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rayshippouuchiha · 2 years

Note

KHR Recs

These goodies are on FFN. Maybe some were transferred over to Ao3.

Russian Roulette by Vixen Tail

PreCanon OC born in Russia derails canon. Amazing world-building, accurate major events with mentioned divergences, slow burn endgame romance with Reborn, also she does have other relationships. I don't know how to talk about this fic without spoilers. This is a huge series, remember that. She's on the last part of the series now (vixen thinks) and the chapters are huge. I swear to God, this is the #1 khr fic for me.

Anything by wolfsrainrules and northeast.

Breathe Throught the Flames by NorthPeach

Ichigo is reborn. He has magic fire powers. And is that... a parent? Who's parenting him?

Some Say Ice, I Favor Fire by NorthPeach

"Consider actual unicorns. Dragons." Skull tried to warn you, Reborn. Hibari and Tsuna raise a dragon. Only 2 chapters but they're beautiful. Hibari loves his firstborn child and Will raise the best dragon ever.

Slip Up by wolfrainsrules

Undergoing rewrite under Slip Up Revamped. HP/KHR. Skull is Harry and the Arcobalenco learns what kind of person their "Lackey" really is.

Also on Ao3. All their fics are great. Those that aren't oneshots are not yet completed, however.

Out of this World series by Luki Fanfic

This one is on Ao3 as well. The series is about the 10th Gen plus Tsuyoshi going to a new world to build a life. There's a BNHA and a Pokémon crossover. BNHA is a more Slice of Life Humor while the Pokemon I purely Humor, not quite Crack. Pokemon does have Hibari, though.

Black Sky by Umei no Mei

HPxKHR Starts with FemHP being raised by the Black's before she gets with Xanxus. Fair warning, very long WiP fic. Also, stays with HP for a long time. Comes off with a very Period Piece since Dorea (femHP) was raised by Old People Nobility. Amazing worldbuilding. Everything slots together beautifully, from both fandoms. Also, Dorea is a single mom for a while because of Nono's bitch ass. But she does get to meet Daniella (badass grandma with a crossbow who led the Vongola during WW2, you will adore this character, she hated almost every family decision her son made)! Beautiful communication between Dorea and Xanxus, once they realize there are cultural and personal misunderstandings.

He Deserves Better by AliceVermillion

Cliche twin fic, Tauna runs away and is taken in by the Varia.

Keeping Your Character by Insanity-Red

OC's reincarnation was messed up. She ends up replacing Lambo and is aged up. Humorous, she torments Tsuna by being so blase about it all.

Don't Kiss and Tell by Luki Fanfic

Nana's family has a curse. They swap bodies with anyone they kiss. Kyoko and Tsuna take advantage of this at a young age. Great idea, both get to experience being a different gender (or rather, the expectations for boys and girls).

Generation Cross by Luki Fanfic

Ok, just read all the authors works. I hadn't realized how many of them I had saved. Tsuna dies and somehow wakes up in his mother's body with a 2 yr old him. First step, get a divorce.

Time Tourists by Caticature

Abandoned, but a great idea. Time travel to 1st Gen and they all look like kids. Misunderstandings ensue.

Harry's Housekeeping by Wolven Haven

HP/KHR Mistaken identity at the wrong/right time and place lead to Harry getting a cleaning job in the Mafia. Oh well, Harry's always been good at cleaning. P.S. Harry cleans up murder scenes! Not graphic. Timeline is during the forming of the Arcenbalenco. Skull is Teddy, who is superworried about his oblivious godfather.

Intuition Overdrive by vaporeanxglaceon

After Nono seals Tsuna's Flames, his Intuition goes into overdrive to compensate for the loss, leading to awake but catatonic boy. When Reborn arrives to turn Tsuna into the next boss, he needs to find a way to help Tsuna before anything else can happen. Iemitsu and Nana are parents who are trying their best but don't know what to do to help him. WiP, maybe abandoned. Such sweet Angst, though.

Red String by Lady Hallen

I think this one is on Ao3, too. HP/KHR FemHPxReborn Hyacinth(femHP) and Reborn have a meet cute and gets together. Super good, lots of chapters, WiP. I want to gush about it but I don't want to spoil it.

Fics by sakuradrmonalchemist

Their fics always have so much potential but seem to all be WiPs, keep that in mind. She has so many xover fics. For KHR, there are HP, YYH, Natsumes Book of Friends, BNHA, High School DxD, Sailor Moon, Yu-Gi-Oh, Batman, Tsukihime, Grimm, Kingdom Hearts, fate/stay night, Naruto, One Piece, Card Captor Sakura, Magical Girl Lyrical Nonoha and more!

Igneous by apathyinreverie

HP/KHR Harry/Reborn After Voldemort's defeat, Harry becomes involved in the Mafia, by being kidnapped/sold by his uncle. After a bad choice by others to have Harry recover under the safety of the Blood Wards (which no longer exist, you idiots), Harry's Flames are forcefully awakened and others try to force Flame Bonds on him. Reborn has a mission to find out if a Family knows how to forcefully activate Flames. He comes across a newly awakened, nearly naked, Sky that snap Bonds him. Very good, happens mostly in the HP world after that beginning, with future Arcabalenco popping up. Harry gets to pull off the We Are Not Amused Aura in Kingslys new MoM office with a dumbass Head Auror. It's beautiful.

Fortuna by 1458

In one world, Iemitsu left his family behind in Namimori. This is not that world. (Un)fortunately. Idiot dad Iemitsu who.... attempts to dad but has no clue how. Nana and Tsuna move to Italy with Iemitsu.

Of Organized Crime and Schizophrenia by AshGopal

Naruto/KHR Tsunade dies and expects to go to the Pure Lands. Instead, she's reborn a Mafia heiress who has a voice in her head. At least she's not alone. The Sannin are together once again. PS Ryohei and Mukuro are Sannin, too.

Not Quite Myths by Falia7

Tauna is Mythological Catnip. It starts with a unicorn and gets worse from there. Gokuderas in heaven, Reborn is ready to lose it, Tsuna is willfully ignoring everything. There's also a multinational cult in Tsunas honor.

No Ones Here to Sleep by mokona-pyuh

Naruto/KHR Skull is Gaara!Shukaku doesn't take kindly to being extracted from Gaara and yeets them into another world. Gaara is reborn with a giant Tanuki still hiding in his soul. Crackish.

Dusk to Dawn by reighost

HP/KHR Harry is reborn as Tsuna. Tsuna adpats to his new life and "Magic". Hopefully he can have a normal life. He makes friends with kid!Kyouya. Also Kyouya's family in this is amazing. If I ever write a fic with Kyouyas parents in, I'm going to beg reighost to let me play with them. Also, reighost is Araceil's amazing partner. They used to do a lot together. Dusk to Dawn is also a spinoff of one of Araceil's (deleted :'() fics.

Under Wing by reighost

HP/KHR After Sirius dies, Harry learns that he's not who he thinks. Desperate to escape dark!Dumbledore, he seeks out his birth family, the Hibaris. We get a peek at a few other fandoms on his way home. He's Kyouya's beloved baby brother in this.

Sincerely, Shattered Shards by You Light the Sky

Nana's family has a special gift. They can give pieces of their hearts away. But no one liked Tsuna's heart. Until Reborn came to town. WiP. Made me cry a bit.

The Final Boss by Sakura Hyuuga

Gamer!Tsuna, Accidental GenderBent!Tsuna! Tsuna's life becomes a game after a realistic dream where he hit yes to play. He thought it was just a dream when a prompt opened up saying only the female version was unlocked. When he woke up, it definitely wasn't a dream. She is not amused. Humor, WiP, funny 'omake' bits.

Of Steel, of Iron, of Stone by Seito

Warning:Angst, Terminal Illness. Tsuna claims he can't become Decimo. Reborn finds out why after a disastrous use of the Dying Will Bullet.

Burn Me with Fire by Shadowblayze

HP/KHR. After burning Quirrel to death, he starts dreaming of an angry man trapped in ice. With a mentor, Harry learns how to fly free. Blaise Zabini friendship

Trading Yesterday by Shadowblayze

HP/KHR With sequel, Stealing Tomorrow. Kawahira takes the Sky Pacifier after Luce's death and finds a new Sky to give it to. The remaining Arcobalenco panic and desperately try to find their new Sky. Meanwhile, 8 yr old Harry has been given the keys to his freedom, with one catch. He will die before his 30s.

Song of Truth and Light by TheSocialBookworm

Demigods are rare and feared. Someone so "No-Good" can't be one... right? Drabbles about Tsuna the hidden Demigod.

Xanxus' Babysitter by Starchains

HP/KHR. Harry ends up employed at Vongola Mansion and becomes Xanxus' personal servant. Harry refuses to let another old man's incompetence ruin a child. WiP

Kyoko by Discoabc

SI reborn as Kyoko. This is Not Ideal. Kyoko tries to get away from the future she know is waiting for r her. It goes... hrm. Well, it's certainly a different way to become part of the Underworld.

Oh wow babe thank you for these recs!!

#RayRambles #KHR #Fic Rec #Long post #katekyo hitman reborn

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inventors-fair · 3 years

Photo

At the Head Table

Congratulations to our winners this week! @reaperfromtheabyss with Sanguine Gavotte, @knightofthelivingtable with Silverblade Prodigy, and @ghoulcaclulator64 with Scapegiest // Departed’s Blame! You all did an amazing job!

Sanguine Gavotte

Art direction: A scene from the Vampire wedding of Crimson vow. Foreground is two figures dancing, one a vampire dressed for a wedding, and the other a mirror duplicate formed entirely from blood. Mood: No one dances alone at a Voldaren party.

I had to google what a gavotte was. It’s a dance I think? Or music? Well, here’s one that turns blood into creatures. I think that’s a neat way to implement blood. It’s like halfway between sanguine statue and the puppeteer in the set. You get exactly one use of it for “free”, but then it needs to be fed blood to keep working. That’s very in line with the rest of the set. The power level of it also feels right, blood-wise. It’s not so much stronger than blood you would never use the blood for anything else (especially if you have nothing good to copy), but it’s also not so much weaker that you’re better off just rummaging. This actually makes the choice meaningful. It depends on what kind of creatures you already have in play. I have on big gripe with the card, though. There’s a few too many creatures that just say “ETB, create a blood token,” meaning that you are no longer forcing a choice, you’re just getting it for free. I think a way to avoid this would have been to make the blood token become the creature, then sacrifice at end of turn. Then it would have only comboed with Voldaren Bloodcaster. Though even then there’s an argument that could be made: is it better to copy the free creature, like a Voldaren Epicure, or something that actually has an impact, like a Goldspan Dragon? I like how these choices reverberate all the way back to deckbuilding. I’m very happy with this card.

Silverblade Prodigy

Power-centric mechanics often have a double strike card, or at least lifelink card, something that benefits off that extra power, but we didn’t see that this set. I’m glad you attempted to rectify that. You also gave it a way to encourage its own training, which is awesome! Pumping other creatures is a cool way to interact with training. I think it was also costed pretty well, considering a 1/2 double-striker is usually a bit more than 2 mana, this feels appropriate when you add in the extra abilities. Training seems to be costed fairly cheaply, and that pump ability costs enough mana it doesn’t really affect the card’s cost. However, there’s other issues with the cost. This looks almost exactly like every other training card in the set. Three of them are already 1/2s, and four of them are three mana. I think making this card four mana and adjusting the stats to match would feel more like a card missing from the set rather than something that would swap with the set. Still, I can’t ignore the fact that this card is cool. Along with being synergistic with the training mechanic, the pump also feels synergistic with the green/white archetype that wants you to go wide. I also like the simplicity of this. You can look at this even as a new player and get excited about it. A very classic intro-box rare style card. It’s cool!

Scapegoat Geist // Departed’s Blame

Now THIS is a cool disturb card. It feels so obvious when you see it. Changing targets is a pretty common effect, in a matter of speaking. It’s rare to see more than one in standard at a time, but there’s usually at least one, sort of like extra turns spells. They can also get annoying, so they usually aren’t that powerful. This one is just about perfect. It’s such a cool idea. The front is a form of protection, usually saving another creature. But something it does that others of it type doesn’t is that the spell-redirection is a way to get this guy to hit the graveyard quicker so you can disturb him! That’s so clever! The back side is pretty expensive, but considering you already got a creature out of the card it probably should be. Plus, the backside is effectively removal. It means that if your opponent ever casts a removal spell, you can just spend two mana and swing it back at them. It’s gonna end up putting you and your opponent in tense and exciting situations. It’s all pretty cool. I love how it does both of the things redirection does: scapegoating your own creatures and turning spells back at your opponent’s stuff. If I had to have a complaint I’d say that maybe also affecting abilities may be a little weird. That, and the obvious choice of calling the front “Scapegeist.” C’mon, it was right in front of you.

And there you go! There were a lot of cool entries this week, so look out for the runners-up coming soon! Thank you all for entering, and good luck on the next one!

-Mod Mr. ShinyObject

#mtg #magic the gathering #winners #commentary #inventor's fair #custom magic card #plus one

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teawaffles · 3 years

Text

There’s No Business Like Show Business: Chapter 5, Part 1

T/N: This is one super-long chapter ( ; ω ; ) so it has been split into 2 parts.

One week later. This was the night Maya’s company had been invited to perform.

The West End of London, stretching from Soho to Covent Garden, was renowned for its large theatre district, crowded with historic names such as the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, Haymarket Theatre, and St James’s Theatre, in addition to newer entrants. [1]

Right in the centre of the district was Piccadilly Circus. At this time in history, the “Eros” fountain had yet to be built [2]. Here was the intersection of numerous thoroughfares, with pedestrians and horse-drawn carriages coming and going, day and night — the busiest spot in London.

It was here that a certain elderly noblewoman drove past in a carriage. But the next moment, she saw a strange sight in the middle of the square, and ordered her coachman to stop the carriage.

“……My word, what could that be?”

The words fell from her lips.

In the centre of the square was a simple stage about ten metres wide, composed of wooden boxes placed together and covered with boards. Passers-by had stopped to look out of curiosity, and a small crowd began to form.

After a short while, a lone woman appeared on stage.

She wore a sky-blue dress and a long, blonde wig. The crowd stared blankly as she gave a reverent bow.

“——Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. We are a small theatre company hailing from the East End. I am Maya, its chairperson.”

She raised her head, and gazed upon the whole of Piccadilly Circus.

“You may be feeling confused as to why a stage has suddenly occupied the Circus, but first, let me express our deepest gratitude that we, a theatre company of humble origins, have been able to meet you in this miraculous way.”

Her dignified voice resounded across the square, causing a stir among the onlookers. As more people noticed what was happening and gathered in droves, the crowd encircling the stage gradually expanded.

“Without further ado, let us bring you a little dream in a fantastic world.”

Maya ended her introduction with a graceful bow. Then, a man appeared on stage. Facing the crowd, he began to speak in a sonorous voice.

“It was a radiant afternoon filled with golden sunshine. A boat cruised leisurely down the river. Small, young hands gripped the oars. They seemed to lack strength: rising nimbly, then falling left and right as if to guide the oars’ movements.”

“……Hmm?”

The crowd listened intently as he narrated, with accompanying hand gestures.

“Oh, how terrible: what a cruel fate this is, to meet three girls! I’m all warm and sleepy. But still you wish to talk to me! You move my feathers, and do not breathe. But I’m all alone. I’m no match for the three of you.”

“This— Could it be……?” someone in the audience murmured.

With his monologue complete, the man took his leave. Then, another woman appeared at a corner of the stage. Holding a book in one hand, she began to read fluently from it.

“Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank——”

In tandem with the narrator’s words, the blonde-haired Maya gave a small yawn. It was as if she had swapped places with a young girl herself. Without realising it, the audience held their breath.

Then from the side of the stage, a person appeared wearing a vest and rabbit’s ears, with a pocket-watch in one hand.

By this time, the crowd encircling the stage had become fully spellbound.

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

“——All the world’s a stage. And the men and women merely players.” [3]

An actor delivered his lines from the stage of a gorgeous West End theatre, as its owner, a nobleman, looked on from the box seats.

The actor himself knew the height of his fame, and hence his actions were somewhat egotistical. Nevertheless, these were the acting skills of a true professional: his clear, bright voice resounded in every corner of the intricately decorated theatre, delving into the ears of his audience, and producing an indescribable feeling in their chests.

His salary was eye-wateringly high, but evidently, it had been an excellent decision to hire this actor. Still, despite his self-satisfaction, the nobleman had a pained expression.

The reason for it was clear. This was a renowned theatre company famous for its acting talent. Even though it was their opening night — a momentous occasion, the stalls were unusually empty.

He’d made sure to advertise the play well in advance, so this was unexpected. As he admired the actors, who were not bothered in the least by the empty seats in the audience, the nobleman stood up and headed to the entrance.

“Hey, you. Haven’t there been any more visitors?”

He directed his question to the young man behind the ticket window.

“About that— Just a while ago, it seems a show’s begun at Piccadilly Circus.”

“A show?”

“Yeah, though I heard about it from someone else. A stage suddenly appeared in the middle of the square, and it looks like there’s a play being held. It’s about…… that; the one where a girl chases a rabbit and falls down a hole, uh……”

Those keywords alone led the nobleman to the answer.

“——Do you mean, ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’?”

The young man clapped his hands in appreciation.

“Oh, that’s right. Yeah, that.” He sighed wistfully. “Ahh, it brings me back: I read it when I was a child. And as I recall…… was it ‘Maya’? It seems that’s the chairwoman’s name.”

“Wha……!”

Upon hearing that name, the nobleman recoiled in shock.

“That theatre company from the slums?”

A play held on a stage that appeared out of nowhere. The young man saw it as a mere street performance, but to the nobleman, this was something different. As soon as the image of the perpetrators surfaced in his mind, his face turned red with anger.

An extraordinary turn of events, happening right on the opening night of an important production — as if it had been carefully planned to do so. In other words, Maya and her company had intended to sabotage his production out of spite, by putting up a play out of the blue, and not even in a proper theatre. That was what the nobleman concluded.

To add insult to injury, they had chosen to perform “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. To stand up to a classic with a piece of children’s literature. To pit Lewis Carroll against Shakespeare.

Although it was a ridiculous idea worthy of scorn, the fact remained that they had stolen his precious audience.

He posed a question to the young ticket seller.

“Well if that’s the case, wouldn’t there be a huge commotion? The Yard should be on to them any moment now.”

“That’s the thing…… It seems they’re already gone.”

Hearing that, the nobleman threw his head back in laughter.

“I told you so. It’s all because they’re out of their depth. They can recite their lines in jail for all I care.”

However, the young man made a troubled expression.

“Uh…… Sorry. I didn’t make myself clear. Actually it seems that after finishing one scene, they specified a different location, packed up their sets quickly and left.”

“……What?”

✦ ✦ ✦ ✦

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Alice; a great girl like you, to go on crying in this way! Stop this moment, I tell you!”

Behind the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, in Trafalgar Square, Maya and her company acted out the scene in which Alice shrank and grew larger, panicking all the while. The front of the stage had been covered with a white cloth, and a light shone on it from the back, allowing them to show the changes in Alice’s size in the manner of shadow puppets. As Alice grew until her head struck the roof, the audience buzzed in excitement.

Watching from the wings of the stage, Bond could see that everything was proceeding smoothly.

His plan to demonstrate the true abilities of this company, was a moving theatre that roamed all around the city of London—— a “guerrilla theatre”.

They would perform in busy areas to attract people’s attention, then quickly cut off their act and leave before the authorities arrived to stop them. After which, they would continue the performance at another location. One could say this method was the exact opposite of performing in an officially-recognised theatre.

There was a reason why they had changed the contents of their play. As their original performance comprised three short stories, there was a concern that the audience would grow bored after watching just one scene. However, staging a full-length play across various locations would keep up their interest for the next scene.

In addition, “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” took place in a nonsensical, chaotic world, with no apparent connection between its acts. As a well-known story in itself, anyone joining in halfway would still be able to enjoy their performance — a perfect work to be presented in this manner.

