#and he wouldn’t even want their life as they’re traitors & have nothing (he tells himself even as he begins to observe the ways they laugh
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lovely vision.
pairing: steve harrington x reader
summary: the one where people can tell when steve thinks about you and mike can't whisper. [1.1k]
warnings: fluff, unrequited-to-requited-love, gender-neutral!reader
✮⋆˙ ★⋆｡ °⋆ 𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑
In hindsight, he really played himself, hoping his super-observant, super-loud, no-boundary-having friends wouldn’t say anything. He couldn’t tell if that made it better or worse.
It’s one thing for Steve Harrington, self-proclaimed Halloween hater, to not mind when other people decorate his space. That can just be written off to him being polite and kind, even though Dustin would scoff at that and Eddie would laugh and Mike would call him out on the word “polite” being anywhere near his name.
The point is, being around other people’s decorations had some kind of plausible deniability. Him putting up Halloween decoration himself, however, there’s no deniability in that.
“What’s that?” Dustin asked as he slid into the backseat of Steve’s BMW, pointing at the ghost charm that dangles from the rearview mirror. Steve offered (read: was blackmailed) into driving the boys from the Wheelers house to the arcade even though they had perfectly functioning bikes. But then Dustin said they were teaching you how to play some game whose name he couldn’t remember and he definitely didn’t want you walking all that way, and since he was going that way anyways….
“Nothing,” Steve snapped back, staring straight ahead. Hopefully that would be the end of it and no one would s—
“Doesn’t look like nothing,” offered Mike, the traitor. His hair was long and in his eyes, like Eddie’s, but Steve could still feel the suspicious, almost accusing glare through the mess. “Looks like a decoration.”
Steve rolled his eyes. “It’s just an air freshener. I know teenage boys stink but you guys know what that is.”
“A ghost air freshener,” Lucas said, right in his ear. Steve had half a mind to kick him out, but he’d already started driving to your house and he didn’t want to be late. “That’s for Halloween, and you hate Halloween. You always buy those dumb trees.”
“Why are you paying so much attention to my spending habits?”
“Because they’re terrible.”
Steve glared at him through the rearview mirror (the traitor). “Don’t think I won’t make you walk.”
Your house was pretty close to the Wheelers and already decked out, considering Halloween was at the end of the month and it was only October first. Fake, giant spider webs stretched up the front yard to the porch, and pumpkins and Halloween decorations dotted almost every inch. Your house looked like it was out of a cartoon about the Addams family and your outfit matched it, all black and muted colors. Your smile, though, that made Steve feel like he’d sipped pure sunshine.
You slid into the passenger seat, your designated spot (to no one’s surprise and to your complete obliviousness). “Oh a little ghost! He’s so cute! Is he for Halloween?”
“Yeah, Steve,” Dustin asked with a shit-eating grin on his face. “Is he for Halloween?”
Rock and a fucking hard place. “Uh, yeah. It looked like it would fit the vibe, you know, and it smells nice.” Which wasn’t a lie. Steve genuinely did like the way it smelled, and the thought of you smiling at him the way you were now (warm, bashful, a little endeared) made the fact that it was a ghost a good thing.
You were endeared, maybe a few shades more than that. Steve’s indifference to Halloween was a well-known fact in the merry band of nerds (their name) that he chose to hang out with. Robin still talked about the year she got him to decorate his house with one (just one!) skeleton like it was a badge of honor. Now here he was, Levi jeans and orange sweater, with a ghost dangling from his car, glancing at you with a smile as he pulled into the arcade parking lot.
Maybe Mike thought he was quieter than he was; maybe he just wanted to ruin Steve’s life specifically. Either way, the entire car heard him over the radio when he murmured, “Man you really do turn into the people you love.”
Steve flushed and turned around so fast that you would be concerned about whiplash if you weren’t replaying what Mike said over and over again. People you love. “Alright, go play your damn games.”
None of the boys said anything, Mike looking almost uncharacteristically apologetic through the window. You smiled out at Dustin and said, “I’ll meet you guys in a few minutes, okay?” You could almost feel the man beside you turn into a statue.
“Okay.” He glanced between you and Steve nervously but ultimately chose to follow Mike and Lucas, leaving the two of you staring after the arcade door as it shut beside him.
“I’m sorry he said that,” Steve said almost frantically, eyes locked on the steering wheel so he didn’t have to see whatever horrible embarrassed look was on your face. “Mike never really knows when to shut up and he’s an instigator. He’s an idiot, actually. I’m really sorry; I can take it down if you want and —“
Your hand on his bicep shocked him into silence, and when he looked up at you, you were smiling like he’d given you a gift. “I don’t want you to take it down, Stevie.”
“What?”
“I don’t want you to take it down,” you repeated, “I like it. Why are you saying sorry for liking me back?”
“Because I don’t want to — pause. Did you say back?”
You laughed, and it was the best sound Steve had ever heard in his life. He wanted it bottled up for him only, the only thing sustaining him for the rest of his life. “Eddie kept saying I was really obvious.”
“He kept saying that to me too,” Steve replied. “He’s just stupid.” He wasn’t entirely sure what’s happening, but you were still looking at him. Your hand fell onto his, right on the console, and relief burst inside his chest, a cool relief like a sip of water when you were parched.
Liking him back. What the fuck?
“I don’t think either of us are much better right now.”
His hand, of its own volition but also because it knew if he didn’t do this he would never forgive himself, cupped your cheek, and he didn’t even have time to ask before you said, “yes,” and leaned in. And he was kissing you.
Steve Harrington was kissing you like he needed it to breathe, like it was the difference between him being able to keep going or crumble right then and there. Steve Harrington liked you back.
You parted, and fell back into each other once, twice, before he pulled away far enough that he could talk. He whispered, “If those kids come out here and stop me, I’ll strand them, I swear.” Your answering laugh felt like absolution.
✮⋆˙ ★⋆｡ °⋆ 𖤐⭒๋࣭ ⭑
thank you so much for reading this! i wanted to write something for the beginning of october and i've been missing steve, hence a little steve one-shot. pls let me know what you think; i'd love to hear it! feel free to like and reblog if you enjoyed this, it really does help <3
#steve harrington x reader#steve harrington x y/n#steve harrington imagine#steve harrington#steve harrington x you#steve harrington x reader fluff#steve harrington x reader fanfic#steve harrington fluff#stranger things fluff#stranger things fanfic#steve harrington fanfic#stranger things x reader fanfic#stranger things#mine#fic;
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Chapter 9: Suspicion
You and Dan Heng are a match made in heaven until fate takes him away from you too soon. Years later, you think you moved on with a mutual friend who shared your grief and stuck with you during tough times until you meet a mysterious man with a striking resemblance to your past lover and a hidden motive. You’re determined to get rid of him, but how are you going to get rid of a god?
Dan Feng/You
Notes:
Cross-posted on Ao3
Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail crossover
Female reader
Chapter index at the end of chapter one
Support my writing
Signora walks up the stone steps of the mansion and pushes the door open. The mansion is quiet, as predicted. She walks toward the living room, her footsteps quietly echoing throughout the house. As soon as she turns the corner, she sees a young man sitting on the couch with a book in his hands.
“Tsaritsa is spoiling you,” Signora says flatly. “Don’t you have school, Scaramouche?”
He shoots her a dirty look. “Looks like the traitor’s back.”
“Take a seat, Signora.”
Signora turns at the sudden voice, but she already knows who it is. Tsaritsa stands behind her in a dark blue dress. She walks past her, and Signora cautiously follows her. Tsaritsa takes the giant armchair while Signora sits on the couch opposite Scaramouche.
“Congratulations on your wedding,” Tsaritsa says. “I’m sorry all of us couldn’t attend the festivity. But I’m sure Childe made up for our absence.”
“Yes,” Signora says flatly, crossing one leg over the other. “He sure enjoyed himself.” She glares at Scaramouche. “Pardon me, but do you have to be here?”
“He does,” Tsaritsa answers.
“You heard the lady,” Scaramouche says with a mocking grin.
“Then, let’s skip the small talk, shall we?” Signora asks, turning her attention back to Tsaritsa. “What was so urgent that you couldn’t have called?”
“I’m sure you’re aware we have an imposter on our hands.”
Signora softly sighs. “And I’m sure you heard that from Childe.”
“Whose side are you on?”
Without turning her head, Signora shoots Scaramouche a look.
“Side?” Signora asks with a scoff. “I’m on no one’s side.”
“You were the closest to the brat out of all of us,” Scaramouche says.
Signora quietly scoffs just as Tsaritsa cuts in. “What Scaramouche is saying is that he hopes you won’t let your emotions get the better of you.”
“Word from the mutt is that you’re being all buddy-buddy with the imposter and his girlfriend.”
“Ah, I see where this is going,” Signora says flatly, ignoring Scaramouche and looking at Tsaritsa. “You’re scared that I’m helping the cute little imposter. Well, Tsaritsa… You wouldn’t have anything to worry about if you really had nothing to do with what happened to Dan Heng.” Signora leans back. “Are you scared of who this man is? Or… Are you scared of what he’ll find?”
Tsaritsa’s stoic look never leaves. Instead, she regards Signora with a stern look. “You should be worrying about yourself, Signora. This man… The imposter. He’s not who he says he is.”
“I don’t care who he is,” Signora says. “I just want to find out what happened to Dan Heng.”
“Then what if he was one of them?”
Signora slightly narrows her eyes. “One of who?”
“One of the people who isn’t supposed to exist.”
“Is this some kind of joke?”
Yet, underneath her unfazed exterior, she’s asking all sorts of questions. She knows about the two suspicious men who entered Tsaritsa’s life a little before the accident and with Tsaritsa keeping their profiles low, Signora doesn’t know much about them besides the gossip that she heard from different people in the family. Columbina described them as “foreigners” while Childe said they’re “businessmen from out of town.” Regardless, no one tells her more, which is to be expected as she’s been growing distant from the family even before what happened to Dan Heng.
“Is this a confession?” Signora continues, “Whatever it is, it sounds like those men should be in jail.”
The mocking smile on Scaramouche’s face makes her want to punch him.
“Good luck with that,” he says. “Just because there’s a confession doesn’t mean they’ll be arrested. You still need evidence.”
“If it weren’t for them, Signora,” Tsaritsa says, “do you really think My Fair Lady would be where it is today? They pretend to be your friends… but all they do is end up stabbing you in the back.”
“I am where I am today because of their help,” Signora says, referring to Dan Heng’s family. “I owe them a lot. Whatever grudge you have against them… Don’t drag me into it.”
“Did you know they were going to sell it?” Tsaritsa asks calmly. “After promoting you and getting you to put in the work, they were going to kick you out and give the company to someone else.” Signora narrows her eyes. “Do you want evidence?” Scaramouche tosses a wide manila envelope on the table. “It’s up to you whether you want to see the truth.”
“Why are you telling me this now?” Signora challenges.
Tsaritsa’s eyes turn dark. “The imposter doesn’t belong here. I won’t tolerate anyone who’s helping him. You’re smart, Signora. I’m sure you understand what I’m getting at.”
So, it’s either Dan Feng or her. Signora glances at the envelope on the table. If there’s truth in what Tsaritsa is saying, then Signora is stuck between a rock and a hard place as Tsaritsa’s motives are anything but pure.
“Fine.” Signora takes the envelope off the table. “But answer me this. Who are those men? What happened on that plane?”
Scaramouche’s eyes flash towards Tsaritsa.
“Dan Heng and his family are gone,” Tsaritsa answers. “But, what happened after the crash is a fate worse than death.”
Well, that leaves Signora with more questions than answers.
◆◆◆
A couple of days later, you’re still getting resettled into your parent’s old apartment. But, at least all the big things are out of the way, and it’s just cleaning and personalizing the space to make it feel like yours again. Dan Feng texted you earlier today, asking if you need help unpack. In response, you jokingly invite him over to help you. And you’re surprised that’s exactly what he does.
“What are you expecting me to do?” he asks, helping you reach a spot on an old bookshelf in the small den to wipe off the dust. “Sit here and enjoy tea while watching you clean?”
You smell the slight musky scent of his cologne. “Well, no, but—”
You turn around, and Dan Feng’s standing behind you. Your face warms as you see a view of his bare chest. Your eyes follow the necklace that disappears into his tank top, and then you hear:
“Cat got your tongue?”
You immediately look up and see Dan Feng looking at you. Then, you playfully jab him.
“Well, you’re standing a little too close.”
Dan Feng reaches past you and takes a book off the shelf before stepping back.
“I never knew you were into historical novels,” he says. He smiles slightly as he goes through the book. “Brings back memories.”
“Memories?”
“Ah… I meant that I read this book a long time ago,” he says, closing the book. “It was one of my favourites.”
In truth, Dan Feng knows the novelist who penned the famous novel that continues to become a popular adaptation and inspiration for popular culture.
“Really?” you ask. “Have you read the entire trilogy?”
“Of course. Have you?”
“Of course.”
Dan Feng smiles as he hands you the book. “Then, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind a pop quiz.”
“And what do I get if I beat this pop quiz?”
“Anything you want.”
You slightly narrow your eyes. “Let’s be serious, shall we?”
“What do you want?” He glances at the necklace around your neck. “Besides getting to the bottom of what happened with Dan Heng.”
You turn around and put the book back on the shelf. “If I remember correctly”—you face him once again—"you’ll only be here for a year."
Dan Feng slightly tilts his head. “Since when would you like me to stay?” he asks teasingly.
“I never said that.”
“Then why bring it up?”
“I mean…” You take a small breath. “We’re friends now. And—”
“Oh,” Dan Feng says with a small chuckle. “Are we? I didn’t get the memo.”
You give him a deadpan look, and he smiles at you.
“I… I just think it’d be nice if you could stay,” you say, avoiding his eyes. “But, if you can’t, hey, it’s no big deal.”
Dan Feng walks until he’s in front of you. “I’d need a reason to stay.”
“Guess the scenery isn’t enough.” You slowly look at him and meet his eyes. “So? What about that pop quiz?”
And that’s when his phone goes off.
You resume cleaning while Dan Feng pulls his phone out of his pocket. The unknown number on the screen makes him slightly suspicious, but he eventually faces away from you and answers the phone.
“Hello, my little dragon friend.”
Sampo’s voice takes Dan Feng completely off guard.
"What the—"
You turn towards him, curious about the shock.
"Seems like human technology is the closest thing to magic nowadays," Sampo drawls.
“How did you get my number?”
“Oh, I still got a little magic left in me. Maybe not as much as I want, but hey, guess I can’t complain in a magicless, dull world like this one.”
“Why are you calling me?” Dan Feng asks flatly.
“Because I got a little piece of information that I think will interest you. This Aeon business… It no longer just concerns you after all." Dan Feng slides a hand into his pocket. "It’s not just Lan and Nanook we’re dealing with,” Sampo says with a hint of seriousness that’s unlike anything Dan Feng has heard. Sampo looks at the piece of paper in front of him. “There’s someone else.”
“Someone else…?”
Sampo looks at the ginger leaning against a car in front of him.
“No idea who," Sampo says.
“Well, what does this person have to do with them?”
Sampo looks at the piece of paper in his hand. “I think he’s controlling them.” Dan Feng’s eyes go wide. Again, you look at him. But this time, you walk over. “Look, I don’t know all the details. But, I’ll send you what I know.”
Then, the line goes dead.
Somewhere in the city, Sampo slips his phone inside his pocket and looks at Childe who gives him a little smile.
Back at your place, you look from Dan Feng’s phone and back to him.
“Is everything okay?” you ask. “Who was that?”
“A… An acquaintance, I guess you can call him.”
“An acquaintance? Well… What did they want?”
“He said it’s not just Lan and Nanook we’re dealing with.”
You don’t like the sound of that.
“So… There’s someone else? How do they know?”
“I know just as much as you,” Dan Feng mutters.
Then, his phone buzzes, and it’s a picture message. Dan Feng doesn’t try hiding his phone, so you get a good look at the chilling message on the screen.
Time’s ticking
You and Dan Feng glance at each other.
This was a message to Lan.
But from whom? And what is it supposed to mean?
“If this is proof that there’s someone else…” you begin. “I mean, anyone could’ve written this as a sick prank.”
“We shouldn’t disregard it, though.”
“What is it supposed to mean?” you wonder. “Sounds like they’re on a deadline for something.”
And does it have anything to do with why they escaped?
Dan Feng glances at you, wondering if your curiosity is something he should be careful about. But another thought hits him. How does Sampo know about this mysterious message? From Lan? Or someone close to him? And now that they have a new character in the shadows to worry about, what is this person after?
“Whoever leaked this to this acquaintance of yours,” you begin, “it must be someone close to him.” When Dan Feng looks at you, he can see the gears turning in your head. “You don’t think it’s our Carrothead, is it?”
That almost cracks a smile out of him.
“‘Our’ Carrothead?” Dan Feng asks with a quiet scoff. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
You sigh. “I’m just wondering if this has anything to do with what happened to Dan Heng.”
“I don’t know,” Dan Feng answers quietly. “I wish I had an answer for you.”
◆◆◆
Dressed in black flare pants and a white blouse, you walk into the lobby of a large building—the headquarters of one of Lunae’s subsidiary companies and your temporary place of employment where you’ll work with the team on the design project for the next few months. There’s a large, open coffee shop to your right where you see people talking about work or lounging with co-workers. To your far right near the back wall is a small crowd waiting for an elevator—eight total with four on either side.
“Hi,” you say, reaching the receptionist’s desk. Then, you give her your name. “I have a meeting with the creative director.”
The young man grabs an iPad and taps through it a few times before looking at you. “Yes, I have you scheduled with him for this afternoon.” After a couple more taps, he opens a drawer and hands you a transparent card. “His office is on the top floor.”
“Thanks.”
So, you take the card key and head to the elevators.
It feels like it’s just yesterday that you’re getting resettled in your parents’s apartment, but days fly by and before you know it, it’s already time for you to meet Lan.
The conversation with Dan Feng in your apartment is still on your mind. While you’re dying to know about the message and what it could mean, you haven’t done anything to act on your curiosity. If Childe is the one behind the mysterious leak, why would he tell you anything about it? And how does he know about Dan Feng’s mysterious acquaintance? This leads to your biggest question. Who is Dan Feng’s acquaintance? You only have a name and a brief statement of how Dan Feng described him.
Sampo.
“He’s… neither friend nor foe.”
No one, including Dan Feng’s friends, wants to elaborate more on him, which raises your suspicions. You’ve even tried searching him online but came up with nothing. So, you drop it, despite the red flags you’re seeing. And that’s not the only suspicion nagging at you.
It was a chilly evening when Bailu invited you to their flat for dinner. Just a few days prior, Caelus had called it a “fated coincidence” that your flat and Dan Feng’s were right across the hall from each other. Bailu had also positive things to say about this “fated coincidence.”
“It’ll be so much easier to see each other!” she had said.
So, here you were. Sitting across from Dan Feng at a dinner table with plates of food on the table that was supposedly prepared by Bailu.
“Yeah, these guys don’t know how to cook,” Bailu said. “They’re still newbies at the craft.”
“We’re learning,” Dan Feng said calmly.
“And where did you learn how to cook, Bailu?” you asked.
“I taught myself! And now I’m teaching these guys.”
You’d wanted to ask more but this wasn’t the topic of discussion for the evening. Why you were really here was to discuss what to do with Lan.
“So, if the creative director is Lan, how will you nab him?” you asked. “I suppose you can’t just waltz into his office and cuff him.”
“Yes,” Zhongli said. “It’s… a little more complicated than that.”
You put your bowl down. “I see. I actually tried looking up information about him and Nanook online... There’s usually a list you can look up for wanted people.”
Neuvilette, who had been casually drinking his tea, put his cup down. “It’s a lot more complicated than you think. They’ve changed names and appearances. Frankly, we don’t know if they still look like the people we remember.”
“They must know we’re after him,” Bailu huffed. “But, don’t worry”—she looked at you—”I know you’ll be safe.”
“I, well, I hope so,” you said. “I would think if he kidnapped me, it would attract local maybe even national attention. I doubt that’s what they want.”
“We wouldn’t let you get kidnapped in the first place,” Dan Feng said. “But, it’s possible he’s acting on an agenda different to Tsaritsa.”
“You mean… The crazy family doesn’t know what they’re up to?” Bailu asked. “But… Why? I thought they’d be in this together.”
“There’s also that note you told us about,” Zhongli said. “If Lan is acting on a different agenda, would that mean no one knows about that note?”
“Or, is it him and a traitor?” Neuvilette asked.
Bailu reached over and grabbed a large piece of salmon with her chopsticks. “Well, why don’t we look at it this way? Is there a possibility of a traitor? If yes, who and why?”
You never get an answer, but something is nagging at you. You’re still not getting the full picture. Something’s missing, and it wouldn’t bother you as much if the suspicion falls on Lan. No. It bugs you that part of it lies with the group you’re supposed to trust. But one thing’s for sure. You feel safer with them, and you’ve learned to trust your gut more than anything.
