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howyouloveyourdragon · 1 year

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alpha rhaenyra and omega aegon (platonic) headcanons. she along with daemon come back to the keep and find they need to protect aegon and possibly the other kids from otto and alicent if she won't listen. I imagine people like otto would not be okay with any of the boys being omega as it possibly lessens their claim so would be angry. (really fluffy but little angsty). possibly ends up with Jace or someone else if you want to put in romance.

thank you evattude my love for this request! it was very fun to explore :) i strayed a little bit because i wasn't entirely sure which timeline to go with so i hope that that is okay! i added some fluffy jace romance at the end because come on i can't ignore that boy, im sorry if i have not quite integrated a/b/o dynamics as well as you want, it has been awhile since i wrote for that universe so im a bit rusty <3

dividers by: firefly-graphics

all her life, Rhaenyra has been made to feel lesser than for her gender; by Otto, the men at court, possible intendeds, everyone

so when aegon is born she resents him

he will be everything that she was not for her father and she cannot ignore that

but everything changes when she presents for the first time, every feeling is heightened

she can feel the power rushing through her veins, the strength, everything is going to change

she's certain

but then everything falls apart

she needs to satisfy her newfound hunger and her uncle is eager to show her the ways of their world, being an alpha himself

excitement boils her blood even further, desperate, hungry and eager to feed her inner dragon

but he rejects her, abandoning her in a cold brothel for his brother to assume the worst

so she finds another outlet in Ser Criston Cole

and when her father finds out of her urges he has half a mind to disinherit her but she is future Queen

he knows it, he feels it

so he allows this slip so long as she marries Laenor Velaryon, another alpha and heir to the Driftmark throne

she fights and claws while still up to the brim with these changes, still unused to the growth in her muscle and discomfort in her joints

her uncle is her mate and she is being torn from him

but she has no choice

they are fated, she is sure that one day they will joing again

slowly she agrees but begrudging

Rhaenyra is merely glad that can convince Laenor to stay at the castle with her

the years pass and she has born three sons, all promising and with increasing strength

her heir Jacaerys even bares the traits she had upon the brink of her presentation, she could not be more proud until the event in which a pig aids the breakdown of a family

and then the incident with Vhagar occurs and they leave for Dragonstone after a rushed wedding

a mate is something sacred, someone to protect with your life and both the uncle and niece intend to

until she walks in on a scene she wishes she could forget

her brows furrow, ears overhearing Otto Hightower's scold but to whom?

she peeks through the open doorway and her heart sink to curn her stomach

"What would your mother say?" The older man hisses, grasping the pale boy's shoulder

"I-I-I cannot–it's not my fault!" Her brother's words stumble, her sympathy breaches

a lump forms in her throat as familiar words belt in her ears

"This is not what your mother needs right now, you are a disappointment to the throne and a disappointment to me." Aegon holds back his flinch

"I do everything you ask of me," His voice sounds so quiet, so fragile

"And yet you are still not enough." The grown man sneers. "You were supposed to marry your sister, child. Tell me how an omega could be King? Answer me!"

Silence locks them in time. Torturous time.

which is why Rhaenyra clears her throat and lets her presence be known

"Have you no shame?" She bellows, sharp and encompassing the regality of a Queen crowned

Otto doesn't back down, he only quirks a brow and bows shortly

"Princess," He greets, contempt seeping from his tongue

his gaze flickers to his grandson

"A pleasure to see you after all this time." Aegon doesn't look at her, his gaze stays firmly planted on his shoes

her own lilac sights narrow on him

"Aegon," she calls

his head snaps up at the acknowledgement and Otto's lips part in surprise

Aegon slowly turns around and she winces at the red in his face, his eyes are so bloodshot she would assume him drunk again but his pupils are surprisingly trained

"What is wrong, dear boy?" he hesitates even more at the sight of her

she should enjoy that but it makes her skin crawl

"It is nothing of your concern, princess." Otto sneers and although he stands in front of his grandson, it is not a shield of protection, instead it is one of shame

she takes a step closer and then she smell it

a frown settles on her lips and an instinct to keep him protected emerges

"Come," she commands but neither move

Aegon stiffens and flickers his eyes between the two adults

"Aegon, come, I wish to speak with your mother. She will be pleased."

her hand outstretches and beckons him while Otto provides a firm look

he has always obeyed, he has always seeked approval and yet as he stands, on the verge of a whimper he considers the options

Rhaenyra has never cared much for him, he knows this but even if she were a wild boar, he would take his chances with her more than with his grandsire

he skitters over to her quickly so that Otto cannot argue with him and he takes her hand, suddenly feeling small

the journey is long and tense but she does not let go of his hand, rather she envelopes him into her side like she would Lucerys

"She will not be happy..." Aegon grumbles quietly, worry toiling in him

"Whom?" Rhaenyra's brows pinch

"My mother."

Rhaenyra hums at the clarity

"Then it is a good thing we are not seeing her."

shock engulf his pupils which flit up, his eyes widen

"Th-Then where are we–"

"Your father." She murmurs, bitterness tasting her teeth. "He owes a favour to me." She sighs. He stops instantly and shakes his head, trying to pull away from her.

"No. No. No. No." he refuses, sniffles bridling in his nose "No, he does not wish to see me, no."

"Do you wish for a change of environment or not?" That spins his mind. His breath hitches and he frowns

"What?" He asks in a quiet breath.

"Daemon and I have been lonely as of late," She murmurs despite them both knowing the blanket adjacent lie spilling from her mouth

perhaps it is even sweeter than the wine he loves

"You would...You would have me?" He returns in question. she scans over him, his feeble legs and downcast expression

"You are more than he thinks you are." She states and steps closer. "I did not ask for the crown brought to me and yet I have embraced it. Despite this I would not...I would not allow force to garner our actions. And besides, the boys love you, they would love to see their uncle at all hours."

a soft smile twitches at his lips

"They miss you," she assure, her hand resting on his shoulder

"Really?"

she smiles. "Really."

and so the arrangement is slowly built

he cannot always stay in Dragonstone but he may visit for as long as he wishes and vice verse

though he had to ignore the betrayal lingering in his family's eyeys from time to time, how the embarrassment creeps beneath his skin

and yet riding Sunfyre with Jacaerys at his back is the warmest he has ever felt

he never flushes near Helaena and yet when his nephew beams at him, something unknown stirs

it is not lust, it is warmth

Jacaerys is his warmth and finally Aegon understands why Rhaenyra took charge to dispel his engagement to Helaena so strongly

he has never been happier, never felt more complete

and then Jacaerys presents, an alpha too and eager to protect him too

when they are finally visiting King's Landing and he has never been more excited, sure it is to reaffirm Lucerys' claim to Driftmark but it is no less exciting

he cannot hope but pretend they are coming all this way for him despite his true mind

he prepares himself early, dresses, washes and keeps as well behaved as he's able

Alicent is shocked to say the least but it is pleasant

she thinks that perhaps he is finally ready to be king, perhaps responsibility has finally brought him peace

but alas she watches as he runs to embrace his elder sister and she hardens at the warmth between them

he disobeys her for a woman who would strike him dead at the hint of his claim

Aegon tries to take no notice when later that day, Alicent is digging her nails into his arm

he had beckoned the family over but at the pain twitching his features, Rhaenyra had declined, all too aware of Hightower priorities

Rhaenyra becomes distracted by the ferocity in which she defends her son's claim and Aegon can't help but admire her

it wounds Alicent deeper than any cut

because he cannot understand that she is doing the same

that she is protecting him

then the King seats the throne and Rhaenys confirms her support once Rhaena's betrothal to Lucerys is announced

a sly glimmer flashes in his other nephew's eye however which he cannot discern

and then it happens

his eyes widen and his lips part, a gasp erupting from between them

another betrothal

one for him

without his sister's name and in it's place is Jacaerys

and when they connect eyes, he knows

he knows

that also snaps up his family's attention

even his father's who considers it carefully before agreeing

and that turns a regular family dinner into a betrothal dinner

the first in a long which ends with both comfort and hurt

but it stops a war

Aegon does not need power in his veins to feel the warmth of a dragon and seat a throne

both siblings will have their turn to rule, those who call for bitterness will be removed and those who insult Aegon's status will be punished for questioning

RHAENYRA Taglist: (if your name is in italics and bold, that means i couldn't tag you, you will need to check your settings) @evattude

HOTD Taglist: (if your name is in italics and bold, that means i couldn't tag you, you will need to check your settings) @wrendermedone @hopelesswritergall @its-actually-minicika @gettheetoanunneryimmediatly @adelusionalwriter @cookielovesbook-akie

#alpha rhaenyra #omega aegon #platonic rhaenyra #platonic aegon #alpha rhaenyra omega aegon #request #anon #anons #hotd #hotd abo #house of the dragon headcanons #abo hotd #abo asoiaf

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searchingforserendipity25 · 11 months

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finarfin/earwen and finwe/miriel

thank you @that-angry-noldo! ohh these are good ones hehehe

finarfin/earwen

what's not to love? they chose each other and made their family a refuge from royal duties, and it was torn apart. finarfin chose his brothers. i want them to get back together. finarfin chose his people. i want earwen to make the vr powerful political move never to separate and BE the queen of the noldor, bitches, just when the noldor are unraveling. hell yeah. finarfin chose, and unchose, and turned back. he chose HER and not their children, and which one is harder to forgive? how secretly proud is earwen that she owns him so thoroughly?

i want them to have many more kids actually it would a very funny and traumatic rebound. and the sacrifice of familial comfort for multicultural commitment and diplomacy is sexy. and only THEN do they get back together for reals for reals in the scant privacy of their life. but like. earwen gets that crown. outside to everyone's eyes they are a united front but in private (for centuries!) it is colder than the ice. it is separate rooms and legal precision over breakfast. but he chose her. he chose her. not their children not his people not his longing for the sea and the possibility of ever ever ever living outside his father's city and his brother's shadow and making a new kingdom for himself. insane.

they are insanely in love throughout everything btw. i mean outright mutual obsession. it never wanes even when it veers to resentment. they are each other's most passionate interest always always. but they are not real people anymore not since first the crowns touch their heads.

finwe/míriel

míriel never does anything halfway, and míriel could have had indis. she preferred finwe, because finwe was bold and cheerful and ambitious, and closer at hand, and of the noldor whom she so loved; and very easy to love, very easy to love.

their love was good and holy for it blossomed in the beauty of valinor, when tírion was being built and míriel was excelling in the new surrounding. i find that detail so interesting actually! did they not know each other in the journey? the fact that they only fall in love in valinor, in the most ideal of ideal settings, when the new powerful wonder was still strong as a spell upon the newly arrived elves, is. a lot going on there.

but míriel did not long for queenship. it was finwe she preferred, the delight of their collaborations and friendship and understanding. him, and all his flaws, and all his talents and strengths. she could have had indis, and might have had indis, and bore no children, or none that might call to her ambition to make for needing to hold all the fire of a mighty prince, finwe's descendant. finwe the widowed king knew that long before he saw the princess of the vanyar dancing alone.

#earwen #finarfin #míriel #finwe #ship asks #that-angry-noldo #this was so much fun!

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stellarhistoria · 10 months

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PARENTS: QUEEN AURIA (MALLAS) CYTOS & KING MOROZ CYTOS (calls himself lord).

CHILDREN (in order of oldest to youngest): ZACHARY CYTOS, ALCAEUS MALLAS (by two minutes), CALLIOPE MALLAS, LUKA CYTOS (HIGHWIND), ARYIN CYTOS, & ARIEL LANCEALOT (ASHLYNN).

"lord cytos", known by the worlds as king moroz (or, worse, king of winter), is not a kind man but he will continue to claim he has the best interests of his children and extended family constantly in mind. whether this is true or not is hard to gauge, as he has done some truly awful things in the past.

the first and last time, the ONLY time he got physical with one of his kids was the last time he ever had contact with one of them: the day zachary ran away.

for all he says about his kids to people who try to get him away from them, most of what he says does, to an extent, come from a place of... "love", in his twisted way.

he wants them to understand that they're "hurting people" by continuing to play hero. by continuing to believe in some strange fairytale. he wants them to grow up at least a little bit and face reality, and people encouraging them to stay where they are mentally feels, to him, "reckless and dangerous". both to the people around them and to his children themselves.

he's not as much of a fighter as one believes he is. he has very few attack options, the rest of his spells are for controlling a battlefield and being the most annoying epitome of "DIE ALREADY, YOU FUCK". so most do not challenge him.

he does not swing first. ever. (aside from with that one time with zack.)

"lady auria", otherwise known as queen cytos, or more historically as lady of the moontide, was a woman who did her utmost to keep her kids happy and healthy once she realized just how much she loved them.

yes, for a while, her children were politically born, for "function". she held no attachment to them. but after a while, she grew to love them, and found herself upset that she did not love them immediately, as they were so full of joy and light like she was once. and it scared her to know she bore such gifts of the world with such an evil and selfish man.

as the keeper of balance for a long time prior to her second youngest, aryin, she was much much older than one would have taken her for, only starting to age quarter yearly past her set age when she began to have kids with moroz. she knew this would happen, but she expected to be there for them the whole time they were alive. she was wrong.

she was ... sort of killed, physically killed, by her husband after getting too close to something he didn't want her to get near. her last wish was that she could have said goodbye to her kids one last time, or at least reminded them that she loved them. because she knew he would never say it to them. at least, not in a way where it would make them FEEL loved.

she was a druid (moon) - fighter (champion) - wizard (scribes). almost max npc level of eighty. only surprise group attacks could have killed her, and it did.

she was a terrifying woman, who would have torn apart reality to give her kids anything they wanted, even if it meant toppling their own kingdom and running to safety. perhaps this is why she was killed by her husband.

ex crown prince zachary cytos, man of many wonderful abilities but master at nearly nothing. every since he was young, he had a fairly decent aptitude for everything he touched, everything he picked up he could handle with dignity and grace, but he was never anything more than... good. you can see when this broke the camel's back.

for a long time in his youth, he was serious, solemn, the one who remained unshakeable. he was the pillar, the coliseum, unbreakable, unwilling to bend. someone had to stand their ground against their father and it had to be him. none of the others would suffer at their father's hands as long as he was around.

