind him shouted his last name.

They all startled a bit at Sirius shouting that, but no one rebuked him, too busy hoping Sirius would get a move on and show it was Moody or something, he was the most likely to shout they supposed.

Harry stumbled to a halt and turned to see Snape coming out of Dumbledore's office.

"Argh!" James snarled in outrage. "Why is it every single bleeding time something goes wrong around that place, Snape is always the one to show up and make it worse!"

Lily was surprised her first instinct was still to defend, say Snape hadn't done anything wrong yet and instead could just as easily tell Harry the password as any teacher, but the moment was kicked away in seconds as she agreed with James, she had no delusions this was going to go well.

The statue was already closing behind him as Harry came back, telling desperately that he needed to see Dumbledore, Crouch was down in the forest-

Snape cut him off by telling him to stop talking rubbish, what was he talking about?

"He's not speaking Mermish you imbecile," Remus snapped at once, "pull your arse out of your ears and listen for once."

James had a brief flare of regret Remus wasn't at the castle, again, not only because he knew Harry could have instantly gone to him, but just to be telling Snape something like that.

Harry half shouted now about Crouch being down there, ill and acting odd, he needed to see Dumbledore!

Snape had a cruel smile across his face as he told the headmaster was busy.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Lily was already half shrieking in frustration. "What about that was funny? Any part of that should have sent a decent teacher running for the Forest while telling you the password so you could get Dumbledore to do the same!"

"You said it yourself Lils," Sirius bitterly reminded, "Snape has never been anything decent in his life."

Harry shouted back he had to see Dumbledore!

Snape asked if he was deaf?

"Clearly you're not hearing him," James seethed back.

Harry could tell Snape was thoroughly enjoying himself, denying Harry the thing he wanted when he was so panicky.

Remus had his fingers pressed against his temple to try and suppress his urge to keep shouting about this lunatic, who in Merlin's pants enjoyed watching a child clearly frightened except the most sadistic of people?

Before the circular argument could continue, Dumbledore appeared.

"I'm surprised half the castle couldn't hear me shouting and come running," Harry muttered bitterly.

Harry quickly sidestepped Snape,

"I'd have just shoved him out of the way," Sirius snapped.

"Defenestration is lovely any time of year," Remus agreed.

and again told what was going on.

Dumbledore asked no question, but told Harry to lead the way.

Lily sighed in relief, for all of Dumbledore's ever growing shortcomings, at least the man was still springing into action now.

They left Snape standing next to the gargoyle and looking twice as ugly.

James gave a bitter laugh he wished he could indulge in more.

Harry gave more details of what all Crouch had been babbling about as they headed down, Dumbledore's pace quickening with every word.

"He's spryer than you'd expect for a man his age," Remus muttered absently.

Harry finished by telling he'd left Krum to look after him, which sent Dumbledore into such long strides Harry was running to keep up.

"Why would he be worried about that?" Lily asked uneasily, starting to feel a little jittery. She didn't particularly like Krum, but why would he be in danger at the moment, which was the only reason she could think of Dumbledore hurrying along even faster?

No one answered.

Harry took the lead as they got close to the spot, finding the place he'd first stopped and calling out for Krum.

No one answered.

Sirius couldn't help the worry starting to creep up in him, suddenly more thankful than he could put into words Harry had run off for Dumbledore instead of the other way around. This was stupid of course, Krum was fine, Crouch was acting like a lunatic and they were going to find him in moments...

Harry insisted they'd been here!

Harry bemoaned his life that always, at the most crucial times, he seemed to come across as a lunatic.

Dumbledore lit his wand tip with Lumos, and came across Krum.

After a quick inspection, Dumbledore deduced he was stunned.

Lily was biting her tongue to stop herself demanding of nothing what was going on. They weren't even dealing with a task right now, yet they were more wound up than if they were. This was by far one of the creepiest things to happen on Hogwarts grounds.

Harry offered to run for Madam Pomfrey, but Dumbledore told him to stay where he was.

