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letarasstuff · 3 years

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Minimal Loss - Maximal Stress

(A/N): This was requested by an anon and plays in the intern universe. It’s based on 4x3 “Mininal Loss”. I didn’t follow the exact plot, but the quint essence is there (you’ll see what I mean). I hope you enjoy it.

Summary: An intern goes along on a seemingly undangerous case with Emily and Spencer on a ranch under the lead of Benjamin Cyrus. What could go possibly wrong (well, everything ig)?

Warnings: Mentions of child abuse, guns, vomit, swear words, ususal Criminal Mind stuff

Wordcount: 2.9k

✨Masterlist✨ ________________________________

“Do you guys really think it’s a good idea to bring a child to an interview about child abuse?” Agent Lunde asks skeptically while steering the car towards the ranch, where the allegions originated from.

“(Y/N) is our intern and we thought she has to make some experience in the field and since this is the most peaceful case you can find within the BAU, it’s her opportunity”, Emily defends the team’s decision.

“Also, she is nearly the same age as the girls, so it’s easier for them to open up to her and she is incredibly bright, meaning she can help us deducing a profile”, Spencer adds. The teenager doesn’t acknowledge anything they say, too engrossed in listening to One Direction over her bluetooth earbuds.

Soon the quartet arrives at the Saptarian ranch. “I’m looking for Benjamin Cyrus.” “You found him”, answers the man, who sits in front of a chapel.

“He really is nicely placed. I feel like I looked like this in my math classes. I was like beautiful decoration, but had no use”, (Y/N) whispers to Emily. She in turn has a look of confusion on her face. “You aced math, you graduated with an A+ in it.” “Just because I have good grades doesn’t mean I’m not stupid. I mean, I’m educated, but stoopid.”

A little later she sits across from a blonde girl named Jessica, asking her questions about the 911 call. Her mother continuously steps into that conversation.

“Jessica, can you tell me, if anyone here were ever touched inappropriately?” “Is this really necessary? You are a child yourself, shouldn’t ask one of the other agents the questions?” Slowly the teenager’s patience is wearing down and Spencer can definitely see that from five meters away.

“Ma’am, with all due respect, but I’m perfectly capable of conducting this interview, if you stop interrupting me. I may be young, which doesn’t stand in my way of being an intern for CPS and still knowing my way around, so please step to me colleagues or something and let me do my job.” Hesitantly the mother gives the two girls their space.

As soon as she is out of earshot, Jessica begins to explain. “Nobody is touched in a way they shouldn’t be touched. Or is it wrong for a wife to share a bed with her husband.”

(Y/N) remembers Emily telling her to not judge anything anyone of the girls will say. But damn it, this girl is really hard not to judge.

“Wait wait wait. Let me get this straight: You are simping for that walking quote machine?” Okay, maybe she is judging. But just a little bit.

“If simping means deeply in love then yes, I am simping for Benjamin Cyrus, my husband.” At this point the other three agents get closer again. “Jessica, the state of Colorado demands parental consent. You aren’t married to him unles-'' The black haired woman cuts the young doctor off. “She did give consent.”

(Y/N) can barely contain the unsurprised “surprised” gasp leaving her mouth. But it would have been cut short nonetheless, since sudden gunfire erupted outside the school building.

Fairly quickly everybody is evacuated through the tunnels. As Cyrus tells the cult members to trust in god, the teenager turns to the agents. “This much to it’s safe for me here. Didn’t anybody check for weapons or something?” Flabbergasted because of the whole situation Spencer answers. “Yes, Garcia checked with the authorities and nothing was suspicious.”

Suddenly Lunde takes all the courage she has (maybe because a teenager she brought into this is in immediate danger like all the other kids) and goes up with the cult leader to speak to the shooting law enforcement officers. Shortly after the other three get the message of her death.

But they don’t have any time to think about her, since they all are shoved into the chapel.

While Cyrus holds a speech about trust in god in dangerous and trying times like this the BAU in Quantico learns about the shooting through the tv news report.

“HOTCH”, Morgan yells up to the Unit Chief’s office, probably giving everybody else a heart attack. Alarmed Aaron storms out into the bullpen followed by Rossi, who is attracted by the tumult. “Aren’t Prentiss and Reid on that ranch?” Derek asks, his eyebrows furrowing in worry.

Squinting at the screen, horror etches on the other agent’s face. “(Y/N) is also there”, he says, realizing that they sent a minor with zero field experience into a lava hot situation.

Suddenly the whole bullpen’s phones ring, which results in Hotch barking his first commands.

After a nightflight to Colorado the team sets up at the crime scene.

“Dave, I was appointed to determine the primary negotiator”, Aaron tells him after he pulls him to the side. “It makes sense. I trained most of the people here, if you want me I can give you a few recommendations.” But the Unit Chief shakes his head. “No, I want you to be the negotiator in this.”

Now it’s Rossi’s turn to shake his head. “Aaron, I can’t do it, I’m too emotionally involved.” “So are all of us and why should I take the student if I can have the teacher?” The older one sighs in resignation and accepts the offer. They don’t have the team nor reccourses for any mistakes in this.

As he goes to prepare for his task at hand, Hotch hears a man complaining loudly. “I demand to talk to know why I wasn't told that the FBI was sending undercover agents into the Saptarian ranch?” “The only thing you are in position to demand is a lawyer”, he says while stepping closer to the scene.

“Who the hell are you?” The man spits out into his direction. “I’m Aaron Hotchner, Unit Chief. I’m the guy who is gonna tell the Attorney General of the United States whether to charge you with obstructing a federal investigation or negligent homicide.” “You can’t talk to me like that”.

Upon closing the little bit of space between both of them, Aaron stares him down. “Get off my crime scene.” Just a few seconds of the intense and pissed Hotch Stare are enough to chase that man down to his car and go on his way to Coward Island.

Meanwhile the first contact is made, Emily and Spencer tell (Y/N) in hushed voices what the situation means. “There are three groups here. The leader, in this case Cyrus. The hard die hard believers, the goons of him, and the followers”, Spencer explains.

“In a case like this we go for minimal loss. We try to get as many of the followers out as possible, because the rest won’t give up as long as they can breathe. At first we go with one or two people, children mostly, then with smaller groups and in the end we get out as many of these people we can. Soon, there will be the first supply delivery from our team, but it’s gonna be bugged, which means we know they are listening. Understood?” Emily adds.

Aside from the knowledge that there is a great possibility that they won’t come out alive of this one, (Y/N) is pretty calm. “Honestly, it’s pretty extra here. I mean I can’t even, look at the walls and the whole pseudo decoration. Why would anybody choose this willingly? But yeah, I understand.” Seeing that these phrases are a kind of a coping mechanism, the two agents aren’t too concerned about her right now. I mean, of course they are pretty much on edge because they all are in a hostage situation, but since the teenager doesn’t seem to be on the verge of a breakdown she has to be fine.

“Is there anything you want to know?” The black haired woman asks, stroking the younger one’s hair out of her face. “No, not right now. This is anything but basic, but I’ll hit you up if something shoots into my mind.”

When Rossi comes in to hand make the first delivery, he looks beyond worried. It seems like he got years older in the span of the last 24 hours. As he glances through the rows of people, he subtly acknowledges their presence and well being.

“How do we know this will be nothing like Waco?” (Y/N) asks out of the blue as all the members get a cup of wine. Surprised Emily turns towards her. “You know about Waco?” “Duh? I told you, I’m educated. So, how do we kno-” “And together we drank the poison.” “Oh well, I guess we do now. It’s nearly iconic how bad his acting is.” Now both of the agents look confused at her.

“What? Didn’t I tell you that I was a theater kid? Also, his goons are writing the reactions down, so it’s just a test to know who to separate from the group and who not.” Even in a situation like this a girl in a red and black flannel over a white graphic tee - it is a Doctor Who Tardis - astounds them.

Not long after this, the three of them are shoved into a small room, which looks sort of like an office.

“Which one of you is it?” Cyrus asks. Confused Prentiss, Reid and the intern look at him. When nobody speaks up he pulls out his gun. “One of you is an FBI agent. So who is it?”

In the short silence he points his weapon at (Y/N). “Oof. Dude, what the fu-” “She is a child. The FBI doesn’t recruit children. But she is a good leverage. So, if neither of you reveals their identity, I will blow her brain out.” This is the final point for the teenager to slowly freak out.

“It’s me. I’m the FBI agent”, Emily confesses. Seeing the young girl with panic in her eyes sets something off in her. Roughly she is taken away by two big guys.

“No no no! This can’t be right. Nobody of us is from the feds. It’s not her, you stupid piece of boom-” With a swift motion of his gun Cyrus knocks her out.

“Damn, this is an annoying one. I don’t know how you can even take her seriously.”

(Y/N) wakes up half an hour later in the chapel draped over two stools with her head in Spencer’s lap. He strokes her hair while his mind is running non stop looking for a solution to this situation. A groan tells him that she is awake.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” The young doctor asks in a soft voice. “If good means your head feels like it’s dancing samba without me, then I’m good.”

He smiles. “We are going to get out here, soon. I convinced Cyrus that we are on his side. He also won’t hurt Emily any further. I saw her earlier, he held a speech. She is fine, just a bit roughen up.”

To lie to the girl like that feels wrong to Reid, but he can see signs of a concussion by her behavior and doesn’t want to worry her more than she already is.

Three o’clock rolls closer and closer, which makes both of them more nervous. Because of the lack of communication they don’t know the tactic the team will use to come in. They can only hope that they all come out alive and in one piece.

Since they are in the chapel, their attention is solely on the cult leader. They don’t even notice all the women and children leaving. As (Y/N) and Spencer spot Cyrus with the remote for detonating the explosives, she mumbles “Let’s get this bread”.

When the leader sees Spencer trying to convince one of the die hard believers that he has a choice to change his mind, he punches the young doctor so hard in the gut that even (Y/N), whose vision is slightly blurred, feels the pain he endures.

“Hey Cyrus”, she calls out, “TBH I think all the shit you are doing here didn’t pass my vibe check. Also, the whole system is pretty whack.”

“You are a child, you don’t know anything. If god doesn’t want me to do any of this, he would stop me.” As Cyrus cocks his gun towards Spencer, Derek runs in and shoots him in the chest twice.

(Y/N) crosses her arms over her chest, says “Ok, Boomer” and rolls her eyes.

“Are you ok, princess?” Morgan asks, going over to her and examining the wound on the side of her head. “Never felt better now that there are two Derek Morgans to protect me.” Concerned he goes to say something else, but is cut short by Spencer shouting “RUN!”.

A look behind them shows Jessica short circuiting upon her husband’s death and grabbing the remote.

When the explosion erupts, Emily looks terrified at the remains of the chapel.

“Morgan! Reid! (Y/N)!” She shouts, followed by the other members and their calls after the three. A certain fear captures every single one of them. If only one of them is- No. Nobody can go through this thought. They are going to be fine. They are alive and-

“Thank god”, JJ breathes as she spots three limping figures. They slowly approach the group of four. “EMILY!” The teenager shouts relieved, though a little loud for the proximity between them. “SPENCER WOULDN’T REALLY TELL ME HOW YOU ARE! YOU LOOK TERRIBLE! THANK HARRY STYLES YOU ARE FINE!” Yes, the explosion definitely messed all of their hearings up, since Morgan and Reid also speak with the same volume.

Emily hugs her. “I’m okay. But you need to get checked out.” But the teenager vehemently shakes her head as she hugs Aaron. “I DON’T NEED TO”, when she sees her teammate’s faces, she reduces her loudness. “I am ok. But Spencer, he got a good blow to his guts. I think the Queen in England even felt that vibe check.”

As Derek escorted the young doctor to one of the awaiting ambulances, JJ also gently stirs the girl in the same direction. “Just let a doctor look over your head, it looks like a nasty cut and believe me, you want to get this checked out, Honey.” “But Jayje-” She begins to complain, but gets cut off by bile rising up her throat. In the next moment (Y/N) kneels on the floor, letting out anything she got in her system over the course of the past few days.

“I think this is nothing your body should do, Bambi”, Rossi adds up. Unwillingly the intern goes with the blonde mother to the EMTs. They decide to have a doctor looking over her and getting her x-rays done at the hospital.

A few hours and uncountable complaints from (Y/N) later, the team is back on the jet on their way home. She thanked Emily in a heartfelt moment in the hospital shortly after she got pain killers, which made her loopy, for saving her life by putting her own on the line by exposing her identity. Even Prentiss had tears in her eyes as she saw the young and innocent girl so frayed by the just occured events.

Unusual for Rossi, he takes a seat on the sofa, petting his lap as (Y/N) sits beside him. With pleasure she lays her head onto it, cuddling closer into the fuzzy blanket she got from Morgan.

A few minutes into the flight, Rossi just got into describing the interviews he conducted with Ted Bundy, Aaron motions him to make space. David excuses himself with the reasoning of getting a cup of tea for her.

“I’m sorry”, Hotch says as he runs his hands through his youngest employee’s hair. He is careful to not mess with the bandage she has on the side of her head. Confused (Y/N) looks up to him. “What for?” “For sending you into a situation, where you got seriously hurt.”

This makes the girl sit up, though her world once again begins to spin. “Aaron Hotchner, I hope you don’t mean that. You nor anybody else knew that this was going to happen. You only wanted for me to get as much experience as possible while this internship lasts and I tell you, with that story I’ll go viral on TikTok. Just because I got a medium severe concussion and a wound, which hopefully will leave a badass scar, doesn’t mean you have to apologize. But you can do me one favor.” “Anything.” “When I fall asleep, please make sure I don’t choke on my own vomit. The doctor told me it could happen, that’s why I am not allowed to fall asleep unsupervised. But I haven’t slept in three days and I think I'm beginning to feel uncomfy because of that.”

Smiling softly Hotch nods and lets the teenager take her original place in his lap. Minutes later she is fast asleep. But one thing is certain: As soon as she wakes up and feels any better, she is going to tell everybody who wants to listen about the one time where she got blown up by a fifteen years old girl, who was married to a cult leader. And nobody is gonna believe her tea. Except for Penelope, who greets (Y/N) with a hug and the promise to never let her out of her eyesight.

All works:

@agentshortstacc

Criminal Minds:

@averyhotchner @mggsprettygirl

Spencer Reid:

@calm-and-doctor

#spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x teen!reader #emily prentiss x reader #emily prentiss x teen!reader #derek morgan x teen!reader #jennifer jareau x teen!reader #aaron hotch x teen!reader #david rossi x teen!reader #criminal minds fanfiction #Criminal Minds #x teen!reader #reader insert

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incorrectshantaequotes · 3 years

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Shantae Headcanons - The Seven Sirens

So! I've been in a creative mood - time for some more headcanons. While I've talked a bit about my headcanons for the Sirens as a species before (primarily here; I recommend you look at their section in it since I'm going to be referring back to it), this will be about the titular Sirens we were introduced to in the latest Shantae game, with more emphasis on the five that didn't really get a chance to shine.

As is to be expected, this will be a long post, so I'll put it under a read more

The Seven Sirens as a Group

Before they were trapped underground, the Sirens were part of a royal court, with each having a specific role: Empress Siren was, obviously, the ruler, Water Lily Siren was initially there as a representative for another colony of Sirens that ended up getting wiped out while she was negotiating, Coral Siren was the Royal Technician, Tubeworm Siren was the general of the Siren's armies, Anglerfish Siren was the Royal Magician, Octo Siren was Empress Siren's personal assistant, and Lobster Siren...well, that'll be explained a bit later.

When the airship crashed, with no signs of the Sirens themselves during the following week of the Half-Genie Festival, they were presumed dead - much to the relief of the half-genies themselves, but to the slight sorrow of Lobster Siren, who didn't wish to be the last of her kind - and, besides that, she did somewhat enjoy their company.

However, a month after Shantae and some other half-genies left, and the native half-genies - Zapple and Vera - as well as Lobster Siren were in the middle of an effort to fix the damage the rising airship had caused to the island, this presumption was proven wrong when Water Lily, Coral, Tubeworm, Angler, and Octo Siren pulled up on shore, looking rather peeved.

As it turns out, they did survive the airship crashing! It just so happened that, between Shantae's own beating and the ship, you know, exploding, they had to take a while to lick their wounds and recover. But when they regrouped, the Empress wasn't among them. A bit of covert spying from Angler led to them learning exactly what happened between Empress Siren and Shantae, and, seeing as she wasn't with them...they could only assume she'd been slain in battle. Enraged, Tubeworm Siren had rallied up the Sirens and led them to the surface to get vengeance for their fallen queen.

However, before there could be any fighting, Lobster Siren stepped in and desperately pleaded for the others to change their ways - though it was a bit hard to tell for Zapple and Vera, since their various brands of half-genie magic didn't lend itself that well to understanding Siren. And to Lobster Siren's credit, it did work...for Water Lily. The rest had to take some more convincing, with there being several battles between the local half-genies and the remaining Sirens. But, in the end, they did all end up getting redeemed...which lead to a new problem.

What about their names? Lobster Siren already had a more proper nickname than "lobster girl" (more on that later), but the rest were...a bit more lacking, and weren't really forthcoming on what their actual names were. So, for lack of better options, they called in Shantae with some teleportation magic to help translate Lobster Siren so she could explain, and she proceeded to inform them that...their names were effectively the name of the species they were crossed with. Just with fancy intonations that didn't really carry over to English. And so, more nicknames had to be given. The exact nicknames will be explained in each Siren's appropriate section.

Lobster Siren

Ever wonder why Lobster Siren and Empress Siren have such incredibly similar animal halves? The answer is simple: Lobster Siren and Empress Siren are related. To be more specific, Lobster Siren is Empress Siren's niece, who she took in after her mother died in battle.

...but that was less out of genuine kindness and moreso to look good in front of her subjects. In reality, Empress Siren couldn't really care less about Lobster Siren, usually giving her about as much thought she would to a random soldier or servant. Needless to say, Lobster Siren developed better relationships with the other Sirens than she did the Empress.

Around two weeks into the effort to fix up Siren Island, Zapple suddenly declared that Lobster Siren needed a name, as calling her "lobster girl" all the time was driving her crazy. She ended up settling on Tacea - as in, crus-tacea-n. Vera argued that that was a terrible pun, and so did everyone Zapple brought in for a "second opinion," but Lobster Siren liked it, so Tacea stuck.

Her teleportation magic is rather useful for facilitating visits to and from Siren Island, whether that be for Shantae, the other half-genies, or herself. It's a useful way to keep in touch...even if teleporting from that long of a distance typically means a few hours crashing on a nearby couch.

Empress Siren

Contrary to what was initially believed by the other sirens, the Empress survived the battle with Shantae and the airship crashing. In fact, thanks to some lingering power from her battle, she actually recovered faster than the other Sirens did. She simply didn't bother to check if the others were alive. No, no...her priority was getting revenge on that accursed half-genie and the double-crossing pirate!

A week before the other sirens made themselves known, the Empress burst out of the water near Scuttle Town, interrupting a battle between Shantae and Risky Boots that was going down at the time, and wasted no time sending bolts of electricity, raging waters, and an army of sea creatures their way. Although briefly caught off-guard, the half-genie hero and pirate agreed to call a truce to drive off the mad Siren, and successfully beat her once again.

Since then, Empress Siren has added herself to Shantae's rogue's gallery alongside the Barons and Risky Boots, although she does terrorize the latter as well...sort of. Recently, it would seem her anger toward Risky has cooled down and started to become a begrudging respect for managing to pull one over her. Her anger towards Shantae doesn't seem to be cooling down anytime soon, though.

Still goes by Empress Siren, and refuses to be called anything else.

That being said, her "Empress" title was never actually official - the Sirens don't have a combined leadership. The official title for the ruler of a colony is Queen. On paper, the title was just a sign of arrogance and ego. In practice...she had one of the largest colonies of Sirens under her command, coupled with more firepower than the combined efforts of three colonies. It was very easy for her to bully and push the other colonies around, and that "Empress" title suddenly didn't seem that farfetched.

Water Lily Siren

When one looks at Water Lily Siren, their initial assumption might be "lazy." And it is true that she likes to relax and sunbathe quite a bit - beyond just liking it as a Siren who's partially plant-based, she works hard and enjoys any time she gets to lay back and soak in the sun - this is downplaying her surprisingly gentle and kind personality. There's a reason she was chosen as a diplomat.

Speaking of! Water Lily Siren was an ambassador for a colony of plant-based Sirens to try and negotiate with the Empress. As said before, Empress Siren may not have been an actual empress, but she had a lot of resources. At the time Water Lily was sent, the Empress was blocking off supplies out of a perceived slight from their Queen, so she was sent to reason with her.

Unfortunately, as that was happening, some humans happened across the Siren colony that Water Lily came from...and the forces that Empress had sent to block off supplies. Panicking upon recognizing the latter from the Empress' attacks on passing ships, the humans assumed the colony was working with the tyrannical Siren, and promptly used their resources to blow the place to kingdom come.

Water Lily was distraught when the news came, locking herself in the room Empress Siren had provided her and proving completely inconsolable for several months...and then, when she finally started letting herself see visitors and try to move on from the loss, Empress Siren casually pulled her aside and told her that the official story she'd be telling anyone who asked is that she joined the Empress' court willingly due to seeing how superior she was to her own Queen, that she was glad her colony was all dead, and if she ever even hinted that her colony was destroyed due to Empress' proximity, she'd have to try her luck in the abyss. Fearing for her life, Water Lily Siren agreed, and was accepted into Empress Siren's court.

Despite her position, Water Lily never did much in terms of bureaucracy, so she did her best to try and fill that gap with some other things. Sunbathing, growing some plants...and caring for Lobster Siren. Yeah - for a lack of a proper mother figure, with her own missing and Empress Siren's cruelty, and for a lack of anyone to call her own, Lobster Siren and Water Lily Siren ended up growing a mother-daughter relationship, ending up incredibly close.

