#I can’t decide on either moth or dragon fly
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Changing Seasons (a KNJ oneshot)
Based on the song Is It Still Beautiful (Hospital Playlist 2 OST) by Seungkwan, Woozi and DK of Seventeen
Pairing: Arts and Travel Blogger!Namjoon x Restaurateur!Fem Reader
Genre: Angst, Exes AU
Rating: 16+
Word Count: 2.3K
Warnings: None
Summary: After three years of traveling in and around Europe to feed his hunger and passion for travel and the arts, Namjoon returned home to his first love.
PERMANENT TAGLIST: @highly-functioning-mitochondria @persphonesorchid @thatbangtanjagiya @jjwamaisvu @taestefully-in-luv @btsstan12 @bts-reveries @blog-name-idk @madbutgloriouspond @pamzn @wrmnssoul @ygbubs @halesandy
••••
“Namjoon, are you ready?” Hoseok stuck his head through the door of his hotel room, suitcase lagging behind, ready to leave.
“Yep!” Namjoon patted the pockets of his jeans. “Just making sure I have everything with me before I leave.”
“Passport?”
“Here,” Namjoon took a peek inside the fanny pack across his chest for good measure.
“Come on, let’s go. Yoongi hyung is already at the airport,” Hoseok pushed the door wide open to assist his friend with his suitcase. “He’s gonna start whining again if we’re late.”
“Our flight is in three hours!” Namjoon looked at his friend incredulously.
“Tell him then!” Hoseok challenged.
“Yeah, no. Nevermind.”
*********
The usually bustling Incheon International Airport wasn’t that crowded when they landed, and so the three of them have decided to stop by the cafe for something to nibble on before they go their separate ways.
“Ah, it feels good to be back home,” Hoseok sighed leaning back on his chair as he chewed on his bagel. “I swear, I can’t wait to speak in my jeolla dialect 24/7.”
Namjoon and Yoongi chuckled at their friend’s statement. The three of them have been friends since high school and equally have big dreams. They were away for three years collectively, with Yoongi and Hoseok working together in the international music scene, hopping between the US and the UK, and Namjoon exploring arts in and around Europe. Finally being able to take a three-month break at the same time, the three friends have decided that it’s a no-brainer– they have to fly back home to their motherland.
“Planning anything exciting while we’re home?” Hosek asked them. “My sister is getting married in Jeju Island, but I don’t have any other plans during my stay.” He continued.
“I’m gonna head straight home and probably hug Holly for hours,” Yoongi smiled at the thought of his pooch. “Heading straight to Ilsan, Joon?”
Namjoon hesitated, nibbling on his lower lip. A beat of silence passed until he realized that his friends were waiting for his answer. “I’m checking in at a hotel for the night and then I'll head to Ilsan tomorrow.” He didn’t miss the way his friends exchanged glances between each other. “I’m visiting ______ at her restaurant today.”
“Yah, Namjoon-ah…” Worry flooded Hoseok’s face. He was about to say something when Yoongi waved his hand dismissively at him.
“Let him. He needs it.” Yoongi turned to Namjoon, giving him a tight-lipped smile and an encouraging nod.
He’s right. He needed it. He needed to see how things have turned out himself.
THREE YEARS AGO
The cozy atmosphere in the quaint little cafe did nothing to calm the cold and the storm raging inside Namjoon’s chest as he clutched your hands on top of the table.
“It’s not fair to either of us…” You looked up at him, almond-shaped eyes gazing into his sharp dragon eye-shaped ones. The soft glow from the fairy lights hanging by the window reflecting against your glassy eyes made your chocolate-colored orbs a little bit more sparkly. “I don’t want to do this anymore.”
Namjoon nodded, albeit holding back his own tears. He wouldn’t let you see him break. Hell, he’s not even sure if you really meant that much to him… what did you really mean to him? You were like a moth drawn to a flame. He’s the flame whose warmth radiates so brightly, you have mistaken it for something more. He had big dreams, bigger than anything else, bigger than what he felt for you. As much as he could see how supportive you were on his travels, and how you listened to him as he constantly rambled about arts every night while tangled up in his sheets, he still felt like you were pulling him back. He felt constrained, like a balloon tied up to a boulder, he couldn’t soar up high. You’re a simple girl– you're passionate about food, produce, and farming. You grew up on a farm and your dream has always revolved around bringing the freshest ingredients from the ground to the consumer’s table. He, on the other hand, wanted to see what the world has to offer. He once asked you to travel with him during his internship in Paris, and although you didn’t say much, he knew your heart wasn’t in it.
You’re right. It’s not fair to either of you. Asking you to uproot yourself and travel with him was not the risk he would want to take, for fear that in the end, you might loathe him. For fear that in the end, he would realize that what he felt for you isn’t love. After all, that is the territory neither of you have tried dipping your toes into.
“I get where you’re coming from, ______.” Namjoon gave you a reassuring smile before bringing your hands to his lips, giving your knuckles a gentle kiss. “Thank you,” another kiss. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t be that person for you.”
“You don’t need to apologize,” you returned his reassuring smile. “Go follow your dreams, Namjoon. I won’t be able to forgive myself if you don’t.”
“Do you promise to keep in touch?”
“I promise.”
“Go accept your dad’s proposal, ______.” He reached out and tucked the loose strand of hair hovering in front of your face behind your ear. “Take over the family business. I’m rooting for you.”
You nodded.
The night ended with you in his tight embrace in front of your apartment, promising each other to stay friends, no matter what.
*********
At first, I was comfortable being alone
I had freedom with my decisions and my time
It was like I had erased the memory of you
I really believed I did
But, you see, when I open my eyes early in the morning, alone
And I learn that you are not by my side
Tears start flowing without me realizing
*********
From: [email protected]
Date: May 25, 2017 at 12:24:55 PM
Subject: Finally!
Hi Yn,
I just checked into my accommodation in Paris. My agent said the renovations aren’t done at the new apartment complex so I have to stay here for another week. Bummer, eh?
By the way, I have taken a lot of photos during my layover and will be posting them on the blog tonight. Can’t wait for you to see them!
How are things over there?
Yours,
KNJ
From: [email protected]
Date: May 26, 2017 at 03:26:15 PM
Subject: RE: Finally!
Hey Joon!
Glad you made it to your accommodation safely. :) As long as the museum would shoulder the extra expenses for your accommodation, I guess it’s alright? Hope you’re eating well.
My parents were over the moon when I told them that I’m ready to take the business off of their plate. I’m a bit scared! But my dad said his business partner would help me. Apparently, their eldest child took over their farm about a year ago too. So I guess I would be okay!
Can’t wait to read your blog tonight!
<3,
___________
From: [email protected]
Date: December 25, 2017 at 12:24:55 PM
Subject: Merry Christmas!
Christmas in Amsterdam is something else. I love it here!
Hope you and your family are doing well.
Yours,
KNJ
From: [email protected]
Date: December 25, 2017 at 07:24:45 PM
Subject: RE: Merry Christmas!
Hey Joon!
Merry Christmas! I saw your Amsterdam photos on Instagram and it is indeed beautiful! We’re having so much fun on this side of the world too. We made little Christmas trees and decorated them with real strawberries (baubles) and spun sugar (tinsel).
<3,
___________
******
It’s one of those nights again… streaks of colors decorated his blank canvas, creating an abstract in a rough floral pattern, depicting you… your softness, your femininity; depicting his longing. He didn’t know how to overcome those nights over the years, so he indulged them. He owed it to himself. It’s one of those nights again when he found himself running to the nearest payphone booth to call you from across the globe. It was secured, untraceable, and the minutes were limited. It would restrict him from pouring his heart out to you over the phone. He just wanted to hear your voice. He just wanted to hear your smile, as he closed his eyes, imagining you’re standing in front of him. He just wanted to numb his pain. He missed you… and the realization hit him like a tonne of bricks. He loved you. He was in love with you.
*******
Have any of the things that used to make me smile changed?
Is the way in which you talk still the same?
I have changed, I don't smile like I used to
I'm a little thinner than when I was with you
On the last days you comprehended me
I mistook it and believed you were imprisoning me
Saying that I was too manly for it, I didn't even say I love you
But my blank sheet of paper is now filled with your name
And when I call you while writing down and I hear your voice
Tears start flowing without me realizing
*******
True to your words, you both kept in touch over the years. Each major life event, each milestone; every occasion, every celebration, documented electronically via e-mails and social media posts and comments.
You cried over the phone to him when you opened your own farm-to-table restaurant. Solidifying and finding comfort for himself that your mutual decision of breaking up all those years ago was all worth it.
He couldn’t not tell you when his boss allowed him to go on a three-month long vacation, and like the kind-hearted person that you are, you invited him over to your restaurant insisting that you would be making him the best ‘welcome home’ meal that anyone would be jealous of.
The night before his flight back home, he rummaged through his inbox and reread your emails in the last few months. He mulled over your words and the photos you have attached. You looked the happiest– your eyes lighting up, forming into crescents, with every smile. It tugged on his heartstrings a little bit, wishing he was the person who could make you smile like that. But there are things that he couldn’t just bring back. The best he could do is to hold onto those memories… and maybe one day, forgive himself, too.
*******
Have any of the things that used to make me smile changed?
Is the way in which you talk still the same?
I have changed, I don't smile like I used to
I'm a little thinner than when I was with you
*******
PRESENT DAY
You ran up to him the moment he opened the door to the empty restaurant and gave him the warmest hug anyone could ever ask for. He couldn’t help but close his eyes as he rested his chin on your shoulder while hugging you back. You said you closed it down for the day because you wanted to focus on filling his tummy and not worry about the other customers.
“Joonie!!!” You giggled. “Oh my god, it’s been so long!”
“Ahh, it has indeed!” Namjoon straightened up and scrunched up his nose at you. “I smell something delicious!”
“Come in!! Come sit at your table!” You ushered him at one of the tables, a tall glass of iced americano and a selection of tea, already waiting. “Do you wanna know what we have on the menu for you today?”
“Pray tell!”
“Well, okay, I don’t want to tell you everything,” you rolled your eyes and he hated that he still found it cute. “But I harvested a bunch of greens from the back and made you a salad, with strawberries and feta! I’m pretty sure you’re gonna love the sweet and savory combination.” You proudly said, talking animatedly.
Namjoon couldn’t help but smile up at you. You’re like sunshine personified.
“And for the main course, it’s– oh gosh,” you caught yourself. “Just… surprise!”
Namjoon took a moment to take in his surroundings. Everything screamed you. The restaurant interior was cozy and rustic, and just gave off the farm-slash-barn vibe that you have always dreamed of. Just one look outside of the massive windows, and one would know that the restaurant served only the freshest ingredients, harvested and prepared in-house.
The door of the kitchen swung open and a brooding tall handsome man stepped out, approaching the two of you with a warm smile. He’s dressed in a chef’s jacket and Namjoon recognized him from the photos you sent him over the months. He knew who he is.
“Oh finally!” You acknowledged the man. “All good back there?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Namjoon watched as you stepped away to meet the man’s strides halfway. You snaked your arm around his waist and rested your other hand on his chest. Namjoon stood up with a smile and bowed to him politely in greeting, which he immediately returned.
“I can’t wait to finally introduce you two!” You said, eyes fleeting between the two of them.
“Hi!” the tall handsome man extended his hand to him for a handshake and Namjoon accepted it with both hands.
“Namjoon, meet our Executive Chef!” You smiled proudly. “This is my husband, Seokjin.”
*******
How is he?
Is he good enough to you to make you forget the days we spent together?
Please be happy, because you met a person good enough to fill the places in which I lacked
*******
#bangtansmauyeondan#namjoon x reader#namjoon fic#rm x reader#bts imagines#bts fanfic#bts angst#SoundCloud
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Ettariah character I’m working on 👀 their name may or may not be iris 👀
#art#my art#ettariah#I can’t decide on either moth or dragon fly#I think it’s moth tho#this characters p important to the plot#one might say#the main villain#that one might be me#iris#the pallete is vaguely based off some of my friends pictures#thanks faith xoxo#jk she’s not on tumblr the innocent thing
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A full summary of “Furious Fu” for my followers who can’t find subs or who would rather look at a summary first to figure out if the episode is okay for them to watch:
- The kwami are arguing with Marinette because they want to go see Fu. Marinette argues against this by saying that his memory was erased. They ask why Tikki can go and Tikki explains that Marinette might need to transform. They offer to hide, still wanting to see him because he took care of them for 100+ years, but Marinette says that they need to let him restart his life with his soulmate, so it's her turn to take care of them.
- Wayzz points out that he understands, but Fu was his friend and he misses him. Marinette relents and allows Wayzz to go, which makes the other kwami upset. Marinette tries to get out of the situation by saying that someone needs to protect the box, and Trixx responds, "Well then only one of us needs to stay, right??"
- Sass suggests letting "destiny" decide (I have no idea what that means), then Mullo suggests Kwami-Kwa-Who, which seems like Eeny Meeny Minny Moe. Mullo lands on Marinette and says that Marinette will have to stay. The kwami go to fly away and Marinette blocks them off, stating that it was cheating and she's the guardian, so she decides what happens.
- The kwami give her puppy dog eyes and Marinette relents, asking which kwami will stay. Barkk calls Marinette "little one" and agrees to stay behind to watch for villains because they have a bad feeling (also being in the middle of watching a knight movie on Marinette's monitor).
- At the train station, the kwami start making noises. Marinette panics and claims it was her phone to any onlookers and that she'll "throw it in the trash" if it keeps talking. An old man is watching her from a garbage can in the distance.
- Fu and Marianne arrive and Marinette greets Marianne with a hug. Marianne asks Fu if he remembers Marinette, stating that "she found you after your boat accident; the one that erased your memory."
- Marinette hugs Mast--she catches herself and calls him "Mister/Sir Fu," and he thanks her for reuniting him with his beloved Marianne.
- Cut to the Seine where Marinette, Fu, and Marianne are sitting on a park bench and having snacks together. Fu explains that he's found that he has a passion for painting and pulls out a piece of art to show Marinette (it looks like splotches of paint in red, black, white, pink, and blue). Fu continues talking and Marinette notices that Wayzz has gotten out of the bag and is slowly crawling his way across the ground to make his way to see Master Fu (Wayzz keeps having eyelashes in some shots and it's really distracting). Marinette tries to be subtle in grabbing Wayzz, but Fu notices and picks him up, asking Marinette if it's one of her toys. She insists that it is and puts Wayzz back in her bag, leading to Wayzz squealing happily, "He touched me! He touched me!" Marinette panics and tries to claim that the toy talks, pulling him back out and trying to talk like a ventriloquist to make it seem like he talked.
- The old man from before is hiding in a box on a bicycle and spying on them.
- Fu wants to paint and goes to get set up, telling Marinette and Marianne to act like he's not there. The scene cuts to a painting Fu did of the two of them.
- Marinette comes home to find that an old man is suddenly in her room. Barkk re-states that they had a bad feeling and the man notes that Marinette had the Miracle Box (which is now in his possession). Marinette glances over to her hiding spot for it, seeing that it's indeed been opened, then asks who the man is. Tikki confirms that this is the previous owner of the Miracle Box before Fu, Su-Han.
- Marinette is skeptical and asks how he found her. He explains that his Guardian staff leads him directly to her Miracle Box. Marinette asks why she doesn't have one and he explains that she's not a real guardian. Marinette argues that Fu handed it to her, leading Su-Han to go off, calling Fu "chicken legs" and mocking the fact that Fu couldn't even do the fasting and that didn't meet the expectations he had for him.
- Marinette, annoyed, says that Fu has protected the box all this time and sacrificed himself to save Paris, and he even became a great painter. Su-Han starts to argue, then looks around and notices that there are missing kwami. Marinette explains that Fu had lost the butterfly and peacock, which leads Su-han to ask where Plagg is and Marinette answers that he's which Chat Noir, who she doesn't know the identity of because their identities are meant to stay secret. Su-Han notices her earrings (somehow? I guess guardians can sense miraculouses?) and starts to go on about how "OH I GUESS THIS IS THE MODERN WORLD" and continues on about how Plagg is "flying free" (he's not but go off I guess) which led to the end of dinosaurs and dragons and such, and that guardians aren't meant to hold miraculouses.
- Su-Han pulls out the Miracle Box and demands that the kwami return to it. The kwami sigh and pout, but ultimately go back into the box. Su-Han then takes a book out and starts reading off all the rules Marinette broke: Kwami aren't allowed out of the box, guardians mustn't hold miraculouses, and you mustn't lose a miraculous (Marinette technically lost the Bee but he'd have no way of knowing that; either the writers didn't realize this or Su-Han is blaming Marinette for Fu's mistake). Marinette argues that Fu used a miraculous and he explains that this is the exact problem; they keep making their own rules and children shouldn't be allowed miraculouses anyway.
- While he's talking, the knight movie Barkk was watching is still playing, and Su-Han thinks the knight is a person trapped in Marinette's monitor, nearly attacking it (presumably, no knowledge of technology since the order has been away for 150+ years). Marinette explains that it's a movie and Su-Han clearly doesn't get it, but cuts to the chase and asks her to lead him to Chat Noir so they can hand over their miraculouses. Marinette asks Tikki if it's a good idea and Tikki is unsure but states that he is the celestial guardian and whatnot, so maybe she should listen to him. Marinette sighs and transforms. They leave together.
- Su-Han and Ladybug meet up with Chat Noir. Su-Han demands that they hand over their miraculouses, to which Chat says that it's not a funny joke and he’d know because "he knows them all." Ladybug questions how he plans to defeat Shadow Moth and Su-Han explains that he'll hand the miraculouses over to adult holders who are fit for the job.
- Chat Noir is skeptical of Su-Han at first, but Ladybug insists that the kwami confirmed him as a previous guardian, even suggesting that this might be the right thing to do because maybe this is why they haven't been able to defeat Shadow Moth yet. Chat Noir tells Ladybug to trust herself like he trusts her, and agrees to hand over his miraculous, but only if she says so because she's the real guardian to him.
