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raziroo · 3 years

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Karma | The Marauders

[Chapter 5] Nothing More

Gulping slightly, Karma turned to her left, and lo and behold – there stood Sirius. But God, oh, God, what had they done to him? What did they do to the person she once lived and breathed for, the one who was all the life she had left? The Prince Charming in her fairytale, the Casanova of Hogwarts, Padfoot? What had Dumbledore done to him? His face had become gaunt and weak and exhausted to the point where you wouldn’t know he was Sirius Black, a man who once looked to be sculpted by the gods themselves. His eyes had sunken drastically, there were circles underneath his grey orbs; his cheekbones stood out against his face which wasn’t in the least bit attractive – they weren’t sharp as they were scary. His skin that he spent hours on was now full of spots and ridges he’d have been disgusted by; well, the past Sirius would have, at least. His body, just from afar, looked frail; his once precious, luscious, silky locks were matted as if they hadn’t been washed properly, just hastily combed through. His cheeks were hollowed, his forehead had lines – lines, oh, her Sirius would have never – his stubble was messy, and his eyes, those grey, no, that wouldn’t do them justice – the storm in his eyes had calmed down immensely, and not in a good way, no, not at all. All the glory of the ebony and the pearly sheen and shadows and ash and charcoal, which could be disrespectfully simplified to clouds and the rain and thunder, it was all gone, just… gone.

And that was why it hurt. Because this person who was standing before her – this was not her Sirius. It couldn’t be. This was a man who didn’t have a trace of the storm that were Sirius’ eyes. This was a man who’d bore the full weight of being wrongfully thrown in a cell in Azkaban. And she knew, she knew it was so selfish of her, so incredibly selfish to not accept him for what he was now, but how could she? Sirius and Remus – those two were the only parts of her life she didn’t burst into tears thinking about. Their images in her mind had become spotless, flawless, whilst everyone else’s had become this miserable remnant with tears and holes and spots she didn’t ever want to think about again. She’d be damned if she thought about them fondly.

But who was she to care? After all, Sirius wasn’t hers anymore, was he? All this talk about her Sirius doing this and her Sirius saying that and her Sirius, when the reality was that her Sirius had died – died along with Lily and James and Marlene and Regulus and all the others. Her Sirius was just a false hope she’d been clinging to all this time. A hope that when she’d come back, if she’d ever, he would be standing there with open arms and that warm and cheeky smirk and smug expression on his face saying ‘told you so’. That she’d act annoyed, hit him on the head and they’d go back to what they were; not the high school sweethearts, never. They weren’t the high school sweethearts – tat title was reserved for James and Lily. They were that couple; the one with a not-so-serious forbidden love that was more teasing than romantic; the heartbreakers, the rebels, the ones with family issues. The ones who you looked at and thought, them? But you looked closely and that furrow in your brow disappeared and you understood why it was them, why it was always meant to be. And sometimes the fantasies would extend so far that their friends would join them and voila! – Slytherins and Gryffindors bantering together, what a sight. But then the true nature of those words together – Slytherins and Gryffindors – would come seeping in, and the friendly teasing and chummy banter would turn to hostile duels and vicious sneers and disgusted scowls.

But that – the sneering and scowling and curses and jinxes – was what Karma liked to fondly look back at, now, fourteen years later, at thirty-three.

Mentally smacking herself across the face because she was just staring at Sirius and Sirius back at her and everyone else at both of them, the woman pressed her lips together, and managed in as curt a tone as she possibly could, ‘Sirius, nice to mee-’

Holy crap.

She squinted her eyes just a bit, going over the boy’s face once again. The same raven, nest-for-hair, the ditto tan skin, that replicated slightly-mad-slightly-confused look in his eyes for having been woken up in the middle of the night – but wait a second – his eyes weren’t hazel… they were… green. Lily’s green. Her eyes jumped to his forehead, and there it was – the infamous lightning scar. James would’ve envied it, if Karma was being honest, because it made this boy look kind of rad.

But on second thought, James wouldn’t’ve been jealous at all; he’d have been proud. After all, this was his son. Harry James Potter.

Getting over the initial shock because she was sure she looked dumb, Karma turned to Sirius once again. She’d be getting straight to the point this time.

‘Where’s Dumbledore?’

Sirius made a face. ‘Dumble… Why would Dumbledore be here? It’s the middle of the night, Karma.’

She suppressed an eyeroll. ‘I know that. I got a letter… about twenty letters, actually, inside the deepest crevices of my home saying that he wanted to see me. Dumbledore. So, do you have any idea where he might be, beca-’

‘Didn’t he give you any address?’

‘Well, I was just going to mention that before you cut me off. All the addresses he gave me were of here. I found it weird too, but it’s Dumbledore, so… what can you expect, really?’ she mumbled the last bit in frustration. The man had asked to speak with her, given her this address, and was now clearly not here. What was she supposed to do?

‘I… Karma, I really don’t know why he’d do that. None of us have any clue as to why he wished to meet you. None of us even knew that you were… that you were supposed to be coming here.’ A couple, who she assumed were Arthur and Molly, nodded in agreement.

Karma sighed. Why couldn’t Dumbledore behave like a normal human being? Yes, the man was wise and powerful beyond anyone she knew, but this was preposterous. She hadn’t apparated across the Earth at 6 o’clock in the morning just to be greeted by remnants of her past that she was coaxing herself to forget. Time flew past especially quickly, and she was sure that it’d been half an hour already. If her neighbours didn’t find her in the morning, who knew what could end up happening? And then there was-

‘Well, you’re welcome to come inside,’ Sirius offered with a hopeful smile. How could she resist?

. . . . .

‘Si- Siri…Sirius, hey, hey, listen,’ Karma breathed out, chest heaving as she panted for air.

‘What, what is it, love?’ She looked up to see the boy look at her with pure mischief, mixed with adoration in his eyes. She wanted to kiss him so bad.

‘…First of all, I’m not your “love”, okay?’

Sirius had this smug look on his face. His smirk was ever-present. ‘You sure ‘bout that, love?’

Karma growled slightly. A look of pleasant surprise crossed Sirius’ face, then he began laughing. ‘Ooh, she growls.’ He’d gotten closer to her face, impossibly closer. His shallow breaths were felt on her skin, and the look in his eyes had switched to something else completely, something that she didn’t have the wits right now to decipher. If only she just pushed a little closer, there lips would brush, and-

‘Pads! Padfoot, you there?’ They jumped apart impossibly quickly; pretty violently too, it seems, because Karma ended up slipping and falling among a heap of mucky cauldrons. Gross.

Sirius helped her up, and dusted her off. ‘…Pads?’ Sirius rolled his eyes.

‘Yes, James, it’s me, your dearest friend. Stop shouting please.’

��Where are you, anyway?’ asked Karma with a frown.

‘Here!’

‘AHH!’ Karma jumped. James had poked out his head from the window she was standing in front of, her back facing it. Her and Sirius were serving detention in an abandoned classroom for ‘vandalism of school property’. As if. They’d been stuck scrubbing old cauldrons while the entire school was at Hogsmeade. Unfair, and impossibly so. The reason why Karma had been panting earlier on was because the two of them had engaged in quite an enthusiastic soap fight.

‘I came to rescue you-’

‘That doesn’t matter, you nitwit! You know McGonagall is already mad at you, you don’t want to make her angrier, do you? You’ve already gotten six detentions in the past four days, you both.’

‘Eh, since when did you become such a buzzkill?’

‘I’m not-!’

‘Love, Minnie loves us,’ said Sirius casually. ‘James, wand.’ James handed Sirius a wand – it was the former’s – and the latter whipped it about a bit, and boom! Cauldrons squeaky clean.

‘You have an extra broom?’

‘What d’you think?’ Both the boys grinned impishly at one another. Karma frowned.

‘Wait…if there’s one extra broom, then I’m sitting in front.’

‘Why, love, don’t you trust me?’ questioned Sirius.

‘Nope,’ she made the ‘p’ pop. Snatching the extra broom James was holding, Karma swiftly perched on it.

‘Well, Padfoot. Hop on.’

. . . . .

‘So, Karma,’ said Sirius as the woman took a seat on the couch, ‘would you like something? Tea, perhaps?’

She simply shook her head, missing the way Sirius’ face fell. The man’s godson didn’t.

‘Who are you? How do you know Sirius?’ asked he.

Sirius and Karma looked at each other.

‘We just happened to be attending Hogwarts at the same time, and had a mutual friend. Nothing more,’ said Karma.

Sirius nodded, a cold look suddenly overtaking his eyes.

‘Yes, Harry. Nothing more.’

#sirius black #james potter #peter pettigrew #remus lupin #sirius black x reader #karma | the marauders #character x oc #raziroo #arabella lestrange #alec hartley #geoffrey bailey #adrian pucey #lucius malfoy #slytherin #hogwarts

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chestnut-devil · 2 years

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Honestly I’m shocked that there aren’t any cross over fics between Red Notice and Leverage or Red Notice and White Collar.

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downthetubes · 4 years

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Pre-order the 2020 Cor!! Buster Easter Special!

Prepare your funny bones for the biggest and brightest humour comic in Britain – the Cor!! Buster Special is back in just three short weeks!

A smash hit with kids, the Cor!! Buster Easter Special, available to pre-order here from the 2000AD web shop, brings together two of Britain’s most beloved humour comics for 48 pages of belly laughs and silly japes from some of the best creators around!

Not…

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#Alec Worley #Buster #Cor #Cor! & Buster Special #Keith Richardson #Lew Stringer #Matt Smith #Ned Hartley #Neil Googe #Olivia Hicks #Paul Goodenough #Tom Paterson

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badgaymovies · 2 years

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Island In The Sun (1957)

Island In The Sun by #RobertRossen starring #HarryBelafonte and #DorothyDandridge, "delivered smoothly through a soapy but commanding narrative", Now reviewed on MyOldAddiction.com

ROBERT ROSSEN Bil’s rating (out of 5): BBBB United Kingdom/USA, 1957. Darryl F. Zanuck Productions. Screenplay by Alfred Hayes, based on the novel by Alec Waugh. Cinematography by Freddie Young. Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. Music by Malcolm Arnold. Production Design by William C. Andrews. Costume Design by Phyllis Dalton, David Ffolkes. Film Editing by Reginald Beck. The British empire has been…

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milliondollarbaby87 · 4 years

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Inheritance (2020) Review

When Archer Monroe very suddenly passes away as head of a very powerful family the interest is high in the inheritance left. Lauren is left with the big secret which could easily unravel the whole family.

⭐️⭐️

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msgrumpygills · 2 years

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Hell, poor Alec Baldwin, with all pf his problems, still manages to like some of JA’s posts, but his best friend, who worked with him for 15 years can’t bother? Alec only worked with him 2 weeks! The entire Boys crew supported each other. Jared needs to learn a thing or two on friendship. Justin Hartley from Smallville days even liked the Boys post. That was almost 20 years ago.