The main issue was the acting, but that was helped by their practice in performing on a big stage.

As part of this plan, the play they would put up was not of the type that drew the audience’s attention to the stage right from the start, but rather one that was performed outdoors to people passing by. Hence they would have to project their voices and exaggerate their actions, but this was simply an extension of the two weeks’ practice they had done before.

Moreover, Maya and her company had extensive experience in performing children’s literature, with a focus on ease of understanding, so much so that they had almost learned the entire tale by heart. Memorising their lines had been no trouble at all.

Furthermore, the preparations at each of the locations they moved to — the very heart of the operation — were borne by the East End residents, who appreciated their performances.

The plan inevitably required manpower, but there would be no point in Bond providing it. However, with the trust of their fellow residents, Maya and her company had managed to recruit the stage crew by themselves. This achievement was their own.

As the company performed in one location, the stage crew would set up the temporary stages in the other locations across the city. They had accepted the company’s request with pleasure, and Bond couldn’t thank them enough for the depth of their kindness.

As he looked upon the crowd, all standing with eyes locked upon the stage, Bond chuckled.

——Even without a theatre, there would always be a place for acting.

It had been a wild idea to turn the city of London into their stage. But the East End residents lent them their support. And Maya and her company were putting up an excellent performance.

In a manner of speaking, this play was an all-out challenge from the people from the East End, to the gilded theatres of the West End.

Ten minutes till showtime. The players announced the location of their next act, then quickly descended from the stage.

“I’ll be leaving the cleanup to you then,” Bond addressed the remaining crew at the square. Then he directed the actors to board the carriages he had prepared. Taking the reins of one himself, he urged the horses forward in a gallop.

“Um, we owe it to you that our audience has enjoyed our play thus far, but…… I’m not sure if we can continue to do so,” Maya asked with a worried look.

Hearing that, the other actors in the carriage, who’d been going over their lines, turned solemn.

Although things had been going well so far, if their acts attracted too large a commotion, it stood to reason that Scotland Yard would put its full attention into stopping the play. Moreover, bad actors may also seek to take advantage of the hubbub. As far as possible, they wished to avoid their audience falling victim to crime.

Bond fully understood their apprehension. Because of that, he kept calm as he reassured them.

“Not to worry. I have some dependable colleagues.”

Saying that, he gazed in the direction the carriage was going, and smiled.

“It’s a popular saying, isn’t it? The show must go on.”

The curtains had been raised. Now all that was left, was to play their roles to the end.

Footnotes:

[1] This district is known as Theatreland (Wikipedia). The first two theatres listed are still standing, with St James’s Theatre having been demolished in 1957.

[2] If you were to go to Piccadilly Circus now, you would see a very prominent bronze fountain with a statue of a winged angel on top. Actually, the statue isn’t of the Greek god Eros at all. (Wikipedia)

[3] A line from Shakespeare’s As You Like It (Wikipedia).

Translator’s notes:

Quotes from Alice in Wonderland All dialogues from the East Enders’ production have been heavily referenced from the Project Gutenberg version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.

Thinking about what year the series was set in In this chapter, we learn that the “Eros” fountain hasn’t been built yet — it was unveiled only in June 1893. But we know some events of the Phantom of Whitechapel arc, such as when the people of Whitechapel formed a militia, did take place in history — these were broadly in the autumn of 1888. So this actually works out, and gives us a sense of when the events of the manga unfolded.

Edit: The manga seems to be canonically taking place between 1879-1882 latest — you can read my analysis here!

Piccadilly Circus in 1868 This is entirely for fun — here’s a screenshot from the game Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (set in London 1868), with Evie standing at Piccadilly Circus:

I couldn’t find any pictures of the Circus from before the “Eros” fountain was built, but in Yuumori’s time, it would’ve still had the circular shape shown here. When Shaftesbury Avenue was built in 1886, it transformed Piccadilly Circus from a circle into the sort-of trapezoid crossroads layout it has retained today (British History Online).

#moriarty the patriot #yuukoku no moriarty #yuumori #english translation #forbidden games #illustration insert

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foxghost · 3 years

Text

Joyful Reunion, Chapter 95

Translator: foxghost @foxghost tumblr/ko-fi1 Beta: meet-me-in-oblivion @meet-me-in-oblivion tumblr Original by 非天夜翔 Fei Tian Ye Xiang Masterpost | Characters, Maps & Other Reference Index

Book 3, Chapter 21 (Part 5)

If Duan Ling is to think about it, Mu Qing is the one person to whom he’s done the most disservice. With every friend he’s ever made before, both he and the other party had given a part of himself, treated their friendship with sincerity, while Mu Qing is the only one he’s constantly guarded against. If they’d met when they were ten years old, they’d definitely have become the best of friends.

“Master Chang Pin said that Wu Du wants to keep you by his side, and that’s why he said your fortune made you unsuitable for marriage. He doesn’t want you to be taken away by someone else. You’re fully aware that there’s no such thing, don’t you?”

Chang Pin’s eyes are too sharp by far, Duan Ling thinks; when Wu Du said those words that night, Duan Ling truly did not expect them, and therefore Chang Pin had caught his momentary surprise. After that, Duan Ling had carefully dissected it in his head and realised that it’s something he had to declare — otherwise, if the Mus decide they want to form a marriage alliance with him, it would certainly complicate things. Who could guarantee that Mu Kuangda doesn’t have an illegitimate daughter hidden away somewhere out there?

This is only what Mu Qing is voicing aloud, so there must be more information that hasn’t been passed on. Chang Pin wouldn’t have brought up the matter of Duan Ling’s marriageability without cause, so he must have had something to talk about with Mu Kuangda that involved asking Mu Qing questions that he managed to hear him say that.

“Even if that’s true.” Duan Ling gives him a faint smile. “What’s wrong with being with Wu Du?”

That really is what Duan Ling truly believes; no matter what his future path may lead, he’s only going to walk it at Wu Du’s side. He wouldn’t keep to himself, the way his dad did. When he thinks of his father, Duan Ling would go so far as to say that he was already inconceivably strong.

At times, he could relate to Cai Yan. Though they haven’t met face to face after he returned to Jiangzhou, he knows Cai Yan’s fear and trepidation is even more severe than his own, and the only person he could hold on to, the only straw he’s holding onto at the edge of a precipice, is Lang Junxia.

But Mu Qing is feeling quite indignant on Duan Ling’s behalf, believing that Wu Du has tied Duan Ling to himself with a debt of gratitude. But since Duan Ling has put it that way, Mu Qing will stop talking badly about him behind his back. He can but nod and say, “Well, as long as you’re happy.”

Duan Ling smiles, but what surfaces in his mind is another scene altogether — when Mu Qing overheard the conversation between Chang Pin and his father, and filled with indignation, said he’s going to remind Duan Ling, Mu Kuangda must have told him not to say anything as it’d be of no use. Mu Qing didn’t believe him, said it anyway, and this is the predictable result.

I’m a tactful man — Mu Kuangda is always saying that. Duan Ling understands him very well, but alas his son is always quite blunt. Sometimes Duan Ling feels as though he’s far more like Mu Kuangda’s son than Mu Qing, and Mu Qing’s mindset is more like his own father Li Jianhong. Perhaps if they swap their dads around, everything would seem to be a more normal fit.

“What are you smiling at?”

“You’ve grown,” Duan Ling says.

“You make yourself sound so old or something.”

“When I was in Tongguan, I missed you very much.”

Mu Qing says smilingly, “Dad was so busy with the capital relocation that I was about bored to death. I was waiting for you to come back every single day.”

Duan Ling almost didn’t think of Mu Qing at all, he’s only telling him this now in an attempt to make him happy. Wu Du is someone who’d treat him well without knowing who he is, and so is Mu Qing. There’s a world of difference between these two people, however.

Outside, soft powdery snow is falling, and they huddle around a fire pan, not wanting to study at all. Duan Ling thinks he may as well give up, and tosses his books aside. He says to Mu Qing, “Let me take you out somewhere. Where do you want to go?”

Mu Qing would never imagine that the studious Duan Ling would be the one to ask to take him out somewhere. His eyes brighten at once. “Let’s go! I’ll take you somewhere!”

One must stop to smell the flowers every once in a while, and it just so happens that the estate is empty at the moment. Duan Ling quickly puts away their things and goes back to his courtyard house to change his clothes. When he comes out behind Mu Qing, the carriage is stopped right in front of the alley. Duan Ling asks, “Where’re we going?”

“You’ll find out once we get there,” Mu Qing replies and digs around in his waist purse until he finds a plaque. He holds on to the plaque and takes Duan Ling’s hand, giving his own hand warming stove to Duan Ling.

“Who’s there?”

The carriage travels for a while before they’re stopped at a guarded checkpoint. Duan Ling is about to answer, but Mu Qing gestures for quiet and reaches through the curtain to show the guards his plaque. “Me. I’m from the Mu family.”

“Young master of the Mu family.” The guard outside says, “Is it just you?”

“I’m here to see my dad,” Mu Qing says.

The guard hands his plaque back to him and lets the carriage pass. Are we going to the Secretariat? Where Mu Kuangda works? He’s always wanted to see the Office of the Grand Secretariat, and yet Mu Qing still won’t let him talk. It’s not until they pass through several checkpoints, after their carriage has taken many twists and turns, and has come to a stop before Mu Qing tells him, “Alright then, let’s go!”

A light snow is falling, and it is just past noon; everything is a bit damp. When Duan Ling puts his foot on the ground, he realises that he’s in a courtyard, and the walls are as tall as two people stacked on top of each other. It seems to be a rear courtyard.

“What is this place?” Duan Ling asks curiously.

Mu Qing doesn’t say anything. He takes Duan Ling’s hand and starts walking towards the other gate in the courtyard. Duan Ling is asking himself if this is what the Secretariat Office looks like, but that seems less likely with every step. It’s only after they get through a covered gallery and a flower garden that he suddenly realises they’re in the palace!

“The palace?” Duan Ling says, flabbergasted.

“Heheh.” Mu Qing has clearly taken Duan Ling here to stretch his horizons, so of course Duan Ling’s astonishment has made him quite pleased with himself. But he has no idea that to Duan Ling, this novel place he’s never been in, is his actual home.

Duan Ling’s head snaps through a dozen calculations, thinking he’d better not run into Cai Yan right now, but even if he does run into Cai Yan, so what? There’s no way he’d dare commit murder in the palace, would he? The idea makes him both nervous and excited.

Mu Qing looks like he’s lost. “Damn, I forgot we aren’t in Xichuan. How come the Jianzhou palace is so huge? I don’t even know where the path is.”

Duan Ling says, “Don’t panic. We’ll ask someone.”

They spy several guards standing in the winding corridor, and a warrior who seems like a captain of sorts, who’s giving the others instructions, so Duan Ling walks up to them to ask for directions. Yet as soon as the warrior turns around, Mu Qing goes pale with fear and hurriedly waves at Duan Ling while whispering, “Don’t go!”

Alas, though he wonders at Mu Qing’s reaction, Duan Ling is already within the warrior’s line of sight. The man has finished giving his instructions and has noticed Duan Ling.

He’s eight feet tall2 with straight black eyebrows and bright eyes, clad head to toe in black armour, carrying a plain black iron dragon flail.3

Wrapped up in a fur cape, Duan Ling has just come out of his classroom in the chancellor’s estate without having spent any time on his appearance. His hair is casually draping over his shoulders, running down his back, and he has the coral bracelet Mu Qing gave him wrapped around his wrist. As soon as the man sees him, he stops in his tracks, staring at Duan Ling incredulously as though he’s fallen into a dream.

Duan Ling isn’t sure what to make of that, and for a moment remains silent.

The warrior seems lost in thought. Duan Ling raises a hand and waves it in front of his face rather apprehensively.

“You’re …” The warrior says with a frown.

Blowing snow sweeps by them, Duan Ling smiles, straightening his back before he puts one fist in his palm to bow square and properly at the warrior.

In an instant, time turns backwards around them; the snow that covers the earth and sky is drawn away in a flash towards the horizon.

Time flows against the current. The yellow leaves beneath the trees in the palace gardens fly back onto their branches; flowers wither and bloom again, leaves turn yellow then green. Time fluctuates around him and countless images flash by in a blink as though he’s returned to the border, south of the Yellow River.

I live by the north sea and you the south; not even the great goose can carry my letters.

Peach and plum trees in spring breeze, a single cup of wine, sojourns, night rain, ten years beneath a solitary lantern.4

“My name is Wang Shan, Could you tell me in which palace hall the empress resides, please?”

Xie You finally awakens from his memories, and by now Mu Qing has jogged his way over to Duan Ling. He stands behind Duan Ling, and gives Xie You a shy smile. “General Xie, I’m here to … see my aunt.”

“Greetings, General Xie,” Duan Ling hastily adds.

Xie You comes back to the present in a heartbeat, but it’s to fall into an even more prolonged bout of distraction, until a single snowflake lands on Duan Ling’s eyebrow. Duan Ling seems a little lost, and a shallow furrow appears between his brows.

And then Xie You slowly raises a hand to point at the end of the corridor.

Mu Qing and Duan Ling salute immediately to thank him.

Mu Qing says, “Thank you, General Xie.”

“Thank you, General Xie,” Duan Ling repeats.

Mu Qing takes Duan Ling’s hand and runs off as quickly as he can. Still standing in the covered gallery, Xie You is surprised to find he’s momentarily dazzled, overcome with a feeling of vertigo, and his heart feels like it’s been given a dull thump with a hammer.

“That was Xie You,” Mu Qing says to Duan Ling. “Commander of a major army division. The best fighter of Jiangzhou, Defender General of Great Chen.”

Duan Ling is astonished beyond words. Did he recognise me? He probably shouldn’t have been able to recognise me. Even Wu Du and Mu Kuangda didn’t manage to recognise him, so let alone Xie You? He resembles his mother and doesn’t share his father’s features, but that’s somehow become a layer of protection for him.

“He gives off such a killing aura,” Duan Ling says. “The way he was looking at me earlier feels like he was going to kill me.”

“He’s like that with everyone.” Clearly, Mu Qing still remembers the impression he had of Xie You from a year ago. During that summer storm, Mu Kuangda had taken him to Li Jianhong in an attempt to give his son to him as a disciple. Xie You’s might has truly left a deep impression on him.

They make their way to the Palace of Eternal Autumn, only to find that Empress Mu Jinzhi isn’t there. A palace maid staying behind knows Mu Qing though, and smiles at him. “Aiya, what are you doing coming all the way here on your own?”

“Where’s my aunt?”

“She’s in the garden with His Majesty right now.”

Mu Qing asks the maid to find the clothes he keeps in the Autumn Palace, then he and Duan Ling change into them. Duan Ling recalls how Mu Qing’s aunt is Mu Jinzhi — the current empress. That is to say, if he goes over there just like this he’s going to run into Li Yanqiu. As this thought occurs to him, his heart starts beating out of his chest. He’s not even sure how things will turn out if Cai Yan and Lang Junxia also happen to be there.

Wu Du has also come to the palace. Is he here?

“I’d better …” Duan Ling hesitates, “not show my face. I’ll just watch from a distance. You brought me here secretly, and that’s not proper after all.”

“That’s fine. The empress is my aunt, and His Majesty is my uncle. What’s there to be scared of?”

“No no. I’m a bit scared.”

Duan Ling is far more than just a bit scared — to rashly rush his way to Li Yanqiu will create a situation out of his control. As he’s insisting over and over, Mu Qing says, “Well alright, we’ll just watch from a distance, that way I wouldn’t get interrogated either.”

By the time they get to the Imperial Gardens, the snow has stopped. The carved balustrades and flying eaves of the palace are outlined in an even gauze of bright white. When Duan Ling sees what’s happening in the garden, his heart does a little flip. Inside the pavilion are several tables, one person sitting behind a table facing the garden, while the crowd has left a clearing in the garden itself, with quite a few people standing at its edge.

“The one in the middle is His Majesty,” Mu Qing explains, holding Duan Ling by the sleeve, keeping them behind a pillar.

The woman next to Li Yanqiu is of course Mu Jinzhi, and to the left of the seat of the emperor is a young man with an underling behind him, while farther down the line are Mu Kuangda and two more officials.

An envoy dressed in Mongolian clothing is seated in the guest seat to the right.

“The Mongolians are here?” Duan Ling thinks of the coral beads he’s wearing — ah, that fits now.

“Today is the sixth of the twelfth month — the crown prince’s birthday.” The palace maid in charge explains to them, “The Mongolians have sent an envoy with gifts to congratulate him.”

Duan Ling nods, and sees four people standing in the clearing outside the pavilion that are not speaking to one another. They are precisely Chang Liujun, Lang Junxia, Zheng Yan, and Wu Du. Duan Ling spots Wu Du with a single glance, and Wu Du is looking extremely impatient as he stares at the scene with crossed arms.

Two Mongolians are performing a wrestling match for the crown prince. Duan Ling cannot help but remember the wrestling moves Batu taught him when they were at the Illustrious Hall. From what he’s seeing, this isn’t the first time the Mongolians have come to call on Southern Chen’s imperial family.

I do not monetise my hobby translations, but if you’d like to support my work generally or support my light novel habit, you can either buy me a coffee or commission me. This is also to note that if you see this message anywhere else than on tumblr, do come to my tumblr. It’s ad-free. ↩︎

The “eight feet tall” was a common description for “tall”. Probably about 185cm. ↩︎

The precursor to the nunchucks. They look like nunchucks, except one of the sticks is about 4x the size of the other one, with a short chain in the middle. It’s an anti-cavalry weapon. ↩︎

Poem by Huang Tingjian, Song dynasty. It was called “To Huang Jifu”, a friend of Huang Tingjian in his youth. What’s implied here is “since we met in spring beneath fruit trees and drank from a single cup, it’s been ten years of wandering alone, moving from place to place, and missing you.” ↩︎

#相見歡 #fei tian ye xiang #joyful reunion #xiang jian huan #fox translates things

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wrenhyperfixates · 4 years

Text

Loki Odinson’s Guide on How to Woo a Noble

Chapter 1: The Color of Sunset

Pairing: Loki x reader Summary: A fellow noble child in the Asgardian court has caught young Loki’s eye. After falling for you (quite literally) Loki has the opportunity to get closer to you. Warnings: none at all A/N: This is the first part of a fluffy miniseries of young Loki and his crush being adorable dorks. Stay tuned for more :)

Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Epilogue

Disclaimer: Gif not mine Loki stared at you from across the Great Hall during dinner. You were, he thought, the most beautiful person in all of Asgard. Nay, in all the Nine Realms. Now, Loki wasn’t so shallow to like you only because of something as skin-deep as beauty. Rather, he was attracted to your sunny disposition and lilting laughs first. Then, as he came to know you, he realized you weren’t always so demure and sometimes had the loudest laugh in the room. Even then, it was music to his ears. How he wished to march up to you right now and hear the sweet melody of your voice. Sadly, a large hand clapping his shoulder brought him out of his reverie.

“Don’t you think so, brother?” Thor asked in relation to something that Loki had not been paying attention to.

“Yes, yes. Certainly,” he agreed, quickly recovering from the startle.

“Hmm, now that is interesting considering you’ve never much cared for hunting before,” his brother remarked, smirking.

Loki cursed under his breath. Obviously Thor had noticed where his gaze was and taken yet another opportunity to to tease him about it. He simply didn’t understand the subtleties of romance. Sure, his brother ran around making out with a different girl nearly every week, but Loki wasn’t quite as popular. Nor did he want to be. All he wanted was your affection, something he was more than willing to work for.

“Why don’t you just go talk to them, Loki. After all, no one can resist a Prince of Asgard!” Thor declared while his friends snickered.

“I have no idea what you are talking about,” Loki drawled, trying to remain calm.

“Oh, really? My mistake. I just thought you were staring at-”

Loki slapped his hands over Thor’s mouth before he could say your name. Unfortunately, in his desperation to keep his secret just that, Loki abandoned his usual elegant manner, accidentally knocking over his goblet and alerting half the hall to the scene he’d just made. And, of course, you’d been among those close enough to notice. Unlike most of the nobles who had started whispering or laughing at him, you offered a good-natured smile. Though it seemed almost apologetic, furthering Loki’s embarrassment.