James honestly disagreed, he'd love nothing more than for Harry to go running into the safety of the castle, he wasn't even sure if he trusted Dumbledore enough anymore to keep Harry's safety in mind with whatever was going on, and just knew one thing for certain. He wished Sirius were there.

Dumbledore instead cast a spell that sent the ghostly image of a bird flying towards Hagrid's hut.

The blatant but odd use of whatever magic that was hardly distracted any of them from their scattered thoughts.

Then he turned his attention back to Krum, using the spell Enervate to awaken him. He tried to sit up with a start, but Dumbledore kept a hand on his chest and told him to stay down for the moment.

Krum told that he was attacked.

Sirius was so surprised by that, he just sat there for a moment with his mouth flopped open. Harry had to give him a hard nudge to get him to keep going, resisting the temptation himself to wrench the book away and read it.

That old madman had attacked him!

Lily had half been convinced Krum must be talking about some other 'he,' because there was just no way he could mean Crouch. For all his horrible faults and deeds, it just didn't feel possible he was actually a Death Eater.

Hagrid arrived then, his loud footfalls announcing his approach with his crossbow in hand and Fang at his heels.

"Why's Hagrid there?" James yelped in surprise, not unhappy at his arrival, but the timing.

"You think it was that thing Dumbledore sent?" Remus asked. "A new way to summon someone to you?"

"If so, I kind of like it," Sirius muttered before pushing on and hoping Dumbledore or Hagrid would actually explain it later.

Dumbledore turned and instructed Hagrid to go get Karkaroff, tell him his student had been attacked. Then to go find Moody-

but was cut off by his arrival.

"Now this one I'm calling bull on," Sirius narrowed his eyes curiously. "Why would he know to come down there?"

"One of his detectors he didn't disable went off?" Remus offered without any real hope, it was still too odd a coincidence.

He was cursing his leg, saying he'd have been here faster if not for it. Snape had told him what was going on.

"Now he's lying as well," Remus balked. "There's no way in hell Snape went and told Moody anything."

"I'll worry about Moody later," Lily hissed, trying to wave them all down, "for now let's see the rest of this play out.

Dumbledore turned to Hagrid and insisted he go get Karkaroff, Hagrid agreeing at once and thundering off.

Dumbledore then turned to Moody and told him to start looking for Crouch, which he agreed to at once.

The three remained silent until Hagrid and Karkaroff came back, the second demanding to know what was going on?

"We'd all like to know that," James rolled his eyes sourly.

Krum told his headmaster, and Karkaroff was instantly outraged a Triwizard judge had done this!

Dumbledore tried to say something, but Karkaroff was livid as he called Dumbledore out on this treachery!

"That's his first conclusion?" Lily looked aghast. "That Dumbledore did this. I've called him a lot of things recently, but I can not see him attacking Krum, or in any way setting this up."

"Can't see Karkaroff himself doing it either, and trying to push blame," James agreed. "Krum should be the last person he'd want to attack for any reason."

He went into a mired of tyrants about Dumbledore being a two face, going on about how they should be rebuilding old ties instead of everything that had happened this year! Then he spat on the ground at Dumbledore's feet.

James nor Sirius looked the least bit impressed with this act of defiance. Dumbledore was at the top of their list of someone they needed to have a very heated conversation with, but for all his underhanded and seemingly cruel moves towards Sirius of late, even this still didn't feel in the headmaster's style. They'd give him that much at least.

In one move, Hagrid seized the front of Karkaroff's furs and slammed him against a tree.

"Now see, why couldn't he have done that to Vernon?" Remus grinned victoriously. "I'd have loved nothing more than for that first visit to end with Hagrid chucking them all into the sea, the pigtail clearly didn't do any lasting damage."

"Reason number seven why I think Hagrid should be around all the time," Sirius nodded along.

"What are the first six?" Lily giggled.

"I'm compiling a list," he waved her off, "I'll let you know when I'm done."

Hagrid snarled for an apology, while Dumbledore told Hagrid to put him down.

"Dumbledore never lets anyone have any fun," James pouted, he rather enjoyed this mental image.