The stares you get when you swipe the card that’s different from everyone else’s doesn’t go unnoticed. And as predicted, you’re the last one to get off the elevator. The sound of your heels echoes softly on the marble floor as you walk to the single room at the end of the brightly-lit hall that’s of a beige and white colour scheme with an antique placed in front of areas where the walls were a dark brown.
You reach a dark brown door at the end of the hall, and you hear something like drawers closing and papers shuffling from the other side.
You knock once.
No answer.
Twice.
Still no answer.
You’re about to knock again when you hear:
“It’s open.”
You enter and see a man standing in front of a large monitor.
“Did I come at a bad time?”
He shuts a drawer. “No. you’re right on time.” Then, he gestures for you to sit on the couch and walks to the table with a coffee machine. “Coffee? Tea?”
“I’m okay, thanks,” you say, sitting on one of the black couches.
Regardless, he starts up the coffee machine and says:
“The team you’ll be working with will be arriving a little later, but I’ve been hearing a lot about you.” He leans against the table while facing you. “Your work and reputation are among the best in the industry.”
“While I’m flattered, surely you didn’t call me here just to compliment me on my work.”
“You’re right. I want to talk to you about Dan Feng.” You slightly narrow your eyes as he says your name. “How much do you know about me?”
Is this a trick question?
“I… don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re technically my boss at this point,” you say calmly.
“Dan Feng and I… No. Dan Feng and us. We go a long way back. Did he tell you?”
Looks like this is far from the work-related conversation you’re expecting.
“How do you know Dan Feng?”
Lan’s smile is unsettling. The coffee machine comes to a stop, and he turns around.
“He and his friends were the ones who put us in jail.” The casual tone makes it sound like it’s part of a daily routine like cooking or laundry. You feel oddly trapped as he walks towards you with two cups of coffee. As if you’re playing right into his hand. “Oh, I’m sorry.” He puts a cup of black coffee in front of you. “Did that scare you?”
“What are you doing with Tsaritsa?”
Lan sits on the opposite sofa across from you. “We met by chance.” He quietly sips his coffee. “She helped us in our time of need.”
“Then, she’s also a criminal.”
His eerie smile almost makes your palms sweat.
“But, she’s better than them, at least.” Lan nods at your coffee. “You’re wasting a perfectly good coffee.”
You still don’t pick it up.
“What did she make you do?” you ask through gritted teeth.
“Do what?”
“She had you do something to the plane Dan Heng was on,” you say, clenching your fists. “Didn’t she?”
“You’re making some wild assumptions here.” Lan crosses one leg over the other. “What do you think she had us do?” He sips his coffee. “Come on. Give me your best shot.”
“You killed someone,” you say sternly. “And you’re treating it as a game?”
How fucking insane.
“Isn’t that what life is? One big game?”
“We’re done here,” you mutter, standing.
“Oh, but are we?”
The dangerous look in his eyes chains you to your spot.
“Even if you go to the police, they’ll never figure out how he was killed,” Lan continues. “Even if you have a confession, it won’t work without evidence.” A small, amused grin. “The human law is truly interesting.”
“Human law…?” you quietly ask.
“Looks like no one’s told you.” Lan puts his coffee down. “If you take a seat, I’ll tell you the truth.”
You look at him skeptically. “About what?”
“About who I am. Who Dan Feng is… because he’s been lying to you since day one.” He nods at your coffee. “Then you’ll know who your real friends are.”
Chapter 10
Tag list: @lunavixia @sunsethw4 @boomie-123 @aerithsthingss
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182 Days of TPN - Day 11
Chapter 11: “Traitor, Part 1”
I got mixed feelings about this stairs scene. The anime gave us that first person p.o.v. as they walked up with no conversation at all, which was okay as it added to the eerie mood of the house when it’s quiet, but I feel like the silence just lasted a bit too long? But then I understand that most of what the trio discusses about whether or not Don & Gilda will believe them has been mentioned briefly before (and after library scene), so there’s no real reason to listen to it again. I wish they could’ve combined elements of both versions somehow, if only for one moment that I’ll mention at the end.
...Y’all think she had similar thoughts after what happened in the Seven Walls and during ch178 or what? Because now I do. And I dunno whether to be proud or cry.
Could be just my personal preference that I like how the anime had Ray sit up on the second floor of the library instead of stand with everyone else down below, not only because I think it suits him (somehow), but also for the reason that he knows so much more about this house and its secrets than the rest of them, so it makes some kinda sense to show that distance between them and the advantage he has over them as well.
After the meeting in the library, we get this moment between Norman & Ray. The last panel of Ray wondering how & when Norman will reveal the truth to Don & Gilda, along with if he’s even capable of doing so in the first place, reminds me of Ray’s big dilemma in his special chapter. He was so concerned with how he should break the news to everyone, but struggled with the idea and contemplated doing so since knowing they’re all raised to be food for demons is such a heavy burden. He ends up keeping it all to himself so the others could at least live a normal life free of worries. It was a roundabout way of Ray protecting them (or at least their innocence) and while telling Don & Gilda the secret would’ve seriously crushed their reality, giving them false hope and placing targets on their back with a twisted truth isn’t much better. Sure they might agree to assist with the escape plans more easily, but keeping them in the dark about the serious danger they could be in if any part of the plan fails is too risky, hence why Ray gets so mad at Don in upcoming chapters for swiping Isabella’s key to the hidden room. If he and Gilda really did get caught, that move could’ve very well cost them their lives, instead of “sell them off to bad people” as Norman & Emma made them believe. Had the duo known the real story at the time, I doubt they would’ve acted so recklessly. So while Ray knows fully well that telling the true secret is a double-edged sword, I’m sure he would’ve much rather told them nothing than a white lie, especially since he’s very aware neither Don or Gilda are actual spies.
Norman mentions before (during the stair scene) that if they don’t know the full truth, perhaps they wouldn’t get shipped out if their plans fail, which is a valid idea, but I don’t think someone like Isabella would be that lenient. Granted, mom isn’t interfering with them directly during this time, but that’s because her sheepdog is doing his job at keeping everything under control, so she doesn’t necessarily have to make any drastic moves. Then you got Krone to worry about too as she’s off trying her own crazy schemes.
Favorite panel/moment:
The real reason I wanted the stairs conversation animated..
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Fnaf revival au(part 4):
I gave each of the missing children personalities
Gabriel: in my au, he’s black and back then(and now)black people were very looked down on so because of that he mostly kept to himself and is very introverted(except to his friends and Charlie). When he died and came back to life, he was glad he got a second chance, his first instinct was to check on his mom to see if she was ok.
Jeremy: he was a nice boy and polite, never used to raise his voice. But after he died and came back to life, he was not the same Jeremy that everyone knew. He was a little off and a bit unhinged, he started to yell when he got mad and he almost killed Susie and Charlie.
Susie: the most happy child to ever set eyes on ever, she was very much an extrovert(very much). When she found out her dog died she was very sad but when she came back to life so did her dog too(Michael made a robot copy of Susie’s dog) she was ecstatic about it and hugged Michael for a long time(she thanked him a lot).
Fritz: he was a very hyper and active child, but he was nice nonetheless and will say yes to anything you ask of him(not anything dangerous though). When he died and came back to life, he’s was not as hyper as he was before but he was still very active and very nice and polite(he still’s say’s yes to anything, nothing dangerous though)
Charlie: is very much about justice and what’s right, very intelligent and funny(even when she died she cracked a few jokes just to make the missing children feel better and they did). When she came back to life she was happy even though she didn’t get the revenge she wanted but she grew out of it and moved on. She actually became a lawyer for a while when she became an adult(since Henry said it’s in your nature to protect the innocent). She actually moved to California because Henry decided that it wasn’t safe in Utah anymore.
Elizabeth and Evan: they had to move away too because of the accident. When they grew up Elizabeth owns an ice cream shop(yes she still likes ice cream) and Evan became a therapist to help people through their problems(some of his clients were just like him when he was younger, he gets a little ptsd from those types of clients but never shows it)
Bonus headcanons: Evan still keeps the plushies he had when he was younger(yes, even fredbear)
He still does have nightmares about the nightmare animatronics but instead of scaring him, they’re actually really nice to him in fact they were nice to him even as a child(after the bite of course). They always made sure he was feeling ok. They did this because they realized that he’s been through enough and deserves a break from the bad stuff.
Cassidy: when she was alive she wasn’t all that nice(she was actually a little controlling). She grew up in an orphanage which was very strict and instead of defying the rules she followed them(which led to her being controlling). She always wanted to tell the other children what to do most of the time(especially Fritz). Fritz was actually the first friend Cassidy made in school, she even made a friendship bracelet for Fritz. But as soon as they became friends things changed. She wanted to control what Fritz did most of the time she wouldn’t even let him hang out with anybody else except her. When she died she got even more controlling(and even power hungry). She wanted to get revenge on William and threatened the others to do the same. When the missing children were ready to come back to life she called them traitors for betraying her and she tried to bribe them into following her(especially Fritz she even tried to fake cry to make them follow her but they didn’t buy it).
Bonus headcanons : when they came back to life, Fritz destroyed the friendship bracelet Cassidy made for him because it reminded him of her.
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i don't wanna lose you
25. “Let’s not end like this.”
Modern AU. Background Portamis. Previous Athamis. Athos angst.
Maybe OOC? Idk, it just felt like a fun idea and I rolled with it.
Modern AU. Portamis. Previous Athamis. Athos angst. Maybe OOC? Idk, it just sounded like a fun idea and I rolled with it.
—
Athos had known the break up was coming for a long time. Aramis had always strayed, but Athos hadn’t minded.
But Aramis hadn’t just been straying at the end.
He’d fallen in love, and Athos couldn’t fault him for it. Porthos was strong and sure and had as much kindness as he had courage, which he had in abundance. Porthos was everything that Aramis could want and need and Athos wasn’t really any of those things.
Aramis isn’t the one to break it off. Athos does it. Athos says they’re through in a little restaurant Aramis probably chose so Athos wouldn’t make a scene when he left him. Well the joke was on Aramis, because Athos said “I don’t want to be with you anymore,” and walked out, just throwing the money on the table to pay the bill for food they had ordered by hadn’t gotten yet, and he left without looking back.
He didn’t expect Aramis to chase him, but maybe he was hoping for it. Hoping Aramis would tell him “this was all a misunderstanding” and “please don’t go” and “I love you,” but Athos doesn’t look back and he doesn’t know if Aramis even watches him leave.
It takes a few weeks for the anger to die down. That first night Ninon and Sylvie, the most loyal friends and man could ask for him, support him without question. They knew he and Aramis had a more open relationship, but they do nothing but drink with him and distract him when he shows up at their place needing not to be alone.
Ninon is far more attached to Athos than she is to Aramis, and is the first to turn completely traitor against him and bash the man as if she’d never liked him to begin with. She is drunker than she usually allows herself to be and she has a way with words that would be delightful if she wasn’t talking about the man he loved and believed himself committed to just a few hours before.
Sylvie is slower. She is reticent that first night while Athos is Drunk and Ninon is Mean. She let’s Athos vent, and strokes his hair and nods when he starts to cry, too far into his cups to stop it, and she hums a song her mum used to sing to her when she was sad, and Athos falls asleep on her shoulder.
Life goes on, as it often does. Athos gets up and goes to work, comes home one day to realize that Aramis has taken all his things out of the flat they hadn’t shared by had shared and has left his key on the entryway table with a note that only has three words on it.
I’m sorry,
A.
Athos throws the key and the letter into the fireplace, lets the letter burn and the key warp under the heat until it is unusable. He gets drunk with Ninon and Sylvie that night too, not ready to face the flat that feels like it will be empty until he dies.
He lays in bed the next die. The entire next day. He makes himself get up to pee, but food and water don’t feel important. Nothing feels important. He wants to go to sleep and never wake up again. He misses Aramis, but Aramis loves someone else and Athos should just to happy for them.
Apparently, not answering his texts is grounds for breaking and entering because Sylvie breaks in that evening (using the key he gave her years ago) and makes him eat, drink water, have a shower.
He trudges through the motions but his heart isn’t in it.
—
Eventually the hurt subsides and he is numb. This is in part from the alcohol and in part from previous experience with this sort of emotional dampening. He thinks how Aramis would hate this for him, but pushes the thought away as quickly as it comes, each time it comes.
He is able to go about his day without thinking of Aramis, though he doesn’t think of much else either. He works and drinks and sometimes eats. Sylvie or Ninon or both chastise him for his complete disregard of his health, both mental and physical, and he promises to do better, lying like he lies to himself when he says he’s fine with all of this, really.
The first time he sees the two of them out in public, he turns on his heel, hopefully before they see him, but again, he doesn’t turn back to look.
Aramis was leaning close to Porthos in that way he used to do when Athos was feeling left out or overwhelmed, taking up his space to remind him that he was supported; that Athos wasn’t alone, and Aramis was there beside him.
Porthos has a smile like stars, not brilliant, but luminous, glowing, happy. Aramis makes him happy.
Aramis used to make Athos happy.
He wants to be happy for them, and he just can’t.
He gets black out drunk that night, alone in his flat. Ninon shows up at some point with Sylvie’s key and makes him get up and even when he’s ornery she just beats him down with looks and just once an open hand across his cheek, hard enough to sting but not to bruise.
In the morning, he learns that he’d called Aramis, drunk and basically incoherent, and Aramis had called Sylvie because he hadn’t thought he would be welcome, and Sylvie had called Ninon because Sylvie had a cap for Athos drunkeness and he had very much been past that cap last night.
He asks Ninon, who is asleep in his bed beside him and has been waking him up periodically throughout the night, what he said to Aramis. She shrugs and tells him that the only person who knows is Aramis. And probably Porthos, but she doesn’t say that part.
Around 11am, after Ninon has gone home and Athos has decided to give getting out of bed a good try, he gets a brief text from Aramis.
I know you don’t owe me it, but if you can text me back and let me know you’re alright, I would appreciate it.
Athos stares at the phone for long moments, knowing Aramis can see that he has read the message and not really caring as he sets the phone down and goes to the bathroom to take a very long, brain-numbing, shower.
When he gets out of the shower and gets dressed, it is in a nice set of trousers and a soft sweater that he has been trying to forget was a present from Aramis. He takes the early part of the afternoon, still throbbing a bit at the temples and sour in the stomach, to buy “thank-you-for-putting-up-with-me” presents for both Sylvie and Ninon. It’s while he’s trying to convince himself not to buy another bottle of wine at the grocery that he hears a familiar voice that is more awkward than it had ever been in all the years Athos listened to it.
“Athos?”
Aramis has never sounded uncertain, not in Athos’ memory, at least, and so for a brief second he wonders what stranger is accosting him during this very delicate time at the grocery story.
“Yes?” Athos tries to look unaffected, settling his face into a neutral, expressionless thing that he realized he hadn’t given to Aramis since well before they started dating.
“I- Um, I wanted to check on you. Make sure you were well.” Aramis stutters at Athos raised eyebrow, “I didn’t follow you here. I- I just saw you and I wanted to ask.”
“I’m fine.” The words are flat even to his own ears.
“You- Okay.” Aramis said and took a subtle step back. “I just. I know that you- We can be friends. I would like it if we were friends.”
“Mhmm,” Athos puts the bottle of wine in his trolley. He doesn’t grab another one, but maybe he will after he does a loop of the grocery store to get away from Aramis. “Right. I have to be somewhere. Goodbye.”
“Goodbye.” Aramis voice is small, fragile. It makes Athos’ chest ache and his hands twitch to hold themselves out and ask Aramis if he needs him. He doesn’t do this. He pushes his trolley down the aisle in picks a random direction to go in, hoping he’ll remember what he came here for while he’s walking but knowing he won’t.
—
Sylvie, as if by some miracle, shows up at his place less than an hour after he gets home from the store. He gives her a nice scented soap that vaguely reminded him of the shampoo she used and she gave him a hug and proceeded to spend the night. The wine bottles go missing when he goes looking for them and he doesn’t blame Sylvie for hiding them. He ends up in a familiar position, head against her shoulder, on of her hands clasped in both of his while she strokes his hair and shoulder and back. Anywhere she can comfortably reach, basically.
“I’m sorry,” He tells her quietly. He doesn’t say what for. He hopes she knows.
“Did you really break it off with Aramis?” Sylvie asked, and Athos turned, pulling away so he can look her in the eyes.
“Yes.” His gaze is steady and she meets it without flinching.
“Why?”
Ahh, the question. The question. The reasoning he’s barely thought about but hasn’t dared to speak. He leans his head back on her shoulder. This is not a conversation he wants to be looked at while he’s having.
“Porthos.” Is where he starts, hoping that will be enough. It is not, as he assumed it wouldn’t be, so he took a deep breath. “I knew he was falling in love with him. He was spending more and more time with him. I knew it. He wasn’t cheating on me.” He feels like he has to reiterate this. He feels like he needs to defend Aramis, even now. “I just… He sat me down at this small little restaurant and I did it before he could. I didn’t want to be broken up with. I didn’t want apologies and ‘I’m so sorry Athos, please understand, please-‘” His voice cuts off and he has to swallow, hard. “I love him too much to listen to him spiral with his guilt while I fell apart inside. So I told him I didn’t want to be with him anymore and I left.”
“Did you want to not be with him anymore?” She asked and he laughed, humorless, degrading towards himself and his own misery.
“Of course I wanted to be with him. I don’t think I’ve ever told a bigger lie in my life.”
Sylvie hums, thinking for a few minutes. She plays with his hair and he closes his eyes, not ashamed that a couple of tears form at the memory, slide hot and accusing down his cheeks onto Sylvie’s shoulder.
“How do you know he was going to break up with you?” Sylvie asked, and this throws him for a loop. He doesn’t understand the question. Aramis was in love with a man who Athos could never hope to match up to. Why wouldn’t be break up with him.
He takes too long to answer, so she goes on. “I just… I wonder if you didn’t jump the gun. If you didn’t go too fast to ‘break-up’ and didn’t spend enough time in ‘we-should-have-a-conversation-about-this’?”
“It’s a bit late for wondering.” Athos mumbled, and sat up. She lets him have his space, but keeps one of her hands wrapped around his.
“Maybe not. He seemed. He didn’t seem like he was right as rain and over the moon. He seemed. Lost. When he called me last night about your drunk dial. Like he wanted to come over himself but didn’t think he’d be welcome.
“He doesn’t have the key anymore.” He clarifies.
“Aramis has been able to pick a lock for longer than I’ve known him. And he could have climbed in a window besides.”
“I live on the second floor.”
“Would that have stopped him?”
Athos can’t help but smile fondly. “No, I suppose it wouldn’t have.”
“Exactly. So… I wonder if maybe you should’ve talked more, before you did what you did.”
“He was in love with someone else, Sylvie. He is in love with someone else.”
Perfect, wonderful Porthos who Athos could never-
“There’s nothing that says you can’t love more than one person.”
Athos brain slows, halts, goes quiet.
“Did I break you?” She asked when it takes him too long to respond.
“Yes.” He says quietly and she pulls him to her again, and he goes, accepting the hug and feeling grateful that the flat isn’t empty.
Athos prods at the thought. There’s nothing that says you can’t love more than one person… Spoken with such ease that Athos isn’t sure that to do with it. Had he been a fool? Had he stepped too quickly out of a relationship that hadn’t been ready to end?
But, Aramis hadn’t come after him. Aramis had let him leave, let him walk out.
“I was wondering why Aramis wasn’t ever around. I thought, maybe, if you broke up with him because of Porthos, because you didn’t like it, he’d at least have offered to end it. To be exclusive if it meant keeping you. But… If you said what you say you did, that you didn’t want to be with him anymore, that sounds like the sort of think Aramis would see as a boundary. Something he shouldn’t cross. Wouldn’t dare to.”
And that… sounded very much like Aramis, now that he thought about it. Aramis, who had asked explicitly for consent before their first kiss. Aramis who had made them have a half hour long conversation about comfort and limits and expectations before they’d had sex. Aramis who communicated so openly that it sometimes gave Athos whiplash because he came from posh near-nobility who wouldn’t share their feelings if it gave them eternal life.
“Fuck.” He whispered, and then he shook his head. “Fuck. Sylvie. Stop putting ideas in my head. I just- I cannot handle it I-“ lose him again.
“I know.” She strokes his hair, temples, “I’m sorry.”
“I know.” He repeats and they stay like that for a long while.
—
Ninon is the one who makes him call. Sits beside him while he does it, in fact, because for all that she was the first to betray Aramis, she was also very staunchly pro-Athos-Being-Happy, and she wanted them to work it out if it was possible to.
“Athos?” Aramis sounds breathless, and Athos tries not to think about why that might be.
“And Ninon. Just for transparency.” Ninon says beside him. The phone is on speaker.
“Oh?” He’s still breathing differently. “Well, that’s a surprise. What can I do for you?”
Athos can’t respond. Aramis sounds so happy to be talking to him that Athos’ brain won’t do anything but focus on the sound of his voice, memorizing the sound of it, giving him not space left to respond.
“Athos wants to meet. Tomorrow. Is there a time that works?”
“Um, sure. Yes. I’ll-“ A rustling, then paper’s shifting. “I have the afternoon free. We can meet for coffee that that place we-“ Aramis stopped, and when he finishes his voice is far less cheery. “We can do something in the afternoon. Just text me where and when.”