Ironically, this relationship with Lobster Siren is the main reason Water Lily never broke rank before or during Seven Sirens - before, it was just a worry of what might happen to Lobster Siren if she were to disappear, and during the plan set up by Empress Siren and Risky Boots, she was afraid that if she didn't do her part, Lobster Siren might have to step in, and, well...she already knew what humans could do to Sirens. She already knew what genies could do to Sirens. She wasn't going to take her chances with a half-genie.

Thankfully, with the threat of Empress Siren gone and Lobster Siren having broken rank herself, she took very little convincing to join up with the good guys. Although she didn't wish to fight the other sirens, having no quarrel with them, she did take a part in the following battles - her control over plantlife combined with Vera's refresh magic proved very effective.

Ended up settling on Lily when the surface-dwellers decided they wanted to go a bit further than "plant girl." It was a nickname she already had with the other Sirens, and it sounded like a surface name, so it was a fairly easy transition.

Does have a bit of a mischievous side to her, mostly brought out by Lobster Siren but can be brought out by others as well. The native half-genies to Siren Island have gotten especially good at it.

Coral Siren

The Royal Technician, Coral Siren was primarily responsible for the airship the Empress used to spread her reign across the sea, and all kinds of firepower and weaponry for the Sirens as well.

Her personality, in a single word, is gremlin. She likes shiny things, she likes tech she hasn't seen before, and if it's some combination of both she is instantly going to see what it is without regard for whatever she was doing before. Combine that with a seemingly limitless energy, and she's a terror in any lab that isn't her own. Key words being "isn't her own," because ironically enough, her lab is perfectly pristine.

The sea slug that serves as her cycloptic helmet is her pet, which she's affectionately dubbed "Spiny," and she loves it as much as she loves her own inventions, which is really saying something. Like many of the sea creatures native to Siren Island, it has unique biological properties thanks to the ambient magic in the area, with Spiny's being the cycloptic "eye" visor that other creatures can see through. When they look through the "eye," they can see beyond their normal sight, similar to Plink's own Seer Magic. This is especially useful for Coral Siren, as Spiny's magic readings can often be more effective and useful than her own equipment.

Lobster Siren was most often the one who helped her out whenever Spiny got lost or was missing, so they ended up forming a nice little friendship. They weren't that close, but it was nice for Coral to have a listening ear once in a while, and if Empress happened to come around looking for Lobster, well...what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

The third of the Sirens to break rank when they made their return. The reason? Well...she ended up spotting a hot air balloon during a battle in Armor Town and immediately dropped everything to try and see how it worked. Tubeworm Siren barked orders at her, trying to get her back on track, and Zapple...simply offered to let her look at all the tech she wanted if she came over to their side. She agreed in a heartbeat. And then had to be pulled out of the way of Tubeworm Siren's wrath. From there, she pulled from her own technical expertise to give the growing resistance tools to counter the remaining two sirens.

When she learned that she'd been dubbed "Coral Siren" as a result of no one really seeing her lower half, she first angrily corrected them, offended that she wasn't referred to by her proper title of Seahorse Siren...and then took on "Coral" as a nickname, because it sounded nice even if it wasn't the correct terminology for what she was, and it did sound like a surface name.

Tubeworm Siren

High and mighty, Tubeworm Siren was the latest in a long line of generals serving her colony's crown, and by god was she smug about it. Her legacy was one of the most important things to her, and she often boasted about the deeds the past generals did and her own strength that followed. In present day, her legacy is still important to her, and she does still hold pride in her combat prowess...but she no longer holds it over everyone else's heads since she's no longer loyal to the Empress. More on that later.

As one would expect of a general, she was fanatically loyal to her Empress, rarely questioning her decisions and simply following orders. Her loyalty was valued very much by the Empress, and she did her best to ensure its cultivation, making sure that Tubeworm Siren was completely and utterly obedient to her...

One of the few things Tubeworm Siren ever did question about her Empress was her treatment towards Lobster Siren. She never brought it up to Empress' face, but it always rubbed her the wrong way how easily she was dismissed and ignored. So, Tubeworm Siren decided that she wanted to help...which, unfortunately, translated to "make Lobster Siren stronger." After all, she was strong, and she was well-respected! Surely, a little training was all the little lobster needed! But her idea of "training" involved...a lot of things. Like lasers. Lots and lots of lasers. And needless to say, Lobster Siren didn't like any of it. Although she understood that Tubeworm Siren meant well, she tried to avoid her if she could help it.

The last of the Sirens to break rank from the Empress - she stayed loyal even as Sirens left one after the other, calling them cowards and traitors to the crown. In the end, she refused to listen to reason, so there had to be a joint effort to restrain her and then imprison her. Lobster Siren often visited to try and get her to join them and be free, but no luck. Her turning point only came when Shantae came around to visit Siren Island, and she just so happened to overhear a conversation about the Empress' latest exploits as Shantae and Zapple passed by her prison. Upon hearing that Empress Siren was alive, and that she'd been attacking some random half-genie rather than helping her people...Tubeworm Siren connected the dots of why she didn't show up. She didn't take it very well.

Which is to say, she promptly broke out of her prison and started going on a rampage to take out her rage and sorrow. The other Sirens and the half-genies teamed up to stop her once again, but this time they were barely able to slow her down, even with Shantae's help. But just when it seemed like they would have to take drastic measures...Tubeworm Siren just. Broke down. It was quite the unexpected sight for all involved. Eventually, Tubeworm Siren ordered that the others go away - save for the half-genies and Lobster Siren. Once they were alone, she quietly explained her own conclusions about the Empress' actions, and then pledged her loyalty to their side - it was clear to her now that her Empress...no, the Queen, did not deserve her loyalty, and perhaps never did.

At first, she just patrolled the shore, constantly on the lookout for that traitorous Queen should she ever come back, but with a bit of coaxing from Lobster Siren and some sporting brawls offered by the half-genies, eventually she was helping out with the rebuilding effort and being social once more, finally back to her normal self after weeks of misery.

Tubeworm Siren took on the name Scylla after a monstrous beast in Siren Island's folklore - the tales of which she properly identified as the exploits of her great grandmother, the first of the colony's generals.

Anglerfish Siren

The Royal Magician, Angler served as the eyes for Empress Siren, using her magic eye constructs to spy on the surface and either take notes on ships with good loot...or to take notes on other siren colonies and any slights they might have committed against the Empress. She didn't like the latter part too much, but, eh, orders are orders, right?

Saw potential in Lobster Siren's teleportation magic, and privately taught her how to hone it and use it to its fullest. Angler couldn't help as much as she would've liked, due to her own magic differing a good deal from Lobster Siren's own (even if it was supposedly in the same category), but the progress she and Lobster Siren did make her pleased her significantly...one of the few times she smiled was when Lobster Siren managed her first long-ranged teleport.

Empress Siren ended up putting a stop to it as soon as she found out, much to Angler's displeasure and Lobster's protests. But Angler knew how powerful the Empress was. She was in no position to fight back, even with her impressive magical power. And so she accepted it, though not without giving Empress Siren the stink eye every time they passed in the halls of the airship.

This apprenticeship with Lobster Siren was why she was the second to break rank. Because, as she was spying on the surface to learn what had happened to their Empress...she saw how Lobster Siren was genuinely happy. How much fun she was having with her friends on the surface, how much she smiled...and how much that contrasted with her fearful behavior when she was under the Empress' command. She tried to hold onto her loyalty to Empress Siren, but in the end, she couldn't fight against her own apprentice. Not when she was so happy up here. After the first fight, she left in the shadows and arrived at the alliance's temporary base in the dead of night. Needless to say, she gave them quite a scare.

That being said, "willing to help" did not equal "friendly." For Lobster Siren, sure, and Water Lily she could treat as a passing acquaintance, but for the half-genies she was anti-social and rather moody. She stayed that way even as more of her Siren brethren joined with them. However, an unexpected visit from Rottytops led to the zombie discovering and ultimately befriending the Siren, thanks to her own experience with magic and the occult...maybe a bit too well, if the ensuing prank spree is anything to go by. It did get Angler out of her shell, though. Still moody, but she's willing to talk with people outside the Sirens.

Ended up going with "Lure," by Rottytops' suggestion. Besides just being appropriate for someone who's part anglerfish, it also happens to be wordplay - "Think about it. Ang-LURE. Eh? Eh?" To Rottytops' credit, Zapple laughed.

Octo Siren

Octo Siren had a similar issue to Tubeworm Siren's problem, but in a very different direction. Whereas Tubeworm Siren boasted about her legacy and her physical prowess, what Octo Siren had was a personal line to the Empress, as the one who helped her with matters like paperwork and court. As a result, Octo Siren grew haughty and saw her assistance to the queen as the only thing that mattered, leaving more trivial matters to the octopi she could command with her magic.

She did have a surprising amount of respect for Lobster Siren though, thanks to her connection to Empress Siren - moreso than Empress Siren herself, ironically enough. As long as it didn't interfere with Empress Siren's own desires, Octo Siren was more than willing to lend her some octopi for some minor things...key words being "Empress Siren's own desires." In the end, Octo Siren always defaulted to Empress Siren above all else, so she and Lobster weren't very close.

The fourth to break rank. At first, she stayed by Tubeworm Siren's side, because in spite of her past respect of Lobster Siren, well...it was as Tubeworm Siren said, she betrayed the crown. Any respect she had for her was now gone. And with Tubeworm Siren being the next best thing, she stuck to her. Then she started to get worried as they lost more and more of the more combat-ready Sirens. She actually quite likes her little octopi servants, and as the others left, she was forced to draw upon more and more to make up for the deficit. And the problem is, to put it simply, her servants aren't that capable of combat, especially compared to the sheer monstrous might of Tubeworm Siren. Octo Siren really, really didn't want to keep throwing octopi at the problem and losing them, so in private, she discussed the idea of a truce. Even Empress Siren knew when to back down, right...? Although she couldn't remember even one time.

The answer she got was, unsurprisingly, a resounding no, and that was enough for Octo Siren to push away from Tubeworm Siren and join up with the rest. She never helped that much in combat, to no one's shock - being a secretary doesn't prepare you for combat and all - but her servants are very handy for reconstruction, and she is very good at paperwork and legal terms. So, the half-genies and other sirens are willing to put up with the occasional haughtiness as long as she gets things done.

Octo Siren was the last to choose a surface name, though not for lack of trying. She just couldn't find one she liked, and no matter what that electric half-genie or zombie would suggest, she was not going with a stupid pun. However, after thinking it over, she settled on...Molly. You could really hear the crickets when she announced that one. "...what? Did you just assume that because you all chose aquatic names or those horrid puns that I'd pick one too? Please, I'm hardly that cliché. Au contraire, I am a trendsetter, and I happen to think my surface name is quite fetching, wouldn't you agree?" "I still think you should've gone with Ceph." "You shut your mouth!"

#shantae #not a quote #headcanons #lobster siren #empress siren #water lily siren #coral siren #tubeworm siren #anglerfish siren #octo siren

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sokkastyles · 3 years

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idk if you've discussed this before, but do you have any thoughts on how Zuko's experience with the gaang at his family's old beach house compares to The Beach episode when he's with Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee? Maybe a silly question so feel free to ignore lol

I hadn’t thought about it before but this ask made me have thoughts about it, so here goes.

Like waves washing away the footprints on the sand, Ember Island gives everyone a clean slate. Ember Island reveals the true you.

The first difference that jumps out at me is that in “The Beach,” Zuko did not want to go to Ember Island. He was unhappy about being sent on a “forced vacation” because he’s just been allowed back home for the first time in three years, hoping for the approval of the father who burned him, and discovered that his father actually couldn’t care less about him and that being home doesn’t make him feel better, it makes him feel worse. Then he’s carted off to Ember Island on his father’s whim, and I do think Ozai is playing with Zuko by doing this, keeping Zuko insecure and making sure he knows who’s in charge. Ember Island itself also has significant meaning for Zuko, since it’s where his family spent a lot of time when he was growing up, so that’s another reason for him to be upset upon revisiting those memories, memories of a time when “our family was actually happy” that may or may not have ever even existed.

With the gaang, Zuko brought them there. The practical reason for going there is that it’s a good place to hide from the Fire Nation, but the thematic significance of Zuko bringing his new allies and friends to a place that held significant meaning for him in his childhood is that he’s inviting them in to his world, so to speak, just as they invited him into theirs. He’s sharing a part of himself with them, willingly, whereas before it was a part of himself that he was forced to revisit that was painful, and just reminded him of how miserable he was.

That’s where the statement about “giving everyone a clean slate” has the most meaning, I think. I wrote before about how this actually turns out to be a broken metaphor in “The Beach,” because although Azula, Mai, Ty Lee, and Zuko each have moments of revealing things about themselves, they don’t resolve anything and there’s no healing to be had, and the episode ends with them deciding to just burn everything that represents how broken they are.

But when Zuko goes back to Ember Island and he brings the gaang there, this does represent a moment of healing, and a clean slate. For Zuko in general, but also for Zuko and Katara, since she is the one he brings to Ember Island first, leaving her alone to sort through her own emotions after the confrontation with Yon Rha, and this is the place where she finally forgives him as well.

You have the significance of Zuko being with a group of people who bring out the worst in him vs a group of people who bring out the best in him. Speaking of which, I was looking at screenshots and I noticed this:

Which looks almost like an agni kai arena. I don’t think it is, because there’s a fountain in the middle, but it is a place where Aang and Zuko practice firebending, so you have an image of two people working together and enacting a firebending practice that represents harmony and life rather than trying to hurt each other.

Both times Zuko is on Ember Island there is also a scene involving old pictures.

I think it’s interesting that in “The Beach,” Zuko is looking at a picture of himself as a child with his father, and then when he goes to Ember Island a second time, Katara shows him and the others a picture of his father as a child, which she thinks is Zuko. Both pictures have significant meaning for him and both times the meaning is negative.

In “The Beach,” Zuko burns the picture because it represents his confusion and pain over his relationship with his family. He says he doesn’t care about burning the picture but Ty Lee says he does, and her line, “I know you,” tells the audience that she is right. We also know that Zuko does care a lot about his family but he’s trying to hide his emotional turmoil.

In “Sozin’s Comet” when Katara produces the picture of his father as a child, Zuko immediately recognizes it and becomes upset. The fact that they thought it was Zuko initially and this makes him upset shows us that this is a part of himself that he would rather not share with his new friends. They ogle over the picture when they think it’s him because they want to know him, but they still don’t know about this part of Zuko’s life. Zuko also has a different perspective on his father than he did in “The Beach,” when he was looking at that picture of himself with his father’s hand on his shoulder, that image he’d idealized in previous seasons.

He’s no longer that little boy looking for his father’s approval, as emphasized by denouncing Ozai as “the worst father in the history of fathers” in the scene in “Sozin’s Comet.” Zuko’s argument with the gaang about Ozai being “sweet and innocent-looking” and the idea that he will “turn good again” if they remind him of “happy memories” also shows how Zuko’s perspective has changed, because he once thought the same thing about Ozai. Or rather, he thought Ozai was always good, and was able to convince himself that he could return to a state of childish happiness and familial love if only he gained his father’s approval. But Zuko now knows that there is no going back to that state of childish innocence.

He’s also able to reconnect with his mother in a way the second time he goes to the beach house. In “The Beach” we see those lonely memories, but in “Ember Island Players” Zuko shares an annoyed but endearing memory of going to see the players with his mother, and gets to experience the childhood memory of going to see a terrible play with his new friends.

It’s also nice to see the image of Zuko with friends in the old house vs the image of him alone and dwelling over unhappy memories of the past in “The Beach.”

#zuko #ozai #ursa #katara #atla meta #and just a lil bit of #zutara #the beach #ember island players #sozin's comet #the southern raiders

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jaysworlds · 4 years

Text

fuck you jonny sims michael deserved better

Gertrude is planning something. More specifically, Gertrude is planning something which she has neglected to inform Gerry about.

She’s always planning something, but she always tells Gerry about it, even if only to give him strict instructions to keep his nose out of her business.

This time, though, she hasn’t told him a thing. In fact, she’s lied to him, and told him that she isn’t planning anything at all, and are you sure you didn’t open that last Leitner?

(He hadn’t, of course. He’s not stupid).

In any case, Gertrude is treating him like he is, and whatever she’s planning, she’s keeping it from him on purpose.

His first thought is that it somehow involves him, but she should know by now that he would help her willingly, even if there was a chance that it would get him killed. He’s never exactly had much of a self-preservation instinct.

He can’t think of anything else that would lead to her lying to him, though. He might not always agree with her methods, but he would never go out of his way to sabotage her.

Unless someone he cared about was going to get hurt.

Unless…

Michael.

Shit.

Gerry doesn’t want to believe it, of course, but he can’t think of anything else that would make Gertrude straight up lie to him.

He needs to know exactly what it is she’s planning. He needs to stop her.

She can’t hurt Michael. He’s so … so good. Certainly the only person who’s ever bothered to cared about Gerry, and Gerry may or may not be harbouring a little crush on him.

He’s difficult not to crush on, really.

God. He won’t let Gertrude sacrifice him, no matter what. Surely there’s someone else, surely whatever she’s planning could use Gerry instead, if she has to sacrifice someone.

It’s almost an accident that he finds out what she’s planning, or part of it. The Spiral is planning a ritual, The Great Twisting, and once Gerry knows that it’s not difficult to guess that Gertrude intends to stop it.

Stopping rituals is important, of course. But not so important that Gerry will just let her go about her business, uninterrupted. There has to be another way.

Any further information proves very, very difficult to get hold of. He finds out from Michael that she’s booked two tickets on a boat, and that she plans to leave in two weeks, but what the boat is called and where it’s headed remains a mystery.

The information is there, of course. He can feel it, sitting in the back of his mind. He could just Know, if he really wanted to. If he was really desperate.

But he’s not. Not yet. He can get the information he needs through normal means, without giving himself over to the Beholding.

Except he can’t. He goes through Gertrude’s desk, her handbag, even her apartment, but there’s nothing to indicate where she’s going.

It scares him, honestly. He tells himself he’s not scared, that everything’s going to be fine, but he’s running out of time and the information he needs doesn’t seem to exist anywhere.

Michael doesn’t know either. He just knows that Gertrude’s asked him to go on a work trip with her, and the worst part is that he seems so excited, so pleased that Gertrude is trusting him with this, and Gerry doesn’t have the heart to tell him the truth.

Not yet, anyway. He doesn’t have proof, and he doesn’t want Michael to be scared.

It’s almost too late when he finally gives in, reaching for the information that he knows is there, giving a little more of himself to the Beholding. He wouldn’t, not if he had the choice, but it’s to save Michael, and so it will always be worth it.

It has to be.

The first thing he Knows is that they’ve already left. He’s too late to stop them, to try and reason with either of them, even if he leaves right now.

More importantly, though, he knows where they’re going and how they’re getting there, and that’s enough. The ship is the Tundra, owned by one Peter Lukas, and Gerry knows well enough that he won’t make it onto that ship without Lukas finding out, even if he made it before the ship departed, but in the few minutes after he calms down he realises that he still has time.

He has enough money to book a flight, and it will take the ship a few weeks to get to Russia, to its final destination, and he can easily make it there before they can.

Getting to Sannikov land will be a little harder, given that the island doesn’t technically exist, but he’s confident he can make it. He has to.

He leaves immediately, although he knows he’ll have to spend a couple of weeks in Russia, waiting for the island to actually appear. He Knows when it’s going to appear, which is a useful piece of knowledge, but it worries him, just a little. He hadn’t actively tried to Know that, it had just … appeared.

Still, he has bigger problems.

The weeks in Russia are very unpleasant. He wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re the worst of his life, but they’re certainly up there. The worst part is probably the worry, the fear that he’s going to be too late.

The second worst part is probably the Knowing.

It’s just … happening, now. Not often, only once or twice, but that’s far more than he wants it to be happening (namely, not at all).

Perhaps he’s opened a gate that he never should have touched, but if he hadn’t opened it then he wouldn’t be here. He wouldn’t be able to save Michael.

Maybe it will turn out for the best, in the end.

But probably not. He’s not that lucky.

He Knows as soon as Sannikov land appears above the waves, and he starts trying to charter a boat to take him there. It’s hard, given that the locals don’t believe it’s a real island at all (and they’re right, to an extent), and it’s hours before he can find someone willing to take a crazy Englishman out onto the sea in search of an island that isn’t there.

He doesn’t speak much on the journey out. He’s trying very hard not to Know things, though it’s so difficult when there are so many things he wants to know. How long the journey is, for starters. If he’s going to make it in time.

The Tundra is already there when he arrives, and he barely has time to pay the poor confused fisherman who brought him out here before he’s running across the snow in his too-heavy boots, praying he’s not too late.

He’s too late. When he gets there there’s no sign of Michael, just Gertrude standing silently by an out-of-place yellow door.

Gerry feels sick.

“Where is he?” he snarls, as though he doesn’t know.

Gertrude doesn’t even seem surprised to see him. “You’re a little too late,” she says, as though they’re talking about the weather. “I’m sorry, Gerard. Really.”

No. He’s not too late, not as long as the door is still here. Michael is in there somewhere, and Gerry won’t just leave him to die alone.

He can at least try.

“Fuck you,” he says, and pulls the door open. The corridors beyond are infinite, bending in impossible ways, and Gerry knows he won’t be able to Know anything once he’s in there, even if he wanted to.

“Gerard,” Gertrude says, sharply. “Wait.”

“Fuck you,” he says again, and walks through the door before he can overthink it.

It slams shut behind him, cutting off whatever Gertrude would have said and leaving him alone in the passageways.

He starts feeling sick almost immediately, but he won’t let that stop him. He starts walking into the corridors, picking directions at random. He doesn’t know where he’s going, just that he needs to find Michael.

Gertrude had said a little too late. Michael can’t have been in here too long. He can’t have gone far.

“Michael!” Gerry calls, and the endless twisting corridors eat his words, spitting them back at him as a distorted echo.

“Oh, fuck you,” he snaps, and kicks a wall. “Give him back, you bastard.”