That says a LOT. I also think Jensen seemed to make a good impression on Alec too.

Jared not reacting isn’t the worst thing he has done, but it really is painting him as a jilted ex or a jealous friend. He was quick to promote his podcast or instagram thing or whatever, and even came onto Twitter to talk about Maya Angelou. It’s almost like he’s deliberately continuing to ignore the post. But hey, he’ll keep showing his ass and he thinks it’s hurting Jensen but he doesn’t seem to give a damn. (Obviously we don’t know how Jensen feels about it, I’m sure it’s hurtful, but over all he seems to doing okay.)

#grumpy answers #Jensen Ackles #anti jared padalecki

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honey-hippie-harper · 3 years

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The Day Gatlon Fell

(TW: VIOLENCE)

IT’S VALENTINE’S DAY AFSGHJAFSGHJA. I should’ve done something nice but I don’t seem to be physically capable of doing that, sO IF YOU WOULD BE SO KIND TO PLEASE FORGIVE ME AFGSHAFGHAJ. I guess from the title it’s...kinda clear what this is all about, because I like to write about my imaginary complex relationships in Renegades. Yet, I wrote it with love and I hope you like it :’)

This fic is actually a present for those who want to accept it (If you don’t, I understand tbh). But I’m going to dedicate it for the ones who constantly pretend they tolerate me and like my writing, which are my fellow Reneweys: @healing-winston-pratt @obsidianfr3sk @alecjamesartino @nodrianbcyes @everyone-has-a-nightmare . I love you guys SO much. Thanks for being a safe space full of people who share the same mother tongue and laugh at my stupid jokes.

Also @all-weather-is-bad whom I love very much. Thank you for tolerating me to :’) <3 and @ifyouhadntbutyoudid bECAUSE FELLOW LATINA <3 (also your art for HCTTR still makes me cry and I know you like Leroy).

And idk if this matters or not, but, for the ones who understand Spanish, this fic was heavily based upon this (yes, the contemporary dance and everything don’t judge me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaaVpaE1XGA

Alec called them the Anarchists, because he called himself Ace Anarchy. And, in a world where prodigies were hurt, mistreated and killed, he also called them hope.

Hope called themselves the Anarchists, and they reunited at the outskirts of the city, and then they marched towards Gatlon when it was still dawning. There were many, many of them, creating a huge mass of people. Some of them were only wearing masks in order to protect their identity, but others, like them, the main circle of Anarchists, were in full costume, including Alec, Ace Anarchy, who was marching at the back of the crowd, for Alec Artino had faked his disappearance (and possible assassination) less than two weeks ago.

As an act of symbolism (in Alec’s own words) the Queen Bee was at the lead, while him, Leroy (Cyanide), stood two steps behind her, with Gerard Hoffman, Atomic Brain, at his right, and Lincoln Palmer, Brimstone, at his left. Behind them were Dexter Hartley, Rat, and the Thompsons. Then, everything was too much, and there were too many people to name them all, when he barely remembered his own name at the moment.

Every distance looked moderately short until you had to travel it by foot, or when you were too anxious to arrive at your destination. Leroy, personally, didn’t consider himself to be anxious per se. At least, that wasn’t the word he would’ve used to describe his situation.

For the first time in forever, Leroy’s mind was making too much noise, and he didn’t know how to make it stop, nor did he know how to decipher what it was trying to say to him. While he marched, Leroy was surrounded by sounds. There were the distant, faint movements of the awakening city, the ring of keys, the dragging of boots, the hasty breaths, the silent prayers, Honey humming to an inexistent melody, while her dress danced to her voice, hanging from her body.

Honey was easily one of the best dressed out of the bunch, which was a very typical Honey attitude from her part. The most meaningful thing in his own costume was the lab coat and the scientific pun, but it was more than enough for him, knowing that, after today, many of the people here wouldn’t be alive anyway, and he wasn’t even sure whether he would make it, either.

By the time they started reaching the city’s main entrance, the sun was covering half of their bodies, announcing they might have “nice” (hot) weather today. For a while, at least. And the heat was so extreme it made Leroy’s temple sweat, as well as the rest of his face, behind the mask. However, he resisted the urge to remove it, as his mind started making too much noise again, when it forced him to remember Alec’s words.

“And, remember, that you are the pain, you are the fire, and I am the courage.” He said, while they were sitting around the campfire, one messy night, running away from the police. “Because courage comes from the same place as fear.”

Leroy didn’t agree with some of Alec’s ways. Hell. He really didn’t. Nevertheless, he was also aware of his own position. He was aware he was a prodigy, and he was aware people were exhausting.

Even before he became…special, people were already picking on him. Leroy had been a punching bag the entirety of his life. First, for being too ordinary.

There was always a defect they could find in him.

When he admitted his father had abandoned his mother not long after he was born, he became the fatherless kid who wasn’t important enough to make his father stay (as if his father being an asshole had been his fault); when his mother met Claire, his other mother, he became the outcast who lived with two insane and sick women who dared to say they were in a serious, romantic relationship (even though they were evidently in love); when he discovered he enjoyed science, he became the weird kid who liked Thursdays, because that’s when Mr. Ruiz used to take them to the lab; when he discovered he was good at school overall and teachers offered him to move him one grade ahead, he became the ugly, creepy and fat nerd kid who lived with dykes and had no life.

And so, Leroy was murdered by his classmates in eleventh grade, in the lab. And when he came back as a prodigy, he became the burden. The fucker. The freak. The disgusting prodigy who should’ve stayed dead.

Because, when it came to people, it was never enough.

It really was never enough.

When they didn’t like you, there wasn’t a limit they wouldn’t reach in order to let you know. They hated you when you were too ordinary, but they hated you more when you were extraordinary.

Being a prodigy meant being your own fight. It meant being out there, in a minefield where everybody was chasing after you, and nobody stopped to help. People were often afraid of the things they couldn’t understand.

But courage came from the same place as fear.

And it was a dark, messed up place that, in the rare cases where it didn’t drive you crazy, it ended up killing you.

Alec’s ideas were extreme and a little twisted, even, but nobody had ever seemed to care as much as he did, and Leroy had to give him that.

He strongly defended that, if nobody did, then there would be a time where somebody would have to, and he had to give him that too. Because, one day, he just decided that person would be him. Because, if not him, then who?

“I’m my own fight. We’re all our own fight. And you should just face that and shut your ass, before you get killed.” Leroy told him the day after he personally met him, when Honey called him, saying the wound in his calf had gotten uglier and he was banned from the majority of the hospitals in the city. At first, Leroy didn’t know why that should’ve been a matter of concern to him, but he ended up showing him at the apartment anyway. When he realized Alec hadn’t learned anything from the previous experience and was already planning the next riot, he felt the burning desire to cauterize him out of spite.

So Leroy cauterized him, with no previous warning. Alec screamed so loud he thought he was going to pass out. But when he was done, Alec thanked him, because, sure, he had nearly fainted thanks to the pain, but the wound was closed and no longer bleeding.

“I won’t get killed.” Alec declared, as if he were some type of almighty god. “But if I do, it will be defending my place and my rights. You say we’re all our own fight. Correct. But, as prodigies, we have to stick together.”

“And why is that, exactly?”

“Because somebody has to fight for us.”

“You want to fight for us.”

“I want us to fight for us.”

At that moment, Honey came into the room, carrying a tray with a steaming cup and a plate with French toast with honey.

“They can’t kill us all.” She said.

“Oh, but they can.”

Before she could answer, Alec spoke again.

“Then how come we’re still here?”

As the hours, days, weeks and months went by, Leroy, beneath all his cynicism and incredulity, realized he cared. And, once he was invested in the cause, he decided he cared enough to believe them.

They couldn’t kill them all, but they could kill some of them. Yet, they would die caring and believing, and defending their legitimate right to having lived in the first place. There were some things they couldn’t take back, but there were others they could stop them from taking away.

Because somebody had to.

And, if nobody wanted to fight for them, then they had to be their own fight.

Leroy had already gone down once, and that was the reason why he was willing to do it again if necessary. There were Alecs out there, who had been born prodigies and judged, mistreated and pointed at because of it; there were Honeys out there, who had suffered from fatidic accidents that had left a mark in them forever; there were Leroys out there, who had been bullied for not being a prodigy, but also for being one.

As long as he was alive, there would be no more Leroys. No more Honeys, either. No more Alecs.

They were their own fight, but they were also each other’s fight.

So, as they marched towards the city, they were carrying tons and tons of weight, even from the pain that didn’t belong to them. Even from pain that had already been silenced.

Silenced like the inert body of a murdered prodigy.

Silenced like the city the moment they saw them come.

Needless to say, they were coming in with previous instructions to show no mercy in case anything went wrong, knowing these people had already been attacked right at the heart of their system (their mayor), but when they saw them walk, they showed no resistance to let them through.

Gatlon City met the Anarchists in a moment that remained suspended into the air, while some of them dispersed to block the entrances and exits, and others stood in the middle of the traffic, creating a human wall that prevented the cars from moving forward.

Traffic lights exploded, as well as display screens, just like the days when authorities were trying to censor a violent riot. Doors became locked, just like the days when citizens were being notified of a group of violent prodigies marching through the city, except this time citizens weren’t the ones locking themselves in. Telephone lines became cut, just like the days when they did that so agonizing prodigies wouldn’t say a last goodbye to their loved ones who lived far away.

They were many. Too many.

And they couldn’t kill them all.

When they realized that, panic started spreading among them.

Queen Bee was still taking the lead, but the lines began to become blurrier and blurrier with every second, as some of the prodigies had to leave the formation in order to silence those who dared to try to oppose.

Gatlon City was a bold, intimidating place, with huge buildings, blinding lights and overwhelmingly wide streets that could swallow you whole if you weren’t careful enough. Yet, it welcomed the Anarchists in a scene that was as surreal as it was fascinating. Out of a sudden, it seemed to shrink before them.

To the elemental prodigies’ hands, the sky started to look as if split in two, fragile and breakable like the green leaves hanging from the trees, which were swaying like Honey’s blonde curls that day at the beach.

It was a public music festival, which they had attended while the Thompsons babysat David, out of pure and classic peer pressure coming from Honey herself.

Leroy showed up late at the beach, after waking up from a seven hour nap (the result of not sleeping at night), given that, despite living together, Honey expressed she hadn’t woken him up because she thought it was only an excuse to stand them out.

Beneath the loud chattering, the live music and the crowding, their presence became as irrelevant as a single grain of sand before it was taken away by a wave, but they still managed to get a decent spot, where they could see the stage from the blanket they were using as seats.