“Good.” Ninon says for him, and Athos is very grateful. “He will see you tomorrow.”
“Great.” It’s not as enthusiastic as it could be, but then Ninon is hanging up the phone and Athos is trying to pull himself together.
Part 2 coming tomorrow.
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WAIT—
Okay so I’ve seen the theory of Tyto (Owl Mask) being Belos’ son (very cool) in conjunction with Tyto being half-witch half-human, with Belos actually being human (also super cool, loving it).
BUT I’ve also seen theories of Tyto being related to the Clawthornes in some way, and we know that Eda had direct access to a portal to the human realm. So what I’m saying is, what if Tyto is Eda’s son, half-witch half-human.
#here come some thoughts#i’m warning you if you go into these tags. there’s a lot.#the owl house#toh#toh spoilers#tyto#owl mask#eda clawthorne#and for all of you stan pinesXeda shippers he could be stan’s son too#haha i hope that makes it clear enough that this is mostly a joke and that i don’t believe it’s the case for several reasons#BUT it’s actually super fun to think about so it’s perfect for like an AU#and there’s angst potential which is the best kind of potential#eda having to give him up for Reasons and always regretting that and believing she was a horrible mother#but now looking out for luz and being a great if unconventional mother figure#tyto eventually learning about this and he knows he has a better life as the emperor’s right hand and a powerful magic user and a prodigy#literally on posters all around the isles the face of the most revered coven in the lands#and he wouldn’t even want their life as they’re traitors & have nothing (he tells himself even as he begins to observe the ways they laugh#and love like no one he’s ever seen in the emperor’s coven)#(even as he sees the insecure and strict lilith smile and glow in ways she never did when she had all of her magic)#no no. he does not envy them.#but still infuriatingly feeling cheated and jealous because WHY is she keeping YOU when she ABANDONED ME?#and and!!! what if he inherited the curse?#what if he grew up with a curse that wasn’t his own?#something thrust upon someone else and now he has to carry when he didn’t do anything to deserve it?#and if that was the case it’d probably be impossible for him to not put together that eda ‘the owl lady’ was probably his mother#so he hated her and kept his relations to her a secret but always in the back of his mind when after he’d transformed he’d feel a strange#sense of CONNECTION to her because it was something THEY shared and it made him feel CLOSE to her in a way he both despised and yearned for#and i’m sorry i’m just rambling now and nothing’s making sense but tyto is literally my favorite type of character right now#has enough personality to have a presence but a blank enough slate of a mystery (for now) where you can throw anything at them & it sticks#you can explore lots of ideas with their character and i just think that’s so cool
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Wen Qing says yes because all she can think of is the consequences if she doesn’t.
She probably should have spent some time considering what, exactly, the consequences of saying yes would be.
~
Wei Wuxian wants to go back to the banquet and shake Jin Zixun until the information they need falls out, but Wen Qing knows that’s a terrible idea, knows that he shouldn’t be helping her at all but he definitely shouldn’t stand in front of the whole cultivation world and threaten the Jin family for her. He asks one of the servants instead, something she wouldn’t have thought to do, but he insists that servants know everything and after a hefty bribe he’s telling them what they need to know and even turns a blind eye when they take a horse that’s been left unattended.
She’s skinny on a good day and she hasn’t seen a good day in a long time. Wei Wuxian didn’t used to be this thin, this breakable, but he is now, and she tells herself it’s a good thing because the one horse is easily able to carry both of them. He sits behind her even though he takes the reigns and she leans back into him because she’s been holding herself up for so long and she’s tired and he’s helping her, something no one has been willing to in – ever, really. She thinks she could almost count his ribs against her back and thinks if she’s alive tomorrow she’ll give him a lecture about eating properly without a golden core to nourish him.
They arrive just as a guard is raising a broken flag pole above his head to skewer A-Ning.
Wei Wuxian stops him, using a talisman to bind the man’s wrist to his own and jerking him away from her brother. Who is alive, and whole, and does not have a pole through his stomach. She’s crying when she holds him and Wei Wuxian stands between them and everyone else and looks at the guards and her people and says, “I have an idea. It’s a bad idea.”
“Your ideas usually are,” she says, but she’s still shaking at having her little brother back in her arms so it doesn’t come out as acerbic as she intended.
~
It is a terrible idea. She doesn’t have to agree to it.
She does.
They go to the nearest temple in Lanling because they need witnesses for this. The monks are confused and frightened but bear witness as she bows three times to Wei Wuxian and is bowed to three times in return.
She is exhausted and scared and is still unconvinced that she’ll live to see the sunrise, but Wei Wuxian had helped her when she hadn’t asked and saved her brother and wouldn’t let the guards stop them from leading her family from the work camp, so she marries him.
~
They go back to Koi Tower. It’s terrifying but Jiang disciples meet them and look askance at all the rest of them but don’t hesitate to obey Wei Wuxian. They surround them as they walk and if they have opinions about being told to guard traitorous Wen, they don’t voice them. Maybe the fact that they’re guarding Wei Wuxian too is enough.
They enter the banquet hall and everything is silent. She doesn’t know how to read the look on everyone’s faces and she doesn’t try. Instead she stands by Wei Wuxian’s side and does what she does best – she doesn’t flinch.
“Wei Wuxian!” Jin Guangshan shouts, appalled. “What is the meaning of this?”
“Sect Leader Jin,” he says, offhand, casual, as if having his hall filled with Wen is a perfectly ordinary occurrence. “You’re so good at throwing parties. I was hoping you would throw one for me.”
Jin Guangshan’s eyes narrow. “Why would we throw a party?”
“Well, it is my wedding day,” he says, and holds out his hand. Wen Qing places her hand in his, lets his other hand settle warm and proprietary at the small of her back. “My wife, Wen Qing. We were just married at the temple in Lanling. Feel free to question the monks if you don’t believe me.”
The silence breaks, everyone shouting now, and A-Yuan’s cry cuts through all of them.
She hadn’t known that Wei Wuxian had any experience with children, but he turns automatically, opening his arms, and Granny barely hesitates before placing A-Yuan into them. After all, if they can’t trust Wei Wuxian, they’re all dead anyway.
A-Yuan, astonishingly, quiets instantly as Wei Wuxian bounces him in his arms, settling his head on his shoulder and sticking his thumb in his mouth.
“You,” Wen Qing turns, sees Jiang Cheng looking between them, and she could probably read the look on his face but she doesn’t want to. “He’s your – you have a – was it when we, after Lotus Pier?”
She and Wei Wuxian glance at each other, and maybe this marriage will work out, because that one glance contains a whole conversation of things they can’t say. The timeline almost works. A-Yuan likely was conceived sometime around the fall of Lotus Pier. If there is a child, Wei Wuxian’s actions become more understandable, seem less like an act of war and something closer to what they really are, an act of love.
She could have, she supposes, laid with Wei Wuxian and gotten pregnant and bore a child in the years since they’ve seen each other. She didn’t, but the only ones who know that are either dead or just as desperate as she is for this to work.
Or. Well.
Jiang Yanli’s face is easier to look at, even as it does something complicated then smooths. She was there and awake while they all recovered with her and Wen Ning. She knows that she and Wei Wuxian didn’t have any sort of epic romance, or even a quick tryst, during that time. Wei Wuxian was so obsessively focused on helping his brother that the idea he’d have paused long enough for sex when he hadn’t for sleep or food is ridiculous. But Jiang Yanli meets her gaze then pointedly lowers her eyes and something like relief trickles down Wen Qing’s spine.
Wei Wuxian looks around the hall and if he hesitates over Lan Wangji, that’s a conversation for them to have later, if there is a later.
“Sect Leader Jiang,” Wei Wuxian says quietly, formally, and Jiang Cheng nearly flinches before catching himself. “Meet my son. Wei Yuan.” He lets that echo through the hall and then says, “I could not leave him, nor the woman who bore him, nor the family that raised him when I remained in ignorance.”
She lowers his gaze as if in shame, for having a child out of marriage, for keeping that child from his father, but mostly she can’t stand to see the look at Jiang Cheng’s face any longer.
~
There is intense debate among the clans. The Lan and surprisingly even the Nie vote against the Jin and agree for the Wen to be released to the custody of the Jiang rather than the Jin. What’s the difference between one great clan and the other, after all, and Jiang Cheng fights for this, fights for them, and Wen Qing knows he’s really fighting for Wei Wuxian. Their marriage makes things too complicated, like they’d hoped. A-Yuan makes things too complicated, and everyone in the hall mostly seems to want to go back to drinking. There is some poorly hidden sentiment that if Wei Wuxian wants a war bride he should be entitled to her, for his contribution to the war, perhaps, and Wen Qing hates these people. They do not call her and her family tribute but they imply it easily enough.
If the price of the lives of her family is her pride, that’s fine. She abandoned that a long time ago.
~
“You have been good for him,” Jiang Yanli tells her a month after they’ve moved into Lotus Pier, a month of being the wife to Wei Wuxian and the mother to the now Wei Yuan. She doesn’t do a particularly good job at either of these roles, she thinks, but Wei Wuxian makes a good husband and a good father and it was his idea but she can’t help but feel guilty, can’t help but think she stole for herself and her family what was meant for someone else.
Her sister in law’s words aren’t wrong, however. She doesn’t let Wei Wuxian drink so much anymore and forces him to eat. She’s there in his bed when he gasps awke from nightmares and when he can do nothing more but clutch his chest and weep. She gets the story of the Burial Mounds from him, eventually, and she doesn’t know how to heal that kind of trauma, but she holds him when he cries and thinks even if she can’t be a proper wife, she can do this, and she heals the damage demonic cultivation does to his meridians, and it seems like such little things, comparatively, but it helps.
She’s offers up the excuse that demonic cultivation makes using his sword difficult and people stop asking him to carry it. A-Ning sticks to Wei Wuxian’s side when she can’t, looking faintly sad whenever Wei Wuxian makes an unhealthy choice, which is even more effective than her scolding, although not as effective as getting A-Yuan to place his chubby hand on Wei Wuxian’s cheek and go, “Baba no.”
Without so many nightmares, with having people around he can talk to freely, with no one pestering him about his sword, Wei Wuxian shoulders all the responsibilities of first disciple and brother of the clan leader, something he apparently hadn’t been able to do before.
She knows what the rumors say. Those that had been against her and her family being set free, relatively speaking, are now patting themselves on the back. Clearly the fearsome Yiling Patriarch has been cowed by marriage. His bastard son, who he loved enough at first sight to legitimize, has softened his sharp edges.
Wen Qing knows that’s all bullshit and Jiang Yanli does too, but.
He is better.
Jiang Cheng can’t seem to decide between being relieved and grateful at having his brother back and resentful that it took Wen Qing to bring it about and – whatever his feelings about her are, and her marriage to his brother are, which she doesn’t know because she refuses to acknowledge them.
“I’m glad,” she says quietly.
Her sister in law squeezes her hand, and Wen Qing squeezes back, and if this isn’t exactly the life she wanted, well. It’s a life. That’s more than she thought she’d have.
She has a loving husband and an adorable son and living, healthy family. There is nothing for her to complain about.
Just because it all feels stolen, just because it all feels like something she never should have been given, doesn’t make it less good, doesn’t make it less hers.
~
Wen Qing knows that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are in love with each other because she has two functioning eyes. She’s known that since she was a teenager in Cloud Recesses.
She had not wanted to come between them. She hadn’t planned on it. This all hadn’t even been her idea.
She’s guilty enough about it that she ignores her own feelings.
At first, she doesn’t have any, not really. Then it hadn’t been right.
She’s never felt greedy before. She doesn’t like it but she doesn’t know how to stop it.
~
They’ve been married for over a year the first time Wei Wuxian kisses her.
They’ve been married nearly two years the first time Wei Wuxian kisses Lan Wangji.
Something settles in her then, relief burrowing into her bones. Lan Wangji comes to her after, a combination of desirously happy and mortified, and bows to her and looks her in the eye when he tells her that he’s in love with her husband.
“I know,” she says kindly, “he’s easy to love.” She pauses, then says, “I do not mind. If it’s you.”
His lips part, and she holds the place that should be his, married to Wei Wuxian, but.
She can share, if he can. Even if it can’t be official, on paper, she and Wen Ning can bear witness to him and Wei Wuxian bowing to each other and maybe she’ll finally be able to breath when she can give back some of what she stole.
~
There are rumors about the three of them.
They don’t listen to them.
A-Yuan calls Lan Wangji his father and no one corrects him and that’s good enough for her, really.
It’s a good life, and it’s hers, and she’s glad of it.
#fandom ficcery#untamed#what the fuck is this#i cannot emphasize enough#how much i didn't intend to write this#meant to write like four sentences just to get the idea out#and instead there's this#i just think wwx an wq would be a good married couple#i guess#i comprise the entirety of the wwx/wq community#i just think they're neat
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I don't suppose you could explain the ending for khux for me?? i've watched it and i've been following the translated storyline for it and this ending just. does not make a ton of sense to me. i can usually figure out kh endings no problem but this time i'm just lost.
Isn't that just the state of the writing for it, where even people familiar with the series are having trouble understanding it. And, of course, the game dies as it lived: screwing over Global so we can't even compare/contrast with an official English version yet to see if it's more clear
Anyway, sure, I'll try to break it down scene by scene (Note: these aren't the actual scene titles, I just needed a way to delineate them so I made titles up)
Scene 1: The Master and Luxu
The update begins with a continuation of the past flashbacks expanding on the Case of Luxu and the Master of Masters' instructions to him. He explains that he knew that Darkness could only truly be defeated in the future, and so he made sure that Keyblade wielders would exist to fight it by recruiting many Keyblade wielders in Daybreak Town (as per the start of KHx) and then using the Dandelions to stall Darkness's takeover and give them time to make sure that the Keyblade legacy would live on. As Luxu turns to leave, though, the Master stops him with one more bit of information that he feels Luxu needs to know
He explains that back when he was younger, the being known as Darkness tried to gain the advantage in their battle by becoming incorporeal and attacking people's hearts instead of their bodies. There were 13 of these original Darkness beings, and because they lack bodies they aim to win by quantity and so created the Heartless as lesser, but more physical versions of themselves. The original 13 still haven't given up their desire to regain a physical form, however, and so they target those with strong hearts to take their bodies for themselves
The Master of Masters, knowing this and knowing that something without a physical body can't be destroyed, came up with a plan. He took in six children, his apprentices, and raised them to be a prison for Darkness. To foster light so strongly within them that Darkness couldn't possibly taint it, and then seal the strongest 7 of the 13 Darknesses within himself and his students, trapping the Darknesses inside their impenetrable hearts of light. Then, he instigated the Keyblade War. This is only my interpretation of the line, but it sounds to me like the purpose was to get the Foretellers killed in the War and the Darkness sealed inside of them along with them. How this relates to them coming back in KH3 is unclear
When Luxu asks if the War and the idea of a traitor were necessary, the Master goes on to say that the purpose of making the Foretellers believe there was a traitor was to instill negative emotions like fear and doubt in them. Darkness feeds on those emotions, and so by making sure that his students would produce them and yet not have their light tainted, he would attract Darkness into their hearts by giving it something to eat, only for it to realize that it was trapped in light that couldn't be consumed. The infighting amongst the Foretellers was bait to lock Darkness in their hearts the entire time
After that, there's only six left and so the Master chose five individuals, the Union Leaders, to be the uncorruptable lights that would house the weaker Darknesses. The final one, he would simply trap in the Data Daybreak Town
At this, Luxu flies into a rage at his master, angrily shouting that he can't possibly accept a plan that sacrifices so many people, but the Master stands up and starts talking over him. He's made it clear that he doesn't see Darkness as human, and he's seen this inhuman thing take countless lives, including people he's cared about. He doesn't believe them to be heroes, and he doesn't care. The entire purpose is just to ensure that in the end, humanity is what survives the war. He knows it's a tragedy, but for one who believes that tragedy can't be fully avoided, this is a solution that will at least save some
Luxu accepts this answer and leaves, but behind his back the Master muses on what Luxu, the traitor, needs to do. Luxu was the traitor from the lost page the entire time, given a role to take him out of the infighting so that his identity as the traitor wouldn't be discovered (or at least, that's how it seems to me considering that he needed the Foretellers to fear and doubt to attract Darkness to them)
Scene 2: Fleeing Daybreak Town
We now cut to the real Daybreak Town in the present, where Lauriam, Elrena, Ventus, and Brain have just emerged from the Data Daybreak Town into the real-world version of the lifeboat room. Daybreak Town is breaking down around them, about to be fully consumed by the aftermath of the Keyblade War which had been temporarily staved off while the Data simulation was running
Brain is attempting to enact his plan to extract all of the Dandelions from Data Daybreak Town and bring them into the real world, but he's worried that there won't be enough time to actually do it before the simulation shuts down and the real Daybreak Town is destroyed. The only thing he has time to do is get their three remaining friends (Ephemer, Skuld, and Player) out to the real world, and the only way that he can think to do this is to send Lauriam, Elrena, and Ven away to the future and to safety and then send the remaining lifeboats back into the datascape so that there's enough for the three trapped in there to use
Brain is willing to stay behind to man this operation, but he wants to ensure that at least one of the true Union Leaders (Lauriam) manages to live on in case things go wrong and save as many of them as he can, so those going to the future must be sent first. Lauriam, etching his mission to finally find Strelitzia (or even just her data) into his heart, departs with Elrena and Ven. Once they're gone, however, Brain notices someone enter the room and turns to find Luxu approaching him
Scene 3: Those Trapped in Data
We now cut to Player, Ephemer, and Skuld in the data version of the lifeboat room, contemplating how the others are doing. Just as they muse about how quiet the end of this world feels, Player turns to find that four of the remaining six Darknesses have entered the room (presumably the other two are the one sealed in Ven and the one that Luxu was fighting in the real world and who helped Maleficent, who seems to be gone by the time Brain and the others end up back in the real world)
The Darknesses, it seems, have come to politely ask the gang to open up a way out of the Data Daybreak Town for them, so that they can spread to other worlds. They don't want to fight, and obviously even if they did they'd win, so just open a gate for them to escape with already. They could always just take over Ephemer's friends and force him to watch as they rip them away until he complies
Ephemer mocks this and moves in to attack, but before he fully commits he whispers his plan to Player: he and Skuld will hold them off to buy time for Player to get into the last pod and run. To his shock, however, Player begins mimicking Darkness's speaking patterns and then goes to attack their friends. It seems that Darkness has done to Player what they did to Ven, taking them over and forcing them to act out. Player is now their bargaining chip; they'll only give Player back if Ephemer opens the gate. And since Darkness can only be defeated if it has a body, their options are to give in or destroy the possessed Player
This initiates the final boss fight against Ephemer and Skuld, Player's dearest friends who have been with them since before the war
And the duo prove no match for the Darkness-possessed Player, who taunts them about not just leaving when they had the chance. Ephemer begs his friend to stop as Player goes in to finish off Skuld, and in his desperation to protect one friend, he opens up the portal to Game Central Station and forces his fallen friend though. As it closes, Ephemer breaks down in tears, muttering apologies to the friend that he was unable to save
Scene 4: Luxu and Brain
We cut back to where we left off in Scene 2, with Luxu confronting Brain in the real lifeboat room. He introduces himself, and Brain is taken aback that one of the missing masters has finally returned. Luxu asks Brain if he's a Union Leader, and when Brain confirms that he is, Luxu then gestures to the missing pods and asks where the others are. Brain tells him that one escaped, and the other two are still trapped in the data. Luxu's confused; there should be five Union Leaders, but Brain only listed four. He asks what happened to the fifth, and Brain confirms that they were struck down
Luxu assumes that Brain is going to make his escape, but Brain denies this. They have a friend who he calls a Dandelion (even though Player did not consider themself one) who is trapped alongside the other two Union Leaders, and he intends to get all three out no matter what. Furthermore, Brain has no intention of using one of the real lifeboats. Rather, he has resigned himself to staying behind in the past and finding some way to survive the end of the world to eventually extract the rest of the Dandelions from the data as well, and wake them from their data sleep
Luxu, however, has some bad news. While normally that would be true, the Data Daybreak Town was designed to lock Darkness away. Once it's locked up, nothing will ever be able to get out of it again. If anything could get out, then Darkness would as well. It was meant to be a grave for an intangible being
Not only that, but Luxu expresses doubt that Brain has properly prepared for his friends who use the lifeboats to awaken in the future. What does Brain plan to use for mediums? Who are the memories going to come from? Brain doesn't have an answer, but he has to do this and he's willing to put his life on the line for it
This seems to earn Luxu's respect
Scene 5: The Two Who Remain
We now resume with Ephemer and Skuld in the data lifeboat room, having just sealed Player away. The two real pods that weren't used yet are digitized and sent to Ephemer and Skuld to use for their escape. Ephemer picks up the weakened Skuld and places her in a lifeboat, then looks forlornly over to the one on the other side of the room. The one meant for Player. Then he reclines back into his own pod and the two leave the Data Daybreak Town
Scene 6: "You're So Gullible"
We now join Player inside of the familiar tunnel that joined the Data Daybreak Town to Game Central Station
The four Darknesses swarm around Player, commending them for goading Ephemer into being desperate enough to open up a gateway for them, implying that Player was at least partially in control by the end of the fight. In a bizarre way, they seem to be trying to help Player as they warn them they must cast off their body if they don't want to be destroyed by the simulation shutting down
Player laughs
They ask if Darkness is always this easy to trick. After all, it can't go anywhere without a Keyblade and without a body it can't use one, either, which is why it needed one of them to open a path for it. Player turns, and locks the end of the pathway that leads to Game Central Station. And since Ephemer sealed the Data Daybreak Town end when he cast Player and the Darknesses through the portal, all five of them are now trapped in this space between worlds on the cusp of shutting down along with Data Daybreak Town. This was Player's plan all along, opening their heart up just enough for the four Darknesses to try and use them as a host and then provoking their friends into sealing them away and taking Darkness with them
Darkness flies into an anger-fueled frenzy but is unable to do anything to escape. Player collapses, and Chirithy appears. Petting them much like they did during the Keyblade War, Player apologizes for forcing Chirithy to be sealed away with them since their hearts are bound. Chirithy shakes their head, signaling that they don't hold it against Player, and the two go in for a final hug and are bathed in light
Scene 7: The Destruction of Daybreak Town
Back in the real lifeboat room again, Ephemer and Skuld emerge and are met with blaring sirens signaling that the world is at its end. The other are gone, including Brain and Luxu, and the two have no idea what happened to them (or that Luxu was involved). They simply hope that they made it out safely, and decide to check outside just to see what's going on
They're met with the destruction of Daybreak Town. Smoke is everywhere, the sky is red, and pieces of debris are being drawn into a swirling dark orb in the sky not unlike the destruction of Destiny Islands from KH1. Ephemer decides that they need to leave, now, and Skuld muses about how it takes a lot of time and effort to build something, but none at all to destroy. The two retreat back into the lifeboat room to make their exit
Scene 8: The Master's Plans
We now cut to our final continuation of the flashback of Master of Masters' talk with Darkness from before he disappeared
Darkness muses that it truly does not understand the Master of Masters at all. The Master asks if it wants to, and Darkness replies with a very clinical, "Yes, understanding your enemy is important." The Master muses if it means all of the Darknesses or just the one who is speaking, and Darkness states that it's speaking for all of them
The Master muses for a bit about how small worlds are easy to control. If this small world simply expands gradually over time, then eventually there will become parts of it that the light can't reach, but Darkness will have free reign over anywhere it pleases (much like real light can only shine so far, and anywhere it doesn't reach is filled with shadow). This skews everything in Darkness's favor when vying for control and is precisely what would happen if the world of the Age of Fairtytales continued to expand
Darkness simply notes that of course it will always be around, that's what "friends" do, but the Master says that sometimes he'd like to be left alone. And so, to get away from Darkness, he plans to flee to a world that Darkness does not know about. One where neither Darkness nor Light can be controlled. Darkness asks what this world is, and the Master says that humanity, even if their lives end, want to believe in a world that exists for them in the future. For him, this is a world of fiction and imagination. This implies that he plans to flee into the world of Quadratum, the fictional world that we learned about in Melody of Memory that exists on the other side of the "real world"
Darkness is clearly lost as it asks if he's talking about the Data World. The Master simply says that even if it started out as fiction, you can make it real. But he won't explain any more. After all, the point is that this is a world that Darkness doesn't know about. It cannot reach it, even if it tried
Of note is that he mimics what the illusory Xehanort remarks about Sora in Melody of Memory by calling this a place where neither your "eyes nor voice" can reach, much like Sora's voice could not reach Kairi in The Final World from Quadratum. His final description of it is as "a world of [symbol]." It's unclear if this is an actual term that is unpronounceable and unspeakable in-universe, or if this is simply done to censor the word for the players
Scene 9: Goodbye
We once again return to the real lifeboat room amidst the destruction of Daybreak Town. As she gets into her pod, Skuld starts sobbing and thanks Ephemer through her tears for staying with her until the end. Ephemer tells her that she can't give up until it's all over. As he goes into his pod, he flashes back to all of the time that he spent with Player, and mutters their name through his tears as their pods close and the room caves in around them
(AND THIS IS WHERE IT SHOULD'VE ENDED BECAUSE IT WAS ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD UP TO THIS POINT BUT HERE WE GO)
Scene 10: Where Do Dream Eaters Come From?