The Spiral doesn’t seem to like that. The passages constrict, an entrance Gerry had been sure he could see disappearing.

“Alright,” he says. Apparently pissing off the entity he’s walking through is a bad idea. “I’m sorry, Jesus. But you’re not having him.”

That doesn’t seem to pacify it, but it doesn’t constrict any further, so he just keeps walking into the unknown, the unknowable.

He doesn’t know how long he walks for. Time doesn’t exactly exist in here, and nor does space, but still, he’s sure he’s making ground.

He’s probably moving faster than Michael. He’ll be scared, lost, barely knowing what he’s got himself into, and Gerry at least has the element of knowledge on his side, not to mention pure determination.

He wonders vaguely what Gertrude had told Michael before she sent him in here. Some pretty lie, perhaps, about how he was going to save the world. Maybe she told him that she’d be waiting for him when he got out.

Maybe she even told him the truth. Told him that she was sending him in here to die, but that his sacrifice was necessary.

Or maybe she didn’t tell him anything at all. Just shoved him through the door and slammed it shut behind him, trapping him in here forever.

No, not forever. Not if Gerry has anything to say about it.

The Spiral doesn’t like his presence, he can tell. He isn’t sure why, if it’s because he’s too connected to the Beholding, or if it’s just cross he told it to fuck off. Maybe it doesn’t have a reason at all, but whatever it is, he’s not welcome here.

More than once he feels like giving up, like curling up in a corner and letting madness overcome him, but he thinks of poor, innocent Michael, Michael who had thrown himself into the Lonely to rescue Gerry without a second thought, without expecting anything back, and he can’t give up.

Michael needs him. And honestly, he needs Michael.

The Beholding presses at the back of his mind, and he can guess that he could use it to get out of here, if he needed to. The Spiral does not like to be perceived, and perhaps if Gerry tried his best to Know it it would just … spit him out.

But he can’t risk it, can’t risk leaving Michael in here alone, and more than that, he doesn’t want to use the Beholding’s powers. He wants to get out of here on his own terms, like he’s lived his life up until now.

Maybe it’s just pure stubbornness, but stubbornness is all he has right now.

He calls out for Michael over and over and over again, until his voice is hoarse with something akin to pain, and every time his own words are just thrown back at him by the endless corridors, and there’s no reply.

There are other people in here, he thinks, though he only sees … impressions of them, reflections in the mirrors. He would help them if he could, but they’re too far gone to save, and he doesn’t have the energy, anyway.

The Spiral is messing with his mind, he can feel it. He keeps slipping up, losing track of what he’s doing here, and he cannot afford to forget, to lose himself here.

How must Michael, already so much closer to the Spiral, be feeling?

Not good. Gerry needs to find him as soon as he can.

He isn’t sure what leads him to Michael, in the end. It’s a … feeling, almost like a gentle tugging on one of his fingers, and he follows it, curious, though some part of him suspects it’s a bad idea.

Still, it’s not like he has anything better.

He begins to be able to see it, almost, after he’s been walking for some time, like a gossamer thread floating on the breeze. It’s … odd. He doesn’t know how to feel about it.

It reminds him vaguely of the story of Ariadne and her string. He hopes to God that this one won’t lead him to a monster.

It’s very quickly pushed to the back of his mind when he finally, finally finds Michael, curled up on the ground in a parka which may have once been blue, and was now a horrible, eye burning greenish colour.

The colour of the parka doesn’t matter for more than a moment, and Gerry forgets about the string as he runs over to put his hand on Michael’s shoulder, to turn him over and try to find out if he’s okay, if he’s alive.

His eyes are closed, but he’s still breathing under the heavy parka, and Gerry pulls it off his shoulders without a second thought. It’s not exactly cold here, after all. It’s not exactly anything.

“Hey,” he breathes, shaking Michael’s shoulder. “Hey, wake up.”

And he does, blearily. His eyes, which had been so blue last time Gerry had seen him, are now mismatched, one a pale blue and the other sickly yellow.

It doesn’t matter. If he gets out of here with nothing more than mismatched eyes he will have been very, very lucky.

“Gerry?” Michael asks, trying his best to sit up. “What … are you really here?”

“Yeah,” Gerry says, helping him into a more upright position and checking his pulse. It’s a little faster than usual, but not too irregular. “I’m here. I’m so sorry I didn’t get here faster.”

Michael just stares at him for a moment. “Did Mrs. Robinson send you to fetch me?”

Something in Gerry’s gut twists. “No,” he says shortly. “She had no intention of you making it out of here alive.”

Michael frowns. “That … she wouldn’t do that.”

Gerry doesn’t have the energy to argue with him right now, nor to explain exactly what Gertrude did. “Let’s just get out of here,” he says, instead, and stands up, scooping Michael up in his arms.

Michael’s several inches taller than him, but he’s built like a beanpole and weighs almost nothing, and Gerry has no trouble carrying him.

Usually he would protest to that, insist that he can walk perfectly fine on his own, but for now he just settles against Gerry’s chest, closing his eyes again. “I’m glad you came,” he says, quietly. “I was a little scared, you know. Don’t tell Mrs. Robinson, though.”

Gerry just pushes down the anger that rises in his chest. No point being angry now. “I won’t,” he says, keeping his voice level. “I wouldn’t leave you here, don’t worry.”

“I know,” Michael says, and he sounds so sure of himself.

It’s a few minutes before the euphoria of finding Michael wears off and Gerry realises that they still need to get out of here. Maybe they’re less likely to succumb to madness if they’re together, but it will still happen eventually.

For a while he’s optimistic that maybe he’ll just stumble upon the exit, or that the odd string will return to lead him to a door, but as Michael’s mumblings slowly become less and less coherent he starts to realise that he’s going to have to force his way out.

Fine. Let the Beholding have him; at least it means Michael will be okay.

He isn’t quite sure where to start, but he pulls at the well of power he can feel in the back of his mind and just. Looks.

For a moment nothing changes, and he wonders if maybe he is going mad, trying to win a staring contest with the physical incarnation of madness.

And then the corridors start thrashing, twisting wildly and throwing the two of them back and forth, slamming them into walls and ceilings and floors and mirrors that all blur together. Gerry just keeps his eyes open and tries his best to shield Michael with his body, protecting him from the worst of it.

He doesn’t know how long it goes on, but he can feel the pressure building as the corridors thrash more and more wildly, and then something snaps, and the next wall he slams into gives way, flinging him out of the corridors with Michael still held tight in his arms.

He has no idea where they are. They’re just laying in a warm, muddy field still tanged up in each other, but right now location doesn’t matter.

Except. He does know. South of France, not far from Toulouse. He didn’t even have to try.

Oh well. Problem for later. Right now he just feels very bruised, and more than anything he wants to make sure that Michael is okay.

He’s awake, at least, trying his best to sit up. His eyes are still different colours and his hair seems … tangled, to say the least, but other than that he seems fine.

At least on the outside.

“Gerry?” he says again, questioning. “You saved me.”

Something akin to pride bubbles up in Gerry’s chest, though it doesn’t completely chase out the anger there. “Yeah. I guess I did.”

Michael smiles brightly and wraps his arms around Gerry’s neck. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Gerry mumbles, feeling almost embarrassed. “You would’ve done the same for me.”

“Still,” Michael says, and presses a soft kiss to Gerry’s cheek. “Thank you.”

Gerry just doesn’t know what to say to that. His mind has blue-screened, which seems very ironic considering he just escaped losing his mind.

Michael, of course, takes it as a rejection. “Oh,” he starts, pulling away a little. “I just … I thought … I’m sorry, I overstepped.”

“No,” Gerry says quickly, as soon as his brain is back online. “No, you didn’t. I don’t mind. Really.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

Michael smiles, soft and shy, and this time when he leans in Gerry meets him in the middle, and then they’re kissing.

There are still a hundred things wrong. Gerry needs to have a serious conversation with Michael about trusting Gertrude, and they need to make sure they’re both still sane, although he feels sane. There’s also the slight issue of the fact that he may or may not be on his way to becoming a Beholding avatar.

Still, none of that seems important right now. They’re alive, the sun is shining, and they’re together.

That’s what matters.

#gerrymichael #gerry keay #michael shelley #michael distortion #tma #gertrude robinson #fuck gertrude all my homies hate gertrude #okay i dont but like also i would like to hit her #just a little #my fic #my writing

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jeffreystewart · 3 years

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Norsery Rhymes from A to Z Happy Thorsday – Prince Egil One-Hand, Berserker of the Many Rings Well here we are another Thor’s Day and another 20 min sketch of a Norse (and Germanic) mythological characters. This week it’s Egil / Egill One-Hand mentioned in the Egilis Saga.

TLDR at the bottom.

Hi name has been translated to ‘Awe’, or ‘Fear’, or ‘dread’ combined with ‘edge’ or ‘point’ of a weapon. Which unlike the farmer Giant Egil who shares his name, where the meaning had the context of being afraid of the sword. Egil here, much like Egill Skallagrimson, is meant to imply the use of the sword, and that others should be afraid of his blade’s edge.

His father was King Hring of Smaland, and Ingibjorg the Earl’s daughter of Gautland. As a young man, Egil and his friends were known for going around causing lots of trouble. Egging each other on to do dumber and more selfish things that upset and hurt the people and animals of the land. Loving spending more time in the forest than the city.

One day he and his friends decided to see who could swim across a great lake. During the swim a fog formed on the lake, and while his friends fell behind, Egil pushed on into it. But the fog went on for days, with no clear path to land no matter what direction he went. It’s not known if the fog was a natural one, or one sent by the Gods to punish Egil for his arrogance. But eventually there was a break in the fog on an unknown shore. Egil couldn’t stand, move or stay awake for another moment. He fell into a deep sleep that lasted nearly as long s his time in the fog.

He awoke to find himself in a large columned cave home, now the prisoner of a giant. Who informed Egil that he was now his goat herd, and that he would kill him if he did not perform his duties.

Over the course of the next year, Egil recovered from his near week long swim. He tended the goats, who were difficult for him, got stronger, and plotting his escape. At the end of that first year, Egil, after careful planning, managing to sneak away and run for his freedom beyond the Giant’s home. He had been swift and careful, and made a good distance. But on the fourth day from his escape he found the giant, with his large stride, and his intelligence, had followed Egil’s footprints, and caught up to him. Egil was caught again.

The giant, upset at Egil’s escape, but not wanting to kill him, clamped forty pound bands around each foot (or leg) that he would have to wear at all times.

It took him a long time to learn to walk with that weight, while still being expected to perform his goat herding duties. He knew he could not simply run away again, especially slowed down as he was.

Time passed, and Egil got used to the weight, getting stronger and stronger, living a simple, but uneasy life forced to tend the goats. Feeding, caring, milking, and retrieving the ones who ran off.

It was seven years since his capture, and one night while off retrieving several lost goats, he came across a cat with golden eyes. Capturing it before returning to his captor’s home.

The Giant was curious how Egil had been able to find the goats in the dark. Egil told him that he cold see In the dark because of his golden magic eyes that had captured starlight in them. The giant not believing him said he’d never seen him use other eyes before and asked if he could see them. Egil at first refused, asking for a promise that the Giant wouldn’t steal them. When the Giant agreed, Egil uncovered the cat’s eyes from under his cloak, reflecting the firelight in them. Telling the giant that there was a magical procedure that allowed him to remove one set of eyes and replace them with the other.

The Giant after hearing this wanted them very badly, but knew he could not force Egil to tell him how to make his eyes exchangeable for the other. So he offered Egil his freedom for both the eyes, and the procedure to use them.

Egil agreed to the deal. The giant agreed to be tied to a column in the cave to avoid trashing about during the operation. But once Egil had the Giant’s eyes he apologized saying that the procedure had failed while throwing the eyes into the fire. The Giant, sure that he had been tricked ran to the front door of the cave, blocking the way and locking the door.

After a long while considering his options now, decided on a plan. After several days, he killed one of the goats and made a goat costume for himself. Egil getting into his disguise waited for the Giant to open the door for the goats to go graze, started a stampede. The Giant felt at each goat as it went by, and was almost fooled by Egil’s disguise before he realized he couldn’t hear the click clack hoof sounds on the stone floor from Egil. The Giant grabbed Egil, trying to kill him with his knife, missing Egil except for his left ear, taking it clean off. Egil in response cut off the giants hand holding him. Taking the hand still gripping him as he made his escape. Along with that hand came a large very valuable ring that Egil could wear as an armband.

He ran for his life for some time, knowing the Giant could still be following him with his other senses. After a while living in the wild, he came across a Viking ship and it’s company. Joining them he would have been a strange sight, with one, ear, metal shackles on his legs / feet, and Prince’s ring on his hand, and a giant gold ring around his arm. He was a strong man at this point, and learned to be a capable sailor. He would end up leading the company and another once when the leaders of both fought a duel where they both died. Taking the best 32 best from each band, he would go on to raid the Baltic lands. Collecting fame, fortune, and most notably, collecting rings, as he went. It’s never said if he is able to remove his foot / leg shackles.

One day while out in raiding he saw an island on which two giants, one a male Jotun with a sword, and the other female Jotun noted for wearing a very short skirt. Both fighting over a large gold ring, that appeared to be the giantesses. Egil decided to take the side of the Giantess, as he thought she was the more attacked party, and joined the battle with the giant. Cutting off a large part of the giants upper arm muscle. But the giant was able to get in his swing and took off Egil’s sword arm above the wrist. Egil just managed to get back to his ship, where they departed for safer shores. Leaving the battle unsettled, but the giantess able to keep her ring.

Egil’s crew tended to his arm as best they could, but were not healers or any skill or magic. Once back at port, Egil had not been able to sleep for several days from the pain of the arm. He went for a walk in a nearby forest, where he met a Dwarf child out fetching water. Egil gifted the child one of his gold rings without it knowing, dropping it in his water pail.

They parted, and after some time, an older dwarf appeared, asking who had given his child the ring, and wanting to know why they would so willingly part with it. Egil told him he’d given it freely, and that he both had many to part with and that in his pain, he could not appreciate his collection anyway. The older Dwarf thanked him and in as thanks healed the arm of all pain. He then painlessly fitted a Dvergr sword into Egil’s missing arm that would allow him to fight just as easily as if he had a hand, if not more so.

At some time after that Egil still in command of his company was raiding the Russian kingdom of King Hertygg, when his general Rognvald and ninety six men went to stop the Berserker Egil and his 32 men. Egil and his men won the battle, Egil losing only a few men, but the Russian men losing almost all of theirs. Rognvald himself mortally wounded and only just able to make it back to the King to report on what had happened.

It was here that the King’s man Gnodar-Asmund Berserkers-Slayer is introduced. Who himself was missing two ears from a time when his Blood Brother Aran came back from the dead and took them. On hearing Rognovald and his story Asmund would go to Egil directly. The two decided on a duel to avoid more lives lost. Three times Egil the ringed berserker with the sword arm and Asmund the famed Berserker-Slayer fought day and night into exhaustion, and without a winner. The fourth duel looked to continue the same way as the others, but as the fight wore on, Asmund managed to get just the slightest advantage, forcing Egil to surrender. Egil does so, much from his respect for Asmund, as for the safety of his men, Egil swore loyalty to the King.

Egil and Asmund swear themselves blood brothers. Becoming friends they would serve and adventure together over the fall and winter seasons. Setting out with 24 men on a voyage to find the King’s missing daughters Brunhildr. Who though a capable fighter and huntsman had been carried off by an ancient giant monster Hare. And Bekkhildur The Wise who had been carried away by a giant vulture.

It’s on this voyage that they track them to Jotenheim where they spend months searching shores, islands, forests, and mountains. One day, while their men were suffering from lack of food, they find in a river crosses valley a flock of giant unattended goats. When they go to take one of the Goats however they hear a booming voice from a tall Giant woman who asks who is stealing the Queen of this lands goats. The giantess Skinnnefja reveals herself as the Queen Arinnefja daughter. Telling the Egil and Asmund she will visit the Queen. Egil gives her one of his rings as payment for the trouble despite her protests.

The Princes goes on ahead giving her mother the ring and telling her of the men. The Queen askes her daughter to invite the men back to her. When they meet the Queen she seeming surprised at the appearance of Egil.

She finds they have not eaten for a week, and immediately goes to have a huge amount of foods like porridge and broth made for the group, asking them to tell their tale as they wait. They each tell their stories and afterword the Queen tells the men that her two Princely Giant brothers Guatr and Hildr had captured the Princesses to marry them. She offers the men treasures to help them on their quest, leading them to her vault.

There they see rare treasures beyond count, and in a place of prominence she sits a chest that opens to reveal a hand and quarter arm with a signet ring on it that Egil recognizes. Egil when touching the hand starts to feel heat in his sword arm. The queen tells him another story of a man who saved her from her brother Gautr who wanted to steal her ring, but lost his arm in the process. She then removes the sword from his arm and wraps the stump carefully in magic cloth letting him rest as his lost hand grows back, leaving a mark around the arm where it was lost. His sword refashioned for him to carry it.

The men with the help of their hosts are able to kill the giant brother and save the princesses from their forced marriage. Egil, Asmund and Arinnefja bring them home to the King. He offers Egil and Asmund either gold or his daughters hands in marriage.

Both men choose the princesses, to marry in a years time. Egil first going back to finally meet his family in their lands to re-establish his claim to the throne, Asmundr to find his family for the wedding in his lands, and Arinnefja to return to her lands to deal with her kingdom’s matters. Arinnefja is huge amounts of gifted drinks, butter, boars and other foods not native to Jotunheim. After the massive party that was the wedding, Egil married Bekkhildur and Asmundr, who had become ruler of Halogaland while there, married Brynhildr, each going off to their lands to rule there.

And wow, I did not realize this description had gotten so long. Hope you enjoyed it, but in case you skipped right here for the TLDR version.

- Dickhead prince gets captured by giant. - Tends goats for 8 years. - Escapes by tricking a Giant with a cat’s eyes and goats hide, - Cat and Goat not so lucky. - Giant loses eyes and an arm, - But Prince loses an ear, - But gets a giant ring. - Becomes Viking, - Starts ring collecting hobby, - Becomes Viking leader. - Defends a Giantess in a short skirt purely for honourable reasons, - Loses arm in the process. - Gives Dwarf child a ring while delirious in pain, - Child’s father heals his arm and gives him a sword arm. - Invades Russia, smart enough not to do it in the winter, - Defeats Russian army. - Fights soon to be BFF to a standstill 3 times, but loses in the 4th, - Become Blood Bros. - Goes off with new BFF to find captured Princesses, - Get’s hungry, - Finds the Giant woman he helped before is a Queen. - Queen shows him his old hand that magically heals him a new one. - Defeats Giants that kidnapped Princesses, - Saves the Princesses, - Get’s engaged to a Princess, - Goes home to be King, - Gets Married to a Princess.

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songtoyou · 3 years

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Chapter Six: Don’t You Pretend

Would You Call That Love

Pairing: Chris Evans x Raina Morrison (OC)

Rating: PG to PG-13 (Might be 18+ for some chapters)

Description: There was always that one person Chris Evans tended to turn to when he was not in a committed relationship, Raina Morrison. He could confide in her about things going on in his life that he did not feel comfortable talking to his family or close friends about. Chris and Raina were able to establish a way to openly communicate with one another, but also being respectful of the other’s time and needs. It was the only constant “relationship” he had, but without all the nonsense of trying to build a life together. A “friends with benefits” situation. However, what happens when Chris starts rethinking his “relationship” with Raina and if either are willing to pursue something more?

Chapter Rating: PG

Warnings: Mentions the death of a loved one.

Word Count: 1,397

Author’s Note: It has been forever since I have updated this story. I was not sure where I wanted to take it since the I posted the last chapter. For this chapter, I wanted to explore more into Raina’s relationship with her dad and how supportive Chris is. So this chapter is basically Chris being a supportive boyfriend to his girlfriend.

Sadly, I do not know Chris Evans or anyone in his family, and this is just a fictional take on his life. I do not permit this fic to be reposted on other platforms.

Chris and Raina did their best to keep their new relationship quiet. While his mother and siblings knew of the couple’s new relationship status, along with Raina’s father, they wanted to keep it quiet for the time being. Both wanted to enjoy the “honeymoon” stage without the prying eyes of the media and fans.

While Chris dreaded the media intrusion, it was the fans Raina was more worried about. Flashbacks of her time with Tom were making the singer have bouts of PTSD. Raina feared that if the fans found out that she was dating Chris, they (mostly his fans, let’s be honest) would be brutal towards her, just like Tom’s fans.

She asked Chris one night what he would do if his fans outright attacked her via social media. He was stumped at the question at first.

“Like, if you see fans sending me hate though…I don’t know, Twitter, would you respond? Would you say something? Are you comfortable with saying anything if there is hate towards me because I am now dating you?” Raina asked, worried about his answer.

“I mean, yeah, I would say something,” Chris replied, but Raina could detect the unsureness in his voice. “What?” Chris asked when he saw the look you gave him.

“You saw how some of the fans were towards Jenny. They said hateful things about her, and you didn’t do anything to defend her or your relationship. What makes me different?” Raina pushed. She wanted to get it all out—no bullshit between Chris and her.

Chris sighed. “I can fully admit that I fucked up when it came to my relationship with Jenny. I didn’t protect her like I should have when we began dating. It was the first public relationship I had been in a long while. However, that is no excuse. The difference between you and Jenny is that 1.) I love you. I love you so much. So I would never stand for anyone hating on you, and 2.) I know that once the fans see that our relationship is real and not some Hollywood PR bullshit, that they will support us.”

Raina took in a deep breath and let it out. She leaned into Chris, and he wrapped his arms around her and placed a kiss on her head. “I like that you aren’t as pessimistic as me. That is encouraging and helps me to ease my anxiety,” she said to him.

“We got this, Raina. We will make it through the hard part, trust me.”

Three weeks. That was how long Chris and Raina were able to hide their relationship. It was a nice quiet three weeks between the two before the media storm eventually hit. The couple became inundated with calls from the media, whether it be questions about their relationship or begging for an interview. Both PR reps denied requests for interviews or commented on the couple’s relationship.