“That’s quite enough, boys,” Frigga chastised her sons in a kind yet firm tone, waving her hand to clean up the mess with a spell.

“Yes, mother,” Loki and Thor chorused as Odin grumbled about being too easy on them and not upholding his legacy.

The rest of dinner was dreadfully uneventful, and Loki forced himself to keep his eyes down. The last thing he needed was to be caught staring at you again, especially after the fiasco from earlier. Luckily, it was long gone from the minds of the people by the time dessert was served. Not like anything Loki did really mattered. Not like he would ever be king. He moodily ruminated on this after being excused from the room. Needing some air, he headed out to his mother’s garden. He planted himself at the root of a tree not too far from the path but quickly changed to sitting in its branches after a couple of young lords passed, obviously laughing at his blunder from earlier. Trying to stem the onslaught of tears, Loki closed his eyes and rested his head against the trunk.

“Lupus! Come back here!”

Loki’s eyes flew open, immediately recognizing the voice that shouted through the otherwise still gardens. It was yours. Slowly, as to not disturb the leaves of the tree and alert you to his presence, Loki crawled to peak over the branch he was on. You were chasing your wolf pup through the grass barefoot, shoes in hand. Lupus ran back to you and circled around your feet. You halted to avoid stepping on your pet, and the sudden stop caused you to lose your footing and fall on your bum. Loki sucked in a sharp breath and almost came out of his hiding spot to help you. He was relieved when you began laughing as Lupus jumped onto your lap and started licking your face.

He let out a sigh and edged closer to the end of the branch. Admiring your features, Loki propped his head against his hand. You really were amazing. How he wished he had your carefree attitude. Of course, you were as refined in court as Loki was, but you knew how to let loose too. Unfortunately, he got too lost in daydreams and toppled out of the tree.

“Oof,” he breathed out, shaken from having the wind knocked from him.

You screeched at his sudden (and far from graceful) entrance. Lupus jumped off of you and growled at Loki, baring his teeth in a protective manner.

“Easy, boy. It’s ok,” you coaxed while picking him up, identifying the unexpected guest as Loki. You looked unsure of what to do for a second before rising and making an awkward curtsy-bow combo. “Your highness.”

Loki nearly laughed at the absurdity of it. Here he was on the ground, rubbing his head in pain after falling out of a tree, and you were bowing to him. Or, well, doing whatever that gawky action was. Still, he knew that almost no one else would have paid him the same respect after such a display. Loki got so lost in thought that he just stared at you with a sort of dopey look on his face, not even thinking to pick himself up.

“Are you alright?” you nervously inquired, offering him your hand.

Loki took it and immediately turned beet red. He made sure to pull away once he was righted, but not too harshly as he didn’t want to seem ungrateful. He brushed his raven locks from his eyes and tried to form a coherent sentence. He hated the fact that he couldn’t remain poised around you no matter what he did. He cleared his mind and then his throat before responding.

“Um, yes. I am quite fine. Thank you.”

“Oh, it was no problem,” you responded, setting Lupus back down onto the ground. He stayed right by your side, still not entirely trusting your companion.

“Well, uh, in that case,” Loki dumbly started after an uncomfortable minute of silence and shuffling, “do not mind me. I was just, you know, enjoying the night. I suppose I should be going now. I apologize for the interruption.”

“No apology needed. Feel free to drop in any time,” you said, cracking a smile.

Loki couldn’t help the small chortle that escaped his lips. You erupted into a fit of giggles, too, and slowly it bubbled into full on belly-laughs from the both of you. Soon you found yourselves back on the ground, gripping your stomachs while tears streamed from your eyes. Lupus tilted his head in concern and began licking your hand, which made you laugh even more. Once he calmed down, Loki turned his head and looked at you through eyes still blurry from tears. You were just starting to settle yourself, and he once again appreciated your beauty in the fading light. Soon, you looked back at Loki while scratching your pup’s head with the hand he’d just covered in slobber.

“You know,” you began, “you don’t have to go, your highness.”

“Loki. Call me Loki.”

“Ok then. Feel free to stay, Loki. After all, I’d hate to be the reason you couldn’t enjoy the gardens.”

“Do not worry about that. I actually enjoy it more when you are here,” he replied, feeling a burst of confidence.

You turned your head away and put a hand over the smile making its way onto your face. You said something lowly, and Loki had to strain to make it out. His heart jumped out of his chest once your words registered. The feeling is mutual. Now it was his turn to look away in a flustered yet happy way. He realized it was probably scandalous for the two of you to be out here unsupervised on the cusp of courting age, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. Besides, you were relatively hidden from prying eyes by the topiaries.

Lupus came over and sniffed at Loki before deciding he wasn’t a threat, after all. He settled in between the two of you, resting his head on your chest. Another silence settled in, but this time it was comfortable. For a while, you just laid there enjoying the stillness of the night, looking at the darkening sky.

“You know, this is my favorite time of day,” you informed Loki when the sun had almost finished its descent in the sky.

“Why is that?”

“Right now the world is just so gorgeous. Look around: Everything’s the color of sunset.”

Loki did look around before his eyes settled once again on your peaceful form. Everything about you was truly breathtaking. You dazzled him like no other, but he worried he’d never be able to let you know. Perhaps, though, if he were to allow himself to be optimistic, he’d admit his chances were probably increased by this encounter. He hummed in agreement, and eventually you looked at him too, another heart-stopping smile gracing your features.

You laid there in his mother’s gardens for so long that all the stars came out into full view. As you pointed out the constellation for which Lupus was named, a shooting star streaked across the sky. It was closely followed by another, and then several more a few minutes later. On instinct, you gasped in joy and grabbed Loki’s hand. Once the show was over, you became aware of your interlocked fingers.

“Sorry,” you muttered, but Loki squeezed your hand in reassurance.

“Believe me, it is quite alright.”

And so, you continued on hand in hand, swapping stories and making small talk. Loki already knew you were intelligent, but never before had he enjoyed a conversation as much as this one. All too soon, his oafish brother came stomping on the nearby path, calling for him.

“Brother, are you out here? I’ve come to apologize,” he called.

Loki sighed. The last thing he wanted was to end this time with you. You raised an eyebrow and shot him with a quizzical look. He just pressed a finger to his lips, which you responded to with a zipping motion across your own. The silence bought him a few minutes, at least, before Thor came back.

“Loki, come out. Mother is getting worried.”

Another sigh. Even if he didn’t want this moment to end, Loki also didn’t want to concern the Allmother. So, he stood up, and you followed suit, once again holding Lupus in your arms.

“I am over here, Thor,” Loki alerted his brother, moving towards the cobblestone pathway.

“Thank the Norns. I thought I’d be out here all night looking for- Oh! Am I interrupting something, brother?” he said with a sly grin upon spotting you.

“Just some stargazing,” Loki responded with an annoyed tone that made you chuckle a little.

“Yes, but it is rather late. I really should be going now. Goodnight, your highnesses,” you said with a respectful nod first at Thor, then Loki.

Loki was exceedingly frustrated with his brother. Who knows how long you would have stayed out with him had you not been disturbed? Still, he quelled his emotions as best he could and swept into a bow, bidding you a goodnight back.

“See you soon, Loki,” you whispered as you brushed past him.

Now he was grinning like an idiot again, which only fueled Thor’s desire to say something. He knew better than to vex his brother twice in one day, though. Loki was, after all, becoming quite the talented young sorcerer, and Thor had been on the receiving end of quite a few nasty pranks over the years.

“Well, I am waiting,” Loki said once you were out of earshot. When Thor just stared at him in confusion, Loki continued, “I believe I am owed an apology, no?”

“Alright, fine. I am sorry for teasing you earlier,” Thor conceded with a sigh.

Loki considered him for a second. “Hmm. I forgive you then. But I promise that the next time one of us makes a fool of ourselves at the dinner table, it will not be me.”

“Whatever you say, brother,” he laughed, clapping Loki on the back. “Though you must admit, I was right. I am sure that they would not refuse you, my prince,” he said with a mock bow, still laughing.

Loki shoved his brother on the shoulder, though he was laughing now, too. Sure, Thor could be annoying, but Loki knew he meant well. Besides, not much could ruin the high he was feeling right now.

“I suppose so,” Loki conceded.

And, for the first time, he truly believed that he might have a chance.

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procrastinatorimagines · 4 years

Text

I Want Us Part 6

Fandom: Chicago PD / SVU

Series: I Want Us

Part 1 // Part 2 // Part 3 // Part 4 // Part 5 // Part 6 // Part 7 // Part 8 // Part 9 // Part 10 (Final)

Pairing/s: Sonny Carisi x Intelligence!Reader

Warning/s: tw rape, murder, assault

Word Count: 1,795

Summary: The Intelligence Unit’s last case with Manhattan SVU had them flying out to New York to track down an abducted boy, and had Dectective Y/L/N and Detective Carisi growing close in the process. Now, a string of rape-murders in Chicago has SVU boarding the next flight out, believing the suspect to be the same man responsible for a set of identical crimes 10 years prior. As the case unfolds, Y/N and Carisi are brought back together, reigniting the spark between them.

You arrived at the previous night’s crime scene a few minutes before Special Victims, slipping on gloves and treating carefully as CSI went over everything they’d found, or didn’t find more accurately, with you. You were knelt down next to where they’d recovered the body, a grim look plastered on your face as you took in every detail of the victim, she almost didn’t look real.

“Detective Y/L/N,” you heard, standing up and turning you attention towards the woman ducking under the crime scene tape and making her way towards you.

“Captain Benson, welcome back to Chicago,” you greeted, meeting her in the middle and shaking her hand, “sorry it isn’t under better circumstances.”

“Oh, believe me, it never is,” she informed you, eyes drifting from you to the body of Jessica Connors with a mixture of sorrow and determination that made you admire her even more than you already did. You still didn’t know how they did these kinds of cases everyday.

Sonny and Kat came through after their Captain. “Hey Y/N, I hear we’re borrowing you from Intelligence for this case,” Kat said.

“You don’t mind that I asked Voight for you to join us do you?” Benson asked, your eyes unconsciously sliding to Sonny as she did. He hadn’t said anything yet, but a small smile was forming on his lips as he looked at you.

“Of course not, anything I can do to help,” you replied.

“Glad to have you then,” Sonny voiced with a grin, ignoring the pointed look Kat gave the both of you.

“You up to speed on the new victims?” You asked, noticing the way Benson was looking at Jessica’s body, CSI just finishing up at the scene.

“Yeah we are,” she told you, her tone and the familiarity in her eyes suggesting that she actually had worked the first case in New York. She noticed you staring and shook the thoughts from her head.

“We’ll catch him this time,” you said, meeting her gaze.

“Will will,” she nodded, looking around at the scene with a Captain’s eye, “Kat and I will talk to CSI, match up any details, see if we can pick up any leads, you and Carisi talk to any witnesses, the officers first on scene, and the man who found the body,” she ordered, turning to go talk to CSI with Kat when she had your confirmation.

“Hey,” Carisi said with a smile when you were both alone.

“Hey yourself,” you replied, “how was the flight?”

“Not too bad, reading up on this case certainly passed the time,” he said, hesitating before adding in a quieter voice: “I was also... looking forward to seeing you again.”

You felt your cheeks go a little red, remembering yourself as you cleared your throat. “We should, um, get on with our orders,” you managed, flustered by the look in his eyes.

He smirked but agreed, gesturing for you to lead the way to where a man of about 35-40 was stood with two uniforms. He was a bit on the shorter side, dark hair and bright white running gear on, not the most practical for a run in the woods, as made apparently by the mud stains. The long scar across his face was distinctive, but you tried not to stare as you made your approach.

“Mr Tate?” Carisi asked, checking his notes briefly to make sure as the man nodded, the unis leaving you to talk to the him. “Thanks for sticking around.”

“You mind if we ask you a couple of questions?” You asked, pulling out your notebook and a pen.

“Of course detectives, anything to help,” he told you both, running a hand through his hair, “I’ve already told the officers that arrived on scene everything I saw.

“We know, but we just want to make sure all our bases are covered,” Carisi clarified.

“Ask away,” Tate spread out his arms, ready for you to begin. Carisi looked to you, signaling you to begin.

“Do you always run this route?” You asked, looking around at the well worn and clearly marked path; the killer wanted the body to be found.

“Yeah, it’s quite a popular trail,” he confirmed, rubbing at a bit of mud on the sleeve of his jumper.

“You see anyone else?” Carisi asked. It was a pretty wide path, and it didn’t diverge much, the killer would have had to use this trail to move Jessica’s body.

“Just another jogger,” he told you with a shrug, something that probably wasn’t very uncommon, even later in the evening.

“But they didn’t see the body?” You probed further, finding it strange. Jessica wasn’t exactly hidden, she’d practically been on full display of the path, anyone would have seen her from where you were.

“I don’t know... I guess not, they were running past me, so I’d be surprised if they didn’t but...” He answered, you and Carisi sharing an identical look as you put a circle around this other jogger in your notes.

“Remember what he was wearing?” Carisi asked for some clarification as Tate scratched his head, thinking.

“Er, black tracksuit, baseball cap, oh and glasses too, like sun glasses, I thought that was strange given how dark it was,” he recalled, your suspicion growing further with each detail.

“White... black...?” Carisi continued, making sure you didn’t miss any detail about your new suspect.

“White, definitely, had a rucksack on too,” Tate said, face scrunched up in thought.

“You were seen him running here before?” You mused, knowing killers sometimes prefered places that were familiar.

“I don’t think so,” he answered somewhat apologetically, “expensive shoes like those... I’d have noticed. Does that help?”

You and Carisi nodded to each other before you took a card out of your pocket, “it does, thank you, get in touch if you think of anything else.”

He took the card, looking over it before slipping it into his pocket, “will do.” He turned to leave, glancing back at the crime scene one last time, Carisi gesturing for the unis to make sure he got back okay.

“Security cameras?” Carisi suggested, reading your mind as your eyes scanned the surrounding area carefully. There wasn’t any this far into the trail, you weren’t that lucky.

“We should check the entrace and exit, if there are only the two ways onto this route then they had to have gone back to one of the car parks, we’ll check the cameras there,” you told him, pocketing your notes and heading back to Benson and Kat.

“You got something?” She asked as you approached.

“Maybe, we’re going to go see what we can find on the nearest security cameras,” Carisi told her, filling her in on everything the witness had just revealed.

“The park ranger can help, he’s with a couple of officers,” she said, a distant and guardedly hopeful look in her eyes. This was as close as anyone had gotten.

You both went off with the park ranger, being led back up the trail to the car park and the rangers station. It was a quiet morning, not surprising given the amount of cop cars and crime scene tape. You’d certainly find a different route if you saw it.

He led you into the station, his partner already having the tape set up to play. “This your guy?” He asked, hitting play as you and Carisi leaned forward, watching intently.

It was dark, but the time stamp matched up as a dark figure emerged from the direction you’d just walked, his jogging slowing to a walk as he approached an equally dark car. The description matched the one Tate had just given you.

“Can you zoom in on that?” You asked, pointing to the number plate on the car. The ranger nodded, pausing the footage and focusing in on the plate. “Got it,” you nodded, Carisi already calling in for a BOLO on the car, a bentley, a long with as good of a description of the driver as he could in the dim light.

“Thanks guys,” Carisi told them as you exited the station, stepping back into the car park as you made your way towards the stop where the bentley had been parked.

Carisi was about to say something to you when your phone rang, digging it out to see Hailey calling. “Hey, how’s it going with Jessica’s family? We think we’ve caught a lead here,” you relayed to her.

“Yeah we heard the BOLO over the radio, got something that might help you with that too,” she told you, a questioning look from Carisi as you put it on speaker for him to hear.

“Oh yeah? What did the family know?” You asked, your aching for them and what they were going through.

“The parents didn’t know much, but when the little sister let us out she mentioned that Jess had been planning to go on a date the last time she’d seen her, about a week a go now,” Hailey explained, the cogs in your mind whirling.

“About the same time we found Lily Hamilton’s body?” You checked, thinking that maybe the killer had swapped one woman out for another.

“You got it,” Hailey confirmed grimly, “and get this, the sister said that Jess had been super excited, saying she’d found her prince charming.” She emphasised the last words, the images of the fanciful ball gowns all the women had been dressed in fresh in your mind.

You heard Jay calling Hailey from somewhere further away, “okay, thanks, we’ll meet you back at the district,” you said, saying your goodbyes and hanging up.

“Prince charming?” Carisi echoed, clearing piecing it together the same as you.

“Sounds like it fits, let’s check if any of the other girls had dates,” you suggested, taking out your car keys.

“I think I read something about that in a couple of the old New York files,” he agreed, following you to your car as he typed away on his phone, most likely telling Benson the plan.

“Looks like we’ve got some work to do,” you told him with a little bit of hope, “guess you’re going to be stuck we me for a bit.”

Carisi grinned, “I can’t say that I mind.” You smiled as you reached your car, more than glad for the company.

Still, something didn’t sit right with you. Not that you didn’t like easy cases, but this... it was too neat, too quick. 9 women dead in New York without so much as a trace of evidence and this lead just falls in your lap?

You couldn’t quite put your finger on what you were missing, but if it helped stop other women from meeting the same fate, you were going to find out.

#sonny carisi #svu #law and order svu #chicago pd #one chicago #sonny carisi x reader #sonny carisi imagine #svu imagine #law and order svu imagine #chicago pd imagine #sonny carisi imagines #svu imagines #law and order svu imagines #chicago pd imagines #i want us

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captainpikeachu · 4 years

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Differences between The Old Guard film & Book 1 of the comics (and how I feel about the changes)

Long story short, I actually do prefer the film version of the story, as I think it makes for stronger character dynamics established upfront and for greater character growth and arcs throughout the story.

I’ll list the differences here and I will speak about how each of these changes I think affects the story we saw on film versus the one we got in the comics, and how these changes may play into character dynamics and arcs if a sequel film were to happen.

1. No Baklava tasting scene.

In the comics, the team meets up at some outside cafe to speak about meeting Copley and teases Andy a bit about her “hall of fame” of bed partners. In the film, we have the Baklava tasting scene when everyone meets up at the hotel. The big difference between these two scenarios is that in the comics, it is to set up the job, and to comment upon Andy’s rotating door of bed partners which we are shown over the opening narration. But the film forgoes to the more sexualized focus on Andy’s love life to explore and show visually the bond of these 4 immortals. Using the baklava tasting, we immediately establish the character personalities and dynamics of the team, making us more invested in this group and their bonds with each other - all without sexualizing Andy, in fact, there’s more than a few times in the comics where Andy’s love life gets randomly brought up, including Andy saying Nile’s brother is hot upon seeing his photo. The film thankfully decided to focus on the character dynamics instead.

2. In the comics, it’s Nicky and Andy who meet Copley instead of Booker and Andy. (also Booker and Andy’s dynamic)

This change in the film where we have Booker and Andy meeting Copley instead is a continuation of the film’s intention to highlight Booker and Andy’s close dynamic. In fact, it begins even earlier as the movie opens with Andy and Booker meeting up first and Andy giving Booker the first edition Don Quixote. And this continues throughout the film where Booker basically acts as Andy’s right hand man, and this dynamic remains even through Booker’s betrayal and in the ending scene where they part ways. The little change with a different character swap doesn’t seem very important until you see the whole film and realizes that a lot of hinges on selling the audience of Booker and Andy’s relationship and Booker’s love for the team. And this is where the film, aware of each character’s full arc, changes things around to make sure every scene in the film is used to push character arcs into the right resolution at the end.