Player and Chirithy are floating in a white void alongside all of the other Dandelions that were trapped in the Data Daybreak Town and their Chirithies. Some of them are familiar faces, like the "My friends aren't my power" kid and the squad of four kids that Player had befriended and their ex-teammate. As Player awakens, they watch these sleeping Dandelions revert to the forms of hearts that are then eaten by those Chirithies, transforming them into the Spirits seen in Dream Drop Distance
Player's Chirithy explains that because Chirithies are bonded to their Keyblade wielder's heart, they take on a state to match their wielder. If the wielder dies, so do they. And if the wielder falls into a deep sleep, they take on a stronger form to protect it
Contrary to what the fandom is saying, NO, Spirits aren't dead Keykids. Rather, the Chirithies are simply taking their sleeping hearts into their bodies and transforming into a stronger form to keep them safe. This is only my assumption, but I would assume that this is possible since they don't technically have bodies anyway, having been digitized. Therefore, their body-less hearts would otherwise have been sent directly to sleep with no protection, hence the Chirithies moving in
Now, this still doesn't make sense regarding Dream Drop Distance by overriding the lore that all Dream Eaters are simply the form that Darkness takes in Sleeping Worlds, which made sense from a metaphorical perspective of "you sleep at night which is dark, so dreams are darkness and both good and bad dreams are made of the same stuff." And also you can totally craft Spirits and have them explode if they take too much damage, all with zero indication that a keykid heart was involved in the creation process or released on destruction, but whatever, let's just move on
Player asks if this is what will happen to them and their Chirithy, and Chirithy responds that they have a choice. If Player doesn't want to go to sleep, then their heart will be broken down and reconstructed as an entirely new heart to live a new life
Smash cut to an unfamiliar town where a woman in purple with black hair and silver eyes hand over what is obviously a baby Xehanort to a hunched figure in a blue cloak, holding a cane. She sobs. Cut again to the figure in blue holding baby Xehanort standing on Destiny Islands' play island. Cut once more and Xehanort is now his teenage self from Dark Road on the beach of the play island. The figure in blue is standing on the ledge behind him, and as Xehanort stands up to walk to the shoreline, the figure collapses onto the ground. Xehanort does not notice this. Two more cuts, this time to the day that Xehanort found himself in Scala ad Caelum and a chess match with Eraqus
We return to Player, who closes their eyes peacefully and decided to move on to another life. Chirithy is confused, but goes in for a final hug as both of them dissolve into light, Player's heart flying off into the white void
The implication of all of this being that not only did Player reincarnate as Xehanort, introducing reincarnation into a series that it has never been a part of and overcomplicating the lore even worse, but that Xehanort isn't even from Destiny Islands in the first place, invalidating nearly all of his character motivation from the series
This is so bad that it deserves its own post though, so we're moving on
Credits Roll: Scenes From the Game Play Over It
Post Credits: Aftermath
We find our scene in a vast expanse of water, littered with debris. A lone lifeboat floats amongst the rubble. Some houses from Daybreak Town can be seen partially submerged, setting this after its destruction. The lifeboat comes to a stop and opens up, revealing Ephemer's silhouette. He looks around
It's unclear why Ephemer seems to have landed so far back in the past compared to the others, though some people have noted that he also doesn't appear to have lost his body, so it could be that his pod simply didn't activate (note how we only saw it close, not disappear into light like Lauriam and crew's) and that Ephemer didn't time travel at all but simply rode out the destruction of Daybreak Town inside the lifeboat
We see a rendition of the scene from KH2 where Diablo the raven brings Maleficent's cloak to the three fairies and she revives, showing that this scene was, indeed, her coming back from her time travel adventure
Lauriam wakes up in the field of flowers from Dwarf Woodlands, and looks confused and startled as a white butterfly flits about him. The flowers clearly a nod to his element among the Organization
Elrena is shown still unconscious along the cliffs that lead to Maleficent's castle in Enchanted Dominion. Much like Lauriam, her element is represented in the thunderstorm that rages around her
Ventus is shown unconscious in the Keyblade Graveyard, and a silhouette approaches him. Many believe this to be Xehanort finding him, though as of now the figure's identity is unconfirmed
We cut to a scene of Luxu dragging the black box behind him in the Keyblade Graveyard, much like a certain scene from the end of Back Cover. However, this time the scene continues and he removes his hood to reveal Brain's face. The implication here is that after Scene 4 above, Luxu took Brain's body as the first of many that he would steal to prolong his own life. This is why neither of them are seen when Ephemer and Skuld emerge from the datascape; Luxu has already taken Brain's body for his own and made his escape to survive the destruction of the world with the black box
We get a title card, but are treated to one final scene. Brain wakes up (sans hat) in the same town that we saw baby Xehanort being given away in. A hooded figure in strange garb arrives, holding Brain's hat, and asks if he is Brain. At Brain's confirmation, the figure returns the hat and introduces themself as Sigurd (a Norse mythology name much like the other Scala ad Caelum characters so far). They seem to have been waiting for Brain and report that they found him into an earpiece of sorts
Brain is understandably confused, and Sigurd explains that they know of the Brain who escaped Daybreak Town's destruction and that he would appear in this spot on this day. Brain panics, realizing that he doesn't know where any of his seven other friends are and if they made it to safety. Sigurd tells Brain that he's the only one who made it to this spot. Brain, utterly crushed that all of his friends have seemingly perished, listlessly follows Sigurd as Sigurd leads him to their headquarters
On the way there, however, something catches Brain's eye. He sprints to the fountain and looks up at something that's not in the frame in shock. Sigurd explains that this is a statue of this town, Scala ad Caelum’s founder (so Xehanort's actually from Scala...) and the first ever Keyblade Master, Master Ephemer. The camera pans up to show the statue of Ephemer as we know him holding the Master Keeper Keyblade that he got from Brain
Brain is overcome with emotions, and through his tears states that he knows exactly who that is. That's his best friend, and he's so proud of him for rebuilding
This is just my speculation, but what I believe is going on in the final scene with Brain is that when Luxu took his body, he ejected Brain's heart from it. A lifeboat wasn't used up, so Luxu must have either used time travel on his own to send Brain's heart to the future or simply left Brain's heart stranded and waiting in the ruins of Daybreak Town. This would let Luxu have his body, but Brain's stranded heart could make a new one with the proper resources in the future like the other hearts sent via the pods. That's what I think the focus on the hat is about. Luxu is shown without it after he takes Brain's body, and Sigurd has it. So my assumption would be that the hat was the medium used to bring Brain's body back like Maleficent's cloak was for her. It’s possible that Luxu set this up, but I can’t confirm. As for the memories, I couldn't say
I would also speculate that this scene takes place a decent amount of time before Dark Road, since Eraqus has been implied to be a descendant of Brain due to their similar looks. If Brain is in Scala ad Caelum in the past, then he could easily be the grandfather that Eraqus mentioned
My final bit of speculation is that the reason Sigurd and crew know who Brain is is because Ephemer, the founder of Scala ad Caelum and the inheritor of the Book of Prophecies, likely saw when Brain would emerge and set up a system to take care of him, knowing that he wouldn't survive to see him again
Apologies for the length, the ending was 40 minutes long. But, hopefully, I've made it clear which scenes are connected to which and what is actually happening. If it wasn't actually clear, there's two flashback sequences involving the Master of Masters that take place before KHx, the scenes in the data and real lifeboat rooms are running concurrently with each other (Brain and Luxu are having their conversation at the same time as Player is being possessed by the Darknesses, etc.) and everything else is roughly chronological with the exception of the scenes where Maleficent, Lauriam, Elrena, and Ven are revived after time traveling. Lauriam, Elrena, and Ven's scenes all must take place sometime before or around BBS (Lauriam and Elrena for their ages to match up, Ven because he's in BBS). Maleficent's is at the beginning of KH2
#kingdom hearts#khux#khux spoilers#anon asks#liz answers#between the amount it cuts around and the entirety of scene 10 which is really my only problem area i can see why you'd be confused#i think this would actually be a decent ending without scene 10 but scene 10 is SO BAD#it leaves such a bad taste in your mouth for the ENTIRE FRANCHISE that it ends up bringing literally everything else down with it
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Reader x Rhys - Traitor.
hi! i was thinking a bat boi x reader where the reader ”betrays” them but the reader is doing it to save the night court (they don’t know that until later tho) and the reader is exiled from the night court before the inner circle realises the reader did it to save them <3 (you can pick the bat boi :)
Reader is a double agent - originally from Autumn court. The reader has allied themselves with the Night court after Autumn and Hybern began working together. Reader still poses as an Autumn court informant to Beron.
This was a challenge for me, thank you for that!
They would be their own downfall. You knew they would do absolutely anything to protect Velaris and its citizens. Amren was the only one who seemed to be on your side regarding the risky method. Rhys outright refused.
Which was why you had to pave the way to allow Beron's army in. Or, at least make them all think that was what you'd done. You spent weeks forging your plan, heart sinking with every tough decision to be made. Which buildings would be sacrificed, how to get the people of the city out without giving yourself away.
Beron would be pissed off, but he wouldn't dare to actually march his army into Velaris. You had fed him enough information to make him hesitate at that idea. Plus, they were busy ruining the Summer court. But you doubted that the King of Hybern knew that. Beron liked to keep his soldiers tame and under his rule by allowing them free reign after battles. So you waited on your informants to get back to you to confirm. Like a spider waiting for it's trap to be set.
If the king thought his own ally in the Autumn court had already sacked Velaris, he wouldn't make the stop there. He didn't want to ruin his own pride, wasting his first grand attack on a measly city that was already losing their battle. He would continue for the next city down the line that hadn't been trifled with yet.
It was a risk and you knew it - playing the king's arrogance.
So you covered all your bases, and you set fires. Got yourself the biggest Illusion spell you could find. A massive one that had cost you half your bank account for all the materials you needed to create it. Your lips trembled as you said the enchantment over the potion. You told yourself it would work. It had to.
You packed your bag and tightened it on your back before you set off.
Hurting Rhys would be the hardest part. You debated the plan all together because of the fracture it would cause. But you knew it was the only way to keep him safe from his need to protect his home. The city he built from the ground up. You tried to push those thoughts away until the day of your heist. Which seemed to come around much too soon.
You led Rhys and Azriel far out of Velaris the hour before the potion was to be set off. You spun them a story of scouts watching from the south. You weren't even halfway to your destination when the screams started, a loud cracking sound ringing out over the land. The potions had worked. Your face went pale at Rhy's rage filled gaze. The hurt and devastation there. You didn't doubt the scene in the city looked much worse than you knew it to be.
Rhys grabbed you by the wing and tugged you down forcefully. It was not what you were expecting, you thought his first move would be to use his power to make you paralyzed. You felt those claws lurking, but they seemed to hesitate. You spun, and were able to kick his hand off of you before you hit the ground with him. Azriel held him back, not understanding fully what you'd done.
Az removed his hand once Rhys had filled him in, mentally speaking to his brother. A flash of shock and hurt lingered there even after Rhys told him. Shame built in your gut. You knew you weren't betraying them. You kept your shields up though, they had to think you would do such a thing. It would make the fight more believable to the king. It would force him away from Velaris.
"Get out of this territory. Now. Do not come back." Rhys growled, watching the fake army invade his home. His chest heaved, those claws digging lightly at your shields. Perhaps he was afraid to go against someone he trained in the Daemati ways. You dared not open your mind to him.
"Rhys I-" You began, stopping when he gave you the iciest glare you'd ever seen.
His eyes were alight with rage. The trees seemed to quiver from the dark power that rushed to him. He pointed a finger at you, a curse. "Leave. Now." The command made your knees shake. Azriel looked away in shame. "There will be no second chances." He ground out. You could nearly hear his teeth clamping together. Holding himself back.
You could hear Cassian calling orders far in the distance. Good, the scramble and panic would make the show more believable. The ships would be visible any second if your inside information was to be believed.
Happiness for the safety of the city was your first reason for tears, the next was Fear. Fear settled in your gut, not moving no matter how much you re assured yourself. Not fear for Velaris, but for own alliances with any court. There would be a hit out for you, betraying Beron and the King and potentially Rhys depending how angry he would be about your Illusion spell.
Those ships would surely be paying a visit to Beron after seeing his forces attacking without the order to do so. You backed away from Rhys slowly, like he was a wild animal. "Rhys, come on. We need to help." Azriel placed a hand on his shoulder to break him out of the rage filled trance.
Rhy's last glance to you was something like death itself. You shuddered, and bit the inside of your cheek to keep from telling him the truth. The fact he would believe that you would double cross him stung a bit. But you knew enough of the bad blood between Night and Autumn that you weren't incredibly offended. He shook his head ever so slightly. Disgust, before turning away.
They took off together, quickly flying back to Velaris while the king's dark sails fired a few cannon shots into the docks, but kept sailing. Your hope soared at the sight of their departure. Watching those sails turn direction, then keep going. You could have cheered.
Your plan wasn't done yet. You took off to Day court. The potions in your bag secure and ready.
+
When Rhys landed in his city the ground beneath him cracked. The Autumn court soldiers kept marching around him. Cassian joined him, assessing the threat that did not attack. Rhys reached out a mental hand to the area and found there was nothing to latch on to. Nothing to torment for information. Cassian was at a loss as well, and reached out a hand to a solider.
Only for it to break and slide through his fingers like water. His blood ran cold. "Fuck." Rhys breathed, utterly still. They looked to each other, then Rhys blanched in horror - "I promised them death." He whispered, voice hoarse. Cassian's eyes went wide, and they shot into the air at the same time.
+
Overlooking Day court, you heard Rhys approaching before you saw him.
"They're all going to die." You said, voice trembling. You watched the scene below as it unfolded. The ships docked one after another, terrible dark forces lurched into the city. Overwhelming the guards and front linemen.
"I'm sorry." He said. "We can help. I can help. I'm sorry." He said again, shame washing over his face. "I owe you everything."
Your heart soared at the words, despite the destruction below. "Can you get the Illyrians here to help?" You nodded toward the front that pushed through. The streets already stained with blood and littered with bodies from both sides.
Rhys nodded, and nodded to Azriel behind him. The spy curled his shadows around himself and winnowed away, off to summon the Illyrians. Cassian had a wide grin on his face, and stretched his wings, ready to take flight down to the city and help. His siphons thrummed with anticipation.
Rhys gave him a nod as well, and he took off. The screams and clash of steel below quieted, then roared back to life with another wave of Summer court forces hitting the enemy lines.
Rhys sighed, his dark power curling around the hillside. "I am beyond words with you. I'm pissed, but I'm... awestruck." He took your hand without looking, running a thumb over apologetically. As if he was asking permission. You squeezed back, then gave him a soft smile.
"Let's get to work." You dropped your bag to the ground and pulled out two more potions. You handed them to him, then pulled your blade from its sheathe.
Rhys hummed in approval at the sight of your handiwork. He held up the dark liquid and admired it. "Remind me to give you a raise." He said, shaking the glass. You held his hand in place before he could shake it again. The sparkles from the enchanted sand inside swirled. "You're going to get me a new house. And a raise." You took the bottle from him, and winked. You leapt down the slope and into the air, flying faster when you heard his laugh gaining on you.
A promise of violence against the King's army was laced with that laugh. An underlying darkness. You smiled wickedly and tossed your concoction to the ground far below. Setting your spellbound illusions free.
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Sorry but what exactly is up with the bad batch arc? I've heard people talk about the issues with echo's white skin but I haven't heard that many bad things about the arc itself? (ik you said you don't want to be negative on your blog so I would absolutely understand if you didn't answer this ask)
Oooooooooooh boy. Well I just had a long, long, LONG rant about it with someone, but I guess I’ve got an excuse to put all of my points onto a post and talk about it publicly now that I got an ask x) I’ll keep it under the cut so I don’t throw my salt in people’s face. I really don’t want to upset people who love that arc - it has redeeming qualities, but overall it pisses me off so much for so many reasons. So here:
The first issue is obviously two members of the Bad Batch (minus Echo) being being just about the furthest thing from maori no matter how much you're willing to stretch it.
Like... yeah, nah. I wouldn’t even accept Crosshair and Tech (grey haired guy and goggles guy) as Jango’s natural biological sons, nevermind as his clones.
The problem is that their different appearances are justified by them being described simply as clones with desirable mutations (i.e superpowers). But why the hell did the creators have to change their appearances for that to be a thing? How does that correlate? Sure, the concept of clones with different faces is interesting, except... no, no it’s not, and I’m gonna rant about it in a few secs. But basically it's like they thought giving them different faces would be a good substitute for having different personalities (another thing I’ll come back to). If they really wanted to have buff clones with super eyesight or whatnot they could have just done that, without making them lose what little melanin the lighting of the show had allowed the other Clones to keep.