- Su-Han accepts these terms and demands that Ladybug order him to take off his miraculous (they're on a roof so I don't know how they plan to get down from there afterwards?), then she'll relinquish her guardian status to him. Ladybug asks if this means that she'll get her memory erased like Fu, which prompts Chat to suddenly pause in shock and ask specifically if she'll forget him. Ladybug doesn't answer and Chat Noir suddenly changes his tune, demanding that Su-Han come and get him if he wants his miraculous. Su-Han agrees and Ladybug panics, trying to get Chat Noir to calm down.
- Su-Han readies himself and explains that guardians are specifically trained to fight against miraculous holders, then takes Chat Noir down (Chat Noir makes a side comment about how "Master Fu was nicer"). Just before he swipes Chat Noir's miraculous, Ladybug throws Su-Han with her yoyo and is now on Chat Noir's side, insisting that she's guardian and that neither of them will be giving up their miraculouses. They fight, with Ladybug and Chat Noir managing to get enough of an upper hand (Ladybug puts the knight movie on her phone to distract him) to swipe both the box and staff, getting away.
- Shadow Moth senses Su-Han's negative emotions and sends a butterfly.
- Su-Han leaps after Ladybug and Chat Noir, muttering that this would be a simple task if he had his staff. Coincidentally, he spots Fu (who Marinette had to confirm the identity of, so I imagine that Fu never went to the temple like he said he would in "Feast"; "that old man was Fu/chicken legs?") and Marianne over by a fountain, Fu painting with one hand and his cane in the other.
- Su-Han descends and grabs Fu's cane, starting to tug-of-war with him over it. Marianne comes by and starts whacking him with her cane, telling her to leave her beloved alone. Su-Han then spots the akuma and quickly backs away, performing some sort of technique that causes him to be surrounded by a blue aura, repeating a phrase akin to "my anger is mine but my anger is not me." The butterfly is repelled, but Su-Han goes after Fu's cane again, opening the top to reveal some sort of orb inside, confirming that this is a proper guardian staff.
- Fu asks Marianne if she's okay, then glares at Su-Han and walks after him, demanding that he apologize to her and return his cane. Shadow Moth senses a new negative emotion and the butterfly goes after Fu instead. Su-Han quickly flees as he realizes that Fu is being akumatized(akumokized?).
- Shadow Moth gives ye ol' generic speech (plus a "we meet again" which obviously Fu doesn't get) to Fu about revenge and blah blah blah miraculouses, but Fu is confused and asks Shadow Moth to repeat himself. Shadow Moth sighs and simply asks if Fu wants revenge, which Fu answers affirmatively.
- Marianne sees Furious Fu and approaches, insisting that this isn't worth it. Fu spouts some Chinese saying (there's a LOT of that in this episode from both he and Su-Han), then pulls out some paper and starts writing on it in Chinese with his akumatized object (his ink brush). It says "Find" and Fu shouts as much, throwing the paper away and then leaping after it as it pursues Su-Han.
- Ladybug and Chat Noir are hiding in the football (soccer; sorry, I’m a filthy American :P) stadium, talking about what to do about the situation, when Su-Han shows up and demands their miraculouses. Ladybug notes that the cane he's carrying belongs to Fu and then Furious Fu shows up. Furious Fu writes "Thunder" and sends it into the sky, leading the sky to fill with dark clouds and start blasting everyone.
- They dodge while Su-Han and Ladybug fighting over the Miracle Box, leading them to send it flying a small distance away. Shadow Moth notices this and tells Furious Fu to retrieve the box, so Furious Fu gives chase. Ladybug drops the box and kicks it to Chat Noir as if they're playing soccer, so Chat Noir starts running away and keeping the Miracle Box at his feet. Chat Noir sees Furious Fu and Su-Han at both sides of him and panics, kicking the Miracle Box at the goal. Chat Noir stops to cheer that he achieved a goal, then Ladybug runs past him and he realizes oh, and chases after them.
- Furious Fu writers "Teleport" and attaches it to his head, which teleports him to the box's location. Furious Fu latches the box to himself and readies himself to fight, leaving Ladybug and Chat Noir standing there while Su-Han suddenly cowers and sneaks away. Ladybug and Chat Noir fight Furious Fu, but are clearly outmatched as he blocks their attacks and sends Chat Noir flying. Su-Han makes judgmental comments about their fighting from the sidelines, leading Chat Noir to point out that he's not doing anything. Su-Han explains that guardians are trained to fight holders, not the magic that a holder might make. Ladybug asks if they have to fix his mistake then (calling him out for causing Furious Fu in the first place) and Su-Han is unable to argue. Furious Fu then sends Ladybug and Chat Noir flying away.
- Furious Fu then challenges Su-Han directly and Su-Han has no choice but to fight back. They fight and Furious Fu writes, "Statue," sticking it to Su-Han and freezing him in place.
- Furious Fu retrieves his cane and Shadow Moth reminds him of the miraculouses. Furious Fu doesn't understand and even calls Chat "a bat without wings."
- Meanwhile, Ladybug explains to Chat that it's not important to defeat him, but to make sure he doesn't defeat them. Chat Noir doesn't understand and Ladybug tells him to keep Furious Fu busy while she makes a call. Chat can do that much so he leaves to fight.
- Ladybug uses Lucky Charm, changing her suit to its "upgraded" state and giving her a pair of pliers. She notes Chat Noir's ring, then a bin of soccer balls, then her yoyo, then the pliers. She rushes to enact her plan and Furious Fu notices her. He kicks Chat Noir away, sets his cane down, then writes "Vision" and sticks it on his head, making him see what Ladybug noticed earlier. He says that he sees what she's planning and pursues her, but Chat Noir knocks him down. They fight and Chat Noir calls for Cataclysm, but Ladybug screams for him to stop, running at them both with a soccer ball. Su-Han grabs Chat Noir's wrist, then puts Chat Noir in a hold, Chat held to his chest with one hand on Chat Noir's arm and the other hand on Chat Noir's wrist, trying to get him Cataclysm'd (which is a little strange since he seemed confused about the whole concept of fighting him earlier and doesn’t even know Chat Noir but I digress).
- Ladybug throws her yoyo, which Furious Fu catches in his mouth. Ladybug pulls herself to him, but he grabs her wrist with his hand (the one that wasn't holding Chat Noir's wrist), leaving her dangling. Ladybug smirks, catches the soccer ball with her feet, and shoves it against Chat Noir's elbow, preventing Chat Noir from using Cataclysm on himself as there's now too much space between his hand and chest. Furious Fu comments that neither of them can defeat him in this state, to which Ladybug replies that they're not going to.
- Marianne pops up, taking the brush from Furious Fu (it was tucked behind his ear) and snapping it in half, talking about the call she got from Ladybug. Ladybug smiles and thanks her, assuring that she did perfectly.
- Ladybug opens her yoyo to purify the akuma (as I notice that SHE HAS ACTUAL SOLES NOW IN HER UPGRADED FORM!!!), then uses Miraculous Ladybug, which throws her object in the air and her upgraded outfit goes with it, changing her back to normal. Su-han returns to normal and Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Marianne go to "pound it" before Chat Noir realizes that he's still got Cataclysm active. He Cataclysms the soccer ball from earlier and they do a proper fist bump now.
- Ladybug opens her yoyo and pulls out a Fu-colored amulet She gives it to Fu and assures him that it'll protect him. Fu says that he'll use it to remember her by (just a line to rub salt in the wound I guess) and thanks her along with "Mister Bat." Su-Han then shows up and apologizes to Fu for taking his cane, almost calling him "crybaby" before he corrects himself, claiming that he "mistook" Fu for "someone he knew long ago. Fu forgives him and they do the Chinese bowing thing with the fist against the palm.
- Back at the train station, Fu comments on the "adventure" of sorts and Marinette praises Marianne, having "heard that she was the real hero of the day." They both smile at her and the scene cuts away to Marinette in her bedroom with the kwami and Su-Han.
- Su-Han has two things to tell her and begins with the first thing, going on about her relying on a human with no powers, which is a huge no-no, and how she has the gall to invent her own rules... but that they strangely seem to work. That gets Marinette's attention and Su-Han goes on to talk about the second thing: that she has amazing natural instincts which is an essential quality for a guardian, so the "crybaby--er, Master Fu" may not have made such a bad choice after all. He talks about how this Miracle Box is the most powerful and the first, and that he can't imagine what would happen if they fell into the wrong hands.
- Su-Han tells Marinette that she can keep the box, but if she makes one mistake, he'll come back and take it again. She smiles and goes to put the box away, then Su-Han talks about how he'll be staying in Paris for a while; he needs to get used to the modern world as a guardian, after all. Marinette tells him that he'll "need these" for that and offers him a pair of shoes. Su-Han looks down at his current shoes, which are currently torn open at the fronts (they've been like that for the whole episode). They laugh and the episode ends.
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accio love || requested by @anonymous & @the-end-is-kigh & @what-the-waterbear
check my pinned for the prompt list!
hogwarts!au + fake dating + “wait, no, don’t take kissing away from me.”
“So we walk in, and I kiss you.”
“No, no, no,” Arya says impatiently as she reaches over to swipe one of his Chocolate Cauldrons. “We walk in, and I kiss you.” Her cheeks are still flushed from quidditch practice, her broomstick thrown carelessly on the floor of the boys’ dormitory, and Gendry has to roll his eyes because this is so utterly ridiculous.
“Why does the order matter?”
“Are you the first English witch in generations to compete in the Triwizard Tournament?” she glares at him. “The order matters because I say it matters. And I kiss you, end of story.”
“I’m starting to think this a bad idea,” he grumbles. “Maybe there just shouldn’t be any of that at all.” Gendry’s nervous enough for the Yule Ball as it is; he doesn’t need any extra pressure on him.
“Wait, no, don’t take kissing away from me, that’s clearly the most important part.” He scoffs at Arya; she leans her chin on her hand. “What?”
“You’re not being serious!”
“I’m trying to be.”
“Are you really?”
It’s her turn to be scornful. “Gendry,” Arya complains, her tone a bit indignant. He looks at her archly; she sighs, folds her hands, and sits primly on his ratty comforter - flashing him a smile that he can’t help but mirror. “Come on. Just go over it one more time.”
And, well, he can’t say no to that.
“So we’re there in the Great Hall,” he starts off, “and you’re kissing me…”
–
The castle and its inhabitants transform on the night of the Yule Ball; there’s a kind of enthusiasm and anticipation in the boys’ dormitory that Gendry hasn’t felt since the first quidditch match of the year. The room is a flurry of robes, fussy collars, and envious first-years - Gendry hears a low moan from the other side of the room as Podrick Payne, in an attempt to magically fix his hair, ends up charming away most of his left eyebrow.
“You nervous?” Anguy asks as he tugs a pair of frilly stockings over his legs. Gendry wrinkles his nose at the sight of them, mostly dreading the fact that he’ll have to wear something similar as well.
He fixes his tie and forces his hair to stay down flat in the mirror with a touch of Sleekeazy’s. “Why would I be?”
“You’re going to the Yule Ball with Arya Stark, mate!” Anguy sputters. “She’s the Hogwarts Champion for the first Tournament in centuries, how aren’t you intimidated? And she won the First Task,” he adds, like that’s something Gendry could ever forget.
Although remembering is one thing; accepting, another trial entirely. He doesn’t think he’s ever been so frightened as he was the day of the First Task - watching Arya fly around her broomstick, dodging wayward claws and tongues of fire before swooping in to steal the dragon’s egg is something he hopes to never relive again. She’d nearly had to beat him off her after that, he’d been hugging her so hard. And he’d only stopped because her hair smelled like dragon spit and ashes.
“I was already dating her,” he says eventually.
Anguy frowns at him. “Yes, I realize, and I wanted to ask you - when exactly did that happen?”
Gendry grimaces. Three days after her name came out of the Goblet, he thinks, or about seventy-two hours after Ned Dayne abruptly decided he was in love with my best friend - at which point Arya decided she’d rather have me for a fake boyfriend than that prat for a real one.
He doesn’t have time to unpack all that though, and luckily, Samwell pipes up from the other side of the room.
“Well, I’m nervous!”
“Of course you are,” Grenn says. “Gilly wouldn’t even give you the time of day before this, and now she wants to hold your hand? I’d be bloody stunned too.”
Sam blushes. “That’s not true. She liked me plenty already.”
“And how’d you figure that out? By cornering her in the middle of Potions class? I saw the look on her face when you asked her out, by the way - like she spotted a shriveled newt.”
Gendry relaxes, realizing the conversation is shifting elsewhere. Someone puts the Weird Sisters on the radio; he finishes dressing with Sam and Grenn’s incessant bickering in the background and then walks, a bit self-consciously, down to the Gryffindor common room. Gendry doesn’t see Arya around, but that hardly surprises him. It’s still early in the evening. He’s sure she’ll find him at some point, maybe in the Great Hall.
“Oh, hello!” Gendry hears a voice say as he pushes the portrait of the Fat Lady open. He looks down and sees Sansa there, beaming expectantly up at him. She’s got a pretty periwinkle dress on, her hair all done up in fancy braids.
“Hello,” he replies, a bit startled. “Er, are you here for Podrick? He’s still getting ready, I think.”
“No,” she peeks around him, “I’m looking for Arya. I’m supposed to help her with her hair.”
“With her - you’re going to make her look like that?” Gendry exclaims. Sansa’s eyes widen, and she reaches up self-consciously to touch the complex hairstyle, a flush making its way across her cheeks. “Not - not that there’s anything wrong with that, you look very nice, it’s just-”
Sansa rolls her eyes at him in that way of hers, seeming especially disdainful tonight. “Gendry,” she interrupts him with a sickly sweet smile. “I’m going to go help my sister now, all right?”
“Right,” he says awkwardly, and holds the portrait open.
The Fat Lady titters lightly when Sansa’s gone. “It’s lucky she isn’t her sister.”
Gendry jumps in surprise. He’d almost forgotten she was there. “What’s that supposed to mean?” he says accusingly.
“Nothing at all.”
“Bloody hell.”
“Enjoy the Ball, dear!” the Fat Lady calls when Gendry starts towards the stairway in irritation. “Oh, and remember, there’s a new password after tonight - wattlebird!”
–
Ned Dayne’s dress robes are new, expensive, and dyed a deep lilac to match his eyes. Gendry glances at him, then down at the secondhand robes Anguy lent him. They’re not in bad shape, but they’re a bit old and moth-eaten and don’t fit him quite right around the shoulders.
As if hearing his thoughts, Ned sidles up to Gendry and leaves his date, Myrcella, chatting on the other side of the cloister with her friends.
“Waters,” he says, his voice surprisingly cordial.
“Dayne.”
“Arya isn’t here yet?” he asks, rubbing his hands together in anticipation. “I hope she didn’t stand you up.”
Gendry grits his teeth, annoyed even though Ned’s tone doesn’t betray much malice. “She’s just getting ready,” he assures the Hufflepuff. “She’ll be here soon if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Oh, I wasn’t worried,” Ned says, chuffing himself up a bit. “Actually,” he looks past Gendry’s shoulder. “There she is.”
Gendry’s facing the other way, so he hears Arya before she sees her, her voice raised in tinkling laughing as she descends down the staircase. Still, at the expression on Ned’s face he has to turn - so does everyone else in the cloister, as if pulled by a magic thread.
His first thought is that maybe Sansa does have an idea of how to do things after all. Because Arya looks lovely. Not lovely in the way Gendry usually thinks of her, flushed and smiling at him on the quidditch pitch, or muttering quietly to herself as she leafs through One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, but lovely all the same. Her light green dress sweeps along the floor as she reaches Ned and Gendry.
Upon closer inspection, there are golden leaves and acorns embroidered into the sleeves, and her dark hair - left surprisingly untouched - is woven through with grass.
She says one last thing to Sansa and watches her sister make her way over to Podrick, who has luckily resolved his eyebrow situation.
Arya turns to Gendry with a sheepish smile on her face. She mouths a quick hello to him, looking pleased when he returns the gesture. Then her gaze flicks over to Edric, a small ‘v’ shape forming between her eyebrows. “Hey, Ned.”
He perks up as soon as she addresses him - probably the same way he does every time she turns his way in N.E.W.T. Herbology. Could he be any more obnoxious?
“Hi, Arya! We were waiting for you. You look nice tonight, by the way, and I was-” He opens his mouth to ramble on, but then Arya purposefully talks over him.
“Thanks.” She gives him a slightly uncomfortable smile. “It’s so good to see you. But I thought you were here with someone…?”
“Oh. Yes. Myrcella.” They all turn in her direction, and Myrcella, blushing, waves at them. Gendry thinks that it’s too bad she’s going to the Ball with a ponce like Edric Dayne - Cella is sweet and looks very charming in her rose-pink dress, but she’s clearly oblivious to the fact that Ned doesn’t like her half as much as she likes him.
“I suppose I should go over to her,” Ned says, his voice betraying the fact that the idea doesn’t quite appeal to him. “She said something earlier about wanting to dance.”
“That’s a good idea!” Arya replies with exaggerated enthusiasm. “Listen, the Ball will probably be starting soon…I’ll talk to you later, all right?”
“I wasn’t expecting that,” she confesses to Gendry once Ned has slinked out of earshot. “And I’m sorry I took a while. The dress wouldn’t zip at first, and Meera had to magick it a size larger, and it’s so bloody itchy-”
“It’s okay, Arya.”
“Not really. I feel like an oak tree, with all these leaves and acorns.”
“Well, you look pretty,” he tells her with a hint of stiffness. “Better than either of the dunces from Beauxbatons or Durmstrang, anyways. Or - I don’t know - like a proper Champion.”
Her face softens a little. “Thank you, Gendry. You clean up nice, too. Is that Sleekeazy’s?” she laughs, reaching up to touch his usually tousled hair.
“Yes, it is,” he swats her hand away. “And I spent twenty minutes trying to get it like this, so hands off.”