3. Killbox scene - in comics, team is still standing on their feet.

I noted upon reading the comics that when the team gets shot by the soldiers in that killbox ambush, the team are still on their feet, and Andy verbally signals “it’s our turn” before attacking. In the film, our team actually falls and dies, the soldiers then turn away from the group as the team regenerates and between a few shared gazes, wordlessly get up and attack. This is another indication of the film’s intention to SHOW not TELL. Through the visual language the film uses, we immediately not only see that our team can fall and die and the healing takes time and is not pleasant, but also that they move as a unit without so much as a word. And just like that baklava scene in the beginning of the movie, it builds up the team’s relationship and speaks to their years together without having to dump any exposition.

4. No Andy and Nile fight scene on the plane. (also Andy and Nile’s dynamic)

Not only does Nile not have a fight scene with Andy, for pretty much the entire run of Book 1, Nile really does not exhibit much agency beyond just following along with everyone else. Sure she asks questions and such, but her relationship with Andy is not built up much, and Nile seems to only be there because she’s got nowhere else to go, she seems to just serve as a plot point that happens and less as a character. The film, on the other hand, carefully crafts an arc for Andy and Nile to go on, culminating in Andy and Nile sharing that scene where Andy expresses that she now knows why Nile appeared when Andy lost her immortality. We see their relationship grow and change throughout the film, we see Nile react to Andy and eventually teaching Andy about how to live again.

5. Nile does not meet Nicky and Joe before their kidnapping.

In the comics, Nile does not meet Nicky and Joe until the very end fight when they’re all escaping from Merrick’s place. Nile basically has no relationship with Nicky and Joe, barely even knows them, because when she comes to the safehouse with Andy, Nicky and Joe were already kidnapped. The film instead changes scenes around where Nile does return with Andy and meet the team, spends at least some time with them before Nicky and Joe get kidnapped. I tweeted to the director Gina Prince-Bythewood to ask her about the decision to have Nile meet Nicky and Joe before the attack on the safehouse, and she confirmed my belief that it was to establish a stronger family/team dynamic to the audience. After all, if your main cast of characters don’t even know each other’s names until literally the last act of the movie, it is very difficult to make the team/family dynamic believable. This change of having Nile knowing Nicky and Joe establishes Nile’s further relationship and attachment to the team, that they aren’t just two random strangers that she doesn’t even know. And it builds up this team of 5 so that when they do go on to escape from Merrick’s labs at the end, we are cheering for this team to kick ass together, rather than wondering why Nile would care to go rescue two strangers she’s never met.

6. Copley is not sympathetic.

Copley in the comics is not a sympathetic character. While he is not necessarily evil, there is no motivation of grief and loss that drives him to act the way he does. He basically bails on Merrick at the end out of self preservation. In the film, we know that Copley watched his wife die and that pushed him to wanting to create a cure to end suffering, his backstory mirrors Booker’s struggles, in turn creating sympathy for both characters. The fact that Copley in the film is still a decent person makes Booker betraying the team and working with Copley a more palatable and understandable choice, especially as Copley ends up helping Nile get to Merrick’s lab and even ends up serving as the team’s tech/eye-in-the-sky person. This change for Copley’s character serves as another aspect where the film took great care to focus on character motivations and arcs. Copley’s research at the end serves to give Andy a reason to keep fighting, thus helping Andy and the team complete their arcs where they started jaded and tired, but now ready to fight another day.

7. Booker shoots Andy and Nile in revelation of his betrayal.

In the comics, Nile is also there with Andy when Booker turns on them upon meeting up with Copley again. Booker shoots both of them and doesn’t really say much as Copley talks about why they’re doing this. Then Andy basically kills Booker, threatens Copley, and jumps out of a window with Nile and Booker. They get to a desert where Booker and Andy proceed to shoot each other again multiple times until Nile stops them and Booker tells them why he betrayed the team. This chain of events is obviously different in the film, and this difference sharply contrasts Booker and Andy’s relationship in the comics as opposed to what they are in the film. In the film, when Booker shoots Andy and she’s tied up, he keeps on trying to explain to her why he’s doing this, Andy’s reaction is pained and heartbroken, and Booker is too and later on panics when she won’t stop bleeding. When Merrick’s men arrive, he tries to get them to leave her alone and fights to get to her when they take them both. This change, along with Andy’s more touching reaction to finding Booker injured at the safehouse, paints a more deep and nuanced bond between the two of them. Instead of them just repeatedly yelling and shooting at each other, we actually get to see them talk, we see them being gentle and physically caring towards each other. This shows to an audience a relationship that feels deeper and more loving than the comics which seem almost colder in comparison. And this deep bond the film creates plays into both Andy and Booker’s character arcs at the end of the film upon their separation. Again, the film takes care to focus on character relationships, and allow those relationships to fully form and fully reach the resolution that befits the character arcs.

8. Merrick is far more despicable and murderous. (also his doctor character is toned down)

Merrick in the comics is literally psychotic. He not only stabs Joe once, but multiple times, and proceeds to do the same to Nicky. And he constantly talks about wanting to hurt them and takes pleasure in it. Merrick in the film is not only smaller in stature than his buff comics counterpart, he’s also less physically violent. Sure he stabbed Joe because he wanted to see the evidence himself and he’s hardly that caring about ethics, but he still seems like an otherwise normal if not just simply greedy CEO type, not psychotic serial murderer type. This difference in toning down the character ultimately I think serves the film better because as Copley is more sympathetic, having him work with someone who is clearly and obviously behaving like a murdering lunatic would be really hard to swallow. This toning down of characters also happens with the doctor. In the comics, Doctor Ivan is basically just stated to not care about ethics, while Doctor Kozak in the film does share a talk about ethics and morality with Nicky where she says she believes they can be used to save the world. Again, the film seems intent on giving every character an understandable motivation, even among the villains of the story, which grounds the film in a feeling of reality, because no one is so outlandishly just being an evil mustache twirling villain. This change also produces some possible loose ends for the film’s sequel, as while the comics version of the doctor is dead, the film version only got whacked on the head by Nile, not outright killed so she may pop back up again in the sequel.

9. Nile does not get her solo fight.

In the comics, because Nile escapes from Copley with Andy and Booker, she returns with them to go find Nicky and Joe at Merrick’s place in Dubai. So she is never actually on her own at all in the comics. As I spoke about before, Nile’s character in the comics just tagged along, never really getting to come into her own. There is really no arc for Nile, whereas the film did the opposite. Because the film lets her have an arc, and lets her making the decision to join the team be something she comes to terms with on her own choice, this agency affords Nile growth that the comics doesn’t give her. Her solo fight is the culmination of her coming into her own power and acceptance. Once again, the film is consistent on ensuring that the characters change and grow and have arcs. This character building makes Nile a much more interesting and complex character than one note. Nile also gets to kill Merrick while protecting Andy and mirroring the plane moment from earlier in the film, while in the comics, everyone kills Merrick together. That moment in the comics did not serve the narrative catharsis that Nile taking out Merrick did.

10. Andy is mortal.

In the comics, Andy starts immortal and jaded, and ends the story really not much changed at all. Other than defeating a villain, you really don’t get the feeling that she’s changed from the experience. There is no revelation of her purpose, she just kinda does what she has to do, even if that means threatening an old woman. Andy in the film clearly starts out feeling lost in her purpose, but gradually through Nile’s joining of the team and Booker’s betrayal and her own mortality, she starts to see what her purpose is and wanting to be alive again. The scene of Andy at the store with the employee who helps bandage her up doesn’t exist in the comics because Andy is not mortal, therefore there is no sudden questioning of why, of re-evaluating her feelings about humanity. But the film takes the time to make Andy confront this, forces Andy to not only face it but learn from it. This change not only gives the story more stakes, but also allows Andy to have a character arc that affords her growth and an answer to her opening narration. It also makes Nile more than a plot point and her joining the team be an important narrative that makes an important change.

11. We never see Joe and Nicky’s reaction to Booker’s betrayal.

In the comics, because Andy and Booker never gets captured, when the team meets back up together, Nicky and Joe has no idea of the betrayal. And we never see them find out because after they kill Merrick, the next scene is them exiling Booker. In the film however, we do see Joe reacting angrily to Booker, we once again get a look into their dynamic and Booker pointing out how Nicky and Joe always had each other, meanwhile Nicky is trying to calm Joe down to stop him from saying something that he might regret later. This change is a further way that this film builds upon the established character dynamics. We as the audience see their reactions, see their humanity, and see them behave as a family would when feeling betrayal. But also that Andy has changed from that jaded tired person into someone ready to fight again when she tells Booker that they’ve been doing a shitty job of living and he needs to get up and stop wallowing in his self pity and pain. This makes their separation hit harder at the end because there are real emotions on all sides. Like all families, feelings can be complicated but there is also care and love. At the end, we see Booker nod to Joe as they all leave, signaling that despite the anger and chasm between them right now, they are still family. The film once again reorients the story to focus on character relationship, on selling the audience this familial bond, because if we don’t believe in it, then Booker’s redemption falls apart, and the film in many ways falls apart.

12. Noriko and Lykon.

Now the obvious change here is casting. Noriko is Japanese in the comics and her film counterpart Quynh is played by a Vietnamese actress. And Lykon is white in the comics whereas in the film he is portrayed by a Black actor. In the comics, Noriko fell overboard during a storm. In the film, due to budget constraints, they went with her being dropped into the ocean locked in an iron maiden. In the comics, Lykon spent over 2000 years with Andy before he died during the Renaissance, meaning he would have met Nicky and Joe. In the film and the history clips that Netflix posted, Lykon died before Nicky and Joe were immortal. Obviously with Lykon, it ultimately does not affect the story either way since he is dead, it’s just clearly the film changed the years he spent with Andy to avoid any confusions and to make things a little more simple in streamlining the team’s history. But the change with Noriko/Quynh is a much bigger thing. Firstly, character motivation - it’s one thing to be lost during a storm and another thing to be purposefully locked into an iron coffin and left in the ocean to suffer. This difference could make the difference between how Noriko reacts to Andy and the team in the comics, and how Quynh will react to everyone in the film. Secondly, because of the way the film presents Andy and Booker’s bond and especially now with Andy’s mortality, which the comics does not have, this could spell a big divergence in what a sequel could do with Booker and Quynh’s interactions. Because Booker would still be guilty over Andy’s mortality, and he would be more reluctant to do anything that could hurt Andy and the team, leaving me to suspect that he is less likely to go towards a villain route in betraying the team again. Whatever Quynh may get him to do is likely going to be out of force/coercion, if Quynh’s intention is less than good.

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

So these are just some of the big differences that I feel like affects the story ultimately told in the comics and the film. I did enjoy Book 1 of the comic and I am planning to get Book 2 once the collection is out. But I think the film’s changes really made it a focus on enhancing the character relationships and allowing individual characters to have their own arcs of growth. The comic tells a great action fare. But the film’s changes effused more humanity into the characters in a way that I feel the comic lacked. The film also really make you question the issue of immortality and what it all means and how it effects people while the comic focused on more of the action adventure story with the immortality as more or less a tool than really a theme.

Ultimately, I think the changes in the film took what worked in the comics and really elevated the story.

#the old guard #andromache the scythian #nicolo di genova #yusuf al kaysani #sebastien le livre #nile freeman #james copley #steven merrick #the old guard spoilers

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todororororokiy · 3 years

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Voltron is trending so here’s how I’d remake Voltron: Legendary Defender

I’d like to preface this with a few things 1) I loved season 1 and 2, I was a die hard Voltron fan from the second I started watching, and while I had issue with season 3-6 I was ok with them 2) I never watched season 8 and I only watched half of 7. From what I hear, this was a good decision 3) I spent six hours straight working on this, so I apologise for any spelling mistakes or errors 4) None of this belongs to me.

Ok, basic setup is the same except for one thing, Shiro is aged down. It never made sense to me to have Shiro be 25, and the rest of them be 15-18, it seemed like a very big gap, and as we can see from Fandom it caused a lot of discourse. So every bodies aged as such, just for reference:

Shiro: 20

Allura: 22

Keith: 18

Lance & Hunk: 17

Pidge: 16

One more note, all seasons would be about 11-13 episodes long. It has never made sense to me why four of the eight season were 6-7 episodes and the rest were a normal length.

Season 1 & 2

Both of these seasons were great. Voltron was a really good show for these first seasons. There’s nothing to change here.

Season 3

Plot Changes

Nonoe at the moment. There would be more scenes added and obviously some scenes would be altered but over all the plot is intact.

Shiro’s Disappearance

In this version everyone has a different opinion on Shiro's disappearance, I never felt like they did in the show.

Keith, obviously, thinks he’s alive and so does Pidge.

Hunk and Coran remain doubtful, though they each have a little hope, Coran more so than Hunk

Allura and Lance both think the worst. Side note: this is where we see Lance and Allura properly transition from slightly awkward coworkers to friends. Their shared grief and angst helps them bond and open up a route for them to start communicating. They kind of got over him being a creep reallysuddenly, and that doesn’t happen, even if he had stopped the behaviour, I think she’d take some time before she allowed him to be her friend.

Pidge and Her Family

Pidge is super isolated in the original show. While her arc, I felt, was about trusting the team and leaning on them more for support. To come out of her shell, and be defined by something greater than her family and love for technology.

In this version everyone wants to help find Matt and Dr. Holt. Having her connect with the team by them wanting to help, and especially them wanting to help in the wake of Shiro’s disappearance feels like a logical move. Everyone’s devastated about Shiro one way or another, and they want to see Pidge get her family back. It brings the team members hope for Shiro.

Lion Swapping and My Many Issues with it

the lion swap should have been temporary. Something they had to do but would try to avoid as much as possible.

Originally everyone wants Allura to pilot Black. She’s their commander and so should take up the mantle of leader. But black refuses her entry.

In this version everyone in the team says that they’re making do with what they have. That Allura is their commander of their operation, Shiro their leader. We see in this episode there’s almost a bit more of an understanding between the paladins, we seen that each has grown to see one another for the person they are rather than the person they initially thought they were.

We see struggle both in the team as they can’t make voltron, and having no real commander as Allura’s been forced to pilot the Blue lion. We also see a major issue arise because Allura CANNOT connect with blue. Keith, Allura and Lance can fly in them, but they can’t unlock any of their elemental powers. It’s impossible. We see through this season moment where ice or fire or teleportation might be useful but the paladins have to find ways around it because of this handicap. The emphasise that the lion swap isn’t something to be taken lightly and is a real issue.

Lance and Feelings of being Inferior

Lance feels like he’s he’ll never match up to Keith throughout this season as Keith has started to prove that he’s more of a leader than Lance has.

Because lance’s friendships with everyone have deepened, they start to encourage him a bit more, be more supportive towards him.

We see Lance stand up for himself as well when Hunk and Pidge make comments about his intelligence that actually really hurt him, we see them being surprised, but then they profusely apologise and say they were joking, we see an absence of said jokes after this point. This helps build Lance’s self esteem a little

Keith and Lance’s friendship also has room to breath as Keith is y’know, around, and not off with the blade. Through this friendship Lance comes to realise Keith isn’t all perfect and that he might be holding himself up to unrealistic expectations, though he still doubts himself a lot

The Clone Plot Line/The Lance and Shiro Plot Line

The clone plot line? Loved that soooooo much, it could’ve been so good, we could’ve had so much interesting stuff, and we did, The Black Paladins is fantastic, but they did nothing else, and I feel like even in that episode the clones were set dressing.

There was also the issue of Lance breaking down into tears in season six. What was that? He didn’t have the emotional connection to Shiro I felt the show was implying he did. We’re gonna fix that.

We see Lance and Shiro become closer friends while he’s a clone.

Clone Shiro is a lot more vulnerable and less guarded with his emotions than original Shiro was, and a little more willing to joke and be more lenient, even if this can also back fire when he explodes into fits of rage.

This allows everyone to get closer to him, but especially Lance, who I feel up until this point was just always at a weird point in his relationship with Shiro where they were friends, but Lance got the impression Shiro didn’t like him a whole lot and Shiro got the impression Lance found him very intimidating and scary, and had zero idea how to deal with this.

Keith and Leadership

Keith’s time as a leader helps teach him some things and really gets the ball rolling on showing the audience that he can be a leader even if he initially struggles

season 4

Plot Changes

Keith floats between the Blade and Voltron for maybe an episode of two.

Everyone is convinced that once Shiro can fly black, things can go back to normal.

After returning from a mission the castle ship gets attacked and everyone runs to their lions. Allura and Lance pipe up over the comms on their helmets that they can’t access Blue or red. Lance runs to see if he can convince Blue to stop being like this

Meanwhile Keith has a talk with Coran and comes to the realisation that he wants to be apart of the team while Pidge, Hunk and Shiro try to deal with the threat themselves. He gets the message from Allura who comes running into the room saying they can’t access red. Lance was able to get into blue however. Keith rushes off with his mind decided, he hears red in his mind. They form voltron for the first time since shiro’s disappearance.

Everyone’s helping Pidge look for her father and brother and at the start of an episode we get a scene of them all discussing some potential clue while they train.

The episode where Pidge finds her brother follows the same outline, but everyone’s there helping her. However the really emotional scenes ie the graveyard scene and later on when they’re reunited, take place with only Pidge and Matt so the moment isn’t ruined

Instead of Keith discovering the trap at the end of the season, it’s Allura as Keith is with the Voltron team on the planet, trapped.

Shiro gives some “this isn’t the end of the line” speech and talks about how they’ve all connect more over the past few months, and they’ve become a real family and nothing can change, even if it all ends here. That causes the others to all connect with their lions on a deeper level, and it helps them raise out of the field, but only a little. Then Shiro asks black to trust him, to put her faith in him once again. He tells her he knows somethings wrong with him, that he doesn’t know how to fix it. That what they did to him was terrible- and she flashes something in his mind telling him off for such negative thoughts and they connect. Voltron rises.

Keith, Conflict, and Starting to become a Leader

The season begins with Keith still struggling to decide how to spend him time. We see more of this struggle, that starts in this episode. He’s trying to spend as much time with Voltron and as much time with The blade as he can.

He feels connected to the blade due to his heritage and believes somehow he’ll be able to find some sense of family. But he’s more connected to his team and Voltron. We, as an audience, know that he’s already found his family in Voltron at this point.

We also see everyone deeply worrying and missing him. With frequent calls and messages exchanged back and forth between everyone and Keith. He feels this worry and doesn’t know what to do, because for the first time in his life he has a family that cares about him.

As the season goes on we see Keith prove himself as a leader without being the leader of Voltron. When Shiro’s incapacitated we see him take charge and guide everyone.

One particular moment would be Keith having to command a group of alien soldiers, and get them all to follow him and help fight off some Galra from their planet. In this we see Keith struggle slightly to control everyone, before he gets the hang of it and leads everyone to victory and safety.

The Clone Plot Line

Because Shiro is a clone he cannot access the black lion. This is sort of implied to be because she knows he’s a clone and refuses to let him in because his quintessence is screwed up.

Lance and Shiro are seen to confide in each other a lot, and Shiro tells Lance things he feel he can’t tell anyone else, even Keith, for fear they’ll worry too much.

We see the start of Shiro’s headaches in this season, and Lance helps soothe them.

Shiro does eventually access the black lion, but only because of some hard core begging and Keith being back

When we see Haggar we realise she’s spying on the paladins through Shiro. Some way or another we also learn that they were able to make this clone using DNA samples from Shiro amputated arm that they preserved.

The audience can also come to the conclusion that the reason Shiro gets a headache’s is because of Haggar looking through his eyes.

Pidge’s Family

Pidge gets a lot of clues about her family and the team helps her track down Matt and Dr. Holt.

We see a lot of team bonding over this as they try to break down clues and discover where they are, and how to get to them.

The whole arc surrounding her brother and father is a little more in depth.

As this arc goes on in this season we also see Pidge being to come to see the other paladins as her family. Pidge is the last one to have this realisation and it really solidifies them as a family unit

The team all have a really sweet moment where Pidge announces that she’s glad she had the help of her family to help find her brother.

Lotors motivation: what are they?

Before we get into the next four season, I’d like to specify Lotor’s motivations, and the reasons behind why he does what he does.

Lotor is troubled. He was abused as a child. His parents were corrupted and evil, and there was nothing he could do about. He suffered greatly emotionally and physically when they raised him. He was desperate to please them.