Hagrid released him at once, Karkaroff falling to the ground in a tangle of twigs and leaves at the trunk.

Despite the seriousness of Harry's situation, that didn't stop anyone giving a nice laugh at Karkaroff's misfortune.

Dumbledore told Hagrid to take Harry back to Gryffindor tower now.

Hagrid tried to insist he'd rather stick here, but Dumbledore was being firm, turning to Harry that he was to go back to his tower and stay there. Anything else of any importance, even any owls he wanted to send,

"Hey, leaving me out of the loop like this," Sirius yelped in protest.

Honestly, the others were almost relieved. Now that there was no doubt Harry was out of danger, being with Hagrid and heading back to his tower, they didn't want Sirius anywhere near this. If Harry sent him a letter now, he'd be on the grounds of the castle to investigate before you could finish the first reason of why it was a bad idea.

could wait.

Harry agreed with some unease, wondering how Dumbledore knew he'd already been forming a letter to Sirius in his head.

"Because Dumbledore is a Legilimens," Remus sighed, "something he doesn't usually use on students, but I guess he made an exception on you to see if you missed any details."

Lily tisked, wishing he'd asked permission.

Harry followed in Hagrid's wake back to the castle, after he left Fang standing guard over the scene.

Hagrid was in a rampage, muttering curses about this whole situation and Karkaroff's take on it. Dumbledore was worried about everything lately and this was no help.

Then he turned on Harry, who jumped at being taken aback.

"So am I," James had jumped slightly at Hagrid turning his attention on Harry. What had he done wrong to deserve this?

Demanding what he'd been doing down there with a Durmstrang?

"I think Hagrid's taking Maxime's spurn a little too personally," Remus sighed, "now he hates all the foreign people."

"Though with good reason from that school," Sirius scowled at Harry as well, "I wasn't any happier when you went off with him," still, he smoothed out his face and finished, "but Hagrid is in the wrong this time, Krum wasn't the problem."

Harry rolled his eyes at his godfather, and Hagrid, acting so paranoid when Krum had never done a thing wrong to him.

Krum could have jinxed him, hadn't Moody taught him anything?

"Moody isn't exactly one I'd be taking life advice from," Lily shook her head.

"Well he has kept himself alive long enough to be some credibility," James couldn't help but poke back.

"After gaining himself how many enemies?" Lily challenged right back.

James let it drop.

Harry defended that Krum was alright, they'd just been talking about Hermione.

Hagrid vowed he'd be having words with her next.

"Be afraid for Hermione," Remus said, in almost close to amusement. Cleary Hagrid had taken on an almost paternal roll for all of the kids, which was honestly adorable, the most of which for Hermione. Krum now had Hagrid to fear if things got serious between them.

None of them should be having anything to do with those foreigners.

Harry pointed out he hadn't thought so when he'd been spending time with Maxime.

"You know why that changed," Sirius looked at Harry in disbelief, "why would you bring that up?"

"My point still stood," Harry defended, "he was just fine with it when it was him."

Hagrid looked so menacing as he told Harry not to mention her, he actually looked frightening for a moment.

"I honestly forget how scary he can be," Harry said a little faintly, not used to seeing such a lovable man in an apron look ready to use that crossbow any second. Last time had been his first trip into the Forest, and that hadn't been pleasant either.

Saying he knew better now and that third task wouldn't be over soon enough. They couldn't trust any of them!

"That is so depressing," Lily sighed in sympathy for the poor guy.

Hagrid was in such a bad mood, Harry was relieved to say goodbye to him at the portrait hole. He went inside and at once went to tell his friends what had happened.

"Least you can tell them," Sirius was still pouting he was being left out of the loop till the very last as he passed the book to Harry.

HPHPHPHP

*I've mentioned that I would love nickname suggestions, now you know why. The ones I last used are the ones I like most, but really they're not sitting right with me. The Marauders gave themselves nicknames based on the actual animal's parts, whereas Roan and Fleetfoot just don't fit the pattern as well...