But the gigantic problem is... showing that the "regular" clones have VERY distinct identities despite their identical faces has been one of the themes of the show from episode 1. Literally, the first episode of TCW has Yoda taking time out of a mission with galactic stakes to tell the three clones he’s with (who tell him they’re all the same because they have the same faces) that they’re wrong, and that they’re very different in the Force, that their appearance doesn’t matter, that they’re all equally unique and important, and he lists all of their individual skills, strengths and weaknesses.
And it’s not just me being bothered by that, here’s a post by @cacodaemonia saying the same thing.
Introducing the Bad Batch as "unique" clones who are "different" and "not like their brothers" because they have different faces and skills completely breaks that theme of the show!! Because the entire point of the Clones in TCW is that their faces don't matter, they ARE unique!
(Plus the Bad Batch’s character designs are so cliche and uninspired it’s just laughable to try and justify bleaching their freaking skin for the sake of visual diversity.
This took like 10 seconds. I found the first guy by literally googling “soldier movies,” and the other two are Team Fortress characters that look a LOT like Wrecker and Crosshair. One is “Heavy” and one is “Sniper” lmao.
And behold:
The above picture is a Team Fortress reference that I found just by looking up “bad batch clone wars,” so I’m not the only person who sees it.)
And the batchers don't even have personalities to justify calling them unique! They have no character traits beyond the most cliché american soldier tropes ever. We have a token loner sniper, a token "smart tech guy" who knows everything from xenoanthropology to biology to Separatist computers to sound waves to encryption, a token Badass Brooding Leader and a token “dumb muscle guy.”
I dare anyone to find more about their personalities than this:
- Crosshair is the perpetually grumpy sniper who looks down on "regs,”
- Wrecker likes to blow up stuff and doesn't like heights,
- Hunter is the leader and is friends with Cody,
- Tech is smart doesn't trust Echo.
That’s it, that’s literally it. Four episodes about them and that's all we get. These character tropes are literally the least inventive ever. FFS, Hunter even has a freaking KNIFE! Not a vibroblade, mind you, like in kriffing Star Wars. A knife. Against metal droids. Why. They couldn’t make this more of an american-war-movies cliché fest if they tried. (And sure, he can feel electromagnetic waves so maybe it does make sense for him not to carry a vibroblade and maybe this is nitpicking, but he looks like a ripoff of a Predator character and it pisses me off).
Another thing is that when you introduce characters you have to make them likable - and them despising the normal Clones is a terrible way to do that! And they don't even grow from that because at the end of the 4 episodes arc they just see Rex as not bad "for a reg" and they see Echo as no longer a reg, and both of these things are infuriating!
The worst thing imo is that Echo then becomes part of them (and irreparably loses his melanin in the process, uuuuuuuuugh) when there is nothing to justify this.
The dialogue goes like this:
ECHO: You coming?
TECH: Not really our thing.
CROSSHAIR: Accolades.
WRECKER: Yeah, we're just in it for the thrill. Yo!
HUNTER: You sure it's your thing?
ECHO: What do you mean?
HUNTER: Your path is different. Like ours. If you ever feel like you don't fit in with them, well, find us.
(they leave)
REX: Those are some of the finest troopers I've ever fought alongside. Echo. You and I go way back. If that's where you feel your place is, then that's where you belong.
Echo doesn't feel like he belongs anymore, okay, but why would he feel like he belongs with the assholes who up to the last five minutes of the mission thought he was probably a traitor, and also verbally expressed that he was not worth saving?? In all of the arc, Echo himself never voices that he feels he’s not ‘like the other Clones’ anymore and that he feels it’s a problem. His relationship with Rex immediately picks up where they left things off - the first thing he does upon being lucid again for the first in over a year is cracking a joke for Rex’s benefit.
Why would Echo feel like he doesn’t belong in the 501st anymore, when we don't even see him interacting with anyone from his past life except for Rex and Anakin (who are both extremely very supportive of him)?? If there had been one scene of a “regular” Clone (ugh) looking at him with horror and disgust or something, or just Kix and Jesse cracking jokes with Echo awkwardly standing by the side not getting it, I could forgive the show trying to make it feel like he has an identity crisis, but this was so shallow!
The only thing that makes Echo and the Bad Batch’s experiences similar is that they *look* different. It’s so against the themes of the Clones I’m seething just from thinking about it. And what the hell? Echo ALREADY didn’t fit in. That was the WHOLE POINT of Domino Squad. They didn’t fit in because they thought they were better than anyone else because they had trouble getting along with their brothers, so obviously it had to be their brothers’ fault (ahem, Bad Batch?). And you know what happened? Domino Squad OVERCAME that. And Echo and Fives still didn’t “fit in” because their personalities were unique and creative, and they became ARC Troopers because Cody, Rex and the Jedi VALUED THEM FOR PRECISELY THAT. Echo having new and unique skills and a modified appearance is the most bs justification for him feeling like he doesn’t belong!!
And that brings me to my biggest issue: Rex telling Echo the bad batch are some of the best troopers he's ever met. I'm sorry, based on WHAT? What Rex values above everything is loyalty and brotherhood, and the Bad Batch DOESN'T DISPLAY ANY OF THAT. We never see them even expressing concern for each other! Wrecker treats saving Cody’s life like a trivial issue, because it’s just ‘sO eAsY’ for him, and beyond that we never see them supporting each other or genuinely expressing affection for each other beyond boasting about each other’s skills...
Sure they can destroy a lot of droids, but they're dismissive of Rex's brothers, and the entire Umbara arc and this arc showed what he thought of that. They keep saying things like "not bad for a reg,” don't show any trust in Rex's skills or experience (even though they can't have been fighting in the war for more than a year and a half when he’s been there from the beginning, and he outranks all of them), they are essentially guerilla fighters which has only minimal value in a galactic war, and they never grow beyond their views of what regs are, and can and can’t do.
None of that should make them good troopers in Rex's book. Going back to Echo not fitting in, remember who taught the Domino Squad the importance of seeing all of your brothers as important and equally valuable? Shaak Ti, true, but more importantly? 99! The guy the Bad Batch are named after. He did have value and was important and was no less of a trooper than his brothers, even though his mutations made him LESS powerful, not more. (And btw, just from a writing standpoint, the batchers don’t have any weaknesses, which is shit.) Cody and Rex mourned 99 as a true soldier even though it wasn’t his sacrifice that brought them victory (which would have implied that he had value as a soldier and a brother because he saved them, as opposed to him having that value intrinsically), because that’s what a fine trooper is to them. A BROTHER first a foremost, someone altruistic, brave and loyal. The Bad Batch distort the meaning of 99's character with their behavior. They’re not altruistic, their bravery is mitigated by the fact that they’re freaking invincible, so of course they take risks (again, see Wrecker saving Cody without a care because it’s easy to him, as opposed to Rex being ready to run into a burning ship about to explode because his brother is in there, and having to be physically dragged away). The Bad Batch denigrate their brothers for being less skilled, thinking their own abilities make them unique somehow, when 99 could barely fight and was still the one who taught Hevy about being a good soldier.
And again the batchers don't grow from that. Which is all the more frustrating because the original ending didn’t have Echo joining them, from what I remember of the unfinished episodes, and the arc actually ended with them receiving their medals in front of regular troopers who cheer for them, as opposed to them smugly ostracizing themselves and dismissing the ceremony as trivial and meaningless. (original ending vs s7 ending: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab1eCfzKamw)
It’s so annoying. Do you know what characters never had an entire arc dedicated to them and still have far more personality and more interesting designs and more symbolic weight??
Jesse, for starters. Kix. Dogma. Cut. Slick. Keeli. Ponds. Rys, Jek and Thire. Commander Doom. Commander Fox. Wolffe. Hevy. Hardcase.
Cody was a more interesting character just in his RotS appearances.
Waxer and Boil had one episode about them and then only two cameos plus Waxer’s death, and they’re still some of the most memorable, beloved Clones of the whole show. And Boil was grouchy and prejudiced like Crosshair, but he has so much growth that we could make a whole thread about it.
I'd say the last problem with the Bad Batch is that it has cash grabbing money hungry vibes. Different faces are more marketable, cliché personalities are more toy-friendly, and it's basically a big ad for the Bad Batch series. And they throw Echo in the Batch at the end for bs reasons (again, it wasn’t in the original ep from what I remember) and they tease Cody in the show to make sure fans will still watch even if they notice the lack of soul. And less melanin sells more at Disney apparently.
So that’s my whole pissed rant.
#the bad batch#bad batch#ask#anonymous#meta#my meta#more like me ranting#long post#sw talk#anti bad batch#i'm sorry - please don't read if you like them#i don't want anyone getting upset over this#i'm really not out to tell people who enjoy them that they're wrong#there are tons of cool moments and compelling ideas for fanfics for one thing#it's just that I'd been thinking about this for *ages* and i really needed to let it out#crosshair#echo#tech#hunter#wrecker
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Prompt: fake realtionahip/marriage, whoever you like!
Ooohoho! This has been chilling as a draft for ages, now I have completed it. *mildly evil laughter*
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The funny thing about Geralt, Jaskier thought as he did up the buttons on his best doublet, was that he really didn’t lie. He said things that weren’t true, but they were usually things he believed, or thought he believed because he was tired or grumpy. Sometimes he told half truths. He didn’t lie though.
It wasn’t even as if he didn’t have a poker face, Geralt’s face was all poker face, he just hated lying. Normally it wasn’t an issue, but tonight, Jaskier reflected, it wouldn’t be ideal.
Jaskier had heard through some whispered words at a pub that a bunch of Nilfgaardian nobles were having a gala, and the temptation of finding out what political secrets they could was two strong for their odd little family. So Geralt and Jaskier were going undercover.
There had been quite a bit of debate about that. Jaskier was obviously going. He’d grown his hair longer and had a bit of scruff going, and to be frank, all a bard really needed to disguise themselves was a new name, people saw the clothing and heard the music, but rarely remembered the face. Yennefer would have been the ideal partner in crime except for a crucial thing.
When Yennefer had been changed by magic, her eyes had been left the same. Somehow, the transformation had solidified them, and no spell would change them. Her eyes were too distinctive, and so she would stay behind with Ciri. That left Geralt, and since the ball was only for the nobility, he would be the fiance of Julian Pankratz, Viscount de Lettenhove.
Damn.
See, Geralt didn’t lie, and that was bad enough. Jaskier wouldn’t be able to rely on Yennefer’s in-depth knowledge of the nobility and that was worse. Worst of all though, was the fact that Jaskier would have to spend a night full of wine and dancing pretending to be in love with, and engaged to, Geralt. Who he loved.
And who had, not three months ago, blamed Jaskier for every bad thing in life.
Since then Geralt had caught up with him half-way down the mountain and there had been some grumbled words about how Jaskier ‘wasn’t actually, exactly, a total curse’. Not a glowing review, but then Cintra had fallen, and they had Cirilla and they’d found a wounded Yennefer and it had all gotten so very busy.
Jaskier cast a last look in the mirror as the door to his room creaked open. He turned, expecting Geralt, but it was Yennefer.
“I suppose,” she said, eyeing him. “That this is as good as you get.” It could have been said cruelly. A year ago it would have been. Now, though, the words were fond.
“I like the kohl, it goes well with the wrinkles at your eyes,” she winked. He smiled. There were no more wrinkles now than had been twenty years ago, and they both knew it.
“I wasn’t sure about the eyeliner,” Jaskier said, trying to sound haughty. “Overdramatic eye looks are your thing.”
Yennefer chuckled and sat on the end of the bed. “A tiny smudge of eyeliner is hardly overdramatic.” She studied him approvingly, then looked at him. Her expression was frighteningly soft.
“Have you told him that you love him?”
“Never,” Jaskier said, fiving his cravat in the mirror.
“Why ever not?”
“It would only be the mountain all over again,” Jaskier sighed. “I tried, you know. I spent years trying, and then on the mountain, I thought I was being clear...”
“What did you say?”
“I asked him to leave it all, just for a little while, with me. I thought we could go to the coast.”
“The coast,” Yennefer said from her spot on the bed. “As in Lettenhove? You wanted to show him where you grew up?”
“Partially. I could explain the immortality business easier if he met my sister, but mostly I just thought it would be peaceful.”
Yennefer snorted. “With Geralt? Peaceful? He’d spend the whole time fighting drowners and telling you not to write about mermaids because they’re vicious.”
Jaskier smiled wanly. “That’s pretty peaceful for him.”
“But he said no?”
“He didn’t say anything,” Jaskier said. “Then he, well, you know, he spent the night in your tent.”
“Ah,” Yennefer said. “For what it’s worth, I hate that it happened too.”
“He doesn’t though!” Jaskier cried, whirling around to face her. “He wants it to happen again! And you! You don’t want him but he wants you while I want him!” The frustration of the whole situation and nerves for what was to come were overwhelming. “And you’re here, trying to help me,” he said more quietly. “Why?”
“Because I like you,” Yennefer said, simply, standing from the bed. “And I like him. I also never, ever want to kiss him again. The djinn is sitting, somewhere in my chest, telling me I love him, but the feeling is...sick. It feels like love, as well as I can remember, but it’s poisoned and twisted and I want no part in it.”
Her purple eyes pinned Jaskier to the floor.
“And that poison pales in comparison to how much you love him. He deserves that.”
She swept out the door, tossing a “Sort it out,” over her shoulder.
Well.
The next knock at the door was Geralt, Ciri in tow. Jaskier hoped the witcher hadn’t heard any part of his and Yennefer’s conversation, but he suspected that no one overheard conversations that Yen didn’t want them too.
“Dandelion!” Ciri said, leaping at him and using the name she’d first met him under. “You look nice! Like a prince in one of your stories!”
Jaskier blushed and thanked her quietly as he scooped her up and tossed her, laughing, onto the bed.
He looked at Geralt for his opinion.
Oh he looked so good too. Yennefer had charmed him so that anyone else would see a different man in Geralt’s place, but to Jaskier he looked just the same. But he was wearing white.
A white chemise, the collar and cuffs with fine red embroidery, with a cream colored cape, half length so it fell just to Geralt’s hips. It was embroidered too, green and pink and so many other colors, despite being overall still mostly cream. The pants were the same creamy fabric with a stripe down each side. Dark boots and a wide, decorative, dark belt completed the look.
“Wow,” Jaskier said.
“Rivian traditional clothing,” Geralt muttered.
“I thought you’d hardly actually been to Rivia,” Jaskier said,.It was a better choice than the other thoughts in his head, which were half-formed screams about how absolutely skin tight those pants were.
“I haven’t been, but my...character is.”
“Right,” Jaskier said, dragging his eyes above Geralt’s shoulders. “My fiance, Ludomir of Rivia.”
Geralt said nothing.
Jaskier kicked himself for mentioning the fiance thing.
“We should go,” he said.
And they went.
The lord’s castle was small, as castles go, and the guards at the gate didn’t even bother to check their invitations. With all the other lords and ladies streaming past, no one would guess that the pair were out of place. Jaskier and Geralt enterred the ballroom and Jaskier felt his stomach drop straight through to his shoes.
The walls were positively lined with Nilfgaardian soldiers. Geralt’s shoulders stiffened too, but they steered themselves to a feast table as if nothing was wrong.
It took them almost a full circle of the tables to find the two little cards for ‘Viscount de Lettenhove’ and ‘Guest’. Getting onto the guest list had been laughably easy, and Jaskier just sent up a silent prayer of thanks that the stupid title was finally useful for something.
They sat in their places and guests populated the seats around them. There was a lady next to Jaskier who already smelled of the strongly alcoholic sherry that was being served. Her hair, probably a wig towered, and was strung all over with so many pearls and little tiny golden ornaments that when she stepped outside she must surely be attacked by magpies.
“My lady,” Jaskier said, as chivalrous as he could around a mouthful of her rose perfume. “I’m afraid we haven’t had a chance to be introduced.”
“Oooh,” she giggled, “You’re sweet, I’m Dame Au’Vigne, and I can see by your card that you are the Viscount de Lettenhove, I knew your father.”
Yes, Jaskier thought. I remember, he turned down your proposal. Jaskier had been a lad then, barely eight years old, but he remembered through a child’s eyes a mountain of lace and perfume who had offered to marry his father while actually at his mother’s funeral.
“It’s a pleasure,” he said. Heinous bitch, he thought. He remembered rumors too, which are always a bard’s stock and trade, that Dame Au’Vigne’s husbands were always wealthy, usually handsome, and all of them had shockingly short lifespans.
Rumor also had it that she was backing Nilfgaard financially and had been playing the shipping stock with insider knowledge of their movements. A very good person to be seated next to tonight.
“May I introduce my fiance, Ludomir of Rivia,” Jaskier said, gesturing to Geralt. Geralt nodded and hummed, somewhat politely.
“How handsome,” Dame Au’Vigne stage whispered. “Where ever did you find him?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Jaskier said.
The lord of the castle stood up and gave a droning speech. It was full of euphemisms about ‘upholding standards’ and ‘fostering strong relations’ that boiled down to ‘I’m an untrustworthy bastard who believes that allowing the deaths of my people en masse is fine so long as I make money.’ It was depressing, too, as Jaskier looked around the ballroom to see so many people nodding in agreement.
Traitors and bastards, the lot of them.
Geralt’s face hadn’t changed even an inch.
“So,” Dame Au’Vigne said as the appetizer course was served. “You two aren’t exactly in a honeymoon phase, are you?”
And she was right, for a couple, newly engaged, Jaskier and Geralt hadn’t acted the part yet at all.
“I’m afraid,” Jaskier said, inventing wildly. “That we’re both just a touch nervous, the engagement is so new, you see, and this is our first event,” he took Geralt’s hand, above the table, so Dame Au’Vigne could see. “As a couple.”
“Oh how sweet,” she said airily. “You know, they’ll have dancing between the courses, it’ll be a great way for you to wet your social feet. Sir Erdin and the lady in the lavender dress,” she pointed across the ballroom. “They’re newly engaged as well.” She lowered her voice.
“Sir Erdin is very supportive of the cause, word has it he’s in with the very inner circle,” Dame Au’Vigne giggled, as if being in the inner circle of a murderous group of intruders was as delightful as a recent engagement.
“How interesting!” Jaskier said, affecting a jealous and impressed tone. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Geralt’s eyebrow twitch, the way it did when he was listening hard.
“Oh yes,” Dame Au’Vigne said. “And Lord Snapcase, in the corner, he...” and she went on, was the marvelous thing, she couldn’t seem to help herself but gossip about everyone. And she had all these details about how they were helping ‘the cause’. Destiny must have finally decided to throw Jaskier and Geralt a bone.
Then the appetizer course was finished and Jaskier felt much less lucky. Dame Au’Vigne was ushering him and Geralt out of their seats to dance. It wasn’t one of the quick, hopping around, switching partners dances either. No, the band seemed insistent on only slow, romantic music.
Awkwardly, Geralt slid one large hand around Jaskier’s waist and they turned in slow circles on the dance floor. The witcher’s face looked like a thunderclap.
“Try and look like you’re having fun, darling,” Jaskier said. Please don’t look at me as though holding me is torture, his inner self begged.
“Hmmm,” Geralt said. Jaskier leaned in.
“Really dear heart,” he leaned in even closer, lips almost touching Geralt’s ear. “People are going to suspect something,” he said in the barest of whispers.
“Let them,” Geralt hissed back in the same fashion. “We’ve got the information, we can leave.”
Jaskier, keeping up appearances, tossed his head back and let out a delighted shriek of laughter, as if Geralt had just told him a joke or, perhaps, made a wonderfully indecent proposal.
“Later, perhaps,” he said, stage-whispering for the sake of those around them. Leaning in again he whispered for real, “We can’t leave until the party’s over, no one else will, they’d send some of those soldiers after us for sure.”
The music changed, and Geralt and Jaskier’s slow circles changed speed with it.
Geralt hissed in his ear again, “I don’t see why I had to be your,” this close Jaskier could see Geralt’s jaw working with distaste. “Lover.”
“Fiance,” Jaskier said, trying not to let his heart sink. It couldn’t possibly go any lower. “There’s a difference.”
They said no more to each other, and after the second dance, declined the third to sit back at their seats and await the arrival of the soup course.
The man sat beside Geralt was some old military man, mostly mustache and the rest of him was a rather musty and very old fashioned uniform. It had gold braid and a colonel’s insignia. The hat that sat next to his chair had a plume.
He leaned over to Geralt and said, rather loudly, in a voice that implied tone deafness, to both volume and social situations, “Just marrying him for the money, eh?”
People to both sides of Jaskier and Geralt looked around. Dame Au’Vigne looked at them askance.
“Hmmm,” Geralt said. It was a negative answer to the colonel’s question, but the man didn’t take it as such.
“Often is the way,” the man nearly bellowed. “My missus hated me right up to the day she died.”
Jaskier curled in on himself. The role of Viscount wasn’t a big one, mostly administrative and, these days, completed by his sister Rowena, who was better at sitting behind a desk. Still, argued a battered part of his long ago but still proper upbringing. The name of Pankratz was being dragged through the mud. Lots of these people would know the name too, these sour, vindictive, unpleasant, murderous people. And they’d know the gossip, would have taken part in the gossip about ‘Young Julian running off to be a bard,’ (this generally said with the same tone as is usually leant to slave trader) and how ‘he’ll never find a good marriage now,’ how he was ‘a disgrace to the name.’