As he grew and tried to both find a balance between acquiring large supplies of quintessence and keeping the local people of the planets they were mining happy, he was punished for these digressions. He became angry, and started to hate the Galra. Blaming them for everything wrong in the universe. Believing that without them his parents would not be like this.

Lotor wants to bring back Altea, he comes to believe that they’re absence in the universe has caused the Galra to take over. He thinks they’ll be able to undo, and fix everything bad in the universe. The problem is, there aren’t a lot left of them. There are a few, scattered, and hunted down by the empire and eventually all will be caught. It scares him and when Altea was destroyed, along with millions of Alteans so easily.

Lotor realises he can no longer try to convince his father and mother that what they’re doing in wrong. He decides to make the colony to protect the remaining Alteans. To hide them away in a far, far off planet in an odd section of space the Galra don’t have interest in.

He comes to learn of alternate realities and ways to reach through and get to them. He believes, and in his mind he knows, that what he has to do is find some reality where Alteans are the ruling class, and not any Alteans, these Alteans, the version that existed just before Altea was destroyed. He won’t bring all of them over, just some, slowly and efficiently until there’s enough to defeat the Galra empire and bring back peace to the galaxy.

Lotor comes to realise the sheer amount of power this will require however, and comes to a dark realisation. He harvests some of the Alteans for their quintessence. Because the ends justify the means. He will bring peace and harmony to the universe if it’s the last thing he does. Even if it means a few sacrifices.

Back to our scheduled programming

season 5

Plot Changes

Keith is still with the team.

Zarkon doesn’t die in the second episode of the season. Cause what was that. Like seriously.

Allura and Keith are the first to like and trust Lotor for different reasons

Everyone else is far more sceptical. They still don’t trust Lotor. He seems sketchy.

The team have more direct encounters with Zarkon and a lot of different fractions of the Galra empire this season due to Lotor. While the Galra all unquestionably follow Zarkon.

Many Galra say that Lotor “has all the thirst for power that Zarkon does, all the thirst for quintessence but none of the courage to stand up and take it” which paints him in a better light as they all interpret this to mean he’s not anywhere near as cruel as Zarkon.

We see in a sort of one off shot of them post saving a planet that Shiro still cannot figure out what’s wrong with him, while Lance tells him that there isn’t anything wrong with him. A shallow comfort as they both at this point don’t believe that.

The blade offer Keith a mission right before the battle where Zarkon dies, a mission to do with something important, and is too take place after their current mission. Keith believes it may be his mother, and Lotor and the team pushes Keith to take the chance. He doesn’t want to leave the team but Lotors words about seeing his mother for what she truely is. Lotor means this in a really sinister way we later find out. Keith asks Red to once again give her command to Lance and both Blue lion and red accept the changes.

Zarkon dies at the end of this season, a fight between Lotor and him, we see a lot of emotion, and tense fighting. Zarkon dies to his son.

Pidge’s Family

The whole thing with Pidge’s father remains, and so does going back to earth. It’ll take a long time, but Pidge’s father feels he doesn’t belong here the same way his children do. He’ll be back, they’ll see each other again some day soon.

Alongside this we get the confirmation that Pidge really does feel that the team is her family just as much as Matt, and her parents are.

The Clone

On the Shiro front, he feels terrible, things have only gotten worse for him, he feels completely unlike himself.

Because of the severity of his headaches, the team puts him in the healing pods a few times, but they do nothing, everyone is worried.

Lance especially had a few fears as he hears more and more worrying information from Shiro about nightmares he keeps suffering. Shiro asks him not to tell anyone.

While Shiro doesn’t tell even Lance, we the audience learn of his illness and his ex boyfriend and the issues that arose because he wanted to go to space.

Keith, Galra Heritage and Leadership

Keith warms to Lotor surprisingly quickly. He finds comfort in talking with someone like Lotor about his Galra heritage. Lotor is half Galra, and while the rest of the paladins are supportive. They don’t understand it in the way Keith believes Lotor understands it

While Keith does hear some worrying comments from Lotor, he ignores them, as he doesn’t want to lose this connection.

We see Keith act more as a leader this season as well, with him again leading planets of aliens, and at a few points, Voltron when Shiro’s headaches incapacitate him

Lance and Self Esteem

Through this season we see Lance come into himself a little more. As per the last season he’s been more honest with everyone and it’s made him happier

We also see Lance realise he doesn’t really want to be a big leader like Shiro and Keith. That while he can, he doesn’t want to. He prefers taking a step back. In this realisation he becomes a lot more confident in himself as the teams sharpshooter, something everyones been calling him since season one. His gun transforms into a sniper rifle with this realisations and he and the team are amazed.

being back in blue also helps reaffirm this as he and blue continue to power up together.

Allura and Lotor’s Developing Relationship

Allura warms to Lotor after some initial hesitation, as she comes to believe he wants the same thing as her, the return of a peaceful time, and harmony in the universe. He wants desperately to find some way to restore the universe and they bond and develop genuine romantic feelings.

Allura and Lotor start sorta dating in this season towards the ending, before everything goes to shit, and he slowly begins to want to reveal his true plan to her.

We also see Lotor’s many conflicting emotions surrounding his father. Him killing Zarkon at the end of the season serves to cement Lotor as a good guy to everyone, and a symbolic way of freeing him from his past.

Side note: the monsters and mana episode takes place in this season before Keith leaves and things take a nose dive into serious business

Season 6.

Plot Changes

This season begins with Voltron fighting a small army of Galra fighters.

Many Galra, in preparation for the Kral Zera, have started to prepare their armies and followers so they can take over the Galra empires at the kralzera

Lotor, with the help of Voltron takes his “rightful” place as ruler, this is because, while Shiro and Lance are still a little skeptical all the other have at least become friendly.

This season follows the paladins as they attempt to be Voltron while Keith is out on a long mission. They miss him, and just like at the beginning of season 3, we see a litany of messages and texts, and voicemails and a few videos sent to him. Even though they don’t get a response. The blade informs the team that Keith will not be able to contact them for some time. The team continues to message him in spite of this.

Lance dies. Lance fucking dies and everyone has a major freak out and there is visible grief and horro among the paladins. Allura brings him back much to everyone’s relief.

we see a lot of angry aliens in this, both over the fact they’re siding with Lotor and over the fact they’re not doing anything immediate

After they come out of the quintessence field, Lotor reveals his true plans to her. She’s horrified and disgusted, much to his chagrin and takes off in one of the Sincline ship.

At the same time as Allura is having this moment, so too are the paladins. Keith has returned with his mother, and an Altean to back up his story Shiro starts having a progressively major headache as time goes on, Lance tries to comfort him.

Allura does manage to get back to the castle of lions. In tears she tells everyone what they already know and they all share a moment of shock before Allura frantically says that Lotor was right behind her.

Shiro’s programming activates and he knocks everyone out and takes Lotor.

The black paladins is a great episode. It’s the same episode in this version. Everything else after this episode stays the same too. It’s pretty good. I’d like to note, Voltron didn’t fail because it couldn’t hit these big emotional beats. It failed because it could never hit the small ones.

The Clone

While dead, Lance sees Shiro.

Not for the first time, he worries that maybe the Shiro on his team has a point about feeling different.

Shiro and Lance have a moment where Lance is telling him as Shiro is breaking down to “look at me,” to try and give him a grounding spot, and then in this moment Shiro looks away and Honerva’s programming comes through. He knocks out everyone and we get a shot of Lance looking crushed by the realisation, he starts to cry.

Keith, Galra Heritage and Leadership

We see, just as we do in the original show, a lot of time with Keith’s mother

Keith is incredibly conflicted on her return. For one, he wants answers and she seems incredibly unwilling to provide any at all, but on the other hand he’s so great full to have her in his life.

Keith and his mother eventually talk

Keith finds himself feeling guilty about missing his team. Worried and concerned for them, and how they’re coping in the power vacuum caused by Zarkon death.

We again see Keith be a leader with far less effort now. Instead of struggling where he had before, we see Keith take being a leader in stride. Even on one of the smaller planets they pass, helping organise so that food can be brought more easily, and aiding with fending off a particularly nasty creature that has been pestering them.

Keith over this trip gets many lessons about the Galra, and finds comfort in the knowledge, event he parts he can’t stomach. It brings him some closure on this part of his life he’s been yearning to understand for years.

Lance and the Red lion

Throughout the season, we see being in the red lion, and Keith’s absence chip away at Lance a little.

He begins to once again doubt himself and compare himself to Keith.

We also see Shiro help Lance the same way Lance has been helping him for the past couple of season. With support and guidance and helping Lance once again realise he’s his own person

before Lance can truely again be confident in himself, the whole thing with the clone blows up in his face and he’s forced to suffer the consequences.

Conflict in the team

Throughout this season we see the dilemma of what they should be doing versus what they are doing. To many it seems that they are doing nothing, while behind the scenes there’s a lot of stuff going on, coordinating between multiple governments, and a lot of smaller battles occurring that few see or hear of as they don’t require Voltron.

The paladins mostly believe they should be striking a balance, but Allura and Lotor keep attempting to convince them that what they’re doing is sufficient. It frustrates the team to no end.

We see how Lotor manipulates each of them through this season too, more obviously as the audience has at this point been let on that he’s doing something bad.

However we also see Lotor very pointedly not talk about anything hinting at his real plans in front of Shiro, letting the audience know that Lotor knows something is wrong with him.

Allura and Lotor

Lotor and Allura are very close at this point. They have shared their relationship with the team, and Lotor believes she will side with him if he tells her.

Instead Allura is disgusted by what he’s been doing and tries to get away from him. She fundamentally disagrees with what he’s been doing.

Season 7

Plot Changes

Shiro’s new body doesn’t reject him

the lions are depleted of power. They’re recharging slowly according to Allura, thanks to the strong bonds the paladins share, but it’s unlikely they’ll be fully charged any time soon.

Eveyrone’s depressed and having a lot of feelings of betrayal about Lotor and mixed feelings about the fact they’ve been living with a clone for a long, long time and they had no idea.

Shiros death does a singular good thing. Shiro is more connected with Black then ever. He can now teleport

The whole scene where Keith fights Macidus is with Shiro and it shows them being back insync after being a little lost with each other.

They all find out it’s been three years. In that time Lotor has ruled fiercely, demanding the quintessence mines across the galaxy be drained as quickly as possible. Why? Because of the stunt Voltron pulled three years ago, he can no longer access the quintessence field.

Hunk off Handedly remarks that Keith could be the new ruler of the Galra empire. Keith scoffs.

The flight home takes about half the season.

Through this half season they find a few things out. One is that the rebels have splintered and lost a lot of communication between groups since Voltron disappeared. Two they learn that Lotor found the location of earth. Three Lotor has a high, high price on their heads, far higher than even Zarkon has put upon them.

The paladins eventually all come together as a team, and become even further connected and that charges the lions enough that Shiro can create a wormhole far closer to earth.

They find nothing

This horrifying realisation comes accompanied by a signal from Matt Holt who has a specific bot designed to responds only to Voltron. Lance helps Pidge get it.

The next episode is going to find Matt.

There’s a teary reunion between the two of them and they find a massive colony of those who fled earth when they realised it was to be destroyed when Lotor was attempting to find Voltron, and flew into a rage when they were not there.

Everyone’s family is safe as they were some of the first taken from earth. They have a reunion.

Shiro gets parents, and an older brother (because I did notice the show gave him any biological family) and also gets to see Adam. While it’s still Cleary over, both men get closure, and are happy to see one another alive.

The season from now focuses on Voltron sorting out the coalition and trying to organise everything.

They contact the blade and begin preparing on how to defeat Lotor.

They find some of the blade, but as previously mentioned in the series many were killed in the three years they were away. However they do find a lot of very disempowered Galra soldiers who have been treated awfully by Lotor.

Lotor discovers their alive, and makes a very public announcement that anyone supporting Voltron will be destroyed.

The season ends in a semi big battle between Lotor and the paladins, one on one in a large mech only he pilots.

Both parties are wounded.

The Clone

Everyone feels awful and has no idea what to do

Shiro too feels pained. He has all the memories of the clone in his mind, and he doesn’t know what to do with them. How to sort through them

Lance out of all of them feels the worst as he was the closet to Shiro out of all of them. He believes should’ve seen something and starts to beat himself up over it.

Hunk and Pidge both feel they should’ve done something, or noticed, though Pidge is much more torn up about it. With Hunk knowing that none of them realised and it’s unreasonable that he would’ve any sooner than this.

Keith is shocked and hurt, and worried about Shiro first and foremost. He reassures Shiro that while it may not have been him, the clone acted like Shiro for the most part, a little more personable, but the real Shiro.

Lance and Self esteem

Due to his failure to pick up that Shiro was a clone, Lance begins questioning everything that Shiro ever told him as a clone.

He questions his whole self worth and no one can seem to help him out of the whole he’s emotionally digging for himself.

While recovering Shiro notices this, however, they keep getting interrupt before Shiro and Lance can have a proper talk

Keith kicks a little sense into him and they have a pretty heartfelt conversation which helps Lance a little, but he still can’t shake the feeling someone else would’ve seen it and sorted out the issue sooner.

Lance gets the blue lion back and she talks some sense into him, and tells him he shouldn’t be so hard on himself, it kicks a little sense into him, but again, he still feels terrible and he feels like Shiro’s been avoiding him.

Keith and Leadership

Shiro tells Keith, while still recovering that he’ll be able to take over pretty soon and fly the black lion.

Keith is actually disappointed this time round and feels instantly ashamed because it is Shiro’s lion and they have a great bond.

We come to learn that Keith quite enjoyed the small amount of time her led the team and found he wanted to keep being a leader.

Keith through this season connects to many Galra soldiers and people. He comes to find understanding with them now that he knows about his culture. Many joking comments he should be running the empire.

Season 8

Plot Changs

This season is filled with small battles, and lots of talks with previous allies.

Allura becomes the commander of the Atlas and enlists several humans and other aliens alike to help her command the ship side by side with Voltron. They become a formidable force.

They begin to fight Lotor’s forces in an attempt to bring him down by weakening his army thought they quickly discover he’s dug up enormous amounts of quintessence somehow.

Lotor should become more enraged and mounts larger attacks upon them, yet he doesn’t worrying everyone.

We then discover with the team that with their return so too had the return of the alternate universes, and Lotor was planning on using all the energy he harvested.

No one knows what happened to the Altean colony, and Allura and Coran, unsurprisingly, seem most torn up about. They both hope that it’s safe, and Lotor was more obsessed with his need to preserve the few Alteans he did have if he could never get more.

The team comforts both of their friends through this best they can but they start to realise it’ll be hard to stop Lotor.

Lotor does end up ripping huge holes in the space time continuum.

The last two episode are a battle between team Voltron, Atlas, and crew coalition all battling Lotor and the formidable amount of crafts he’s able to fuel thanks to the insane amounts of quintessence he’s mined over the past three years.

Eventually he starts universe hoping and team Voltron and Atlas all rush in to stop him. We follow them through trying to communicate with Lotor and get him to stop.

Allura pleads with Lotor and says she loves him, he stops and says he loves her too but he must finish his mission. Atlas has to go back because switching universes is ultimately destroying the ship and they’ll die if they stay any longer.

Eventually after wading through a million battle fields, and see a million alternate version of themselves, they end up somewhere quiet. Lotor’s shop is destroyed. This seems like the end of the road.

Keith makes a plead to Lotor, one last stand. Lotor Denys him and tries to jump one last time. When they follow him, he isn’t on the other side.

The go back.

Unfortunately when they do, the forces have stopped fighting and time seems to have slowed greatly. Voltron is badly damaged and they all split apart.

The team lands together. Harsh winds battle ahead thankfully the lions somewhat stop this.

They’re all scared.

The battle above is at a standstill, shots caught in mid air, shuttles paused mid explosion. The faces of both friend and foe paused in a climatic battle.

The large, white wholes keep getting bigger.

Shiro looks to them all.

They all agree that they feel the same thing. The silently look around at their lions and at one another.

They hold one another tight as their lions are sacrificed to stop this.

A second later there’s no wind.

They look over.

In the vastness of space, the fighting has stopped, everyone shocked by what just happened.

Voltron is no more.

They get picked up by the Atlas

We see a planet that everyone lands on.

Somehow despite all this, at least for a second, the world is at peace as soldiers care for one another and count the wounded.

Team Voltron, now joined by Allura and Coran stand alone

There’s talk of what could be done, and what is now down.

They all smile and reminiscence

Someone calls for them. Team Voltron

They don’t need to have the lions to still be a team.

The universe doesn’t need them anymore. .

Lance and self esteem

Shiro and Lance finally have that talk at some point in mid season 8.

Shiro points out to Lance that everyone lived with Shiro every day. That they spent practically every waking moment, that they shared almost everything

Lance feels a little better and with this talk with Shiro it properly solidifies Lance’s faith in himself. He feel confident in his ability as a paladin, and as his own person. He’s the blue paladin. The sharpshooter. He doesn’t need to be anyone else.

Shiro and Lance have a hug, and Shiro thanks Lance for being there for him when he really didn’t have to be. They stay like that for longer than they really need to.

Allura the commander

Allura feels useless coming along with the paladins and Coran, he also laments that he doesn’t have the faintest clue what to do with himself.

Thus presented to them, early in this season a mech from one of the few people who are willingly to support them at the beginning.

Allura has been a commander the whole way through but in this season we see her, independent of Voltron, become that commander.

Allura’s people are alive, a few hundred of them. But alive. She becomes their ruler, and takes her rightful place as their queen, helping guide them through an unsteady time.

Keith and Leadership

Through this season we see the meeting place of Keith’s search to be a leader, and his search to learn about his Galra heritage.

Many Galra begin looking to him, despite his less than Galra apperance. He builds more connections with many Galra through his season, and with the help of his mother converts a lot of Galra to seperate from the empire and Lotor and join the coalition

With Lotor dead. We see Keith at the Kral Zera and he becomes the leader

#voltron #vld #voltron legendary defender

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dogcopter · 4 years

Text

Rose is Lion Theory

Before Steven Universe Future ends, a consolidation of sprawling Rose Quartz endgame speculation into one post. Structured for story sense, but pulling from all points of canon throughout for context:

Mechanics/powers

Lion: secrets and behaviors

Suspicious characters, dreams and stuff

Future/speculation and arc implications

TL;DR: Maybe if she has the same abilities Steven does, Rose Quartz gave up her physical form to Steven, but did not die in the sense that her personality still exists somehow. Using the same sort of astral projection powers Steven has demonstrated, Rose has continued to watch over her son in secret after changing her identity, like she did when staging Pink Diamond’s shattering.

Image and text heavy. Potential spoilers for Steven Universe Future up to Bismuth Casual - This is long and I may add a few things to it.

Lion’s introduction in Steven’s Lion.

After they meet in the desert, Lion follows Steven home.

Lion approaches Steven after he lifted up his shirt, exposing his gem, so it’s possible he recognized Rose Quartz’s son. However, the Gems had never met Lion, and didn’t know he was connected to Rose.

From Steven’s Lion:

Steven: Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl are coming. Quick, put my head in your mouth! Pearl: Steven! What is that? What are you doing?

From Rose’s Scabbard:

Pearl: Does Lion have something to do with Rose? Amethyst: Ohh, of course! That’s why he’s pink!

...

Pearl: No, Rose didn’t have a lion, because if Rose had a lion I would have known about it!

How does Lion know where the Crystal Gems live? Where they’d take a corrupted Gem after destroying its physical form?

Lion doesn’t know where to find Steven/the Pink Diamond gem innately. In Jungle Moon, Stevonnie has to call Lars in order for him to find them, and Lars and Lion have identical powers from their pink revival.

Lars: Keep searching! We're not giving up on them, no matter what! Stevonnie: Lars! Hey Lars! Hey! Lars: There you are! We've been looking all over for you!

And Lars and Lion have the same magic abilities. Per SU podcast “The Fantasy of Steven Universe”

Anything Lion can do, Lars can do.