“Twenty minutes? Really?”
From there the conversation drifts towards schoolwork, eventually devolving into Arya’s description of an elaborate quidditch play she came up with while curling her hair. Once Gendry glances over at Sansa, who raises an eyebrow at him as if to say, I told you it’d be fine.
A few minutes later Headmaster Seaworth breezes by, instructing them that it’s nearly time for the first dance.
“Yes, Headmaster,” they say in tandem. Arya takes Gendry by the arm and pulls him towards the aforementioned dunces from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang - a remark that Gendry feels a little bad about making now, since the Beauxbatons Champion, Daenerys, beams warmly at the both of them. He takes solace in the fact that Durmstrang’s Champion, a boy named Drogo, looks as surly and unfriendly as ever, though he brightens a little when Daenerys turns his way.
“Remember,” Arya whispers to Gendry, “I’ll kiss you when the dance is over.” The student orchestra starts to play, and she steers him forward.
But Gendry can’t help but balk a little, even though Drogo and his date are waiting for them to keep walking. “What, in front of everybody?” he hisses.
“Yes, Gendry,” she says as the set of double doors open into the Great Hall. “That’s sort of the whole point.”
There’s a round of polite applause when the Champions enter the Hall, and though Gendry already knew the Yule Ball would look fantastic, he can’t help but echo Arya’s sigh of awe.
The ceiling has been enchanted so that snowflakes drift down elegantly from a brilliant white sky, vanishing before they reach the floor; the long tables they usually sit at are gone and in their place are elegant round tables, decorated with holly wreathes and fairy cloths.
Daenerys leads the way towards the dance floor, her silver head held proudly high. Naturally, she attracts the most attention, but Anguy spots Gendry and waves at him with a toothy grin. Gendry waves back and then drops his hand back to his black dress robes nervously.
And just as he suspected, Ned Dayne is lingering on the edge of the dais, staring mournfully at Arya. Poor Myrcella.
“Gendry, take my waist,” Arya says as a dance begins.
He blinks at her. “What?”
“Now!” she laughs, and just as the music speeds up he manages to get one palm on her side, the other holding her hand as she spins away from him.
He knows the steps, at least; Headmaster Seaworth had drilled all the boys for hours on the traditional Yule dance, and Gendry had spent many uncomfortable hours in his Transfiguration class practicing with Myranda Royce. Arya though - Arya seems to actually enjoy it. She’s light on her feet and swift and seems to always know where to step, executing the dance more methodically than if it were a pastime.
“You’re good,” he says, a bit surprised.
She arches an eyebrow at him as he picks her up by the waist and sets her down again. “I was always good at dancing.”
Other bedazzled figures join them on the floor, gleaming gowns and shiny coattails whirling every which way. Gendry spots the Headmaster dancing with Madame Melisandre - there’s a dysfunctional pairing he’d never thought to see - and Sansa twirls past them in Podrick’s arms, whispering something to Arya that makes both girls snort with laughter.
The music ends. Somehow they end up crossing paths with Ned and Myrcella. Gendry lowers his eyes to Arya’s, asking a silent question. Now?
She chews her lip, looks at Edric, and then lifts herself up on tiptoe.
Before he can even really process it, his best friend is kissing him. One of his hands moves to her hair. It stays there to cradle the side of her face, his thumb resting right on her jaw.
And this. This is different than watching Arya tell Ned, no I would not like to go out on Hogsmeade weekend with you, I’ve got a boyfriend now; this is different from holding hands between classes; this is different from enduring Sansa’s teasing smirks and giving false answers about their relationship. Even though Arya keeps her lips stubbornly closed, Gendry kisses her back, feeling the heat from her skin and sensing the blush that must be persuasive as his own.
Something longing stirs deep inside him.
He wonders if Arya feels it, too.
She pulls away from him and clears her throat, averting her eyes discreetly to the side. Then she licks her lips and turns towards Ned, anticipating his reaction.
“I - um -”
“They’re starting a new dance,” Arya says neutrally, “you and Myrcella should keep going!” She grabs Gendry’s hand, firmly, and addresses him. “Come on, darling. Let’s go get some punch.”
–
“Darling?” Gendry returns after a moment away, carrying two glasses full of something pale and pink that fizzes slowly at the edges. He offers one to Arya; she sniffs it cautiously. “That wasn’t in the plan.”
“It’s what my mum calls my dad sometimes,” she laughs, “sorry, first thing I could think of.” He smirks and rubs his jaw, feeling the ghost of her lips on his. “What is this, anyway?”
“Punch, as you asked for.” Professor Selmy had assured him of that, though Gendry has his misgivings. They both take a sip. The drink is cold and fruity. It reminds him of his mother and of hot summer days when he was young.
“Squash,” he says absently.
Arya raises an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”
“Uh, just a Muggle drink,” Gendry explains. “My mum used to make it for me. It tastes a bit like this.” Arya nods in understanding, discreetly rolling up her sleeves so they don’t fall into her cup. She looks a little silly that way, but Gendry’s not stupid enough to tell her.
“Did you want to keep dancing?” she says when her glass is empty. There are plenty of other students on the floor, but a fair amount are just standing around like they are, smiling at the enchanted sky.
“Not really.” Gendry winces. “No offense or anything.”
Arya shrugs. “None taken.” Then her eyes light up, and she grabs his arm. “Let’s go to the courtyard, then.”
“Arry, it’s snowing outside.”
“I’m used to the cold.”
“It must be freezing.”
“If the owls can take it, so can you!”
“It’s your Yule Bale, Arya, you’re the Champion.”
“I don’t mind leaving it.”
And, well, Gendry isn’t the one who had to wait an hour to get his hair and dress done, so he follows her as she sneaks quietly out into the gentle snowfall.
It’s all whiteness out there, the castle blanketed in a layer of snow and ice; Arya’s nose pinks slightly as they seat themselves in the porte cochère of the courtyard. She doesn’t look terribly cold, really, but Gendry still feels obligated to put the outer layer of his dress robes around her bare shoulders, leaving him in a plain white dress shirt.
“Oh, I don’t need it,” she starts, but he waves her off, crossing his arms to ward away the cold.
“Please. All that winter is coming shit doesn’t change the fact that it’s freezing out here.”
“As if I’ve ever said anything to the contrary.” Arya pulls out her wand and moves it in languid, clockwise circles. “Focillio.” A warm glow emits from the tip of the wand, undampened by the snow. Arya murmurs under her breath and the heat intensifies, enough that it illuminates both her and Gendry’s face in ruddy light.
She turns to Gendry and waves the wand in his face. He leans back, a bit afraid she’ll burn his nose off. “Impressive.”
“First-year Charms at work.” She warms her fingers gingerly; they both chuckle, their voices seeming far too loud in the empty courtyard.
Gendry hesitates, watching her profile in the moonlight, so long and reserved and elegant. He hopes his next question won’t irritate her. “So - have you had any luck with the clue?”
“The clue…” Arya frowns, brushing a snowflake out her face. She knots her hands together, her wand balanced between her knees. “Oh. No, not really. But I do have time, Gendry.”
“Not much.” He’s been counting the days on his fingers, the hours she has until the Second Task. “There’s only a few weeks to go now.”
She nods in acknowledgment. “I know that, and I am trying - but what am I supposed to make of it? It’s an egg, and it doesn’t tell me anything, just some bloody useless screaming. And Daenerys and Drogo don’t seem to understand it either, although-” she glances around and lowers her voice. “Daenerys did mention something to me about putting the egg in a bath.”
“A bath?”
“Yeah,” she shrugs. “She told me just this morning, actually. Apparently, something happens when you put it underwater.”
“So she took the dragon’s egg,” Gendry says skeptically, “and bathed it?”
“Yes.”
“It worked. That’s the clue.”
“Apparently. I know it sounds ridiculous.”
“Yeah, honestly, it does.” She’s usually so sharp. “Arya, have you ever heard of a thing called derailment?”
“Shut up.” Arya punches his shoulder, half-defeated. “It could be useful! More useful than whatever I’ve been doing, anyway.” She looks nervous, clouds of white seeping slowly from her lips. “Could we not talk about the Tournament, Gendry? Just for a day, and then I promise you can go back to badgering me about it.”
“Sure,” he says easily. “What else is on your mind?”
“Nothing.” That’s a lie. “All right. Something.” She turns towards him, fidgeting slightly, and it really is too cold out here. “I haven’t had time to thank you, Gendry.”
That, he hadn’t expected. “…for what?”
“For being my date tonight,” she explains, “and for being such a good boyfriend the past few weeks - fake boyfriend, it doesn’t even matter - when that was probably the most stupid, inconvenient thing I could’ve done to drive Ned away. I know you probably hated it. All the pretending we had to do. Plus the dancing,” she adds with a small laugh. “That was probably the worst part, right?”
“I didn’t hate the dancing,” Gendry says uncertainly. “Not really.”
“Well, that’s good.” Her voice is a bit thick. “But I also need to thank you for keeping me company during this stupid Tournament. My dad, when he…well, you know how hard it’s been without him. I only ever wanted to do this for him. I only ever wanted to win for him. And you’ve just been so wonderful.” She shakes her head. “My point is, real boyfriend or not, you’re the greatest person that I’ve ever met. I don’t think I’ll ever meet anyone who’s better.”
“You don’t mean that,” Gendry says, more to himself than to Arya.
“Of course I do,” Arya says. “I’d do anything for you. And you’d do anything for me, right?”
That’s almost too simple. “Obviously.”
“Then,” she sucks in a quick breath of air. “Then would you kiss me, Gendry? If it’s all right with you?”
She had spoken so softly, he isn’t sure he heard her. “What?”
“Don’t make me say it again.” On some bizarre impulse, he reaches up, brushes away a stray strand of hair. Lets the soft pad of his thumb gently press on Arya’s cheek. Her eyes flick nervously to his. “I’d just - I don’t know. You did it earlier, and I liked it. Not because of Ned. I liked it, that’s all. I wouldn’t mind doing it twice. If that isn’t what you want-”
She’s rambling again, and Arya does not ramble. Before his mind can catch up to his racing heart, Gendry presses his lips to Arya’s, warm and soft and perfect. It’s not a deep kiss, no tongue, no biting. Just lips. Just lips and the feeling of Arya, of his best friend, of Arya and everything she is and can be.
She pulls away softly, straightening up tall once more. Her cheeks are tinged pink. Her smile has never been brighter.
“Did you really not mind the dancing?” she says inquisitively.
Gendry has to laugh. “I would’ve had to do that either way, Arya.” He leans forward, resting his forehead slightly on hers, and holds her small, small hand. “I’m glad it was with you.”
She nods and covers his palm with her own. Around them, the snow keeps falling.
–
a/n: this is not an ~amazing~ fill but high school finals are approaching (!!!) and i wanted to bang out one more prompt before i’m forced to commit myself to constant studying :/ my request box is always open if you like my writing - happy tuesday, and much love to you all 💖
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In the White Light - Prideshipping fanfic Chapter 18
Also on AO3.
Author’s Note: This chapter is named in honour of an old Boueibu chat @queenofthefaces and I used to be a part of.
This chapter also features hints of Scandalshipping.
Chapter 18 – Big Ass Spider
Mahad returned from the infirmary, back to the court meeting currently taking place in the throne room. “Pharaoh, you’ll be glad to know that your companions have made it out of the Shadow Game alive and well. After they’ve recuperated, I’ll ask them about the foes they’ve faced.”
“Excellent work, Mahad,” Yami Yugi acknowledged as the High Priest sat back down.
Those fools actually survived a Shadow Game? Kaiba, who had reluctantly agreed to sit in on this meeting, tittered. I guess every dog has his day.
“So now that we’ve discussed everything we know so far about our enemy, what is our best course of action, pharaoh?” Isis asked.
“I want you and Mahad to stay and guard the palace while the rest of us move out.”
“A sound decision, Your Majesty,” Karim remarked. “Monster attacks on the palace have been rather scarce lately and have mostly been concentrated in the villages.”
“Then I will send you and Shada with some of my forces to help protect the villagers. If you find the time, ask them for any information that may be useful to us. You have my permission to leave.”
“At once, Your Majesty.” With that Karim and Shada bowed before equipping themselves with their Millennium Items and DiaDhanks, and heading out the palace.
“But what of you, Priest Seto-”
“That’s Kaiba to you,” Kaiba corrected Mahad with a curt voice.
“My apologies… Er, what will you, Kaiba, and your companions do?”
“We will head out to Anubis’ chamber. Seeing as how he was one of our greatest enemies in the past, perhaps our new enemy is affiliated with him in some way. In fact, I’m almost certain that the zombies you’ve been seeing are getting revenge for their master.”
Kaiba knitted his brow at this announcement. “That… is a very dangerous idea, Yugi. Did the desert dry up your brains? Or are you that eager to repeat history?”
“I’ll have to agree with Kaiba,” spoke Isis. “It is possible that Anubis’ spirit may return and attack you again.”
“Not if they take two of our strongest soldiers.” Mahad called out into the hall, “Mana! Kisara! Your presence is requested in the throne room.”
“Your Eminence.” A young woman with long blue hair and plain beige robes presented herself.
“You called, Master?” A sprightly girl who looked just like Dark Magician Girl joined her. “Oh! Hello again, Pharaoh!”
“Dark Magician Girl! I’m so glad you’re all right after what happened on Atlantis.”
“Likewise, Your Majesty. I’m honoured to fight alongside you again, and on such an important mission, too. Oh, yeah, one more thing. In this world, call me Mana.”
Kaiba had nothing to say to Mana, and instead was more interested in the other young woman. She looks a lot like Maiden with Eyes of Blue!
It was then that this young woman noticed Kaiba staring at her. “Oh! Pardon me for not introducing myself properly. My name is Kisara and… well, we’ve technically met before.”
“I should say the same.” Kaiba took Maiden with Eyes of Blue out of his deck and showed it to her.
Mahad elaborated, “Kisara is the original owner of a powerful ka – or, as you call it in your world, monster – the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.”
“Then consider myself charmed.” Kaiba bowed before arising from the table. “Well, Yugi, if we’re going to go on this death mission, then let’s make it quick.”
“Hey, if rich boy is comin’, then so am I!” declared Joey.
“Figures… But you’re not riding on my back this time, Wheeler. Use your own damned dragon for once.” Kaiba turned to Mokuba.
“Ooh! Can I come?” Mokuba asked.
“Kaiba, I’m not sure taking people without Duel Disks is a good idea,” Yami Yugi warned. “I don’t want my friends to get hurt, and I’m sure you don’t want Mokuba to get hurt either.”
“Don’t you think we know that?” Tristan growled.
“I… I’m not afraid of zombies!” Téa spoke confidently. “We’ve faced them before! And don’t forget all the other trials we’ve been through… We’re tougher than you think, pharaoh.”
“Don’t worry, babe, I’m strong enough to protect us all.” Kaiba held Yami Yugi by the waist. “Don’t you know who I am?”
“My love, overconfidence is a deadly enemy. At least let me do my share of the protecting.”
“Oh my gods, guys, you can flirt after we’ve defeated Anubis’ zombies!” Joey already started running towards the palace exit and started flying on Red-Eyes Black Dragon with Tristan and Yugi. “Last one there’s a rotten egg!”
“You moron. You don’t even know where to find the damned place!” Kaiba shouted after him.
While the remaining people decided who would be riding with whom, Weevil overheard the conversation. Having just emerged from the infirmary, he made sure to stay out of sight. “Looks like Yugi and company are going to some creepy guy’s tomb to face some creepy zombies and get some awesome treasures! We better follow them!”
“Ohohoho, no. Not on your Perfectly Ultimate Great Moth, we’re not. Remember last time? We’re taking the Slash Dragon this time.” Rex summoned this monster.
“Fine, whatever. Just transform into that rabbit form of yours so we don’t blow our cover.”
“I… Um… Okay, I’ll try…” Rex concentrated all of his energy in his torso, but all that came out of it was a loud fart. “Sorry that I’m not cool like Kaiba. I can’t just transform into an animal the way he can.”
“I’ve noticed!” Weevil covered his nose for a few seconds. “Well, hun, you’re going to have to try again!”
“Since you’ve called me that, I’ll try once more for you, baby.” Rex winked before focusing again, and luckily for him, this transformation was successful. “Haha! See? Second time’s the charm. Now make sure you take care of my Duel Disk.”
“Yeah, yeah… Now hurry up before those lamebrains leave without us.” Weevil got onto the Red-Eyes Slash Dragon, and Rex hopped into his arms.
“Hmm…” Kisara closed her eyes, summoning the Blue-Eyes White Dragon - which she, Téa, and Mana promptly mounted.
“Impressive that you can summon one of my favourite monsters out of thin air!” Kaiba transformed into the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon. “But so can I.”
“Oh boy, oh boy!” Though Mokuba normally was mature for his age, he acted excited, despite the danger of the mission. “Finally, I get to go for a ride!”
“Come, I’ll help you up.” With that, Yami Yugi helped Mokuba and himself mount Kaiba’s back.
“Okay, Mokuba, it’s going to be quite a long ride. So you better hold on tight,” Kaiba advised when everyone had left the palace. “Both onto me and onto my Duel Disk.”
“You got it, bro!” Mokuba liked the breeze that greeted him as Kaiba took to the air. “Wow, what a view! The skyline is so pretty!”
“Yeah, it’s pretty, but don’t forget what we’re supposed to be looking for,” spoke Kaiba.
“Right, uh… Some stone building with a huge jackal statue in front of it.”
“How did you know?”
“Because I see it right there!” Mokuba pointed at the middle-of-nowhere building. “Wh-Whoa!”
When Kaiba had dived to the sand, and Mokuba had faceplanted, Kaiba sighed. “I told you to hang on tight… Now please don’t do anything unnecessary from here on out.”
“Got it,” Mokuba sheepishly replied after Kaiba turned into a human, and he gave him back his Duel Disk.