As Raina expected, the fans were in a tizzy. Once again, Raina’s fans were super supportive of her relationship with Chris; however, some were cautious for her as they worried that Chris’s reputation as a “womanizer” would tarnish her image somewhat. With Chris, his fans were split down the middle, with some showing support, while others proceeded to throw hate towards Raina’s way. Thankfully, her fans (and some fans of Chris) would immediately step in and call out the haters.

Nevertheless, Raina would do her best to ignore the vitriol thrown her way and go about her life. She finally got the man of her dreams, and no one was going to mess that up. She would continue to focus on Moulin Rouge, which was her top priority, and not focus on any negativity.

Also, Raina’s dad was coming into town for his birthday and see the show. She was excited to see him as he mostly stayed up in Long Island. He was not one to venture into the city very often.

After declining Raina’s offer to drive him herself or have her driver bring him, George opted to drive into the city. It was rather odd to Raina, considering that her father hated having to drive on the freeway. But she shrugged it off and deemed it a good thing that her father was getting out of Long Island for a while.

However, Raina could not put it past her that something was off with her dad.

“What do you mean?” Chris asked Raina as he sat on her couch watching television.

Raina sat down next to Chris. He noticed she kept looking down at her cellphone. “My dad just sent a text, saying he will meet us at the restaurant.”

Chris was puzzled. “Yeah, so…”

“So, my dad doesn’t know how to text. He’s not a texter. Texting and George Morrison do not go hand-in-hand. What gives?” Raina wondered in distress. “Did you teach him how to text?”

“No,” Chris responded, trying to hold back his laughter. “Come on, Raina, he was bound to learn how to text sometime. This a good thing. That way, you guys can text each other now.”

Raina merely shrugged her shoulders. “I guess.”

“You’re very cute; you know that, right,” Chris stated, leaning over for a kiss, which she gave willingly.

Unfortunately, two hours later, Raina was back at it with worrying. “Ah-ha! Look at this new text, Chris. Read what it says. Go on, read it!” she ordered and handed Chris the cellphone.

Dad: We made it in safe, but rather late. Now at the hotel. We are going to eat in and call it a night. We’ll see you tomorrow. Love you.

“Oh wow,” was all Chris said.

“We? Who the fuck is this ‘we’ my dad is referring to, huh?”

Chris handed Raina back her phone. “Raina, you know your dad has been dating. He is not Casanova, but he goes out occasionally. I thought you had gotten over your resistance about your dad dating again?”

“I try to, but it is hard. It is hard to imagine him with another woman that isn’t my mom. I know she would want him to be happy and not alone. But…”

When Chris saw Raina begin to cry, he immediately engulfed her into his arms and held her while she cried. Chris could never understand Raina’s pain of losing a parent, but he would do his best to support her in that moment and every moment after.

“I miss her all the time, Chris,” Raina managed to squeak out.

“I know you do, darling. I know,” Chris said while continuing to hold her and stroke her hair tenderly.

“It has been nine years since mom died, and I just can’t get over it. That night was so fucked up. If we had demanded the paramedics take her the first time they came, then she might have…”

“Raina, you can’t do that to yourself. You can’t play the what-ifs game,” Chris consoled. He has had this talk with Raina before. She always replayed that night over and over about what could have been done to save her mom. “I may not have known your mom very well, but I do remember the one time I did talk with her. It was when you sang with the Boston Pop Orchestra back in spring of 2010. Both your mom and dad were there, along with my mom and me. I remember the look on your mom’s face when you began seeing. Marie was in such awe and was crying. She looked so proud, Raina. She told me that no matter what, you would always be her little girl. That goofy little girl who would rather spend time in her room playing the guitar or keyboard and writing down song lyrics. She is with you all the time, Raina. She’s never left you.”

“It still sucks, though,” stated Raina and wiped away the tears with her sleeve. “Okay, I’m tired of crying.” She took a deep breath and retreated to the bathroom to wash her face.

If her dad were dating, then she would be supportive. He deserved to have someone by his side. It was not fair for him to spend the remainder of his life alone. Raina decided to view it as George’s way of honoring his late wife by living his life to the fullest. It is what Marie would have wanted.

#chris evans #chris evans x oc #chris evans x ofc #chris evans x original female character

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seyaryminamoto · 3 years

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What is something Sokka only ever did and does with and for Azula? I'm not talking about his love but an act. The hairdoing question was because I like the first time he does Azulas hair lots It is a particular thing and the imagination him only doing Azulas hair is individual. I did not ask because of jealousy rather of particularity. I can't find anything he only did does for with Azula

... Right. So, in about 200 chapters worth of story, you haven’t seen anything Sokka has exclusively done for Azula? I... do advise you read more closely. But if you don’t want to...

Represents her as her personal fighter, at first because of their deal, after their relationship blooms he does it because he’s 100% devoted to her in every way that counts. To him, their bond is one of a kind and he does his best to grow stronger so he can continue to fight with and for her, so she may be granted all the respect she deserves. He outright rejects being sponsored by anyone but her, and even when they had no choice but to have Zuko sponsoring him (chapter 56), Sokka said it wasn’t the same because he wanted HER. So her role as her sponsor is one of a kind for him, and he absolutely would never have that kind of bond with anyone else.

Protects her with his body whenever they’re falling off places, something Azula has remarked on more than once. He takes the worst of the impact every time, shielding her however he can. To this day, I’m pretty sure he hasn’t done that with anyone else? (chapter 38, chapter 77).

He opened up to her when he was troubled (chapter 50), sharing some of his innermost turmoil and suffering, letting her help him when he usually would rather not burden anyone else with what plagues him. Further proof of how deeply he trusts her, enough to start putting aside his bad habit of bottling up his troubles for her.

Refused an opportunity to go home AND reconnect with the first person he truly felt comfortable with in the FIre Nation (Piandao), choosing to stay by Azula’s side instead and protect her from people who would most likely harm her (chapter 54).

Nearly killed two gladiators whose sponsors were attempting to marry Azula against her will (chapter 70, chapter 169).

Put aside every shred of his dignity and accepted all punishments Azula forced on him, enduring everything because he thought he deserved it for wronging her (the ENTIRE Rough Rhinos arc).

Gave her the better portions of food during their accidental trip through the forest (again, Rough Rhinos arc) AND saves food for her (chapter 124), meaning, prioritizing her needs over his own. We all KNOW how much Sokka loves food, Azula more than anyone, and the implications of him not eating so she could have more were pretty clear regarding how much she means to him, as far as I can tell.

Cooked for her, sometimes to catastrophic results, but he still tried :’D (chapter 131, chapter 151 to a fault).

Writes haiku for her, and it’s SPECIFICALLY STATED that he only manages to complete proper poems whenever he’s writing about her, as everything else he writes he leaves incomplete or adds too many syllables (chapter 38, chapter 104).

Controls his strongest impulses very often when it comes to physical affection throughout Part 1 (namely in Ember Island and Giving In arcs), always privileging her needs above his own. He’s willing to stop before outright penetrative sex in chapter 97, for Azula’s benefit, and only goes for it when she directly asks him to. Her comfort and happiness are the priority, not his own.

Embarrasses himself willingly just to make her laugh (I’m sure there are many possible examples of this, but right now I can’t find them, but I found one instance of it in chapter 130, at least).

Challenged a nobleman (Kuan) for behaving disrespectfully towards Azula, by dismissing her interests and choices, yet Sokka restrained himself when Azula demanded it of him (chapter 36) and accepted the punishment Kuan forced on him without further protest or causing any more trouble for Azula.

Looked after her when she was sick, no matter if she was really mad at him at the time (White Lotus Attack arc).

Cheered her up after the first ball in the Festivals, after listening to her personal plight with Admiral Zhao (chapter 94)

Offered to teach basic swordsmanship to a kid so that the kid’s father would be on good terms with Azula, helping her craft stronger political allies (chapter 133).

Defends Azula constantly before anyone who may try to undermine or insult her (outright punched Zuko for saying thoughtless things about his sister in chapter 64, lashed out at Iroh for talking shit about her in chapter 95, attacked Rhone as soon as he spoke against Azula in 114 and threatened him in 160).

Comforts her often whenever she’s troubled, especially in matters pertaining her parents and the unpleasant strife they’ve caused her, both in the past and in current times (Ember Island arc, The Fire Nation Festivals arc, The Fire Lord’s Shadow arc). He’s also not judgmental, doesn’t tell her what to think, he mainly listens and helps her deal with her conflicted feelings.

Gladly agrees to change their original deal so he can stay with Azula for good instead of returning to his family, as he intended (chapter 107, Whaletail Island arc).

CRAFTED A BETROTHAL NECKLACE FOR HER??? :’) (chapter 131)

MARRIED HER. TWICE (Return to Shu Jing arc). I mean... really. The very logic of marriage says it’s something absolutely special you don’t do with just ANYONE? And they certainly live by that logic, completely. That something so obviously unique to his relationship with her happened so recently and yet you still sent this ask is... weird to me. Very weird.

In a slightly more intimate note: Sokka has never slept through the night with anyone but Azula. He has never woken up with someone beside him other than Azula. She’s literally the only one he’s ever done that with, and the only one he ever wants to do it with. Started in chapter 64, has happened many, many times since.

Endeavors to become a better painter because she inspired him to keep trying. They’ll start making collaborative art together starting in chapter 201 :’) and in 221 they will make a veeeery special artwork that’s basically their masterpiece.

Climbed a volcano to find a flower to give to her as a token of everlasting love? (chapter 125) :’D

Nearly died at the hands of Jeong Jeong’s schemes all be it to stay loyal to Azula (also chapter 125).

Got her a Fire Lily in the Festivals, something no one else had ever done for her, cultural connotations of it demand I single this out because it’s a big deal in the Fire Nation, he’s never done that for anyone else and never will (chapter 146).

Constantly asks for her lychee wine, her favorite drink, whenever they go places. The fact that Azula’s heart seems to grow twenty sizes every time he goes out of his way to find her perfect drink should be pretty telling...?

Overworked himself to make her dragon’s perfect armor as a birthday gift for her (Azula’s birthday arc), then still managed to win a fight for her sake despite his body was in bad shape.

Told her being without her feels like sleepwalking through life, waiting until she’s around again so he can wake up and feel like himself once more (chapter 86).

Offered his services and support in helping in the fulfillment Azula’s dream of offering women in the Fire Nation bigger opportunities and roles to make a difference in the world, by training the Enforcers in swordsmanship (Whaletail Island arc).

Accompanied Azula throughout her investigation in The Fire Lord’s Shadow arc, offering her all the support he could in that endeavor, day and night if need be, no matter how dangerous things got he was always there with her.

Trusted Azula so much he allowed her to BEND THROUGH HIM :’) I can guarantee that there’s no way anyone else can do that with Sokka other than Azula.

Sneaks out of his house, or his cabin, to spend nights with her whenever they can afford to, seen all throughout Part 2.

Changed his entire worldview to understand hers, just as she changed hers to understand his. Developed genuine empathy with someone who should have been his enemy, and saw through her to understand her humanity, something NO ONE BUT HIM had done before, and something he’s certainly not willing to do for many people he started out hating, or that he hated at any point in time (literally seen all through the story).

So... 33 items not enough yet, I wonder? Then stick around. The last arcs of Part 2 pack more than a few punches and many unique Sokkla interactions and situations that MIGHT just serve for you to finally see that their bond is actually one of a kind? Despite I’m pretty sure the story that already has been published proves it completely already... but I guess you may have gone too long witthout reading it in full detail? Eh, whatever the reason may be, you can see for yourself there’s a ton of unique things Sokka and Azula have only done with each other.

#anon #long post #sorry #gladiator #just #*tosses this into the void*#and I'm dead sure #I forgot a ton of things #just by nature their bond is one of a kind #so excuse me if I'm too harsh #but #I can't see how this question is necessary at all

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im-not-buying-it-ether · 4 years

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I’m going to make this, hopefully it’ll be my last she-ra post, and let off steam

Catra’s wrong doings, that affects the horde, Adora personally, herself, and the rebellion:

Emotionally manipulated Entrapta to help the horde

Left Adora and the Horde kids (it is also implied she does this often) to participate in training and only joined at the last second to help, the others could’ve gotten hurt without her or failed. This is a wrong-doing because they are supposed to work as a unit and Catra refused to do so

Attacks Thaymor (She knows the horde lies and most likely knows Thaymor is defenseless) willingly to shear happiness for Adora, multiple lives risked for one person

Never once told Adora, someone who clearly wants to do what she thinks is right, that the horde manipulated them since childhood

Tases Adora when she vocalizes wanting to leave in Ep 2

When given the title of force captain she immediately begins to brag and gloat to her “friends”

Physically attacks Adora after she refuses to join the horde again, leaving a noticeable claw mark on her face

Uses Scoprias princess connections to attack the princess ball with bombs, kidnapping Glimmer and Bow

Gives Adora back the sword, allowing her to continue to fight horde soldiers that will end up on infirmarys and continue the big fight just because Catra wants to keep fighting her

Made entrapta think the princesses left her for dead, using her emotions to make her help the horde

Leads a full force attack on bright moon, assaulting Adora relentlessly in their fight

Pushes Bow off a cliff

Leaves Scorpia to do secretary work when Scorpia is both her equal and has been in the position longer

Uses the murder virus on Adora, turning her into a mindless killing machine and removing her free will. She also verbalized the idea of having her attack her friends in a mocking manner

Left Scorpia on babysitting duty, again, Scorpia is her equal and the treatment is unfair

Wastes time and resources on Shadow Weaver and goes against Hordak orders to get rid of her

Sneaks in Shadow Weavers madalian that allows for her escape

Lies to Hordaks face about Shadow Weaver

Publicly berates Hordak

Let’s Tounge Lashor die in quick sand

Kidnaps Adora

Turns down a happy life in the Crimson Waste so she can spite Adora and returns to an abusive home

Tases Entrapta when she refuses to open the portal and orders for her to be sent to Beast Island, a literal death sentence

Threatens Scorpia when she protests her actions

Tells Hordak that Entrapta betrayed him, another bold faced lie

Opens the portal, literally ending the world when she knows what will happen

Berates Adora for her failures to beat her and pins all the blame for her actions on Adora

Her opening the portal made Angella sacrifice herself, killing a character permanently

Pulls the life support on Hordaks suit and threatens him if he doesn’t do what she wants

Berates Scorpia after she attempts to comfort her

Berates and commands Lonnie, Rogelio, and Kyle to risk their lives to deliver the transport

Snaps at Scorpia when she seems to fail at getting Entrapta’s notes for her

Lies again to hordaks face

Leads a full on attack on sealineas (I don’t know how to spell it)

It’s revealed that she clawed an eye out of another force captain as a child, that’s bad enough as a singular action with out her later ones

Puts a bounty on rebellion members, who knows how more violent pirates would’ve treated them

Over works horde soldiers, some are physically hurt and completely exhausted

Makes herself paranoid and lashes out at horde soldiers

Forces herself into an emotional breakdown after pushing away her entire support group of friends

When Hordak attacks her for continually lying and misleading him she berates him again and verbally insults him

Physically attacks Hordak and pulls his life support a second time

Did I miss anything?? Oh, how about how Double Trouble had to verbally and visually tell her that Catra is the problem and that isn’t even when she decided to work towards a redemption arc!?

Or how she doesn’t even attempt to redeem herself until after Prime tells her she’s no longer of use?!!

@tallysgreatestfan

#anti catra #anti catradora #catras (redemption)#a list of everything she did wrong #anti catra redemption #season 1-4

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captainscanadian · 4 years

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Exception | Carter Baizen x Reader (Part 2)

My Masterlist

Prologue | Part 1

Summary: The Archibald Wedding was supposed to be your first public appearance in the Upper East Side since you had left fifteen years ago. But what you had not realized was that Nate was marrying Caroline Baizen.

Word Count: 4900+

Pairing: CEO!Carter Baizen x Lawyer!Reader, Nate Archibald x Caroline Baizen, Chuck Bass x Blair Waldorf, Dan Humphrey x Serena van der Woodsen

Warnings: Swearing, Gossip Girl References, Mentions of Drugs & Alcoholism, Underage Drinking, Mentions of Death, Capitalism (I HAD TO!)

A/N: This is my entry for @baezen‘s writing challenge. I am breezing through this fic because I am overly excited to be writing it. Don’t mind me! Tag list is open, just send in an ask to be tagged. I don’t own any of the pics/gifs I used. Love you all! <3

His fingers wrapped around his whiskey glass as he sat down at the bar of the Palace Hotel. With the final preparations of his sister’s wedding well under way, the Baizen’s and the Archibald’s were staying the night at the hotel before the wedding festivities were to begin. The rehearsal dinner had gone smoothly and hopefully, so would the main event.

Carter Baizen may be the current CEO of Baizen Industries, but he had never been the most responsible member of the Baizen family or even the entire Upper East Side if he was being honest. At least not until now, he was not. Like most of the spoiled brats who called this borough of Manhattan their stomping ground, he had been quite the reckless soul during his teenage years. Drinking underage and doing lines of coke were only the bare minimum of the atrocities that he had committed when he was younger. He was a liar, a manipulator and a womanizer. He had owned up to that by now. But there was indeed a woman whom he had fallen in love with, for real that one time. You really were his one exception.

Perhaps it was the fact that he had lost you that night in Santorini that had sent him on his downward spiral. After losing you the way he had, Carter had done the unthinkable. He had cut ties with his parents and left the Upper East Side for good, traveling all around the world in search of his long lost love. Your interest in French history and culture had brought him to New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He had helped out with the clean up, in hopes that he would somehow end up running into you. He knew you well enough to know that you would have been there. But unfortunately for him, you were nowhere to be found.

His next destination had been Peru. For some reason, he had been searching for you there too. He had remembered you mentioning to him once that you had wanted to take part in the rebuilding of Machu Picchu. It had even been a part of your introduction during the debutante ball, for which he had been your escort. He had told you that you were crazy for wanting to be so... charitable. It seemed too unlikely for an Upper East Sider to be so sacrificial in the name of charity. Most people who he knew would simply write a cheque and call it a day.

Carter had mocked you when you had told him about this dream of yours at first. But then he had done exactly that, spending a whole year of his life helping to rebuild Machu Picchu and recording his experience into a documentary. He hoped that wherever you were in the world, you would have come across that film and you would have made your way back to him. He had done what you had always wanted to do, but you were still nowhere to be found. He had gone straight to London after that, knowing that you did have some family there. It had been his last resort. But he could not find you, as you did not want to be found.

Eventually, he had given up on his search for you. He had convinced himself that you must be dead, even though he had reason to believe that you were not. He concluded must have died that night in Santorini, for it was highly unlikely for anyone to just vanish into thin air. After all, it was what the Greek Police had told him when they had questioned him after your disappearance. They had found traces of your blood in your shared hotel room, but that was all the evidence that they were able to find. Serena van der Woodsen had been his alibi. She had confirmed that Carter was not with you that night, but with her. Not that it made much of a difference except end the budding relationship between Lilly and your father for good.

Carter had been detained for a while before your father had withdrawn his complaint and the Greek Police had let him go. He still did not know what had happened that night, for he had been extremely disoriented. That entire night was a blur to him, thanks to him and Serena’s joint venture into doing a few lines of cocaine. But he knew that there was a deep dark secret about what happened that night that your family had been keeping from him. All he had been told was that you were alive and well, and that you did not want to be contacted by anyone. He did not question it, for he did not know what to question.

But he had not been able get himself to believe that you were alive and well anymore. He should have at least tried to press further, but he had chosen not to do so out of respect for your decision. You did not want to be found and it was better that he left it that way. He just did not know why you had thrown him out of your life like that.

His financial situation had led to his gambling problem. His gambling problem had led to him returning to his parents. After his lavish trip to Dubai when he stayed in Palm Island and went pheasant hunting with the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, it was only a matter of time until his gambling problem had turned into a rather huge debt.

Carter had been an idiot for trying to use Beth Buckley as a pawn into getting the Buckley’s to settle his debt. He had learned that the hard way though. Not only had he manipulated a woman by proposing to her and left her at the altar, but he had also returned to Serena in hopes of restarting what they had. He should have known that fate was going to bite him in the ass by then. But things had only gone downhill from there.

His choice to leave Serena and go off to work at the Buckleys’ oil rig was not just his attempt at redemption. If anything, it was far from that. As much as he wanted to be held accountable for his reckless behavior, he knew that he owed this much to you. Whatever the reason you had left him may be, he had hoped that one day you would come back to him. He hoped that you would find him again. And if that ever came true, then he had to prove that he was worthy of you.

Working in an oil rig, it would have taken him almost twenty years to settle the amount of his debt. But Carter had returned to the Upper East Side in just four years without even having to work off his remaining debt. As it turned out, the Buckley’s business had been shut down completely following their loss in a lawsuit. Their company had been dissolved, their assets liquidated or frozen, and somehow on the contrary, his debt had been settled and he had earned himself his freedom from them. He was no CEO back then, but he knew that there was something fishy about how the Buckley’s had been targeted by a certain British lawyer. It did not take him that long to go running to Bree Buckley for answers.

“This woman... she goes by the name of Y/N van der Bilt. She didn’t even come down to meet with us personally. She sent in a bunch of her associates to do the talking and the paperwork, came in through conference call with her demands. She had us by our necks, Carter. We were bound to lose. We have no choice but to sign over our company and most of our assets. We’re basically living in the streets now. She destroyed us.” The woman had told him, not knowing why someone would have targeted her family like that. Clearly, she was feeling very defeated by this whole thing. No one in her family could even seek revenge on this unknown lawyer. “My family has always had an issue with the van der Bilt family but I’ve never met someone who’s had a personal vendetta against us. I know I used Nate to get to you, but I don’t think even he would have been capable of pulling something like this. She was a ruthless monster and it was clear that she was out to get us. She was a total bitch in a suit, according to PJ. She hit us where it hurts and she was insistent that along with our company and our assets, we also give up our custody of you. She was very particular about that.”