It’s possible Rose told Lion about the Gems and how to get to Beach City and where they live, but it’s likely he has never been there if they had no clue about him. He warps straight to the Temple.

The generally accepted explanation for Lion’s behavior is that Rose masterminded Lion’s knowledge and prepared for him to tell Steven everything, or at least told him her life story in enough detail, perhaps confiding in him, that his level of knowledge would make sense.

Almost anything Lion does can be explained that way, but Lion being Rose makes more sense as an explanation. After all, she was known for being secretive.

From A Single Pale Rose:

Rose: No one can ever find out we did this. I never want to look back.

From Now We’re Only Falling Apart:

Sapphire: She lied to us! She lied about everything!

From Rose’s Scabbard:

Garnet: Rose kept many things secret, even from us.

From Steven’s Dream:

Greg: There were some things your mom didn't like to talk about. I never pressed her for details.

Mechanics

How is it possible for Rose to be Lion? Steven’s mysterious extra OP astral projection/dream/possession spirit powers that came up again in In Dreams.

Rose’s absence is consistently described as “giving up her physical form”.

Body swap: Steven controls other organic beings in Super Watermelon Island, The New Lars, and Escapism.

Dream travel, lucid dreaming, and dream TV: Steven is able to travel in his dreams and talk to others in Chille Tid (Lapis while fused in Malachite), affect the content of other people’s dreams Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service (Kiki’s recurring nightmare), change his own dreams and broadcast and record them in In Dreams (Camp Pining Hearts fanfiction)

Astral projection/”psychic ghost thing”: In addition to astral projecting in the above forms, Steven travels from Homeworld to Earth via astral projection in Escapism, and confronts the Diamonds via astral projection in Reunited. They can’t see him, but can perceive an “aura”.

If Steven can do this, and this ability was familiar to the Diamonds, Rose may be able to do these things as well. Steven’s ability to take over organic bodies explains Rose using Lion’s body because they’re related powers, which is made clear in Escapism when Steven astral projects to find Earth and ends up in a Watermelon Steven body far from home.

When does Lion act like Rose?

Secrets

The following section are things Lion knows that only Rose, or only Rose and Pearl know, including locations related to Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond.

Secret: Lion

Went over this above. Gems didn’t know about Lion himself.

Secret: Armory

Pearl: You must be thinking of someplace else. I’m the only other Crystal Gem that’s witnessed the Armory’s magnificence before now. Steven: Nuh-uh, Lion showed me.

On one of their first adventures together, Lion brings Connie and Steven to a place only Pearl and Rose knew about.

He also seems to know how the Armory works; he encourages Steven to activate the controls and doesn’t let the kids bail on training. Pearl had to climb a cliff to bring Steven there.

Secret: Mane

Lion’s mane contained Bismuth, Rose’s Crystal Gem keepsakes, including the sword that Pearl hadn’t seen. and keepsakes from Greg.

When Steven finally unbubbles Bismuth in Bismuth and frees her from the mane, Lion immediately looks at the Crystal Gems’ reaction.

The mane also held the tape “For Steven”; “For Nora” was abandoned in the desert. Rose gave up her physical form before she could have known the baby’s sex, as Greg explains in Lion 4: Alternate Ending.

Greg: When you have a kid, you have no idea who they’re gonna be. Even Garnet couldn’t predict it. That’s what was so exciting to your mom, that life is full of so many possibilities, and you would get to explore them for yourself. I mean, you could be Steven or Nora or anyone else. And you can always change your name; hey, I did.

Lion is able to remove the sword from his mane in Lion 2: The Movie, meaning he may have had both tapes in the mane at one point, ejecting the Nora tape after meeting Steven. Not necessarily something he’d have to be Rose to do.

Secret: Scabbard & Battlefield

Lion finds Rose’s scabbard immediately at the battlefield. From Rose’s Scabbard:

Pearl: That’s the scabbard for Rose’s sword!

Lion also knows where to find Pearl when she gets upset; the battlefield where the scabbard was abandoned. Even though Pearl introduces the location like this:

Pearl: This was the site of a historic battle. Every weapon here was left by a Gem over 5,000 years ago. I don’t like to disturb it, but Garnet said we can’t just leave these lying around.

Later, when Pearl is upset, Steven asks Lion:

Steven: Do you know where she went? Lion: growl Steven: I’m going to assume that means you do.

...then he warps Steven to the battlefield. After Steven chases her to a floating island, Pearl then says:

Pearl: Do you remember this place? Do you have any of her memories? We were right here, over 5,000 years ago.

Pearl recreates the moment she and Rose chose to stay on Earth forever. Another location specific to Rose and Pearl.

Secret: Moon Base

Lion warps Steven to the Moon Base in both It Could’ve Been Great and in Can’t Go Back. The Galaxy Warp was destroyed pre-corruption, so unless Rose wanted to visit and gave excellent warp directions, Lion could not have visited it before. But Rose spent some time there as Pink Diamond!

Secret: Landfill/Pink Diamond

Lion brings Steven to the landfill in Lion 4: Alternate Ending, when Steven is paranoid about his magical destiny.

He was excited to get Steven into the mane in Lion 3, but in Lion 4 he’s reluctant to answer Steven’s questions, and acts much more subdued and serious than usual when they get there.

He brings Steven to Greg to have his questions about “For Nora” answered, but leaves before Greg sees him.

One other thing that’s slightly different between “For Steven” and “For Nora” is Rose’s monologue in the tape. Two sections are slightly different. One of them is this:

“For Steven”:

Steven, we can’t both exist.

“For Nora”:

Nora, we can’t both exist, but I won’t be gone.

The other revelation in the landfill is Pink Diamond’s ship. Its location was known only to Rose, Pearl didn’t know there was still a working ship on the planet. From Space Race:

Pearl: It’s fine. I’ll always have my memories of other worlds. But now I’m here. On Earth. Forever.

Rose’s identity as Pink Diamond was a secret. In Legs From Here to Homeworld all it takes to activate the ship is an incidental touch from Steven:

Lion must have known bringing Steven to look for answers here would risk Steven discovering Rose’s secret identity?

Behaviors

Rose is not necessarily Lion full-time; Lion is a revived lion with the same powers as Lars.

Lion’s relationship to Connie or Steven isn’t in this post, although it’s significant to both of them; Connie, Steven, and Lion have closely related character arcs, but in terms of the theory I’m sticking to characters Lion would have known as Rose or as Pink. I do have this brief post about Connie knowing Lion and Steven well enough to figure out Rose is Lion.

Garnet is also missing from this post because Lion has spent suspiciously little time around Garnet, presumably because Rose knows how her future vision works.

Lion’s interactions with other characters:

Behavior: Amethyst

Lion seems to like Amethyst! He’s particularly affectionate with her, and she’s affectionate with him. They’re shown in the background being cuddly a few times. Amethyst feels an instant connection.

(Is this a family photo?)

Lion also keeps an eye on Amethyst's reaction during Cry For Help, while Steven is distracted by Sardonyx’s whimsy;

Behavior: Pearl

Notable Pearl and Lion scenes. In Lion 3 they watch Steven sleep together.

In Scabbard they interact a lot and it’s interesting. He’s amused by Pearl taking the scabbard from him and annoyed at being shooed away.

Then he’s mad at her for trying to get into his mane.

We don’t get to see his face once when Pearl gets upset in the living room, but when Steven asks where Pearl went...

Lion knows exactly where to take him, and feels strongly about it.

He lets Pearl put the sword in his mane and ride on his back at the end of the episode.

He has some reactions in the movie, like after Pearl sings her incredible verse about moving on from Rose, Lion wakes up with this look on his face

He also hangs around Greg and rejuvenated Pearl, although his face isn’t shown much.

Behavior: Greg

Lion loves hanging out with Greg!

Lion’s notable scenes with Greg include: that time he took Steven back to fight with the Crystal Gems in The Return, and then hid before Greg could see him in Full Disclosure.

Is this a family photo?

And at the very end of the series, the time he shows up to face Greg with a badly injured Watermelon Steven.

Greg greets him with a smile before he sees Steven - maybe Lion’s shown up to spend time with him before?

Character development. And of course in the movie, Lion gives Greg a little kiss in a Crystal Gem groupshot. Very cute!

Behavior: Diamonds

Lion has a visible reaction to the Diamonds and seems to understand their power, even though he would never have encountered them before.

In Reunited, Lion tries his hardest and he’s the first to charge Blue Diamond after a teamwork.

Makes sense for Rose to be angry with Blue

Also in Reunited, Lion is the only character who keeps an eye out for Yellow Diamond after the Cluster knocks down her ship.

In Legs From Here to Homeworld, Lion is making a face for most of the episode. He is not happy about this new development (asking White Diamond to help with corruption)

In Escapism, when Steven asks for help against White Diamond, Lion looks unusually worried.

He looks a little judgy when the Diamonds and Spinel sing in the movie.

Behavior: Spinel

Lion allows Spinel to ride around on his back, but he also shoots her dirty looks,

and leaves her behind at the Sadie Killer concert.

If Rose is Lion, oof. But hey, still in character based on past behavior!

Behavior: Jasper

We don’t know the nature of Rose and Jasper’s relationship, and Lion doesn’t interact with her much, but Lion is there to witness Malachite’s fusion.

In Crack the Whip we get a few Jasper clues. He reacts to mention of Jasper’s name at the beginning.

He also seems big mad at Jasper, who spends the whole time aggressing at Steven under the impression he’s Rose.

Curious to see if this comes back when we get to hear Jasper’s story in Future.

Unresolved Mysteries

Some things about Lion and about Rose that still lack answers and could affect this:

What Lion and Rose’s relationship looked like

how he died and was revived by Rose’s abilities.

Desert Glass gem.

The lizards he eats

Whether or how it’s even possible Rose gave up her gem to Steven while continuing to exist as a separate entity on the astral plane like this.

Suspicious Characters, Dreams & Stuff

Galaxy brain: if Rose is Lion, what’s to say she doesn’t have the other abilities Steven has?

Steven has Pink Diamond dreams when he needs the information in the dream. When animal sidekicks appear they lead him to his goals. If Lion is a mysterious animal sidekick who appeared just to be Steven’s friend, and he’s secretly Rose, what other convenient animal sidekicks are suspect?

If he doesn’t have a magical destiny, but does have a magical, secretive mom who can astral project and hijack organic bodies, maybe she’s been lending him a hand here and there.

The only time the mask slips is in Storm in the Room.

Steven: And that’s why I’m here, isn’t it? Did you just make me so you wouldn’t have to deal with your mistakes? Is that all I’m here for?

Rose: Steven, you know that isn’t true. In the tape I left you, I told you how much I wanted to have you and let you exist.

Ghosts

There are a few characters I call “suspicious ghosts” who aid Steven along his journey. They only exist to be convenient to Steven, even though Steven doesn’t have a magical destiny, and might be Rose:

Tiny Floating Whale: Has Susan Egan’s voice and appears before Steven hears her voice in Lion 3

Baby Melon: Is friends with Steven, punches Steven to draw the ire of the other melons and sacrifice himself.

Dream Dogcopter: Leads Steven to Lapis when he’s looking for Malachite. Tells Steven to “take a deep breath” when Lion is trying to get him in his mane.

Melon Dogs: Shows Steven Malachite is near Mask Island. Tries to distract and entertain Steven when he’s trapped in Pink Diamond’s tower.

Maybe Pink Steven? Maybe Cactus Steven? (They could be more Rose ghosts, given the way they behave, but could also be exactly what they appear to be)

Dreams & Memories

Like Lion, Steven’s dreams also seem to help him out with information his mom would have.

Steven’s Dream: Steven asks Greg if his mom ever talked about Pink Diamond, Greg tells Steven that Rose didn’t tell him about her past. Steven has a dream of crying in front of the palanquin, prompting him to search for answers there.

Jungle Moon: Stevonnie is stranded on one of Yellow Diamond’s Moon Bases and has a dream that is partially a memory of Pink Diamond’s. Using the code they see in the dream, they are able to unlock YD’s console and call for help.

Can’t Go Back: Steven dreams of Pink Diamond trying to save Earth and Pearl with Rose’s sword, prompting him to speak to Pearl and uncover her secret.

Masterpost of suspicious ghosts that goes into slightly more detail.

Rose’s Characterization

From Storm in the Room:

Steven: I finally know the truth. I know what you are! You’re a liar! I thought you’d never want to hurt anyone, but you hurt everyone! How could you just leave Garnet and Amethyst and Pearl and Dad? They don’t know what to do without you! Maybe they didn’t matter to you as much as hiding the mess you made!

My read of Rose choosing to be Lion but not tell the others is because she cared about them, but like other things she’s done, that doesn’t change the fallout.

The good news: If Rose is Lion, and she is still around in some fashion, if she can only overcome this pattern of behavior and face the truth... then, like everyone else in Steven Universe, she has a chance to change!

But...

Lion is pink because he’s like Lars: Yes. See above. I’m not claiming there’s an alternate explanation for Lion’s appearance or abilities, or contradicting his behaviors. It’s just that Rose is using his body.

Lion knows everything because Rose told him: I don’t think this makes sense given what we know of Rose. I don’t mind being wrong if there’s a better explanation.

Rose is dead My only response to this objection is yea, as far as we know, but there’s enough supporting detail not explained in other ways that I believe the theory has merit. It’s not like SU hasn’t misdirected us before.

Future Speculation

In the Steven Universe Future premiere, although Steven really doesn’t want to think about what she did anymore (and who could blame him?) we get a little bit of new Rose lore. Shy Rose Quartz.

I think this is Rose. I don’t know how she managed it, but I think we’ll learn soon. With the possibility Rose is Lion, and can inhabit other bodies, the whole vibe of Rose Buds changes. Here is a post dedicated to that: Shy Rose is Steven’s Mom. That’s all. From A Single Pale Rose:

Rose: Convincing? Pearl: Very much so, my DIamond. Rose: Soon it will be just Rose.

In Volleyball it’s also explained that she traumatized her former Pearl, and that Rose changed her behavior so much that it’s like Pearl and Volleyball knew two different people.

One last thing: Steven’s arc.

From I Am My Mom:

I get it now. I’m the only one who can stop what she started. I can stop all of it!

From Reunited:

Now all that’s left of her exists in me, and I think that we can all agree: that is a little bit upsetting. I’d rather think about a wedding!

From Storm in the Room:

No, I’m sure you meant it. I get it. I know you didn’t want me to deal with your problems. You’re a part of me now. I have to deal with what you left behind.

From “Happily Ever After”:

Once upon a time, I thought I’d always be in my mother’s shadow Answering for her crimes, I thought I’d always be in an endless battle

From the end of the movie:

There’s no such thing as happily ever after. I’ll always have more work to do.

Steven has a tough relationship with his mom by now.

Like when she said “We can’t both exist,” recently called back in Rose Buds.

From Storm in the Room:

In the tape I left you, I told you how much I wanted to have you and let you exist. Do you think what I said to you in the tape was a lie?

If you entertain this theory as plausible given the lore, the implications change; what if Rose isn’t gone? What if she’s not half of him? What if at least part of that tape was just another lie?

And I need you to know that every moment you love being yourself, that’s me, loving you and loving being you. Because you’re going to be something extraordinary; you’re going to be a human being.

Steven has internalized a lot from when he was young. His best friend Lion has been there for him. We’re also seeing the ways his childhood trauma has manifested in coping behaviors and automatic reactions from his gem, not unlike his mom before him.

Right now, in Future, mid-breakdown - how would Steven react to such a paradigm shift?

Thank you for reading! I know this is a lot.

#rose is lion 2020 #rosedemption 2020 #steven universe theory

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ginger-canary · 3 years

Text

Where Do Your Strengths Lie

For @flarrowverse-shipyard Femslash February bingo square “Powerswap”. Charlie/Earth-2 Laurel Lance. Rating: M due to heated makeout scene and my desire to play it safe. Words: 1221. AO3 Link: X

After the power swap, both of them are blown off their feet. Charlie crashed through the staff display, sending them everywhere as they rolled over the floor with loud curses. On the other side of the cave, Laurel attempted to push herself up from the training mat, her hair static as electricity prickled lightly. "What the fuck did you do?" Laurel growled as she made her way back to the platform, breathing deeply to get the air rushing through her lungs.

"Listen, love," Charlie jumped back onto the platform, keeping one hand on the railing. "I don't live here, that's you." The words were hard to get out, pushing past a newly formed dam inside their chest, fighting for air.

Laurel felt her control slip and reached for her chest, searching for her powers- the one thing that had always stayed with her. "What did you do to me? Where are my powers?!" Her words shook as her vocal cords couldn't decide on an octave, suddenly sounding remarkably like Nyssa.

Charlie scrambled backwards, flipping over the railing when Laurel showed them just what their powers looked like in progress. The glitching figure of a strong brunette mashed with Laurel's shape showed a mosaic of details. They screamed, no longer in the usual sound but in a touchable form, the waves visible as they bounced across the room knocking things over.

"Oh. Oh how dare you." Laurel started toward Charlie, balance weak as her body could not decide what it wanted to be. Dazed from their own new ability, Charlie pushed themself back up to a standing position. "Once again, princess, I didn't fucking do this. I am a fate, not a magician." Their voice was strong as a scream started to build within their chest yet again but Laurel towered over them in heeled boots.

Struggling to accept the dual tones of her voice as her form flickered, Laurel spoke "what. Have. You done to me? What have you given me?" She moved toward Charlie who stepped back a few feet.

"I haven't given you anything, that's mine! I'm a shapeshifter! Just undo whatever this bullshit is, your powers-" They paused, short nails raking over their chest but it was no use. "Your powers hurt."

With a slight hesitation, Laurel rolled her eyes and shoved Charlie back, sending them tripping over the bo staffs. "Your powers make me sound like a demon. Give me back my goddamn voice, Charlie."

With a growl, Charlie pushed Laurel back. "I've lived for millennia. This ain't my doing, love. I'd know."

The anger Laurel had collected in her chest rose like a wave as she connected the dots. "Are you trying to tell me you think some of the technology in the cave caused this?" She picked up speed, advancing before Charlie's eyes widened- not even paying attention to the extra inches she grew. "Are you trying to blame Felicity?" She grabbed hold of Charlie's shoulders, ignoring the way her many rings dug into the bare skin of Charlie's clavicles, quickening her breathing. Her gaze slipped down for just a second, eyeing the way Charlie's tight, off-shoulder shirt slipped.

Charlie backed up until they were no longer able to, their back against the stone wall, their feet together between Laurel's broader stance. "I don't know! Bloody hell, this is the third time I've been here. How should I know how things go around here?" Their breath hitched as Laurel's body was now almost pressing against them, Laurel's wild eyes focused lower than they were before.

With a deep sigh, Laurel finally managed to regain control of her voice, bringing it back to one. She shrunk back to her original height, still quite a few inches taller than Charlie. "Then what do you think happened?" Her voice shook as she balled her fists in the seam of Charlie's soft shirt.

The warmth of Laurel's hands caused Charlie's abdominals to flex, anticipation and adrenalin pulling their body tight, straightening their spine. There was nowhere to look but the crook of Laurel's neck. The sonic scream still lodged in their chest, Charlie spoke. "Maybe our powers are too temperamental to be near each other."

A moment of silence. Then, Laurel whispered, "Can't argue with that."

Charlie stretched their neck, latching onto the soft skin of Laurel's throat. The pressure in their chest broke through and it was too late to reroute the scream, Charlie clutching Laurel's hips with surprising gentleness. A silent apology for the pressure they released against her throat.

Her blood roared in her ears, her knees wobbly. Charlie's dancing fingers slipped underneath her jacket, hooking their pinkies into the waistband of her jeans as she struggled with the scream that had broken through their self-control, the feeling much like a powerful hickey. The world swayed as she released Charlie's shirt, her fingers travelling up underneath the fabric. "Fuck," she muttered, leaning down the moment Charlie breathed in. Taking a step closer, Laurel pressed Charlie between herself and the wall, crashing into Charlie's lips with frustration. This small shapeshifter had too much power over her.