Finally saw Fantastic Beasts, just in time to further appreciate the adorableness of the nifflers in this chapter. I know I've failed as a fan, especially a Hufflepuff at that, by not having seen it long before now but stupid college life crap stopped me. Still, the movie was as beautiful and wonderful as everything with the HP name attached to it, especially for me as I freaked out every five seconds at getting to see all of those beautiful creatures. Let me know which one was your favorite from the movie! Mine was the occamy, kept whispering I want one under my breath in the theater and pissing off those around me, most beautiful gorgeous thing I've ever seen!

Also let me know what beast's you're hoping to see in the following movies, my fingers are crossed for a Horned Serpent like my Ilvermorny house!

In order of the nicknames appearing, suggested by:

MelodyGirl239- Willow/ Petal

MelodyGirl239/ Shakira94- Bambi

#the life that never lived #Harry Potter #fanfiction #reading the books #GoF #Marauders #Jilly #James Potter #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #Lily Potter

[grayhouse3]

SJTR is my villain origin story

So I finished Stalking Jack the Ripper.

Originally I told myself that I was going to just stick it out and read the next one (“Oh, it’s about vampires and Dracula. It’s probably more fun. You can forget all about the pain this one inflicted on you"). No. I got 12% of the way through and had to DNF. So here are my messily compiled thoughts on the book, basically expanded from the last post. Honestly, kind of feel free knowing I won’t be writing more about this series. (Also I am adding some TWs down below but don't know if I am doing them right!)

More on the exoticism, weirdness with Audrey Rose's Indian mother, and the British Empire:

In chapter 14, we read, "Dark strands of hair were piled atop my head, my eyes more mysterious somehow with the dark liner, and my lips were the bright crimson of freshly spilled blood … I thought of my mother and the saris she’d brought me to wear from Grandmama’s homeland. I felt just as stunning now as I did then, and the memory warmed me.” I am still trying to figure out why Maniscalco made Audrey Rose mixed race. Why is Audrey Rose’s grandmother from India? Literally, what did it add to the story? Was it nothing more than just a cute lil quirky fun character trait to her? I don’t think I missed any key moments where there were important conversations about race, imperialism, British occupation, etc., mostly because Audrey Rose’s father (a big fancy rich lord) is a white man and because Audrey Rose is white-passing. I can’t recall any moments in the book where she faces the realities/consequences of being a socially mobile POC WOMAN in LONDON IN THE 1880s. Honestly, if someone else can point out a passage I glossed over or explain some nuance I missed I would actually really appreciate it, because this drove me CRAZY.

(Audrey Rose and her brother also go visit a circus in town in chapter 15; of course these events existed purely for England/colonizing countries to exercise and display their power and to exoticize/exploit the communities/cultures that they came into contact with. Audrey Rose sees silks, beads, etc. that remind her of her grandmother’s saris, smells the foods of her family’s “homeland,” etc. Also in the same chapter there’s this great scene where her brother is describing their mother and father’s marriage: “Grandmama told me she’d refused him twenty times just for fun,” Nathaniel replied. “Said he squirmed like a cobra in a basket. That’s how she knew he was in love.” Uhhh … Is that supposed to be romantic?)

On the feminism stuff:

I am too *gestures vaguely* to write much more on this. Yeah, it’s heavy-handed. Yeah, it’s cringey. But at the end of the day, it’s not really that harmful, I guess. Here’s just a fun sampling of some of my favorite lines from the book:A few of my favorite bites from the book:

***“close-minded society” (chapter 21) Okay

***"Why turn a murderer of women into front-page news?” (chapter 15) Bro do you know how the media works

***"But what of her [mother’s] insistence that I could be both strong and beautiful? Surely Father had to be wrong.” (chapter 21) Yes girl you are strong and beautiful!

***"There would be no skirts or bustles to wrangle with anymore. I was through with things confining me” (chapter 22) Ugh down with corsets just another tool of the patriarchy amirite

On the violence against women, weird classism, and stuff about prostitution:

I was bound to be uncomfortable about a lot of this because I have weird feelings about true crime stuff, and this is historical fiction set around the Jack the Ripper murders. It was going to go sour somewhere.