Carter had always wondered why you had bailed him out like that, and why all of a sudden, you had made your existence known to him after all those years. He wondered if you still cared about him, for you had gone after the Buckley’s yourself and pretty much destroyed their family’s entire legacy to ensure his freedom. As a van der Bilt, you might have had your own reasons for doing what you had done. But why go so far?

A part of him had always known that you had been living in London, but Bree’s response to his doubts had only confirmed his suspicions. Yet he had chosen not to go looking for you once more. If you had willingly made sure that he was free, he knew that he owed you that much to not waste that freedom by going back to his globe trotter ways. Just because you did not want to be found, it did not mean that he could not find you at all. He did have some hope but he was not in a rush. If it had taken you almost a decade to make your presence known to him, then it was only a matter of time before you eventually came before him. And boy was he right about that.

Eventually, he did return to the Upper East Side. Following his parents’ tragic passing, it had been just him and his sister. He had taken over as the CEO of Baizen Industries and for once, he had become a responsible man. He did not live to spend anymore, but to earn. He knew that his freedom and the luxurious life he now lived were all because of you. He had to prove to himself and to you that he was worthy of having you back in his life.

Perhaps that was why he had jumped at the chance to buy your father’s failing company, because he knew that if there was anything that the man had cared about in this world, it was his family’s legacy. And you were inevitably his legacy. His target was not the company; it had always been you. He knew that it was only a matter of time until you would show up to save your family’s legacy, and here you fucking were.

He took a sip of his drink before he turned around to face his brother-in-law to be. “You better not be fucking with me, Archibald.” He told him with an eye roll. “I know Y/N’s my weakness but there’s no need for you to hit me with her like this.”

“And why the fuck would I do that?” Nate asked him as he sighed. “Whatever the hell we may have had back then, we’re family now, Carter. I care about you as much as I care about her. You know I’ve told you as much as I could tell you, man. Y/N’s back in town and she’s going to be here for a while.”

“I don’t think she’d want to see me.” Carter admitted, sighing as he set down his glass. “Her dad said she was pretty fucking clear about that when he bailed me out from the Greek Police.”

“She may have had her reasons to not want to see you. But I think we both know that the times have changed. We all need to move forward.” He pointed out, for he was the only one who knew the real truth behind why you had left.

As he had been your one trusted soul, he had made sure not to violate your trust by confiding in Carter of the whole truth. The truth was yours to tell when you were ready to tell it to him. But until then, Nate could only sit by and watch. “She’s coming to the wedding. Do as you please with her when you see her. But if you dare to hurt her, Carter, I will... I won’t even think twice about you being family. I won’t hesitate to fuck you up and run you out of town again.”

“I loved her, Nate. I really did.”

A bitter chuckle escaped his lips as he shook his head, for he knew that you had always believed otherwise. “You know, I’m not the one you should be saying this to.”

You stood in front of the floor length mirror in your childhood bedroom, taking in the sight of the reflection of you wearing the Oscar de la Renta evening gown that you had chosen to wear for Nate Archibald’s wedding. “The last time I had to dress up this fancy, it was for a gala that was being thrown by one of my firm’s clients. Even my presence at those events was a rare occasion. Other than that though, I was pretty much locked up in the estate in my pajamas and with my laptop. I seem to have forgotten how common it was for the Upper East Siders to be hosting a banquet every week.” You admitted, sighing as you took a sip of the wine that your maid had graciously poured for you the moment you began getting ready for your first public appearance in New York since leaving the city for good. “But weddings are supposed to be fun when they’re not yours and this is my little cousin’s wedding, after all. I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

“It’s something to get used to, isn’t it?” Annalise asked you as she stood on top of a small stool to reach your height, being the short and plump woman she had always been. Truth be told, she was still not able to get used to the fact that you had grown past her height since the last time she had seen you in person. She hooked the Swarovski necklace around your neck before taking a look at your reflection in the mirror. “You look beautiful, Miss. Y/N.” She told you as she leaned over to rest her chin against your shoulder for a moment. “You’ve grown up to be a very beautiful woman and you know that.” And she had meant every word of it. She had been working for your parents ever since they had gotten married. Even after their divorce, she had been a significant part of your childhood. Whenever your mother was out of town or if your father was preoccupied with another girlfriend, she had been your primary caregiver and your closest friend.

“Thank you, Annalise.” You smiled at her as you turned around to face her. “God, you have been so good to me since the moment you got here. I wish I could have taken you to London with me when I had left.” You admitted with a soft chuckle. Being all alone in an unknown world, you had to learn how to live your life as an independent woman.

It had not been easy, even though you had somehow managed to push through your struggles. But there were often times when you had wished that you had not left this woman behind. She had been your pillar of strength for so long and she had kept this household together when everything else had turned into a complete shit show. She was the calm within the storm and you had missed her dearly.

The drive from your mother’s penthouse to The Palace had been a rather quiet one once again. You were beyond nervous this time, for this was indeed your first public appearance in the Upper East Side since your so-called disappearance from Santorini fifteen years ago.

Over the years of being a corporate lawyer in one of London’s most reputable law firms, you had managed to grow some thick skin. You knew that the prying eyes of Manhattan’s elite and the gossip were an inevitable part of life on the Upper East Side. You were well aware that your return would be the talk of the town in a matter of seconds.

If Gossip Girl had still been active, the blasts would have been sent out the moment you had even landed at JFK. Even the competing outlet, the NY Spectator, had not made exclusive news out of your arrival. You had Nate Archibald to thank for that.

“You look a little nervous.” Walter pointed out as he gave you a cheeky smile through the rear view mirror.

“Going to this wedding is pretty much the start of me stepping back into the life that I left behind fifteen years ago, Walter. If life had really been so hard for me back then, I know now that it’s going to be much worse now.” You admitted, sighing nervously as you fidgeted with your clutch. The tips of your fingers were sweaty, as were the palm of your hands.

A part of you wanted to bail on this whole thing and return home, perhaps just lock yourself in your childhood bedroom for as long as you were meant to be in town. But you knew that you could not keep hiding from this world any longer. You knew that you had to face your past and the people who had been a part of it whether you liked it or not. That was the only way you could move forward, and that was all an inevitable part of your redemption.

As your limo pulled up in front of The Palace Hotel, you let out a sigh of disbelief at the site of its exterior. It seemed as though nothing had changed in the last fifteen years, at least not much with the exterior of the hotel. The last time you had been here had been for your Cotillion fifteen years ago, when you had been debuted as a young woman in this high society.

“Y/N Y/L/N, escorted by Carter Baizen. Miss. Y/L/N hopes to spend a year in Peru, helping to rebuild the Machu Picchu before going off to attend Yale University.”

“Rebuild the Machu Picchu, really?” Carter teased you as the two of you danced around the ball room after you had been debuted.

“It’s a historically significant piece of architecture that needs to be restored and maintained in the name of preserving the Incan culture.” You replied as you rolled your eyes at him. “You won’t understand...”

“The one thing I don’t understand is how I’m supposed to spend a whole year without you when you’re in Peru.” He admitted, his lips curling into a pout. “It will be one hell of a long year, if I’m being honest.”

“I’m sure you won’t miss me too much, Baizen.” You noted, giving him a cheeky grin. “There are plenty of girls in the Upper East Side who would get in bed with you if you just flicked a fucking finger of yours.”

“But it’s not them I want. It’s you...” He confessed. “You’re my one exception. I can’t just spend a whole damn year away from you, just like that.” Needless to say, the two of you went on to spend fifteen years apart. And that fucking sucked, for the both of you.

As you made your way inside, you reminisced about your time spent in this hotel. Your family had been frequenting here for years now, since the time it was owned by Bart Bass. And now after his second death, it was owned by his son, Chuck Bass.

You were familiar with him as much as you were familiar with Nate, for those two boys had been inseparable since they were very young. Often times, you had babysat the two of them together while Bart had taken a business trip. To think that Chuck was now the CEO of Bass Industries and Nate was getting married. God, you must have been feeling so old right now.

“Oh... my... God!” Blair Waldorf’s jaw had almost hit the floor the moment she noticed you walk into the venue, her eyes growing wide as she nudged her husband. “Holy shit, Chuck! She’s still alive!”

Chuck Bass was quick to turn around to see where his wife had pointed out, and the expression on his face was quick to mimic hers. “Is that... Y/N?!” As shocked as he was to see you, he was happy to know that you were alive and well. He walked up to you with open arms, grinning widely as he greeted you with an embrace. “Oh my God, it really is you!”

“Chuck!” You exclaimed as you pulled him into a hug. “Good God, you’ve grown so much!”

He wrapped as arms around you tightly. “You’re... just the same.” He chuckled, shaking his head slightly. “It’s so lovely to see you. Nate didn’t mention that you were coming, I-” He paused to pull back from the hug, letting out a sigh of relief. “How are you? How have you been? It’s been so long.”

“I’ve been great. I’ve... been living in London now and I’m working... at my own firm. I’m back in town and I’ll be here for a while now. I’m sure, you heard about my dad.” It felt so awkward to be answering that question. You had no idea how to word it, for your entire life for the last fifteen years had been a long guarded secret that you wanted no one to find out about.

Surely, everyone you saw would have a lot of questions about where you had been for all this time. But you did not want to answer with the whole truth. Your truth was a lot more dark and twisted than what you let on and you wanted to keep that a secret for a reason.

“Oh yes, of course. I am so sorry to hear that.” Chuck gave you a friendly smile before he was approached by a curly haired man whom you had never met. But he really needed no introduction.

“Chuck, they need all of the groomsmen so that we can get started.” Dan Humphrey informed him before turning his gaze towards you. “Oh my God! I’m so sorry, we haven’t met. I’m Dan Humphrey.” He introduced himself politely as he held his hand out for you to shake. “You’re Y/N, right? You’re-”

“Gossip Girl’s biggest unsolved mystery.” You cut him off with a nod as you took his hand, a cheeky smile on your face as you shrugged your shoulders. “I must admit that I’m a huge fan of your writing.”

“Thank you.”

You looked behind the two gentlemen to see both of their wives looking rather nervous. Blair gave you a nervous wave while Serena completely avoided making eye contact with you.

You let out a sigh before you turned back to Chuck and Dan. “I should probably let you boys go.” You smiled politely at them before you made your way over to take a seat with your mother.

Lilly van der Woodsen- or Bass, since you’d last seen her, was sat next to your mother as you made your way over. “Y/N, it really is you!” She exclaimed when she saw you, a genuine smile plastered across her lips as you took a seat next to her.

The last time you had seen this woman, she had been a girlfriend of your father’s whom you did not approve of. But looking back now, you had to admit that she was the only one of them who had treated you like her own child. Perhaps you may have been harsh on her due to your strong dislike for her daughter. But this was, after all, your attempt to seek redemption. So, you might as well start with Lilly.

You smiled politely at her as you sat down, letting out a sigh of relief at the way she was treating your return. After all, the way you had disappeared from Santorini had not been kind to her relationship with her father. But your father had made sure to let her know why you had left and where you were. She did not know the role that her daughter had played in your sudden disappearance and you hoped to keep it that way. “It’s lovely to see you, Lilly. I see the years have been kind to you.”

“How is your father, sweetheart? I haven’t had the chance to go down and see him yet.”

“He’s alright...” You admitted, nodding your head as though you were trying to convince yourself that he was. “He’s recovering.”

It was the moment before the doors were to open and the bride was to walk down the aisle. The bridesmaids and groomsmen had made their way down the aisle. Chuck Bass, being the best man he was, he turned over to look at the groom in disbelief. “You could have at least told us that she was back in town.” He whispered into his best friend’s ear. “Does she even know?”

Nate Archibald bit his lip nervously, his gaze darting towards where you sat for a moment before he shook his head. “No, she doesn’t. I don’t think she would have even showed up if I had told her and I couldn’t get myself to tell her, not when she’s been back here for the first time in fifteen years.” He admitted with a sigh, disappointed in himself that he had let it come to this. “She’s not going to cause a scene, Chuck.”

“It’s not even her that I’m worried about, Nate.” Chuck admitted. “It’s him. If he sees her like this and causes a scene, it’ll probably be very ugly.”

“He already knows that she’s coming.” He admitted. “I told him after the rehearsal dinner last night. She had been asking about him a lot ever since he got back from the Buckleys’ and so has he. I could not give him an answer until now.”

“What?” He rolled his eyes. “Nate, it’s your wedding day. If either one of them causes any drama, I swear to fucking God...”

“Don’t worry, Chuck. The only one who could cause a scene today is Caroline. And believe me, she won’t do that either, because her wedding is happening today just the way she wanted it to. I put my mother in her place and made her interference in the wedding planning come to a stop. Caroline’s actually quite pleased with me so there’s nothing for us to worry about.” He admitted, rather confidently as the doors open and the music began. He looked down the aisle to see his bride walking towards him and his eyes welled up in tears.

As you stood up from your seat, you turned around to finally see who the lucky woman to marry your little cousin could be. The moment your eyes landed on Caroline Baizen in her bridal gown, your heart sunk, for the man who was walking her down the aisle was the last person whom you had been hoping to run into ever since you had returned to the Upper East Side.

Of course, you knew he was here. You had bailed him out of the Buckleys’ debt yourself. That was why you had been so hesitant about coming back to town in the first place, for you knew that you would have no choice but to have an awkward run in with him. You did not think you would have caught a glimpse of him at your own cousin’s wedding out of all places. Yet there he was, dressed to the nines in his designer tuxedo as he walked his baby sister down the aisle, Carter Baizen himself in the flesh. He was your apocalypse.

You turned back around to face the groom, your eyes growing wide in disbelief. “I...” You mouthed, shaking your head at him as you felt your eyes glaze over.

Nate gave you an apologetic look that was mimicked by Chuck.

You turned back towards the aisle, wondering if there was any way you could just duck out of the wedding without being seen by the crowd. The bride was already halfway down the aisle; you could not get out. It was too late now; you had no other choice but to face the worst part of your dreadful past. You quickly turned your head away as they passed you, hoping that the man whom you had once loved did not notice you standing just a few feet away from him.

But unbeknownst to you, as you had turned your head away from him, Carter had taken a quick glance at you. Seeing that you were indeed alive and well made him let out a sigh of relief. He turned back to look at Nate, his lips curling into a smile as he gave him a nod.

As he handed Caroline’s hand over to him, he leaned over to pull his brother-in-law to be into a quick hug. “Thank you.” He whispered in his ear, for Nate had been the reason why Carter was able to get a glimpse of you after fifteen whole years apart.

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gemathest · 4 years

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Headcanon of Sight-Gifted Queens

So I’m not sure how long Fennbirn has been a nation and how long the tradition of the Ascension year battle for the crown has existed, but I’ve been pondering the question “How many Oracle queens did Fennbirn have before Queen Elsabet?” I mean the only Oracle queens we know of is her and Queen Isadora (Daphne and Illiann’s sister who is drowned at birth). As such I’ve come up with a list of four Sight-Gifted queens for my headcanon of TDC that came before Elsabet. (I say 5 because I don’t think many would have been powerful enough to take on the other queens since it is mostly a passive gift than an offensive gift for conflict.)

Also I should once again preface this with: THIS IS MY PERSONAL HEADCANON REGARDING MY VIEWS ON FENNBIRN HISTORY. THIS IS NOT THE REAL LORE ON ORACLE QUEENS. (I say that cause knowing Kendare Blake she definitely has a list of canon Sight-Gifted Queens. Anyways onto the list!) (Plus if it turns out that there was an already existing canon list of sight-gifted queens then this list just goes to show that I haven’t read The Oracle Queen askslkdskfafjdk)

1: Queen Leah

Queen Leah was the first Sight-Gifted queen to become Queen of Fennbirn, something that was anticipated from her at a young age since Leah is regarded as the strongest Oracle queen of Fennbirn. Growing up she would have at least three visions a day of the near-future, which grew in clarity as the honed her gift with the Lermonts. Her gift was so strong that it was said that when she was born, she did not cry like her sisters as she had already received a vision that she would win her Ascension Year.

With a powerful gift however came it’s own obstacles for Leah, as she was unable to willingly induce a vision unlike the oracle queens that would follow. Meaning that she had to rely on the visions coming at the right time, though whenever she did receive a vision, they would cause her to enter a state of unconsciousness. This became a great hindrance to her, as this almost cost her her life when she received a vision whilst in conflict with another queen, something that left her unconscious and scarred after the encounter. Barely escaping, she used her gift to plan various attacks from afar through lethal traps she would construct in waiting for them, as to not put herself at risk of her sisters. She reigned for fifteen years before the goddess sent her the triplets.

2: Queen Deborah

Deborah reigned the shortest of the oracle queens being on the throne for only five and a half years before the Goddess gave her the triplets. However compared to her sight-gifted predecessor, Deborah’s gift was significantly infrequent as she would receive visions four times a year at best. In spite of the visions lasting long and appearing vividly, they were often hard to interpret and she struggled to conjure these outside of them happening to her at random. This let her down on several occasions such as on the day of her Quickening when she was unable to come up with a prediction, however something did play in the queen’s favour. For as she stood on her stage she spotted a red-haired woman she had seen in a vision years ago, a vision where a rabid fox was hounding through the forests in Innisfuil Valley as it leapt from behind the very same woman. Immediately, Deborah knew what would happen in mere minutes, rushing from her platform to steal a dagger from her war-gifted sister before pushing through the crowd just in time to shove the prophesied woman aside and bury her knife in the mad fox’s chest. This rare instance of power would serve Deborah later on, as many of her once ‘useless’ prophecies came of great help to her from those which she remembered. The greatest and final example was when she suddenly ordered several tonnes of logs, metal, and rope to be brought to her chamber in Sunpool, and for the next two days secluded herself from her foster family and servants. She was discovered unconscious in her room next to a large makeshift crossbow after the sound of a bow being fired boomed across Sunpool and a long wooden bolt was seen flying from her room. By the end of the day word had reached Deborah that the queen in Prynn had been assassinated with a large crossbow bolt to the back. The contraption would be used again as a weapon against invaders to Fennbirn as the ‘Deborah Catapult’.

3: Queen Edith

Like Queen Leah, Queen Edith was a powerful sight-gifted queen of Fennbirn, though her gift was not for prophecies or visions, but rather for her ability to read minds. With this unique aspect of the sight gift to her advantage, she used it to garner information from merchants and travellers who made it to Sunpool from different parts of the island as to train her gift. As she trained this gift however, she grew to become very manipulative of those around her, including her own foster family whom she took advantage of on several occasions. On the day of her Quickening, Edith used this ability on her sisters to gauge their thoughts and plans for the ascension year that would follow. Although this preoccupied the queen as she sat still on her stage subsequently lowering her popularity among the suitors, she used this vital knowledge to piece together her sisters’ strategies and weaknesses. However this was not enough, and as a result Edith took flight from Sunpool on several occasions to risk her life and spy on her sisters in various disguses. This worked exceptionally well as Edith worked around the worries of one sister, eventually driving her to madness and subsequent suicide. After this success, she headed to find her other poisoner sister to begin the process again over the next several months, however this time her sister was more resilient to Edith’s mental probing and once she realised this began full on attacks against Edith. This lead to a vicious hand-to-hand fight between the queens in which Edith just came out on top and proud of her victory began taunting her dying sister. However as she did this, the dying poisoner queen took a swig of poison she had kept on her and spat it towards Edith when the sight-gifted queen got too close. The poison painfully seeped into Edith’s eyes, causing them to painfully burn as they melted out of her skull with Edith screaming as her sister died.

For the rest of her reign, Edith relied on a cane and those around her to rule effectively now that her sight was completely gone. Though her mind reading gift remained, it was much more difficult to use now that she could not see those around her. As her reign progressed, Edith became colder and more ruthless due to her permanent weakness and dependency, but also because of what her Black Council and those around her thought of her when she would look into their minds, sometimes unintentionally and would be emotional torment for her. She reigned for nineteen terribly long years before she got her triplets.

4: Queen Marion

Many people consider the reign of Queen Marion a miracle from the goddess since out of all the sight gifted queens, she is considered the weakest in terms of her gift. Growing up, she was barely able to receive a vision let alone read the thoughts of others like Queen Edith, as such she had low hopes to survive her Ascension year, let alone to be a competent queen. On top of that, it did not help that both of her sisters were powerful elementals with affinities for air and earth, making Marion’s chances of winning her Ascension year incredibly slim as both sisters were said to meet in secret to practice and plot their murder of Marion, something against the restrictions placed on them as queens.

On the day of the Quickening, whilst her elemental sisters danced and commanded the earth and winds beautifully, Marion simply sat on a wooden stool and waited for a premonition as she stated into space. As the Quickening came to an end however, Marion was overcome with a terrible fit as she convulsed. Poisoners on the Black Council came to see if she had been poisoned by a rouge poisoner, however when she came to the oracle queen revealed she had not in fact been poisoned but had experienced a powerful vision that one of her elemental sisters would execute a terrible betrayal on the other soon after the Quickening that they had been allegedly been planning for years.

This disturbed the elemental sisters, who once they returned to Rolanth quickly turned on each other, the city being the battleground as it was hit by harsh hurricanes and deadly earthquakes in the sisters’ bid to kill the other first. The terrible conflict came to an end when during a fight on the Rolanth cliffs, the aeromancer queen was concussed by a hard rock to the head. In the confusion, she summoned a brutal wind that ended up sweeping both queens off of the cliffside and to their deaths. Once the news reached Marion she was greatly surprised to hear of the outcome, which confused many at the time as she had foreseen the conflict. The truth behind this however, was that Marion had not foreseen the betrayal at all, rather faking the convulsions and making up the vision as a last-minute tactic to muddy the waters between the sisters in the hopes they wouldn’t gang up on her. This deception gave Marion the nickname of ‘The Glass Queen’, for how fragile and weak her gift was yet still winning her Ascension year. Queen Marion reigned as one of the only White-Handed Oracle queens of Fennbirn for ten years before she delivered her triplets.