Out of the few bucks they were carrying with them at the moment, they managed to gather enough for a bucket of fish and chips from the food trucks, so they sent Alec to go get it, which left Honey and Leroy alone (though surrounded by people) in the blanket.

It was about time she said something about it, but when she did, Leroy still felt the need to roll his eyes at her until they rolled out of his face.

“You’re the only two people I know who dress like that to come to the beach. It’s honestly embarrassing.”

She was referring to the fact Leroy was wearing jeans, sneakers and a black hoodie, while Alec was wearing jeans as well, and a black T-shirt he had gotten for free at an event in his faculty.

“What are you? A vampire or something?” Upon saying that, Honey got her hands in the cooler and took a can of lime flavored soda from it.

“I don’t like leaving the house without my hoodie.” Leroy responded above the clic and the hissing produced by the carbonation. “It hides my rolls.”

It’s not like Leroy was ashamed of his body. In fact, he didn’t give a damn about it, for he wasn’t one to take care of his physical appearance that much. Nevertheless, having people pointing out defects he already knew he had was annoying and an inconvenience he rather preferred not to go through.

“What are you trying to say to me?” Honey let out a screeching laugh, shaking her head to get her hair off her face, before taking a sip from her soda, very slowly, staring directly into Leroy’s eyes, with an arched eyebrow, not mad, but a little malicious and suggestive.

Whatever she was trying to do, it worked perfectly well, because Leroy could tell the exact part of his sentence where he had gone wrong and dug his own grave. Despite his efforts to conceal it and pretend he didn’t regret saying it, he still felt his face burn a little.

Honey was wearing a two-piece swimsuit that day. A yellow bikini top with white polka dots (“Hope you’re getting a great view because this is the only time you’ll ever see me wearing a bra” “You really are a hippie pothead” “So what?” “Honey Hippie Harper” “Great name, Lery”) and a tight, also yellow with polka dots skirt. The top had a huge white bow tie that fell all the way towards her stomach area, but it’s not like it covered much, and Honey wasn’t exactly the size of a Barbie doll herself (though everybody in Gatlon agreed that, somehow, she still managed to look like one).

Good thing her self-esteem was as high as Everest.

“You’re just jealous I’m so hot it feels like my entire body is catching flames while you look like a poor man’s Dracula.”

“Your lexicon is above the clouds today. Did you teach yourself how to read? And you read Dracula, just by chance?“

“You’re such a comedian. I’m dying. My lungs are aching from laughing so much.” Honey laughed sarcastically, in a flat tone, before taking another sip from her soda. “I had a pretty productive and nurturing self-teaching session yesterday.”

“I see.”

“I did teach myself how to read though, but, just so you know, I read Carmilla and not Dracula, because she came first.”

Being that said, she winked.

By that time, Honey didn’t attend as many feminist movements as before, nor did she lead them, but she still looked pretty invested in her cause and beliefs sometimes, and those were the moments when she looked more like herself.

“The more you know.” Leroy said, between his teeth.

Knowing she had won, Honey didn’t respond anything else on the matter, and reached for her sunglasses instead, putting them on. Then, she kept singing along to the song played by the band, about how the world was going to end soon.

Which was fitting for their current situation.

The entire world wasn’t ending today, but maybe it would, in case they succeeded. Leroy wasn’t the most positive person to have ever stepped on Earth, but, if one thing he knew, was that he was completely able to read and accept facts and get to the truth, and said truth was that Gatlon didn’t have much on its part. A bunch of regular citizens, against a bunch of prodigy citizens, whose mere existence was an advantage over them. And it’s not that Leroy thought prodigies were superior, but, objectively, prodigies could do things normal people couldn’t. That’s what made them prodigies in the first place, and it was part of the reason why they didn’t like them, too.

The terror in their faces made Leroy straighten his back. Above his head, he could already hear the helicopters and planes, both from the press and the government. Still standing in his place, he saw Honey stop. She didn’t hesitate or flinched, but she did stare directly at them. Her lips shimmered, as well as her eyes and the bee hanging from her neck, when the remaining morning sun reached and caressed them. Her expression remained serene, until it wasn’t, and her lips started arching into a sideways smile. With the whole crowd waiting behind her, Queen Bee clicked her tongue and giggled. Then, she waved at the sky, with her eyes grinning as well, behind the mask. Leroy could almost visualize the picture in a History book, in the chapter that talked about the day Gatlon fell.

When he took one step forward, he also saw himself in the frame. Honey, for sure, acknowledged his presence before she continued walking, squeezing his wrist a little, as a reassuring gesture he thought he didn’t need.

With two Anarchists at the lead, the weight of the protest became more evident, but the rest of the recruits were keeping them grounded. Flying prodigies were above their heads, keeping themselves at a prudent distance from the planes and helicopters, becoming an emergency signal for the others. They barked orders, so their companions knew where to aim.

The cocky individuals holding guns while standing in the sideway were attacked from behind and killed on spot. Some others didn’t have it that easy, for they were grabbed by extra arms or tentacles and smothered to death. Others were stabbed by flying pieces of glass or other sharp objects. And the one man who thought he was clever enough met Leroy’s palm, and while he tried not to step on his agonizing body (like Honey did) with a face now looking like a melted candle, he didn’t feel anything when he heard him wail in pain.

In fact, Leroy felt so blinded by adrenaline he couldn’t feel anything at all.

The only thing that managed to make him snap back into reality for a short while, was the warmth that later turned into almost unbearable heat and left them with a lack of oxygen for a short while.

Aracely Thompson, Dome, stepped forward and, with a stomp of her foot, translucent, golden chains rose from the ground, trapping the main Anarchists (plus Jerome and her) in a wide intangible circle, which chains melted into each other once the area was delimited, and turned into a see-through bubble. The ones from the outside could see them, but not hear or touch them, let alone harm them.

Leroy wondered why they hadn’t thought about that before, but he figured they had just thought about how Alec would manage just fine on his own at the back.

Fearless and merciless, they kept on walking the cracking pavement, through the growing chaos, trapped in their bubble with recycled air.

With the traffic suspended, the streets looked empty, as if naked. People had already gotten the message, and they were running like scared roaches, trying to get out of their way. Some were holding their children, some were holding their pets, and others were holding both.

“Where’s Ingrid?” Leroy asked in Honey’s ear, upon seeing a mother run away with her child, who looked around Ingrid’s age.

“At a daycare for single mothers…” Aracely was not a single mother (but she was only married through the eyes of religion. Jerome and her weren’t legally married, and, in theory, her name was still Aracely Brito, but she preferred to be called Thompson, and it was the only last name Ingrid had in her fake birth certificate) “In front of a lawyer firm by Trinity street. So, no matter what happens, don’t touch that building.”

They would have to warn Alec about it, or take Ingrid out before he could reach that daycare.

Some years ago, before Alec arrived to Gatlon, there had been an incident, where a daycare for prodigy children had been destroyed; it wasn’t considered legal, of course, and, through the eyes of the government, it didn’t exist. So, when they contacted the owners to ask them to close it and they refused, one of the gas tanks of the daycare conveniently exploded, resulting in a fire and the death of several prodigy children, which meant that, among a lot of other things, Alec would show no mercy for daycares for regular children. In other words, the entirety of daycares in Gatlon, including the one Ingrid was in.

Alec never forgot, nor did he forgive, and he had a wide knowledge in regards to the crimes Gatlon had committed against prodigies.

They continued on walking through the main street, which led to the main bridge, from which cars were falling like little ants. Nobody truly knew what Alec was planning to do, because he was as pragmatic as he was unpredictable, and the more you hung out with him, the looser the thread your life was hanging from became.

He just said Gatlon would fall.

And when he said something would happen, it usually happened.

Upon reaching the bridge, they were greeted by familiar faces, with familiar uniforms, who maybe thought this would be just another routine intervention. That they would be retouching a line they had already painted some time ago. That they had another chance.

There were uniformed men and women, some in cars, some in tanks, some in patrols, holding their guns and pointing at them, the ones who had made it into the bridge instead of staying in the fight below.

Leroy was starting to suspect a part of them knew it would be useless, because this time they weren’t giving them an option, but, still, in their eyes he could see they were desperate enough to try.

Due to the fact there were so many prodigies stepping on the bridge at once, the ground seemed to be buzzing, as well as the air, and the clouds, and the sky, and the life surrounding them, filled with the distant cries and the echoes of the ones they had lost in the way.

In that moment, when they had already arrived, Leroy drifted away.

He heard the bullets.

Bang, bang, bang.

It was a couple of months ago. They had just taken a government building with brute force, and they had locked it from the inside.

They stayed there for almost a week, until the police finally decided to cease fire and left the area. They had no food apart from some crackers and cheese sticks, they had no water (and no water elementals whatsoever), no electricity and no running water either. If that wasn’t bad enough on its own, some of them were injured or losing blood, and the bullets kept hitting the walls on the outside.

Bang, bang, bang.

Honey had always hated being unclean. Even when she wasn’t in the mood to take care of herself, she kept complaining about how much being dirty disgusted her. Hence, after two days, she sat in a corner and refused to move, until the day they were finally released. Everybody was at the verge of going crazy by then, and so, she decided to stand up and join Alec’s motivational speech about why they were doing this in the first place, in which Leroy was also involved.

Then, when it all went quiet, they just stayed there, with the question “Now what?” floating in the air.

One important part of Alec’s motto as a visionary, was reminding others that prodigies were people too. That they had rights. That they had feelings. That they had needs.

Honey, being herself, started singing Rivers of Babylon out of the blue, and while everybody in the room stared at her like she was crazy at first, suddenly, Alec started harmonizing with her, singing as loud as he did on Sundays, at Mass, dehydrated, hungry and everything.

Leroy just stepped aside, looking in the opposite direction, as if that would make everyone believe he didn’t know those two.

It was useless, because many people had already followed them by the second chorus.

Leroy still remembered the one line he had to drag out of his mouth when Honey placed the lipstick tube she was using as a fake microphone very close to his mouth, and everyone suddenly went silent, waiting for him.

“… When we remembered Zion…”

They went ballistic, almost as if they hadn’t been the ones to take this same building in the most violent way one could think about.

After two or three more cheesy songs that Leroy hated, there was a period of two or three minutes where nobody dared to take a turn in the invisible karaoke, and they realized there was something new there.

Absence.

There were no more bullets.

They were alone.

“I’m not very fond of Miss Harper’s taste in music.” Alec told him later that day, back at his apartment, where they had gone together to check on David and shower. “But it’s exactly what our revolution needs in its darkest times.”

“Because it’s obnoxious and loud?”

“No.” Alec told him, smiling sideways. “Because it’s vibrant. When choosing the head of a revolt, Leroy, everything’s about balance. You are serious, she is vibrant and I am versatile.”