...as long as he was around.

during an altercation that was supposed to be like any other with his father, a usual hissing match behind closed doors. right before his eighteenth birthday. his father got mad enough to lay hands on him, near full force throwing him against the wall with a back handed hit, forgetting his own strength and where he had placed some things for a split second, getting some pieces of broken ceramic into his back past his clothes.

that day, not even waiting until the rainfall had stopped, zack ran from home, and never looked back. he didn't stop walking until he managed to find himself on a different world, and collapsed in a city of commerce and creation (san fransokyo).

he met a woman named circe there; she picked him up off the ground and gave him a place to stay until he recovered enough to tell him what happened, and they've been best friends and coworkers in his practice ever since. (circe is three years older than him, and is the "i will kill you myself once we're out of this deadly situation" lesbian to his "bad decisions are my middle name" gay.)

every attempt to tell him about what has happened with his father has been met with total silence and "ignorance" in the sense that he outright tunes it out. however, mentioning his siblings gets him to immediately drop what he's doing and light up like a golden retriever hearing that they're going for a walkies.

his dream job is to be an engineer.

alcaeus mallas, known by all simply as "kae", is a chaotic firecracker of the bluntest sharp object you've ever come across. usually found not to far from his two minutes younger twin sister, calliope "kallie" mallas.

energetic and the life of the party, it's not uncommon to find him suggesting the most insane plan that could get someone killed, and not uncommon either for him to have a full plan on the spot of something being announced, only for kallie to proofread it just as fast.

like his sister, he takes after his mother in mannerisms and ideology the most, but even that is negligible. they both share their mother's maiden name after being given direct expressed permission from her (tearfully so), but to say that they model either of their parents' mannerisms to a far extent is... an insult.

i don't know what classes they'd be, but they genuinely don't care that much about the war unless their siblings end up keeling over. it is unknown if they know about aryin dying and coming back to life, as they seem to have remained quite jovial after that point up until five years later (current day). it's possible the other siblings are worried about their response to it.

kae is the aggressively caring sort to make himself obnoxious to get you to love yourself so he'll leave you alone, but by the time you realize what he's done, you've been bamboozled and he's already gone. obnoxious (affectionate)

they're SAFE. and they're happy.

luka cytos, revered doctor and feared pirate captain, is a treasure to have at your tavern, as he always has some new story to tell... if you can get him to talk for longer than a few sentences.

idolizes captain jack sparrow - or at least believes captain jack sparrow to be a hero.

he purposefully makes himself look smaller to get away from people who don't want to hit someone who "looks like a coward". this doesn't always work, and instead provokes different people to hit him. most of the time it's people who believe he's incapable of fighting as a doctor.

he's studied gloom (the source of 75% of his fears) to an extent that he can infuse excess gloom within plant life to a safe extent and create new life.

canonically, it's heavily implied that he's capable of stitching souls back together, with enough magic, the right pieces, and willingness of the spirit.

luka has no romantic awareness at all, and in fact believes that relationships "thrive" on lack of communication. which is why his canon polycule has no definitive label and he has no qualms about simply saying he "Cares" about elysia and mollymauk. because it's not wrong and he doesn't have to worry about scaring them with a label that they didn't talk about.

he has been on the pirates of the caribbean world for over ten years, claiming that he's on vacation, to his father. ...moroz is not the smartest man.

vivian is dead certain that this boy is a highwind more than he ever would be a cytos but he refuses to acknowledge it despite how many times he's accidentally called her "mom".

i mean you already know a lot about aryin but let's talk family.

aryin loves their family more than they love themselves, but that's not a hard feat to accomplish, really. it's better to say that they love their family more than they respect their duty to being what the worlds need.

if their family needed them, then the worlds could burn. their family have been the only ones who haven't abandoned them throughout all this, or asked lofty goals of them, or confused them on what they should or shouldn't do. they have only ever asked for them to do what they feel is best.

aryin and ariel have the darkest humor out of the group of six siblings, because they were the closest to death out of anyone. aka they actually died or wished they had died rather than fought back against what fate had in store for them.

aryin however, humor wise, doesn't come across as dark humor, but if you make a really dark joke, aryin will likely start howling with laughter.

aryin learned of fairytale endings from zack reading them bedtime stories of times before the war. they have since learned that, well, ha, fairytales aren't real, but the endings are.

they do not hate their father, and in fact believe he can change. they have to believe he can change. because if he can't, then...

they miss their momma every day. she was the one who wanted them to grow up into whatever they wanted to be.

aryin became a knight to protect the family. to protect, to be a shield, to be the stalwart guardian. it just so happens that they found friends, and a new pair of people to love. it terrifies them.

#❥ aryin. bond: family ﹕ peace lilies in a wicker basket.#❥ luka. bond: family ﹕ my motto never changed & that goes for us too.#important.#abuse tw #gaslighting tw #manipulation tw #murder tw #mental illness tw #death tw #parental death tw #oh my god this FAMILY needs HELLLLPPP #❥ aryin. about ﹕ every card i'm dealt is black & blue.#❥ luka. about ﹕ the age limit is happiness.#❥ zack. about ﹕ there's madness in every swing of a blade.#❥ father. about ﹕ god and the devil don't scare those like me.#i do not have kallie as a muse surprisingly!#and i'm not saying shit about ariel

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sokkastyles · 3 years

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I'm still thinking about that "Zuko hates being seen as weak" thing and how not only is his defensiveness very obviously coming from a fear of being vulnerable because of being repeatedly hurt as a child, but we see Zuko as a child actually embrace the things that he was taught were weaknesses, and a large part of his narrative is learning to embrace those things again after being traumatized. That's specifically contrasted with Azula's downfall being linked to her belief that emotional vulnerability is a weakness.

Young Azula: He [Iroh] found out his son died and he just fell apart! A real general would stay and burn Ba Sing Se to the ground, not lose the battle and come home crying.

Young Zuko: How do you know what he should do? He's probably just sad his only kid is gone. Forever.

I've seen a lot of people talk about how Zuko seems to be closer to Iroh and Lu Ten, but I don't think that's all that's behind this. Zuko as a child displays empathy and emotional intelligence that Azula lacks, and Azula sees this as a weakness which she preys on in her brother, as well as her friends.

I think a lot of this can be chalked up to the difference between Ozai's parenting and Ursa's parenting. We see Ursa teach Zuko about love in the scene with the turtleducks ("that's what moms are like") and encourage her children to have empathy, scolding them when they display hurtful behavior towards others. Meanwhile, Ozai encouraged destructive and aggressive behavior and punished emotional vulnerability.

Zuko, for a long time, was torn between these two influences, and ultimately was forced to choose attempting to gain his father's approval because his mother was no longer able to influence him at all after a certain age, and especially after being burned and banished, Zuko closed himself off to anything that could be seen as weakness. That's why he spent so much time fighting Iroh, because Iroh represents choosing the things he was taught were weaknesses, choosing peace over violence, emotional openness over defensive aggression, and humility over pride.

But Zuko never actually lost his empathy, and part of his arc is learning to accept it, to accept love over fear and happiness over power. Throughout most of season two Zuko is forced into a position where he has no power, but Iroh tries to teach him that these are learning experiences, just like what Ursa taught Zuko with the turtleduck biting him.

This ultimately puts Zuko into a position where he's able to handle vulnerability better than Azula, who cannot allow herself to be vulnerable at all.

The crowning moments of Zuko's story are about embracing the things he'd previously seen as weaknesses. When he confronts his father, he says that the Fire Nation needs to replace the era of fear they've created with an era of peace and kindness, and when Ozai dismissively asks Zuko if Iroh has "gotten to" him, Zuko proudly says that he has.

Zuko: After I leave here today, I'm gonna free Uncle Iroh from his prison and I'm gonna beg for his forgiveness. He's the one who's been a real father to me.

Ozai: [Laughs.] Oh, that's just beautiful. And maybe he can pass down to you the ways of tea and failure.

Zuko: But I've come to an even more important decision. [Closes eyes and momentarily pauses.] I'm going to join the Avatar and I'm going to help him defeat you.

Ozai: [Smugly.] Really? Since you're a full-blown traitor now and you want me gone, why wait? I'm powerless. You've got your swords. Why don't you just do it now?

Zuko: Because I know my own destiny. Taking you down is the Avatar's destiny. [Puts his swords away.] Goodbye.

Zuko's defiance of Ozai here has multiple layers because not only is he rejecting Ozai as his father and choosing Iroh, but he's also rejecting Ozai's whole philosophy. Zuko speaks proudly of begging for Iroh's forgiveness because he's no longer unwilling to admit his own guilt, nor is he afraid anymore of accepting Iroh's love. Ozai associates this with "failure" but Zuko completely ignores his father's comment about Iroh, stating his even more important decision of choosing to fight with the Avatar. And this isn’t an easy thing for Zuko to do. He pauses several times while he’s talking and shuts his eyes at key moments, as if searching for that strength within himself. And when Ozai tries to goad him into fighting, Zuko refuses. Zuko has come full circle from the boy who believed he was at fault for refusing to fight his father to refusing to be goaded into a fight but also refusing to back down from what he believes is right. Zuko’s strength here comes not from power, but from accepting emotional vulnerability, the same strength that allowed him to openly cry in front of Iroh and ask for his forgiveness. This is also what allowed him to accept responsibility and atone for his mistakes with the gaang.

I can’t see a post-series Zuko, the one whose last moment in the series isn’t the triumphant, powerful moment of his coronation as Fire Lord, but a quiet moment happily serving tea to his friends, as someone who would shy away from or disdain vulnerability.

#zuko #atla meta #azula #ozai #iroh #i had to turn off the new post editor to write this because it went longer than the character limit #tumblr y r u like this

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twdmusicboxmystery · 3 years

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11x02: Acheron, Part 2 - Analysis

Okay, let’s talk 11x02. And 11x01. Because it’s a two-part episode, it’s important to consider them together. I have a LOT to say about what’s going on in these two episodes, so I’ll have plenty to post all week. Let’s dive in!

***As always, spoilers abound below for TWD 11x02. Don’t read until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned!***

Maggie

The first thing we see is a point of view from under the train car. The instant I saw that, I knew how things would go. I never thought Maggie would die (if nothing else, there are scenes with her in the trailer we haven’t seen yet) but I was curious as to how she would survive. When I saw this POV, I knew she’d end up crawling under the train. Just as Glenn crawled under the dumpster. Massive parallels to Glenn. Which by extension, massive parallels to Beth. Major resurrection theme.

It's also important that when she reappears, she comes from underneath the car. Obviously, that’s logical given that she crawled underneath the car, but they make a point of asking if the pounding is coming from the roof. Gabriel says no and then they open the bottom hatch for her. Her coming up from the ground like that is a visual representation of a resurrection.

So we see Gabriel, Negan and the others enter the train car. The spatial details here are important, and I had to watch the episode twice to get them all straight. It’s a little confusing the first time. So, the group jumps down into the train car through a hatch in the roof because they couldn’t get the door open in the last episode. The thing is, if you watch closely, you come to realize they’re not in the train car on the end. They must have walked along the roof for two or three cars before finding a hatch that let them in.

So, when Gauge shows up, he comes behind them, and that confused me because I was thinking they came from that direction. And they did, but they entered through the roof, not the door. Anyway, they can’t get the door open. So honestly, even if they’d tried harder, I’m not sure they could have saved him.

This scene accomplished a lot of things, character-wise, that we need to touch on. It’s important to note that Gauge’s death happened due to his own choices. Does that mean he “deserved” to die or that they shouldn’t have tried to save him if they could have? Of course not. No on both counts. But that doesn’t change the fact that his choices sealed his fate.

It's especially interesting that he called Maggie a Liar. Not only is that a throwback to the Governor, but it’s a particular type of mentality they’re showing here. Even the fact that he didn’t shut the door behind him is really interesting. My first thought was to be annoyed with him. Why WOULDN’T you shut the door. You live in this world. You know better. But it’s all ego. He can’t imagine something bad will happen. He just assumes if it does, someone will save him.

But the most telling thing was how angry he got before saying Liar. It just shows very much how he approaches life. When he messes up, he doesn’t feel bad, and accept that it was his fault, and try to learn from it. No, instead he gets pissed and blames everyone but himself and his own actions.

If this had been Daryl or Gabriel or Alden or any of our other heroes, they would have recognized that opening the door would have gotten their friends and family killed and would have sacrificed themselves. Especially if they realized they’d screwed up. But Gauge became angry and defiant, even killing himself.

Anyway, I’m rambling. This really has nothing to do with Beth or TD other than perhaps being a future template for something. But I thought it was a really fascinating character sketch.

The thing is, this isn’t really a matter of Gauge being wrong and everyone else being right.

Maggie is…not doing so well either. As I told my fellow theorists, Paola Lazaro said in TTD last week that Maggie was kind of off the rails. I think she said that a little prematurely, because we really didn’t understand Maggie’s state of mind just by watching 10x17 and 11x01.

It's not until she tells that messed up story about the house she found and the people in it that we understand that her state of mind really isn’t at its healthiest. Even saying she wanted to kill Negan before is…understandable given their past. But it makes more sense now why Negan is so nervous. He’s sensing her state of mind that her moral conscience isn’t as strong as it once was, so of course he’s fearful for his life.