5: Queen Norabelle

One of Queen Marion’s triplets, Queen Norabelle was the penultimate Oracle queen before the reign of Queen Elsabet generations later. Her affinity was for prophecies, and though she would regularly receive them, she had trouble recognizing their meaning in her life and as such was trained with the Lermonts to identify patterns and people her prophecies could be applied to, but alas she could never seem to understand why she received these prophecies.

However, her growing skills in analytics and identifying patterns helped her become an incredibly perceptive queen as well as an excellent tactician. Even if she couldn’t use her gift, she could rely on her intellect that she had honed in on for the past decade before the Ascension year was upon her. However, things changed the night before her Ascension year when a prophecy she had received when she was still living at the Black Cottage came to pass that night. From this moment on, several prophecies she documented occurred as the Ascension year progressed, making Norabelle realise that the prophecies she had been receiving were not irrelevant, but were in fact prophecies for the far future. However, her gift became of less use to her in her Ascension year as less prophecies came to pass from those she predicted, some passing well after her Ascension year and into the years of her reign. Queen Norabelle reigned for twenty-nine years before the goddess gave her the triplets, making her the longest reigning Sight-Gifted queen. Though even though Norabelle was off the island, many of her prophecies came to pass decades, even centuries after her reign. Somewhere in the Volroy is a small black book containing several prophecies, one which detailed the fall of Queen Elsabet, and another which spoke of ‘Withered Willows smothered by an elemental smoke’ and ‘A Golden Queen arising from the pale, white remains of her aunts.’

#three dark crowns #tdc #headcanon #fandom

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symwinter · 4 years

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Making Descendants likeable to me and only me but maybe you if we have similar tastes?

Part One: Mal

The best way to ‘fix’ Mal, is to give a context to her actions, have her grow from them, and change for the better, a standard thing really.

In movie one the main thing Mal has to learn is to grow out of her mother’s shadow. A lot of what she does is to be like her mom, there’s a whole song about it, but to make it the driving force of her first step in her arc is a good way of going about it. Have her initially be against the date with Ben because her mother wasn’t the dating type. Have her interest in magic be because her mother is. Then her telling her mother off at the end of the third act all the more climatic.

The other thing is to remove the manipulation of Ben with the love potion. Instead, it would make more sense to infect Audrey with some kind of hatred spell. Audrey already doesn’t like the Core Four, so the spell just makes her more obsessed and spiteful of them, therefore Audrey has more reason to want revenge on Mal in movie three other than stealing her boyfriend when the spell breaks.

Movie two‘s main arc is trying to figure who she is by going back to her roots, magic and then the Isle. Her conflict with Uma is more a result of her pre and post Auradon side as she still cares about Ben, lovable puppy that he is, even when she’s trying to be the person she was before. However I am going to get rid of the whole love spell thing Uma does since magic doesn’t work on the Isle and it’s never explained how she got off the isle and did the spell

By the end of the movie, Mal embraces the better parts of her old self and the better parts of her new self and along with having one of my favourite movies endings with the dancing boat scene, she tells Ben her actual real faery name, a sign of utmost trust: Morgana.

Movie 3 is more like a tv show with an A plot and a B plot. A plot is “actions have consequences” primarily focusing on what she did to Audrey. B plot is “how to keep her deal with Uma without endangering the people she cares about” because in case anyone forgot the Isle holds people like: attempted murderers, actual murderers, abusive parental figures, people who have committed high treason, people who have attempted regicide and/or identity theft, attempted animal murderers, people who are willing to manipulate a teenage girl who’s stuff got destroyed to gain power, a jock, whatever the fuck Captain Hook was trying to do. It isn’t safe to release them onto Auradon and just assume their grudges will go away.

By the end of the movie when Hades, who isn’t her dad in my version, gets on his high horse, Mal rightfully admits it was her fault Audrey went this far but also that Audrey is like seventeen, nobody died, and that there was little to no collateral damage. As for the whole villain kid parent thing, Mal and Ben reinstate something I’m calling the “Villain Rehabilitation Act” which is basically a rehab/help centre type thing that allows villains who want to change the opportunity to change in things like a larger scale Remedial Goodness class, finding jobs where their skills come in handy, and finding Auradon citizens who are willingly to help them get better.

Also due to fairy physiology, Mal should have wings. The basics for me is that a fairy’s shoulder blades are more pronounced to act as the breaking point for wings, but because Mal was on the island the anti-magic prevented them from growing out properly but also technically hid the pain so when she reaches Auradon she has back problems and what looks to be fractals from the damage her lack of wings has caused. It also acts as a catalyst in the first movie when she goes to Fairy Godmother for help and kind of experiences genuine motherly affection as Fairy Godmother breaks the unofficial rule not to use magic to break Mal’s wings out of her back with as little pain as possible. Like all wings they’re translucent with fairy magic in a physical form being the sparkles/glitter, but hers are dragon shaped.

Part Two: Evie

Since I can’t just make Evie the protagonist without doing a bunch of movie rewriting, we shall keep Evie as the deuteragonist/tritagonist that she is. Also like the others, her character arc is handled in the movie and then she’s fairly stable for the rest. Evie’s major character arc in movie one is to not trade her passions to get the guy. This is dealt with through her two most defining relationships in Auradon: Doug and Ben. While Jay is her best friend, more on that in a the next part, it’s those two that basically help Evie to ditch the persona she had put on. She’s still boy crazy and wants a nice castle, but she should be herself. Evie is fashion savvy, empathetic, and genuinely smart and she shouldn’t throw it out. By the time two and three roll around, she’s got an upcoming business, a sick boat party to look forward to, and is making bank by embracing and sharing her fashion. Her time on the Isle isn’t ever really discussed because for a good portion of it, she was locked in her house for not inviting Mal to her birthday party, so she actually knows the least about the Isle. However, that is unimportant as she acts as the bridge between Mal’s old and new self having figured out how to be her best self without getting rid of the person she was, and in movie three she’s legit done with all the fighting because she is the most emotionally mature which is why she suggests the ice breakers because Audrey is clearing a danger to herself and others and we don’t have time for your power trips.

Part Three: Jay and Carlos

You know when we reach the “and” I’m running out of stuff to do. This is probably where we reach the point where it’s primarily background or aesthetics that change more than a storyline.

Jay is the only member of the Core Four to be born in Auradon. His mother is alive and well. Just before our gang was born, the Villain Rehabilitation Act happened, and Jafar decided why not in a ploy to get power, but then befriended and fell in love with Jay’s mom, but the act was revoked for unknown reasons and Jafar, as well as baby Jay were sent back to the Isle, even though Jafar was one of the least dangerous villains at the time. So technically for Jay, Auradon is a chance to meet his mom. Which he does on Family Day before the whole Queen Leah drama. THe other notable thing about Jay’s past is his friendship with Evei, which began when he broke into the castle to hide after stealing some stuff for his dad and Evie hiding him from her mom. Friendship blossomed from there and the two will often hang out because of this.

Carlos is both easy and hard to work with. For example, appearance wise he would have movie two hair, the peak hairstyle honestly, but everything about him personality wise is a lot more… poised. He still likes tech, but fall out of the limo he does not. However he’s not great at talking to people without being kinda bitchy. His main issue with Jane is her lack of self confidence, so even after the hairstyle upgrade in movie one he still kinda sees her as spineless though he’d never say it outloud.

His arc is friendship through the doggo and like compliment sandwiches. Taking care of Dude and having to give positive critiques teaches him empathy, constructive criticism, and a better way of complimenting people by pointing out the effort a person put into something, even if the result isn’t great. There’d be a part of the dance in movie one where Carlos tells Jane that her problem isn’t her appearance, but her lack of confidence and offers to help her figure it out. Also his crush on Jane stays but the whole having trouble asking her out is either ignored or dealt with very quickly. Like they’re about to go to the Isle to get Mal back and Carlos spots Jane and asks if she’ll be his date to Cotillion if he gets back in time for it.

Part Four: Ben

The gist is that a single strand of his dad’s curse is in his DNA and fairy magic can strengthen it, so for movie one, other than the whole Audrey thing, his major conflict is that he’s in love with a woman who can legit turn him into a beast. I mean there’s magic water and true love, but it’s still a terrifying thought to him, especially since Ben is a total sweetheart and doesn’t deserve it. Interestingly enough, he finds that nothing actually happens when he’s with Mal until movie two when we learn Fairy Godmother was requested to bury the curse so on the Isle, where magic doesn’t work, he’s basically a ticking time bomb since the beast curse was still gaining strength from Mal’s untamed magic and since it’s also genetic, it can affect him on the Isle. It mainly takes the form of claws and being a bit more on edge. By the time they return home, the spell is placed back on him, and is subsequently broken again in movie three. Ben can’t catch a break, but once the whole enchanted water puts him at a halfway point, he learns of Mal’s deal and brings up the old Villain Rehabilitation Act since it’s what he based his exchange program on and is able to find the moving fairy cottage by following the smell of Audrey’s perfume. Movie three’s whole thing is the acceptance that his curse is kinda cool and that fangs are fun.

Part Five: Antagonists

Movie two has Uma as the antagonist with Harry and Gil as like lackeys. Uma does not hate just Mal. Evie, Jay and Carlos all got to leave the Isle and get a better life, but Mal had power on the Isle and even though Uma rose when she left, she still feels it was just given to her. Her goal is to truly beat Mal so her power feels justified. Harry goes along cause he’s like lowkey in love with Uma, but like he just has a general thing for confident women and gravitated to Uma due to shared interests, and Gil had nothing better to do. That’s why he’s the odd one out. Somehow after the whole Ben kidnap fails, Uma escapes the Isle but rather than mind control Ben cause no thanks, she decides to ruin cotillion. Unlike before, Uma has been humiliated by Mal, so attacking the boat with her octopus tentacles is a pretty big fuck you. When that fails she hides out in her mother’s old lair until movie three. Meanwhile Harry and Gil are left with trying to hold the crew together but by movie three it’s broken up which is why Harry and Gil decide to break out and are less then excited to see Uma initially since she abandoned them. But again, they’re happy that she’s back. Harry does kinda break away from Uma such as complimenting Evie back after she compliments his accent, but it’s Gil who has the best character arc as he becomes part of a himbo duo with Jay. Gil honestly doesn’t need to change, he's great as he is.

So we’ve already covered movie one’s antagonist, Audrey who was a means to an end created by Mal and while Mal does break it, I don’t imagine she apologized for it. So she vanishes before the dance sequence and goes to deal with every that’s happened and also probably to be a witch on the Charmed reboot, I don’t know for sure. But movie three Audrey is a different story ignoring the end, which was talked about as well. Audrey’s primary goal in movie three is to get back at Mal which is deserved, and Queen of Mean is a bop so it’s staying. The downside is Audrey is so invested in revenge she doesn’t think to stop using Maleficent’s wand which was created to be used by a fairy. Fairy wings basically act as a magic battery, constantly replenishing the magic used by spells, so when a human, like Audrey, uses it, when it runs out of magic, it’ll use Audrey’s life as energy ie. it puts her in a coma. When Audrey does wake up thanks to Hades, she finally gets her apology from Mal and while they aren’t friends, they don’t hate each other. She also trades the pink for blue as pink reminds her of things like activating the curse on her ex-boyfriend or locking Chad in a closet.

Next is Hades who isn’t Mal’s dad. That was kinda dumb. His plan is mostly the same, escape the Isle by making people feel bad for him, but again, Mal doesn’t fall for it at the end, not only by pointing out that she pushed Audrey into doing that while no one did to Hades, sure he was stuck in the underworld but he never tried to find a positive in it, and you know, people died during Hades’s titanomachy. By the end however, he is allowed to go back to the underworld rather than the Isle.

Part Six: any other characters that are primarily just minor fixes that don’t need their own section

Doug is fine. While he does have a crush on Evie, his primary goal in helping her is just that. There’s no ulterior motives. Also his season three hair is a yikes.

Chad is also fine. I like that he’s clearly got good self-preservation skills shown in movie three, and giving him claustrophobia helped me sympathize with him.

Jane is a top tier character, fight me. Major difference in movie one is that her following of Audrey in movie one is because she wants to be liked and thinks that’s the fastest way, but she doesn’t insult Mal, and actually asks to have her natural hair back after the whole dance thing.

Lonnie, proving mlm wlw solidarity is great. I like her friendship with Jay in movie two and her being a boss as bitch and also when she puts her foot on Chad’s back to make doing push ups harder because Chad still sucked in movie two.

The og parents are fine. Dizzy is great, wished we had more of her in D3.

Part Seven: should’ve been a show

And I don’t mean like Wicked World, which like the books is non-canon in this, but like an actual tv show. So much could’ve been done with the Isle that just wasn’t. Mal probably wouldn’t be such a contentious character if we didn’t have to cram the plot into a two hour movie. They wouldn’t even need to start the show with them meeting, since they could follow the format of Once Upon A Time and have each episode show things like how Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos became friends, or how the whole Shrimpy thing happened. Descendants, and Barbie Princess Charm School, would work better as a tv show over a movie. At least I think so.

There it’s done.

#symwinter’s trash writing #descendants #this is for you six people who wanted this

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95liners3rdmember · 4 years

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Worth It

Chapter Two: Saying Thank You

Word Count: 9632

Chapter One: First Meeting

Tucking my phone into my back pocket, I have to do a double take of the group standing in front of me. I try to fight my facial expression but I can’t help but squint my eyes and the raising of my brow. The last thing I expected was an impromptu pajama party.

“Ummm...you all didn’t have to come.” My voice croaks out as I lead the way into the apartment. Even though I know the apartment is as clean as it ever will be before I unpack, I nervously scan for a mess. I can’t help the boxes that litter the building for now though.

“We figured eight is better than one, but we have to be quick or Jungkookie over here will be lost to video games.” Namjoon jokes as they make themselves at home, the bag Hoseok carried now is being emptied on the island. Soda and snacks. So I guess we really are having a party.

“Thank you, again.” Now I feel guilty because I know they are all tired. But they are willingly coming to help me, a still somewhat stranger.

“So where do you want to start?” Seokjin asks as he rolls up the sleeves of his RJ pajamas.

I haven’t even gotten that far, I guess the easiest for them to do is the living room. It’s mainly gaming consoles, movies and pictures. That way they can entertain themselves while I unpack my office.

“How about in here? All I have are games, movies and electronics. Could you do that while I went in my office? There’s a lot more to tackle in there.” My sisters would smack me for asking. I want to smack myself too but they seem more than happy to help.

“No problem!”

I walk down the small hallway to the box filled office and a heavy sigh leaves my lips. There’s so much to do here. My mind gets too lost in where and how to arrange everything that I didn’t notice Namjoon, Jimin and Yoongi walk in with me.

“Whoa. There’s more boxes in here than the rest of the apartment.” Jimin’s eyes widen as he tries to find a place to start.

“Reminds me of when we move offices.” Yoongi comments as he opens the box closest to him. Thankfully it’s only dvds from previous jobs or performances.

“Then we know how to handle it.” Namjoon confidently pats my shoulder as I tugged up the sleeves of the sweater. Time to get some work done…

My eyes start to hurt as I try to figure out why my speakers are working with my desktop. We’ve been at it for almost two hours, I’ve lost Namjoon to the gaming party in the living room. Jimin has gotten lost in the pile of Naruto manga that is proudly displayed on a bookcase. Thankfully Yoongi has stayed with me.

“Let me see, it may be a bad wire. It happened once in Genius Lab.” I wiggle from behind the desk and plop into the chair. My somewhat good mood has faded as the night goes on. This is really the last thing I need done before my office is fully unpacked.

“Fixed. You had them switched.” Yoongi smiles lightly as he adjusts the desk and it sits flush against the wall. Thank god, now I need to get them all something for helping me so much.

“Thank you Yoongi. Why don’t you go join the others? I’m just going to break all the boxes down and pick up the trash.”

He hesitates for a moment before nodding slowly, leaving a reading Jimin and a worn out me in the finished room. Honestly I couldn’t be happier. There’s just enough room where I can dance if I need to work out a move. Namjoon and I set up my camera so it can record if I get ideas, we mounted it above my desk so there aren’t any cords to trip over. I may be a dancer but I’m as clumsy as a person with two left feet.

“Are you okay Y/n?” Turning on my heels I meet Jimin’s gaze. He’s putting the book back in its spot as he moves closer to me. I shake me head yes but I see a small box sitting on the ground. My legs wobble slightly as I move over to it and try to open the tape with my bare hands. Thankfully Jimin is thanking clearer than I am and grabs the scissors.

“Thank you.” Slicing the tape, I see a few picture frames and my heart feels heavy. It’s a picture of me and my two sisters right before I left. They threw me surprise going away party with just us and a few family members. Tears start to prick at the corner of my eyes as I move to place it on my desk.

“Are these your sisters?” Jimin asks as he shuffles through the box, turning I see him holding a picture frame. A weird mix of smile and smirk grace his lips. What picture could he have?

Oh no.

Fire lights in my cheeks as I try to take the photo away from him. Crap. That’s the last thing I wanted him to see. My sister and I are standing in age order with our backs turned to the camera, but our faces turned so you can see who is who, a thumb pointing to the back of our shirts as we stand in front of a large arena. It’s from our first time going to see BTS all together. Each of us wearing a different jersey style shirt. Of course they would pack this one in with my others even after I told them not to.

“I guess Nikole thought it would be funny to pack this. It’s really embarrassing.”

“How? You all look excited.”

“It was the first time the- we got to see you perform. One of the best shows I’ve ever seen.” I had to catch myself before I gave it away that I had been to others.

“Here’s another one.” Jimin grabs the last frame out and I want to die.

It’s a picture of me, wide smile with my army bomb staring up at the stage in awe. The lights in the background almost made it look like something from a fairy tail at how I was glowing. It was during the performance of ‘Fire’ that she took this because I was so proud to see my hard work come to life.

Namjoon had sent us tickets for right by the stage that way we could somewhat see each other during sound check and the concert. I hadn’t kept up with the set list and when I say them running through ‘Fire’ I almost cried. So leave it to my youngest sister to take a picture of the actual concert performance. I swear I’m going to hide this picture in the deepest, darkest drawer I have here.

Jimin mumbles something under his breath, it’s so soft and quick that I can’t make out what’s said. But there’s a strange tension in the room now. I clear my throat and take the second picture from him.

“Ah I knew you had a favorite!” My whole body jumps and I almost drop the frames. Namjoon has been peering over my shoulder long enough to make out who’s is wearing each shirt.

“Jesus Namjoon, you scared the life out of me.” As an instinct the words come out in English. The filter in my brain stopped working from being scared. Jimin can’t help but look at me as if I had a second head when the words came out in an accent he hadn’t heard much before.

“I figured out Nikole and Nat’s that night but not yours. Seems you’ve been hiding something from me.” The grin on his face is full of playfulness and I can’t help but laugh.

“I’m just messing with you, come on Jimin, Y/n. Kookie and Jin are the last two players in the contest. Let’s see who’s going to win.” Glancing over at Jimin another giggle slips through my lips as I notice his cheeks are painted a light shade of pink. The boys lead the way out but I quickly drop off the frames on my bed before joining them.

All of the members have spread out across the couch and the floor. Empty boxes are stacked by the balcony door and everything seems to have found a home. They are quicker than I am, that’s for sure. Yoongi points over to the countertop and I see a pair of pajamas waiting for me.

“Jungkookies clothes would be too big for you, I had an extra pair anyways.”

“Thank you again. I’ll change after watching the last round though. I feel bad for leaving you all out here.” I scratch the back of my head and frown a little. Honestly I would’ve liked to spend more time out here but there was a lot to do.

“Don’t worry about it! Also, I unpacked the kitchen and you need to go shopping.” Hoseok calls from his spot on the couch. He did the kitchen?! I really owe them, maybe I can take them to dinner tomorrow.

“I should probably do that tomorrow after my luggage gets here.” Namjoon pats the couch and I happily oblige as my legs start to feel like a thousand pounds. I squeeze in between Namjoon and Taehyung.

“You can go with me. I’ll come by and get you in the morning.” Hoseok is willing to volunteer himself for something I can handle on my own makes my heart jump. They really are the most welcoming and accepting group of people I’ve ever met. And I’ve met a lot of people in the entertainment industry.

“I’d like that a lot.” Smiling, I lean back into the couch and shimmy out my phone. There’s not much going on except a few notifications from my email. I’m too tired to check them now but I will in the morning. Taehyung reaches over as my guard is down and goes to my secure app that I was told to download. BigHit is all about security, so they told me that they only message within secure and private app accounts. Smart by all means but it’s going to take some getting used to.

A few minutes pass by as I watch him through heavy eyes and finally see that there are seven new contacts and a new group chat. Quietly I thank him but it’s drowned out by the cheering and hollering around us. Once again Jungkook proves he’s superior at most things. I fight against my body screaming for sleep as I clap along.

Namjoon gently nudges me and I look at him with a weak smile. He knows, well they all know too well what exhaustion can do to a person's body.

“Alright everyone, time to go. Some of us have work to do tomorrow.” Being the ever vigilant leader, he manages to wrangle the members. A few protests come from the younger three and I told them we could all get together another time.

I wave goodbye and tell them how thankful I am for them helping me as they single file out of the apartment. Shutting the door, I lock it slowly and trudge back to the bedroom turning off the lights as I go. My hands grab at the clothes on the counter and I stumble into my room.

A few ideas pop into my mind at how to decorate but that can wait, for now I need to sleep. Gently I peel off Namjoon’s sweater and fold it nicely. I’ll make sure to have it cleaned for him before giving it back.

Like a zombie I change into the comfy clothing and cleanup before bed. My head feels so much better as the buns come tumbling down. I can’t even look at the mirror knowing that I look as bad as I feel.

Crawling into the bed, my mind can’t seem to turn off as my body aches for sleep. I guess I’m missing home just a little. On instinct I reach for my phone that’s plugged up and rest it where I can lay in bed and video chat. Clicking on Nat’s name I patiently wait.