“I thought we were talking about her music taste.”

“Are you implying that a person and their music taste aren’t deeply connected?”

That had been forever ago, compared to now, when the triggers were clicking loudly, and they were staring at their companions from sideways or from above.

Sirens screaming in the distance, along with the citizens. There was pain. There was death. There was blood. There were prodigies.

There was anarchy.

And through the confusion and anxiety, something started moving.

They started moving, at the sides, one by one, to let him through.

Now leading the crowd of Anarchists, stood Alec Artino, Ace Anarchy.

His costume was simple, with the boots, the pants, the navy blue sweater, with the golden A, the gabardine…

And the coppery helmet, made by David himself, shining on his head.

If Leroy didn’t know him well enough, he could’ve sworn he was losing his mind and that his mental health was in an extremely dark place.

Alec used to say David was one of the most powerful prodigies that had ever existed, and that this helmet would be the one thing that changed everything, once and for all. Leroy, who had never finished understanding what David could do, often doubted his words, and, to him, the helmet, if anything, only made him look ridiculous.

But he said Gatlon would fall today, and everyone believed him.

Hard as it was for him to admit it, Leroy did too.

“REMOVE THE HELMET AND IDENTIFY YOURSELF!”

If Honey had been able to speak instead of being completely frozen, she probably would’ve said the man at the front looked, plain and simple, like a cop. Light skin, brown eyes, dark brown hair combed to the side, gun in a trembling hand, afraid of the unknown.

The unknown, meaning Alec standing in front of him, with his hands laced behind his back, and his gabardine flowing with the wind.

“I SAID…!”

“I believe it was clear enough I heard you the first time.” Alec declared, tilting his head to the side. “Isn’t a person entitled to decide what questions they desire to respond to by sorting them according to their level of relevance?”

The man gulped so hard Leroy could almost hear him, and then Alec smirked.

“Can you drop your gun or is it attached to your hand? Because if it is, then I will not bother you again. But if it is not, I am going to need you to put it away so we can have a civilized conversation, like normal people do.”

“You’re… y-you’re not normal. Any of you are! YOU’RE NOT NORMAL, YOU MONSTERS! DROP YOUR WEAPONS, NOW!”

Honey’s bees were starting to present themselves at the scene, flying around her, a little uneasy. Leroy, from his part, felt calm, because this, sadly, wasn’t anything they hadn’t seen before.

“Yeah. That is exactly the problem.”

“STEP BACK!”

Alec refused to obey, and remained firm, right there where he was. Slowly, as if he were trying to mentally torture them, he lifted his right hand up. His fingers were in a very specific position, like he was about to make the sign of the cross on somebody.

It was Alec, meaning that, if he had done that, Leroy wouldn’t have been surprised.

But he didn’t.

Besides, if he had actually been planning to, they didn’t give him time for that, for the very second they saw him move, they shot, and many emergency alarms went off.

The bang was so loud Honey covered her ears, and her bees started trying to shield themselves by hiding behind her, beneath her hair or landing on her skin, never stinging her.

Leroy, from his part, felt his fingertips dripping with acid, preparing himself for the impact.

The impact never came.

Right in front of their eyes, the shower of bullets stops. The smell of gunpowder was still filling the air, and the bullets were still there, as present as ever.

However, they were suspended into the air, and one of them was almost touching Alec’s nose, who just smiled, before saying, in such a low volume Honey and him were the only ones who could hear:

“So be it, then.”

Being that said, he lifted his chin.

The bullets turned around.

Then, they were shot in the opposite direction, at full speed, to Alec’s will.

The man at the front of the formation fell first, followed by many others, with the bullets they had shot themselves, in an attempt to kill them.

They fell, one by one, and soon there were puddles of red on the floor, and other voices barking orders.

Shoot the canyons, they said.

But the canyons fell too.

Bring the bombs, they said.

And Alec waved them away as if they were some type of insignificant thing.

The planes, they said.

And they spun and flew out of control, before falling straight into the water or exploding midair.

Bullets stopped again and killed their shooters.

There was blood.

Tons of blood.

That’s when Leroy felt his heart pounding, upon coming to the maybe horrible realization that never had Alec been so strong.

His powers didn’t act like this.

His telekinesis was a hundred times more powerful.

It was…

It was the helmet

“GET THEM!” He shouted then, snapping Leroy back into reality, making him wonder how much time Alec had waited to say those words out loud.

To use those putrid words, the ones they always used before attempting against prodigies, against them.

If he wanted to be honest, hearing them felt good, but Leroy didn’t react immediately.

First he saw the chaos, when the mass of uniformed men and women melted between the prodigies in costumes, stepping on the dead and the dying, sometimes accidentally.

The massacre began in the rest of the city, as the sky became wilder, the tide started to roar and the screams became the type of symphony one would hear when entering the gates from Hell.

Gatlon City was starting to look red.

But the red wasn’t coming from the prodigies, but caused by them.

“You two stay with me.” Alec commanded, looking both at Honey and him. “I need you to clear the path.”

“Clear the bridge?!”

“Did I make myself understood, Queen Bee?”

Honey flinched the very moment she heard her own alias, and Leroy watched her as she tried to process everything.

“Clear the bridge.” She repeated. “Yes. Clear the…”

Leroy hoped that didn’t include the bodies.

He guessed it didn’t. Alec, after all, didn’t seem to care about that.

“Clear the bridge. Got it.” Leroy nodded.

“Excellent.”

Alec didn’t stare at them, and he didn’t move either, standing in the middle, with his hands into his pockets, and his face held high, feeling the movements all around him, prepared to get rid of any threat as soon as he spotted it.

Honey and Leroy rarely talked about their tactics before putting them into practice, but, just for once, Leroy wanted to do it.

And, of course, it wasn’t possible, because just as Leroy was preparing to grab her by the wrist and drag her aside, she got herself out of his reach.

“Wait! Wait!” she screamed, not because she was desperate, but because she wanted to be heard above the rest of the din.

Fortunately, in an almost surreal scene to watch, her voice caught Alec’s attention, and his green eyes caught hers, listening.

Leroy stared at Honey, both incredulous and speechless.

“A—” She stuttered. “… Acey.”

Acey.

Fucking Acey.

Leroy arched an eyebrow sharply, but Alec nodded, as if approving the nickname or acknowledging she was talking to him.

“I… “

BANG.

An explosion.

A loud, very loud explosion, followed by the smell of smoke and gunpowder. Maybe, if they were at a lower spot, they would’ve smelled the burnt flesh too.

Good thing they weren’t.

That didn’t make Alec less mad, though, for he unnecessarily adjusted his helmet and straightened his back.

“Acey, wait, I…! “

“Maybe not right now, Queen Bee.” He declared, plain and cold, but solemn.

Somehow, Leroy already knew what she wanted to say, and he also knew she would never say it after today, because he knew her well enough.

And maybe he knew him well enough too.

“Later.” He promised, empty.

Then, just like that, sitting in a cross-legged position, Alec levitated, perhaps to have a better view of the city.

Leroy took Honey by the wrist, this time for real.

Alec made the tank shoot in the opposite direction, and then came another explosion.

Back to back, Honey and him waited for the ones who came and tried to attack. Leroy started feeling his own heartbeat in his ears, and his whole body was vibrating, while Honey’s hasty breaths tormented him, trying to convince himself that they were doing fine, and that they were right.

Because they were.

They were just fighting back.

Leroy saw the scene as if he were out of his body.

The two of them, below Alec, but higher than the city, which was in flames; the body to body fights, with a considerable unbalance of power. The Anarchists were annihilating them with not a drop of mercy, nor remorse. The fights were on top of cars. On top of buildings. Through the streets. Pipes were leaking. The sky was roaring and wailing at the same time. Bullets were flying. Cables were hanging. Trees were moving as if made of paper.

Leroy could still feel Honey’s back against his’, and they only separated when they had to meet the officials who were coming into the bridge, before sending them to the top of pile of bodies.

A man came in, and he was a little taller than Leroy, with his head shaved and a bulletproof jacket. He wasn’t holding a gun, but a metallic tube instead. In posture and enraged expression, Leroy could tell he wasn’t a cop. Maybe a veteran, or some dumb fuck who enjoyed hunting season.

First, Leroy got rid of the tube, melting it with his hand, and next thing he knew, he was attacking him, trying to put his whole body weight on him. Leroy resisted and grabbed him first by the wrist and then by the cheeks, which made him wail in pain. Leroy pressed his palms harder against his skin, and it was only then that a swarm of both bees and wasps came in and started devouring the man’s face, gathering together into the burnt cheeks and wrists.

Honey grabbed Leroy by the arm and tried to pull him up, grunting and gasping, until Leroy was lucid enough to help her and got up himself.

At that very moment somebody kicked her back and made her trip forward. Fortunately, Leroy was able to catch her, but his blood started to boil, and, then, he just knew he had gone in a blind assault of rage.

Out of a sudden, he didn’t feel like himself. He could feel his pores dripping, and the acid was so strong he felt his whole body itching; getting into a fight position, he asked Honey to get behind him with a hand motion, which she obeyed, though also in defense mode.

It was a female official this time. Light brown hair tied in a small ponytail and muscular body. Leroy waved his hand, and that was enough to send the acid flying towards her, straight into her eyes and different spots of her skin.

She screamed in pain.

Honey was already fighting another man, but still, Leroy felt the bees surrounding him too, and there was a very specific group that stayed even when Honey moved towards another position, and they buzzed loudly all around him, notifying him when somebody was coming.

“They’re like an alarm.” He recalled Honey saying once, standing in the middle of the kitchen, taking the groceries out of the bags. She was covered in bees, as if they were children asking their mother what she had gotten for then. “They usually see the enemy before I do, so they buzz in their direction. From the outside it looks like I have outstanding reflexes but… Baby, you’re too close to my lashes and it’s giving me the heebie-jeebies, would you mind? Thank you.” A bumblebee flew away from Honey’s eye, to stand above her brow instead.

“What was I saying?” She tapped her chin, making the bees go away for a second. “Ah. Yes. I do have good reflexes, but yeah, it’s usually thanks to them, as well.”

Leroy remained leaned against the door frame, with his arms crossed over his chest.

“So.” She pointed at the counter, now full of groceries. “You’re gonna help me or what?”

Leroy wasn’t scared of bees. He had never been. Not particularly. But when he met Honey, he became immune to them and decided he would never be, either. Sometimes, when he was alone in the apartment and saw a swarm by the door, waiting for Honey to come back, he would even try to talk to them, which was useless and, judging for how they always stung him, they didn’t like it.

Maybe the bees didn’t like him whatsoever, but right here, in the bridge, they were pretending they did, because Honey had asked them to do so.

And yes. Hard as it was for him to admit it, they were useful.

Very useful.