Consistently Audrey Rose wants to be sympathetic, but is unable to connect all the parts of this situation together: she struggles to imagine the women (very real-life victims) beyond their lives of prostitution, poverty, squalor. When she does, we see something like this: "The women he murdered did matter ... They were daughters and wives and mothers and sisters” (chapter 28). Oftentimes she wishes she could continue to cut cadavers open in peace (women in science!) without having to think about how those cadavers came to be on her examination table: “I needed to get away from those women and their tragic lives before my emotions got the better of me” (chapter 25). Perhaps Maniscalco deserves more credit here, and perhaps I’m just being a bitch, because Audrey Rose is a very privileged girl and her actions and thoughts make that clear. It’s just that the conclusions she comes to in the name of feminism, justice, etc. weren’t at all satisfying to me.

Also: OH MY GOD. Oh my god. There is this one moment that is BRANDED AGAINST THE GRAY MATTER OF MY BRAIN FOREVER and I will never forget it. At one point, Audrey Rose and love interest Thomas decide the best thing they can do is go out and—yes—stalk Jack the Ripper. To do this, they know they need to “blend in” with the crowds in East End. So … like … cosplaying as poor people? Audrey Rose manages to find and wear the dress of ONE OF THE MURDER VICTIMS (long story short her medical doctor uncle was in a relationship with this woman and when she died he acquired her worldly possessions). It’s like, so fucked up, I can’t even describe my reaction when I read it. In chapter 25 we read, "The dress was a little too old, a little too ragged, a bit too big. If I were to wear this ghastly dress out, I’d look as if I belonged in the East End, begging for work to feed my addictions … It was absolutely perfect.” Oh my god. And THAT’S NOT EVEN THE WORST PART. While they’re “stalking Jack the Ripper” on this incredibly stupid mission, the two main characters just … make out in an alley. Like, okay. People are being murdered and you’re wearing a dead woman’s dress and you suspect your father of being guilty, but yeah, that kind of stuff makes us all a little horny. Super relatable. Absolutely no concept of reality or consequences or anything at all.

Another random note on class: I noticed the only time Maniscalco writes in dialects/accents, she’s writing seedy/working-class characters. Not saying this is a problem unique to Maniscalco’s writing by a longshot, but ... something to think on. (I think it’s ingrained in a lot of author’s writing habits/minds at this point.)

Weird stuff about the dad, the brother, and what justice means to Audrey Rose:

I had to add a whole new highlighting color for this stuff!

Any growth Audrey Rose might’ve shown over the course of the novel—anything about how these women mattered, and how they deserved justice as any “highborn” individual might, simply by dint of being humans—goes away when she and Thomas come to the conclusion that the Ripper murders must have been committed by Audrey Rose’s father. She realizes her moral dilemma when she contends with the harsh reality: if her father is the Ripper, can she turn him into the authorities? Audrey Rose worries how that might impact her own moral virtue: "They’d hang Father. Given who he was, they’d make it as public and brutal as possible. Just because blood might stain his hands did not mean I wanted his on mine. No matter if it was right or wrong” (chapter 24). First of all, BITCH. You have to. You have to report this kind of thing. No ifs, ands, or buts. I HAVE to imagine Maniscalco’s intended audience would feel the same? It’s? Serial murder? Second: Audrey Rose, baby, sweetie, honey. This is just a reminder that ACAB. I actually don’t know a whole lot about how the late Victorian criminal justice system functioned, but something tells me her family's public outlook would’ve been less bleak than she imagines here.