Charlie met Laurel's enthusiasm with an open mouth, all teeth and tongue. Their heart was pounding, shouting at them to get closer closer closer. It was a need, the pressure in their chest easing with every gasp they let slip. With one fluent motion, they shoved Laurel's jacket off, the leather dropping at their feet. Instantly, they returned their fingers to exploring Laurel's soft waist- nails first.

Now that her arms were freed from her jacket, Laurel slipped one hand into Charlie's hair, pulling down just enough to expose their throat. Then, she realised the problem of their height difference. Cursing, Laurel pulled Charlie up, wrapping their legs around her waist and pressing them against the wall. She refocused on Charlie's clavicle, biting her way up. The fluidity of the shapeshifting power moved and twisted but settled down as she acted with more and more confidence.

When Laurel latched onto the sensitive skin behind Charlie's pierced ear, Charlie failed to swallow their quiet, needy whine. Leaning back, Laurel looked into their eyes with a softness they hadn't considered possible. She stroked Charlie's cheek, shifting one of her knees forward to keep Charlie stable. Her hands seemed to be made for Charlie's hips as she held them. An uncertain, curious gaze called for her attention. She faced the questioning gaze as the chaotic shifting power within her slowed. "May I..." The whisper died off as she tugged on Charlie's shirt, biting her lower lip.

"Yeah." And Charlie raised their arms, quickly slipping the shirt over their head before leaning back, their bare skin against the cool wall. They faced Laurel's intense gaze head-on, the power within their chest barrelling toward the dam, causing their breath to once again hitch.

Laurel licked her lips, her mind running through her options. "Fuck," she whispered, moving the both of them over to the training mat, pushing Charlie on their back. She positioned herself hovering over Charlie's hips, a knee on each side. Taking a moment, she kneeled there, taking in the view.

Charlie grinned as more control over the situation came within reach. They pushed themself up, pulling Laurel down by the collar. "Come on," they teased.

Laurel simply cocked an eyebrow and kissed them.

#zaritarazi #you liked a bunch of tweets about the development of this so here you go #charlie clotho #E2! Laurel Lance #sirenshifter #my writing #lot #legends of tomorrow #arrow

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moiranetex · 3 years

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Harry Potter - 1 Element idk

Erm idk what this is really. I’ve been wanting to start this story for ages so i did. It’s a bit of a mess and im not entirely sure if I like all the details. Its unedited but idc.

The fire in the Gryffindor common room burned brightly on the eve of the second night back at Hogwarts. Classes were back in full swing, a new batch of first years were wondering around completely lost and Hermione Granger was completing a potions essay 2 weeks in advance, in the corner of the room. It was getting increasingly difficult as none of her peers seemed to share her motivation nor her ability to be quiet. Ronald Weasley had just flipped a game of Wizards chess, that he was playing with Harry Potter, off one of the many couches that were positioned around the room. The pieces scattered all over the carpet in front of the fire as Harry, along with others, roared with laughter. Hermione concluded that this must have been one of the very rare times Harry managed to beat Ronald at the game. While little groups were placed all around the large room either chatting, reading, gossiping, playing, napping or participating in more scandalous activities, a large group surrounded two Weasley siblings in particular. Hermione knew that Fred and George Weasley were almost certainly in the process of selling their joke products to unsuspecting teenagers in their own hilariously obvious version of a black market. She huffed to herself, frustrated that she would be once again interrupted. She was after all a prefect and probably the only person in the room equipped with enough wit to go up against the twins. She felt her cheeks go red with anger, however, just as she was preparing herself for the argument that would surely ensue, the portrait that served as an entrance into the Gryffindor quarters was opened and Professor McGonagall strolled through, her beady eyes instantly taking in the scene. Chaos ensued for a good 10 seconds as students hid whatever needed to be hidden, stopped swapping spit, ceased shouting and turned respectfully towards their head of house. The Weasley twins took advantage of the large amount of students blocking their view to stash their outrageous stock. Professor Mcgonagall pursed her lips distastefully at her students, not a thing slipping past her. She chose not to comment or dole out punishments as she was, despite never admitting it, both bias and genuinely fond of every student in her house. Her eyes settled on Hermione as she started to speak in her distinguished Scottish accent

“Miss Granger, would you kindly accompany me to Dumbledores office. Apparently there is a new student joining us, she will be in your year and as you are prefect it seems only logic that she should be put under your care.”

Immediately whispers broke out among the students. It was extremely rare for someone to arrive at Hogwarts after the first year. There were those that came back slightly later from vacation, but there had only ever been a handful in this situation.

“It probably means she was attending a different school, an International student. Thats so fun!”

“Yeah, unless she’s been shipped in from Durmstrang, then you better stick clear of her.”

“Durmstrang is a school for boys you idiot, and it probably means she’s homeschooled, so either super rich or super poor, there really is no in between.”

“Bloody hell I hope not. Remember that Slytherin chap that had been homeschooled ‘till year 7, he was a right weirdo. Even the Slytherins didn’t like him and they like anyone pure and rich.”

“SILENCE,” shouted a fed up Mcgonogall. It was starting to get late and she wasn’t in the mood for the gossip flying around her common room.

“Firstly I don’t even know why the majority of you are still up at this hour, I technically don’t have the right to dictate what time you choose to put yourself to bed but I can certainly change that if I happen to observe that it isn’t to complete schoolwork,” she sent a particularly scathing look at the Weasley twins her who, in return, smiled politely at her as innocently as they could manage.

“And Second of all, although I don’t know her very well yet I can assure you she isn’t some type of ‘weirdo’ as you have so gracefully put it Ronald. Now Hermione if you wouldn’t mind,” she gestured into the hallway, clearly wanting to get this over with.

…

Hermione eyes widened as she took in the people currently in Dumbledore’s office. Unfortunately Draco Malfoy, a Slytherin in her year, and his best friend Blaise Zabini were there, scowls gracing both their faces. Blaise was sat in one of the two seats in front of the Heads desk while Draco was perched on the edge of on of the smaller tables in the room. Professor Snape, head of Slytherin house and the bane of the majority of Gryffindors existence, stood in the corner with his normal grimace. Professor Dumbledore sat in his chair, behind his large desk with a pleasant smile on his lips and a baby phoenix in his hand. Finally in the second chair to Blaise’s right sat one of the most beautiful girls Hermione had ever seen. The girl had dark caramel skin, not dissimilar to Blaise. Her hair flowed down to her lower back in brown micro braids, the front being pinned back so as to not get in the way, however a few pieces were spared to frame her face. She had large brown eyes coupled with thick lashes. She had plump lips, dimples and a small nose that contained a tiny gold piercing. Immediately Hermione noticed two things. Firstly, she shared two many characteristics with the boy beside her for them to not be closely related. The same skin tone, full mouth and thick eyebrows, however they also had the same air of superiority, grace and poise that accompanied all rich, pureblood individuals. Secondly, Hermione noted that she was groomed to perfection, only serving to prove her theory further. She was already in the Hogwarts uniform, though lacking the tie. There wasn’t a single crease in her attire, it looked expensive and well made. Her fingernails were manicured, a shiny cherry red color was glaring against the darker hues of her uniform and looked slightly out of place. Hermione observed a thin layer of makeup on the girl to accentuate her features, along with what was clearly real gold jewellery in the form of rings, a necklace, and her nose piercing.

After making these observations, Hermione concluded that she was surely dealing with some sort of pureblood brat and therefore was rather shocked when the girl gave her a large and seemingly genuine smile, her white teeth accentuated by the shiny gloss on her lips. Hermione smiled back, somewhat apprehensively but as a general rule she didn’t like to let stereotypes define how she saw people.

“Ah Hermione, come in. We were just having a little chat,” murmured Dumbledore. At this statement, Draco Malfoy lifted his head up to look at Blaise Zabini who was, for lack of a better word, fuming. Blaise was never someone who talked a lot or was overly expressive. Because of his height, good looks and general ability to intimidate people he never blended into the background but he was usually stoic, a living statue. Around his friends he was a little more open, and those who knew him very well or had had the occasion to witness him drunk knew he could be funny and open however he had always been a man of few words and was incredibly private. Draco Malfoy was almost his polar opposite, not only in appearance with his silver hair and pale skin, but also in personality. It was hard to get Malfoy to shut up a majority of the time. While he too was conventionally attractive, rather tall and certainly domineering, he loved to talk, particularly if it mean making fun of people. He, like Blaise, was intelligent and had a quick wit which he loved to share. While it was difficult to get information out of Blaise about essentially anything, Draco was an open book to such a point that he could be considered insufferable at times, even by those who loved him.

Severus Snape, observing his two students, felt it was a good time to intervene. Not only was he bias towards members of his own house, he held an actual fondness for the two boys in front of him and the fact that he was very close to both their parents, who would absolutely be hearing about this, meant he felt somewhat of a responsibility towards the girl in the chair. The fact that she was his goddaughter didn’t escape him either.

“Dumbledore, with respect I find it…,” he paused for a second, trying to find a polite and sophisticated way to say that there was no bloody way he would allow his only goddaughter to be placed into Gryffindor.

“-preposterous to entertain the mere thought of Miss Zabini entering into Gryffindor. She would be much better suited to Slytherin, with her brother and friends. I’m sure her parents, in particular her mother, would agree with me,” he drawled, bringing up the one thing that may possibly force the stubborn Headmaster to change his mind and defy the ragged hat that currently sat on his desk.

“Come now Severus, the hat has placed her into Gryffindor and so it must be fate. I can assure you if Carmen Zabini has any other problems she can always contact me, I would be happy to deal with her,” Dumbledore replied cheerily, however it was obvious to everyone in the room that the discussion was tense and the mention of Mrs. Zabini had been employed as some sort of threat.

“Bloody hat,” mumbled a frustrated Zabini, not as discreetly as he perhaps should have.

“This is ridiculous, she cant go into Gryffindor. She’s a pureblood and she already knows us all, it’s idiotic. Not only will you have her mother breaking down the door of this school, but my father will have something to say about it too,” interrupted Malfoy after seeing just how angry his friend was.

Just as Dumbledore opened his mouth to respond the girl spoke for the first time since Hermione arrived. Turning around to look Draco in the eye, almost challenging him. She had quite a soft voice that was comforting and sounded sweet, even as she spoke icily to Malfoy. Hermione couldn’t really place the accent. It had some weird intonations from what was probably Italian, and while it was closest to a high class english accent, some words slid out sounding american.

“Draco, stop. This is ridiculous, it’s just a house. There are pure-bloods in Gryffindor, not that it matters. And I while I do have the most friends in Slytherin I know some people in other houses. Anyway it’s an opportunity to meet new people. As for mother I already had a discussion about this before coming here, if she has further issues she can take it up with my father,” she took a deep breath and then turned to her brother, speaking in a much lower tone she continued

“-and I know you’re worried about me but you are completely overreacting Blaise. We’ll still see each other all the time and I’ll even wear that idiotic watch that mother sent you if you’re absolutely serious about it.”

“Oh, I am,” muttered Blaise, giving his sister his full attention, his dark eyes still glittering in anger. He looked quite terrifying, thought Hermione.

“The Weasleys barely count as pureblood Magda,” snorts Draco in the most incredible display of brattiness and bad timing that he was capable.

Immediately all eyes were on him, he didn’t seems to regret what he said however.

“Yes thank you for that Malfoy, I’m sure thats what everyone needed to hear,” the girl, who Hermione had now learned was named Magda, said with utmost sarcasm.

“Well, if that’s all-” Magda stood up abruptly, clearly sick of the back and forth that was heading nowhere. She bent down, giving her brother a kiss on the cheek and then went over to Draco, who lowered his head so she could do the same.

“You’re an idiot. Goodnight,” she whispered, still glaring at him. Both boys frustrated her, Draco more so than her own brother but she never liked going to bed angry, especially with those she loved.

“Just doing my job aren’t I?” He replied sarcastically giving her a little grin. She rolled her eyes before nodding at Snape who nodded back to her, never being one for affection. She then strolled over to stand next to Hermione.

“Thank you very much Professor Dumbledore, Professor Mcgonnogall. If that is all I do apologise for I’m rather tired and would probably benfit from some rest,” she smiled at Dumbledore who smiled back.

“Of course Miss. Zabini, you and Hermione may go. I didn’t realise this little meeting would take so long.”

Both girls departed as quickly as they could, but not before hearing Mcgonogall and Snape arguing over whether Slytherin house should lose points over Draco’s ‘insensitive’ comment.

“It was demeaning, rude and elitist. I say he should lose 20 points for that behaviour,” they heard Mcgonogall snap.

“You cant deduct points from students for stating mere facts Minnerva,” Snape replied cuttingly. After listening to Mcgonnagal splutter for about five seconds he rephrased his sentence.

“Malfoy was merely sharing an opinion, a point of view. Opinions are diverse, you cannot go around punishing people for them.”

“You bloody watch-”

…

#harry potter #unfinished #harry potter x oc #drabble #blaise zabini #draco malfoy #hermione #fred weasley #george weasley #ronald weasley #weasley family #potter #slowburn

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blindtaleteller · 4 years

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1, 2, 8 and 39 for the asks please ☺️💜💜

1. What’s your favorite character(s) to write for? That first one is A LOT harder than you might think: because of writing Lokiverse. Twenty one universes but all the same characters right? No. No, and I sometimes wish! XD So.. so wrong actually that you have no idea. I can’t just say ‘Loki’ when it comes to Lokiverse because that’s not always true from one universe to the next; and the way they present their differences, the relationships they have that have changed, and character have changed because their history and experiences have all changed in some way, and that affects them in huge and sometimes very subtle ways that makes them each very different versions of that same creature. That said; It’s really tied, between three of them right now.. if I had to pick: and definitely shifts from time to time. Gin is one of those three, from Universe/Door 5. Viedimadr, Clint Barton from Door 10 aka DREAMS is another (although Clint in general is just straight up torturous fun to write anyways, all the time.) And for the third definitely Tony. Any version, of Tony: though I do greatly enjoy Leadsprite (Door/Universe 15) and Charmer (Door/Universe 8; GROUNDED) in particular. Both are incredibly messed up, beautifully passionate dweebs.

2. What character(s) do you find the most difficult to write for? Why? Hands down, Bruce Banner. For some reason, that muse is almost as good at emotional sucker-punches as Clint and Quill, who would be number two and three: only because Bruce manages it much faster for me even when quiet. I’ve pointed this one out before: but in GROUNDED I swapped a scene with Wanda and Natasha post Ultron in, and a much shorter one with Bruce during Ultron and after Loki ‘died’ out: only to put it in later as a BONUS TRACK. And yeah, I think I broke down and cried two, three times? While fleshing it out from his perspective. Cause here’s this guy who hopped on the train late, but accepted him as a friend finally; and then as the only thing close to medical staff they had not only had to be woken up to try and save his life after the bomb; but fail miserably at it, and have to hand him over to shield again only to be told they were failing too. Given hope when they ultimately handed him reluctantly back to Asgard, and have him wake up for Christmas: only to have that friend still die in his sleep after he slipped back into the ‘coma’.

And he’s left with all that, and being the only monster in his eyes left on the team again; added on to everything else piling up on the way to and through Ultron. Yeah, this is the kind of heartrending shit Bruce Banner sneaks in on me. The ‘I got nothin to say today’ muses can be hard? But No. Nothing compared to the immediate need to stop and breathe and find a damned box of kleenex Banner manages to stab me in the lungs with every time I let a version of him loose on my keyboard.

8. Do you prefer writing one-shots or multi chaptered stories? I think I don’t have a preference actually. It really depends on the writing, and how well thought out that story is, to the very end. I’ve read one shots that I enjoyed more than 30+ chapter amazeballs long-fics. Likewise? I’ve read long fics through that were a super struggle to read past chapter one, because they couldn’t hold my attention, passed over the ‘believable’ and ‘coherant’ thresholds that exist even for fantasy, or just because the author lost their own view of where they were going and spent WAY too much time trying to track it back that way when they did catch it again

I don’t often like the ‘one line one quote’ habits some fic writers have these days, or the ‘bullet list’ (though I’ve seen and know some here and elsewhere who actually make that work, especially in reader inserts.) To me, a lot of those I come across read more like a script than a fic, with very little flesh to the world and characters in it that kind of defeats the point for me personally. If I want to read a script, I’ll go and read a script? But when I want to read a fanfiction; I usually expect a little more effort than that? I want to see the world and characters they’re building. And that usually takes more than one line, and one quote per paragraph to accomplish.

Short stories, and one shot doesn’t mean shortened, lamed down sentences. Trust your readers, and explore your vocabulary. At worst, some of them might learn a word you knew that they didn’t.

39. What area of writing do you feel strongest in? Fuck me, if metaphors doesn’t immediately jump out and get screamed laughing from many directions at me from the brainkids. This very second --no joke, it’s in my other tab-- I’m working one through Tony as part of the next platovember post that had him comparing his literal understanding and mastery of of Math and Physics of the physical world, with the more conceptual Math and Physics of Chaos and how people react to information and the world around them create and shape it: and Loki’s understanding and mastery of that as it takes form in his manipulative skills.

The muse kicked it at me as a question and; from there it’s just drawing the parallels in a way Tony would see, and then tossing it back to the muse at the table or in the car and going: ‘Okay man, now show us how this scene works with this mentality, and how it affects what you’re doing, what’s going on, how you feel about it, and where you’re going.’

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hazza-bear-care · 5 years

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Babie Crue (2/?)

Pairings: The Dirt!Motley Crue X OC!Reader. Eventual MGK!Tommy Lee X OC, Possible Douglas Booth!Nikki Sixx X OC, Dad!Motley Crue

Warnings: Cussing, drug use, drinking

Description: Cam eventually finds solace with Tommy’s family, who pity her after she reveals why she’s homeless with a newborn baby. Two months of peace later, Cam has a steady job as a waitress and Motley Crue is officially formed. Tommy starts to invite Cam out to their shows at Whisky A Go Go, and she eventually decides that a break is much needed. Of course, she shows up the night Doc enters the picture and Elektra starts pressuring for the band to go on tour.

~~~~~~~

Tommy, Mick, and Nikki found Cam about half an hour after she left the apartment. With some heavy convincing, Cam finally agreed the best choice was to live with Tommy at his parent’s house. When the Lee’s heard Cam’s story, recounted quickly and embellished with a lot of ‘fucks’ by none other than Tommy himself, they thankfully welcomed her into their home with open arms. Tommy scrounged up whatever he could money wise to help buy the basics for Grace, and was all too ready to give up his room and bunk on the couch. The band and Tommy’s parents helped find Cam a job within her first week of living in her new space.

In the time it took to get Cam set up comfortably, the band had found their front man, Vince Neil, and started performing at a club on the Sunset Strip called Whisky A Go Go. It was definitely a rocky start based on what was heard from Tommy when he called Cam at work after the shows, but she knew that if anyone deserved to be famous, it was Tommy.

“Cam, you should totally come to a show! Athena and my parents could watch Gracie and you can see your knight in shining armor in action!” Tommy yelled through the phone, helping Cam hear him over the loud thumping of the music in the background. Cam chuckled and ducked under a tray that a co worker was carrying.

“Tommy, you know I’d love to, but I feel like the second I leave Gracie, she’s going to get taken away from me. I can’t lose the only piece of me I have left because I was out partying with my best friend and his band.” A sigh escaped Cam’s lips as she ran her fingers through her dark brown hair. Cam was grateful of her boss for allowing long phone calls, but they were only to happen over her twenty minute break.

“Hey, Cam. Don’t think like that. You and I both know my family and I will fight tooth and fucking nail to protect you and that adorable fucking baby. I understand your fear, but I really want you to be around before we go fucking through the roof!” Tommy’s excitement made Cam smile sadly. She noticed a stern look coming from her manager, which led her to glance at her watch.

“Tommy, I have to go. My break is almost up. I’ll consider coming to one of your shows, alright?”

“Yeah, babe! Have a good night, alright? I’ll see you later, sweets!” Cam muttered a quick goodbye and hung up the phone, stumbling through the crowded kitchen and heading out to the dining room.

“Hello. My name is Cameo, and I’ll be your server this evening. Could I get you guys started with something to drink?” She muttered her spiel, quickly scribbling down the family’s drink orders. Checking on her other patrons, Cam threw crumpled bills into the cash register, returning change and receipts to departing groups, bidding them a farewell as they headed towards the door.

By the time she was able to leave, Cam had accumulated a decent amount of tips. She was good at her job, despite customers swearing at her for wrong orders that she accidentally swapped with another table. As she made her way home in the dark, discreetly brandishing a knife Nikki had gifted her, Cam thought about Tommy’s offer.

‘Maybe a show would be nice. I mean it’s just one show, and we’ve been safe for two months. I deserve a break.’ Cam’s thoughts were swimming so fervently around her head that she almost didn’t hear the shuffling behind her.

Hailing a taxi, Cam gave the driver Tommy’s address, only glancing at the person who followed her once a barrier was placed between them. Looking vaguely familiar, the car sped off before Cam could distinguish who had followed her. Throwing a twenty at the driver, grumbling at the instant decrease of food and diaper funds, Cam quickly ran inside her safe haven, involuntarily slamming the door behind her.

“Cameo? Is that you, dear?” Tommy’s mother, Voula, called from her place in the living room.

“Yeah, Voula, it’s me. Was Gracie any trouble?” Cam asked as she made her way to the older woman, getting comfortable on the couch after hanging up her coat and bag.

“She’s an angel, Cam. You should be proud to be her mother.” A warm smile spread across Voula’s face.

“Believe me, I am. I have a favor to ask you though: do you think you could watch Gracie longer than usual this weekend? I really want to watch Tommy’s band play, especially because he seems so excited about it.”

“Of course, dear. You deserve a break.” Thanking her, Cam hugged the woman who took her in and bid her a goodnight as they both turned in to sleep. Stripping her uniform, Cam silently changed into her sleepwear and looked at her daughter sleeping peacefully in the bassinet Athena had dug up from the depths of the garage.

Humming to herself, Cam flicked on a flashlight, opening up a book that she had loved since high school: The Secret Garden. Unfortunately, Cam’s mind wandered back to the man who was following her. Eventually she snapped out of it when she realized her eyes were drooping intensely. Cam made herself comfortable in the bed, breathing in the scent that was caked into the sheets covering Tommy’s bed. Cam soon found herself asleep, dreaming of nothing but a high school aged Tommy and Gracie.