On the other hand, it also made him feel dumb, because he didn’t know how desperate you had to be for your powers to respond to you through another prodigy.

Leroy was stabbed during one of the (very violent) riots. It wasn’t by a cop, but by a regular, non-prodigy civilian instead. It was a deep cut, and Alec got so mad he ordered to kill as many as they had to until they found the one who had done it. While Hell was breaking loose, Honey dragged him like a human crutch towards the park, hiding him behind the bushes.

“Don’t fall asleep or move unless you really need to, and don’t try to cauterize yourself because that shit hurts and you might pass out. Wait for Rina. I’ll send her to you.” Rina was a healing prodigy, and by the time Honey was saying that, she had already been killed, so they ended up sending Gwen instead. “You understand? Now it’s not the time to be the stubborn piece of shit you usually are. That’s not how we’re rolling. You understand?”

Leroy understood, but he didn’t answer. Not directly. Instead, he reached for the small blade he always carried in his pocket and, before he handed it to Honey, he tried to release his power in it.

She stared before grabbing it.

“Don’t let go, Leroy.” She asked, whispering, as she placed the blade in her own pocket. “For all you care, don’t let go.”

And when Honey’s skin touched it without her screaming in pain, he thought maybe it hadn’t worked at all, but a few days later, when Alec came to the apartment and tried to remove it from the dining table (because David was there too and he liked to touch everything), it hurt his palm.

The blade had become poisoned, and it burned everyone except for Honey and himself.

She still had it to this day, and right there, fighting in the bridge, he witnessed the exact moment when she took it out, while he stood behind her, with her bees, that she had lent him.

The sudden war seemed to have gone on forever when Leroy felt the breeze at his feet, produced by Alec’s body cutting through the air. He looked like a ghost. A very tangible and imposing ghost, who stood like a stone looking at the destruction he had caused himself, with his arms behind his back and his eyes closed.

Honey and Leroy came to his encounter, with the “Now what?” floating above their heads, like that time Honey and him had harmonized to Rivers of Babylon.

With sweat rolling down his face through the helmet and mask, Alec smiled sideways, and held his hand towards them, with his eyes showing a mild fuchsia tonality. None of the two, needless to say, knew how to react to that at first, but Honey believed him enough to try, and she wrapped her hand around his’, like a shell protecting a pearl.

And Leroy believed Honey enough to try, and wrapped his hand around hers’, like he was the sand or the water protecting the shell that protected the pearl.

And there they were.

The three of them.

Like the day Leroy met them for the first time. Like the days they travelled together, hiding from the police or not. Like all the days Alec forced them to go to Mass. Like the days they had to sleep under poor conditions, in motels or abandoned buildings, and Alec and him woke up with back pain because Honey always had to have the most comfortable place they managed to get. Like the days one of them was so injured they didn’t know he or she would wake up the next morning, and so they started praying they would.

Repressed memories started coming back, and Leroy managed to dodge every single one of them, although a part of him didn’t want to.

Then Alec stared at them. They were very close together, with their foreheads touching, while the three interlocked hands remained in the middle.

“Courage comes from the same place as fear.” Alec reminded them.

“And the day we decide to burn, they will all come with us. “ Ace Anarchy said.

And then, he lifted.

Honey was the last one to let go of him.

Next, he was gone.

Ace Anarchy stood above it all, like the burning sun, with both his arms extended to his sides, towards the emptiness, and, at the same time, towards the everything.

Leroy took Honey by the arms, putting her aside, as they stared. Maybe in awe. Maybe in fear.

Ace Anarchy looked up at the sky, then at the front again.

All the guns were pointing at him. All the lives were hanging by the thread he was using to sew his way in, and also his way out.

The Earth trembled in fear, and then it shook in pain.

Honey screeched, shoving her nails into Leroy’s arm to recover her balance, though Leroy was also on the verge of falling.

They tried to hold the other up. To force each other to remain standing.

Gatlon City left the ground, light as a feather. The buildings fell, the bridge started to crack, the sea escaped from the place it belonged to, people screamed, screamed, screamed.

Everything was in flames.

The light became brighter.

The wails became louder.

Time became slower.

Time became torture.

Time became endless.

And Gatlon City remained suspended into the air, shattering into little pieces, leaving a trace of blood and flesh.

Then, just like that, it fell.

Gatlon City fell, like a sinking boat.

Like it was nothing.

Like it was made of paper.

And it fell.

And, just like Ace Anarchy prophesied, they all fell with it. And with him.

#renegades trilogy #marissa meyer #Dawnie Writes #Leroy Flinn #Cyanide #Honey Harper #Queen Bee #Alec Artino #Ace Anarchy #Im not an ace apologist #not even a honey apologist #even though i love them i also want them to choke and die bc thats what they deserve #does that mean im only and exclusively a Leroy apologist? yes #yes absolutely #hes my grandpa #Las crónicas de gatlon #el viejo rancio la patrona y el 100tifiko #theres two mexican references here because mexico is so wild i base Ace's movement upon it lmao #TW: VIOLENCE

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duckprintspress · 2 years

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Announcing: The Contributors to “He Bears the Cape of Stars” and “She Wears the Midnight Crown”!

36 remarkable authors—18 for He Bears the Cape of Stars, 18 for She Wears the Midnight Crown—have come together for this project. These authors have been toiling away on their stories since February 1st, 2022, and we’re currently work with them on edits to get them publication-ready. We’re delighted to share their work with you!

Contributors to He Bears the Cape of Stars:

Kit Alexander (Archive of Our Own)

Jessica Black (Archive of Our Own | Discord: alocalband#6844 | Tumblr | Twitter)

Era J. M. Couts (Archive of Our Own | Tumblr)

Ma’at James (Twitter)

Stephen G. Krueger (Archive of Our Own | Etsy | Personal Website)

Tris Lawrence (Facebook | Pillowfort | Tumblr | Twitter)

J. S. Lenore (Archive of Our Own | Facebook | Tumblr | Twitter)

Louise Long (Personal Website | Twitter)

M. K. Mads

Maggie Page

Julia Perroni (Twitter)

Alex Ransom

J. D. Rivers (Personal Website | Twitter)

Tevye J. Schmidt

Veronica Sloane (Archive of Our Own | Tumblr)

Elliott Vale (Tumblr | Twitter)

Nina Waters (Archive of Our Own | Tumblr | Twitter)

Charlie Winter (Archive of Our Own | Twitter)

Contributors to She Wears the Midnight Crown:

Willa Blythe (Personal Website | Twitter)

Rebekah D. Cook (Personal Website | Tumblr | Twitter)

N. C. Farrell

B. T. Fish (Twitter)

S. Z. Fletcher (Personal Website | Twitter)

Mare Griffen

Adrian Harley (Twitter)

Rascal Hartley

Lacey Hays (Tumblr | Instagram | Twitter | Royal Road | Wattpad)

D. A. Hernández (Twitter)

Lucy K. R. (Archive of Our Own | Twitter)

Lex T. Lindsay (Goodreads | Linktree | Twitter)

Annabeth Lynch (Facebook | Instagram)

Sebastian Marie (Archive of Our Own)

Alec J. Marsh (Etsy | Instagram | Twitter)

Bunny K. Solomon (Personal Website)

Emma Victoria (Twitter)

Lyn Weaver

You can read about them—in their own words!—see select author portraits, and more, by clicking this link:

#duck prints press #about us #anthology contributor lists #our authors #he bears the cape of stars #she wears the midnight crown

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tuseriesdetv · 3 years

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Noticias de series de la semana

Renovaciones

The CW ha renovado Superman & Lois por una segunda temporada

FOX ha renovado The Simpsons por una trigésimo tercera y trigésimo cuarta temporada

ITV ha renovado Finding Alice por una segunda temporada

Cancelaciones

La tercera temporada de Pose (FX) será la última

CBC ha cancelado Frankie Drake Mysteries tras su cuarta temporada

Noticias cortas

Chelsea Harris (Sykes) será regular en la tercera temporada de Snowpiercer.

Fichajes

Sissy Spacek (Castle Rock, Carrie) y Ed O'Neill (Modern Family, Married with Children) protagonizarán Lightyears. Serán Irene y Franklin, una profesora de inglés jubilada y un carpintero que llevan décadas ocultando un portal a un extraño planeta desierto en su patio trasero.

Mandy Patinkin (Homeland, The Princess Bride) se une como regular a la quinta temporada de The Good Fight. Será Hal Wackner, alguien que abre un juzgado en la parte de atrás de una copistería sin tener formación jurídica.

Edie Falco (The Sopranos, Nurse Jackie) será Hillary Clinton en Impeachment, la tercera temporada de American Crime Story.

Ray Liotta (Shades of Blue, Goodfellas) será Big Jim, el padre de Jimmy (Taron Egerton), en In With the Devil.

Indira Varma (Game of Thrones, Luther) se une a Obi-Wan Kenobi. Se desconocen detalles.

Constance Wu (Fresh Off the Boat, Hustlers), Riley Keough (The Girlfriend Experience, The House That Jack Built) y Jeanne Tripplehorn (Big Love, Criminal Minds) serán Katie Buranek, corresponsal de guerra; Lauren Reece, triatleta de élite y esposa de James (Chris Pratt); y Lorraine Hartley, la primera mujer secretaria de Defensa; en The Terminal List.

Dakota Fanning (The Alienist, I Am Sam) será Susan Ford, la hija de Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer), en The First Lady.

Timothy Spall (Harry Potter, Sweeney Todd) protagonizará Magpie Murders junto a Lesley Manville. Será el detective Atticus Pünd.

Devon Sawa (Final Destination, Casper) se une como recurrente a Chucky, en la que Jennifer Tilly volverá a interpretar a Tiffany Valentine. Zackary Arthur (Transparent, Kidding), Teo Briones (Ratched, Pretty Little Liars), Alyvia Ayn Lind (Daybreak, Masters of Sex) y Björgvin Arnarson serán regulares en los papeles de Jake Webber, un adolescente solitario que busca su sitio tras la muerte de su madre; Junior Webber, el primo de Jake y opuesto a él; Lexy Taylor, la princesita del instituto, novia de Junior y principal acosadora de Jake; y Devon Lopez, el típico vecino fan de los true crime.

Geoff Stults (Enlisted, Little Fires Everywhere), Tiya Sircar (The Good Place), Alanna Ubach (Euphoria, Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce), Laurie Davidson (Will, Cats), Andre Hyland y Jules Latimer estarán en Guilty Party junto a Kate Beckinsale. Serán Marco, el marido de Beth (Beckinsale); Fiona, socia de Beth; Tessa, una presentadora de noticias; George, un traficante de armas; y Toni, una joven sentenciada a 92 años de prisión sin libertad condicional por asesinar a su marido.