I don’t know where they’re going with this Maggie story line, but I have a feeling this attitude of hers will cause conflict down the road. Several of my fellow theorists believe it will cause a rift between her and Daryl. And we can see that somewhat through Alden. At first, he was very much defending Maggie, especially against Negan. He has a lot of loyalty to her. But he didn’t like her abandoning Gauge, and you can see his loyalties starting to waver.

At the very least, what she said about not feeling anything about it is the opposite of what Beth always stood for. Daryl was trying hard not to feel things during Still, in the wake of the prison going down. She made him feel things because that’s the only way a person is truly living, rather than just surviving. Now Maggie is in that state of mind.

And I’m gonna argue that makes it a prime time for Beth to return to help her. But of course I’m completely objective over here. ;D

Maggie’s Story:

Maggie’s story was definitely dark and horrible, but interesting to analyze. I’m assuming there was cannibalism going on there. That’s why the missing limbs. The men in the house were eating the female prisoners. No only a callback to Terminus, but remember that Bob’s leg was taken for food, so I’m sure that’s what we’re supposed to infer here.

She talked about no eyes, no tongue, no limbs, vocal cords ripped out. So definitely the see no evil, speak no evil themes. With the limbs, it’s also a matter of not being able to escape or save themselves.

In terms of the plot, I do have one question about this that I think may be significant. Maggie first talks about three deformed people (she says, “I wouldn’t call them men”) coming toward her. She kills them, and only after that hears the noise from the attic.

My question is, why were they deformed? If they’re “men,” then they must be at least Maggie’s age, if not older, which means they’ve been around since before the apocalypse began. Even eating human flesh doesn’t cause one to become deformed, so why the deformities? I have no idea, but I wondered if there is a radiation theme going on here. Something they’re hinting at, but not saying. Just thought that was intriguing.

After that, things go sideways and everyone almost dies until Daryl arrives to save the day. So, let’s skip to his story.

Daryl:

We first see him bust through a wall with Dog. So, dog took off in the last episode, but the first time we see Daryl, he’s already found Dog again. At least, the first time. This is where he sees the murals on the wall, the walker with the handcuff and the suitcase of money, etc. I already talked about most of that in great detail HERE, so I won’t rehash it, though it’s very important.

One thing I will say about the mural is that thematically, it’s a match to Still. So, in the golf club, we had lots of rich people who clearly hid there when the world first went bad. And I don’t remember this particularly, but several of my fellow theorists have told me they remember the TTD after Still and that the writers talked about how the golf club was a statement about the class system. You have these very rich people, but their wealth couldn’t save them. Death, walkers, the apocalypse…none of these things discriminate based on wealth or position.

On the wall, we see people with crowns standing at the top, but below, they are homeless, and one of them is being attacked and torn apart. Meanwhile, Daryl sees a line of text that says, “it comes for us all,” probably meaning death.

Well, guess what? Angela Kang, in talking about the murals, said that this, too, was a statement about the class system. So thematically, this is meant to be a parallel to Still.

It’s just interesting to contemplate because if you think about it, most of our heros—Rick, Daryl, the Greene family, etc—weren’t at all wealthy. Rick was humble and well-grounded. Hershel worked hard his whole life and never had any glory or fanfare. And then there’s Daryl, who was “nothing. No one.” They all survived.

So of course it’s a socioeconomic statement, but it’s also one about mindset. It takes not only grit to survive this world, but a certain amount of humility. Ego always gets you killed eventually, as it did with Gauge.

I’ll also mention that I thought the guy with the crown who was being torn apart was being set upon by walkers, but AK says they’re specifically not walkers. They’re people.

So, it’s not a coincidence that we see this juxtaposed with the Gauge situation. His ego gets him killed and we literally see him being torn apart because of it.

Moving on.

Daryl finds a bag with a $100 bill with a letter written on it. This is a massive TD clue from start to finish. 100 is an important number. The hundred dollar bill features Benjamin Franklin on the front and Independence Hall on the back. Look either of those up and you’ll find lots of fun parallels we could point to. I won’t go into all that today except to say it’s definitely part of the Revolution theme.

This is what’s written on the bill Daryl finds:

“Dear Dad, you always said if you don’t come back in a week to move on. Mom didn’t listen and went looking. It’s been three weeks, so we’re going next. I’ll watch Jesse and turn on the radio every day at 10. See you both soon. Love Tom and Jesse.”

He also finds a picture of two kids. So, the “three weeks” jumps out because of Rick’s line in 5x10, “it’s been three weeks since Atlanta.” It’s also about missing family members, going searching for them, etc. Possibly important that the mom is also missing. I can’t help but think of the song from Still. “Our mother has been absent, every since we founded Rome…”

There is a 10 in there, which is an important number. The turning the radio on every day is both the radio/airwaves theme (also a line from the song) but a callback to Rick and Morgan and their walkie talkies. So, really interesting symbols here.

The two kids immediately reminded me of Noah’s twin brothers. I don’t think these two are supposed to be twins. I’m assuming the brother is older. But still obviously siblings. And it hearkens back to the last episode Beth was technically in. Which also had a lot of the CRM/Revolution theme in it. (X, X).

AK says this family probably didn’t make it, so I’m not expecting these kids to show up in the narrative. But it’s also important to note that the little girl is carrying the toy rabbit Maggie found earlier. So the rabbit also ties into all this symbolism. (P.S. I didn’t get to my rabbit post last week. I planned on it, but time got away from me. I should get it posted later this week.)

So, this is massive in terms of TD symbolism. I’ll talk about it fits into the bigger narrative in a minute.

Then Daryl kills the sleeping bag walker. I wasn’t sure the significance of this at first, but I think it ties to the tents and sleeping bags we saw in Atlanta in 5x06, Consumed. Daryl and Carol passed them while looking for Beth. So, this just shows us that this is tied to her storyline and Daryl searching for her.

You could also argue that the walker was “hidden” at first, and it’s significant that Dog found it/realized it was there before Daryl did.

The other thing is that as he’s looking at the sleeping bag walker, there’s a random shoe on the ground next to it. Missing Shoe/Foot theory, which is also indicative of Beth.

They hear another roaring sound and Dog takes off, running into the dark tunnel.

Here’s the thing. I think most people will assume the roar he heard was just more air being forced through the tunnels by the storm, as Alden explained it in ep 1. But I always watch with the subtitles on and I noticed at this part, the subtitles said, “Man Roaring.” So they actually did hear someone screaming. And that’s probably why Dog ran toward it.

After watching it again, I realized it’s probably supposed to be Roy. He’s the white-haired guy, played by C. Thomas Howell, who Daryl finds wounded after he emerges from the Tunnel. I think whatever happened to him when he went topside but then got attacked by walkers is what Dog heard and went running toward.

Maybe not terribly significant in the plot, but it’s important symbolically. Because once again we have something Daryl hears from a distance but doesn’t see. Dog (a proxy for Beth) runs toward it, and Daryl follows. When he does, he find someone who had previously separated from the group. They’re hurt, but alive. See the parallels?

I will say the Roy situation confuses me just a little. He’s clearly hurt, and when Daryl tries to bandage him, he refuses, saying, “just tell my kids I didn’t die a coward.” But then later he’s with the group, all bandaged up, and seems to be okay. (He dies when they reach the Reapers by taking an arrow to the head, so he still dies overall.) But it’s just weird that it seemed he would die, then seemed he was fine again.

It may well be something that foreshadows a future situation, and that’s why it’s not making tons of sense right now. Only time will tell.

Anyway, I kind of glossed over Daryl crawling through the dark tunnel. I don’t have much else to say about it except that it’s a SUPER potent symbol for Beth’s arc and very important that he emerges on the other side and finds this person. Annnd then goes to save TF. (Dark Tunnel Symbolism).

So, he hears the gunshots and finds the train they’re on. He comes up behind the walkers attacking them from the front, kills them, moves the bench blocking the door, and lets everyone through. Then he uses a grenade to blow up all the walkers. (Ew.)

After that they all get out of the tunnels and go topside. The next scene is also super important. We see the stars above. That’s partly to show that the storm has passed now, but also constellations = Sirius.

Maggie asks what he has and he tells her about it. There is one weird moment in this scene. When she tells them about the supply depot she wants to stop at, she says Georgie (from S8) set it up for emergencies, for people on the outside to use. When it says this, the camera focuses on Daryl for a LONG moment, and he looks almost sad. I’m not sure what they’re trying to tell us there.

Anyway, they all head out. Unfortunately, when they reach the right neighborhood, the Reapers are there to meet/kill them. And Roy is the first to go.

So, a couple of things here. I’ll probably do a details post because I’m leaving out MOST of the background details throughout the episode, and there are a lot of them. Lots of details to be gleaned in this scene.

But the second time I watched it, I was struck by the people hanging upside down. Obviously a grim sight, but it occurred to me that these people hanging this way look a LOT like the deer diagrams from Scars. Let me show you some pictures:

Top pick is 11x02. Middle and bottom one are from Scars.

See what I mean? So, chances are something about Scars foreshadowed the Reapers, which is interesting. They clearly see human beings in a certain way (as animals to be strung up and…perhaps eaten?) And that makes me think that what Maggie found in that house may tie into the Reapers as well. Just kind of interesting foreshadows of coming plots.

Eugene:

Let’s talk Eugene and then I’ll shut up for today. Eugene’s stuff was very intriguing. First thing you need to know. And understand, I didn’t know this. @wdway pointed it out. Some months ago, the actress cast as “Stephanie” was announced. This is her:

And that’s clearly not the woman who steps into the train car at the end. Which means this isn’t really Stephanie. She’s a decoy. In fact, the actress from this episode is billed on IMDb as “woman 2,” not as “Stephanie.”

Knowing that, if you go back and re-watch the parts with Eugene’s group, they mean something very different.

On the surface, it seems that Zeke, Yumiko and Princess are taken away in a sinister fashion. Then Eugene melts down and tells his story. (Note: while he focuses on his feelings for Stephanie and I think most of that is true, he still says he lied both to her and to his friends about being from a large settlement. So, he’s still keeping large chunks of the truth from them.)

Again, on the surface it seems that they accept his explanation and just decide to allow them all in. All the stuff with the other three is just a misunderstanding.

But if “Stephanie” is a decoy, that can’t possibly be the case. I think Zeke and the others told Eugene the truth as they know it, but they’re all still being manipulated.

After Princess left to pee, the guy told Eugene no one was in the room and acted like he had no idea who Princess was. They were definitely using psychological torture on him, trying to break him.

I think they know very well that Eugene's group is still lying about their settlement, and they're using a decoy "Stephanie" to find out the truth.

My point is that it goes back to the hallucination, making-someone-think-they're-crazy theme. It will be really interesting to see how this unfolds, because there's all kinds of psychological shenanigans going on here.

@galadrieljones made a really interesting connection some time ago. She noticed that back in 10x18, at Leah’s cabin, there is a metal, heart-shaped chair. The same chairs show up in the Commonwealth’s sales video from the trailer. So there’s some kind of link between Leah, Daryl’s memory of her, and the Commonwealth. We don’t know what it is yet, but all of this gives credence to the idea that she is either an outright hallucination, or Daryl is just remembering things wrong.

It also might mean that the Reapers are connected to the Commonwealth in some way. We don’t really know yet, but I’m having tons of fun trying to figure it out.

I want to touch briefly on the train car theme. Once again, there’s a parallel in both story lines (Terminus, and this one at the Commonwealth). Daryl’s group is in train cars this episode. And while Eugene’s group has been at a different compound, they started in the train yard and end in it here. But what I noticed is that Eugene enters the train car at the end, which is furnished inside, and finds his friends there. They all have a happy reunion.

It made me think of the fact that when Rick, Daryl, Michonne, and Carl enter the train cars at Terminus, there is also a family reunion. What happened beyond that was not good or easy. Clearly, Terminus was not a good place. Many of them almost died at the trough and they had to fight their way out through a walker blood bath.

I’m just saying that, while it obviously won’t play out exactly the same way, something similar is probably waiting for Eugene’s group outside that train car. Not good.

Acheron Overall:

Okay, let’s get to the big cheese, here. The overall narrative. The template.

These two episodes are called Acheron part 1 and part 2. So here’s the skinny:

Acheron = Underworld. Daryl’s group going into the subway tunnels (dark, underground) is what constitutes Acheron and why the episodes are called that. That’s why, at the end of this episode, they emerge from the tunnels onto the surface (i.e. the living world).

Given all the death, cemetery, and dark tunnel symbolism around Beth, given that she ventured into the land of the dead by being shot, maybe clinically dying for a time, and being thought dead for so long, what this tells me is that everything that happens in these tunnels is a foreshadow and template for what will happen this season.

I maintain that Dog = Beth and we will soon see something where Daryl hears something (not necessarily her; it was a man screaming so I still think it will be Rick he hears word of) and goes chasing after it. While searching for it, he stumbles across Beth. Then the two of them (both Dog and Daryl returned to the train car) go back in time to save TF from something.

This is most likely why the Roy thing is weird. In a super understated way, he represents Rick in the template. Daryl will find him, but only after he finds Beth. Even consider what Roy says. He says, “tell my kids I didn’t die a coward.” And that’s all well and good, but did we even know Roy had kids? No. Have we met them? No. But who has kids that Daryl IS concerned with? That would be Rick.

So I’m thinking that maybe when Daryl finds Rick, Rick will think he’s dying for some reason, and that’s why the dialogue here. But he won’t, which is why we see Roy with the group later.