Kaiba noticed that Mokuba had stiffened up as the party walked deeper into the chamber. “You can talk, you know. Just don’t touch anything.”
“It’s much more elaborate than the last time we’ve visited,” Téa noted.
“And best part is, there aren’t any zombies!” exclaimed Tristan.
“Don’t jinx it, man…” Joey picked up a dagger. “Hey lookit, it’s the Dagger of Fate!”
“‘Last time?’” Téa’s remark intrigued Mana. “You mean you’ve been here before?”
“I’d rather not remember it…”
“You sure looked cool doing that double roundhouse kick, though!” Joey did a few air punches. “And so did the rest of us!”
“Yeah, you sure looked cool running away from the zombies.”
“Oh, stuff it, Tristan.”
Kaiba interrupted the silly talk. “That was around the time I summoned the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon and nearly kicked Yu- I mean, the pharaoh’s ass. How I still have the card after all that happened with Anubis – and how I can transform into said card – I wish I knew.”
“It’s like I told you during our first time travel, my love. Anubis cursed you after he died.”
“Huh…” Kisara’s voice sounded from even deeper in the chamber. “I wouldn’t be too sure about that, pharaoh.”
“Did you find something?” Yami Yugi lead the other companions to this deeper part, which began to jog his memories. “This…”
“Babe?”
“This place… It’s where I heard… Priest Seto’s last words.” Yami Yugi trembled. He would have fallen to his knees, too, if Kaiba hadn’t held him tall.
Kaiba changed the subject. “So, Kisara, what did you find? …Great. Another giant rock. You can never get enough of them in ancient Egypt, can you? Let me guess, it displays some kind of ‘epic’ battle? Or some other occult nonsense?”
“I don’t know how you can utter that overused phrase of yours after all that’s happened.” Yami Yugi stepped forward to get a better look at the giant stone tablet. The dragon in the middle, which took up nearly half of the tablet’s space, was the first thing to catch his attention. “This tablet looks just like the one I keep at the palace.”
“Guess again, pharaoh.” Kaiba pointed at the only two other pictures on the tablet – a small rabbit and a large spider. “I remember that giant rock well, and it certainly didn’t have a big ass spider on it. Now then…”
“Kaiba?” Kisara looked concerned as Kaiba reached for the sapphire on the Shining Dragon’s head.
“Will you tell me what I want to know?” Kaiba let the powers of this tablet take him and his companions into a vision quest.
“And to think, you didn’t believe in ‘occult nonsense.’”
“Wheeler, if there was a perfect time to shut up, it’s now. Or really any time you think of opening your mouth.”
“Why you…”
“No, Kaiba’s right. Look at who’s here! It’s Anubis!” Mana pointed at a man with messy long blond hair, a cape, and a teal jewel in the middle of his forehead.
Yami Yugi looked at the elderly man standing next to Anubis. He bore the Millennium Eye and wore nothing but flowing white robes. “So… So, it’s true. Aknadin really was Anubis’ accomplice.”
“Tch!” Anubis, clearly displeased at his latest creation, crushed it and sent it into a ball of shadows. “Yet another weak monster! Perhaps using just servants of the Thief King aren’t enough… I have to find the scumbag himself. Maybe then I can stop conjuring things like mere rabbits.”
“If I may?” Aknadin spoke up. In his right hand, he held up a young man – bound and gagged – by the collar. “If we can’t transform the left hand of the Thief King into something powerful, then maybe the right hand will work.”
“I suppose he will have to suffice for the time being…” Anubis sighed as Aknadin threw the young man in front of him.
“Mmmph!” The young man whimpered loudly as eight spider’s legs sprouted from his body, and his form changed.
“Yes…” Anubis admired the black and red spider that towered over him, and the four Red-Eyes Black Dragons it killed. “Finally, a monster that can defeat Aknamkanon!”
“Are you really sure?” Aknadin pointed at this monster that faded as soon as it attacked.
“No… No! What could have been wrong this time?!”
“I’ve heard that certain monsters require certain spells in order to survive. Such may have been the case with this one.”
“Then that’s the last time I’ve tried an experiment using foreign techniques… I’ll have to use Egyptian magic that can rival the Pharaoh’s Incantation. In fact… Speaking of the Pharaoh’s Incantation… Hahahaha!”
“That’s… so disgusting!” Téa started crying. “So Anubis used to perform experiments transforming humans into monsters?”
“Guys, it looks like it’s time for a scene change,” Tristan noted as the vision quest abruptly changed scenes – this time, to the throne room.
“That dickweed looks a lot like Kaiba! Let me at ‘im!” Joey tried to “swim” over to where Priest Seto stood, but only flailed about midair.
“Wheeler, just shut up and watch.” Kaiba looked to the elderly man who knelt in pain.
“What’s… happening to me?!” The elderly man could feel his time at an end, and it scared him to not know why.
“Pharaoh Aknamkanon!” Priest Seto knelt down, trying in vain to invoke the power of the Millennium Rod. “No! Don’t go!”
“S-Seto…” Aknamkanon’s soul began to fade into the shadows. “Can I see you… smile for me… one last time? One more smile… before I go?”
“Pharaoh… I… I’m a sorry excuse of a High Priest… Aaaaargh!” Seto threw the Millennium Rod at the wall, nearly breaking it in a fit of rage. “Father… Just you wait, I’m coming for you!”
Tristan asked, “What… the hell was that about?”
The scene changed yet again to Anubis’ chamber, and Kaiba responded, “Do you guys always talk during the movie?”
“Hahahaha!” Anubis held up an object that resembled the Millennium Puzzle. “With this, the Pyramid of Light, there will be no failures in my experiments any longer!”
“Then what will your next experiment look like?”
No sooner had Aknadin asked this question when an intruder made his presence known in the middle of the chamber. “Father! I should have known that you have allied yourself with Anubis!”
“Hmm… I think we’re about to find out what my next experiment will be. Aknadin, as you know, those in the royal family carry the blood of the Creator. As such, I believe they’ll serve as perfect vessels for an all-powerful monster!”
“As amazing as that sounds, I do not wish to risk my own life for your experiment.” Aknadin gave his son a sly smile. “But I willingly offer my son. Do with him what you will.”
“What the hell are you talking about? Hey!” Seto couldn’t resist the zombie army that swarmed and bound him. “Father! You fucking traitor!”
“Hehehehe…” Anubis held the Pyramid of Light in the air. “O most blessed goddess, our Creator of Light! I present to you the Pyramid of Light, crafted from the very ba of Pharaoh Aknamkanon himself! I ask you to infuse your ka with the ba of His Highness Priest Seto! Make him into a monster that can rival even the gods themselves!”
“Oh my gods…” Seto watched as his skin became aglow, and the zombies’ grip on him became even more painful. “Aaaaaargh!”
“Irot ow et on ekaoy… Edam ih ukatabah ukakat!” This dark incantation gave Seto the fuel to complete his transformation. “Arise, Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon!”
“Graaaaar!” Seto easily killed the zombies that bound him, but before he could motion to kill Anubis and Aknadin, the former uttered more words of the Dark Incantation.
“With these words from my lips, you have no choice but to obey my every command! Now go! Show the common people just who rules this land!”
“I’ll have to thank you.” Aknadin started to pack his things, with the intention of returning to the palace. “You have made me the father of a god!”
“…Wait. Stay silent.” Anubis heard light footsteps coming from the chamber entrance. Soon after, a singing voice followed. “No! It cannot be! How is the pharaoh still alive?”
“Look again, Anubis! It’s not Aknamkanon that stands before you…” The Millennium Pendant was now in Aknadin’s sights. “It’s his son! He’s using the Pharaoh’s Incantation!”
“Impossible!” Anubis watched as Seto turned back into a human. “Not even Priest Mahad had been able to separate his ba from the ka of his monster! …Wait, Aknadin, where are you going?”
“Anywhere is better than here! If the new pharaoh is to execute you, then I’m not letting him take me down with you!”
With that, Aknadin fled the scene right before Mahad and Isis stormed in. The vision quest now panned to the desert just outside the chamber, with Seto staring down an unfamiliar enemy.
“So… That’s how it happened…” Yami Yugi felt a tear run down his cheek. “Father… Anubis killed him!”
“I’m shocked too, babe.” Kaiba wrapped a quivering arm around Yami Yugi’s shoulders. “But there’s still more to see.”
“Yuck! That guy’s got a dragon head for a dick.” Tristan’s remark elicited a light slap to the face from Téa.
“Huh.” The enemy unfurled his purple wings as he towered over Seto. “I was under the impression that I would be facing the pharaoh. But all that I see is a priest who was too dimwitted to bring his Millennium Item to battle.”
“I don’t need the Millennium Rod this day,” Seto declared. “For you see, I am a weapon unto myself. Zorc! Your reign of terror will end today!”
“Hahaha! You really think so, boy?”
“Hah!” Seto jumped onto the base of the building and climbed it. When he reached the top, he jumped off, transforming into the Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon without freefalling. “Yeah. Yeah, I really do. You cannot defeat the power of the gods!”
“You? Power of the gods?” Zorc shot a Zorc Inferno in Seto’s direction to counter the Shining Neutron Blast coming at him. “Don’t make me laugh!”
After many more exchanges of attacks, Seto spoke, “I’ll give you credit for one thing. Of any foe we of the royal court have faced, you are the strongest.”
“Flattery isn’t going to save you – or your precious pharaoh for that matter! Why don’t I remind you?” Zorc suddenly vanished.
“Damn…” Seto tried in vain to look for Zorc. Instead, the Dark One found him, making his presence known with a sharp Zorc Inferno to the back. “Urgh…”
Zorc was pleased to see Seto barely managing to remain airborne. “You must realize that you cannot defeat me! Though in my final act of mercy, I’ll spare your life if you give me the pharaoh.”
“No! I refuse to give you the man I love more than anything!” Seto closed his eyes as his body glowed a light blue.
“Then you’ll- Huh?”
“I’m sorry, my love… But I really will be taking my love for you before Osiris.” Seto shed one last tear before launching himself at Zorc full force. “Shining Nova!”
“Argh! Damn you… Horakhty…” So were Zorc’s last words as Seto’s lifeless body fell to the sand.
Joey felt as if he were being sucked into a vacuum. “Whoa, man! I think the movie is ending, you guys!”
“I… I…” Before Yami Yugi could truly process what he had just seen, the surroundings became fuzzy. Soon, he and his companions were brought back to reality.
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King of the Monsters is the Best Season of Game of Thrones Ever!
When I came out of the theater, I hadn't had warm and fuzzies about a movie in...I can't tell you how long. And this movie gave me warm and fuzzies. And this is despite the nay-sayers and the idiot critics who are slamming this movie. Just a little FYI here, Godzilla beat out Aladdin for the #1 spot. Godzilla pimp-slapped the Mouse into second place opening weekend. And I approve of this.
But despite all the critics REEEEING over Godzilla and calling it garbage, I'm gonna tell you this movie is awesome and is worth your money. And if you have a $5 dollar Tuesday like me because you have a Cinemark Cinema in your town...and you're worried about shelling out too much money for something you think you might not like...go see it on Tuesday, pay the 5 bucks, and then see why I said it's worth every cent. And then go back and see it again full price if you want to.
So like any review I've done, usually I review a movie that I found bad and wanna shit all over it. It is my thing, after all. I mean see what all I've said about Godzilla Final Wars and everyone got pissy at me for hating on Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah 1991 and why I said I like GMK so much better...
And of course me shitting on Minya every time I mention Godzilla, because I hate that shit stain...I'm gonna actually give a positive review.
I mean the last movie review I did was Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and...well...
It’s safe to say I really hated that movie.
But this one, I didn’t.
Just remember, this movie is worth every cent of your money.
You did it! You did it, Hollywood! You finally made a REAL GODZILLA MOVIE! COMPLETE WITH THE ACTUAL GODZILLA THEME SONG! And the Blue Oyster's Go, Go, Godzilla at the end. And yes, there's even Mothra's theme song. And I was singing it during the movie. To anyone out there who said it couldn't be done...Cough-Steven Spielberg-Cough...we did it! America has finally made a real Godzilla movie! You also made the first Godzilla movie that actually gave a proper jump scare...and Godzilla was the one who did it, and I actually jumped! 10/10! You made me jump at a jump scare and I don't usually jump at jump scares. And yes, there was one, and it's at the beginning but...it's good. First Godzilla movie to have a genuine jump scare that actually made me jump. Thank you, movie!
So, how does it start out.
Well, it starts out in 2014 and we're following a family called the Russel Family. No sign of the Brody family, but that's probably because they finally got eaten by sharks because...JAWS, damn it! And also the Brody family was dull, save for Brian Cranston, and why the fuck didn't G2014 keep Brian Cranston in there?
Anyway, we have Mark Russel, Emma Russel, and their daughter Madison Russel...who is played by the actress from Stranger Things...Millie Bobby Brown. I'm gonna refer to her as Eleven from here on out because that's who I know her the most as. And yes, next month, Stranger Things is coming back to Netflix, and I'm gonna be watching that. There's also Eleven's little brother, but he only appears in photographs because he ended up getting squashed by Godzilla's foot in San Francisco...so...I'm not gonna bother to learn his name. Interesting to note, the actor who plays Mark...played Bruce Baxter from King Kong 2005. But I barely recognize him...so, he doesn't get a quirky name.
We do have Ken Watanabe returning as Ishiro Serizawa. Who I suspect is actually the sun of Daisuke Serizawa...though Daisuke is a completely different kind of person in the MonsterVerse than what he was in the original Gojira.
Okay, so, we cut to about 5 years later, so 2019 and we meet up with Eleven and her mom and El is contacting her dad who is not with them. He's studying wolves. And they have a little email convo, Dad's worried about his wife, El is worried about Dad, and so on. And I like how they build things up here because we don't realize that Eleven and her mom are in China studying Mothra's egg. Until we hear Mothra's call, and yes it is very recognizable. I suspect that there weren't veteran Godzilla fans like myself in the theater with me, so, pretty much every fan moment in this movie was something I would recognize but would mostly fall flat on most viewers. The monster calls and the music.
Except for King Ghidorah's call...they were trying to do his call but...to be honest, it sounded like a bad mix of Heisei Ghidorah and the version they used in Final Wars. With a little Showa in there. The most perfect Ghidorah call was done in GMK. It made him sound powerful, big, and kept the iconic call. However, King Ghidorah's design looks rather interesting. It's more of an updated version of Heisei Ghidorah than any of the other Ghidorahs. Even more interesting is that the three heads all have their own separate personalities. How can I explain them? This fan art done by Michael J Larson just might help.
I present to you, Moe, Larry, and Curly. Legendary turned King Ghidorah into the Three Stooges. And here's the funny bit, Moe is the middle head, while Curly is the one on the right, and Larry is the one on the left. And just like in Three Stooges fashion, Moe hates Curly a lot. He even bops Curly a few times to pretty much make a point on just who these thee heads represent.
Rodan's call didn't sound much like Rodan's call either, but, I'm not a big Rodan fan, so I forgave it.
So, Eleven and Mom here goes down into a cave where Mothra's egg is so they can witness Mothra being born. And of course call the giant moth-like creature...Mothra. Because yeah. We need to state that. Complete with Mothra's theme!
Well Mom's got a gadget that seems to be able to create a signal that makes the monster docile, and lo and behold it works!
And then Tywin Lannister shows up!
This is Charles Dance's character Alan Jonah...you know, like the whale...however, I'm gonna stick with Tywin Lannister. Because that's who he is! Well, Tywin kidnaps mom and Eleven. Tywin actually is trying to be a little nice to Eleven, even making a silly face at her. Which I thought was cute. Until she flipped Tywin off...because yes, Eleven can do that to Tywin! She's probably the only person who can flip Tywin Lannister the bird! Anyone else would have been beheaded.
Apparently Tywin now runs an eco-terrorist group who are a bunch of nihilists. And they wanna release King Ghidorah for the purpose of ending the suffering that man has caused the planet. So...Anime Godzilla Xaliens? Really, Tywin? The Dragon has three heads, but apparently you merely wanted to end the Targaryan dynasty just to set up the new Ghidorah dynasty. Well, to tell you the truth, King Ghidorah would make a better ruler than Bran the Broken, so he has my vote on that. Honestly, this whole movie is like the best Game of Thrones climax ever! With a little Stranger Things mixed in for good measure.
And King Ghidorah...or rather Ghidorah as they call him in the movie...is actually located in Antarctica. Because of course he is. How did he get there? We don't know. He is a space monster just like he usually is, and he also wants to fuck over everything on planet Earth, like usual. But this time...it's him doing it, and not someone controlling him...or rather...that device they call Orca sends out a call at first controls him, but the he's like "Naw, man, I'm my own boss." And really fucks over Tywin's plans. Because King Ghidorah at least listened to Olena Tyrell's suggestion of "Be a Dragon." And he pretty much shows how much he is a dragon, rather than what Danaerys did until the very last minute. Yes, I won't stop the Game of Thrones comparisons, shut up! So, apparently, Ghidorah has the Queen of Thorns on his side and she's been talking into his ear more than Mamma Russel's Orca's machine has. And to show Olena how much of a dragon he is, King Ghidorah eats a few humans as he is freed.
No, I'm serious, King Ghidorah eats people! Olena would be proud.
He also doesn't listen to Tywin Lannister. And neither did Aerys, but that's only because Aerys didn't want Cercei to marry Rhaegar. So, Tywin pretty much gave that dragon a middle finger and decided to get with another three headed dragon...a literal three headed dragon, and they're gonna fuck up the planet, yo! Until Olena Tyrell started talking to King Ghidorah about playing the Game of Thrones, and now King Ghidorah uses his magic monster call to literally "Call the Banners!" I'm fucking serious! There is a reason why the Game of Thrones references will not stop! King Ghidorah pulls a Rob Stark and turns to Maester Lewin.
King Ghidorah: "Maester Lewin..."
Lewin: "Yes, your Grace."
King Ghidorah: "Call the banners."
Lewin: "All of them?"
King Ghidorah: "All of them."