“Why are you still awake?” I look around in the background and I can tell she’s back at home already. Her exam must be finished already.

“I can’t sleep.” My voice feels foreign to my ears. I wonder if this is how Namjoon feels.

“Then tell me about your day. I haven’t really gotten to talk to you since you left.” It’s no secret that Nat hates being separated from Nikole and I. That’s why it was difficult for her to accept that I was leaving. There were tons of late nights spent packing and just talking.

“There’s not much to tell. Dinner was interesting though.” My eyes start to close, they feel like a thousand pounds.

“I would hope so. I mean after all you got to hangout with seven of the coolest people ever.” I huff out a laugh at my sister’s comment. Nuzzling my head into the pillows as I struggle to pull the covers up, Nat lets out a small huff.

“Get some sleep sis.”

Buzz ...Buzz...Buzz….

My eyes screw close tighter as I blindly reach for my phone on the nightstand. Groaning out in frustration I finally grab the cold device and shiver slightly as I lift it to my ear, the cord snagging as I struggle with it.

“Hello…” My voice cracks towards the end as I roll over to see sunlight pouring in from the window beside me. What time is it?

“Good morning y/n! It’s Hoseok, I thought you wanted help going shopping this morning?” There’s a slight teasing tone in his voice, pulling my phone away I check the time. 1:30 p.m. Crap!

There’s a knock on my door and I instantly take off sprinting. I must look crazy because as I fling the door open Hoseok jumps back with a look of pure shock. His phone slowly drops from his ear and he quickly ends the call. In front of him sit my three suitcases that went missing yesterday. Thank god they are here.

“I’m so sorry. I overslept, please tell me you weren’t waiting too long.” I bow slightly but I snap back up when a breeze hits my skin. How could I forget that I’m not wearing my own clothes?! Idiot.

“When Namjoon couldn’t get ahold of you I went ahead and did a few other errands.” My eyes dart back to the phone in my hands and notice the dozens of missed calls and texts. One being an email from BigHit…..fantastic.

“I guess you aren’t too used to jet lag like the rest of us. Why don’t you get dressed and I’ll take you to get some coffee.” Hoseok smiles widely and I feel a new bubble of energy burst in my body. Grabbing two of the suitcases, I roll them into the apartment before grabbing the third one.

“Give me like...5 minutes. I’ll try to be quick.” Bowing apologetically, I snatch my pink suitcase and take off for my bedroom. My feet barely miss the empty boxes that litter the living room from last night. I’ll have to figure out where to take these later this afternoon.

Slamming my door shut louder than I intended I make myself jump. Skimming through my notifications I get the gist of what all I missed; my sisters being nosey and overprotective, Namjoon trying to wake the sleeping beast, a few texts from Hoseok trying to figure out if I’m awake and lastly an email reminding me of the meeting at 8am on Monday which has a dress code of business casual. So I’ll have to take a bag of my dance clothes to change into. I might as well leave some in my office if this is a regular thing.

Tossing my phone to the side, I unzip the large suitcase and pull out my favorite Saturday outfit. Stripping out of Yoongi’s shorts I jump around as I tug up the black ripped skinny jeans, almost tripping over my carry on. Lord today might be my last day on earth with how clumsy I’ve been today. Cheering quietly in victory I gently take off Jungkook’s huge shirt and dress myself in my version of the white T-shirt, top it all off with a black and red flannel, finishing it off with white converse. Perfect. Now time to take the mane.

“Hey y/n are these videos the ones you made before moving?” Hoseok yells out from the office as I shove my toothbrush into my mouth. Closing my lips around the brush, I throw my hair up into a messy bun and emerge from my room.

“Yes….I can...show you...later.” I manage to say through foamed toothpaste without looking like a crazy person. It must be an entertaining look because Hoseok tried hard to hide his laughter. Running back, I spit out the foam and grab the face mask Jimin gave me last night just in case.

Grabbing everything I need, phone-check, purse-check, mask-check, keys...in the purse.

“Ready?” Tilting my head to the side, a child like smile spreads on my face. I’ve never been this excited to go grocery shopping before. Must be the sunshine effect of the famous J-Hope. It feels weird to call him by his stage name so I’ll just wait until he tells me to.

“Let’s get going! But first coffee. There’s a little shop down the road and they know to be discreet.”

Discretion. Something I’ve never really been used to but now it’s a huge factor in my job. Being around one of the fastest growing bands in the world comes with more media attention. Their stylist and trainers don’t really get much exposure but I saw their old choreographer a lot more in photos and videos. The fans didn’t say much because it was another guy. I can just imagine what the fans will think with a woman around all the time.

I knew the risks, I’m very well aware that one wrong step could lead to me being back home. Is this even acceptable? Going shopping with one of the members and their manager doesn’t sound like a situation that’s allowed. But if it was a big deal Namjoon would’ve stopped me.

There’s a black van pulled up to the front and a large man standing outside of vehicle. Security. Better safe than sorry.

“Sorry. Normally our managers drive us around.”

“It’s fine. I know your safety is more important. If it’s too much of a hassle I can always go on my own.”

“No way! You’re not going to get rid of me that easily. After yesterday I can’t wait to see what you’ve come up with.”

A sincere sunshine smile radiates from Hoseok as he slides the van door open for us. Fumbling with my mask I hop into my seat. The door slams loudly and my nerves start to go haywire. It’s justifiable though considering I’ve never been alone with any other member beside Namjoon for more than a few minutes. This adventure could hours…

Snatching my phone out of my purse I send a quick text to Namjoon letting him know that I’m internally freaking out.

Y/N:‘Why did I agree to this? I feel like Hoseok will get bored of me.’

RM: ‘Just be yourself. See you later, working on something.’

“Is it nice having a Saturday off Hoseok? I remember Namjoon telling me once that getting a full weekend off feels like a vacation.” It’s no secret that each member works themselves to the bone. Namjoon has told me countless times that Yoongi would stay for days on end in the studio.

“It’s strange but I’m glad. There was a lot of things I needed to get done today and this is the last errand.” His fingers are typing quickly on the screen. Looking away so I don’t invade his privacy, my eyes take in the scenery. Small shops and large crowds fill the streets.

“I’m so sorry for making you wait. I feel bad. You all were more than willing to help me last night.” Looking down at the phone, I lock it and slide it into my purse. I still need to figure out how to repay them for their help. Last night I thought I could make dinner but it may just be easier if I take everyone out.

The car comes to a stop in front of a small coffee shop. Shuffling through my purse, I bring up the white mask and cautiously wrap around my ears. Last night was almost a disaster when I felt the straps tug at my earrings. Pulling the door, Hoseok jumps out and holds the door open long enough for me to exit as well. The manager leads the way as we enter the small shop.

It’s adorable. Small tables line the walls and there’s a large bookcase beside the register. Maybe on my next day off I can come in and read a book. Smiling I stand behind Hoseok and stare at the menu. Bouncing on the balls of my feet as I order an iced coffee, my eyes wander around the shop. I can’t help but notice a few curious customers staring at the two of us. For some reason my heart starts to hammer in my chest. The last thing I want is to get Hoseok in trouble.

“Don’t worry too much. I come here a lot, with and without security.” His words calm my heart a little, but I still want to leave. I guess it’s the gitters of being so close to a member of BTS. Or maybe because I haven’t even gotten to work a real first day yet.

Hoseok pats my shoulder lightly as our names are called. Taking my cup with a quiet ‘thank you’ I follow the man in front of me back into the safety of the van. Tugging the mask down to take a sip I feel a sigh of relief escape my body.

“I didn’t realize last night that you have so many piercings. They look really cool.” Raising a hand up I trace the line of piercings. The studs feel rough under my finger as I twist the one on the bottom.

“It’s something my sisters and I did growing up. It was almost a competition, if one of us would get another the other two would. Nikole has more though, I stopped with the three on top and bottom.” The last time I got a piercing was after the BTS concert. Adrenaline was pumping through me and it was all I could think of.

“Jungkookie will be jealous that you have more than him.” His giggle makes my body vibrate with energy. Being around Hoseok is like being around a ball of pure, fun energy. It makes me want to run a mile, clean my entire house and dance for hours. None of which I’ll get done today but it’s a nice thought.

Pulling into a large parking lot, there’s a lot more people than I thought would be. That’s what I get for sleeping in so late. Definitely not going to bed at a decent time tonight.

“Ms. y/l/n, Hoseok you will have to be quick. Traffic is starting to pick up and it will just be safer.” Nodding slowly, all four of us exit the van and make our way to the store. Hoseok bumps my shoulder as we both grab a cart. Laughing lightly, I bump against him as I walk beside him.

As we walk through the store, both of our carts start to fill up. His more than mine though since he’s getting enough for seven compared to my one. The more that we’re inside, the more my face starts to feel warmer and warmer from the mask. I should’ve worn one back home to adjust.

“What else do you need Hoseok?” Clearing my throat, I tug at the mask to let a small breeze of cool air in. I don’t want to seem like I’m rushing him because he was nice enough to wait for me.

“Um...I think I need to get some milk and then I’m done. Are you feeling okay? I noticed you messing with the mask.”

“I’m fine. Just getting a little toasty, don’t worry about it.” Adding some cheer into my voice, I pick up the pace beside him. A few people look at us as we pass them, a few younger girls have their phones out giggling in groups. I really hope no one notices Hoseok right now.

“Um, do you think everyone would like to go to dinner tonight? My treat.” Those words make him stop in his tracks. A goofy laugh erupts from his chest as he almost doubles over.

“After last night I think everyone would like that, but are you sure about paying? Jungkook and Jin could out eat anyone you’ve met.”

“I’m completely sure. I need to make sure you all eat well before I put you to work on Monday.” Winking at him, we make our way to the checkout counter and start to pay for everything. The process of checking out is so much quicker than our almost hour long shopping trip. I can’t believe we’ve been here that long.

Patiently waiting for Hoseok, I hold tightly to the handles I look around at the rest of the store. There’s definitely more people, I can’t help but swallow nervously. The voice in the back of my mind telling me it was a bad idea.

“All done! Let’s get back.” His singsong voice calms me as all four of us make our way back to the van. Being careful to divide our things into two different piles, we jump right back in and sink into the plush seats. Hoseok quickly pulls out his phone and types at the speed of lightning. Pulling my mask down, I take in a deep breath.

“Everyone but Namjoon and Yoongi will help us carry all of this stuff up.” A strange wave of guilt hits me.

“Hoseok don’t worry about me. I can carry all of mine up.”

“Call me J-Hope, everyone does. And don't worry about it. It’s no big deal.”

Of course I could only get away with being so formal for so long. And there’s no point in arguing with him either.

“Good. And the quicker we get these groceries put away the faster I can watch the videos.” Even through the mask I see a smirk.

I can’t help but smirk too. Of course there’s a hidden meaning behind the kind actions. Two can sort of play that game too.

“Very true. But don’t tell the others. Take it as a thank you for going shopping with me.” I elbow him gently as I winked at him. Earning me a genuine Hoseok laugh.

The drive back is quicker and before I know it the four other members are waiting somewhat calmly down at the front door. It’s strange to see them so ...domestic.

Hoseok jumps out of the van as soon as it’s parked, which gets him a slight scolding from his manager. I can’t help but giggle. Not even worrying about the mask, I follow suit and jump out. All of the boys are dressed in joggers and long sleeve shirts. Their hair disarray from laying around and enjoying their day off. Taehyung greets me with a large boxy smile and an enthusiastic wave.

“Hobi hyung I think you got too much.” Jimin slightly complains as he grabs the bags Hoseok passes. Wiggling my way through I manage to grab all of my bags but some get taken from my hands. I teeter for a second at the sudden weight shift as I stare at a grinning Taehyung.

“Oh, thank you Taehyung.”

“No problem!”

He leads the way with a bounce in his step and I can’t help to put a little more pep in my step. As we enter the building I can’t help but feel like someone is staring at me. Glancing over my shoulder I catch the quick turn of Jimin’s head as he busies himself by grabbing bags. Maybe I’m just being paranoid.

The ride up to the apartment is quiet but in a relaxing way. I don’t feel pressured to start or continue a conversation or ask questions. It’s nice.

As the elevator dings, I step out and Taehyung is right behind me. Unlocking my door, I move flat against the door so he can enter before me.

“Do you need help getting rid of those boxes y/n?” His head nods towards the large pile of broken down boxes and a bag full of paper. That’s something else I need to take care of today before Hoseok comes over. But then again there’s no point in rushing myself to completely move in after only being here a full day.

“I was going to take care of them later Taehyung, thank you though.” His smile never fades as he bounces to the door again after dropping the bags on the kitchen counter. With a quick wave, the door shuts loudly and I’m left in a silent apartment. A sigh wrecks through my body as I trudge into the kitchen. Setting down the bags, I fish out my phone and open up the group chat Taehyung created.

Y/N:‘To say thank you for everything, why don’t we all go out to dinner tonight? My treat :)’

Leaving my phone sit unlocked, I start to figure out how I want to arrange everything. Humming along to a random tune, my phone vibrates nonstop for a solid minute before I finally get to check it.

Kookie:’Be ready at 6 noona! I’ll come get you!’

J-Hope:’I told you this might be a bad idea, Jin hyung and Kookie are already getting a reservation.’

Jin:’Eating is never a bad idea, see you at 6 y/n!’

RM:’I go to work in the studio for a few hours...see you soon everyone.’

A few more texts come in from Taehyung and Yoongi but Jimin stays silent. Letting out a huff, I throw all the bags into the trash can and before I can shuffle off into my room a loud knock echoes from the front door. Hoseok.

“Come in!” I yell from the living room and he’s practically jumping as he takes a seat on the couch. Giggling I load the dvd into the player and take a seat beside him.

“I’m going to have to tweak it a little once I see everyone grouped together. But it’s basically the finished product.”

“Lets see it. I haven’t been this excited to have practice in a long time.”

My heart flutters at his words as I press play. A wave of nervousness washes over me as I try to gauge his reaction. For the first time he’s completely expressionless around me. Biting the inside of my cheek I curl up into a ball and pick at my nails. He probably hates it. Or he probably wishes that I didn’t replace their previous coach. As the song comes to an end, the screen fades to black. I can’t bring myself to look at him as the next song plays.

An excruciating twenty minutes later, the DVD stops playing and silence hangs around us. I almost want to run into a studio and start over on everything without even hearing his opinions.

“That ...are you sure we can’t start today?!”

Huh….

Glancing over at him, my stomach settles and I can’t help but burst out laughing. Here I was thinking that he hated it. Hoseok’s brows furrow together as I laugh even harder at his reaction.

“Sorry...ha..I thought you hated it. I was ready to run to the company and remake everything.”

“Ah, sorry…But honestly this is pretty incredible. It’s intricate and eye catching. We’ve got our work cut out for us this time for sure.” Hoseok searches for his phone and lets out a deep sigh. His expression went from carefree to annoyed in the blink of an eye, I wonder what’s going on.

“I have to go, but I’ll see you for dinner.” He’s off the couch instantly as he forces a smile saying goodbye.

I can’t wrap my mind around what just happened as I stare at the closed door. Maybe something came up with the members? It’s none of my business though, whatever happens in their personal life is completely private and I shouldn’t pry into it.

Tossing the remote onto the coffee table, I fall back into the couch and stare up at the white ceiling. For the first time in days, I’m not exhausted. Every fiber of my being is surging with energy to do something, anything really. The only thing really left to do is unpack my bedroom. Perfect.

Tapping my phone screen to double check the time, I have enough time to unload all of my suitcases and play around with my room. Connecting my phone to the speaker in my room music starts to fill the silent apartment and a large smile spreads on my lips. My eyes land on the pictures that I hid away in my room last night. Instantly I grab them and place them on top of the dresser so they wouldn’t get broken.

I can’t believe that Jimin found those last night, actually I can’t believe my sister packed those without me even knowing. Actually I can. My sister would do anything to embarssess me in front of each and every member. They’ve managed to do so in front of Namjoon so many times that I’ve just gotten used to it. But the worst case scenario for me is Park Jimin. I’ve always admired his style of dance and how he can move so seamlessly with any genre of music.

The music in my room stops playing and ‘Just One Day’ starts blaring through the speakers. My cheeks flush red as I search for my phone that’s mixed in with the massive pile of clothes littering my bed. I finally find it and roll my eyes at the caller id.

“Yes Namjoon…” There’s a slight annoyance in my voice but it disappears when I hear a few different chuckles in the background.

“I just wanted to call and let you know to dress up.” Dress up? Where in the world are we going?

“Um...why?” I hear a few more giggles in the background before Namjoon hushed everyone.

“Seems that everyone is going a little over the top tonight outfit wise. Taehyung came out completely overdressed and now everyone else is trying to outdo each other.”

“You did warn me that they could be a little over the top.” Sighing I look at the piles of clothes, at least this time I have plenty of options. But I’m definitely calling Nat for some input, after all having a fashion designer in the family comes in handy.

“It’s a surprise. I just wanted to give you enough heads up.”

“Thanks. I guess I better finish up what I’m doing so I can look presentable for everyone.” I can’t help but chuckle as I end the call and frantically call my sister. Hopefully she’s still awake.

Who am I kidding, that girl runs off of two hours of sleep and coffee.

Clicking on the facetime icon, I run and start the shower so I can just jump in once Nat ends the call. Just as I suspect, her face pops on the screen. Her hair is thrown up into a messy bun and she’s sitting at her desk. She’s probably working overtime on her midterm project like always.

“Nat I need help!” The desperation is clear in my voice as I flip the camera over to look at the mess of clothes. An annoyed sigh comes through the speaker as she rolls her eyes.

“Hello to you too dear sister. Last time I checked you moved halfway around the world....how could I possibly help you?”

“I need your expert advice. Help me pick out a nice outfit for dinner tonight, pretty please!” Flipping the camera back around I pout at the screen which earns me a gut filled laugh from Nat. Honestly if it wasn’t for her I would be constantly dressed in leggings and tank tops.

“Fine. But what do I get out of it?” I know she’s teasing me but I feel bad for interrupting her work. I’ll have to think about something just so she knows that I appreciate everything.

“I’ll think of something like always. But please Nat, I don’t have long to figure out some sort of outfit and get myself presentable.”

“You’re acting like this is some huge dinner. Is it a work event?”

“Uh, you could say that I guess. I’m going with people I work with.” It’s not a lie but it’s not the truth either. The last thing I want is another lecture from my little sister about boundaries and keeping work separate outside of the office.

“Good to know that you still try to keep secrets from me, but I won’t ask. Since I know all of the clothes you own, how about the black turtle neck with the red skirt. Wear the thigh high black heels.”

My eyes dart around the pile as I grab the items she lists off and I can’t help but smile. Nat is going to make a great stylist for sure once she’s out of college. Whoever she works for will be really lucky.

“Anything else dear sister?”

“Don’t go over the top with anything else, keep it simple. Curl your hair though.”

“Thank you, how’s the project coming? I know that you only have about a month or so left.”

“I’ve been struggling with finding the right accent piece. But it’s not going to stop me from passing. Anyways it was great talking but I really need to finish this, it’s due on Monday.”

“You’ll do amazing considering you can style me from halfway around the world. Love you!”

She blows a kiss at the camera as the screen goes black. I release a sigh of relief, I’m beyond glad that she didn’t try to pry too much into things. Hanging the items up on a hanger, I hurry and put away the rest of my clothes and suitcases. It’s a rushed job but it will do for now. Later on I can always rearrange and make it look nicer. But for now I have to hurry and get ready.

A few hours later and a few energy drinks later I’m completely dressed and ready to go. Taking all of Nat’s advice, I bend down and zip up the heels. My hair falls in my face and I huff out an annoyed breath to blow it away. Normally I love to keep my hair up and out of the way since it’s so long but tonight isn’t a night where I can do that. But maybe I can pin it back. Shuffling to the bathroom, stupid heels, I twist a small section on each side and pin it back so my face is hair free. All of my piercings are visible as well and I can’t help but smile. Maybe the next time I get together with my sisters I’ll add on another one.

Switching off the bathroom light, I move back into my room and dig out my small black boy bag and throw my phone and keys inside. Hopefully we are driving because I highly doubt I’ll be able to walk all the way to and from the restaurant like last time. Turning towards my closet I catch my reflection in the full length mirror and instantly my stomach tightens.

All my life I’ve been self conscious about my body and looks. By no means am I overweight but I’ve always felt the pressure of fitting into the social standard of “thin and beautiful”. Since I’ve danced my entire life my legs are more toned and have more muscle than other women my size. Whenever I wear skirts or dresses I always feel a little people are silently judging me for wearing something so revealing and not having that picture perfect thigh gap.

Pulling at the hem of the skirt I stand straight up and suck in a deep breath. I really hope they don’t think I look too bad. And I really hope they don’t think this outfit is a normal occurrence either. This will be one of the only times I wear something like this in front of them.

A loud knock at the door snaps me out of my inner thoughts and I take in another deep breath.

“Let’s do this.”

Switching off the lights as I go, I open the door to a smiling Jungkook. He’s jumping on the balls of his feet as I step into the hallway and lock my door. Looks like Namjoon was being serious about dressing up, Jungkook’s wearing dress pants with a navy blue dress shirt. He looks like he’s about to go to an interview, not dinner with his brothers and his choreographer.

“You look nice noona. Ready for dinner?” A bunny smile graces his lips, it’s the most pure smile I’ve ever seen. Nodding yes and whispering out a small thank you we ride the elevator down to the lobby where the other six men are waiting for us.

And if I didn’t have as much respect as I do for them I might have just fangirl. Each of them is dressed like Jungkook but with a different colored shirt. Namjoon was being dead serious about it being almost a competition. My cheeks heat up as everyone turns to look at us and I meet eyes with Jimin. Crap. After him finding my picture yesterday I feel weird around him. What if he thinks I’m just some crazy fan that’s trying to get close to everyone.

“Do you mind driving one of the cars y/n? Jin is going to drive too that way we don’t have to walk everywhere.” Namjoon walks over to greet me with a dimpled smile.