Lucky for Audrey Rose, her dad isn’t guilty in the end—but her brother sure is. He’s a mad scientist, using the brutalized bodies and souvenirs of his victims for Frankenstein-style experiments. Ultimately, he wants to reanimate the corpse of his and Audrey Rose’s long-dead mother, and he believes he can achieve this by transplanting fresh organs into ? Her dead and decomposed body? The thing is that, this moral dilemma persists for Audrey Rose—and her dad, too. He pressures her not to bring the little matter of Nathaniel’s issue—you know, his casual murder of a number of local women—to Scotland Yard: “They’ll have your brother hanged,” he said quietly. “Could you honestly watch that happen? As a family, have we not suffered enough?” (chapter 29). Nathaniel electrocutes himself to evade capture by the authorities, and Audrey Rose and her father feel relief. The book ends by confirming that "Lord Edmund covered up Nathaniel’s involvement, I didn’t ask how. One day I’d let everyone know the truth, but the pain was too raw now” (chapter 30).

((Side note: Listen. I knew Nathaniel had something sinister going on from the GET-GO (I’m not trying to be obnoxious) because he basically started some nighttime vigilante group called the Whitechapel Knights of Justice or whatever bullshit, I don’t know. All I know is that my red flags IMMEDIATELY started going off because that sounds exactly like the terrible and awful Crusader cosplay clubs from my (bad) Catholic childhood, where everyone thinks they’re a knight for Good but really they’re the bad guy.))

Overall, kind of ...

I think one of my biggest issues with this ending was … You have already stepped into a realm of fantastical revisionist history here in writing such a fictionalized version of these real-life events. (I know Maniscalco is far from the first to do it.) That means that the rules you are playing by are essentially your own—evidenced by the liberties she points out in her Author’s/Historical note (dates changed for convenience or storytelling purposes, real-life individuals changed for narrative purposes, etc.). So WHY would you not conclude this fantasy retelling of the Jack the Ripper murders by meting out some form of justice? I hear the counterargument: "Well, because we still don’t know the culprit today. This book would ring hollow if it named someone since historians, forensic scientists, etc. still don’t know who committed these crimes." My question: is that really a problem though? This is a work of fiction. Nothing in history happened the way it is written here. Is it crueler to the women who were murdered and who remain spectacles for true crime junkies and authors like this, less satisfying to readers who want some more concrete kind of closure, to not offer that up? I am asking this in earnest here, because I don’t know. Maybe it is insensitive to make up a murderer, to fill in the gaps in order to make sense of the violence that happened. But in my brain it feels almost like a responsibility at this point, since these murders served as the backdrop for the romance between Audrey Rose and Thomas, for the background to Audrey Rose’s empty feminist diatribes, and as inspiration for a book that went on far longer than it needed to. To me it kind of feels like the least an author could do, but I have no clue.

Anyways, I'm just glad I get to put this series to bed. No more.I truly lost sleep over it this weekend. Onto something better, please, for the love of god.

#mnc reads #mnc writes #stalking jack the ripper #sjtr #I dont know what to tag this as but I dont want to leave anything out! #tw death #tw suicice #body horror #violence #classism #I guess #racism #maybe #I dont know #Im sorry

[dallonm-archive]

Hi! I love ur WIP oh revelations revelations, and I was wondering if you could give ur characters physical descriptions?

hi thank you so much!!! not gonna lie i ~suck~ at character descriptions (really I’m just not confident in them) and the ones I do aren’t overtly detailed and feed a lot more into showing their personality combines with appearance. Plus as a reader I will create my own image in my head if I don’t get something from the author lmao. So this will just be some rambles with some picrews and IRL photos (I don’t do official faceclaims and will get into that, but I do use some to help visualise what’s in my head), and also fashion because I love fashion and I love 80s fashion and I have to stop myself from writing 389424 outfit descriptions <3 feat. some barely edited prose!! 

only doing the “main five” (are they truly the only main characters? I have no self control <3) because I lose track of which characters I’ve talked about so this is far from all the cast! And picrew/photo limitations mean these aren’t how exactly they look but it gives you an idea! Also I wrote this out and then lost it t w i c e :) Here are the two picrews I used: x x

Beau

My KING. It’s kinda funny to me because his description comes from the POV of a man who’s going to fall in love with him so whilst it’s not like “oh my god he’s so hot” I feel like you can DEFINITELY tell there’s something there. Beau and Felix aren’t exactly a slow burn couple lmao

Beau mirrors his mother. Same complexion, same smile, the only difference is his eyes are lighter and his curls are wilder, one absentmindedly coiled around his index. He wears a pistachio coloured button up with palm tree prints, oversized. A necklace with a shell charm, a brown beaded bracelet. He still grins at Felix, charmingly, as he continues to ramble about the music. Beau is effortless. He swims in the San Francisco colours.