And the ravens fly!
Meanwhile, Daddy Russel got wind of his wife and daughter being kidnapped, as well as Orca being used to summon King Ghidorah and well, he seems to have a big beef with the monsters in general. Apparently, he has a bone to pick with Godzilla for the death of his son. And he wants to Inigo Montoya Godzilla's ass. The problem is, he's about the size of Godzilla's talon, so I don't think that duel is gonna work very well. However, it's here where we get to the jump scare that works and why I loved it. You see, in this scene, we're in an underwater Monarch base where they discuss what they want to do with Godzilla. Russel is on the "let's kill the bastard" boat along with the American military, and Serizawa is more on the boat of...we becoming Godzilla's adopted children in which he protects from other threats out there. Or rather...his pets. Which of course doesn't go very well over with the Americans. Because...
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You honestly think we're gonna be Godzilla's little pet humans, Serizawa? HELL NO!
But I chock that up to poor translation since English isn't Serizawa's first language. And maybe that came out wrong. Anyhoo...yeah, Godzilla's pets. No. I like you, big guy, but I ain't gonna be your cat.
So, while we're in this underwater base, Godzilla decides to show up! And they start pointing their guns at him...which kinda pisses him off. While Russel here hates Godzilla, even he knows it's not wise to go and pick a fight with him without a plan, so he even tells the guys to stand down, which they do. And then we have a moment where Godzilla slowly inches close to the glass and Russel and the King of the Monsters have some kind of moment. And to tell you the truth, it's a better moment than what we had with Brody and Godzilla. Well, Godzilla at first slinks back into the darkness...and everything seems fine. And this is where the jump scare happens. They don't draw it out to where you expect a jump scare to happen, like...most jump scares do. That's how you know it's a bad jump scare, they draw it out for so long that you know it's gonna jump out and get you. You're just waiting for it to happen. Here? Nope, the moment you think everything is okay, Godzilla jump scares you by just suddenly swimming by the glass.
And that's it.
And I did not expect it at all!
That's how you jump scare people! Again, this shows why Godzilla is King of the Jump Scares! There is no lingering shot, there is no "he's still there, he's still there, he's still there...he's still there..." It just comes right out of nowhere like a jump scare does. And I did jump. So again, good work, movie.
And I will say I like Russel as well. Yeah, he's in the "I hate Godzilla and I wanna see him dead" boat, but it's not taken to ridiculous extremes like you'd think it would be. He's smart, he knows when to fold them if he has to, which in Godzilla movies...is a good thing. You see, Godzilla movies tend to have characters like Russel be so over the top moronic in their hatred...you just wanna skip right over them and get to the monster fight. Russel is not one of these characters. His wife on the other hand...is an idiot, and I might as well address her.
She's flawed, and I'm glad we have for once a flawed female character in a world of female protagonists have to be perfect awesome people so that the feminazis can relate to them.
Apparently, the SJWs didn't really affect this movie much, and I'm grateful for that. Yeah, I had one guy tell me how he hated that Ghidorah wasn't called King and that he wasn't really a he...but an it. But I had to remind him that pretty much that's all the monsters. Including Godzilla. And Ghidorah's first movie was Ghidorah the Three-headed Monster in which this movie is a bit of a remake of. But not quite. In fact, I went into this movie thinking it was going to be a remake of that movie. Right down to Eleven being maybe a person possessed by some supernatural being who wanted to warn everyone about King Ghidorah's coming. She wasn't at all. I half expected Tywin to be some guy trying to assassinate her and he wasn't. And I thought Rodan would team up with Mothra and Godzilla against King Ghidorah after Mothra smacked their asses around and talked about friendship and the heart of the cards and shit, but he didn't and neither did Mothra. Mothra was on Godzilla's side, but not Rodan.
Rodan was on King Ghidorah's side! He was one of the banners Ghidorah had Maester Lewin send a raven to. And another one of those ravens went to Nevada of all places and to...and I'm shocked to say this...Kumonga! Yes, our giant spider from the 60's Showa era has returned in the American reboot! And much like his Final Wars counterpart, he decided to be in the American Southwest. Maybe he liked Cowboys or something. We also had a giant mammoth creature rising out of Wyoming. And another MUTO. Why, Legendary? Why another MUTO? I guess we needed to reuse an asset or something. Well, it wouldn't be a Godzilla movie if we didn't. So...you're checking off the marks here, Legendary. We even have stock footage in the form of clips! They are checking off all the Showa marks!
So, while King Ghidorah is flying around in a hurricane he created (totally awesome) and telling Lewin to call his Banners, we suddenly find out that Mamma Russel was actually the mastermind behind this whole "the Dragon has Three Heads" thing. Yeah, Tywin Lannister wasn't the guy in charge, it was Ma Russel. And she managed to convince Eleven that this is for the well being of mankind. You see, she wants the monsters to basically cull the humans and our evil technology, and return the world to a more peaceful time where we were subsistence farmers worshiping giant monsters as gods? Because that was a more peaceful time?
And this is why she's an idiot. And her ideas is batshit crazy! The world has never been more at peace now than any other era. I'm not kidding about that. Yeah, we're polluting the planet, and we need to cut back our carbon footprint, but to be honest here...the planet was much warmer during the time of the Dinosaurs than it is currently NOW.
And while I've touted about the lessons of the P-T Extinction Event, aka the Great Dying, in which a flood basalt in Siberia started an out of control greenhouse that resulted in nearly 90% of all life on the planet dying, including the life in the oceans, and set our planet in a biological to be resetted in a way...and that was caused by just the temperature rising on top of all the nasty gasses put into the atmosphere by said flood basalt...I don't think that just going back to subsistence farming is gonna solve the problem, lady. In fact, it's stated even if we just stop all the polluting now, the damage has already been done. There is no stopping it. And NO! Suddenly causing the entire planet to just become more radioactive is not gonna solve your problem either. She honestly believed that radiation is some miracle grow fertilizer. When, no it isn't.
And Carl Sagan can tell you why! Did you not listen to Threads? Did you not watch that movie, lady? I feel like I need to sit you and Final Wars Godzilla down and you both watch that movie together to see why just pumping a bunch of radiation into the atmosphere is not gonna help things. Final Wars Godzilla needs to learn that we understand the message of nuclear war. Threads has told us that. And you, you moronic bitch, need to learn the lesson of radiation will make farming HARDER!
And apparently for a scientist, she's never heard of the Red Forest of Chernobyl.
If you want to know what it looks like to an entire ecosystem when it's been bombarded by radiation...just radiation alone...
See those red trees? That is caused by massive amounts of radiation being released upon a forest.
Again, I prove why I know more about radiation than anyone who makes a Godzilla movie. But this time, I will forgive it because this lady is actually stupid and everyone else is far more intelligent in regards to dealing with radiation. Seriously, how did this woman get a doctorate in which she ended up working for an organization built to study monsters from a time when the Earth was "more radioactive" as it's was stated in this universe's past?
And unless you wanna die from cancer or bleeding out your ass, you need to sit your ass down and shut the fuck up.
But thank god this woman is basically the villain and a stupid one at that. Even Tywin Lannister got tired of her shit. And Eleven just figured out her mother is a loon.
Basically, Tywin Lannister makes more sense than crazy lady, because well, he at least just wants to release the monsters and wipe out humanity as a whole. In which the radiation will certainly do that. So, he's pretty much on the bar on the consequences of what will actually happen more than the idiot bitch. He just wants to make it happen because he's seen enough evidence of what humans are like, and he's tired of it. Which I can respect. Not the whole genocide thing, but the whole...I'm not doing this to "save humanity from itself thing" like crazy moron had pretty much talked herself into...to the point of stupidity and forgetting what radiation actually will do to humans and the ecosystem.
Sure, maybe the ecosystem was actually more hardy against radiation in this universe than in our own...but still...that doesn't resolve the issue that TODAY'S plants and animals are not hardy against it!
Well our Monarch heroes show up to where Rodan was popping out of that volcano like in the trailer, and we finally get to the first fight. Monarch leads Rodan to the storm and King Ghidorah, hoping to just have the two fight...but they don't. Because Rodan is on Ghidorah's side. So, it's up to Godzilla to take this false king down. And he does! He literally pulls a Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah 1991 and decapitates Ghidorah's head!
Well...the United States has a plan to finally put all three monsters down and it's....
The Oxygen Destroyer
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Okay, this is where I'm gonna have to gripe. Because this thing is the single most stupid idea ever! But at least it does have a pay off in the stinger at the end when everyone basically states that the Gulf of Mexico is now devoid of fish. However, the existence of this weapon in this movie is uncalled for. But I suppose it's meant to set up the scene where Serizawa decides to sacrifice himself to bring Godzilla back onto the field. And to be honest, it's not needed. King Ghidorah could just be enough to knock Godzilla out for a few rounds while he goes on his little mayhem run and Serizawa can still sacrifice his life to revive Godzilla from that horrid beating. You don't need this thing in this movie, guys! You don't! You put it in there because you had that little teaser a few years back showing the Oxygen Destroyer in an old Monarch location and people were speculating it. So, you had to give us something.
And people wonder why my Game of Thrones references are happening in this review...because...this is Clegane Bowl, people. This is Clegane Bowl and how stupid Dumb and Dumber made it. It comes out of nowhere because the fans were expecting it, and you didn't even bother to set it in the Dragon pits and fill it to the brim with chickens. We are disappointed with you!
However, I did get a laugh out of it.
Military guy: "We have this weapon we've been developing. It's called the Oxygen Destroyer! We're gonna use it on these monsters."
Thanks, America, you just killed all the fish in the Gulf. You morons!
And it didn't work on King Ghidorah because he's an alien.
Tell Kiryuu Knight that! He managed to stick his Oxygen Destroyer into King Ghidorah and it worked like magic.
However, I will say that you're not the only ones who did something stupid with the Oxygen Destroyer, Legendary. Kiryuu did to in Halo 3 Different. He had the thing with him, took it to High Charity, and then forgot that he had it. Yeah, I'm capable of my idiot moments in writing as well. But I noticed that no reader really noticed the Oxygen Destroyer was even mentioned in that story...so, can't complain.
Well the Oxygen Destroyer also didn't really kill Godzilla, however it did wound him enough that he retreated to the bowels of the Earth to recover. Basically Hollow Earth theory. Or rather, not really. They call it Hollow Earth Theory, but it really isn't. I know Hollow Earth Theory because I love poking fun at morons who claim stupid shit. Hollow Earth Theory looks like this.
See that? That's a sun instead of a molten core. This is the theory touted by racists like Hitler and Lewis Farakhan.
The thing the MonsterVerse came up with is more like...the crust is made out of Swiss cheese. Rather than the Earth being hollow. Basically, the Earth is Tennessee. Tennessee's crust is made out of Swiss cheese, and now these guys applied that to the entire planet. But no, the Earth isn't really hollow in the MonsterVerse, not the way the actual Hollow Earth Theory states. And that has been my biggest problem with the nomenclature they use for this theory in this universe. but I guess Swiss cheese Earth didn't really catch on as good as Hollow Earth.
So Godzilla falls through one of these Swiss cheese holes and King Ghidorah regrows his head. Holy shit! However, I noticed, to regrow his head, he had to be sitting on a volcano with his storm raging over him. So...he's drawing power from somewhere to regrow that head, which is why he probably can't regrow his entire body from a single severed head in the totally not gonna make Mecha-King Ghidorah with Tywin Lannister as the pilot stinger.
And he's calling his banners.
So this is where we have our Serizawa sacrifice scene. They go into one of the Swiss cheese holes after Mothra in her full glory appears and starts raining down her prettiness on top of the water to guide them to where Godzilla is...complete with her theme of course...and the guys find out some very ancient ruins of a civilization long gone. These ruins appear to be a hodgepodge of Egyptian, Mesoamerican, Mesopotamian, Eutruscan, Celtic creation. Why are they down there, why haven't we seen these things before, and is this the Lost City of Atlantis...I'm banking it's Atlantis. And the Atlantians worshiped Godzilla...before they all moved to Georgia and built the greatest airport mankind has ever seen.
It's all connected, I tell you!
LAX has nothing on Atlanta!
And the closer to where Godzilla is sleeping, the more radioactive it becomes. They decide to deliver a nuke to him to wake him up because nukes feed Godzilla. But the battle with Rodan and King Ghidorah damaged the sub's launching bay and they have to deliver it manually. So Serizawa draws the short straw, gives Papa Russel his notes on Godzilla, and decides to go in and give Godzilla the pick me up he needs. But not before Serizawa boops the Goji snoot. Which is cute.
And going back to think on it. At least Serizawa gave Godzilla much deserved pats. Because he's a good boi, damn it! Unlike Jon who...only gave Ghost pats at the last second!
Why you so mean, Jon?!
It seems Godzilla is very much aware of our existence. As he's shown even in the 2014 film to notice those tiny ants under his feet. He is very much aware of the humans, and even after he awakens...to the sound of this...
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Since when did we import Akira Ifukube into this thing?
Okay, are you trying to show how awesome you are to us G-fans, movie, because we get it! We get it! You are awesome. Thank you for that.
Alright, so Goji theme going on and Godzilla starts heading to where King Ghidorah is.
Meanwhile, Tywin Lannister and his eco-lions along with crazy bitch and Eleven are in Boston of all places. While King Ghidorah is making a mess out of Washington DC.
But he is making a mess out of the place and according to the scientists, he's also trying to reformat the planet to suit his needs.
In Boston, Eleven decides to steal the Orca and head into Red Sox Stadium. She hooks it up to the massive broadcaster speakers to signal to King Ghidorah to come to Boston. And it works. Unfortunately. Godzilla also gets that signal and he heads for it too.
Papa Russel then gets the idea of rather than letting the Gods duke it out in the Red Sox stadium, it's probably time for the humans to show Godzilla that they are on his team. And so...by the power of Akira Ifukue...Godzilla and Monarch charge into battle. And no, not kidding about that either. They charge in with Godzilla's theme song playing in the background. And yes, Godzilla knows they are on his team. You can tell. You can seriously tell. Godzilla is surrounded by military planes and he's like "These guys are with me!"
I'm literally getting Godzilla vs. Hedorah vibes from this because Godzilla and the military actually did team up to defeat Hedorah. And not only that, but Godzilla acknowledged humans several times in that movie. And yes, this movie is actually dedicated to Banno, who was the director of Godzilla vs. Hedorah. So, I approve. And so would he. And it's explained in the movie why Godzilla recognizes the humans as his allies. The Orca's signal is not only mixed with the call of an alpha "titan" as the kaiju are called in the movie, but also the voice of humans. Because we're the alpha predators of this planet! So, Godzilla, obviously hearing not only that sound, but also seeing human dominance all over the place has pretty much recognized humanity as a partner species. And apparently he also recognizes Mothra as a fellow partner species that helps him keep the order, so he now has "imprinted" that status onto humans as well.
We're not his pets, Serizawa, we're his partner. I knew the Serizawa's English was off on that. But it reaches the coexistence he is trying to achieve.
Mothra also joins the fight, but a bit later when Rodan starts fucking Godzilla's shit over. Meanwhile, Godzilla is building up for a finishing move on Ghidorah...and because of that, there's a timer. Papa Russel wants to go in and save Eleven before that timer runs out. And I'm suspecting Godzilla knows this because he's actually holding back a bit. It's severely hinted that Godzilla knows this. At least to me it is. Like Russel shot Godzilla a message or something.
Russel: "Can you keep that thing busy, Godzilla? I gotta save my daughter!"
Godzilla: "Sure, but not for long. I'll give you 10 minutes, tops! But after that, I gotta unleash this nuclear pulse, or else I might blow myself up if I don't."
Russel: "Ten minutes! Got it!"
Again, not that I mind, but Eleven has Arya Stark plot armor, so...she'll be fine. However, the plot armor is a staple of Godzilla. So, not that gripey about it either. Honestly, when dealing with Godzilla, no character, not even the main ones, should have plot armor. Unless they are so far away from the fight it wouldn't matter.
That rule goes for you as well, Toho! Especially with that whole 24 week long half life thing you had in Shin-Godzilla! Plot armor was the only thing keeping those boring characters alive, because it sure wasn't their hazmat suits. Those things looked like they were made out of tissue paper. Which wouldn't help in dealing with rads that high. Even my mother would know that!
So, if 24 week long half life could get a pass on not killing characters in that shit of a movie, this much better one can get a pass on Eleven not dying.
Meanwhile, crazy bitch Russel finally decides to do something of actual merit and go after her daughter. And Tywin lets her. Because that's not his problem. Just as long as she doesn't take his men with her...he doesn't give a shit.
He really doesn't give a shit.
So that's it for Tywin, we don't see him again until the Stinger, but I've revealed that already.
So crazy bitch goes after her daughter, Papa goes after his daughter, and they end up finding the Orca all smashed up. And Godzilla is not doing very well in the fight. He is obviously holding that nuclear pulse in. And yes, it is a nuclear pulse. He's like: "Russel, hurry up! I can't hold this fart in!"
Mothra punctures Rodan in the chest with her stinger. And honestly, she's GMK Mothra. Which is cool. However, she does end up dying during this fight in the attempt to help Godzilla get back on his feet. But like always, she is basically a phoenix and will rise from the ashes through another egg.
King Ghidorah is kicking Godzilla's ass all over the place. And when the Russels finally reunite and fix the damned Orca, they turned it on and lead King Ghidorah away from Godzilla long enough for Godzilla to unleash his secret weapon that I spoiled. The nuclear pulse! And it is glorious! He goes red like Burning Godzilla from Godzilla vs. Destroyah, but...it's so much cooler. This red burning look isn't because he's gonna die, it's him charging up his new weapon. And that nuclear pulse is...basically like an atomic blast! Right down to the shearing of flesh from bones! Unfortunately, crazy bitch basically dies in the fire, leaving Russel and Eleven to watch from a distance as Godzilla incinerates King Ghidorah.