And no, I’m not thinking that Roy dying via the Reapers will extend to Rick. It’s more like what they’ve done with countless characters that have been Beth proxies. Eventually, they kill them off. He’s a minor character they were using as a proxy, and when they are done with him in the narrative, he becomes walker chow. Or, in this case, Reaper fodder.

Anyway, I think everything will end up being a foreshadow for something. Maggie and Negan. The Gauge situation. All of it. I’ll try to keep coming back to this as the story progresses to show what everything foreshadows. I’ll stop there for today.

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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gaegalsyd · 3 years

Text

See Through Me

Pairing: KamilahxMC

Summary: basically it's chaotic Lily, with lovesick Kamilah, then clueless Amy

Note: Set between BB1 and BB2.... and I did say that I would write after I'm settled with my classes but this was in my drafts so I just finished it. (just another way of saying I'm still not settle with my classes)

It has been a few weeks after the events with Vega in the cabin of Adrian upstate, despite that, Kamilah is still feeling some darkness waiting to emerge and cause havoc to the peace that they have. Kamilah is in her private elevator towards her office in Ahmanet financial to check some files before meeting with Lily to continue with their training. Lily may have moved in the shadow den and is also training with the vampires there, but the two of them continued their training in the studio in the office building of Kamilah. She may have grown a little fond of the fool but of course there are no hesitance in making sure that Lily becomes a strong vampire and she have made it her responsibility to look over her protégé.

And when she came out of the elevator, she sensed someone in her office, and the fact that it’s already late at night and all of her assistants and employees have already left the building she immediately withdrew her daggers to kill anyone whoever came into her office. Being as old as she is, she learned long ago that she should be ready with anything that can happen, which means she never go anywhere without her deadly jeweled dagger. When she got closer to the door with her fighting stance, she realized that it’s a vampire who is in her office but after hearing some weird noises-which is apparently a laugh- she knew that it’s Lily.

“What the hell are you doing in my office when you are supposed to be in the training studio?” she questioned with her daggers still on her hands.

Lily simply snorted without removing her eyes on her computer “Dude, the security of your computer is so shitty that a baby can get in here any moment.”

The older vampire knew that there’s no point talking to Lily when she’s transfixed in a computer. So, she just kept her blades and crossed her arms. “I assume you already modified some of the security settings” she said in an unimpressed tone.

“you’re welcome” after she finally looked at her and then the fool stood up and gave her a dramatic bow. But Lily immediately realized that she is not happy.

It’s not that she is not grateful with what Lily did but she is still in the process of trusting other people than Adrian. And after thousands of years of experiencing betrayal from different people, it’s just hard for her to just open up. Yes, she has gotten closer and got herself to trust the mortal best friend of Lily, Amy but that’s different for her. And she now considers Lily and Jax her friends though she would not say that out loud, that does not excuse what Lily did going through her computer.

“shit shit, I’m sorry Kamilah” Lily pleaded her “I swear I came here early and you were not in your office and when I sat in your chair, I saw the software and I…” the younger slumped and must have really felt sorry for her actions.

The older vampire just sighed and started walking to the door but before she opened it, she looked back to Lily “I’m expecting you to be in the studio in 5 minutes” she said with a devilish smirk on her face.

“damn, I’m getting my ass kicked so bad”

Once both of them are in their training outfit, they did separate warmups before having a hand to hand combat. Kamilah is not the kind of teacher that the students will love, instead she is strict but patient when it comes to training her proteges.

“You know, I’m actually torn if you should be master Shifu or Tigress” Lily said before they have their fighting stance. “I asked my gal Amy about that earlier and she said you’re definitely Tigress” Lily continued.

Kamilah did not know and did not care in whatever Lily was talking about but when she heard the name of her mortal, her interest has been piqued, however it was covered by her stoic façade. “I don’t know what that is, and your right leg is positioned wrong”

Lily did not respond or make any more comments throughout the training. And Kamilah felt a relief without those silly comments that the young vampire always has, perhaps she still feels guilty about what happened in her office. At the end of their training, Lily was lying on the floor with her arms and legs spread out and her eyes wide open.

“What the hell happened to you?” Kamilah asked but in her mind, she thought that younger vampires are so bloody dramatic. “you kicked me to a wall so many times I lost track, and I can’t even complain because this is like your revenge” Lily replied while trying to sit “and my girl is right you definitely are Tigress” she added. Kamilah would not have cared why she is being told to be like a female tiger though she remembered that Lily mentioned something about her mortal saying she is a tigress, she cannot bring herself to ask Lily about the thoughts of Amy.

To say that she wishes to know the thoughts of the mortal is an understatement, there are many questions in her mind about Amy. Does she think of the old vampire as often as she thinks of her? does she also feel like the world around them vanishes when it’s just the two of them in a room? does she know that the thought of her brings Kamilah to peace and comfort?

“Will you kill me if I ask if we can take a selfie together?” Lily asked while gathering her things.

“A what?” Kamilah knows that languages are dynamic but this woman with her is a chaotic dumbass that sometimes she wonders if she is just making up words.

“A picture together, Imma send it to Amy later” Lily said nonchalantly while taking out her phone.

She just huffed and nodded but if it was somebody else that asked her, she would’ve stabbed them already. She simply isn’t interested in taking pictures but the back of her mind tells her that she’s doing it because she wishes that her Amy would see her even in just a picture. Kamilah may not admit it but she knows that after a few weeks of knowing and spending time with Amy, she’s already acting like a lovesick fool as if her day will not be complete without the girl being a part of it. Even as small as hearing her name, seeing her across the conference table, smelling her scent, and feeling her presence is enough to make lighten up her mood.

Lily moved closer to her and took the goddamn picture. “alright and sent!” Lily said in a very enthusiastic way. “Why are you so energetic” Kamilah sighed and she really did not know how Lily gets this energy. “I think I am energetic too especially for someone who got her ass kicked a lot of times” the young vampire murmured while preparing to go out of the building “Adios Sayeed! Fuck you very much for the body pain” Lily as she walked away and the fool had the audacity to raise her middle finger at her and then running away like a scared child after she glared at her.

She made her way to her private suite within the building to freshen up as she plans to visit her mortal. Even though she is certain that Amy is not yet sleeping- she may have memorized the schedule of the girl- she sent her a message, to inform the young woman of her visit.

“The company is very welcome” Amy replied with an “emoji” that she still refuses to use and a series of hearts.

On the way to the young mortal’s apartment, the mind of the vampire was just around how she misses her and how she wants to hold her forever. Love, crossed her mind many times whenever these kinds of thoughts invade her mind and infect her heart. And her mind says that she is not yet ready for such attachments, but her heart says otherwise, the stupid thing on her chest just knows that Amy is the one that she has been unconsciously looking for. Like being blind for two thousand years and finally seeing such beautiful colors for the first time, all this time she was blindly looking for something and when her heart found it, her too smart brain just won’t allow it.

And when she reached and entered the apartment, warmth filled her body and her eyes felt moist as if tears are ready to come down her face, that will go through her lips as it formed an endearing smile reserved for the woman smiling back at her. Amy stood up to welcome her with a light embrace and she knew, she’s home, and that her mind has surrendered to her heart completely and irrevocably.

“Sorry for the late visit” she said sheepishly while sitting down in the living room which was quickly responded by Amy with a smile “I did say that the company is welcome” that eased her, something about this woman just comforts her. “How’s training with Lil?” the girl asked while taking her right arm to loop it around her body. She recalled and told her the events that happened a few hours ago that made the girl in her arms giggle.

“She did send me the selfie” Amy said.

So, it really was a word and not a thing that Lily just randomly came up with she thought “I’m certain I don’t need to ask to know if I look presentable in the picture” She said too confidently when the truth is, she just wants to hear the girl say something about her. Apparently falling in love is making her greedy of attention.

“Why does that sound like you just want me to say that you are absolutely gorgeous especially when it’s after being a badass” the young girl said while laughing which made the older woman raise her brows, then she added “but kidding aside, you always look amazing”

Kamilah hid the giddiness she felt on her body by kissing the crown of the younger woman’s head “I suppose that’s just how it is” which made Amy laugh again who stood up and took her hand then lead her to the room “You need sleep, you’re getting way ahead of yourself” and now it’s the vampire’s turn to laugh but she just followed her to the room where they settled. This was not the first time that she will be sleeping over so she already knew which clothes she can borrow and which side she would sleep in. Moments like this are treasured for Kamilah because they are able to build a foundation for their relationship, or whatever this is, with connection and not just sex. She loves the part where they act on their desires and lusts, but the nights where they just lay in bed and talk are something she really adore. To understand and be understood is something her soul has been longing for.

And as they lay together, holding each other close, she thought of all the times where she fell in love to someone, and how it was all nothing compared to what she is feeling for the woman beside her. “Thank you” Kamilah whispered randomly, which Amy still responded sleepily to “you’re welcome to stay here any time”

Little did the mortal know that she is so grateful for her bringing light to the ancient vampire’s life, for looking at her and not seeing a monster, for letting her experience all the best feelings she never thought she would feel, and for making her try to be a person worthy of her love.

It has only been weeks, and she is already in too deep.

Only been weeks, and she already swear to protect Amy with her life.

She’s been existing for two thousand years, but it has only been weeks since she has truly lived.

#kamilah sayeed #kamilah x mc #kamilah sayeed fanfics #BB #choices stories you play #bloodbound fanfiction #choices kamilah

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redteabaron · 4 years

Note

Could u talk about the 3 giants with the prophecy?

So bad omens/bad tidings come in threes in asoiaf. It's there throughout the books where each bad thing progressively gets worse, or confirms that the first thing that happened is just the beginning.

Threes exist everywhere in asoiaf; in particular, magical things or things that will have more significance or be more than what we expect but it always seems to signify bad things. Three Lannisters, three dragons, Three Eyed Crow, for instance.

We have multiple references to a giant in Sansa's storyline. I don’t think Sansa encounters one giant. I believe there’s three because we have evidence of all these "giants" being a part of her storyline as antagonists.

The first giant - destroyer of Winterfell:

Sweetrobin (and his doll). He's a kid and a brat and doesn't realize what making that snow castle meant to her - the closest she can get to Winterfell, a place she associates with family and safety. To him, it was just something to trample and get Sansa's attention - who effectively becomes a surrogate sister, mother, playmate, caregiver to him. It doesn't mean he's a villain in any way but in this moment he is her antagonist, and he's an innocent one at that; he's a poorly socialized child that doesn't recognize boundaries or know how to interact with people.

But he destroys the memory of her home she's losing herself in, a home she desperately wants to go back to, a home that remains a place where her family was last whole. She rips his doll, the giant is defeated and her "home" is avenged. The first giant is slain in the name of a castle made of snow.

The second giant - the savage giant

Littlefinger/Baelish. His sigil is the titan of Braavos, and the machinations that ripple across Westeros leads us to believe he is a man of enormous reach (a giant). I'm torn on what (or who) may exactly happen to him, but no doubt that Sansa will have a hand, indirectly, in his death. If Sweetrobin lives, Sansa/Alayne may be able to provide evidence of what he's done and confirm that he orchestrated SR's poisoning (which she doesn't know is actually meant to kill him, she's not a maester). I know one thing - I don’t believe he makes it North. He never makes it to Winterfell.

I don't think he even makes it out of the Vale. He's chosen to be there and collected his power around him, his victims, and is assured nothing can go wrong, that everything is carrying on as planned. He’s comfortable. He’ll die in a castle made of snow but it doesn’t need to be in the North - maybe he’ll die in the Snow waycastle if he tries to flee, but is caught. (And it's already snowing in the Vale anyway - any castle he dies in could be made of snow).

On one hand I think SR/the lords of the Vale will call for his execution as vengeance for Lysa's murder and the poisoning of SR once the truth comes out.

On the other hand, I'd love it if Lady Stoneheart would be the one to have him executed - he tore apart a kingdom which causes the deaths of her family, murdered her sister, obsesses over her, and forced his sexual attentions on her daughter to groom her for his personal use. It'd be just desserts if he "got" Cat only for her to be his end. But due to time constraints, this one would require more storyline timeline info for me to bet on certainly against SR and the lords calling for his execution. No matter what, however, Sansa will be the catalyst of his end - either providing evidence to the lords and SR for his crimes, or to LSH who would kill Petyr for touching her daughter. I specify him as the "savage giant" in this thread due to his actions directly affecting Sansa (identified as the maid who slays giants) and Jeyne (who he helped trap in a snow castle).

The final giant - the giant at the end of the world in a castle of snow

Tyrion. Book!Tyrion is completely a villain (I don't acknowledge show!Tyrion here; Show!Tyrion is pretty unrecognizable from his book incarnation). There are quite a few statements people in asoiaf make about Tyrion being a giant, unprovoked, but my personal favorite is this remark Aemon makes when Tyrion visits the Wall:

"Oh, I think Lord Tyrion us quite a large man. I think he is a giant come among us, here at the end of the world."

Aemon is responding to Bowen who snidely points out how much Tyrion drinks for a ‘small man’. But the second part of the quote always hooked me. He’s referring not just to Tyrion’s large appetite/self who’s larger than is believed, but the fact that he’s at the Wall; the end of civilization that Westeros recognizes, but I think there's a couple deeper meanings.

Tyrion as the giant that comes to them at the end of the world:

1. from the perspective of southron Westeros, he'll be bringing dragons and a dragon queen who will burn them and be the end of their world as they know it (the dance of dragons 2.0, the burning of King's Landing, an invader bringing a foreign army, a usurper of either Aegon VI or of the still seated Lannisters if they're still alive) (the world ending in fire)

2. Tyrion will arrive at Winterfell to collect "his bride" and the claim of Winterfell and the North, on behalf of Dany (but operating for his own desires) after the war against the Others (the world ending in ice) already happened. If Jon misses the war against the Others, I think it's very possible, and he'd only be in the south to ask for assistance or dragonglass because I don't see him being crowned KITN (Rickon or Bran or Sansa will be acting as KITN/LOW and he'll have to be their emissary).