And here was their long awaited confirmation. Jaskier-Julian, couldn’t find a good marriage, was being wed only for his money. Of course, more than half the pairings here were only in it for the money, but to have it said, so loudly too, and before the wedding had even happened, it was social condemnation.
Jaskier looked down at the table cloth, his face hot. He’d faced social condemnation before, of course, he’d survive. What hurt was that Geralt wasn’t really protesting, Geralt couldn’t even pretend to like Jaskier, not for a single evening. Twenty years he’d done a good enough job of acting to convince even Jaskier, mostly, apart from the punches and the insults and...maybe Jaskier had been a little blind to the truth but still.
It was ruining their cover though, so he protested quietly. “Not just for the money,” he said, patting Geralt’s hand where one fist wrapped around his goblet. “My fiance is just shy, that’s all.”
The damage was already done, but the old colonel hiccupped. “Well lad,” he said, giving Geralt a slap on the back. “This ale’s pretty good so drink up. Got me through three years of happy marriage, strong ale did.” The man took a slug of his own drink. “And fourty seven more unhappy years.” He guffawed hugely and unpleasantly, little drops of ale flinging from his mustache.
Wherever the soul of the unpleasant man’s dead wife was, Jaskier felt sure she was happy to be away from this miserable old drunk.
Geralt, however, was looking at Jaskier. Their eyes met. Jaskier knew he probably looked as hunted as he felt, and his cheeks were probably still burning from the embarassment. Still, it seemed as though Geralt was about to say something. His golden eyes were full of emotion, but Jaskier couldn’t parse out what kind.
Whatever kind it was, it caused Geralt to take the colonel’s advice and drink like there was no tomorrow.
Great. Jaskier had driven his companion to drinking.
He felt a little like doing so himself.
The soup course was good, hot and savory, but underspiced. Geralt slurped it up gratefully. Jaskier knew that rich food was usually too much for his senses if it was spiced to Jaskier’s taste.
More dancing. Jaskier didn’t stand, at first, assuming that Geralt would rather sit and drink more. There were some snickers as people judged him. Geralt stood though, and he offered a hand and led Jaskier to the dance floor.
“You need to act drunk,” Jaskier whispered in his ear. “If you were a normal man you would be.”
“I am acting,” Geralt rumbled.
“You’re very steady for a drunk,” Jaskier sniffed.
“You said I was shy, now I’m less shy,” Geralt whispered. “And I’ve been drinking. So...drunk.” It was torture, being held like this, having that voice in Jaskier’s ear. That hand, so warm cupping his own. He wanted to cry.
A couple whirled past them. It was the Dame Au’Vigne, gossiping to some new dance partner. A snippet of her words caught them.
“-de Lettenhove. Entirely loveless of course. Unlovable, his father said once, of course as a bard-” then the tide of conversation and other dancers stole the rest of the words.
Jaskier sagged. His father hadn’t been a nice man, and unlovable wasn’t the worst of what he’d been called in his life, but now, with Geralt so close and so disgusted by the prospect...well, it hit a little close to home.
“Laugh,” Geralt whispered in his ear.
“What?” Jaskier hissed.
“Like before, laugh like before, but...more so. Pretend I said a dirty joke.”
Jaskier did, heads turned as he pretended to laugh, half scandalized and half delighted at something Geralt said.
Geralt even chuckled along with him. Then his hand crept down Jaskier’s back to his hip. It wasn’t dirty. It was just so,so spine tinglingly close to dirty.
It was almost worse. If Geralt had gripped his ass that would have been bad, but this, Jaskier was left to speculate. He had a very active imagination. The couples next to them were giggling and tittering, scandalized, but not too much, at the pair.
They danced all three dances. During the second dance Geralt spun Jaskier out and then back in flashily, dipping him over one arm like a dainty maiden. Jaskier, who was no dainty maiden, knew the strength that elaborate dip must have taken and his head spun. The third dance was slow, and once again they simply held one another and turned in slow circles. Except Geralt pressed their cheeks together in a way that was so intimate that Jaskier finally gave in. Just tonight he had Geralt, all of him, his attention, his warmth.
There was only so much a bard could take, and Jaskier gave in to the fantasy.
“I wonder how Yennefer is,” Geralt whispered. “And Ciri.”
It was like having cold water poured all over him. Jaskier’s fantasy shattered as soon as it had formed. Of course Geralt wasn’t enjoying this, of course his mind was elsewhere. He had a beautiful sorceress to think of, even if they weren’t sleeping together. Geralt and Yennefer and Ciri made the perfect, happy family. Where did Jaskier fit in to that?
He pulled back a little, already missing the warmth of Geralt’s cheek against his own. They finished the dance stiffly.
Back at the table, squished between Dame Au’Vigne and the colonel, the main course was awful. Jaskier couldn’t judge it on the food, which he barely tasted. Dame Au’Vigne and the colonel, however, had apparently come to the conclusion that Geralt or, Ludomir, rather, was marrying Jaskier for the money and the sex. They tittered, loudly and drunkely, to those around, and Geralt leaned in.
“Surely we can leave after this course,” he whispered.
Desperate to be rid of the charade, Jaskier thought. To not have to be engaged to me. “Can’t,” he whispered. “Have to stay for dessert and more dancing, else it looks suspect.”
“Hmmm.” It was a displeased hum.
“And, there will be small talk, with dessert. You need to say something, people will think you’re mute.”
“You two twitter into one another’s ears all the time,” Dame Au’Vigne said loudly. She was fully drunk off the sherry and very loud. “But not one kiss,” she lowered her voice, as if trying to be discreet. It didn’t work. “Is it truly as loveless as they say? I know you aren’t waiting until marriage.”
As who say? Jaskier thought. The only person quite that invested seems to be you.
“Not loveless,” Jaskier said. It seemed weak even to his ears.
“Surely you’ll join the dancing again, then,” Dame Au’Vigne said.
“No,” Jaskier said, fiddling with his napkin. “I’m feeling quite too full to dance, ate too fast, I’m afraid.” He hoped she was too drunk to notice he’d picked at his plate. It seemed she was.
“Lovely little veranda, get some air there,” said a man who, according to Dame Au’Vigne, was shipping weapons to Nilfgaard behind the backs of multiple heads of state.
Jaskier nodded,stood, bowed, and made his escape. He sighed, but wasn’t surprised to find that Geralt had followed along behind. Of course he wanted to escape the party too, but Jaskier wanted to escape...him.
To his shame and surprise, he found tears in his eyes. The pressure of sitting in a room chock full of people who wanted to kill him, combined with the fact that every last one of them reminded him of being bullied in school, and add to that that he was supposed to be fake engaged to Geralt...it was too much. Fake engaged and even in their fake engagement Geralt didn’t like Jaskier.
Jaskier’s rational brain knew that Geralt did like him, mostly. He just didn’t love him.
Jaskier leaned his elbows on the railing, overlooking some moonlit gardens, and felt the tears roll down his face.
“They think I don’t like you,” Geralt said quietly.
“Yes,” Jaskier said. He knew Geralt could smell the salt of his tears or whatever, but still turned his face away so the witcher couldn’t see.
“I danced with you though.”
Jaskier chuckled wetly. “Nobles dance with people they hate all the time.”
Geralt was quiet for a minute then, very gently, he took one of Jaskier’s hands. “I don’t hate you.”
It was too much, Jaskier started crying in earnest, sobbing.
“C’mon, Jaskier, I like you. A lot.” Geralt was, for him, panicking clearly. Jaskier almost smiled. He was so bad at dealing with other people’s emotion. And his own.
“You’re my friend,” Geralt said, a little stuntedly. “You know I’m not a good liar.”
Too much. Twenty-two years and he finally said the word ‘friends’ and Jaskier wanted more. He whipped around to face Geralt.
“Tell me the truth, then, Geralt. Tell me you love me, it doesn’t have to be the truth for forever, but can you love me just for a night? Can you make it the truth for tonight?” Jaskier’s tears were ugly and blobby and drying up fast but he continued.
“Because I’ve loved you so long I don’t know any other truth,” He leaned forward and planted his forhead on Geralt’s collarbone and sniffled through the last of his tears, curling one, shaking fist into Geralt’s lovely pale cape as he cried. “Just this one night, Geralt, love me back.”
He hadn’t meant to say any of it, was half expecting Geralt to toss him off the low balcony into the bushes below.
Instead Jaskier was lifted by two strong arms and sat down on the railing. Warm, delightful lips pressed against his and suddenly he was being kissed within an inch of his life.
“The truth, you want,” Geralt said, pulling back and panting. “Is the only one I can give. I can’t pretend to love you.” Here Geralt looked into Jaskier’s eyes, like being struck by lightning. “I only love you, no pretending, I swear it.”
“But-” Jaskier was cut off.
“They think I don’t like you,” Geralt said, furiously. “I think you think I don’t like you, Jaskier I like you, I love you so much I don’t know what to do and I’m...I’m not good with words. Or emotions.” Geralt’s shoulders dropped a little. “I just am, and the way I am is... The way I am is better with you.”
Geralt’s face screwed up with anguish. “And I’m the reason you think I don’t like you, it’s my fault and that feels so...so bad. Yennefer’s been working with me on the feelings thing and always says ‘bad isn’t a feeling’ but I can’t tell you what all the feeling is.”
Jaskier was staring, mouth open, as frustrated, stilted, fumbling words left Geralt’s mouth. They sounded angry, but only at himself. Geralt was looking up at him as if seeking benediction.
“Tell me you love me again,” Jaskier said.
“I love you.”
“Again.”
“I love you.”
“Again.”
Jaskier giggled as Geralt lifted him and spun him around before tucking him in close and kissing his forehead.
“I,” he said.
A kiss to Jaskier’s nose. “Love.”
A deep, breathtaking kiss to his lips. “You.”
There was nothing left for Jaskier to say except, “wow.”
Geralt smiled, that lovely warm little smile he saved for special times and offered his arm to Jaskier. “Shall we?”
They paraded back into the ballroom and danced the final dance of the set. Geralt whispered a suggestion of what he’d really like for dessert and this time Jaskier didn’t have to fake the scandalized giggle. “Back home, perhaps,” he said.
Dessert meant more conversation with Dame Au’Vigne, which was of course unbearable. There was plenty of Champagne though, which was pretty good, and the bubbles seemed to fill Jaskier all the way up. He took pleasure in picturing the downfall of all these horrible people when Nilfgaard was finally defeated for good.
He especially enjoyed sticking it to her gossip when he fed Geralt a strawberry with cream from his fingertips and recieved a kiss in thanks. Geralt was clearly enjoying himself too. He had a sweet tooth, and that certainly helped, but his hand that never left Jaskier’s under the table was a much better clue.
They walked back to the inn, flushed and warm in the cool night air, bidding farewell to the other drunken lords and ladies all filtering to finer inns or grand coaches.
Then they were alone on their path back, Geralt’s witcher senses confirming their isolation. Then, Geralt, who never told lies, whispered sweet nothings into Jaskier’s ear the entire way home. Jaskier believed every single one.
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It’s done, this one’s quite long and I loved writing it. Geralt is useless at playing pretend, but very good at loving Jaskier in his own way. I imagine his emotion lessons with Yennefer must have been rather intense.
#the witcher#geralt x jaskier#geraskier#fake dating#getting together#fluff#fluff and angst#tiny amount of horniness#read with caution
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Sin getting upset bc he see’s Kouen flirting with his s/o (I mean they both already don’t like each other).So sins getting all alpha dog and is trying to get him to bck off
Requested by: anonymous
Warnings: A hint of verbal NSFW towards the end? (better known as...LIMEy) Not swear words but a few rude words? Idk
Suddenly getting back into Magi so might be a few imagines being thrown around here and there, depends on how long this lasts!! Feeling a NSFW scenario manifesting itself into my drafts after writing this, I won't lie, but no actual NSFW content today my little imuchakk's! Hope you enjoy!
Sinbad had always liked banquets, weather they be ones held in the kingdom of Sindria, or at his biggest rivals, the Kou empire. There was something exciting about the prospect of consuming alcohol in foreign lands after an important political meeting that made Sinbad feel on top of the world. It was rare for things in Sinbad’s life not to go his way, or to not end up leading towards something better then what he had lost. For this reason, King Sinbad was to an extent, a go-with-the-flow kind of man. Especially with loyal followers such as his generals and his beloved wife!
His beloved was of course very loyal, incredibly so...but, there were people who did not care for that loyalty of hers. This included a certain Kou empire red head who went by the name of Kouen.
“No need to look so sour, Sin.” Ja’far commented beside him, though he was enjoying the fact his King was abandoning his poor drinking habits to instead stay sober and focused, even if he was focusing on his wife and Kouen Ren flirting. “You told her to be pleasant and friendly towards Kouen to gain his favour. I don’t understand why you’re so jealous.” That was enough to make Sinbads eyes flicker from the generous laughter of his wife to the smug face of his right hand man.
“Me!? Jealous!?”
“Hmm.” Masrur agreed from the other side of Sinbad. The King’s neck practically snapped to the fanalis.
“Why would I, of all people, be jealous?”
“Because you’re wife is a smart, sophisticated lady who could do a lot better than a man who drinks sake and shamelessly prances around woman as if he was a young teen in his glory years.” Golden eyes met red ones in a baffled expression of offense.
“That’s a low blow, Ja’far.”
“Hmm.” Again, Masrur voiced his opinion rather humbly. Unlike the other two, Masrur had not taken his eyes away from the Queen, curious to see how her little game would play out; He loved how cunning she was.
The Queen, unlike Sinbad, was sensible. When he was busy hiding from Ja’far she was busy doing the work for him and cleaning up all his messes. Masrur liked how through thick and thin she stayed by Sinbad’s side whilst being the role model his country needed. She may as well have been a general. However, that didn’t mean she didn’t find herself sick of him sometimes.
Unfortunately old habits died hard. Sinbad was an infamous lady killer, flirting and charming any woman he deemed beautiful. No longer did he take it any further but Masrur could always see it in the Queen’s eyes whenever she got upset or jealous with his ministrations. As much as she tried to hide it, Masrur was a man who saw much, yet said very little.
The fanalis saw the way the cogs in her head turned the moment Sinbad had told her to “Gain Kouen’s favour in any way you can! I’m sure he’ll be much more linient with me if he enjoys the company of my other half” and the way she made sure her corset was on tighter and her breasts were pushed up higher only confirmed his supicions. Sinbad was about to get a very bitter taste of his own flirtatious medicine.
The Queen was, despite being middle aged, very beautiful. If she wasn’t married to King Sinbad, Masrur was certain many men would be throwing themselves at her feet. Kouen would possibly be one of those.
The next thing Masrur knew a grumpy Sinbad was pulling on his cheek, his gaze in the same direction as his. “What is it Masrur? What are they saying!? Surely you will stick by your King! Unlike this traitor—“
“Tsk.”
“Please Masrur. My wife could be in danger.” Sinbad dramatized. Masrur practically had to stop himself from commenting on how pathetic the King looked. “I need those fanalis ears of yours...”
“Fine.”
“Did you know, you’re my favourite?”
“I swear to Solomon Sinbad if you—“
Drowning out the advisor and the King, Masrur honed his attention on the Queen and Kouen who sat sharing a bottle of red wine.
“Oh no. No more for me please.” Just as Kouen was about to tip some more of the red liquor in her glass, the Queen politely bowed her head, fluttering her lashes. “My tolerance for alcohol isn’t the greatest thing in the world.”
“Oh?.” Kouen hummed, nodding in response before filling up his own. “I expected you to perhaps be a little more like you’re husband.”
“An old drunkard?”
“That’s not what I said.”
“But is it not what you meant?”
“I—“ Kouen seemed at a loss for words for a second, perhaps embarrassed, but saved himself rather quickly without a hint of emotion on his face. “What I meant was, a lover of a banquet. Sinbad has attended many, I assumed you would have been more on par with him when it came to drinking and party games.”
The Queen watched Kouen take a sip of his wine, her lips pulling up into a soft smirk. “Something tells me Kouen if I was anything like my husband you wouldn’t want to be sat here with me.” Kouen was slow to place down his drink, his sharp eyes meeting Sinbad’s wife’s.
“Would you rather me sit elsewhere?”
“That’s not what I said.”
“But is it not what you meant?” Now, it was his turn to smirk.
“I—“ With a soft laugh, the regal woman before Kouen grew flustered, picking up her glass and swirling the remaining wine contents around to allow her to look elsewhere. “You really are as they say Kouen. Quite an interesting man. I enjoy getting to know you.” Lifting up her head, the Queen rose an eyebrow, a smile now residing on her face. “Every word I say sinks in doesn’t it?”
“Your highness. If any man does not listen to you, does he really deserve to be in your presence? If my sisters were simply cast aside, I wouldn’t be so forgiving to the suitor who was to do that.” It was a lie, the Queen had heard of Kouen and his family sending off the young princess to he married to a King who wanted nothing more then a pretty face. Was there more to the story? Most likely. But was that the gist of it? Yes. However, to indulge both Kouen and continue to gain the nervous attention of her husband shuffling in his seat, the Queen sighed out gently.
“You’re close to your family...?” It was hard to hear the rest, Sinbad practically chewing off his own hand right beside Masrurs ear.
“What are they saying!?” Simply, Masrur shrugged. “Something about family.” It was no fun telling Sinbad everything. Groaning, Sinbad flopped back into his seat, picking up his wine with a pout.
“It doesn’t taste the same knowing at the end of the night she’s not going to be dragging me back to our room...”
“Who? Her highness?” The three men all turned abruptly to face Kogyoku, who smiled sheepishly. “I’m awfully sorry...” she stuttered out. “I didn’t mean to pry, I just came to say hello and over heard you talking."
Knowing that any ill intentions towards Kougyoku’s older brother would harm his reputation with the Kou empire, Sinbad put on his best charming smile, acting as though he wasn’t emotionally conflicted on the inside. “Ah Princess. What a pleasure to be seeing you again. Are you enjoying the banquet?” With a smile, the pinkette nodded her head.
“I am very much your highness. I hope you’re also enjoying yourself.” With that, her eyes flickered upwards to the Queen of Sindrian and the most influential man in the whole of the Kou empire. “It seems her highness is enjoying herself to. I’ve never seen Kouen so invested in somebody. It’s a real testimony to your wife.” Kougyoku was of course NOT JEALOUS. Not once had she imagined herself sat on Sinbad's lap as he whispered sweet nothings into her ear! Nether the less, she continued her façade, knowing that after all it was her duty.
”They’re so deep in conversation, I wonder what they’re talking about.” Her words aren’t helping the purple male.
“As do I...”
“Kouen seems so relaxed around her highness. They really do get along don’t they?” Was she trying to give him a heart attack?
With a delightful laugh Sinbad nodded before finally rising to his feet. "They do indeed. In fact I feel a little bit left out. Perhaps I should pau the two a visit. Excuse me Princess, I do hope of seeing you again soon." Lifting her hand to his lips, Sinbad placed a soft kiss to the back of her hand before walking towards his wife and that thing trying to take her away. The King of Sindria looked at peace with all around him as he strode over, all intentions of causing havoc and disrupting the calm atmosphere completely gone for his being. At least it looked that way. If it didn't, he wouldn't have been a good King.
The two at the table saw him coming before he arrived and where as Kouen greeted him with a cut nod, seemingly displeased he was interrupting his time with his wife, who simply sent him a passive smile.
"Ah Your highness." Not Sin, not Sinbad, not my King, not my love. Just your highness. "Me and Kouen here--" Yet they were on first name basis? "Were just discussing-- Hmmph!"
As done many times before by the womanizer, Sinbad encased the back of his wife's head, bringing her face towards his own and then slamming their lips together in a rather mighty display right in front of the red princes eyes. He made sure it lasted. And his Queen? Who was she to deny Sinbads advances? As usual she practically melted into his affectionate assault, fragile hands moving to clasp at Sinbad's robes in an attempt to lull him closer...but two could play at that game. Pulling back from his beloved, Sinbad made sure to smirk, staring into her eyes for a brief moment. It was his way of saying "I'll get you back for this".
The sexual tension was undeniable and Sinbad had hoped Kouen could sense her thighs rubbing together like he could, because that was the closest Kouen would get.
"Hm? Talking about what? I didn't quite catch that my Queen."
Meanwhile, back at Sinbad's table, Ja'far sighed in aggravation as he watched the scene Sinbad caused in absolute horror. "Honestly, this man really does test my patience! Can he not just let his wife butter up Kouen! If anything it benefits us!"
"Hmm."
"Just for one second, can he think about anything else other then his-"
"Dick?"
"I was going to say pride but that works too."