And for good measure to make sure Ghidorah doesn't come back...GODZILLA EATS KING GHIDORAH! That has never happened in any Godzilla movie. EVER. Clap! This Godzilla is just the most brutal of any Godzilla. I think GMK Goji might have to bow to this king since he EATS his foes!
And Godzilla stands over a demolished Boston, roars in triumphant. And as the other kaiju show up, he pretty much pulls a Robert Baratheon.
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As if the Game of Thrones references couldn't stop there.
So, Godzilla reveals himself to be King Robert Baratheon, which works out because Tywin Lannister is wanting to take him down.
So, I'll describe the stinger at the end of the movie. We show Tywin Lannister and his eco-lions walking into a bunker and the guy is explaining that after the Oxygen Destroyer, the fishing in the Gulf is shit now. Because yeah. It would be. It's the Oxygen Destroyer. Well, as he walks into a large room, we see King Ghidorah's only remaining head with flies buzzing around it.
And it looks exactly like the scene from Godzilla vs. Mecahgodzilla 1993 when General Aso and a team of scientists come into a room with Mecha-King Ghidorah's head in it...saying "We have it now, a robot to kill Godzilla."
And this is why I think Tywin Lannister is gonna build himself Mecha-King Ghidorah...and take over Westeros.
So all in all, I really look forward to Game of Thrones season 10. It really is shaping up to probably the best season we're ever gonna get.
And Season 9 of Game of Thrones ended with a huge bang. I was really satisfied with what they did. Tywin's back! And he's backing the real Dragon...with the Three Heads. I don't think Maester Aemon thought the dragon having three heads meant King Ghidorah, but as George RR Martin stated...prophesies do end up biting your prick off.
So, what do you all think Season 10 of Game of Thrones is gonna be like?
All joking aside, I loved this movie. I really did.
And continuing the Game of Thrones comparisons, the night fight shots in this film...10 times better than The Long Night of Season 8 of Game of Thrones. Why? BECAUSE YOU COULD ACTUALLY SEE FIGHT!
But if I have one true gripe to say about it...aside from the Oxygen Destroyer...it's that this movie happened BEFORE Godzilla vs. Kong.
No, I'm serious on this. This movie sounds like it should have been done after Godzilla vs. Kong.
And I did kinda hated that King Ghidorah had to die in this movie, rather than return as an actual threat again later.
But who knows....we do have that head left over, so anything can happen.
#Godzilla King of the Monsters#legendary pictures#Godzilla#Game of Thrones#GoT Season 8#Tywin Lannister#Charles Dance#stranger things#Eleven#King Ghidorah#Rodan#Mothra#Ghidorah#kaiju#American kaiju#Titan#spoiler review#movie review
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From Red to Green With Love Between | Anne and Gilbert
Description: Gilbert Blythe was born with a tuft of red hair sticking out from amidst his unruly dark curls... until the day it turned green. A Soulmate AU where everyone has a streak of hair that matches the color of their true love.
Author's Note: What originally was supposed to be 1500 words and 4 pages turned into this almost 8000 word 16 page monstrosity. One like is one prayer for my sanity.
Word Count: 7761
Fanfiction Masterlist | Archive of Our Own
Gilbert Blythe was born with a tuft of red hair sticking out from amidst his unruly dark curls.
He tried not to hate it, really he did. It signified something that everyone, including him, longed for more than anything else. Something that would bring ethereal happiness and love along with it.
But honestly did his soulmate have to have such an attention grabbing color of hair. And why did it have to be right by his face near his temple? A place where literally everyone could see it?
Why couldn’t it be somewhere else more discreet? He really didn’t like the fact that anyone, literally anyone, even strangers, could look at him and know what color hair his soulmate had just by walking past him on the street. It seemed like too private a detail for everyone to know.
It’s not that he hated the color, Gilbert adored it. He’d spent hours over the years twirling it between his fingers to study it in a mirror, memorizing every different colored strand that went into creating such a vibrant color.
All the dark auburns, strawberry blondes, and bright orange hues came to together to make something that rivaled the colors exploding over the horizon as the sun set each night.
The great thing that came with his soulmate having such a unique colored hair was that it narrowed the search down quite a bit. Unlike his soulmate, who unfortunately had a common plain black streak running amongst their hair, Gilbert had a streak of color that (according to the various textbooks he’d read) only occurred naturally within 4% of Earth’s population.
That along with the fact that he’d so meticulously studied the color his whole life made him sure that when he finally met his soulmate, when he finally laid eyes on the person he was destined to be with, he’d recognize them immediately and they could begin their life together.
If only it had been that simple.
When Gilbert came back from his trip to Alberta with his very ill father, the last thing on his mind was the person who adorned the hair sprouting from that odd spot on his scalp.
There were too many other things he had to think about regarding his future. So many in fact, that he walked almost all the way to school the following day in a trance just trying to sort through the jumble of thoughts tumbling around his mind.
What broke him out of his reverie was Billy’s taunting voice echoing through the crisp fall air of Avonlea. That along with the sound of his incessant and annoying barking peaked Gilbert’s interest.
He was able to faintly make out Billy’s figure in the near distance through the thickness of the forest. Gilbert approached apprehensively, not sure what to expect.
Billy Andrews turned around at the sound of his footsteps, crunching the dry leaves and dead branches that littered the path leading to school.
“How’s it going?” Gilbert asked, narrowing his eyes at the boy.
Billy averted his gaze and shifted his weight from foot to foot. “Hey Gilbert,” he mumbled in quiet response. It was silent for a moment, the only sound to be heard were the faint chirps of birds from the trees overhead.
“Yea it’s uh good to be back,” Gilbert said, though his attention was no longer on that of Billy Andrews.
His eyes went past him and landed a girl, a cute girl, one that wasn’t much younger than he was, and one he didn’t recognize.
One with red hair. One with red hair that seemed almost identical to the streak he adorned. One, that with closer examination and a startling realization, he noticed had a black chunk of hair twisting in and out of her left braid.
“Yea um,” Billy muttered, sounding really uncomfortable, “welcome back.”
Gilbert snapped his gaze away from the girl. He flashed Billy a thin lipped smile, not even bothering to make it seem convincing. “Yea, yea it’s good to see you buddy.” They shook hands, he grasping Billy’s harder than needed.
“So you guys playing a game or something. Right?” he asked, knowing very well that wasn’t what was happening, and Billy knew it too. This wasn’t the first time he’d caught Billy bullying an innocent. “Seems like fun but uh we should probably get to school now eh? Hate to be tardy, Mr. Philips sure gets a dander up about that.”
“Yea uh I was just about to get going,” Billy said. He began to walk backwards, away from him and the girl he had been bullying. “See you there.” And with that he stumbled off.
Gilbert watched his retreating figure for a split second before turning his attention back to redheaded new girl. He gave her a brief once over, trying to figure out what to say while calming his ever increasing heartbeat.
“You alright Miss?” he asked, not able to take his eyes off her hair. It drew him in like a moth to a flame. A flame that despite his best efforts, Gilbert couldn’t look away from.
It had to be her. She had to be his soulmate.
Unfortunately enough for Gilbert however, the girl he believed might be his soulmate wasn’t nearly as entranced with him as he was with her.
She met his eyes for a brief moment, long enough for him to see that they were a brilliant blue. If anything else, the contrast made her hair seem even brighter a red.
She opened her mouth as if she were to speak, but instead she dropped down to the ground on her knees and began to pick up all of her things which were scattered around her feet.
“School,” she muttered, picking up her basket of lunch.
The girl stood up and brushed past Gilbert, not once taking a look at him. “You’re welcome,” he said, right as she passed him.
Gilbert wanted to raise an eyebrow at her behavior, but it would’ve been pointless because no one was around to see it. “Need anything else?” he called out after her as she retreated further down the path to school. “Any dragons around here need slaying?”
“No!” she yelled back in response. “Thank you!”
He stopped in his tracks, scrunching his eyebrows together in confusion. “Hey!” he said loudly so she could hear him over the growing distance between them. “Who are you?” Gilbert held his breath while his heart skipped a beat, waiting for a response.
When it became clear she wasn’t going to stop and chat, he did the only thing that came to mind. He chased after her. “Miss! What’s your name?”
She still wouldn’t answer him, but Gilbert wasn’t one to give up easily, especially when it came to matters of importance. And this, this was important. For all he knew, the girl he was chasing after might be the one fate decided he was destined to be with.
And he couldn’t let an opportunity like that slip away.
“What?” he said with a light chuckle as he and the girl walked up the steps of the school house. “You can’t tell me your name?” Gilbert jogged a few steps ahead and opened the door, holding it open like the gentlemen he was raised to be and let her go in first.
The sound of chatter exploded around him as he stepped into the school house after the girl, closing the door shut behind them and taking off his hat.
All he wanted was a name. Could she not even give him that? It wasn’t like he asking her to tell him her biggest secret or whole life story.
Just as he was about to open his mouth and speak again, the girl turned to face Gilbert. And for the first time, he got a good look at her. Her eyes, her freckles, the shape of her upturned nose, and the stray red hairs that escaped her braids and fell into her face messily.
And most importantly, she got a good look at him. Her pink lips parted slightly as her eyes took his face in, and her pupils widened as they fell upon his hair.
Gilbert’s breath hitched in his throat. He could hear the beat of his heart in his ears as it hammered against his ribcage.
She met his gaze once more, looking a little apprehensive. A moment passed. They merely stared at each other, not saying a word.
She gave him a small smile. “I’m Anne.”
Gilbert smiled back and looked down at his feet, then up at her again. “I’m Gil-“
But before he could properly introduce himself, he was whisked away by a group of boys that unlike Anne, couldn’t look more excited to see him.
By the next afternoon, Gilbert was becoming more and more confused by the minute. He didn’t imagine it would be this hard to get his soulmate to talk to him. Or at least, a person who he thought was his soulmate.
He tried to talk to Anne, he even offered her an apple from the orchard, but all she did was ignore him, and Gilbert didn’t know why.
From all the stories he’d inadvertently heard over the years, meeting your soulmate was always described as some sort of fairytale love at first sight experience. Sparks were supposed to fly as your eyes met each other’s odd streak of hair for the first time while hearts stopped beating at the meeting of eyes.
It was supposed to be, well, simple. And with Anne, it just wasn’t.
Maybe they weren’t soulmates after-all.
Sure Anne had a black streak running through her braid and fiery red hair that looked almost like his own odd streak, but there were a lot of people on Earth with black hair. And Anne might just be another person apart of the 4% of the population who has naturally red hair.
Maybe Gilbert was looking too hard. Maybe he was trying to force something that just wasn’t there. Maybe Anne coming to Avonlea of all the places in the world wasn’t fate. Maybe their meeting wasn’t fate either.
Maybe it was all just one huge coincidence.
But he could’ve sworn there was something there. Something almost tangible between them. An electric charge that intensified the air between them anytime their eyes met. A pull that made it almost impossible for Gilbert to be in the near vicinity of Anne without gazing at her in wonderment.
She was something alright, and it only took knowing her for a few hours to realize that. So he was gonna give it one more shot. And if things didn’t fall into place, if fate decided they weren’t meant to be, he’d move on, and keep searching in every crowd for a girl with gorgeous red hair.
Just like Anne Shirley’s.
In retrospect, the plan Gilbert came up with was literal shit. You’d think someone as smart as him would be able to come up with something better, but sadly it seems as though that intellect only applied to academic endeavors. Not girls. Not by a longshot.
The class room was dead silent as everyone focused on solving their math sums. The sound of chalk scraping against slate filled the air along with the occasional sniffle. No one spoke, not even Mr. Phillips.
Gilbert finished his math work early, and with nothing else to occupy his attention, he looked to Anne. She was focused on her work still, her eyes not straying from the slate once.
As always, his gaze fell upon that streak of black hair that twisted through her left braid. It mocked him silently, much like he and the other students did to Mr. Phillips behind his back.
He began to twirl his streak of red hair absentmindedly between his fingers, getting lost in thought. It was an odd habit he’d picked up over the years, and one he didn’t think would stop anytime soon.
Gilbert sat up straight in his chair with a newfound purpose. He was going to get Anne to talk to him, if it was the last thing he ever did.
He took a quick glance around the room, picked up a decent sized piece of chalk, bit his bottom lip in concentration, honed in on Anne’s shoulder, and tossed it. He missed by a mere inch, but it did its job. It got her attention.
Anne stopped writing on her slate and stared at it intensely. She gripped her own piece of chalk harder, not bothering to look up.
A few others stopped what they were doing and looked up to see what was going on, but Gilbert didn’t care. He threw another piece. And this time it bounced off her shoulder.
Anne sat up straight this time, dropping her piece of chalk on the desk. She clenched her jaw and balled her hands into fists. Still, she didn’t look at him or utter one word.
A lot more people were watching now, almost everyone except Mr. Phillips. Anne was going to have to talk to him eventually if she wanted him to stop.
Gilbert glanced at the apple by the corner of his desk. He picked it up. Looking up to see if Mr. Phillips was still turned towards the board, he got up out of his seat and crouched down next to Anne.
He watched her face carefully not having ever been this close to her before, heart once again racing while his cheeks tingled.
He put the apple on the corner of her desk. “Oops,” he whispered, not looking away from her.
Anne still chose ignore his presence, and Gilbert was getting desperate. He just had to know once and for all if they were soulmates.
So he started to think of things he could do that would drive her to a point where she just had to talk to him. And it didn’t take long for him to come up with something.
Growing up, he vaguely remembered people teasing him about the one tuft of red hair he had sprouting from his head. They’d tug on it harshly and annoyingly call him Carrots as a way to get a rise out of him.
If it annoyed Gilbert, someone with only one small piece of bright red hair, there’s no way it wouldn’t annoy Anne, someone with a full head of it.
Well, he thought to himself, desperate times call for desperate measures.
So Gilbert took a look at Anne, the girl he believed that he was destined to be with, grabbed the end of her braid, and pulled it. “Carrots,” he said, in an attempt to get her attention.
And boy did it work. He definitely got her attention.
“I’m not talking to you!” Anne yelled in anger, standing up out of her seat. He stood up as well in surprise while she wacked him across the cheek with her slate.
The room let out one collective gasp. Well, he can’t say he didn’t deserve it.
Rubbing his cheek with a slight wince, he looked down at Anne who stood as still as a statue. She looked up at him with parted lips and widened eyes, her cheeks blossoming with color.
He leaned in closer, curling one end of his lips upward. “You just did.”
Anne looked at him horrified, and he looked at her with regret as Mr. Phillips called her up to the front of the room while the kids around him laughed.
The look on her face broke his heart to pieces. “It’s my fault sir,” he rushed out, standing up out of his seat. “I teased her.”
He was shocked with Mr. Philips’s lack of reprise, though really he shouldn’t have been. Everyone, even Billy Andrews, could admit that he treated girls unfairly.
What surprised Gilbert the most though, what made him feel as though he were the worst person ever to exist in the history of human kind, was the look Anne gave him as she passed him on her way out of the classroom.
Her face was void of almost all emotion except for her eyes. Those beautiful blue eyes, the ones that had a permanent twinkle to them, met his with a glint of pure unadulterated fury. They darkened a shade almost instantaneously, hatred radiated off her in waves.
If looked could kill, Gilbert would’ve been 6 feet under.
As Anne’s figure disappeared through the doorway of the school house, a heavy weight settled over Gilbert’s heart. He stared down at his desk dejectedly, once again twirling his piece of red hair between his fingers.
“Anne Shirley- Cuthbert is not your soulmate,” Gilbert mumbled, trying to convince himself of the fact more than anyone else. “Hell,” he sat back in his chair and watched as Mr. Phillip’s continued the lesson, exhaling a deep breathe, “She isn’t even your friend.”
Gilbert never for a moment even considered the possibility that Anne could be his soulmate after that day until he ran into her a few weeks later after his father died in Charlottetown.
As he passed by the window of a pawn shop, his attention was snared by a head of gorgeous red hair. Gilbert stopped in his tracks, heart beating out his chest, and peered into the window more closely.
An odd feeling overcame him when he realized it was Anne. He should’ve known, those braids were unmistakably hers.
He watched her talk to the shop’s owner for a while with exaggerated hand gestures and facial expressions. He knew her well enough to know that she telling some story, and by the look on the shop owner’s face, he seemed to be buying into it.
With an apprehensive expression, he turned around and walked over to the cash register. Anne smiled wildly did a quick dance of celebration behind his back. Gilbert suppressed a laugh at the sight, a light smile overcoming his lips.
As she took the money with a face of triumph and began to walk towards the exit, Gilbert knew that it was time he go. But his legs stayed still against his better judgement, and as Anne exited to store, the bell above it ringing sharply, their eyes met.
Her lips parted in surprise. Anne almost looked… happy to see him.
“Gilbert,” she breathed out at the same time he said, “Anne.”
“Gilbert,” she repeated at the same time he said, “Hello.”
They looked at each other in silence for a moment, neither spoke. Gilbert wanted to say something, anything, but his mouth and brain weren’t able to coordinate properly. His attention was focused on keeping his gaze away from the strand of black hair that plagued his dreams.
Anne was the one to break the silence, letting out a shaky breath. “I- I think I need to sit down.”
Gilbert nodded his head and gave her small smile. “Sure.” He gently placed a gloved hand on the crook of her elbow, leading her away from the pawn shop.
They stumbled across a small café and decided to go sit inside. Not for coffee, but because it was mostly empty and a way to get out of the biting cold weather.
They sat across from each other, mugs of hot tea in their hands and a plate of shortbread in between them. From anyone looking inside, it might’ve looked like they were on a date.
But we’re not, Gilbert kept telling himself, we’re not on a date. Anne isn’t your soulmate, she doesn’t like you, and she might just now be able to start tolerating you.
He repeated that mantra in his head over and over like a broken record every time she looked up at him from beneath her lashes, every time a ray of sunlight hit her hair just right illuminating the multicolored strands that he swore looked exactly like the ones sprouting from his head in that one odd spot near his temple.