Alec Mapa (Ugly Betty, Devious Maids) protagonizará junto a Kelsey Grammer y Alec Baldwin la comedia de ABC sobre tres antiguos compañeros de piso que vuelven a reunirse. Será Andre, un hombre gay muy empático que funcionaba como pacificador ante Channing (Baldwin) y London (Grammer) mientras busca el éxito romántico y profesional que hasta ahora no ha conseguido.

Eoin Macken (Merlin, The Night Shift) y Jack Martin protagonizarán La Brea junto a Natalie Zea y Zyra Gorecki sustituyendo a Michael Raymond-James y Caleb Ruminer. Formarán la familia Harris. También se unen a la serie Jon Seda (Chicago PD, Treme) y Veronica St. Clair, que ya participaron en el piloto, y Lily Santiago.

Mary Holland (Homecoming, Veep), Shelley Hennig (Teen Wolf, Dollface), Christina Anthony (Mixed-ish), Samsara Yett (The Flight Attendant), Cameron Britton (The Umbrella Academy, Mindhunter) y Benjamin Levy Aguilar (Filthy Rich) se unen a The Woman in the House. Serán Sloane, dueña de una galería de arte y amiga de Anna (Kristen Bell); Lisa, una chica dulce y sexy que puede esconder algo; la detective Lane; Emma, la adorable hija de nueve años de Neil (Tom Riley); Buell, el manitas de Anna; y Rex, alguien no muy brillante pero irresistible.

Dallas Roberts (Insatiable, The Good Wife), Clea Lewis (The Americans, Ellen) y Nicole Chanel Williams (Boomerang) serán recurrentes en American Rust como Jackson Berg, dueño de una farmacia preocupado por la proliferación de cadenas en tiempos de crisis; Jillian, una mujer baptista preocupada por qué pensará su marido de que ella y sus compañeras de la fábrica se quieran sindicar; y Jojo, una mujer que vive en la carretera y acoge a Isaac (David Alvarez).

Andrea Martin (Difficult People, Great News), Robert Ri'chard (One on One, Cousin Skeeter), Juani Feliz, Kate Rockwell y Sullivan Jones (The Looming Tower) se unen como recurrentes a Harlem.

Michael James Shaw (Blood & Treasure, Limitless) se une como regular a la undécima y última temporada de The Walking Dead. Será Mercer, que en los cómics es un marine que se relaciona románticamente con Juanita (Paola Lázaro).

Theo Rossi (Sons of Anarchy, Luke Cage) se une como regular a True Story. Será Gene, un fan muy entusiasta de The Kid (Kevin Hart).

Catherine Haena Kim (FBI, Ballers) y Craig Parker (Charmed, Reign) serán recurrentes en la tercera temporada de Good Trouble como Nicolette Baptiste, una abogada de la oficina del fiscal del distrito; y Yuri Elwin, un artista de perfil alto que necesita un becario.

Conrad Khan (The Huntsman: Winter's War, County Lines) se une a la sexta y última temporada de Peaky Blinders. Se desconocen detalles.

Sarah Niles (Catastrophe, I May Destroy You) se une como regular a la segunda temporada de Ted Lasso. Será Sharon, psicóloga deportiva que comienza a trabajar para el AFC Richmond.

Matthew Sato (Chicken Girls, Save Me) y Emma Meisel (American Horror Story) se unen como regulares a Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. Serán Kia y Steph, el hermano y la mejor amiga de Lahela (Peyton Elizabeth Lee). Ronny Chieng (The Daily Show, Crazy Rich Asians) será recurrente como un cirujano cardíaco.

Momo Rodríguez (La Chamba) se une como recurrente a la tercera temporada de Mayans MC. No se conocen más detalles.

Thom Scott II (American Soul) será recurrente en la quinta temporada de Saints & Sinners como el doctor Ross, un médico talentoso especializado en procedimientos experimentales pioneros para asegurar tratamientos exitosos por cualquier medio.

Jess Schine se une a Long Slow Exhale como regular. Será Eddie Hagen, ayudante de la entrenadora (Rose Rollins).

Pósters

Nuevas series

Apple TV+ ha encargado ocho episodios de Roar, antología con historias independientes contadas desde un punto de vista femenino. Protagonizada por Nicole Kidman (Big Little Lies, The Hours), Cynthia Erivo (Harriet, Genius: Aretha), Merritt Wever (Nurse Jackie, Unbelievable) y Alison Brie (GLOW, Community). Basada en el libro de historias cortas de Cecelia Ahern (2018). Creada, escrita y producida por Liz Flahive (GLOW, Nurse Jackie) y Carly Mensch (GLOW, Weeds). Producen Kidman (Big Little Lies, The Undoing), Bruna Papandrea (Big Little Lies, The Undoing), Steve Hutensky (Queen America, Nine Perfect Strangers) y Allie Goss (The Crown, Daredevil).

Netflix adaptará The Talisman, la novela de Stephen King (1984), en la que un chico de 12 años comienza un viaje de costa a costa para encontrar un cristal que podría salvar a su madre moribunda. Escrita por Curtis Gwinn (Stranger Things, The Walking Dead) y producida por Steven Spielberg (The Goonies, Back to the Future) y los hermanos Duffer (Stranger Things).

Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Morning Show, Miss Sloane) y David Oyelowo (Selma, Nightingale) protagonizarán The Girl Before en HBO Max y BBC One. Jane (Mbatha-Raw) tiene la oportunidad de vivir en una bonita casa minimalista diseñada por un enigmático arquitecto (Oyelowo) a cambio de seguir unas estrictas normas en toda la calle que no permiten los libros, las fotos o el desorden. Jane cree que la casa la está cambiando y descubre qué le ocurrió a la chica que vivió allí antes que ella. Creada, escrita y producida por J.P. Delaney y basada en su propia novela (2016) y dirigida por Lisa Brühlmann (Killing Eve, Servant). Cuatro episodios.

Netflix encarga diez episodios de una comedia multicámara centrada en Chelsea (Emily Osment; Young & Hungry, Hannah Montana), una altanera e ingeniosa intelectual sin habilidades sociales para vivir en el mundo real que se ve obligada a vivir con su despreocupada y jovial hermana y sus amigos, uno de ellos Grant (Gregg Sulkin; Runaways, Wizards of Waverly Place), un dulce y romántico entrenador personal. Creada, escrita y producida por Jack Dolgen (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Diary of a Future President) y Doug Mand (How I Met Your Mother, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend). Producida por Kourtney Kang (How I Met Your Mother, Fresh Off the Boat) y dirigida por Pamela Fryman (How I Met Your Mother, Frasier).

Shira Haas (Unorthodox, Shtisel) interpretará a Golda Meir, la primera y única primera ministra mujer de Israel, en el drama Lioness. Basada en el libro de Francine Klagsbrun (2017), escrita por Eric Tuchman (The Handmaid's Tale, Kyle XY), dirigida por Mimi Leder (The Morning Show, The Leftovers) y producida por Barbra Streisand (A Star Is Born), Nina Tassler y Denise Di Novi (Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands).

Amazon encarga The Devil's Hour, thriller británico sobre una mujer que se despierta cada día a las 3:33 de la mañana. Su hijo de ocho años es retraído y falto de emociones, su madre habla con sillas vacías y su casa está encantada. Ahora su nombre está inexplicablemente conectado a una serie de brutales asesinatos en la zona. Escrita por Tom Moran (The Feed, White Rabbit), dirigida por Johnny Allan (The Irregulars) y producida por Steven Moffat (Sherlock, Doctor Who).

Disney+ adaptará We Begin at the End, la novela de Chis Whitaker (2020) que sigue la relación entre Vincent King, un convicto que sale de prisión treinta años después de haber matado a una niña de siete años; Duchess Ray Radley, la sobrina de trece años de la víctima; y el jefe de policía de un pequeño pueblo de California cuyo testimonio envió a Vincent a prisión aunque era su mejor amigo. Producida por Thomas Kail (Hamilton) y Jennifer Todd (City on a Hill).

Netflix encarga una serie de animación de Asterix & Obelix basada en el libro 'Le combat des chefs'. Dirigida por Alain Chabat (Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra).

Apple TV+ encarga Dr. Brain, adaptación de acción real de la historieta digital coreana que sigue a un científico (Lee Sun-kyun, Parasite) obsesionado con encontrar nuevas tecnologías para acceder a la consciencia y los recuerdos cuya familia sufre un misterioso accidente. Utilizará sus habilidades para acceder a los recuerdos de su esposa para entender qué ocurrió y por qué. Escrita, dirigida y producida por Kim Jee-woon (Mil-jeong).

David Simon (The Wire, Treme) y George Pelecanos (The Wire, Treme) escribirán y producirán We Own This City, limited series de HBO que cuenta la historia real de la unidad de rastreo de armas de la policía de Baltimore. Basada en el libro del periodista Justin Fenton (2021).

Starz prepara un revival de Party Down con el regreso de actores y productores. Seis episodios.

IMDb TV encarga un spin-off de Bosch en el que Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) se embarca en el siguiente capítulo de su carrera y trabaja junto a su antiguo enemigo Honey "Money" Chandler (Mimi Rogers) para encontrar justicia. Volverá también Madison Lintz en el papel de Maddie Bosch.

ITV ha encargado cuatro episodios de The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe, un drama true crime sobre John Darwin, el funcionario de prisiones que fingió su muerte en un accidente con una canoa en 2002 para estafar a compañías de seguros. Anne, su esposa, denunció su desaparición en la costa de Cleveland, Inglaterra, y mintió incluso a sus hijos. Basado en un manuscrito no publicado del periodista David Leigh, que encontró y entrevistó a Anne en Panamá. Escrita y producida por Chris Lang (Unforgotten, Dark Heart) y dirigida por Richard Laxton (Mrs. Wilson, Him & Her).

ABC Signature ha adquirido Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body, las memorias de Rebekah Taussig (2020), para su adaptación televisiva. Trata sobre una chica paralítica que creció en los noventa sin referentes adecuados en la ficción que retratasen su discapacidad como algo complejo y ordinario, incómodo y bello, doloroso y enriquecedor, y que quiere reflejar las complicaciones de la amabilidad y la caridad, vivir de forma dependiente e independiente, experimentar intimidad y cómo la omnipresencia del capacitismo en los medios de comunicación y las redes sociales se traslada directamente a la vida diaria. Escrita y producida por Taussig y dirigida y producida por Randall Einhorn (The Office, Parks and Recreation).