#magi#magi sinbad#magi ja'far#magi masrur#magi kougyoku#magi kouen#magi x sinbad#magi x kouen#magi kingdom of magic#magi labyrinth of magic#magi sinbad imagine#magi sinbad headcannons#magi sinbad x reader#magi kouen imagine#magi kouen x reader#magi kouen headcannons#magi kou empire#magi sindria#magi the eight generals#magi x reader#magi imagine#magi headcannons#magi imagines
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Mace (undercover as stripper) gives Slick a lapdance. Slick is too shell-shocked that the high general is apparently working as a stripper and Mace is far too amused
“Recruited by the kriffing Jedi and all I get is watered down drinks and a heart attack,” Slick snarls, hauling off the hat that looks like it was stolen from Cad Bane and flinging it across the room with more force than is probably strictly necessary. It’s not a bad hat. It’s actually kind of dashing. But he needs to throw something, and somehow he doubts the kriffing Jedi will be amenable.
Also, that would require looking at said Jedi, and Slick’s already losing his mind.
“It was a decent opportunity to establish a connection,” Mace karking Windu says, following Slick into the tiny, rented room. He’s shedding glitter everywhere, not that he seems to notice, and Slick is not noticing either.
“I wanted to call your bluff!” Slick snarls, rounding on him, and—well. There goes the not looking. Once he starts, he can't stop. “You didn’t have to accept the challenge!”
Mace raises one precise brow, like he’s not wearing about six square inches of cloth and plentiful smears of glitter and nothing else. Slick wants to punch him in the face. Or maybe throw him down on the floor and see if he can't get the most maddening Jedi he’s ever met to finally crack his composure.
“I thought it was a clever undercover move to make sure our story holds up to scrutiny,” Mace says, and Slick is not thinking about the moment Mace slid into his lap, all smooth dark skin and dangerous muscle and depthless eyes, hot even in the stifling closeness of the club. The club had rules against grabbing, but if it hadn’t, if Slick had been willing to risk his freedom as an undercover agent for one second of pure pleasure—
He almost was. Almost is. There are smears of hot pink glitter across Mace's shoulders, gold and purple around his eyes. He’s the prettiest kriffing thing Slick has seen in his whole damned life, and Slick wants.
“Should leave the Temple and start stripping full-time,” he says spitefully, like he’s a normal, functional Human and able to pull his eyes away from the gold dusted across Mace's ribs, exactly where Slick could put his hands. Could put his hands, and pull, and try that lapdance again, but this time with Slick a full participant and entirely focused on making Mace as out of control as possible. “It’d be a net gain for the galaxy.”
Mace snorts, though he doesn’t look offended. “If I thought I could do more good as a stripper than a Jedi, I would already have left the Order,” he says, because of kriffing course he does. He’s the one who got Slick out. He’s the one who’s been trying to get Boba out, even though Boba killed his men, tried to kill him. Did kill his commander, however indirectly, and Slick has seen Mace mourning Ponds.
Slick just wants to hate him in peace. Wants to hate himselfin peace. He doesn’t need some noble twice-damned Jedi trying to helphim. Doesn’t want to know, bone-deep, that when Mace says he means to help as many people as possible, he means it.
“Good thing Neyo wasn’t there,” he says, derisive, because it’s hard to forget the way Mace's new commander pulled Slick aside and right into one of the most terrifying conversations of his life, and Slick used to talk to Ventress. Neyo seems to have some pretty set ideas about his general’s dignity and grace and poise, and—
Well. Tonight might have made Neyo's head explode, but it wouldn’t have contradicted any of those ideas. Mace makes being a stripper look like the most dignified profession in the galaxy. Kriff, that’s half the appeal.
Mace's sound of amusement as he gets himself a bottle of water is almost enough to make Slick glance over, but—Slick’s sanity is hanging by a thread as it is. Watching Mace bend over won't help. “Neyo doesn’t take to undercover work as well as you,” he says, and with literally any other sentient, Slick might think it was a dig at his past as a traitor, but not with Mace. They had that argument already, and Slick is…convinced. Against his will, but all the more so for that fact.
“Guess not,” Slick says, a little raggedly, and pointedly turns towards the bedroom. One bed. Of course. But he knew that already. This is supposed to look like him taking a stripper home for a night of fun, not like one undercover operative meeting another.
Slick closes his eyes and counts to twenty. He’s not thinking about making their cover a reality. He’s not. And even if he were, every clone who feels attraction beats off to Mace Windu at some point in their lives. Slick did, back when he was young and stupid. Stupider.
“I assume,” Mace says from about six inches behind him, almost startling Slick out of his skin and his fantasies in equal measure, “that it will increase your credibility if your coworkers find glitter on you in the morning.”
Slick knows exactly how to get that glitter on him. He could pin Mace down and—
“Yeah,” he says, and turns. Grabs Mace by the shoulder, shoving him back and right up against the wall, and holds his gaze like a challenge as he slowly, deliberately drags a hand down Mace's chest, right through the glitter there. It’s easy, right now, to ignore the way his lastchallenge ended. “Probably would. Got any ideas for sharing?”
Mace just raises that brow at him again, perfectly steady, perfectly unwavering. “I’ll admit,” he says. “I did. But you seem to have plenty, and they're very clear.”
Slick flushes cold, then hot. “Karking empaths,” he says viciously and slams his mouth to Mace's with lots of force and little finesse.
If Mace minds it at all, Slick can't tell from the way he kisses back.
[On AO3]
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Headcanon: If the Marauders never existed
my personal opinion on what would happen if each marauder didn’t exist, which changes a lot but these are my current thoughts
James
Sirius would be in Slytherin
James was the one who encouraged Sirius to be in Gryffindor and gave him that push on the train, I think that with his family, if he had never met James on the train he wouldn’t have been sorted into Gryffindor - he wasn’t brave yet
Lily and Snape’s friendship would’ve still fallen apart eventually, since Snape would’ve still been in Slytherin and joined the Death Eaters, but it would’ve happened later on, maybe in Seventh Year or after graduation during the war
Remus and Peter became friends but never really clicked like the four marauders did
Remus and Lily are still platonic soulmates
Regulus would’ve been in Ravenclaw
with the pressure off of him, as Sirius is the heir and wouldn’t have disappointed his family, he would’ve most likely been sorted differently
be still pranks people and has practically the same personality, but he has to be more careful
regulus and remus meet in a study group and become friends
regulus, and eventually through him, remus would’ve influenced sirius enough so that he isn’t a blood purist
it takes him a lot longer to shake off his family’s blood purist ideals
but in order to keep the pressure off of regulus and to keep him safe, since his parents don’t like regulus as much anymore, he doesn’t run away
when his parents die he becomes the head of the house of black
remus becomes head boy, as much as he hates it
sirius is convinced to be the order spy
sirius is the one to find out about and hunt for horcruxes
he finds them all with the help of remus and regulus because dumbledore is useless
(sirius and remus eventually get together but it takes longer)
peter stays neutral during the war, he has no one to convince him to join the order, but isn’t important enough to be recruited as a death eater
snape doesn’t become the order spy, since when he tells voldemort the prophecy it has nothing to do with lily
Neville would be the boy who lived, obviously
the second war doesn’t happen, since all of the horcruxes have been destroyed
lily survives the war and is dating mary macdonald (i don’t take any criticism on this, lily is bi)
this may seem like a better universe in the end but it’s not because james doesn’t exist
Sirius
remus, james, and peter are still friends, but aren’t as close
remus and james are best friends, as are remus and lily
lily doesn’t hate james as much - at the beginning james always wanted to impress sirius and vice versa, without sirius james would’ve been more tolerable in lily’s eyes
but without prongsfoot friendship james isn’t nearly as much of a mother hen
james is really close with marlene, because he needs a quidditch friend
regulus’s storyline remains the same
james and peter become animagi for remus, but it takes longer
lily becomes one too later on
james and lily start dating fifth year, because it took him less time to win her over
snape and james are still rivals, but sectumsempra is never invented
snape and lily fall out in sixth year over him finding out remus is a werewolf, and lily sticking by remus’s side
the prank never happens
snape still becomes a death eater and the order spy
peter still joins the order
although he doesn’t feel as left out without james and sirius’s friendship, he still feels overshadowed
peter still becomes the spy
james and lily never believed remus was the traitor, so without sirius he convinces no one
remus is too obvious to be secret keeper and is away on a mission for werewolves
peter is the secret keeper
james and lily are still killed and peter is found out and taken to azkaban
remus raises harry
dumbledore still needs to keep an eye on (control) harry though so remus becomes the DADA teacher
the curse isn’t a thing in this for the sake of me favoring remus
since he hires remus he doesn’t hire snape
harry basically grows up in hogsmeade
the plot of the first book remains more or less the same but quirrell is the potions master
so is lockhart, because he claims to be good at everything
remus is petrified in the second book
the plot of the fourth book is more or less the same, but crouch jr poses as potions master
remus went to school with crouch, so when he sees him on the map he realizes somethings wrong
but because of that he’s exposed before the third task and voldemort doesn’t rise again
the order doesn’t reform
so no remadora
...the end
OR
even though lily and james never believed the spy was remus, everyone else did
peter framed remus instead
because peter might not be book smart but he’s still smart, and knows how to play his cards right and manipulate people
remus went to azkaban
being a werewolf, he has practically no rights
let alone in a war
he’s given the dementor’s kiss immediately without a trial
the rest of the plot is more or less the same in the end but harry has no parent figures at all
i don’t like this ending as much
Remus
first of all, james and sirius never mature as much
while remus was the one who headed most of the pranks, and made them better
he also kept them in check because they’re both privileged as fuck
so they’re more arrogant
their pranks aren’t nearly as good either
the marauders don’t form, the dynamic of just james and sirius and peter is off, peter wouldn’t have felt included enough for their friendship to form
the first reality check that james gets is from lily
sirius takes longer to run away, he doesn’t get as much shit from his family since he’s not friends with a half blood
and it takes him longer to shake off the blood purist ideals that his family has drilled into him
james helps though, and lily too since james is too priveliged to fully explain how bad the black family values are
sirius + lily friendship eventually, takes longer since sirius is more of a dick without remus but they bond over rocky relationships with their siblings
the prank doesn’t happen for obvious reasons, but sirius and snape do still actively try to ruin each other’s lives
it takes longer for james and lily to get together, but they do eventually
peter joins the order and becomes the spy, he’s always been overlooked and underestimated next to james and sirius
becoming an amimagi for remus was the first thing that made him feel truly brave, truly connected to the other marauders, he doesn’t have that in this
sirius remains the secret keeper though - the marauders never formed and he never trusted peter as much as he did in canon
also he doesn’t have to worry about remus being the traitor
eventually peter is caught
but bellatrix tortures sirius the same way she would’ve done to the longbottoms
he’s tortured to the brink of insanity
neville is the boy who lived
jily and harry live, but sirius never recovers
peter goes to azkaban
Peter
the marauders take a lot longer to form
peter was the glue, they’re all vital to the group but peter made them all complete
james sirius and remus are still very good friends
sirius figures out remus’s secret at the end of second year (peter was the one who figured it out first a lot earlier) because they’re not as close yet
and james is unobservant as fuck
mom friend james (even more so because remus can’t take care of himself to save his life, literally)
they become animagi in fifth year, but it takes them longer
again, peter actually came up with many good ideas and helped a lot
the map is made in sixth year
the prank occurs, and the group shatters
it takes a long time to get back to normal
wolfstar and jily both start dating seventh year
remus is the secret keeper
sirius is tortured a bit as everyone thinks that he’s the secret keeper, but is saved in time
neville is the boy who lived
they all live (except peter)
#marauders headcanon#marauders head canon#marauders headcanons#marauders hc#harry potter#the marauders#hp marauders#harry potter headcanons#harry potter headcanon#hp#james potter#remus lupin#sirius black#lily evans#lily evans potter#lily potter#peter pettigrew#regulus black#jily#jily hc#jily headcanon#wolfstar#wolfstar hc#wolfstar headcanon#remus lupin headcanon#sirius black headcanon#james potter headcanon#lily evans headcanons#peter pettigrew headcanon#regulus black headcanons
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Harry Potter ships I truly hate
Disclaimer: I’m not telling you who to ship and whatnot, I’m just expressing how awful these ships are to me and then explaining why.
1. Harry X Draco
Now this is coming from a former drarry stan who before, hadn’t read the books. I thought Draco ‘had no choice’ and ‘just wanted love’ until I opened my eyes and saw the character for who he really was. That is a spoiled blood supremacist who hates muggleborns, and is loved by both of his parents. Draco bullied Harry. Although Harry fought back, it was because he was the victim and had to defend himself. Harry never went out of his way to hurt Draco, but Draco did it constantly. Draco and Harry would never work because Harry hated Draco just as much as Draco did him. You could ship Harry with so many others that wouldn’t be toxic such as, Ginny, Cho, maybe Hermoine (but I prefer Romoine), maybe even Ron if you want to. (I don’t ship Harry and Cedric because the ages are too weird). It’s so obvious throughout the entire book that Harry didn’t have romantic feelings for Draco, he only ever thought he was doing bad things, seeing as he was a bad person. Harry found love in Ginny in like the fifth book? Which is when the crush started, and no one else was in the picture for him once he began dating Ginny. In conclusion, Ginny is the one he married and had children with, not Draco, because he hated him and wanted nothing to do with him as he was nothing but a bully who hated muggles and muggleborns. Seeing as Harry is a half blood, and his mother was muggleborn, why do you think Harry would turn around and be like “oh he’s just broken I’ll fix him.” And ignore everything Draco ever said about his family???? That’s such a toxic thing to think... because believe it or not, in a relationship you’re supposed to be with someone you like as a person. Just because you may find Draco attractive, that doesn’t make him a good person!! Harry would never choose Draco over anyone for that matter. If it were between Ginny or Draco to be saved, you better bet on Harry saving Ginny.
2. Hermoine X Draco
I genuinely hate this ship with my entire being. It disgusts me. This isn’t an enemies to lovers, this is literally bully X victim. Hermoine didn’t fight back, meaning Draco was the full oppressor and she was the oppressed. Draco is a blood supremacist who called Hermoine a mudblood constantly and hated her, and the feeling was mutual from Hermoine because why would anyone like their bully? Falling in love with your bully is a book trope, that doesn’t happen in real life. When Hermoine was being tortured in Malfoy Manor, Draco stood and watched because he didn’t care, meanwhile Ron, the boy Hermoine was attracted to and loved, was screaming and crying begging for him to take her place so she would be protected. That’s true love, something Hermoine and Draco will never have. I really will never understand why so many people love shipping victims with their oppressors... like do you get a sick kick out of it by babying the oppressor? Saying things like “oh he’s just unloved” or “he can change!” When none of that is true. Draco chose to be who he is, which is a blood supremacist and was loved by his family, and Hermoine chose not to ever engage with him because of his personality and attitude. Draco hated her, and everyone else like her because of their status, and overall, Hermoine just isn’t attracted to him. Hermoine is attracted to Ron and he’s the only person I can see dating Hermoine because everyone else would be a bit strange. Dramoine is unbelievably toxic, and all it does is romanticise abuse. “Oh Draco only bullied her for 7 years because he was afraid to love her.” Stfu. You’d never hurt someone you love. Draco bullied her because he thought he was ABOVE her, and she was nothing but dirt on his shoe.
3. Hermoine X Pansy
When it comes to fanon, I still don’t understand why it gets shipped because in order to do that, you have to change Pany’s entire personality to the point where it’s not even Pansy anymore. It’s just some nice girl with the same name. Because the real Pansy bullied Hermoine and made it known how much she didn’t like her. Not only that, but Pansy was head over heels for Draco. This isn’t an enemies to lovers, this is shipping the bully with the victim for some weird reason... because Hermoine didn’t fight back just like Hermoine X Draco. If they were both at each other’s throats I could see your enemies to lovers, but that’s just not what this is. If you ship them because you’re looking for a wlw ship, why not take a look at Ginny X Luna, Lavender X Parvati, or even Tonks X Fleur, rather than picking the toxic ship that would never ever work and would only hurt Hermoine. Ron Weasley exists for a reason. Again, shipping someone with their oppressor is a very weird thing to do. For example, Ron is a pureblood, but Ron wasn’t prejudice towards muggles or muggleborns, because he’s a decent and normal person. Pansy and Draco aren’t decent people, and they bullied people. Really there isn’t much else to say as all canon stuff about Pansy is about her bullying people, and encouraging people to capture Harry because SHE’S A BLOOD SUPREMACIST THAT’S ALL SHE IS. Hermoine is a strong and independent woman and would NEVER date someone prejudice like that, she has standards.
4. Lily X Snape
We have to stop with this “she can fix him” mentality, because women don’t exist to fix men. Either Snape was a good person, or a bad person. He should be able to choose that himself. Which he was actually, and he was very clearly a bad person. You can’t force someone to be attracted to another. Attraction forms on its own, and it’s something Lily never had for Snape, they were only friends. To say that Lily owed Snape something because he liked her... is so wrong and disgusting. If she doesn’t like him, she doesn’t like him and Snape should fucking move on instead of obsessing over her. But, Snape overall was a creep so you can’t say “oh he made a mistake” when that man knew EXACTLY what he was doing. Ripping Lily’s happy photograph of her with her husband and baby, and taking the letter she wrote for Sirius who Snape could pretend she did that for him. Literally disgusting. Even the friendship was toxic. When reading I realised that Snape played the victims card a lot when talking about the marauders as if he wasn’t doing WORSE thing to them. Lily knew that Snape wanted to join Voldemort, as seen in the books. ‘You and your previous little death eater friends — you see, you don’t even deny it. You don’t even deny that’s what you’re aiming to be! You can’t wait to join you-know-who, can you?” Then she says “I can’t pretend anymore, you’ve chosen your way, and I’ve chosen mine.” Lily PRETENDED that Snape wasn’t going to be a death eater because she didn’t want to believe that her own friend would hate her kind so much. Though once reality hit her she was gone and was never coming back. To ship someone who was oppressed with the oppressor is so weird and wrong, and I genuinely think you’re strange if you do that 😐. Snape already didn’t like Lily having other friends... so what does that tell you about what kind of relationship they would have? A manipulative one and an emotionally abusive one. James Potter was a pureblood, and not once did he ever bully someone for their blood status. He did things to Snape because Snape was a prejudice piece of shit and deserved it quite frankly. I would have done the exact same thing. Remember, the Potter’s were ‘blood traitors’ and Snape was a blood supremacist, of course the two aren’t going to like one another. But the difference is, Snape bullied innocent people (laughing at the fact Mary MacDonald was subdued to dark magic) and James fought back for those without voices. Getting revenge for people who couldn’t do it themselves. That’s the difference between a bully and a hero tbh. There’s no way Lily would ever date a death eater, she’s a strong woman who can make up her mind for herself rather than having people on the internet say things like “she was brainwashed!” And things like that. She became attracted and fell in love with a respectful man who would never cause her any type of emotional or physical harm.
In conclusion, I will judge you if you think shipping abusers/oppressors with their victims is ok in any way.
If you made it this far, feel free to comment or reblog with your own opinion. Just know that my opinion on these ships will never change because they’re all extremely toxic whether you like it or not. That’s just common sense. It’s canon that Draco, Pansy, and Snape were horrible people who liked to make fun of others. Fanon doesn’t mean a single thing in this because fanon isn’t real. If you have to change the entire personality of someone so they aren’t abusive... what does that tell you about their character? A lot of people do this because they like how a character looks, which is so tone deaf. If you think a victim should date their oppressor because of looks... I’m judging you heavily. If a character is wrote to be abusive, I don’t understand people do fan art of them with the people they hurt in a romantic way.
You might say I’m being over dramatic, but really it’s not that hard to understand that you shouldn’t romanticise abuse or say that oppressor X victim would make the perfect couple just because of their looks.
Would you ever ship Neville with Draco? No you wouldn’t. And it’s not for the reasons you would think. I bet if Neville was conveniently attractive (in the books, I love Matthew.) people would have shipped him with Draco despite Draco mercilessly bullying Neville for 7 years. A lot of people would have made excuses like “Draco was broken!” In order to be able to ship two attractive men together. (Which also plays into fetishisation of lgbt+ couples I think...) This fandom is rather toxic when it comes to this, and they’d rather ship a very abusive relationship with two conventionally attractive people rather than a loving one with two people that aren’t.
#Harry potter#hermoine granger#Ron Weasley#romoine#hinny#marauders era#remus lupin#lily evans#wolfstar#marauders#james potter#sirius black#jily#hp#Remus#Sirius#James#Peter Pettigrew#Ginny Weasley#Weasley twins#luna lovegood#neville longbottom#mary macdonald#alice fortescue#Frank Longbottom#regulus black#Cho Chang#Cedric diggory#Fred Weasley#George Weasley
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Massive Dream SMP Fic Rec!!
Hey- Hi, I just feel like there are a ton of fanfiction that's really underrated in this fandom- so I'm going to dump it on your dash!!! Most of it is going to be Tommy-centric or SBI-centric, but they are very good!
Source: Me
Finished Fanfics:
Multi-chaptered Fanfics:
that's, like, a hundred miles by No_one_you_know
Dream would kill him. Dream was going to kill him- he was going to- no, he wouldn’t. Dream was his friend- friends don’t hit each other- Dream was supposed to take care of him- Dream /was/ taking care of him.
It hurt to breathe. It hurt to think. He couldn’t clear his thoughts as he stumbled to the family computer, pulling up a tab on google and frantically typing the name into the search bar.