Gilbert didn’t realize just how much he missed the cadence of her voice until she started telling him about the troubles at Green Gables. He missed how eloquently words flew from her mouth like music, how she used extensive vocabulary to describe things very plain. He missed her.
“So you like working on the docks?” she asked, when the conversation had steered towards what he’d been up too.
“It’s a means to an end,” he replied, looking up from his hands to her freckled face. “I hope to get head on a steamer soon.”
Anne nodded her head, looking shy all of a sudden. “May I ask, what about your farm?”
“I don’t have to decide right now. I wanna see some of the world first.” Gilbert gestured vaguely to the side. “If I come back to Avonlea, I want it to be my choice, not-not obligation.” He paused. “It’s what my dad would’ve wanted.”
“I owe you an apology,” Anne said out of the blue, surprising Gilbert.
If anything, he owed her one. “No you don’t,” he said shaking his head.
“Yes I do,” she insisted.
“No I should apologize to you.”
“No you shouldn’t.”
“I was rude.”
“But it was my fault.”
Gilbert shook his head amused. He couldn’t help the soft smile that overcame his lips. “Can we please, not argue for once?”
“Can you please stop contradicting me?” Anne asked firmly.
He listened to her heartfelt apology, an empty feeling forming in the pit of his gut at the mention of his father. Gilbert hadn’t realized until that moment just how important Matthew Cuthbert had become to Anne. Sometimes he forgot that she was an orphan, and that the Cuthbert’s were the only family she ever really had.
They left the café eventually. As much as Gilbert wanted to sit and talk to Anne until the sun was down and his throat was scratchy, he did have a job, and it was one he couldn’t afford to lose.
He took his time to redress with all his winter gear, buttoning his jacket slowly and adjusting his scarf longer than he needed too, savoring his time with her. He told himself it was became he didn’t want to return to the docks just yet, but who was he kidding, Gilbert couldn’t even convince himself of that.
“I’ve missed you,” Anne admitted, as they stepped outside into the cold Canadian winter.
Gilbert stopped putting his gloves on, his breath got caught in his throat though he tried to hide it. With his heart beating faster than normal (as it always seemed to do around Anne) he bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling like an idiot. “Yea?”
Anne put a gray knot hat over her head. “At school, there’s uh, no one to compete with,” she said.
He felt like an idiot for thinking that she meant anything else. Of course she doesn’t just miss you, do you not remember her deliberately ignoring you for weeks and hitting you over the head with her slate?
Still, he’d take it. “You wanna spell out a few words for old times’ sake?” he joked, electing a laugh out of her.
“How about…“Anne started, looking down at shoes. She paused for second, then looked up at Gilbert through her dark red, almost brown, eyelashes. “Truce?”
Anne stuck a gloved hand out hesitantly, her lips curved upwards into a soft smile. Gilbert laughed and grabbed her hand firmly, shaking it gently. Despite the two layers of fabric that lie between their hands, Gilbert could feel a faint heat radiating off of Anne’s small one.
“T-R-U-C-E,” he spelled slowly, letting go of her hand, “Moody would’ve gotten that wrong.”
Anne laughed again, making him smile wider. “He would’ve,” she agreed.
When Gilbert picked up the rest of his stuff the leave begrudgingly, another boy who’s he’d learn later was Jerry, the Cuthbert’s farm hand, showed up with a scrape on his face and a black eye. Apparently he’s been robbed after selling the Cuthbert’s mare.
“Can I help with anything?” Gilbert asked. He looked between Jerry and Anne as she stood up in front of him. “Anything I can do?”
Their eyes met and his heart skipped a beat. “Just… take care of yourself,” Anne said, then let out a deep breath. “Come home someday.”
He thought back to the last time he’d ever looked into her clear blue eyes for this long. They had been filled with fury and hatred at then, a look he really hoped he’d never have to see again. They looked different now. Lighter, hopeful, not so filled with a burning desire to see Gilbert 6 feet underground.
“Yea.” Gilbert nodded his head, a non-binding agreement. He had no clue if he’d ever come back, or where he’d end up. “Hope everything works out.”
“For you too.”
That magnetic pull was back, the one he’d experienced the first time they met. The one he pretended wasn’t there ever since she hit him over the head with her slate and vowed to despise him for ever and ever.
Her blue eyes drifted upwards, focusing on a spot near his temple where his hair met skin. The spot where that tuft of fiery red hair spat out from amidst his dark curls.
Until then, he’d never really thought about what Anne believed him having a streak of hair that matched hers meant. Did she ever think about the possibility that they were meant to be? Or did she not like him so much that it never once crossed her mind?
Anne’s pink lips parted slightly, her eyebrows scrunching together in thought. Gilbert could hear his heart beat in his ears as he let his eyes dart down to her left braid, the one with black weaved into it.
“Wait…” Jerry looked between them. “Are you two s-“
“No,” he and Anne both said quickly, though Gilbert’s heart, soul, brain, and gut instincts all screamed YES.
Jerry looked at the both of them amused and apprehensive, not really believing it himself. Gilbert muttered a quick goodbye and turned around to leave when Anne called out his name. He turned back around and their eyes met one last time, his skin tingled.
She opened her mouth to speak, closed it, glanced up quickly at Gilbert’s red streak of hair and then at his face once more. “I hope you meet her someday,” Anne said finally. “Someday soon. Who knows, maybe you’ll meet her while you’re on your travels.”
He nodded in agreement, forcing himself to give her a smile though his heart was far from into it. “Yea… I hope so too.”
If Gilbert had known that very moment that he wouldn’t see Anne again for almost a year, the conversation might’ve gone differently. He wouldn’t have walked away briskly, fighting the urge to turn back around with every step.
Instead, he would have turned around. He would’ve walked up to her, and asked how she really felt. He would’ve told her that he wasn’t going to meet his soulmate in some far away land across the Atlantic. He would’ve told her that he believed he already met his soulmate… in the forest at the beginning of fall.
But alas, he didn’t know that next time he’d see Anne they’d both be aged a year. How could he have? Gilbert was a man of many talents, but that list didn’t include the ability to foresee the future.
So Gilbert walked towards the docks, not once looking back. In his mind, he kept replaying him and Anne’s last conversation together.
I hope you meet her someday. Someday soon, Anne had said.
The problem wasn’t that Gilbert had yet to meet his soulmate. The problem was that Gilbert thought he already had… in the forest at the beginning of fall.
And now, he was about to sail halfway around the world… thousands and thousands of miles away from her.
The first time Gilbert ever talked about his suspicions with Anne was the day he received a letter from her while docked in Trinidad.
He was laying on his back in bed, letting the sound of waves crashing against the hull and the gentle rocking of the ship lull him to sleep. There was still light chattering going on around him while the mail was being passed out.
The last thing Gilbert expected was for his name to be called. “Gilbert Blythe,” a man said from the front of the floor where the crew slept.
He opened one eye and sat up confused. “Pardon?”
The man didn’t even bothering speaking again. He simply walked over to Gilbert and dumped an off white, almost yellow, envelope on his lap.
Gilbert scrunched his eyebrows in confusion, flipping it over to read who it sent it. His lips parted in surprise. He blinked, his heart skipping a beat as he read over it again to make sure his eyes didn’t deceive him.
It was from Anne Shirley- Cuthbert.
“Who’s got you over there smiling like a moke?” Sebastian asked. He sat up in his own cot which was a few feet away from his.
Gilbert cleared his throat and spared Bash a short glance. “No one. It’s just a letter from back home.”
Bash chuckled and shook his head, pointing a finger accusingly at the young man. “Ah, I’ve been around long enough to know the look a boy gets when he’s gone with a lady Blythe. There’s no use kidding me about it boy.”
He gave Bash a halfhearted glare. “I’m not gone with a lady,” he responded using finger quotations. “It’s from a friend.” Bash raised any eyebrow. Gilbert let out a sigh of defeat, staring at his lap with a scrunched up nose. “It’s complicated,” he grumbled.
“I’ve got time,” Bash said, then gave Gilbert an expectant look.
Gilbert smiled softly, fiddling with the letter in his hands. “There’s this girl back in Avonlea…Anne. One time I called her Carrots, and she wacked me over the head.”
“I’ll give her right on that,” Bash added.
Gilbert nodded in agreement. “She has fiery red hair and a fiery temper.”
He paused, looking out of the nearby window and out into the vast blue ocean. It reminded him of her eyes, how far away he was from Anne, how far away he was from home. “I wonder if I’ll ever see her again,” he said quietly.
Gilbert could feel Bash’s gaze burning a hole into the side of his head. He turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow. “What?”
“You said she had fiery red hair. Does it look like…“ he stopped talking and gestured to Gilbert’s head.
The boy reached a hand up. He ran his fingers along the strands of red that had begun to gradually darken into a more auburn then orange. “Yea,” Gilbert mumbled, pursing his lips. “It’s uncanny really.”
“And she has a streak of black?” Gilbert nodded. Bash looked at him with both surprise and curiosity. “Do you think she’s your...”
“Soulmate?” he finished for him.
The older generations had some sort of weird thing about saying the word. It was something they were taught from a young age not to talk about freely. Gilbert however, wasn’t raised that way. He had no problem saying the word. He’d say it loud and proud given the opportunity.
“I did for a while, after we first met. It was… all I could think about really. But Anne, I don’t know she didn’t really seem to feel the way I did,” Gilbert said, then corrected himself. “The way I do.”
He smacked the envelope against his hand repeatedly. “It’s just, you know I could’ve sworn there was something there, something electric and magnetic. I can never seem to take my eyes off her and, I never felt better than those few times I made her laugh and smile. That stupid left braid of hers with the stupid black streak of hair plagues my mind, I can’t even escape it with sleep. It shows up there too,” he finished grumbling.
Bash snorted and shook his with head with amusement. “And you said you weren’t gone with a lady. What do you call what you feel for this Anne?”
“Inconvenient.”
A bark of laughter. “Ah young love, so pure and sweet.”
“It’s not young love if the other person doesn’t reciprocate feelings Bash,” Gilbert said, giving his friend a pointed look. “Right now it’s only young pain.”
Another spiel of laughter. “You’re too funny Blythe. And how do you that this Anne isn’t gone with you too? She’s had too at least suspect the possibility of you two being,” he gestured vaguely to the side, “after seeing your coordinating colors.”
Gilbert let out a dry laugh and laid backwards onto his cot. He folded his hands across his chest, the letter pressed into his coal stained shirt. “You want to know what the last thing she said to me was. The last thing I heard her say before I left to get on this ship.”
When no verbal objections, he continued. “I was walking away to go to the docks when she called my name out. I turned around expecting her to say- well anything but what she actually said.” He swallowed. “Anne looks me in the eye and goes, I hope you find her someday, someday soon.”
“Ouch.”
“Yea…ouch,” Gilbert agreed. “Felt like someone was mowing over my heart with a field plow.” The cot squeaked as he shifted to a more comfortable position. “So, I just gave up on the idea after that, the idea of Anne and I being soulmates. She obviously doesn’t think we are, and there’s no use flogging a dead horse.”
“But you still think you are?” Bash asked slowly.
“Yes…no…I don’t know. I said it’s complicated Bash,” he said, starting to get frustrated just thinking about it. “I used to think we were, but now I’m not so sure.”
“Why? Because she might not feel the same way right now?” Bash scoffed. “News flash, you’re both kids still, feelings can change with time.”
“I know that, it’s just,” Gilbert trailed off, letting out a deep sigh. “Every story I’ve heard about people finding their soulmate makes the whole thing sound so… simple. They meet, and they just know. It’s not like that with Anne. It was, for the half hour I knew her, but now it’s so complicated. Too complicated. So complicated that I’m beginning to think she’s right and we aren’t meant to be because if we were, it would have to be easier than it is right now.”
Bash’s cot creaked as he shifted to get a better look at Gilbert. “A word of advice Blythe, love isn’t simple. It never is. The stories you hear only have the parts in them people want to tell.”
“That’s not advice Sebastian, just a general statement.”
“Fine, you want to know what I would do?” Bash asked, not waiting for an answer. “I wouldn’t give up on her just yet. If Anne really is your soulmate, I think the little bit of extra work you have to put in to be with her will be well worth your while.”
Gilbert knew he meant business the second the word soulmate left Bash’s lips. People over the age of 20 never threw the word around lightly.
It was that night, after he finally gathered up enough nerve to read over the letter, with Bash’s wise words echoing around his head like that of a damp cave, that Gilbert finally decided it was time to return home to Avonlea.
To return home to Anne.
The day Gilbert returned to Avonlea was the day his sunset auburn streak of hair turned green.
When the carriage dropped him and Bash off at his farm that afternoon, everything was normal. His house was fine, the barn was in good shape, the fields were a little overgrown with weeds, but nothing he couldn’t fix with a little work.
Not even 3 hours later, when Gilbert went into kitchen to eat what Bash had cooked for supper did things take a turn.
Sebastian was already eating when he sat down at the table. His friend glanced up at him mid bite as Gilbert pulled out a chair to sit in. He coughed and dropped his fork with a loud clank reiterating around the room.
“Good lord Blythe!” Bash sputtered out between coughs, choking on his food. “What have you done to your hair?”
Gilbert scrunched his eyebrows together, very confused. “What?”
Sebastian pointed towards a mirror that hung on the wall next to the sink, still trying to gain his composure. The boy got up hesitantly and walked over to it, not knowing what to expect.
He let out a strangled gasp at the sight before him. “Why is it green?” Gilbert yelped in surprise.
The leaned in closer to the mirror, trying to get a better look. The roots were still red for about an inch while the rest of it was an odd pastel sea green color. He took the once beautiful red strands between his fingers and groaned loudly.
Sebastian, having finally gotten his composure together, started laughing manically. “It’s not funny!” Gilbert whined. “My first day back at school in a year and I have green hair? What kind of luck is that?”
Bash stopped laughing and instead settled for a wide teeth barring grin. “How did you not notice?”
Gilbert went back over to the dinner table and sat down with a huff. “I’ve been unpacking all day and getting ready for school tomorrow. Sorry I haven’t the time to look in a mirror.”
Taking a bite of food, Bash studied Gilbert’s new color further. “The real question we need to be asking is why in the good name of the lord would someone willingly dye their hair that color.” He took another bite of food. “She must be a wild one.”
“Believe me,” Gilbert grumbled between harsh chews. “I’ll definitely be bringing this up when we meet.”
Bash chewed slowly and looked at him questioningly. “So you don’t think it’s Anne?”
“It just, doesn’t make any sense.” Gilbert pushed some food around his plate with the fork he was given, pursing his lips in thought.
“Though I do agree with you, care to elaborate some?”
He put his fork down, sitting backwards into his chair, hands resting on his lap. “I know that Anne isn’t fond of her red hair because she thinks it isn’t pretty and people tease her about it-“
“People like you?” Bash interrupted.
“Oh shut up that was one time.” Gilbert gave him a half-hearted glare. “Anyway,” he continued, “I can’t think of a good reason for her to want to dye her hair green. She’s vexed enough about it as it is, and dying it green is far from a solution.”
Gilbert wasn’t sure how he felt about what he was saying, though he believed it all to be true. If he turned out to be correct, that would mean Anne wasn’t his soulmate after-all. That would mean he’d spent months secretly pining over a girl he wasn’t supposed to be with.
It scared him a little bit, to think about what it meant. What he felt for Anne was indescribable, no arrangement of words in the English language could possibly capture it spot on.
But if Anne wasn’t his soulmate, then how would he feel for the real thing? He thought no one could ever feel more strongly about a person then he did for Anne. At times it seemed to consume him.
“I guess you’ll find out tomorrow then eh?” Bash said, shaking Gilbert from his reverie.
“Yea, I guess so,” he mumbled, it went quiet for a moment. Gilbert then shook his head with a laugh all of a sudden and looked at Bash. “Did you just say eh?”
Bash stopped chewing and swallowed harshly. “Oh my good lord I did.”
Gilbert raised his glass for a toast, smiling broadly. “Welcome to Canada Bash.”
He raised a glass to meet his with a clink. “No…Welcome home.”
Gilbert woke up the next morning for school pleasantly surprised when he saw that the green streak of hair had returned to the red color he had become accustomed to his entire life.
He was both nervous and excited to return to school, so nervous and excited that he couldn’t eat breakfast. Bash forced an apple into his hand before he left the house though, which Gilbert was thankful for 5 minutes later when his stomach growled as he walked to school.
The leaves crunched under his feet as he padded the familiar trail through the forest, leading him to the school house. He passed the spot where he first met Anne all those months ago, not quite believing how much his life had changed since then.
He dumped the apple core in a bare spot of soil to decompose before he walked up the steps to school. Gilbert took a deep breath, and opened the door with as much confidence as he could possibly muster.
Charlie saw him first, doing a double take before yelling. “Gilbert!” A gasp went around a room as everyone turned towards the door and saw him.
He smiled, managing to put his stuff away and hang up his winter clothes before the crowd of boys bombarded him. They corralled him over to his desk like a dog does to a herd of sheep.
He talked to them vaguely of his travels while they caught him up on all the drama that had been going on in Avonlea since he left. Apparently, there was no gold after-all.
If Gilbert had come back to Avonlea expecting to find it, he’d probably be disappointed. But that wasn’t why he came back, and he didn’t tell the boys that. If he did, he’d have to explain the real reason, and Gilbert didn’t feel like telling that story.
The faint sound of the school door creaking open registered in Gilbert’s mind passively. He thought nothing of it. That is, until a quick moment later, everyone went quiet.
And there was only one person in all of Avonlea who could make that kind of entrance into a room.
Gilbert’s heart rate steadily increased as he moved through the crowd of boys into the walkway between the two columns of desks. The whispers around him filled his ears, though they weren’t able to drown out the sound of his own hearts’ beating.
“Anne?” he called out, stepping into her view.
Her eyes widened at the sight of him, a short gasp of surprise escaped her lips. “You’re back,” Anne breathed out, not looking away from him.