This picrew captures him pretty well although I wish they had a facial hair option as he does have a bit of stubble

It’s all about the curls! He has a head full of them and they’re my favourite thing about him. This is a good example of where I don’t have a faceclaim but I do have pictures of a model that help visualise what I see: these pictures of Miles Frank were the first that resembled what I saw in my head, but only these two resemble him lmao. He’s not his faceclaim. Again, it’s all about the curls! (and the leather jacket)

He kinda has an athletic build not not overtly? Like he’s not muscular but he used to do a lot of sport as a teenager and he’s 100% the type of person who wakes with the sunrise to go on runs. Cannot relate but good for him! He’s around 5′10/5′11

Style is definitely important for his self expression but he also values comfort over fashion. It’s all about the oversized printed button ups (I found one in a thrift store that looks EXACTLY like the one in the description and I didn’t buy it I’m so mad!!! I failed both Beau and the queer community in that moment). He will wear All The Colours but he especially likes greens and pinks/reds. Leather jacket is a staple when the weather allows it. 

He also loves jewellery, especially bracelets, especially homemade bracelets. 100% makes friendship bracelets.

Dorothy and Felix

I’ll put these two together because they’re not identical but like, they are twins lmao. Life hack: if you hate description for the POV character give them a twin and make them lowkey hate each other so you can ~compare~

Brother and sister. Born minutes apart on a dreary January night that wheezed rain. Bundled in identical bloodstained blankets, porcelain limbs and faces indistinguishable - but as they grow, the mirror their reflections share starts to crack. Dorothy grows taller, then Felix overtakes at 16. Dorothy’s features soften, but she grows a glare that digs deeper than Felix’s ever could. Dorothy aims for the moon; Felix accepts that he’ll never leave. Dorothy maps out a survival plan for the outside world; Felix maps out how he’ll work for the Church. But they still share the cinnamon hair, the freckles peppering their nose and cheeks, the grey-blue irises and heavy eyelids. They grew into different people with the same face made of different stitching, the same blood infected with different sin.

Dorothy is the only one who kinda has a faceclaim but not really? I struggle with faceclaims beyond inspo/resemblance because like I said, I don’t have the most exact image in my head but I am still very picky so I can look at a pic and immediately be like YES or NO lmao. But also, an issue I have is that a lot of faceclaims come from models/actors; I have no issue with pretty characters (I would call mine pretty lmao but it’s never like. a character trait), but there is that element of conventional attractiveness as well as editing/posing/lighting for professionally shot photos. That’s just me personally though, love them for helping visualise ideas! Since Dorothy was really difficult to get an image of, a “faceclaim” really helped. I made her after Felix so her only descriptor was “brown hair like her brother, similar facial features”, until I saw these pictures of Jane Birkin from the 60s. Again, not an official faceclaim (Dorothy isn’t as skinny as her), but that was where I first got an image of her as an individual character and was definitely the foundation. Her hair looks exactly like that!

She doesn’t really wear makeup, it’s not a statement or anything I just don’t think it suits her haha. 100% wears astronomy themed jewellery though

Her favourite colours to wear are red and violet. I’d describe her fashion as quite casual and flowy? She loves blouses, especially ones with floral prints. 100% rocks double denim (we are pro double denim here). I’d say her style is also more 70s inspired than 80s 

She’s 5′9 which makes me 😳

I first made Felix because of a picture of Luke Powell, and I have to laugh because he is SUCH a common faceclaim on Pinterest but also suddenly I was just like ??? NO???? I held onto him as a FC for way too long when they don’t really look alike  