Fechas

Calls se estrena en Apple TV+ el 19 de marzo

La 1ª parte de la sexta y última temporada de Supergirl se estrena en The CW el 30 de marzo

La 4ª temporada de No Activity, que será de animación, se estrena en Paramount+ el 8 de abril

La tercera y última temporada de Pose se estrena en FX el 2 de mayo

La 2ª parte de la primera temporada de Ghostwriter se estrena en Apple TV+ el 2 de mayo

La segunda temporada de Duncanville se estrena en FOX el 23 de mayo

Housebroken se estrena en FOX el 31 de mayo

Tráilers y promos

Made for Love

youtube

Queen of the South - Temporada 5

youtube

Animal Kingdom - Temporada 5

youtube

No Activity - Temporada 4

youtube

Lupin - Parte 2

youtube

#series tv #television

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tabloidtoc · 4 years

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In Touch, September 28

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Kardashians’ $3 billion empire torn apart by greed

Page 1: Contents

Page 2: Who Wore It Better? Nicky Hilton vs. Scarlett Johansson, Celine Dion vs. Shailene Woodley, Camila Morrone vs. Joan Smalls

Page 4: Cate Blanchett’s a red carpet recycler -- at the Venice Film Festival this year Cate is rewearing some of her favorite red carpet styles

Page 5: Queen Elizabeth’s famed Sandringham Estate in Norfolk where the entire royal family celebrates Christmas every year will be hosting drive-in movie nights, Number of the Week -- 100 million dollars that Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez promised to give to charity if they become owners of the New York Mets and the team doesn’t win the World Series within 10 years, Makeover of the Week -- Brittany Snow ditched her red locks for a short blond bob, Winner of the Week -- Taylor Swift ties Whitney Houston’s record as the female artist with the most cumulative weeks with No. 1 albums, Loser of the Week -- top seed Novak Djokovic is disqualified from the U.S. Open after recklessly hitting a ball that struck a line judge

Page 6: Crib of the Week -- Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s daughter Willow Smith moved out on her own and into a stunning hilltop abode overlooking the Pacific Ocean for $3.1 million

Page 9: Up Close -- Sofia Richie models the Kappa X Juicy Couture campaign

Page 10: Olivia Wilde kicks a soccer ball then kicks back enjoying a day at the beach in Santa Monica

Page 11: Charli D’Amelio takes a tumble in the surf, Alessandra Ambrosio avoids a wardrobe malfunction in the ocean in Santa Monica

Page 12: Diane Kruger jumping for joy in front of her car, Mariah Carey styles daughter Monroe’s hair

Page 14: Body Beautiful -- Halle Berry and Peter Lee Thomas show off the results of their hard-core training sessions, Eva Longoria works out

Page 15: Chris Hemsworth shows off his biceps while lifting weights, Brooke Burke teaches her Booty Burn class in her backyard

Page 16: Josh Duhamel and a donkey, Billie Eilish with her dog Shark and the Fender Billie Eilish Signature Ukulele

Page 17: Justin Hartley and his pooch Paisley, Annalynne McCord and her cat

Page 19: Alec and Hilaria Baldwin proudly show off their fifth child Eduardo

Page 20: Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff help rent out a wing of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s mansion on Airbnb, Olivia Culpo and Christian McCaffrey show off PDA, Jennifer Lopez at lunch with friends

Page 22: Cover Story -- The end of the Kardashian era -- Keeping Up With the Kardashians made the Kardashians but now its cancellation could break them

Page 26: KUWTK’s 25 most shocking moments

Page 32: Katie Holmes steals another woman’s fiance Emilio Vitolo Jr. -- Katie has found love again with someone who was already taken

Page 34: Gosselin Family Heartbreak -- Collin Gosselin accuses Jon Gosselin of abuse -- Kate and Jon Gosselin are at war again after one of their sextuplets makes a shocking claim

Page 36: Prince Harry to Royals: We’re Even -- thanks to a $150 million Netflix paycheck Harry and Meghan Markle cut their last ties to his family

Page 38: Emma Stone’s baby joy -- plus she and fiance Dave McCary who postponed their spring wedding because of COVID-19 are now wearing matching bands on their ring fingers

Page 39: On the heels of her breakup with Scott Disick Sofia Richie went public with her new romance with Jaden Smith -- they dated briefly in 2012 but they were both so young and immature but they kept in touch and would run into each other at parties so when Jaden knew Sofia was available again he made his move, three months after Colton Underwood and Cassie Randolph split she submitted paperwork for a restraining order claiming he harassed her via text messages and put a tracking device on her car and showed up uninvited to her apartment and to her parents’ home

Page 42: The Big Interview -- Kenan Thompson on being SNL’s longest-running cast member -- he plans on staying forever -- he may be starring in a new sitcom but the sketch comedy vet will still be live from New York every Saturday night

Page 44: Get Organized -- pro tips from The Home Edit’s Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer on how to contain clutter

Page 46: Beauty -- Mascara -- Katherine Langford

Page 48: Entertainment

Page 50: Animal Overload -- my cat looks like Kamala Harris

Page 54: Horoscope -- Libra Donald Glover turned 37 on September 25

Page 56: Last Laughs

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raziroo · 3 years

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Karma | The Marauders

[Chapter 4] Blondes, Brunettes, Ghosts and Meatballs

Karma was scared.

Well, not outright scared. It was more so that the impulsiveness of her decisions was catching up to her now, whilst a most unpleasant nauseous feeling started swirling around inside her belly. Maybe a stroll in the corridors on her first night at the castle wasn't a very wise idea – after all, the Headmaster himself had clearly said that all students were to stay in their dormitories, and not loaf around the castle at night. Karma had been brutally disobedient. Moreover, wasn't the weird caretaker – Filch, was it? – supposed to be roaming these corridors with his cat to watch out for students out of bed? She didn't want to be put in detention her first day. After the little fiasco at dinner, not much conversation was made at the Slytherin table; not by the first-years, at least. The Slytherin Prefects, Lucius Malfoy (who was a right git, Karma thought was wise to add) then stood up and began making his way to the dungeons after very rudely asking the other Prefect, a petite, heavily freckled girl named Daria Monet, to bring the first-years along. Although she'd looked quite offended, Daria said nothing, instead choosing to scurry over to the first-years and lead them after Lucius, who had an ever-present pompous look on his face, which disgusted Karma. She had decided she didn't like him.

After being led in to the common room using the password 'Pure blood', which Karma didn't really grasp the importance of, the first- and second-years were all promptly asked to go to their respective dormitories, because apparently, 'big people discussions' had to take place there. Which, in normal circumstances, Karma would've wanted to look more into, but noting the type of people the common room held – sleazy, pompous, git-looking, and straight up creepy – Karma didn't really wish to stay in such company.

But even after receiving looks of sheer repulsion from her dorm mate, Arrabella, who had decided to stay up to decorate her side of the bed, and laying and twisting and turning and tossing in her bed, Karma didn't get an ounce of sleep. Maybe because of the strange coldness she felt in the bed even after laying in it for so long, maybe because of the constant sounds Arrabella's renovating, or maybe because of the exposedness she felt, even with her curtains drawn, or maybe because she felt something was missing; Karma neither knew, nor cared. She just wanted sleep.

So after the dormitory finally went silent and the lamps were put out, Karma, as silently as she could, hurried out of the room, wand in hand, jacket on. It was made sure that the common room was also empty, which was extremely probable, seeing it was 3:37 in the night, but still, it wouldn't hurt.

And hence, the black-haired female found herself in a chilly, isolated corridor with zero lighting except the moonlight to guide her. What she'd brought her wand along for, she didn't even know – what use would it be? Karma didn't know a single spell. It was more just self-comfort purposes. And although she'd seen the house ghosts, which freaked her out, Karma still couldn't occasionally help but feel that a real, bloody, scary ghost would pop out of somewhere, she was sure she'd heard a-

'Ah!' Oh no. There was a real ghost, wasn't it? That's what caused that thudding sound, as if someone had fallen, and it was out to get her, no? Or maybe it was Filch, which, honestly, was just as bad. Regulating her breathing after that quite embarrassing yelp, Karma spoke up, wand pointed at the end of the corridor, which had a turning. If someone really was there, around the corner, then at least Karma could use the wand to scare it and buy herself some time.

'Wh- who's there?' Ugh, stupid voice cracks. Way to go, Karma, let them know you're scared.

Pushing down her thoughts and fear, she gulped and listened. There was frantic whispering, a hiss, and then a squeak. And amongst it all – surely, she was mistaken – Karma could make out a faint 'sorry'.

Furrowing her brows, the girl took three steps forward, now more confident. She was certain there was no ghost, just wandering students such as herself. 'I know you're there,' Karma said and took more steps, reaching the corridor and swiveled her body towards the new corridor. Her frown deepened. There was no one here. Huh. Well, it must've been just her fear.

Karma turned around and started making her way back to the common room, deciding that she'd had enough adrenaline boosts for the day.

Clang!

She instantly rotated backwards, perfectly sure there was someone there. 'Freeze!'

Someone squeaked again. Karma frowned again. What kind of-?

'Look,' a vaguely familiar voice said, 'we want nothing to do with you. Let us go.'

The girl raised a brow. 'We, huh?'

Someone groaned, there was grunting, and a different but still familiar voice spoke up. 'Please, Karma, let us-'

'How the heck do you know my name? Oh, I've had enough,' and with that, the girl marched forward, thinking it was either some hallucination, or a troublesome student who wasn't really there, because she could swear there was no one there. Instead of the expected outcome, however she crashed straight into something, falling back on her bottom. More than one something, seeing as three bodies appeared out of nowhere and dropped on the floor. Who they were, however, it was hard to decipher, it was too dark.

The shock didn't last long though, not for Karma, because the girl quickly got up and crushed the partial foot that was visible. Someone cried out. The voice, no, surely it wasn't-

'Peter?' the girl asked incredulously.

'...Ow.' Yeah. That was definitely Peter. But first-

'Er, can you... can you become, er, not... can you become visible again?' Karma queried.

'Hm? Yeah, yes, s- sure,' the boy stammered, pulling something off of him. What it was baffled Karma, because it almost seemed completely transparent, as if there was nothing there in the first place. Even as the piece of – what Karma assumed was – cloth was bunched up in Peter's hand, she was sure there was nothing except his ring and middle fingers on his hand. It was bizarre.

There was a groan behind them. 'Once you're done having a chat with your girlfriend, Peter,' the mousy boy blushed, 'can you please-?'

'Y- yeah, sure,' and Peter quickly trotted to a pile of disembodied armor parts and a human. As her friend helped the one in need, Karma looked around, and squinted when she saw two other boys standing up and dusting off their clothes. She could make out the faint outline of a pair of glasses on one, and a baggy sweater on the other. James and... Remus, yes.

The four boys all then quickly assembled near a window through which moonlight was pouring in, and the girl sighed in relief when she spotted peter again. 'Oh god, Peter, you guys gave me a right scare, you know, it's so dark and creepy here, and there was no light, and I don't really know any spells on how to-' Karma broke off suddenly, her forehead creasing.