~~~~~~~~~

The next day, Cam awoke to Grace’s soft cries. Hopping out of bed, she scooped her baby out of the bassinet. A knock on the door caused the mother to jump slightly, chuckling silently as she rocked Grace gently.

“Come on in,” Cam called to the door, hearing it open with a slight creak.

“Hey, sweets. I heard Gracie and figured I’d help you a little today.” Tommy entered and handed Cam a bottle filled with the exact amount of formula Grace had started eating as she rounded six months.

“Tommy, you didn’t have to do that! Thank you though,” Cam muttered. The trio sat together on the bed as Cam began feeding Grace. The baby girl babbled as she suckled against the bottle happily, grasping the sides with her knuckles.

“How did you manage to get the greatest thing out of the shittiest relationship?” Tommy whispered, brushing his long fingers over her tiny feet, causing the baby to giggle at his touch.

“I honestly have no idea, Tommy. Hey guess what?” Cam responded, turning her attention to the man next to her. Tommy hummed, signalling for Cam to continue. “I’m coming to your show tonight!”

“Really?! Jesus, Cam that’s great! What made you change your mind?” Tommy asked, his brown eyes shining brightly with excitement.

“I was on my way home from work and I figured I deserved a break. It’s okay that I’m coming, right?” Cam suddenly found herself questioning if this was really a good idea.

“Of course it is, Cam. Why else would I have invited you to every show?” They sat in silence after that, the only sounds filling the air being Grace’s grunts of happiness as she chowed down. Tommy stared at the two girls, utterly in love with the beautiful figures sitting beside him. He had dreamed countless times in school of the very moment he was witnessing, of course baby not included, but she was an amazing bonus. As Grace finished her bottle, Tommy gestured for Cam to hand over the infant, silently telling the mother to get ready for the day.

“I have to go to work. I convinced my manager to give me tonight off if I switched my closing shift with Anna’s lunch, but I promise I’ll be there. It starts at seven, right?” The frantic mother gathered her uniform, turning to Tommy and melting at the sight of the drummer cradling her baby so delicately.

“Huh? Oh yeah, seven. What are you gonna wear?” Cam froze in her tracks, completely forgetting about the scene aspect revolving around rock bands.

“Oh shit, Tommy! What am I gonna wear?!” Tommy chuckled as he stood from the bed, gently placing Grace in her bassinet and walking to his closet. Thrusting open the door, he shuffled through his clothes, tossing a black Pink Floyd shirt behind him. He gestured for Cam to follow him to Athena’s room, tossing a pair of distressed blue jeans into her arms.

“Wear that. You can keep the shirt by the way, it’s too small for me.”

“Thank you, Tommy. Now, if you will excuse me, I have a shower to take and a shift to get to.” Cam nudged Tommy out of her way and crossed the hall, entering the bathroom and locking the door behind her.

~~~~~~~~

When Cam’s shift ended at 3, she was anxious to get home. As she sprinted through town, barreling through the house, she casually mentioned to Athena that her jeans were being borrowed, a simple ‘no problem’ thrown back in response. Tommy was feeding Grace her lunch, chuckling at Cam who floated back and forth from the bedroom to the bathroom, mumbling to herself about everything she forgot.

Around the tenth time she stormed in the room still in her uniform and bare faced, Tommy stood and placed a hand on Cam’s shoulder.

“Hey, calm down, sweets. Take a breath and gather everything you need right now, then lock yourself in that fucking bathroom and don’t come out until you’re unrecognizable and absolutely fucking sexy.” Cam’s face flushed at Tommy’s comment. She looked down at the floor and nodded, gathering everything she needed to finalize her look. Ducking past Tommy, Cam made her way to the bathroom, following Tommy’s order diligently. She quickly exchanged her uniform for the outfit he picked out. Cam teased her hair until her arms were sore, then opted to do her makeup. She lined her hazel eyes with thick black liner and smacked a blood red lipstick on her full lips. Tommy’s words were true: when she was finished, Cam was fucking sexy.

Entering Tommy’s bedroom for the final time before leaving, Cam topped her outfit with a leather choker and combat boots. Kissing her daughter goodnight, Cam walked into the living room, everyone freezing where they stood.

“Wow, Cam. You look amazing! Your ass looks perfect in my jeans,” Athena commented, earning a light smack on the shoulder from Voula.

“Cameo, you really do look lovely. Tommy had to leave, but there is a cab waiting for you outside,” Tommy’s dad explained, a soft smile on his lips.

“Thank you. Okay well, Gracie is asleep and she should be down for the night. If not, a bottle should fix it. I borrowed a record from Tommy; Elton John. If she doesn’t seem to relax after the bottle, play ‘Your Song’ and she’ll be off to sleep in no time-”

“Cam, we’ve got this. We’ve done this a million times, and Gracie is not that difficult of a baby. Now, go have fun.” Cam’s purse was pushed into her arms as she was shoved out of the house by Voula. Cam waved as she entered the cab, giving the driver the address of the club, preparing for the amazing night ahead of her.

~~~~~~~

The show was amazing. Tommy snuck Cam backstage after the set ended and finally introduced her to Vince. The blonde was instantly enamored by Cam, but the glare that both Tommy and Nikki gave him were enough to make him reconsider his intentions.

The after party was in full swing and everyone was having fun. A beer was in Cam’s hand, but bad memories were laced with drinking, so she painfully nursed the alcohol over the course of two hours. As the party escalated, Motley Crue was high and drunk out of their minds. Someone just as fucked up wandered around, asking everyone and everything if he could bump a line of coke. He even asked Cam more than once and attempted to rudely feel her up when he was denied. Nikki pushed him off of her and told him to get out, a fight beginning to boil. As the stoner threw a right hook at Nikki’s face, a tiny man jumped in from his corner and took the attacker out with a single hit.

“Looks like you boys are gonna need a manager.” The band laughed as the stoner was thrown out of Nikki’s apartment.

“Hey, you okay? You look a little frazzled,” Mick asked across the table, noting Cam’s shaking hands.

“Um, yeah. I’m great. There’s just a lot happening at the moment.” Tommy overheard and wrapped an arm around Cam’s shoulders, gently placing a kiss to her temple.

“Do you wanna leave? I can call you a cab,” Tommy offered. Cam quickly shook her head, leaning into Tommy’s embrace a little more. At some point, Tommy tossed his leather jacket over her and she was still wearing it as their record deal and possible tour were discussed. Cam glanced around the table and smiled, happy that she was finally safe and surrounded by people who loved her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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@kellysimagines

A/N: What did you guys think of this part? Feel free to give me some pointers or things you want in the story and I’ll try my best to improve as the series goes on. BTW I am taking requests, so if anything strikes your fancy, go ahead and shoot me a message! Love you guys!

#the dirt imagine #tommy lee x oc #nikki sixx x oc #motley crue imagine #motherhood #mick mars #vince neil #love #romance #tommy lee blurb

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raeynbowboi · 6 years

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The Other Ships in My Fleet

So, I’ve already made a post talking about how I feel about certain ships in My Hero Academia, and another post about some of my other fandoms. Both posts got a lot of likes and reblogs, so I figured I’d talk about my ships from other fandoms. If this post also gets a lot of positive feedback, I’ll consider starting a second page to post my fan content for all of my fandoms, while still maintaining this one almost exclusively for My Hero Academia and Kiribaku specifically.

Klance (Keith x Lance) Voltron: Legendary Defender

I’m fully aware that this ship is probably not going to happen, but it’s really the only ship in the series that speaks to me. I will not lie, I am a big fan of dark and moody dating happy-go-lucky, and the rivals to friends to lovers element is just icing on the cake. It’s only further helped by Lance being Keith’s second-in-command. They help each other grow, and the trust that forms between them is cute and endearing. They also shared a major element to their characters. Both of them feel out of place, Keith because of his Galra heritage, and Lance because he doesn’t have a niche role.

Rabies/Rae x BB (Raven x Beast Boy) Teen Titans (2003)

While there wasn’t a lot of shipping fodder for these two in the 2003 iteration, the two are a canon couple in most versions of the teen titans, having been married in the comics (more than once, I think) so this is sort of a unique ship in that I ship it across every version of the two characters. Sporting a snarky moody goth and a lovable goofball, their dynamic was like that of an old married couple, or a moody teenager and her annoying little brother. Still, the two were good friends, and even though their personalities were polar opposites of each other, they had a lot of quiet, emotional moments together in the series. Whether you want to read them as friends or potential lovers, I think it’s hard to deny that there was a genuinely nice bond between the pair.

Garnet/Rupphire (Ruby x Sapphire) Steven Universe

As the show’s literal physical manifestation of love and a perfect relationship, it’s hard not to like the relationship between these two adorable lesbians. With the show sometimes being edited to remove the queer elements, it’s absolutely hysterical that they had the two get married in an episode very important to the plot, and put Ruby in the dress so that absolutely nobody could misinterpret her as a male. Editing it would only confuse viewers as to why everybody is in wedding attire, thus taking a very satisfying stance against censors and bigotry. Garnet also marks a first in children’s programming as the first same-sex wedding in a children’s animated show, at least as far as I’m aware.

Pearl x Mystery Girl Steven Unieverse

Although only featured in a single episode and having no dialogue, Mystery Girl (possibly named Sabina) is a very important element to Pearl’s character, being her first step toward moving on from Rose Quartz. There were fans that hoped that Mystery Girl would come back, but even if she doesn’t, she’s still important to Pearl’s character development.

Amedot (Amethyst x Peridot) Steven Universe

I know a lot of people prefer Lapidot, but frankly I find Lapis too selfish and cold-hearted to be ready for a relationship as she currently stands. I find Amethyst to be a better fit for Peridot, since they both share issues with their height. That, and the way the show frames them has romantic comedy tropes interwoven into their scenes. But even if they’re just friends, Amethyst’s approval means so much to Peridot.

Stevonnie (Steven Universe x Connie Maheswaren) Steven Universe

I’m not usually a fan of lead boy dates lead girl ships, as they tend to be very poorly done, and many feel forced, or are just boring and predictable. However, the bond between these two feels very genuine. They don’t feel like a lead boy and lead girl forced into a relationship at all. They come together very naturally, and the show takes its time to build their friendship up slowly. The show remembers that they’re kids first, friends second, jam buds third, and love interests last.

Tomstar (Tom Lucitor x Star Butterfly) Star Vs the Forces of Evil

Considering the show’s themes of monsters, racism, and not judging evil at face value, this ship serves as the most thematically poignant to the narrative that the show is setting up. It also makes Star a stronger parallel to her “evil” great great something grandmother, Eclipsa. Both are monster sympathizers with monster boyfriends. While the blood moon bonds complicate things, I see this ship as the most relevant to the themes and messages the show seems to want to send.

Tomco (Tom Lucitor x Marco Diaz) Star Vs the Forces of Evil

More of a joke/crack ship, I know it’s unlikely, but the entire episode of Friendenemies had romantic comedy written all over it. Between the literal in-universe break-up song to the show’s promotional art being inspired by dime store pulp romance novels fuel the fire that keeps this ship afloat.

Bumblebee/Bumbleby (Blake Belladonna x Yang Xiao Long) RWBY

Partners, teammates, and close friends, the ship really took off starting in season 2 during the episode “Burning the Candle”, as Blake spiraled into self-destructive habits due to obsessing over her problems. Nobody is able to get through to her until Yang comes in to talk to her. She doesn’t lecture her or beg her to stop. She instead forms a bridge of trust by first opening up about a similar situation she’s been in, and how she knows first hand that this sort of spiraling can only have negative impacts. They are shown to be parallels, as both girls are negatively effected by a loved one no longer in their life, and the trust issues that spring from that loved one’s actions. Yang was abandoned by her mother, a problem which she mentions Blake repeated. For Blake, it was the uncertainty of trusting someone’s character, and being afraid of someone slowly turning into someone else. She explicitly states in season 3 that her ex started off a nice guy, like Yang. The first time he hurt someone, there was a reason. There was always an excuse. Until eventually, she became the pardoner. The one excusing his actions. And, she expresses the fear that Yang could be following a similar path. Both girls have been hurt by someone in the past, and both girls are afraid of being hurt the same way again, and inadvertently hurt each other the same way as someone else has. It’s also known that RWBY characters tend to represent or be based on fairy tale characters. Yang is Goldilocks, and Blake is Beauty from Beauty and the Beast. However, based on the lyrics from Red Like Roses “Black the Beast descends from shadows, Yellow Beauty burns gold”, there seems to be an implication that Yang is the Beauty to Blake’s Beast. This is interestingly supported by Blake’s name. Blake is a Celtic name meaning both Black and White, and Belladonna literally means Beautiful Woman in Italian, but is also the name of a very poisonous plant often mistaken for the harmless blueberry. The duality of her name could be pointing to how she plays the dual role of both Beauty and Beast.

Seamonkeys (Sun Wukong x Neptune Vasilias) RWBY

A bit more of a crack ship, these two lovable idiots are far less likely to be canon, but since Sun is Yang’s main competition for Blake’s heart, I have no problem shipping him off elsewhere with his goofy best friend. Although they act more like usual best friends in the canon show, their relationship does have a much gayer tone in the less canon comedy show RWBY Chibi, where Neptune almost seems to act like a jealous clingy girlfriend a lot of the times. I doubt the ship would ever sail, but I mostly ship it because they’re cute together. Although, with season 6 just starting, I got the vibe that Sun was stepping aside to let Bumblebee sail uninhibited. Sun doesn’t really have a third popular ship, it’s just Black Sun and Seamonkeys, so this ship may be gaining validity in the future.

Gumlee (Marshall Lee x Prince Gumball) Adventure Time with Fiona and Cake

The male counterpart to Bubbline (Princess Bubblegum x Marceline), there’s no real difference between the two pairs other than their genders, and Gumball preferring baking while Bubblegum prefers science. Because they are effectively just gender-swapped clones of the canon ship, anything canonical between the girls is also technically canon with these two. It’s not that I don’t like Bubbline, but when given the choice between gay or lesbian versions of a couple, I’m going to be naturally inclined to lean toward the gay version.

Sasunaru/Narusasu (Sasuke Uchiha x Naruto Uzumaki) Naruto

Maybe there’s a cultural aspect I’m unaware of, but it’s a bit of a running gag in the Naruto fanbase at this point that Naruto is obsessed with Sasuke. So much so that he seems to care about him way beyond normal friendship. With how much these two obsess over one another, it’s no surprise why this became such a popular pairing. Their dynamic even dwarfed Hinata’s heartfelt confession of her love during the Pain Invasion Arc, because as soon as that ended, did Naruto go talk to Hinata? No, he immediately started thinking about Sasuke. Hinata definitely got the shaft in part II, which is a shame because I really loved her character.

Bob and Linda Belcher Bob’s Burgers

More of an honorable mention than a full on ship, I wanted to highlight them as one of adult animation’s only married couples that actually still like each other. In the wake of the popularity of the Simpsons, and the cementing of the genre with Family Guy, the stock dynamic of idiot husband and enraged but supportive wife became a recurring trope. Before long, every single animated sitcom-esque family fell into this very annoying cliche. So, finding a couple in adult animation that are not only married but still manage to show they love each other is amazing. Their marriage isn’t on the rocks, they find time to at least try and be romantic, and even when they have bets or are on opposing sides of something, the show never forgets that these two love each other at the end of the day.

Captain Swan (Killian “Hook” Jones x Emma Swan) Once Upon A Time

This relationship between Captain Hook and the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming might sound odd on paper, but this couple is by far one of the healthiest relationships in the series. Both Hook and Emma come from broken lives, and together build themselves up to something stronger. In a melodrama surrounding fairy tales, both characters are surprisingly grounded, realistic, and skeptical cynics, a very stark contrast from the usual wide-eyed lovey-dovey couples Disney is known for. Emma’s tendency to put up walls and Killian’s tendency to always put himself first are both slowly broken down over time as Killian tries to tear down Emma’s walls and get to know her while she works on building a foundation of trust between them. The pairing feels very organic, and they definitely feel like the most realistic couple in the series as they both take turns stumbling and working toward being good for each other.

Rumbelle (Rumplestiltskin x Belle) Once Upon A Time

In the early seasons, this couple was beautiful to watch. I truly loved their chemistry and dynamic, as both of them were given such strong characteristics without simplifying either of them. However, as the show went on, it started to lose that power. The couple started to feel toxic as Belle kept waiting for Rumple to change, and he kept on lying and lying. It even reached a stopping point. A perfect one. Rumple was redeemed. He was a good man again. He could be the man Belle deserved. But instead, he slipped right back into his old ways. It was then that I fell off the band wagon for this ship. I loved it once, until I got sick of watching him hurt her over and over.

Daenerys Targaryen x Khal Drogo Game of Thrones

Although together only for a short while, this power couple won audiences over very quickly, as Drogo’s gruff but passionate affection mixed with Danny’s growing confidence and rise to power made these two iconic.

Renly Baratheon x Ser Loras Tyrell Game of Thrones

Another short-lived relationship, the remarkable thing is that Renly was literally the only character vying for the throne with fully good intentions for the realm. He was concerned with the needs of the people, and was the only morally good candidate in the War of Five Kings. Sadly, the ydidn’t get much screen time, but they were still a strong couple.

Peraltiago (Jake Peralta x Amy Santiago) Brooklyn 99

A rare exception to the don’t force the leads to date rule, the show let them form a bond over time that went from a friendly childish rivalry to a friendly dating rivalry. While each character experiences change and growth, it is not at the expense of their personalities, and the progression feels like it was meant to happen.

#ships #shipping #fandom #steven universe #star vs the forces of evil #game of thrones #brooklyn 99 #once upon a time #ouat #star vs #rwby #naruto #voltron legendary defender #voltron #teen titans #bobs burgers #adventure time

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