I think there's a good chance that the ending in ice happens before the ending in fire; the Others will be dealt with before Jon can leave the south.

In turn, Tyrion may be sent to negotiate with the regent/Lady of Winterfell (assuming no one knows Bran and Rickon survived) about swearing fealty to Daenerys esp if Aegon VI is still alive and he and Dany haven't begun their dance yet. Jon is forced to stay at the behest of Aegon and Dany as a mediator, perhaps, if the revelation of his birth comes out; I think there's a good chance he finds out before he goes south (three heads of the dragon meeting in KL - not good tidings and bringing back Jon's time as mediating peace between the Watch and the freefolk).

3. If the Night's Watch is still operational at the end of asoiaf, I think that's where Tyrion's endgame lies. At the end of the world (and in a position and place he mocked in the very beginning for being useless).

How would Sansa be the end of Tyrion? By denying him. She denied him before and this time so will the North. Sansa will "slay" him metaphorically. Those dreams and aspirations and desires? She will be the end of them. She won't let him have her or the North and vice versa - Ned (the North) won't let that Lannister [(wo)man] have this skin.

Neither she nor Lady (whose bones rest in Winterfell) will fall into Lannister hands for good.

If he does become Hand of the King it would be...odd. A complete glossing over of his crimes when grrm has setup indications that ppl might not be punished immediately, but they will be punished. Plus, if Tyrion returns to Westeros as Dany's Hand then he'll have served under two tyrants. Rule of three, serving under Bran would...not be a good look. It's a guideline grrm has set for the threes in asoiaf.

Maybe in the books the King of the 6/5 kingdoms hands Tyrion's judgment over to Sansa and she sentences him to take the black; honoring a promise that his nephew (a Lannister) broke to her and Ned (Starks). Who knows. I don't hold out hope for him suddenly aboutfacing and becoming a hero who then faces no consequences - him turning on Dany after she burns KL won't pardon his other crimes; rape, kinslaying, molestation, planning to use Dany or Aegon as his hammers against KL/his family.

Hope that fully explains it, others have done a better job writing tyrion as a villain meta. Thanks for the ask.

#anti petyr baelish #anti tyrion lannister #anti littlefinger #anti tyrion #sansa stark #robert arryn #theory and meta #asoiaf #anti sanrion #anti petsa #there's a lot of meta posts and theories about tyrion's trajectory on tumblr and all of them explain it better than i do #well ones that see him as a villain but there's a great deal that see him as a dark gray hero

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alistonjdrake · 3 years

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Of Rust and Gold: Season Three

*Or the likely very long intro to my third series of world building and character posts that all have to do with the second to last book in The Saints Song series.

The other ones are here:

Season one: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Season two: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Or can be found via OBS’ wip introduction post here:

heyo

Below you’ll find a run down of the prominent cast and a summary of what they’re all about so let’s get to it.

OBS, the third book in the series, showcases the Escana Empire on the verge of crumbling as a murdered king and a divided government threaten to tear the country apart. As some grapple for power and wealth, others decide to jump ship.

Prince Argus: After escaping the war in Codua and his sorta not-friend with whom he cheated on his husband with, Argus returns to Graza only to find his favorite brother dead and everyone else being a dick. In making an alliance to his father’s old enemy Argus hopes to gain a higher position in the council or in the empire overall as a dead king with infant children usually only means one thing. But y’know, he also has hopes to fix his relationship with Leo and to stop being manipulated by all the sharks swimming around him.

Queen Liliana: Problem in Graza #1. The council is almost evenly divided between her authority and Prince Leonides’, pushing them into a bitter rivalry that was toxic way before King Cidro was murdered. She’s reasonably unhappy.

Prince Leonides: Problem in Graza #2 and it was his idea to keep Cidro’s murder hush, hush until they’re in a better position to handle it. Whatever that means. As the appearance of old enemies and the disappearance of his own allies loosens his usual chokehold on the Escana government, for once Leonides finds himself at a disadvantage and there are many (likely a lot on this list alone) waiting to finally push him from his pedestal.

Lord Barraza: Partnered with Argus and ready to take advantage of the bad blood between Leonides and Liliana. His youngest son is missing after being implicated, arrested, and released from the last attempt at King Cidro’s life. Lord Barraza is pretty stern on maintaining his family’s innocence and that all he wants is peace between the Harvers and Barrazas.

Princess Damaris: Has been kicked out of the Order of the Knights (that international police force type beat) and now has blood on her hands but is currently in protection from the law on account of being a princess y’know. She’s really torn up about it.

Princess Zurina: In a bit of a twist she’s now kinda close to Leo due to the whole “Damaris killed someone” debacle. As well as slowly learning to exert her own influence while her siblings and the rest of Graza fight with one another.

Prince Orland: Eleven months older than Zurina and her right hand man. Kinda weird, but so is the whole family tbh.

Chancellor Harver: Bitter as ever. Argus’ involvement in Codua and Damaris’ murder has made Escan’s relationship to the holy capital really strained and has put him in an awkward position. Also, again, technically no longer a prince.

Prince Aayden Ponsonby: Still cleaning up the conflict in Codua and recovering from whatever happened between him and Argus. His anger problems might have momentarily gotten worse and the precarious health of his father and changing attitudes back home has made his own position as Crown Prince of Oskya a bit tense so he’s often too distracted to be mean.

Princess Hadley ek Ponsonby | Niężckna Hajnalka lik Villumsen: (I just like writing her whole name). Aayden’s wife. A bit on the wild side, might find herself in Graza because her husband as a (valid) reason to not want to be around Argus and also to keep her safe and away from what’s happening in Oskya.

Reverend Mother Ulrike: Mother of all Santivian nuns. While she instigated the war in Codua she’s not pleased with some of the outcomes. She has a very anti-Justice Zisa campaign going that she initially was aligned with Chancellor Harver on but then his cousin killed her surrogate son so now things are kinda awkward.

Hartanti Telak: Also currently missing. Still amazing and stunning though. She was last seen criticizing a nobleman for talking to her at a party.

Lady Cordinia ana’Gustavo Carvallo: Now not the only Dowager Queen/Empress in the Escana Empire. In charge of the royal nursery and Queen Liliana’s closest “friend” if she can even be called that.

Lord Enyo an’Tomas Serafin: Last seen throwing wine in Argus’ face. The highlight of his year. Totally not Lord Barraza’s sugar baby now.

Ambassador Ulmer: Probably going to quit soon. The in between for Escana and Oskyan relations. He’s trying to flatter as many people as possible and keep the peace.

Ambassador Oprinchuk: The expert on Ardunese and Oskyan relations. An ally of Justice Zisa’s and a woman feared by many. Hadley admires her.

Maltoq Zamen: Prisoner. Took a vow of silence and hasn’t spoken more than like 4 words a while back.

Leo Dianglo: Has honestly been spiraling since he and Argus had their secret wedding. If he got his way, he and everyone he cares about would be leaving Graza immediately. He overheard some unfortunate things, was arrested for a crime he didn’t commit, and has another kid to take care of. He’s just having a rough time.

Mel: Surprisingly, being forced to join the knights and then kidnapped by pirates trying to use him for purposes he can’t understand did nothing but made him an even more angst-riddled teenager.

Mung: All things considered, unwilling knighthood hasn’t been so bad for him as he’s getting proper medical training and is no longer considered pirate orphan #2. Just don’t ask him how things are between him and Mel.

Officer Gerwin: Commander of the Escana Knights. The one good day he’s had was firing Damaris.

Sir Erasmus: Knight elected to keep watch on Leo and his pirate orphans. Although he hasn’t really been doing that lately. In fact, where has he been?

Catalina: Marcel’s daughter. Leo’s daughter. She’s a kid and she’s around.

Sister Rosalie Pélissier: Kellish nun who ditched the Kallenbachs and the Oskyan war camp to join Duchess Benedetta. But she wants to make friends with Argus. She also seems to know things she shouldn’t.

Lord Gaius Kallenbach: Boy needs a break. He’s almost died like twice and no one seems to care.

Lady Philomené Kallenbach: Gaius’ older sister and was (still is?) Sister Rosalie’s girlfriend. She also ditched the Oskyan war camp to hang out with Duchess Benedetta.

Duchess Benedetta Onesta Cassiopeia de ave Astorino: The warring Duchess has secured a few more victories but might be willing to surrender to the Oskyans and the Escana Empire if they can all come to a beneficial deal. After revealing that she’s not working with her uncle and has her own qualms with the holy capital, she’s made herself a glowing potential ally but still a very dangerous adversary.

Justice Zisa: The ambitions and unlikable leader of the Santivian world. He’s not a huge fan of Escan or Oskya at the moment.

Princess Wiara Mirecka: The girl Leo found marooned on a beach turned out to be a missing princess of Gegra, fleeing her home after her mentor was accused of witchcraft and she’s been causing problems (and plotting kidnappings) since.

Tamune: The living god in the cells deep within Alda.

Captain Mercy Dunham: The island of Ruiz and his fleet are gone but he’s still out there somewhere.

Master Asli: Arrested and in Alda.

Valera de Martí: As Graza and the Escana Empire struggles to stay strong after losing two kings in a so few years, some take the opportunity to reignite old whispers of rebellions and exiled fugitives may come crawling back to take advantage of the weakened government

#long post #my writing #my characters #character intro #tss trilogy #lgbt+ characters #lgbt fantasy #I'm not even gonna make a comment about how large my cast is for these books #it's already a known fact #I know I said these were all 'prominent' but honestly a good chunk stay in the background #their existence is just important for the story #like Justice Zisa hasn't been in a scene since ORG but because he's basically this world's version of a pope he keeps coming up

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purble-turble · 3 years

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I had a thought. On Shan's birthday, to avoid the trick Red pulled on MK's birthday by pretending to be Pigsy, everyone gets together. How would Red react to that?

I think one of the things that is different about Demon King Red post-calabash is a new lack of patience. He’s spent ten years having a (fake) family with MK at his side and in that time there must have been lots of celebrations of holidays and birthdays, so it’s something he’s kind of grown used to. When he learns when Shan’s birthday is and that it’s coming up, he absolutely insists that he be apart of it, whether or not MK or his friends are going to allow this is not a concern of his. He’s going to make it happen.

And yeah, MK remembers what Red did for his own birthday and traumatized him in new, scary ways he didn’t realize he could be traumatized so is absolutely something he is going to be looking out for. He allows Shan to have a party because she’s just a kid and she can’t be denied these niceties that all the other kids get... but he’s nervous the whole time and has got his True Sight locked on to every new guest that arrives to make sure they’re not a demon in disguise. Of course, this new Red is not going to be as subtle as he used to be. Red crashes the party in his standard king regalia, no disguise at all, he just uses his fire to appear in the middle of their living room full of guests in full view of them all. Obviously MK gets out his staff, ready to fight him off, but Red just smirks at him and says “Darling, are you really going to make a scene in front of all your guests like this? Seems a bit dangerous. We wouldn’t want the other children to get in the way, would we?” A clear threat against all of Shan’s friends who are present. And MK knows from experience that Red doesn’t care about who gets caught in his crossfire, so if he fights him here and forces him to leave Shan’s party, he can take the mad king at his word that he’s going to target the innocent bystanders out of spite.. and the people at the party are Shan’s friends! It would hurt her in immeasurable ways if they were to be hurt at her party because Red wanted to be there.. On the other hand, he doesn’t want to subject his daughter to Red if he can help it at all, so he’s seriously torn about what to do here... of course, Shan is pretty smart too, so I think when she sees her father hesitate to attack Red, maybe catching the worrying glance he gives over at the other guests, she figures out what Red means as well. So while her father is frozen with indecision, she steps forward, patting MK’s hand and giving him a reassuring look so he knows that SHE knows what she’s doing, and she approaches Red herself.

King Red is as pleased with this as MK is furious.. but Shan steps up to him and welcomes him to her party and allows him to dote on her for a little while. He gives her presents too, of course. Things he knows from his spying that she’ll like, as well as a few pieces of jewelry.. MK seethes when one of them is a hair ornament in the shape of a crown.. speaking of MK, he hovers just a few feet away, glaring at him the entire time Red is even within arms length of Shan, of course. Eventually, the party continues and Red just kind of fades into the background, watching as Shan plays with her friends. During this time, Red and MK probably have a very tense conversation where MK threatens that if Red tries to kidnap Shan today of all days he’s absolutely going to kill him.. and Red, who has just had this dreamy look in his eyes the whole time like he’s only half there, finally looks over at MK and that wild, manic smile that MK recognizes from his nightmares is back, and he says that’s ridiculous- he would never want to upset his little princess on her special day. He just wants her to be happy.. doesn’t MK know that all Red ever wanted was for them to be happy??? MK says if Red really wanted to make him happy he’d leave. There’s a pause and then Red laughs, and then actually agrees saying he’ll go. MK is surprised by this, so surprised that he doesn’t block in time to stop Red from leaning over and kissing him goodbye. The gesture freaks him out enough that he barely notices in time that Red has stepped over to Shan and is hugging her goodbye saying he’ll be seeing her back home very soon.... and then Red is gone.

#ask #spicynoodleshipping #dark spicynoodles #demon king red #calabash #shan

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teenslib · 3 years

Link

IT’S FINALLY DONE! Every year, the Rainbow Book List Committee has more books to review, because literature is slowing getting queerer, and children’s and YA lit are at the forefront of that change. This year, our committee of 13 people had to review nearly 500 eligible titles, and 130 (well, 129) were good enough and queer enough to make the list. There were so many terrific books that we got a special dispensation to create TWO Top Ten lists--the first time the committee has done so! The Top Tens are below, and please visit the link above for the full list.