The words Technoblade Watson stared back at him, the little black bar at the end of the letters blinking slowly, mocking him.
Why, of all people, did it have to be Technoblade?
in short: the one where dream sucks as a parental figure, tommy runs away, and visits his least favorite family member technoblade
Hard-hitting, but has a happy ending, though I recommend reading the prequel (in the same series) first, otherwise, it's lowkey depressing.
MORE RECOMMENDATIONS BELOW THE CUT!!
you’ll rise above (crowned by an overture bold and beyond) by azvremoon
Tommy is not sixteen. He has faced too many open wounds, dripping ichor onto blood-stained warzones, to be just a child. He is Blood and War and needless Death, an all-in-one special of everything that can ruin reality.
(Tommy is the blood god. No one should know, but this server can't stop pushing him over the edge.)
+2 more Works that were Inspired by this one
Tommy is a BAMF and Dream, Technblade, and Phil get fucked it is what it is.
Responsible Forever by SilverWing15
“You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”
/////
“So,” Techoblade says, slow and deliberate, his face shows clearly just how unbelievable he finds all of this, “you saw a boy last night, in the middle of the night, living with raccoons and eating our garbage?”
“I know how insane it sounds,” Phil says, “but I know what I saw. We need to help him, who knows how long he’s been out here?”
“Okay,” Wilbur interrupts, “let’s say that raccoon-boy is real. What is it you want us to do? We can’t go searching the woods for specific bunch of raccoons, I don’t know if you’ve noticed Phil but there are a lot of them out there.”
“Going out and hunting him isn’t going to get us anywhere,” Techno says, “we have to let the raccoon-boy come to us. He’s already come once, you know how tenacious raccoons are. If they came to the garbage pit once, they’ll come again. We just have to set a trap.”
“Those raccoons aren’t gonna know what fucking hit them,” Wilbur mutters.
Or: RaccoonInnit taken well beyond its logical conclusion
Tommyinnit is a Raccoon boi that lives with other Raccoons
Protecting the Traumatised Youth by spookyserpent
Sam blinks. “What?”
Even behind the mask, Sam has the distinct impression that Dream is grinning at him. “A week and he was begging for my attention, even after I stole and burnt his armour, even after the beatings. He couldn’t stand me leaving him because I was the only one to show up, to pay him attention. It was hilarious.”
Sam is going to be sick.
Or, Sam decides to ask Dream about his intentions and ends up becoming a big brother to Tommy and Tubbo. All the while, Dream and George fight, Niki and Jack plan child murder and Ranboo is slowly getting adopted into the SBI.
Awesamdad written back when it was possible... ahhh
Chaos In a Bottle by Lovetribable
After a realization, Tommy leaves the pillar, but instead of going to Techno. He just disappears, leaving everyone to think he's gone.
It takes a war to bring him back.
+2 Sequels and an Alternative Ending
Dadinnit!! + A Sympathetic Dream
Absolutely Anything For Them by Numanum
“There’s a lot you don’t understand, Tubbo,” Dream sighs, meeting his eyes cooly. Tubbo, back against a tree, shudders at his tone, at the look on his face.
The sword at his neck skims across his skin as Dream shifts his grip on it, and he flinches back into the rough bark behind him. Dream smiles at his reaction, seeming pleased- like the cat that’s been toying with a mouse that always tries to run no matter how many times it’s caught. And, despite this being his first encounter alone with the man, he thinks that the comparison is fairly accurate; Tubbo has never felt smaller than he does now. There’s supposed to be a buddy system to prevent things like this- he shouldn’t be alone here, stuck in this situation.
Or: Tubbo becomes a traitor to save everyone and has to struggle with his choices
Traitor Tubbo, but it has the happiest ending possible since it follows the rest of the story.
Where Did You Come From, Kit? by KadeAK (zacixn)
Hybrids are an ancient species of humans crossed with animals, blessed with the favour of nature. They used to live in peace on the SMP’s land, but ever since the dawn of humanity’s modern culture, they have become ostracised and hunted by their once-brethren. Now, the once-thriving subspecies of hybrids have been reduced to ashes, the majority of their peoples struggling to survive in a city capital that can't stand their presence.
To the members of L’Manburg, General Wilbur Soot is just another mildly prejudiced human being, stuck with a hybrid fox kit for an adopted child. However, that assumption could not be farther from the truth. As it turns out, there's a reason why he is the man he is today.
This fic is entirely pre-L’Manburg.
Part of a series, very good.
Take It Easy by sweet_magnolias
Five times Techno scared Michael, one time Michael scared him, and the resolution of those fears.
AKA - Techno learns how to be an uncle.
Technoblade's POV, so expect some Tubbo bashing on the margins of all that Michael fluff.
I suppose it’s never my time to die, is it? by Birb_Whale
The first time it happens, he barely remembers.
The second time is when he realized.
The third...
Twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern
“It’s not your time to die yet, Tommy”
Messed up, but not unrealistic. Purely for the Hurt/Comfort lovers.
This Wasn't Planned, But It'll Work Out by Anonymous
Dream isn't sure what to think when he finds a kid on his doorstep, but he can't just leave him there, now can he?
(He doesn't know what he's getting into, or what he's gotten the kid into, either)
Long, and angsty, with a bittersweet ending Imo.
let's play a game by Aria_Cinabun
Tommy was once a slave. That's gone now - shoved in his past with the memories of blood and gore and death. He wants to forget who he was; what he has to do to survive.
Of course, the Elementalists will always come back to haunt him. They aren't the ones who killed his mother, but they're close enough.
And now he and his brother have been dragged into the mess, as Elementalists with their own, separate covens, to find the Pit - the place where he'd lived and killed and hurt for the first twelve years of his life.
His coven can't know. Can't know who he really is, what he can really do. Can't know anything about his past.
He doesn't want a coven full of Elementalists who don't trust him; one of whom he's pretty sure despises him. He doesn't want that life. He wants the life of a pickpocket, on the streets, because nobody questions street kids, and nobody comes asking about his past and pushes him to tell his secrets that he holds closest inside.
Tubbo tries to tell him to trust people.
But trust is how you die.
Good fantasy AU, has SBI, and is thus fluffy.
Turn of the Tide by SilverWing15
Tommy’s fins twitch at the mention of Dream’s ancestors. Dream talks about them a lot, how they made their fortune hunting down mer pods, how they were cruel and greedy. Nothing like Dream is. They’ve both overcome their roots he says.
Tommy is nothing like the wild mer out in the ocean, who spend their lives scraping by just to survive, who kicked him out of the pod when he was a baby because he was too small. He’s also better than the pit mer, who can’t overcome their wild instincts and know nothing but fighting.
He’s different from them, he’s better than them. He’s Dream’s.
////
OR: Change is like the tide, when it comes, you can only sink or swim. You would think that a mer would be better at keeping afloat.
Mermaid AU Pooog. Part of a series.
One-Shots:
Snapped by AmberRunnel
“You don’t know what I went through in that prison cell.”
Jack burst out laughing, blinded with rage and the overwhelming urge to hurt Tommy, to give him everything he deserved. “Oh, is the poor child traumatized? You want pity now?” He twisted his blade, and Tommy’s axe was sent clattering to the ground.
“If the prison was so awful, why don’t I send you back there?”
-|-
Jack doesn't handle Tommy's revival well.
There's a simple solution, though. Kill Tommy, and Dream revives him right back into that cell. Problem solved, kid dealt with.
It takes a few confrontations for Jack to realize he's an asshole.
It's fucked up, but god does it hurt in a good way.
the sky is coming down blue by salinesolution
An imagining of New Milo's perspective throughout the Skyblock Randomizer adventure. What did he think of the world he found himself in, and how did Wilbur's feelings and actions change things for him? Here's my way of answering those questions.
He made the fish think, funniest shit I've seen.
You told me to be a hero (so let me die like one) by spiromachia
"You told me to die like a hero," the blond interrupted, spinning on his heel to face the others, holding his arms wide open, "So why not fulfil the ending that was always meant to be."
Across the battle field, through the chaos and destruction, a tree burned.
Even the sound of explosions and cries and bloodshed felt distant enough for the world to become silent for a few moments, each individual slowly coming to the same conclusion, each of their bodies tensing.
Tommy's face broke out into a grin as he lowered his head, glowering at the people around him, and Philza's face flashed with recognition.
"Kill me."
Or...
In the middle of Doomsday, Tommy decides to ask Technoblade to be the Lycomedes to his Theseus.
Heavy and dark, but at least Dream gets it.
tomorrow night by meridies
Tommy is desperately searching for his missing brother. Techno is the reluctant psychic who unfortunately got dragged along.
or, two people, more alike than different, learn what it is to have a family at their side.
It's cute what can I say :]
maple syrup by itisjosh
"We could run," Tubbo stares at the sun. "We've got everything we've ever wanted right here. We could run."
"Yeah," Tommy agrees, feeling his head swim. "We could."
(or, tommy and tubbo run away together)
Children get away from toxic adults :)
Why’d it have to be so sunny? (The sun shouldn’t shine without you.) by AToZRainToBe
‘A realisation hits Phil in the face like a truck. “Wi- Ghostbur,” Phil says, turning to his grey-scale, translucent, actually-dead son. “You definitely told Tubbo that Tommy’s alive, right?”’
To get away from Dream, Tommy agrees to fake his death, going with the cover story that he jumped from the pillar in Logstedshire. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell Tubbo.
Misunderstandings are one of my favorite tropes.
sugar and ice by princedemeter for Aenqa
“He is my son,” Philza says. “Mortal or not, I would see him grow strong.”
Technoblade looks down on earth, at the tiny, angry bundle of cloth and pinking, wrinkled skin. This mortal child, he thinks, lungs filled with breath from the king of gods himself, will not grow strong.
It's mostly centered around Technoblade and Wilbur with Phil being a shitty dad. Pog Gods AU.
a matter of time by meridies
Tommy is twelve years old when his wings first appear, and he is twelve years old when Phil tells him, "All it takes is time and patience, Tommy, and soon you'll be flying even better than me."
or, Tommy grows up feeling like a failure, and it takes him a while to figure out where he's happiest.
Tommy is just finding his place in the world. Powers AU.
That Time a Baby Decided to Raise a Baby by Scitrust
Tubbo wasn't good at making excuses, so when Schlatt asked him why he was leaving in the night, he made something up on the spot. That had been months ago.
At least he sort of had an alibi for that, now.
Or, in which Tubbo finds a baby in the woods on his way to see Tommy, and promptly adopts it.
Part of a collection!! Read it all.
spider lily by blue000jay
Wilbur has a body.
The freckle on the base of his left pinky finger (shared with Techno). The scar on his chin from when he was twelve and over ambitious, diving into too-shallow water. The scar on his throat from the final control room, and the puckered skin on his shoulder from the poisoned arrow that killed him next. Various other nicks and things that litter his skin from years of rebellion and living wild, a kid thrown into a vicious world with too little self-preservation.
(Resurrection AU, for when/if Wilbur comes back.)
The author knows how it's like to live with chronic pain, and it shows :(
Hands tied loose by rabiddog
"Let's run away, Tubbo." Tommy breathed; a wide grin split across his face as his hope grew. "Let's get out of here – far away. We can go anywhere, can't we? Let's just go, you and me right here, right now."
-
Tommy needs to leave. He has to get out of L'Manburg, he has to leave the Dream SMP for his own sanity, and he wants Tubbo to come with him.
But Tubbo has a family now, a better life - something that he can't give up... not even for his best friend.
Unhappy ending :(
The serpent underneath by rabiddog
Tommy and Techno sit at the memory-filled bench and talk. Technoblade reminisces, he talks, he admits his pent-up feelings, he cries. And Tommy? Tommy listens. (That's all he can do.)
-
“I’m sorry for everything, you know? For all of it. I’m so sorry about... about the first war, about the withers and the fighting, about...” Technoblade's fingers began to curl around Tommy’s blonde locks. “About Wilbur and everything after. I'm so, so sorry.”
:((((((((
Damning choices by rabiddog
Ranboo would have never expected to find himself in a horrifying situation such as that one - quite literally sandwiched between a rock and a hard place, with three lives dangling over his head and the answer on the tip of his tongue.
Tubbo, Michael, Tommy.
It's his choice. He chooses who lives, and who dies. His new family, or his first friend. But Ranboo... Ranboo already knows.
-
"Ranboo," He hissed out, voice cracking and somewhat staticky, "It's not your fault. It's not. You had no other choice; I know that, okay? I- I know that- I know- I know..."
:(((((((((((((((((((((((((((
Jealousy is a disease by rabiddog
Tommyinnit isn't new to the idea of jealousy. He understands it completely. He understands the way it runs rampage through his body each time he catches even a glimpse of Tubbo and Ranboo's new relationship, he understands that the emotion makes his heart clench uncomfortably from time to time. He sees it, feels it, and yet he doesn't care.
He doesn't care at all.
-
"You took Tubbo away from me. You took him away. You took my best friend, and now he's- now he's not my best friend anymore, and I-!"
:)
Word of Honour by rabiddog
Tommy could only stand and stare as Technoblade agreed to hand him over to Dream - as his brother traded him off like he was nothing. Like Tommy wasn't important.
-
Technoblade was a man of honour. He was a man of pride and sticking to his word. He knew that he owed Dream a favour, and no matter what that favour might be, he'd be compliant with it. Nothing would change his mind. (Not even Tommy.)
Almost canon. F.
Sweet Repentance by rabiddog
Perhaps Tommy should have told Phil about his arguably life-threatening injury the minute his father had opened the door. But of course, Tommy being Tommy, did not.
Dying seemed like a nice enough option as long as he was with his family.
-
Tommy just wanted acceptance, forgiveness, and peace. He wanted to close his eyes for the last time and finally be able to let go.
Tommy dies painfully.
A White Tulip by astervoid
He picked the white tulip from the bottom of the stem, standing up carefully as he held it pinched between his fingers. It would die now, inevitably, but Tommy relented and held the flower to his chest. What a silly, stupid thing to ground him. He almost hated that it made his breaths come easier and his steps feel lighter. Almost.
Tommy & Ranbooo chill on the bench.
lying to the authorities (again) by touchgrass
"Please tell me that my right-hand-man, my soon-to-be vice president, one of the people I trust the most on this godforsaken server, did not lie straight to my face and tell me he was twenty-fucking-years-old.”
Tommy opened his mouth to protest, but then closes it shut at the furious look on Wilbur's face. Oops.
~
It is the day of the elections and Wilbur Soot could not have chosen a worser time to realize that half his staff is underage.
The ONLY fic with this premise I've seen on Ao3.
Dear Theseus by rabiddog
Tommy had thought that they'd won - thought that they'd finally beaten Dream, and that everything would be okay. As it turns out, however, apparently Dream had called in that favour from Technoblade after all.
-
“Please,” Tommy whispered after a beat, quivering hands edged upwards to hesitantly press against the tip of the sword striking through his chest. Why, why, why? Why him? Why now?
Tommy almost wins.
A Shifting World by AplusIsRoman
How was Wilbur supposed to know it would end like this?
The smoke hung in the air and soot clung to his skin. His brother - adopted, but older by two minutes - stood back-to-back with him. The chilling cries of people and the calls of the withers rang through the air above the chasm that was once his home.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
How could he have known this would happen?
-
Sequel to A Child's World
Age-swap AU. Has a prequel.
heart of the sea by RyDyKG
Here is the secret that he barely thinks about, a secret that he shoves deep and far down in himself:
Wilbur Soot is a siren, and he’s not exactly proud of that fact.
Wilbur-centric. Urban Fantasy AU.
He knows, ok? by Ralli
By some means, Techno has given his raccoon younger brother some cotton candy. It doesn’t end as well as either of them would like.
Very, very cute :)
that's it, it's split (it won't recover) by Jk_Kat
Tommy has always been the fighter.
He has never been the fought for, and he knows it, with every whisper Tubbo directs at Ranboo, with every glance thrown his way- Tommy knows, the way he wishes he didn't, that they think he's dead.
If they're so convinced he's still dead, maybe the one good thing left he can do for them is die.
---
Or, Tommy gets addicted to being dead and thinks that nobody cares about him. The people who very much do try to pull him back from the brink before Dream can't resurrect him anymore.
Messed up, but with a happy ending.
Hugs 'n PTSD by rabiddog
Ranboo knew from the start that the recovery process would be hard - that moving on from quite literally being beat to death would be something hugely difficult to step away from, and that's if Tommy could even manage it at all.
He knew that it would be stressful and arduous, demanding and tough... he just hadn't expected to be holding Tommy through a PTSD-induced panic attack only days after his release from Pandora's Vault.
-
Ranboo isn't typically an overbearingly protective person. But for Tommy? He just might be.
I love this author if you can't tell.
Big Men don't cry by Shiny22Snivy
The room is small and warm, almost stifling compared to the cool openness of the ravine. It’s cosy and candlelit, and a chest sits open in the corner, full of what looks to be burnt rags of a former smart suit. And sitting in rumpled blankets on a bed, cradling a mug of something steaming, sits Tubbo.
At first, Tommy forgets all about Niki’s vague warning. He’s just so happy to see his best friend again, alive and well and all in one piece. Tubbo’s okay. Tubbo’s okay, and in front of him, and suddenly everything bad in the world is gone, if only for just a moment.
“Tommy?”
And then Tubbo turns to look at him.
Clingyduo fluff.
sins of the father (i broke all my bones that day i found you) by ryter
The thing that hurt Wilbur most was when he saw Fundy tear down the walls of L'Manburg. After all, those walls had gone up to protect his son. But in this world, Fundy trusts his father just a little bit more, and it ruins him.
Or: there's only one way Wilbur never becomes the villain. It's unclear whether this was the better path.
SOME VIOLENCE WARNINGS/BLOOD MENTION. CHARACTER DEATH. SO MUCH ANGST.
Sad, but cathartic.
REVIVED TOMMY HEADCANNONS AHAHAHAHA by racooninnit
i’m dropping ALL the fucking revived tommy headcannons on you guys today get ready for some ANGST
this is different from what i usually post but it was fun
i don’t think there’s a lot i need to put warnings for, obviously there are mentions of the way tommy died and the aftermath of that (i.e. injuries and trauma), but if there’s anything that needs a warning please tell me!
What it says on the tin- not really a fic.
Unfinished Stories:
Ongoing (Less than a month since the last update):
Over the River Styx by CorpseArt
I feel like we should name him.
There’s a scuffle at the back of his mind as he rolls up, curling tight with a shiver despite the heat of the flames licking up his back.
I mean, he’s like – us, but like a worse version clearly because oh man, this is just weirdness. There’s a flare of a tangle of emotions, complicated and fearful, resentful and livid with anger. I can’t believe this is what I’ve been reduced to, stuck in the mind of this- this child.
He’s like your age, Tommy. Are you calling yourself a child?
I mean, I am one so fucking duh. Child murderer.
-
Or: trauma bonding in the most unconventional of senses.
Just- Read it. Show the writer your support, it's unique, it's amazing and there needs to be more of it.
If history is dead and gone by iregretallmydecisions
“Don’t come any fucking closer,” Tommy shouted, startling Phil into stepping back. Tommy was still looking around wildly, like a trapped animal “Don’t fucking do it.”
----
In which Tommy finds himself faced with his splintered family, while it was still mostly whole. The past is not an easy place to be when the future was not kind. His family is forced to deal with the fall out.
It's better than Rewind, but you didn't hear that from me.
Wilbur Soot's Redemption (OR Ghostbur's Retry) by luckykitty0523
Wilbur had many regrets in his life, being lost in his madness and the urge for revenge drowned leaving a shell of who he once was. It was only in his dying moments that he regained himself but it was already too late for him leaving him drowning in wishes and regrets. However waking up in another different universe where wilbur was never born and family soulmates exist, so when wilbur said he wanted to fix the mistakes he never expected this turn of events.
OR
In one world wilbur dies and he would return as a ghost missing his memory and trying to fix what he did in life but in this one wilbur dies and wakes up in another world where soulmates exist and the wilbur of that world was never born so wilbur/ghostbur takes his place and tries to make up his mistakes to the other version of his friends.
Wilbur adopts SBI + Fundy + Dream.
A Talk Long Overdue by penink
Tommy has his first therapy session with Puffy.
Tommy gets therapy.
Into the Night by Interjection
“Don’t touch me,” Tommy hisses, leaning against the railing. “I will - I will-”
They’re a hundred stories up. Wind lashes against Phil’s face. Next to him, Sam makes choked noise.
“But why?”
Tommy looks up to meet Phil’s eyes, terror struck so deep in those pale blue irises Phil thinks they must hold all the world’s fears within them.
“You’ll die,” he whispers. “And then I’ll die. But I’ll come back.”
“And I don’t want to come back.”
Others have the freedom to live. Tommy doesn’t even have the freedom to die.
But maybe they can teach him that living doesn’t have to be so bad.
---
(Superpowers AU where whenever someone touches Tommy, they both die. But Tommy will always come back to life eventually. He just wants it to end - but instead, he’s on the run, terrified of how his power will be exploited if he’s caught.
A few people reluctantly team up to save him.)
Funky SBI dynamics + a Sam that cares. Also a lot of angst.
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