Fluffy hair! Floppy hair! This isn’t canon in the book yet because I’m not sure how to present it beyond a bunch of hair descriptions, but I can see his hair being much shorter whilst he’s still in the cult and then he slowly grows its out (not much longer, just messier and unkept until its like the picrew) - again I have no idea how to show it in prose but I think in a movie/TV Series that’d be a cool way to show passing of time but also him settling into his identity. If he wasn’t a coward he’d grow it to mullet length

He and Beau are similar heights - 5′10/5′11. I love height differences in couples but I don’t think that suits them? They’re more likely to argue over who’s the taller one because the inch or so difference is so subtle they can’t even tell LMAO 

I know this man just has the ugliest fashion taste but like in good way? Like you know when you see a sweater in the store and you’re like that’s so UGLY I need it? 100% owns both of these:

I think he’d wear a lot of yellows/oranges/browns but also blues. Would love a brown corduroy or bomber jacket, or dark/moss green??

Jolie

The way she was LITERALLY meant to be the main antagonist and then I was like wait but she’s hot lol. Jolie is a very interesting character to me - she won’t be in the next update but she’ll be talked about a lot in the one after 👁️ (Not obvious in the excerpt but the idea is Dorothy’s listing the “colours” of Jolie)

High waisted, baggy jeans distressed at the knee; matching denim jacket rolled up to the elbow. Faded blue. Cheap band print shirt. Blondie. Kitchen scissor-cut fringe. Bleached – originally chestnut. Chipped nails. Cherry lacquer. Round glasses with scotch tape around the bridge. Silver. Triangular face, straight nose. Pale. No makeup besides red lips. Whatever the cheapest red shade at the drugstore was in 1984. Combat boots with heels nobody else would travel in, but Jolie would. Leather black. 5’2. She smiles at Dorothy with her teeth. Lipstick stains her incisors.

Jolie’s been the hardest to nail appearance wise and it honestly this picrew is the only thing that visualises what’s in my head. 

At 5′3 she’s the shortest out of these five. She’s plus sized, which is another thing I find a lot of picrews don’t show very well unfortunately

She bleaches her hair just before we meet her in the book, and later on we see her cut her hair into a messy mullet style, before that it was shoulder-length. Would never pay for a haircut because hairdressers cannot give her what she wants

A lot of her style is a blend between masculine and feminine. She has a very complicated relationship with her gender identity which she navigates through her expression but she does embrace some elements of femininity, although to her it’s redefined to suit her perception of it. Her style is very similar to Jamie’s from Bly Manor. I think she’d also be influenced by punk and rock fashion.

She’s a gardener and it shows, definitely the type to tuck a little flower behind her ear. 

Isaias 

No character description for him because I scrapped and am currently rewriting the whole chapter where he’s introduced so :( but I will make sure to include it in the next writing update! I love him, he has such pleasant vibes

There is one picture that is very similar to how I see him, especially because the person in it is wearing a denim jacket and an oversized denim jacket is an Isaias STAPLE. The only problem is the photo is in black and white, also I’d like to see him smile.

I’ve been struggling to nail his hair but the picrew shows it quite well, albeit in a cartoon style. It’s all about the long side part

Besides the denim jacket he wears a lot of turtlenecks when the weather allows it, otherwise he’s a big fan of dress shirts. Loves to wear deep blues and purples. Depending on the weather, he’d also layer up with two jackets over a dress shirt. On the flip side I can see him wearing a pastel coloured blazer as well, like lavender? LOVE that. 

He’s a pretty average height, not short and not very tall. Around 5′8? 

Pretty much always has some kind of bag/backpack with him because he likes to have his notebook on him at All Times. 

I’ll stop myself there because this is getting long! Like I said, I don’t have exact images in my head but I do have well, an image lmao. I do like the idea that people can develop their own image in their head too based on what I’ve described so I hope that was interesting! I’d also love to do some art of these guys so I can show better what I see, but unfortunately my tablet is at my dorm and I’m at home and we are on strict lockdown for the foreseeable future :( someday! 

#Anonymous #revelations revelations #omg i have to change the tag on all the posts ive made #thank god for xkit