I’m proud of our committee’s focus on diversity--along lines of race, ethnicity, queer identity, and even genre. At least half of the Top Ten Books for Young Readers and seven of the Top Ten for Teen Readers are about characters of color, and most of those were written by authors of color. We also tried to feature as many different letters of the alphabet soup as possible. I’ve noted the racial and LGBTQIA+ rep for the books that I’ve read.

Here are the Top Ten Books for Young Readers:

Ana on the Edge by Sass, A.J. Ages 8 to 12. Sports Fiction/Figure Skating. MC is nonbinary and Jewish-Chinese-American. Ana is a champion figure-skater. She hates her new princess-themed program, but how can she tell her mother that, when it cost so much money? And why does it bother her so much, anyway? When she finds the word ‘nonbinary,’ she realizes why the program doesn’t fit, but she still has a lot of work to do repairing relationships that have suffered in the meantime.

The Deep & Dark Blue by Smith, Niki. Ages 8 to 12. Fantasy. One of 2 MCs is a trans girl, all characters appear to be Southeast Asian. A pair of twins flee after a political coup that puts their lives at risk. They decide to disguise themselves as Hanna and Grayce, two girls living in the Communion of the Blue, an order of weaving women who spin magic like wool. What one twin doesn’t know is that, for the other, being Grayce isn’t a disguise. This is a beautiful story about self-discovery, acceptance, and affirmation.

Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring by Burgess, Matthew and Josh Cochran (Illustrator). Ages 6 to 14. Biography. MC is a white gay man. This colorful picture-book biography traces the life and art of Keith Haring.

The Every Body Book: LGBTQ+ Inclusive Guide for Kids about Sex, Gender, Bodies, and Families by Simon, Rachel E. and Noah Grigni (Illustrator). Ages 8 to 12. Nonfiction/Health. Various identities and races included. Filled with self-affirming information, The Every Body Book uses inclusive language, illustrations, and facts to cover a number of important topics for young people including consent, relationships, gender, sex, puberty, and hormones.

King and the Dragonflies by Callender, Kacen. Ages 8 to 12. Realistic Fiction. MC is a gay black boy, his best friend is a gay white boy. King’s family–especially his father–have strong opinions about what it means to be a Black man, and they don’t allow for being gay. But King admires his friend Sandy for escaping an abusive home and living his truth no matter what. If King comes out, too, can his father learn to change?

Magic Fish by Nguyen, Trung Le. Ages 12 and up. Realistic Fiction/Fantasy. MC is a gay Vietnamese-American boy. A young Vietnamese-American boy literally can’t find the words to tell his parents that he’s gay, but cross-cultural fairytales help bridge the language barrier in this beautifully-illustrated graphic novel.

My Maddy by Pitman, Gayle E. and Violet Tobacco (Illustrator). Ages 4-8. Realistic Fiction. MC’s parent is nonbinary, MC and her parent are white. My Maddy is a heartwarming story about a young girl and her parent. Readers learn that not all parents are boys or girls; some parents are just themselves. In this young girl’s case, that parent is her Maddy, a loving, caring parent who lives outside the gender binary.

My Rainbow by Neal, DeShanna, Trinity Neal, and Art Twink (Illustrator). Ages 4-8. Realistic Fiction. MC is an autistic black trans girl. Autistic trans girl Trinity wants to have long hair, but growing it out is too itchy! None of the wigs in the store are quite right, so Mom makes Trinity a special rainbow wig.

Our Subway Baby by Mercurio, Peter and Leo Espinosa (Illustrator). Ages 4 to 8. Adoption Non-fiction. MCs are white gay men, the baby they adopt is Black. Loving illustrations help tell the story of how an infant abandoned in a NYC subway station was adopted by the man who found him and his partner.

Snapdragon by Leyh, Kat. Snapdragon. Ages 10 to 14. Fantasy. Haven’t read this one yet, so I can’t comment on its representation. Snap gets to know the town witch and discovers that she may in fact have real magic and a secret connection to Snap’s family’s past.

And here are the Top Ten Books for Teen Readers:

All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by Johnson, George M. Ages 14 to 18. Memoir. Author/MC is a gay Black man. “Memoir-manifesto” is a well-chosen label for this book, which relates stories from the author’s childhood and young adulthood and contextualizes them within a queer Black experience. Although the author’s family is loving and supportive, pervasive heteronormativity, queerphobia, and anti-Black racism threaten his mental, emotional, and physical safety.

Camp by Rosen, L.C. Ages 14 and up. Realistic Fiction. MC and his love interest are gay Jewish boys. For Randy, going away to Camp Outland is a breath of fresh air, a time to be exactly who Randy can’t always be at school. But this year will be different. This year, Randy won’t be the flamboyant theater kid, this year Randy will be exactly the type of bro Hudson would want to date. Changing a thing or too will be necessary for Randy to succeed, even if that means leaving some friends behind.

Cemetery Boys by Thomas, Aiden. Ages 13 and up. Paranormal/Romance. MC is a trans Latino, his love interest is a gay Latino. Yadriel accidentally summons the wrong ghost in an attempt to prove himself a real brujo to his family who struggle to accept his gender identity. Though he thinks he is summoning the ghost of his cousin, he actually summons the ghost of Julian Diaz, and finds himself with not one, but two, mysterious deaths to investigate.

Circus Rose by Cornwell, Betsy. Ages 12 and up. Fantasy. One MC is white and one is mixed-race, one is a lesbian and one is questioning. Ivory and Rosie are twins and half-sisters, born to a bearded woman who refused to choose between her lovers, and raised in their mother’s circus. After a long foreign tour, they come home to find themselves under attack by religious zealots. As tragedy follows tragedy, will Ivory be able to save her circus family?

Elatsoe by Little Badger, Darcie and Rovina Cai (Illustrator). Ages 12 and up. Mystery. MC is an aro/ace Lipan Apache girl. In this OwnVoices novel, Elatsoe is on a mission to discover who killed her beloved cousin, and why. If not for her cousin, then she is doing this for her people, the Indigenous Lipan Apache tribe. Elatsoe has the ability to raise ghosts from the dead, a tradition that has been passed down through generations. On this journey it will take vulnerability, wit, and the legends of her people for Elatsoe to understand all that is hidden in the small town of Willowbee.

I’ll Be the One by Lee, Lyla. Ages 13 and up. Realistic Fiction. MC is a bi Korean-American girl, her love interest is a bi Korean boy. Skye Shin dreams of becoming the world’s first plus-sized K-pop star, and a reality TV competition may just be her chance. To win, she’ll have to deal with fatphobic beauty standards, fierce competition, and intense media scrutiny–as well as unexpected attraction to one of her competitors.

Miss Meteor by Mejia, Tehlor Kay and Anna-Marie McLemore. Ages 14 and up. Magical Realism. (I haven’t read this one, but I think both MCs are WLW Latinas.) Lita is a star – literally. After falling to earth several years ago, she’s now living life as a teenage girl. When the annual Miss Meteor pageant rolls around, Lita decides to enter – but will her ex-best friend Chicky be willing to help her? Will the pageant help her forget about the past and imagine a new future? Lita learns that winning isn’t about being perfect, it’s about showing your true self to the world – even the parts that no one else understands.

You Should See Me in a Crown by Johnson, Leah. Ages 12 and up. Realistic Fiction. MC is a black WLW (woman-loving-woman). In this affectionate rom-com, Liz Lighty finds herself an unlikely candidate for prom queen at her affluent suburban school. Shy, awkward, Black, and low-income, Liz has never felt like she belonged, and she can’t wait to leave for her dream college. But when her scholarship falls through, it seems her last resort is to win prom queen, and the scholarship money that comes with it. Liz’s plan is complicated when new girl Mack decides to run for prom queen also…and ends up running away with Liz’s heart.

War Girls by Onyebuchi, Tochi. Ages 12 and up. Science Fiction/Afro-Futurism. Both MCs are Nigerian, one is a WLW. In a not-so-distant future, climate change and nuclear disasters have made much of the earth unlivable. In the midst of war in Nigeria, two sisters, Onyii and Ify, are torn apart and face two very different futures. As their lives progress through years of untold violence and political unrest, battles with deadly mechs and cyborg soldiers outfitted with artificial limbs and organs, they are brought together again and again and must come to terms with how the war has impacted their lives.

When We Were Magic by Gailey, Sarah. Ages 14 and up. Contemporary Fantasy. MC is a white bi/questioning girl with gay dads, her friends are racially, ethnically, and queerily diverse. This firecracker of a novel follows a group of friends who attempt to correct the accidental murder of a classmate. When We Were Magic combines magic, friendship, and awkward moments to create a captivating story. Each character brings their own uniqueness to the strong group of friends, but despite their differences, their loyalty remains. Author Sarah Gailey has written another page turning novel, with the quirky strange content to boot.

#Rainbow Book List #LGBT literature #queer books #queer YA #queer children's books #Book Recommendations #we need diverse books

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punkpal · 4 years

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Get To Know Me Better! (tag game)

@tidal-wav3s thanks for tagging me dude!!

Fav color: Lots of people get surprised when i say this but pink has and always will be my favourite colour.

Last song I listened to: Four Walls - While She Sleeps

Fav musicians/bands: God i have so many but the first few that come to mind are Parkway Drive, My Chemical Romance, Five Finger Death Punch, Green Day, Architects, All Time Low, A Day to Remember, Hellions, Slipknot, Secrets, Ocean Grove, Korn, In Hearts Wake, Awaken I Am, Whilst She Sleeps, Slowly Slowly, Young Lions, Trophy Eyes, The Plot In You, Queen, The Maine, Linkin Park, Hands Like House, AD/DC, Evanescence, Dream On Dreamer, Asking Alexandria, Crown The Empire, Camp Cope, Bring Me the Horizon, System of a Down, Disturbed, The Used, Brand New, Blink-182, Bad Omens, Tonight Alive, Stick To Your Guns and lots lots more. When i was putting together this list i was gonna make it a max of 10 bands but then i kept thinking of more and more and eventually i just had to stop otherwise this list would become novel length. Basically the consensus is i like lots of music and any of the band i reblog shit from are favs.

Last film I watched: Sicario and it was shit so take my word and don’t fucking bother.

Last tv show I watched: I just finished rewatching The Umbrella Academy season 1 to get myself psyched for season 2. I also just finished watching the netflix mini series documentary ‘Unabomber: In his own words’ which was pretty good. And I am also currently binging The Office (US) and am just starting season 8.

Fav original character: So i am writing (admittedly mostly just in my head although a little less then a quarter has been written as a rough draft on a word doc) a rather length fantasy/vampire novel. Its part romance, part drama, part revenge fantasy, part anarchist vigilante revolution au and tbh part me just self projecting my trauma and dysfunctional life onto my characters... And whilst it likely will never see the light of day because of my lack of motivation to write the entire thing down and instead just reference it when i am day dreaming. I really vibe with the alternative universe as an escape from the real one i am living in and i have a vested interest in the characters i have created in it. And whilst there are numerous ocs from this that i have put an alarmingly long amount of time (literally years) into developing all of which i love and adore i do have two favourites. One named Taylor who is a gay 2946 year old idiot/himbo (vampire obviously). He is hot, sweet, kind, caring, funny, understanding, stubborn, the mum™️ friend, a romantic fool with a a hint of mummy issues and anger problems and a complete fucking allergy to guilt. And the other is his prodigy/person he turned vampire named Meredith. She is 354 year old hot mess and is kinda the opposite of him in that she is homicidal, manipulative, cunning, devious, fearless (almost to a fault), strong willed women. Who is very smart, has a strong/forward and somewhat off putting personality, low key a bit of a bitch but is very protective of those she loves and has good morals and the desire to right all wrongs even if through violent revenge if she sees fit. She is the leader of a criminal underworld revolution seeking to bring revenge and justice to the powerful and untouchable evils of the world. And he is her loyal side kick that lets her run the show as she is a natural born leader, but also works as a the voice of reason and logic to her. All the while having his own sub plot of being torn between chasing his love interest despite the danger it possesses. Or sacrificing his own desire for connection and love for fear of the consequences despite it meaning living a sad and eternally lonely life. Thats just a very brief summery of those two. They have a very close but complicated relationship with each other, like annoying siblings but imagine if you had to live with your siblings for centuries. And they all have there flaws (some more obvious then others) as well as dark, morbid and tragic histories but it makes them what the are today both the good, the bad and the downright problematic. And yeah i’d like to think one day i will write this out properly and others will read it and connect to or relate to these characters. Maybe love them, maybe hate them, maybe initially hate them, like is designed with Meredith, but come to truly love her once they begin to understand her and see her potential thats hidden under layers of ‘don’t fuck with me’. But until then they are my characters to play around with and build upon and thats exactly what i intend to do.

Sweet, spicy, or savory: Sweet!

Sparkling water, tea, or coffee: Can i say hot chocolate or juice?

Pets: Living with me is my son and best friend Gideon (he is a adult black male cat i adopted a year ago and he is the best thing that has ever happened to me.) Living with my sister is my family cat i grew up with named Maisey (she is a snobby fat cat with a beautiful coat and i love her although i don’t think she loves me/or anyone.) And then at my mums is her puppy Newfoundland Bentley (basically god combined a dumbass and a dog and made him) as well as my brothers turtle Pedro and my axolotl Voldemort (can’t fit his huge tank in my apartment so he stays with mum.)