“Absolutely, who’s riding with us?” His smile fades as he adjusts the glasses on his face.

“Actually I don’t know where the restaurant is. JK and Jin have been there a few times. The maknae line actually all called dibs on riding with you.”

There’s a bunch of snickers and giggles around us. I guess there’s no getting out of this one. I mean what could possibly go wrong with the four of us in a car? I mean we’re all about the same age anyways.

“Sounds like a plan.” Walking towards the door, I walk past most of them except for Namjoon who’s keeping pace right beside me. The others are hot on our heels but that doesn’t stop Namjoon from picking on me.

“I’m guessing you called Natalie since you hung up on me earlier.” He elbows me gently, which normally wouldn’t cause me to stumble but since I’m in these awful heels I teater just a tad. Someone grabs my waist to help me rebalance but it’s gone as soon as it was there, snapping my head to the side I catch a glimpse of Jimin walking past. Maybe I just imagined it, I mean it was super quick.

“I call passenger!” Jungkook screams and goes running for my car. Taehyung is right behind him as they race for the spot. Looking over at Namjoon he mouths out ‘good luck’ as he gets into Jin’s car. Great….

Jungkook whips out his phone and instantly starts to play music over the bluetooth. In the backseat Taehyung and Jimin sing along and dance. We haven’t even left the parking lot yet. Buckling up, Jungkook just tells me to follow behind Jin. There’s no questions asked but instead we have our own karaoke montage. Anything from their early music to new music by American artists. Thankfully we make it to the restaurant in no time.

As soon as we make it into the private room, I take the seat beside Namjoon and tap his shoulder firmly. That was a long car ride and we only went ten minutes down the road. It’s like he can read my mind as he pours me a small glass of soju. Smoothing my skirt down, I sit down and accept his offer of apology. Sipping the glass slowly the seat next to me gets taken by Jungkook quickly as Taehyung and Jimin snag the seats across from me. I can’t lie that the ride was fun but it was chaotic. I never realized how much energy they all have, not just Jungkook.

“Did all of the maknae have fun?” Yoongi chuckles as he looks through the menu. Shrugging my shoulders I continue to sip my glass and read through the menu.

“We might steal noona on the way back though. She hasn’t gotten to explore much since she just got here.” My eyes widen as I choke on my drink slightly. This was definitely not something I planned on doing. Jungkook turns to me with a twinkle in his eyes but this time I have to say no. There’s too many risks.

“I’m sorry Jungkook, maybe another time. I don’t think it’s such a good idea for all of us to go out. We could get spotted, I could get in trouble with BigHit. Maybe another time okay?”

The pout that forms on his lips makes me want to instantly take back everything I said but I can’t. Maybe after I get on good terms with everyone at the company then I can possibly take him up on the offer of exploring.

“Listen to her Jungkookie. The last thing we want is for y/n to not even start her first day and get in trouble.” Yoongi comments to relieve me from the instant guilt I feel from telling him no. Listening to his hyung he nods and starts to talk with Hoseok. Smiling, I look back down at the menu and breath deeply. Looking through my lashes I notice Jimin and Taehyung looking at me discreetly. Or at least trying to. What if Jimin told him about the picture? Mentally I smack myself because I know that I’m being a little paranoid. If there was a problem Namjoon would’ve said something already.

After placing our orders, the room is filled with laughter and numerous stories. I try to chime in here and there but I’m too interested in listening. So I sit quietly in my chair as Namjoon and I work on a bottle of wine that he’s ordered. Everyone seems to be having fun so the atmosphere is light and bubbly. I lean over and turn my head away from everyone to whisper to Namjoon.

“This is probably the wine talking, but what you all have is special.” A gentle smile rest on both of our faces as I turn to take in the rest of the members. They are all smiling and seem to be carefree despite their hectic and unpredictable lives. An occupational hazard of being an idol.

“It’s been a struggle, you know that. I feel like we’re finally at a place where our music helps others.” The sincerity in his voice makes me nod in agreement as goosebumps form under my sleeves.

“It does, more than you all know.” Smiling brightly at him, I look across and notice that the maknaes have been watching the small conversation between us. Taehyung seems to be watching closer than the other two but he turns away quickly when Hoseo calls for him.

Letting out the breath I had been holding in, the food comes out in platters on the table. Everyone starts to fill their plates as the conversations still seem to pour out. I nibble on my food, too much wine in my system, as I listen to them recall day from their debut times. My heart clenches as I want to comment on their first performance in the states but Namjoon and I both made an agreement. One that I plan on keeping.

“You’re quiet y/n, is everything okay?”

“Huh, oh yeah everything’s fine Jimin. I’m just taking everything in.”

“Did I tell you guys that y/n went to a concert of ours back in the states?” Jimin smiles as he looks at me straight on. His tone isn’t mean in any way, more like playful teasing but I can’t help the blush forming on my face.

“Ah, my sisters and I went to one. It was amazing! Probably one of the best nights of our lives.” Nervously I reach for my chopsticks and start poking at the food on my plate. I feel my phone buzz in my bag but I ignore it as I try to divert attention away from me.

“It looked like it. What was your favorite song on the setlist?”

“Fire, for sure. It was…” I stop midway through to try and process how I felt seeing my choreo performed. My heart was racing as I sang along with every word and tried not to dance along as well. There was a surge of energy and pure adrenaline that kept me up for hours after the concert.

“Something else. I guess seeing all the hard work that was put into the song and choreo...there’s no other feeling greater than that.” Tilting my head to the side a large smile forms as I look back up at everyone. The sincerity in my answer seems to resonate with the members as they all nod in agreement. We continue eating our dinner in a peaceful silence. Relaxing into my chair I suck in a breath of relief.

Once dinner is over and the drinks have ran dry, a few of the members excuse themselves to go to the restroom or are trying to get ready to leave. For the first time I’m left alone with Jin and it’s fun. Everyone else makes fun of him for his dad jokes but yet I love them. Laughing up a storm, I look around for anyone else but it seems they’re all waiting.

“I guess I need to get the bill. Everyone seems to be waiting outside.”

“They have to wait for us either way since we are the two that drove. But about the bill…Yoongi may or may not have already paid while we were sitting here.” Jin gently shrugs his shoulders as I facepalm myself. This was supposed to be my way of thanking everyone for helping. He stands from the table and motions with his head to follow him.

Groaning I stand up and grab my bag tightly. Standing next to Jin is slightly intimidating even with these heels on. He opens the front door for me and I bow in thanks as we meet with group. Yoongi scratches at the back of his head as I shoot him a slight annoyed glare. But my eyes soften as I get closer to him.

“Thank you Yoongi. This was supposed to be my treat though.” I say quietly as I stand in front of him, still not quiet eye level.

“Just go easy on us.” He finishes with a wink and goes towards Jin’s car. It seems like this is our que to head back to the dorms. Halfway skipping and partially stumbling because of these stupid heels, I open the driver door and plop down.

As soon as the car starts, all four of us sing along to some random song playing on the radio. Of course the other three sound amazing compared to me but it makes the drive go by quicker. That and the fact that it’s late and not many people are out. My eyes bulge out slightly at the time displayed on the dashboard...it’s almost 10:30. I can’t believe we were at dinner for almost four hours, that’s insane. But I guess it makes sense considering there were eight of us.

“Are we going to be starting everything on Monday?” Taehyung yells over the music causing me to turn it down and interrupt Jimin and Jungkook’s mini concert.

“Yes. But first I have a meeting with all the department heads. After that I’ll do a run through with each of you individually. Hoseok will show you the video while I’m gone.”

They all seem to absorb everything I’m saying as I pull into a parking spot. Jungkook and Taehyung jump out of the car as I let out a deep sigh before turning off the car. Jimin moves just as slowly as I do. I can’t tell whether he’s tired or is bored, but I’m not going to interrogate him. Opening my door, I lock the car as I watch the swarm of men walk through the doors. Instead of following them, I walk over to a bench that’s nestled between two trees on the edge of the building.

Sitting down slowly, I crane my neck back so I can look up at the night sky. Back at home if you stayed out late enough you could see a sky full of stars but there are too many lights for that here. Stargazing has been a nightly occurrence for the past few months. These past few months I’ve been working around the clock and running on coffee. It’s nice to see that all of that hard work finally got me here but the exhaustion is definitely catching up to me.

“You’ll catch a cold if you stay out here too long without a jacket.”

Snapping my head over my hair spills over my face and I let out a huff of annoyance. Reaching into my bag, I pull out my backup hairtie and pull it into a high ponytail. Jimin takes the empty seat next to me and looks up at the sky as well. Silently I’m thankful that he doesn’t want to lecture me any further or have a conversation. Returning my gaze upwards I hear Jimin take in a deep breath.

There’s a tension in the air. It feels like both of us want to say something but we are too afraid too. Turning my head slowly I look at the man beside me and I instantly snap my head back. My cheeks feel hot and my stomach does a flip. All of this feels like a dream, one that I’m going to wake up from at any moment. But yet here I am.

“Let’s head inside. Last thing I want is for the famous Park Jimin to catch a cold before I get a chance to work with him.”

Standing up simultaneously I turn my head to the side and show him a small smile. He musters a nod as he walks beside me quietly. Warmth hits us as we enter the building and I don’t realize how cold I was until my hands start shaking. Jimin hits all the buttons for us as we ride in complete silence as we reach his floor.

“Good night Jimin.”

“Good night y/n.”

The doors close as he’s still looking at me and I let out a breath I had been holding. Monday is going to be a challenge. Could he be questioning my credibility? Or my skill all together. I know that I danced with them for a song and then let them watch the choreo I made. But I know better than anyone that people can look talented by those but turn out to be a complete fraud. Practicing the same thing over and over again will make you a pro at that one thing.

The beeping of the elevator pulls me from my head as I march to my front door. Excitement rushes through my veins at the thought of taking off my shoes and changing into something more...well me. The apartment is quiet as I make my way back to my bedroom and change into my pajamas.

Before I know it, I’m huddled up in my blankets reading through the twenty emails I missed from BigHit while I was out today. I’ll give them credit, as a company they stay in constant contact and make sure everyone is on the same page with each and every department. And everyone knows the schedule of the others.

‘BigHit Monday Schedule:

8:00-9:30 Meeting in main conference room

9:45-12:45 BTS training with y/n in dance room 1

12:45-1:45 Lunch

2:00-3:15 BTS fitting with stylist

3:30-5:00 Individual schedules

5:15-6:30 Studio time

Any activity after 6:30 is considered free time/training time.’

They weren’t kidding when they said they had busy schedules. I get them for three hours on Monday and that’s it. I’ll have to step up my game then. Maybe I’ll get more time throughout the week because I’ll need way more time than 15 hours a week. But if that’s all I get then I’ll have to make some changes to the choreo.

Looks like this is going to be more of a challenge than I originally thought. But I’ve never been one to shy away from a challenge.

#BTS jimin #jimin x reader #park jimin #bts smut #bts fanfic

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FEATURE SERIES: My Favorite One Piece Arc with Steve Yurko

I love One Piece and I love talking to people who love One Piece. And with the series going on 23 years now, there is a whole lot to talk about. As the series is about to publish its 1000th chapter, a true feat in and of itself, we thought we should reflect upon the high-seas adventure and sit down with some notable names in the One Piece fan community and chat about the arcs they found to be especially important, or just ones they really, really liked.

Welcome to the next article in the series "My Favorite One Piece Arc!"

My next guest in this series is Steve Yurko, co-host of The One Piece Podcast, a podcast with a subject you can probably guess. He's also a former storyboard artist for Rick & Morty and is currently working for Netflix Animation. As a ride-or-die Sanji fan, Steve chose the Baratie Arc, where Luffy and the gang run into an East Blue restaurant with a cool chef that loves to cook and kick.

A note on spoilers: If you haven't seen the Baratie arc yet, this interview does contain major plot points. Watch the Arlong Park arc starting RIGHT HERE if you'd like to catch up or rewatch!

Dan Dockery: So a friend tells you, "I'm done with the Syrup Village arc and I'm not sure if I want to watch this next one. I think I might be tapped out on this whole One Piece thing. In one sentence, how do you get them to stay and watch the Baratie arc?

Steve Yurko: The Baratie arc laid down the foundation and created the formula of the One Piece arc as we know it.

That's pretty good!

Yeah, I’d say that, when I first started it, One Piece was my third favorite. I was more of a fan of series like Shaman King and Naruto, but after Baratie, things shifted. It was a turning point for me. I would hope that it would do the same for anyone who’s, say, previously apathetic towards the series.

How old were you when you first read it? Or watched it?

It feels weird to say this, but my introduction to One Piece was Chapter 1. Like Dragon Ball Z, the first episode I can remember watching was, like, Yamcha training on King Kai’s planet, and I’d get Goku and Yamcha confused and stuff, because I had just dived in. So for me to start a story like One Piece from the beginning is kind of rare. I was 15, I think.

So, we're jumping into Baratie, and we first see the guy with the brass knuckles, Fullbody. He's trying to act cool on a date and he's being mean to everyone else. And then we have Sanji being typical Cool Sanji and Fullbody acts up and Sanji just tears through him. How did you react? Did you know immediately that you'd like this waiter?

Well, I don't want to alarm you here, but my first thought was “Sanji’s cool!” I’d seen images of him before, and I saw his black suit and blond hair and I figured, “Oh, another crew member, probably. Looks distinct enough.” So I often have to look back and wonder “Did I like him because of his edgy coolness?” but I think now it’s because there were more layers to him. Like, he definitely stands out from the other Straw Hats, but he also has this distinct fighting style with cool reasoning. He’s a cook and he doesn’t want to bust up his hands trying to punch people in the face, so he uses his feet. So, he does like these cool capoeira kicks, which only gets better as they go along because I feel like so many anime characters, the stronger they get, the more they start to fight the same with fast volleys of punches and laser blasts. So Sanji’s kicks are a great way to differentiate himself from the main cast and other anime heroes.

So, then we have Luffy, he shows up by damaging the Baratie. Enter: Zeff. Full disclosure: In my infinite naivete when I first watched One Piece, I thought Zeff was going to be the new crew member. And then I thought Gin was going to join the Straw Hat crew. And then when Sanji finally joined, I was like, "This guy? Really? Dark horse candidate over here."

You didn’t know yet?

I guess I hadn't watched the first ED yet — when the crew slowly shows up and stands beside one another.

You saw Usopp’s silhouette appear and thought, “Eh, I’ve seen enough.”

"That must be all of them."

It happens.

So, you meet Zeff, and you learn about Sanji and Zeff's relationship, and we get a big One Piece flashback. What do you think of that? Because it would become a staple of the series to kinda pause, see what happened to an important guy, and then come back.

Such an incredible story and so gruesome and terrifying. Sanji’s original flashback is so underrated because it could happen to anyone! Like, you’d have to go out of your way to get stranded on an island, but going days and weeks without food or any real comfort? I think people underestimate how traumatizing that would be. And then Zeff losing his leg because he hacked it off for food, it’s brutal. Just thinkin’ about that, I feel it in my shins. Because that almost happened to me with a minor injury. I let a minor injury get infected, and I could’ve been close to losing a leg.

Wait, what? Gahd.

I was doing box jumps at a gym, and my shin hit the corner of this wooden crate.

Yeah, those things have no give in them.

Absolutely. And at the time, I thought it was just this dark spot on my shin. And I figured it was, ya know a bruise. So I let it be. And then I picked at the scab and I realized “Wow, that’s a little deeper than I thought. I guess I’ll go to the doctor if it gets worse.” And I kept going to the gym, wearing pants over like this open wound. And my left leg is so swollen. So I went to two different doctors, as the first one did tests and then sent me to another one. And when this doctor saw me, the look on her face said “Oh, this is bad.” So I laughed out loud about how dumb I was and the doctor turned to me and said “This isn’t funny. This IS SERIOUS.” It had gotten infected with bacteria and it was spreading, and she just took a sharpie and drew around the infected area, and gave me antibiotics and was like “You have to keep this elevated, and if the redness goes outside of this line, go to the hospital.” But luckily, I recovered, even though the doctors were like “Honestly, we thought you’d go to the hospital.” So when Zeff severs his foot with a rock, how does anyone not feel that?

Do you think that's one of the reasons Luffy is fascinated by Sanji at first? His mentor, Shanks, lost his arm and was cool about it. Zeff lost his leg and was cool about it. Basically twins.

That’d be an interesting conversation that we never got to see. Just two dudes talking about how weird it is that both their father figures did that, with only Luffy thinking it’s cool.

Don Krieg's ship gets blown in half by an incomprehensibly cool character, Mihawk, the first Warlord to appear in the show. You see Mihawk arrive — what is your reaction to him? Because it's not a case of "The villain of the villain is my friend," but rather "Oh, he did that to the villain? I hope he does not do that to us, as that would suck."

It’s almost like the good guys meeting the bad guys, and then a tornado comes in. But here’s the thing: I missed the issue of Jump where Zoro fought Mihawk. So I assumed that Zoro had just won. The greatest swordsman in the world shows up and Zoro beats him. Boom. The climax of his character arc has been achieved. Nothing left for Zoro.

He just did it.

I didn’t find out until so much later that Zoro lost. I wasn’t quite aware of what made for a captivating story yet. At that time, an obstacle appears, an obstacle gets taken out, ya move on. I almost want to apologize to Mihawk.

I love how One Piece does this though. They do it with Smoker and Aokiji and the like. It reminds me of The Witcher III when you go off the path a little bit, and you're at a Level 4 and then a Level 39 Gryphon swoops down and decapitates you. It keeps the "power levels" interesting.

Luffy starts up Breath of the Wild and goes right for Calamity Ganon. But Mihawk is like the analogy for the Grand Line. He represents it, without revealing too much. Mihawk is like a Pizza Hut demo disc of danger.

I really like that. And no one knows, to this day, exactly how powerful he is. Over 20 years later, and we're still wondering how he matches up against Shanks or Blackbeard or whatever. One Piece has so many characters where Oda hasn't shown his full hand in regards to them, yet we're totally emotionally invested in them. That's good storytelling.

He’s doing something right. And I love that Mihawk has a little character arc here, too, where he shows up nonchalantly slicing up Krieg’s ships, probably doesn’t expect much, and then he’s taken aback by Zoro’s gusto, because he hasn’t seen anyone like that in a while. And he slices Zoro down. But he respects him, when in the beginning, he clearly didn’t respect anyone around. Mihawk wants to see him be better and try to take him down one day. For him to willingly build someone up like that is rare. Like Frieza wouldn’t do that.

So, Don Krieg — what were your opinions of him at the time? Because he's a really bad guy surrounded by more morally grey guys like Mihawk and Gin.

What I like about the East Blue saga is that every main villain is an antithesis of Luffy and what makes Luffy a truly great captain. Buggy is all about treasure. Kuro is about ambition and the fortitude to be a pirate. Krieg is about might and strength, and Krieg thinks he has both of those because of his weapons and armor. But Luffy has willpower and ambition and doesn’t let the world change his views. Luffy is incorruptible whereas Krieg is willing to poison his own crew when stuff starts going south. Krieg isn’t fondly remembered, but he really serves his purpose in the story.

So, after Krieg is defeated, Sanji turns down Luffy's offer to join the Straw Hat crew. Now, he knows this is a bad idea. He's not gonna find the All Blue floating around on the Baratie. Why doesn't he go immediately?

Well, he knows it’s a bad idea but he’s completely misinterpreting Zeff’s sacrifice. He feels that since Zeff sacrificed his leg, he has to repay him by working for him indefinitely. But the reason that Zeff did that was because he wants Sanji to live on and chase his dream. That’s why Zeff took pity on him in the first place. He’s an older, worn-down man now, and he stopped chasing his dream. And now he wants to see Sanji or someone get a win. It lifts his spirit to see Sanji and live kinda vicariously through him.

So, the second time I ever cried over One Piece was during Sanji's goodbye and Zeff's "Don't catch a cold." The first time was when that little dog was trying to protect his dead owner's shop in Orange Town, but that's a different story. But this shot of Sanji on his knees thanking Zeff with all the cooks surrounding them is so iconic, and Sanji's acting like it's a gift that Zeff gave him that Sanji could never repay, while as you said, Zeff just wants Sanji to be happy. What did you get out of that? I assume that you're a human with human emotions.

I cry every time I watch that. When I first saw it, I was like “How? How is a series this good?” And there’s so much to that ending sequence. Because the Baratie is built on this rough, angry masculinity. Just these dudes being mean and fighting each other and customers all the time. There’s never a time or a place for lending a shoulder to someone else. No emotional embraces of any kind. Just everyone berating everyone. No one can open up — just stupid man babies. And then you get to this moment where Sanji is leaving and they’re all trying to be cool while playing it off. Especially Zeff, who can’t give a legitimate goodbye, but rather a “Don’t catch a cold.” But there’s so much to that statement and the facade crumbles. All these grown men start bawling.

I've never thought about it that way. There's all these little hints of kindness, like feeding the bad guys, and it's a masculinity powder keg. And then Sanji, in an ultimate display of putting his heart out there, bows to the man who saved him and the keg explodes. That's really cool.

ONE PIECE LIGHTNING ROUND!

Favorite One Piece character?

Sanji

Favorite One Piece villain?

Enel

Favorite One Piece moment?

March to Arlong Park

Favorite Straw Hat Crew pairing?

Luffy and Zoro

Favorite moment of the new Wano anime arc?

Soba Mask’s debut

If you could eat one Devil Fruit, what would it be?

Whatever Kanjuro’s fruit is

Moment that made you cry the hardest?

Sanji leaving the Baratie

Moment that made you cheer the loudest?

Straw Hats at the Tower of Justice standing across from Robin

One Piece location that you'd like to live in?

Whole Cake Island. Ya eat well, ya know, you can survive Big Mom

Favorite fight scene?

Sanji vs Mr. 2, of course

Stay tuned for the next installment of "My Favorite One Piece Arc" as we speak with Botchamania creator Maffew about his favorite One Piece arc: Alabasta!!

Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features.

By: Daniel Dockery

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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