“Yes,” Gilbert replied. He could no longer hold back a smile. “Hi.”
Anne got kind of a panicked look on her face. “There’s no gold!” she blurted out. Is that why everyone thought he came back?
He gave an odd look at her strange behavior. “I-I know, I-I heard.”
Gilbert really looked at her for a moment, and felt stupid for not noticing such a drastic change before. His eyes had been too focused on her face, her eyes, and her presence for him to see that Anne’s hair was almost completely gone.
There was a little over an inch of hair in length that sprouted all across her head. He was finally able to get a good look at where the black streak originated from, it had always been hidden by braids before then. It stuck out right above her ear, in spot where it seemed to appear out of nowhere when it was weaved into her left braid.
Anne still looked cute to Gilbert. If it were possible, her eyes seemed even brighter than they did before. Her freckles looked darker and her lips more pink.
He couldn’t help but wonder why she chose to cut all her hair off though. He knew Anne didn’t like her red hair that much, but she couldn’t have hated it that much.
And that’s when it hit him.
“That’s not why I’m here,” Gilbert finally said, not able to take his eyes off her once again. This time though, for a different reason.
His heart pounded so hard against his chest that he was sure everyone around him could hear it. “Did you-“Gilbert paused, looking at her hair once more. “Did you dye your hair green?”
Anne let out a horrified gasp and covered her mouth with one of her dainty little hands. “How did you know that?” she yelped in surprise.
Her reaction answered his question. While everyone around them burst into a fit of snickers at the thought of Anne with green hair, Gilbert’s vision tunneled.
His hand slowly went up to touch his tuft of red hair, the room went silent.
Anne’s eyes followed his movement, her bottom lip quivering as the realization hit her. “Oh,” she breathed out shakily, staring at the piece of hair.
“No way,” Diana mumbled in disbelief from somewhere next to him.
The new boy, who he’d later learn was Cole, let out a short laugh. “Well I’ll be…”
Gilbert dropped his hand back to his side, eyes softening as Anne’s gaze shifted to meet his. He took a small step closer, gaging her reaction.
“It’s really good to see you,” he said, breaking the silence between them.
She did nothing but stare. She didn’t blink. She didn’t breathe. She didn’t speak. Until she took a small step forward. Then another, and another, and another as she rushed forward to close the remaining distance between them, pulling Gilbert into a bone crushing hug.
He let out an oomph as Anne latched her arms around him, pressing her face firmly against his chest. There was no doubt in his mind that she was able to hear his crazy rapid heartbeat now.
It took a second to register with Gilbert, but when it did… when it finally hit him that Anne Shirley-Cuthbert was the girl he was gonna spend the rest of his life with, the one who was going to being with her ethereal love and happiness, he hugged her back with all he had in him.
Anne let out a content sigh, a slow clap from Diana turned into a full on round of applause. Gilbert slid a hand up her back and shoulder blades, coming to a stop to cradle the back of her head against his chest.
“Thank god it’s you.”
#anne with an e#awae#anne of green gables#aogg#anne shirley#gilbert blythe#shirbert#fanfiction#off#soulmate au#shirbert fanfiction#shirbert soulmate au
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Elder Scrolls Lore is Confusing...
(Full disclosure, i stole this from Reddit.)
Feel free to add to this;
>The fact that Altmer used impossible math, belief, mirrors, temporal manipulation, sunlight, and possibly a giant bird to travel the Void of Oblivion.
>Or that the Imperials genetically engineered giant moths with ziggurats on top to fly through the infinite space of Oblivion to colonize one of the moons. Or the fact that the Imperials also use moths to tap into the vibrations of the universe and read enigmatic texts that may or may not be: the scales of the snake shaped god/primordial personified force of space-time, the literal blueprints of the universe, uncountable magical fortune cookie notes, or the Magic/Light God's dead kids.
>
>Also the whole Annuad is kinda weird when you think about it
>
>Plus some bonuses: A bunch of sentient trees that worship the embodiment of change and/or nothingness from a destroyed world that fell to this one bio-engineered some lizards to protect them and they made them shaped like other beings that survived a different world destruction, possibly to protect their creations from wholesale genocide or to store their sap in their creations' scaly bosoms. They once got scared so they called most of their lizards back to their lands to pump them full of so much crazy sap that the lizards charged into Hell and made the demons so scared that they stopped their invasion and closed the portals to Treeland.
>
>One race can be born as a short guy with pointy ears or a 14 foot tall tiger that cats of a bunch or other shapes, sizes, and degrees of catness ride into battle. Also most of them get literally high off sugar. Sometimes part of religious rituals, sometimes to keep track of time when it gets broken, sometimes for fun.
>
>Some other people can scream or sing or dance to change the universe. Sometimes they split atoms and destroy a continent and are forced to flee into a future/alternate timeline. Sometimes they watch god-ghosts fight each other and learn how to shake a big dragon with their shouts. This reverses the aging process because dragons are just giant sapient time machines. Also that dancing thing was because this monkey guy was pissed off at some elves (for using magic to mutilate humans to make them living torture art) so his followers tried to erase all elf-ness from one of the shards of a big, dead dragon god-planet and they ended up breaking linear time for 1008 years.
>
>Once a guy and his friends murdered their other friend and he felt so bad that he looked into the eyes of the God that dreamed up the universe and told Him that he exists. This resulted in the guy tricking the universe into believing he didn't kill his friend, even though a good portion of his people know he did. One of the other guys that committed that murder became a recluse and made cyborgs all day and also tried to fix the half finished planet that everyone lives on... until the third murderer killed him because she went crazy. It's okay though, because the reincarnation of the murdered guy killed her back. Also they were all gods that sucked up god-juice from the still beating heart of the god that tricked/convinced some other gods into losing their immortality to create the world.
>
>One god either went crazy or got corrupted by another god and split himself or shat himself out to make a new god.
>
>Some crazy (literal) bastard started worshiping the godemon of Destruction and used a razor shaped part of it to change his soul do he could be a proto-elf with knowledge of the magic they used back when everyone was an immortal concept spirit instead of the kind of elf that can't eat plants, has leaders that literally change with the whims of their people, talk to trees to learn stories from the future, and turn into eldritch monsters when they get really upset. Anyway, another (literal) bastard whose dad was killed by the elf got some guy to get artifacts of immense power to open a portal to kill the elf. He then went on to smash the combined blood of the space and time gods (who normally hate each other, but gave their blood to this slave leader that had a gay genocidal cyborg from the future (allegedly) and her winged minotaur god boyfriend to exterminate her captors) to reinforce the barrier between hellvoidspace and the mortal realm.
>
>Then a dragon in a mortal body killed another aspect of the big dragon god and also a vampire that tried to blot out the sun and the first dragon in a human body that conspired with the knowledge demon to dominate the world.
>And those trees I mentioned waaaay up there? They're gonna get into a space war with some girl dragons in the distant future, so there's that.
>
>Also a bunch of other stuff involving thinking yourself out of reality or becoming robot skin.
>
>The fact that if enough people believe something it becomes real, which is how every culture has very similar gods with similar names, which have basically been carved out of bigger versions of themselves.
>
>And how could I have forgotten about the Dreamsleeve, the state of being? plane of existence? series of tubes? where powerful people share ideas and where souls go if they don't get one of the (at least) 24 afterlives, so they can get the half of their soul that stores memories, emotions, and consciousness scrubbed so that they might be good enough to break out of the Dream of the universe that imprisons them.
>Also every rock, grain of sand, plant, the air, gravity, inertia, entropy, animals, the water cycle, physics and physical objects in general, you know, the world? All rotting carcasses of god-concept-spirits who were either too weak, scared to die, or generous to their fellows to leave when the world was being made!
Just re-read this and I feel the need to mention that the robot skin thing came about because a group of underground (again, literally) elves were just really upset about the world existing so they build a giant robot to tell God that the universe was his dream and therefore didn't exist, which is basically a big megazord that screams "NO" really loudly. Sometime during this they got into a big war that is pretty much the same big war that happens pretty frequently and the main guy who was working on it was serving a king (who, might I add, was possibly a servant of the aforementioned shat god, or maybe the god himself) and one or both of them decided it would be a cool idea to bonk the god heart with a hammer and then their whole race vanished/was turned into metal skin in the midst of battle. Also this happened in the fiery belly of Mount Doom(drum).
Basically that elf robot caused like a third of all the crazy shit to happen in the world, such as:
Three aspects of that world-creator heartless god turned into a single being by taking their own place back in the cosmos after one of them tried to make the big NObot work by shoving the soul of another into a big jewel. This was thought to be a good idea at the time because the latter was just basically a big flying ash cloud that shouted a lot. They later used this ash powered NObot to absolutely wreck some other elves to the point where time broke (which happens more than you'd think) and they surrendered in an hour but also didn't and are still fighting it millennia into the future.
Turned one guy into a moon but also himself like eight times. This also lead to the dissolution of a bunch of city states and consolidation of their power to 3 others, plus a kingdom of shit-god's followers who were, before this, pretty much considered murderous vermin (which, to be fair, many were at the time).
Anyway in one timeline this giant robot comes back in the future and has a sickass robot battle with its own copy, which was made by a dead but not dead guy who tried to use a weaponized disease to turn everyone into himself but got re-killed by the reincarnation of his best friend as prophesied by the goddess who made the cat people and turned that bioweapon guy's race blue-gray.
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Hi! It’s me again :D Okay, this particular ask is gonna be a bit angsty and bitter but I really curious about it. So, there has been a few fan theories about how Chat Noir might go rouge and defecting to Hawkmoth’s side either because he found out the truth and sincerely shares those same goals or he’s going trick everyone by going undercover without letting anyone know. How will the rest of Secret Quartet react to his ‘betrayal’ and how will they cooperate with Ladybug in regards to this?
@queenofhearts7378 is probably the best person to ask about these sorts of things but I do enjoy giving my take on it (ie I’m still glad to be asked) so here goes nothing.
It would come as a shock, of course. They wouldn’t believe it of him until they see proof of it. He never let on anything the last time they worked together, and he was always so enthusiastic about defeating Hawk Moth with Ladybug whenever the subject came up. He wanted to prove to her that the two of them made a good team, that they should stay a good team. Partners. (Jake had pointed out that, as he understood it, she already did, but Adrien would always dismiss him. There have been too many times where he’s unwittingly left Ladybug to fight the akuma alone; being the one to help her defeat Hawk Moth would prove to both of them that he’s worthy of being her partner and always was, despite the occasional setback and moonlighting as part of the Secret Quartet.)
Ladybug hadn’t met them before this, and she doesn’t know their real identities. She just knows them as Phantom, the American Dragon, and the Ninja. The only reason she can contact them now is that Chat Noir—with their permission—had entrusted her with their contact info. In case he was away and she desperately needed him. In case something happened.
She had never thought something like this would happen.
She didn’t realize anything was amiss at first. He didn’t turn around and threaten her with Cataclysm. He just…missed a few more times than usual. Made a few more mistakes. Every time, it gave the person they were fighting an opportunity to get the jump on her. She didn’t think anything of it at the time. The attacks had gotten more frequent, and they were both exhausted. When she went to recruit other Miraculous users to help with a particular fight, he never questioned it, and she could see how tired he was. How his usual cockiness had become a bit more forced, his smiles more strained. She’d thought it normal. She’d been making more mistakes, too. They’d had a lot of close calls.
She didn’t suspect sabotage, didn’t realize the truth, until she was rooted in place by a villain who could control plants. Chat Noir was still free, and he hadn’t used his Cataclysm yet. She’d called for him to free her.
“I’m sorry, my lady,” he’d said. “I can’t.” And then he’d turned away. Left her to the mercy of the akuma.
Hawk Moth had nearly won that day.
Ladybug had done what she’d felt she’d needed to do. She’d gone to Alya and done an exclusive interview with the Ladyblog. She’d told Paris about Chat Noir’s treachery. She made it clear that they didn’t know his reasons, asked that they not condemn him too harshly until they knew more, but she warned everyone that he was not to be trusted. She didn’t want anyone following him in the belief that he was still a hero. This wasn’t a Copycat, this was her partner. Former partner.
When Alya asked who he really was so everyone would be able to keep an eye out for him, Ladybug was forced to admit she didn’t know. They had never revealed their identities to each other, made no contingencies to do so. If she had known Chat’s identity, she could have told everyone who he was—but if he had known hers, he would have had another way of defeating Ladybug.
When Ladybug asks to meet up with the trio, she tells them the story again and shows the account of the fight Alya has on the Ladyblog. They are still reluctant to believe the truth. They still think of him as their partner.
She asks them who he is. She knows they associate when they aren’t all wearing masks. She knows the American Dragon has a human form, knows Phantom can pass as human, knows the Ninja just needs to remove his mask to rejoin society, just as she does.
They all exchange glances.
None of them volunteer the information.
“He might be controlled,” the American Dragon points out. “This might just be a different form of magic. There’s…a lot of different kinds. Way more than just what you know with your kwamis. The Ninja deals with that kind of thing almost on a daily basis, and I’ve run into my fair share.”
“This has been going on for weeks. Would a spell last that long?”
“It would if it’s renewed,” the dragon replies.
“Or if the connection is just never broken in the first place,” adds the Ninja. “Like the Am Drag said, it depends on the kind of magic. What I’m used to? That would probably last if I didn’t stop it. I’ve seen animals controlled for a long time. Humans wouldn’t be much different.”
“Ghosts can possess people for ages, too,” Phantom puts in, “but there are some obvious tells with that, especially when the ghost in question doesn’t know the person they’re supposed to be impersonating very well.”
Ladybug thinks they won’t help her, and her desperation shows on her face. “We’ll check up on him,” the Ninja says. “Drop by for a surprise visit. See how things go.”
“He’ll know I told you.”
They looked at each other again. “We’ve been doing this for longer without him,” Phantom finally says. “He won’t be able to trap all of us, even knowing what we can do. We’ll find out what we can and report back to you.”
“If you find something,” she says, “don’t bother reporting back to me. Just stop him. I can find out the truth then.”
Danny winds up doing advanced scouting. He can’t identify anything terribly different in how Adrien is acting, so he finds Plagg. When he offers Plagg some camembert, Plagg looks devastated. He doesn’t take it. He also refuses to say anything, but that already tells Danny all he needs to know.
Something is definitely up.
They change their plans and decide to send Jake in alone with a story of being in town to meet up with the new French Dragon. Something about intercontinental relations in the magical community. Jake never did pay enough attention to that sort of thing, and Adrien would know that, so he figures the excuse will work.
Adrien doesn’t let on that he suspects anything out of the ordinary, easily deflects Jake’s tentative questions, and seems his usual self. He passes the few more subtle tests Jake manages to do to check for some sort of magical control, too—ghost possession included.
They decide not to take risks. They know how dangerous Adrien can be as Chat Noir and aren’t keen to battle their friend. The plan is for Danny to possess him, take him somewhere else, let him be tied up, and swallow what’s basically a truth potion brewed up by Fu before Danny stops overshadowing him.
That gets derailed the moment Danny runs into the ghost shield that blocks him from entering Adrien’s room.
That erases any lingering doubts they had. Adrien had planned for them even before he knew Jake was in town. Randy tries sneaking in instead, but he gets caught on the surveillance cameras Adrien never used to have pointed towards his bathroom window. He is dealt with as any intruder might be—burglars wear masks, too, after all—and he knows better than to say who he really is. Danny ends up breaking him out of prison while Jake uses his magic to impersonate Nathalie when they know she is out of the house.
Adrien’s father is the one to realize something is up. He wants to know why Nathalie is back already. Jake makes his apologies, saying he’d forgotten something, that it wouldn’t happen again and that he’d be quick about it— And then Gabriel says something that Jake later realizes is a reference to something. It is a test.
He fails it.
He just hadn’t realized he’d failed it at the time because he hadn’t realized Gabriel would know to test him, would know what he could do.
He hadn’t realized how much there was to this.
None of them had.
It isn’t until much later that he works it out. It isn’t until he finds himself on his hands and knees in a park, surrounded by grass pockmarked with chunks of ice and scorch marks and no idea how he got there, that he realizes what happened. The green shield in front of him drops as a flash of red passes over, erasing all the damage, and Jake looks up. He isn’t surprised to see the white butterfly flying away.
“I’m sorry,” he says to all of them. Then, to Ladybug, who had helped him to his feet, “I know what happened.”
Jake doesn’t know if it is just a ruse on Chat Noir’s part, doesn’t know if he is merely pretending to work with Hawk Moth to bring him down from the inside, doesn’t know if all of this has merely been a way to prove his loyalty to Hawk Moth and gain his trust before he makes his move to steal the Butterfly Miraculous—
But Jake does know why it might not be.
He does know what might have caused their friend to turn.
“Chat Noir is Adrien Agreste,” he says, “and Hawk Moth is his father.”
(That’s when they stop keeping secrets from each other. They’re more aware of the risks now, but they have a target—two targets—and Marinette fills in Master Fu. None of the trio wants a Miraculous for themselves—they’d rather stick with their own powers—so she recruits the other heroes, the ones who know how to use the powers they’ve been granted because they’ve helped before. They’re introduced to the trio only by their hero identities and vice versa, but they’re told the truth about Hawk Moth and Chat Noir. Queen Bee thinks they have it wrong—Gabriel would never endanger Adrien—and Carapace doesn’t want to believe that his best friend would ever betray them like this—especially Ladybug, since he knows how Adrien feels about her—and Rena Rouge hates the idea but doesn’t question its validity—because she’s realized that masks don’t need to be physical, and if Adrien has been Chat Noir all along, well, clearly he’s better at hiding behind one than she’d ever realized. “Sometimes you just don’t know a person as well as you think you do,” she says, and Ladybug swallows and starts to lay out a plan without meeting her eye.)
#secret quartet#miraculous ladybug#ml spoilers#danny phantom#adjl#rc9gn#fanfiction#fic ideas#my writing#snippets#ladylynse#asks#these are really fun to answer#thanks#pokibal2001
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