I’m tagging: @bilvy @revradio @cxmeterydrxve @angryqueercrypted @prettyyy-boyyy @disenchanted-mona-lisa @burymeinpink @thotfrnk @r1ghtbackatitaga1n @solelll @gothbtchz @highhighhopless @re-imagine @x-give-em-hell-kid-x @greendayer @dramaticallydepressed @lyricsinmyblood-bloodinmylyrics & @imsopunkrxck obviously this isn’t a obligation, do this tag game only if you want. And if you weren’t tagged but wanna take part then do tag me in your own and i will read and like it as i love learning about my followers passions and interests!

#also this is the first time i have talked online about my alternate universe story and original characters #if you like what you hear and wanna know more as what i wrote was only the tip of the iceberg in regards to what there is to know about them #then hmu and ask any questions you have because i'd love to talk more about them because obviously they are both old as fuck #and therefor have a lot of back story and theres so many different aliments to the plot with a whole lot of side/sub plots #and other characters and i have done a load of research so as to have all of the stuff that i wrote based in the past to be historically #accurate and just yeah i know no one cares but if you do then please ask me about it because i have so much more to say!#also don't judge me even though i deserve it lol

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seriouslyhooked · 4 years

Text

Feels Like This (Part 1)

Emma Swan is a once lost girl who is now making good. She has made a way in the world for her and her young son, Henry, and after years of hard work, Emma is in her last stretch of schooling for the career she’s always wanted. Unexpectedly, she finds herself in a tiny nation no one’s ever heard of for her last year of study. She knows nothing about the place except that it’s beautiful, has a world-renowned child life program, and is filled with possibility. Meanwhile, Prince Killian is hardly happy with the title he received at birth. As the second in line for the crown, Killian has long tried shaking his royal duties. He built a career in the royal navy, and has stayed out of the limelight, but his ship has been called to port indefinitely at the request of his brother, the King. Fate (in her many forms) brings Emma and Killian together and the resulting fic is a cute, fluffy, trope filled romp featuring heart felt moments, a healthy dose of insta-love and an assured happily ever after. Story rated M and will have 12 parts. Available on FF Here and AO3 Here.

A/N: Hey everyone! So months back I hinted that I was working on a few new AUs. I have been wanting to write this fic since the moment it popped into my head, but I held back, knowing I had two other great stories that deserved their happy ending and a proper send off. Now though both of my other fics are done, we are on to one of our first new fics. To all of you that have begged for another CS AU where someone is a prince or princess… this is for you, and for me. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be writing this. I have missed this kind of world since I finished When Love Reigns, and this time the script is flipped – it’s Killian who is royalty. This first chapter though, is building a bit of our back story. It’s from Emma’s POV and it puts us on the path to change. So without any more delay, I hope you guys enjoy the story and thanks so much for reading!

“Goooood Morning, New York! It’s that time again – WAKE UP CALL!”

The sound of sirens and clanging that blasted through the clock radio next to her bed echoed through the once silent room, slamming into Emma with a force that gave her no choice but to wake.

“Crap!” Emma screeched as she jolted from the bed, woken from an incredibly sound sleep. On instinct her body moved quickly, trying to jump from bed like she would when Henry was little and called to her in the night, but she wasn’t totally coordinated yet. Instead of landing on her feet, she tumbled, hitting the ground hard and letting out a groan. “Double crap!”

A knock sounded at the door and two seconds later her son’s voice filtered through. “Mom, did you fall out of bed again?”

“No comment,” Emma replied, checking herself for major injuries. Thankfully she would be fine, but this was not a good look.

It’s temporary, she said to herself as she stood up and stretched, willing her limbs to let go of the tension and the achiness that a fall like that would cause. The semester is nearly over. I’ve only got one summer class. One not three. One not three.

She chanted the mantra that had gotten her through this spring over and over in her mind as she went through her morning routine. It was a rushed, frantic situation, as it normally was on weekdays, but somehow, just like always, things came together in the end. She was showered and ready, dressed for her admin job in the financial district. Henry was also totally geared up for school, proving once again how self-sufficient he was. Having a son with as much maturity as Henry was a blessing on mornings like this one where she was dead on her feet from studying all night and still had to be up bright and early for the office. He was eight going on thirty-eight. Honestly most days it felt like Henry had it more together than she did, but as she walked into the kitchen to press a kiss on the crown of his head and he smiled genuinely at her, Emma couldn’t seem to care. She might not be perfect at being a Mom, but her kid was happy and well, and that was all that truly mattered.

“Someone seems chipper this morning. Did you sneak those powdered donuts I hid or something?” Emma asked as she made herself and Henry some sliced fruit. Henry, meanwhile, measured out their cereal, liking to be a part of their prep process as much as he could. He handled things with the ginger care and attention of someone trying their best, focused on the task with so much purpose and precision.

“No, I didn’t, honestly Mom, I promise.”

Emma stifled a laugh at how adamant he was. She knew the truth: her son was too good for stealing, even just a few treats. It was amazing how much of a moral compass he had. Sometimes she wondered if it was too much for a boy his age. He should be getting into a little trouble, causing mischief, doing… something, anything that wasn’t picture perfect. But Henry wasn’t like that. He preferred stories to anything else, and the look on his face told Emma that a story was exactly what had him so animated this morning.

“Well if it’s not a sugar high then it must be a good book. What’s on tap for today?”

Listening to her little boy talk about his newfound tale made Emma so happy, because his own enthusiasm was infectious. Reading had always come easy to Henry, and he was on pace for the level of a sixth grader though he was only in 3rd. It was amazing to behold, but also a little overwhelming. Emma herself had never had that yearning to read, probably because the only books in the group homes she grew up in were ripped up and torn to shreds. By the time she was old enough to go to school and use the libraries they had, Emma was jaded. Thankfully she’d been quick to learn and always got by, but by high school she’d skipped town, never to look back.

A few years later she was barely surviving day to day and her heart decided it would be a good time to give the whole love thing a chance. She met a man who claimed he loved her, but, in the end he was nothing but a tough lesson made flesh. Neal taught Emma that it wasn’t enough to love someone. You had to love someone good, someone kind, and someone who loved you enough to care for you and fight for you too. Instead of meeting that marker, Neal stole a bunch of shit, tried to let her take the fall, and, to add insult to injury, skipped town and never looked back. Nothing ended up coming from the charges made against her – the judge threw the case out when he heard about her background, only asking that she commit to a hundred hours of volunteering, and in the meantime the only good thing Neal ever gave her was her son. But, despite her rocky beginnings, and thanks to a little luck and more than a couple of miracles, here they were. Nearly ten years had gone by since she’d seen Neal and Emma and Henry were good. They had each other, now and always, and though their family was small, and at times Emma wondered what it would be like to fall in love again, she didn’t want to rock the boat or jeopardize all the good she and Henry were lucky enough to have.

“Mom, did you hear me?” Henry asked and Emma’s mind shifted back into her room instead of where it had been, skipping down memory lane.

“Sorry, kid. Coffee hasn’t hit yet,” she said with a shrug. “What did you say?”

“I said I’m almost done with my final project for Ms. Harlow’s class.”

“Almost done? But you’ve still got another month of school.”

“I know, but it’s just reading and writing. My favorites.”

Emma listened in on his update about his project, and it didn’t surprise her to hear Henry was ahead of his class. This had been happening since he entered kindergarten. Every year the teachers set objectives and every year Henry met each one, most of them pretty early. It was a great thing in one respect, because it meant Emma didn’t have to worry about him. Henry was brilliant and gifted and would clearly go far in life, but it did make Emma wonder: was she doing enough for his son? More than once she’d been told that a private school might suit him better and might challenge him more. But she simply didn’t have the money. Hell, she’d worked overtime for years just to get them in this tiny apartment in this district which was one of the nicer ones in the city.

Henry continued to tell her all about school as they left the apartment and headed out, and their whole commute in was filled with his updates about the things he’d learned and still wanted to know. Emma noted that there were very few stories involving other kids and she knew that was probably because Henry didn’t have an enormous amount of friends. Oh the other kids liked him, of course, who wouldn’t love her son who only had nice things to say and a friendly smile to offer? But he wasn’t tied to any of them closely. Instead he preferred the company of books, and of Emma and their favorite friendly neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Hubbard.

“All right Henry, so you know the plan, right? Today’s Wednesday which means…”

“School, then library club, then Mrs. H will pick me up and watch me until you get out of class. I wonder what she’ll make for dinner. I hope it’s spaghetti.”

Emma agreed, knowing that her neighbor’s spaghetti was legendary. Mrs. Hubbard had years of practice, cooking for her own family over the course of many years, but her kids were all grown now and it was just her and her husband living in the city. Her husband, though well past retirement age, loved his job down at the docks, and still went in for a few hours every evening to manage the shift change from day shift to night. Mrs. H, meanwhile, was desperate for the chance to mother people again, and she did so often with Emma and Henry. At first Emma tried to protest, but it all fell on deaf ears. Not only did this wonderful woman help care for Henry, she was always helping with the cooking and the cleaning. She was also pretty much a built-in therapist for Emma, and every time she met a challenge in her parenting she couldn’t face, Emma called Mrs. H. That woman was the closest thing she and Henry had to family, and Emma knew Mrs. H felt just as strongly for them in return.

“Whatever it is we’re going to love it and we’re going to thank Mrs. H so much for her help, right?”

“Of course,” Henry said with a nod. They’d finally arrived at his school building and now was the time to say goodbye. Last year parent drop off was in the class room, but this year they moved the kids to drop off at the door. Most kids took that as a sign to stop hugging their parents when leaving for the day, but not Henry. Instead he gave her a big hug which warmed her through and made her feel so blessed and reassured. Henry was truly the sweetest, and when he finally let go and ran into the building Emma let out a sigh, thinking to herself how damn lucky she was to have Henry as her son.

Her day from there was just about as crazy as she expected. The time she had to get from Henry’s school to work was minimal, but she managed to slip into the office just under the radar. For eight straight hours she was moving, and she barely had time to devour the sandwich she’d packed for the day while running to and from errands that the office staff needed help with. She couldn’t take lunch though, not when she had to leave early to run ten blocks to class this afternoon. Again, her ability to get there was nearly undermined, this time by a broken subway car that caused more congestion than ever on the street as people tried to walk instead. But in just the nick of time, Emma made her way through the wrought iron gates of her university, and was in her assigned chair in the Mills Center Auditorium, listening attentively to the lecture her favorite professor had lined up today.

Since having Henry, Emma had needed to work and pay bills and figure things out. At first she tried to do that with just her GED, but soon it became clear that she needed to go back to school. Thank god there had been online classes, and she’d managed to find enough scholarships for ex-foster kids to get her an associates degree. When that was done she went to the state school in the city and started taking more classes and in four more years she had her bachelors. She was so proud of herself and so glad for the bump in pay that a simple degree had earned her, but somehow school had called her back again, this time for a masters degree in childhood development and social work. It was a very focused degree, without any ties to her current financial job, but it was the work her heart wanted to do. With her MS she would qualify for a number of jobs, all aimed at helping kids in the system, and again, thanks to some hard fought for scholarships, she was managing it all at virtually no cost but time.

The two-hour seminar she sat in today was engaging and interesting, honing in on a case study of one particular city – Sacramento. Their public programming was a beacon for the American model and through partnerships of government, schools, companies, and community activists there was a significantly lower rate of teenage runaways and kids who graduated from the system with ‘bad outcomes.’ Emma noted all the policy choice that were implemented to help these kids and she applauded the effort of these experts, but she knew there were still more things that could be done. She took just as many notes on the lecture as she did her own ideas, and by the end of class, her pages were full and her mind was equipped with a few more answers and a lot more questions.

When their time was up, the rest of her cohort dispersed. They were younger than Emma and most of them were friendly with each other. They always were nice to Emma too, saying hi and asking about Henry, but Emma didn’t linger long after class. She had to get home to her son, and to get back to working on all the things she had to face tomorrow.

“Emma, would you mind coming with me to my office? I have something to give you. It’ll just take a moment.”

“Sure, Professor Hopper,” Emma agreed, not thinking much of it. ‘Doc’ Hopper was a great lecturer and a helpful teacher and there’d been many times when he gave her a book or some other sources for her work. She assumed that was what was happening today, but when he asked her to take a seat as he moved around his desk Emma started to get worried.

“I’m sorry, professor. Is something wrong?”

“Not at all, Emma. In fact, quite the opposite. The department has selected the JR Foundation Fellowship recipient this year.”

“Oh?” she asked, wondering which of the people in her class was getting the chance to travel abroad and learn from some of the best minds in childhood development and psychology. She thought maybe Ayana or Jade might be good choices. They were both bright and determined. Matthew was a wild card. But she imagined he must be up for consideration given his often out of the box ideas.

“It’s you, Emma. You’re our chosen fellow.”

“Me?”

Emma whispered out the clarifying question, not understanding what Doc Hopper was getting at. The connection to the JR Foundation Fellowship was one of the biggest selling points of this program. Students from across the world came here just to be considered for it and to say she was not lobbying for the possibility would be an understatement. Most of the time she felt she was barely scraping by. Everyone else in her program was younger than her, none of them had children, and those who had a job worked part time or entirely for the school. Emma was always on the fringes of her cohort, but all the late nights studying and reading had paid off. She learned a lot and did well when it came to grades. Still, she never imagined this would happen, and for a fleeting moment she felt pure excitement.

You can’t go, her inner voice said suddenly. You’ve got Henry to think about. How would you afford it? You could never take him out of school. You can’t move him halfway across the world just to nickel and dime things. We’ve had enough ramen to last a lifetime.

The reasons why this would never work mounted internally as Emma cleared her throat and fidgeted in her chair. She was about to turn down the most prestigious offer anyone at her level could receive and the pain of that was sharp. To know she’d earned this but that it wasn’t meant to be hurt her, but she would not allow herself to linger in the sadness. Nothing had changed from this morning – she was still a very lucky woman, with a roof over her head, food on her table, and an incredible son who filled her life more than any stop in her career ever could.