Wait a second. She was in Hogwarts. A school for magic. Using wands. And Peter was here, with his friends. He seemed to know his way around here, too. So did that mean-?

The dark-eyed girl's eyes widened almost comically.

'You're a wizard, Peter?!'

There was a groan and a squeak. 'Y-yes,' said Peter in a small voice. 'I thought you'd spotted us at the sorting-'

'If I'd have spotted you at the sorting, you'd have known, Peter,' she said raising her brow in disbelief. Honestly, Pete could be really thick sometimes. 'What house are you in, anyway?'

Peter spoke up in more nervous tone than normal. 'O-oh, you, uh, you see, I'm in, er-'

'Gryffindor, Petey boy, you are in Gryffindor, where dwell the brave of heart!' Why are you not saying that, eh?' This was James. He ruffled Peter's hair while asking the question.

'Well, you see, because Karma's in Slyth-'

'Oh, Petey, don't worry,' said Sirius, with an easy-going, mischievous smirk on his face. 'If Karma here really is your friend, then she wouldn't mind,' the boy now looked up at said girl, 'would she?'

Karma was confused. She didn't really get why Remus and Peter looked agitated, the latter appearing quite intimidated, too, and why Sirius and James were sharing mildly haughty looks, as if they'd just scored a point at some game.

She shook her head slightly. Boys were weird. Turning to Peter, she asked, 'Yeah Pete, why would I mind if you're in Gryffindor?' Peter relaxed. James and Sirius snapped their head to the girl. 'I mean, I would honestly really like it better if you were a Slytherin, civilian among those gits – but it's honestly really good to know you're here. I'm already weirded out by magic, courtesy of you guys' little stunt. Just knowing that you're here makes me feel loads better,' she completed with a smile.

Peter smiled back.

Sirius and James, however, were eager to change the topic of conversation. 'So, you're a Slytherin, hmm?' Sirius asked.

Karma scrunched her nose a bit. Were all magic people this weird? '...Er, yes. Yes, I am a Slytherin.'

'Hmm...'

'Well, most of them seemed like nasty people, except Geoffrey. He's a... half- half-blood? Yes, he's a half blood. Whatever that means.'

James nodded as Remus said, 'Half bloods are people who have muggles in the family. One of their parents could be a muggle, or muggle-born. So, because they have half wizard blood and half muggle blood, they're said to be half-bloods.'

Karma nodded, taking in the wisdom. 'And who are purebloods?'

Remus hesitated. Peter squeaked a little, and James and Sirius shared a look, again. 'Uh... purebloods are people who have no muggles in their families. People of their heritage don't marry muggles, mostly. Most pureblood families are proud of their blood, but some, like the Weasleys and Potter and Prewetts, they aren't. Like James' family. It doesn't really matter though, you know, blood.'

'Of course it doesn't. It's stupid. Why would you be proud of something that you haven't even achieved?'

James nodded enthusiastically. 'Yes!' he turned to Peter. 'You, Petey, have got a very forward minded friend.' He slapped Peter on his back.

'So, what- wait a second,' Karma looked pointedly at Sirius. 'I... are you related to Narcissa Black, I think her name was?'

Sirius abruptly grew uncomfortable. Karma didn't pick up on it.

'He's her cousin,' said James.

'Really?' The long-haired boy nodded. 'Whoa. I mean, you do kind of look similar, but your cousin is kind of a snob. No offense, by the way.'

'None taken. She's already very prissy, but ever since- you know what, never mind that... my younger brother was also supposed to start at Hogwarts this year. Everyone was sure he'd get sorted into Slytherin too.'

'Well... I'm pretty sure there's no first-year Black in Slytherin,' said Karma.

'I know. He couldn't attend the feast because of some, er, issue.'

'Hmm...' there was pin-drop silence for the next 45 seconds, until James and Karma started speaking together.

'Well, mateys, don't you think we should-?'

'Sirius, why aren't you in Slytherin if-?'

Both stopped at the same time too.

Karma refrained from asking the question again. Instead, she asked, 'So, what were you guys doing here, roaming at night?'

Another look was shared among the boys, and suddenly they were all very eager to drop Karma off to the Slytherin common room, because 'Filch, that old cockroach, could be lurking anywhere, you know, and his cat's quite lethal too, scare you to death, those two can, I tell you-,'

. . . . .

The next morning, Karma woke up to the shrieks of her dorm mate and frogs jumping on her face, her arms, legs, hell, she was sure there was one on her stomach, too-

'Arabella! What happened?'

But Karma's voice was unheard and ignored, because all Arabella was concentrating on was shrieking and screaming on a pitch so high it was sure to make her throat rupture. For a few moments, Karma just lay in her bed, trying to soak the insanely bizarre situation in.

The shrieking didn't cease until not much later – the same time when Karma finally decided to get up because there were frogs in her bed, and when two, Karma had to admit, quite good-looking boys barged in. They were both fairly similar to each other, but whom they possessed striking resemblance with was Arrabella. With all three of them having the same tannish skin, dark hair, light eyes and impressive facial structure, the three were eerily same-faced.

'Arrabella! Are you alright?' one of them asked.

'Alright? Alright, you ask? NO! I'm NOT alright! There's frogs in the entire dorm – oh, Merlin – and- and in my wardrobe, and, Salazar, they're in my MAKEUP BAG!'

The brothers both looked at each other, appearing sort of scared. I would be, if I was in their position. Arrabella may be pretty, but she can sure as heck be scary, too.

With a couple swishes of their wands, the boys managed to clear the room of frogs, although Arrabella still appeared to be deeply traumatised. The boys each gave her a hug, albeit quite gingerly.

Karma stared. It looked to be that either the boys and Arrabella had really not quite noticed Karma, or were blatantly ignoring her. She didn't know what was more humiliating.

. . . . .

Later, at breakfast, after the entire frog problem was resolved, the girls bothe headed to the dormitory. Arrabella immediately took a seat beside Adrian, even though she had to push aside Geoffrey for that, so Karma followed her lead and sat across from Geoffrey. Turns out it was a mistake.

'Ew!' exclaimed a blonde, slightly older girl sitting nearby. 'Mudblood! Get away! Shoo!'

What the-? Shoo?

Karma widened her eyes at the sudden exclamation. Arrabella paid no mind. Geoffrey looked up with a slightly concerned and mostly surprised expression. Alec looked like he was about to say something, but Adrian gave him a look, and so Mr. Hartley shut up as well. '...Er, what do you-?'

The girl cut her off. 'Is she talking to me?' she asked to no one in particular.

A brunette, who seemed to be the only other person except the first-years even acknowledging the events taking place, nodded furiously. A horrified look crept upon Blondie's face. Then, she screamed. Loud.

Karma was jarred. Several people at the table jumped and turned to see what the commotion was all about, a few people dropping their knives and forks too. Arrabella was still paying no mind, although she seemed to be highly restraining herself from committing bloody murder, for her knuckles clutching the cutlery had gone white. Adrian was now sitting back in his seat and watching with a little smirk on his face. Alec and Geoffrey both shared disturbed looks, then as the former covered his ears with earmuffs conjured by a little wave of his wand, the latter covered his ears with his hands.

'W- what are you-?' Karma tried to ask, but the girl only screamed louder. Widening her eyes and frantically trying and failing to get the blonde to calm down because students from other tables had started to look their way, Karma could only try to fathom what was causing the female to shriek her throat out.

'Hey!' yelled another voice, only adding to the chaos that was breakfast. It was Lucius Malfoy, in all his sneering, haughty, pompous glory. He was striding to the first-years. 'What is going on?' When no one answered, he grew more insistent.

'I am the Slytherin Prefect and I demand to know- Agh!' Adrian had tugged on Lucius' hair, leading to the fifth-year crying out in pain. 'Why would you do that, you naughty little-!'

'Man, get some chill, would you? Sit down and enjoy the show, like we are!' he slapped Alec on the back loudly while saying 'we'.

Lucius scoffed. 'This is no show to watch, get it? You're the Pucey boy, aren't you?'

'Yes, indeed.'

'Hmm. Well, I now understand where your disgusting, ill-mannered behaviour comes from, considering your whole family is a bunch of hooligans!' Lucius sneered.

Adrian stood up in an instant. 'What did you just say?' he was seething through his teeth.

'I said your family's a-,' before Lucius could complete saying what he was, Adrian punched him square in the jaw. By now, quite a lot of people had started watching, incluing but not limited to Peter and his friends. Most of them looked annoyed, a few looked amused, and a bit looked angry. Overall, it was a sight sending Karma in a panic.

'Look,' she said to Blondie, because she knew that she had no chance of dissolving the fight that was taking place and getting cheered on, in the background, 'I don't know what I-'

'AAAAAAAHHHHHHH-!'

'-but please stop screaming-'

'AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH-!'

Karma stopped trying, just sinking down in the seat and trying to shrink into herself so that she could become invisible. Lucius and Adrian's fight had escalated very much very quickly, as Lucius was now throwing spells and jinxes and curses, while two boys that could very well have been meatballs were punching Adrian to pulp. Adrian was resisting impressively, and Alec was now involved in a duel with Lucius. Professor Slughorn had approached to try and diffuse the situation, but it was no use, and Karma was pretty sure the two meatballs-for-goons, apparently called Crabbe and Goyle, had landed a couple kicks on him, too.

Finally, something snapped. That something was Arrabella. She let out a frustrated short scream, which Blondie apparently took as a threat to her shrieking abilities, and screamed louder, and then Arrabella whipped out what appeared to be a pair of nail scissors. Her wand in hand, she successfully managed to increase them considerably in size, up until they were too big for the girl to hold without toppling over, and picked them up with a heave. Letting out a battle cry of sorts, she raged ahead, straight into the boys' fight, and threatened to cut Lucius' hair, which seemed to disturb said boy deeply. He immediately stepped back, and frantically began explaining to a red-faced Slughorn how it wasn't really his fault at all, but the mudblood's, which honestly made Karma's blood boil, but Slughorn seemed to be taking good care of that, so she didn't intervene.

Geoffrey had long fled the scene, mumbling something about getting to classes early. Arrabella was snapping the scissors open and shut like a madwoman, but no one really seemed scared.

The pandemonium only ceased when Dumbledore bellowed, 'SILENCE!' and then proceeded to introduce a familiar looking, thin, pale boy with dark hair. Regulus Black.

Guess there was going to be a new addition to the Mudblood Hate Organisation.

'No one's looking out for us. Not for the Slytherins.'

#karma | the marauders #Sirius Black #James Potter #peter pettigrew #Remus Lupin #character x oc #raziroo #arabella lestrange #alec hartley #geoffrey bailey #adrian pucey #lucius malfoy #rabastan lestrange #rodolphus lestrange #slytherin #hogwarts

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