“Professor Hopper, I’m truly flattered to be chosen. But -,”

“Wait, Emma, before you turn this down, please know that the faculty is aware of your unique circumstances and we’ve made some adjustments to the fellowship terms. It’s all spelled out here,” he said, handing her a folder with papers and admission offers.

Emma opened it up, and within the bolded headlines of the first page there were all sorts of add ons. A housing grant that would cover her and Henry for more than six months, additional ‘cost of living’ scholarships, and more. Tears formed in her eyes at she looked at the stipend she would receive if she accepted this appointment. It was more than she made at city hall, and she knew already that her good standing with the city would allow for her to take this opportunity if she chose to. She could request up to a year of leave where they’d hold her job if she gave enough notice, and she had just enough time to do so. Still there was one concern – what about Henry? What about his life? Would it be right to spring something like this on him? They had only a month before the fellowship was set to start. She couldn’t do that… could she?

“I realize that you’ll need time to consider, Emma, but as you can imagine time is rather limited. I can wait a few days, but we’ll need to know by the end of the week if you accept.” Professor Hopper looked at her with a transparent sense of honesty and empathy. It was always clear why this man studied child psychology and counseling. He was quiet and patient but adamant in wanting to help. But when he looked at her like this, Emma remembered her own childhood and how little there had been by ways of help and guidance. “For what it’s worth, Emma, I really hope you’ll take the appointment. In all my years at this school, I’ve never met a student so well suited to this job. Your experience is one thing, but it’s a gift unique to you. You have a way with these kids, Emma, and a fellowship like this can help you make the most of your degree come graduation. It opens all kinds of doors and you know what that can mean.”

“Helping so many more kids,” Emma admitted aloud, and that was ultimately what she wanted more than anything. Yes, providing for her son was the most important thing, but there were so many more children out there who didn’t have nearly enough. Without family or money or hope, the world was a sad and scary place and Emma wanted to fend off some of that fear for as many kids as she could. Doctor Hopper’s point was undeniable, and people who had previously taken this fellowship had gone on to do so much, like launch successful non-profits and run whole government departments for children in need. It was a chance to learn, to grow, and to meet people who knew how to make things happen, and Emma was enticed by that, so much more than she should be.

“Take some time, Emma. Mull I over, talk to your son, and if it’s right, it’s right. You know you’ll always have my full support either way.”

Emma thanked Professor Hopper and collected her things, heading out of his office and away from school. It was a short commute back home, but riding the subway at this time of day meant being a part of the last big rush of people. She was squished into the train car, but she didn’t think much of it. Instead she read over the more than generous offer of the package the school was giving her. Usually the fellowship was generous, with the chance to go to Montenaro (a tiny European country she’d never once heard of outside of this) and a small stipend to live on with placement in student housing. For Emma, however, other arrangements had been made, including a small house that was still at least triple the size of where her and Henry lived now. The stipend was also larger (to cover the cost of any needed ‘childcare expenses’) and Doctor Hopper had written a note – he had a good friend who had a connection to a private elementary school near the University of Montenarro. There was a spot for Henry available for the fall semester, which was still a few months out, and a space for him at the University’s summer camp. Emma actually cried at how kind this offer was and how much time it must have taken and how many favors must have been called in. People had moved mountains for her and in the process they’d pulled down so many of the blockades that might keep her from saying yes.

Her heart began to believe that this might actually be possible. The timing was actually kind of perfect – her term would start in six weeks, in the middle of June and her lease on the apartment was set to end at the end of that month. She was planning to renew, but it didn’t make sense to keep the place for six months while they were away. That was money she could save for a rainy day, and when all of this was over she’d be done with her degree early and would be looking for a job anyway. Maybe they weren’t strictly bound to New York. They could end up anywhere. The possibilities seemed endless. Still, as she made her way back to her apartment Emma tried to get herself in check and school her features. The last thing she wanted was to get her hopes up. This would come down to what was best for Henry, and she’d never want to pressure her son into doing something for her that he didn’t really want. But at the same time it was such a great opportunity. The money, the living arrangement, and the work experience. It all seemed so perfect.

“Anybody home?” She asked, as she opened the door to her place and walked in, dropping her coat and taking off her shoes in the front walk as she headed to the kitchen.

“Hi Mom!” Henry said, barreling into her with another big hug and a huge smile on his face. “I missed you today.”

“I missed you too, kid,” she said, ruffling up his hair. “Hey Mrs. H. Something sure smells good.”

“It’s spaghetti Bolognese, and it’s very near ready. How was class, dear?”

“Great. Actually about that, I got some news today.”

“Big news?” Henry asked excitedly and Emma shook her head and smiled.

“Huge news. You know that fellowship I told you about? The one in Europe?”

“I remember. It’s in that tiny little country on the coast. What was it? Monta… Monta…”

“Montenarro,” she filled in and the light in Henry’s eyes burned bright with recognition.

“Oh right – you know their national fruit is called a montacari? It’s like if you mixed a strawberry, blackberry, and a raspberry. They only grow in mild mountain climates and before the berries grow the plants make flowers that are pink and red and white. Every August they have a festival there to celebrate the harvest.”

“How do you know that?” Emma asked, amazed at her son’s seemingly endless memory and then she filled in at the same time Henry did. “Let me guess: you read about it?“

“I read about it,” Henry echoed and they laughed. “So who won the spot?”

“I did,” Emma announced and for a beat there was complete silence. She watched as her son took in the news and then he was moving, jumping up and down and hugging her all over again.

“You did it, Mom! You did it! You did it! I knew you could do it!”

“You thought I’d win?” Emma asked and Henry nodded fiercely.

“Absolutely! You’re the best, Mom, everyone knows that!”

Emma laughed as she looked over to Mrs. H who had a huge smile on her face. “Congratulations, honey. But I think I must have missed something. What exactly is this fellowship?”

Emma explained the circumstances surrounding the placement. It was a six-month appointment, for two terms – summer and fall - and in that time the recipient worked for the J.R. Foundation. J.R. was an international charity with an impeccable reputation focused on helping vulnerable youth populations around the globe. They worked on literacy outreach, education initiatives, disaster relief and more, but this fellowship appointee would work with the counseling division, focusing on children’s health, wellness, and mental resilience strategies. That six months of work counted as her two semesters of full time interning which she needed to graduate, and for Emma, it would mean cutting down her time to graduation significantly. At the end of this six months, if she added in an online class or two, she’d be ready to graduate, finishing up eighteen months earlier than she previously expected.

Halfway through her explanation, Emma watched Henry leave and head to his room. She heard a lot of movement inside and she frowned, worried about what he was up to. “Henry? Everything all right?”

“Are you kidding? Everything’s awesome! We’re moving to Montanarro and I’ve got to get packing!”

“Henry, wait,” she said and her son popped his head out before she motioned for him to come closer. “We still have to talk about this. This is a really big change. It would mean you miss the last few weeks of school here, and that next fall you’re not with your friends here. We wouldn’t be back until just before Christmas. Are you sure you like that idea? I won’t be mad if you want to stay here. This is our home.”

“Home is where we are together, Mom. You know that,” Henry said, reciting a line she’d said over and over again to him, especially back when times were tougher and they really struggled to get by. His assuredness made her throat tighten. Again she was on the verge of tears but she fought them off. “Besides – every hero has a special journey, Mom, and their special journey usually starts with a new place. Think of the adventure we can have together. It’s gonna be awesome!”

“Henry it might not be that easy. Moving can be hard sometimes. Things will be different there. I know they speak English, but there’s other languages and customs too. It might not be the easiest adjustment.”

“I can do different!” Henry replied eagerly with a smile. “I’m great with different. Different is my middle name.”

“Henry, you don’t have a middle name,” Emma teased and he shrugged.

“Well now I do, and it’s Different. So can we go, Mom. Please? I promise I’ll be so so good.”

“You’re always good, kid.” Emma said softly, running her fingers through the hair that was shadowing his brow. “Are you sure, Henry? It’s a really big step.”

“Can’t you feel it, Mom? Don’t think with your head. Use your heart, like you taught me.” Emma was quiet for a moment as she took in her young son’s sage advice. “You feel it too, I know you do. This is right for us. It’s our path.”

“Why don’t I sleep on it, okay, kid? In the meantime you go wash up for dinner all right?”

Henry seemed to accept this non-answer, though he muttered under his breath about always having to wait for adventure. Emma smiled despite herself and then looked to Mrs. H who was watching her closely.

“So what do you think? I know we’d be leaving you and Mr. H in a bind. You weren’t expecting to have to look for new tenants and -,”

Mrs. H interrupted Emma by taking her hand in hers and silently commanding her attention. Emma looked up and listened carefully. “Honey, you don’t worry about that at all, you hear me? My Horace and I are golden. We don’t need to rent this place out, but we took one look at you and Henry and we knew you were going to be like family. And you know what family does, Emma? They support each other always. This fellowship sounds like everything you’ve wanted. You can make a difference and you and that darling boy of yours can see the world a little. In the meantime we’ll keep this place here for you. No one else is renting it and you don’t need to worry about paying anything at all. The payment has been getting to know you two these last few years. That’s better than anything money can buy.”

“Are you sure?” Emma asked, half wondering about her generosity but also asking if she should go at all. She was excited, to be sure, but she was also terrified. What if she failed? What if something happened? What if –

“I am, Emma. And deep down you are too. Henry was right, this is an adventure, one you should meet and embrace every step of the way.”

Emma appreciated the counsel and though Henry came barreling back in soon and the conversation shifted, Emma had all evening to think about the choice in front of her. She grappled with her options – to take the safe path and pass up on a once in a lifetime opportunity, or to take a little risk and have a taste of adventure and fulfillment with her son in a brand new place. By the end of the night, as she was drifting off to bed, Emma knew she had her answer: this was going to happen. She was going to take this step and take a chance, and somehow, despite her less than stellar origins, she trusted it would all work exactly the way that it should.

Little did she know how true that was, and just how much purpose and hope she would find in a tiny country halfway around the world.

Post-Note: So there we have it. Just in case anyone is curious about the title, I actually got a creative burst in conceiving of this AU plot line when I heard the song ‘Feels Like This’ by Maisie Peters. If you haven’t heard it before, you should definitely listen, as it’s a lovely one with all kinds of feels. Anyway, I know that this chapter was all from Emma’s POV, but as you might have guessed, next chapter we will see Killian and where he is at when we begin this story. I’m so excited for this AU and to build this dynamic and I am hoping to share the second chapter with you all next weekend. In the meantime, I would love to hear what you all think, what you might like to see in this fic, and what your general thoughts on this kind of AU are. As always I appreciate you all so much, I hope that you’ve enjoyed, and I wish you all well and happy! Thanks again!

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thejudgingtrash · 4 years

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Percy and Annabeth would 100% do their own version of the Halloween Heist every year. Annabeth obviously wins year one but as more people are pulled in the Title of Best Demigod/Satyr/Centaur gets passed around a lot.

You know what? Fuck it! Mini Fanfic time! Annabeth winning hmmm? I’m actually busy with not going crazy during quarantine and working on my feature length Percabeth fic (coming out in 2025, I guess). And it’s way too early (or late) for Halloween. But let’s do this! One shitty fic - hot and fresh out of the oven!

The Halloween Heist

The plan was ready and set. They all would do it one last time together before their paths separated and all of them drifted apart like gusts of wind. The heroes of Camp Half-Blood reunited one last time before college hit the last of them. They wanted to relive a normal holiday together, just this once.

Annabeth and Malcom set up different routes; A, B and C throughout New York City, Manhattan specifically. Those that could, joined. And would the little kids that were on the streets going to be respected? Definitely not. Of course, it would be a competition – who would turn out to be the one most successful? Whose group would be candy lords or ladies of the night? Who looked the most horrifying?

Everyone agreed that in the last part they all lost. None of them dressed in the true horrifying manner of the Halloween tradition. The Stolls’ were dressed as super heroes, Connor as Batman and Travis as The Flash. Katie joined them as Poison Ivy. Clarisse pulled off a solid Sarah Connor and her boyfriend Chris stood proudly next to her as The Terminator. The only person that looked slightly scary was Malcom. He was dressed as a zombie and his eye bags stemming from the latest project he had been working on through the entire night added to the nature of his character.

“Well!” Percy exclaimed and tapped the floor with a wooden trident. “Let the games begin!”

Annabeth rolled her eyes. He wore khaki shorts, flip flops and a Hawaii themed shirt and those stupid pink window blinds sunglasses from 2012. “That’s just purely lazy! You dress up like your father every time on Halloween.”

“And it works just fine every time,” he said after sharing a soft kiss. Not only that, his outfit was unironically super comfortable. His hair tickled her. The only good thing was that he had actually grown out a beard which hugged his handsome face very tightly.

Percy raised a black eyebrow. “What are you going for?”

Annabeth looked like she had raided Paul’s wardrobe. Light dress shirt, ugly green sweater vest, tight black jeans and goddamn Birkenstock shoes. Her blonde curls were gelled back and put into a tight bun. The dark frames of her glasses oozed sexy librarian but the expression on her face only said shhh!

“Sexy Chiron with a third eye and without the horse ass end?” Chris and Malcom grinned, Katie snorted whereas the Stolls’ and Clarisse shared a loud cackle. Annabeth looked like she wanted to murder him.

“No! I’m Cecil from Welcome to Night Vale,” she corrected him.

“Cecil?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. We listened to the first 100 episodes together! The lore, the intricacy, the little pieces you have to put together,” Annabeth looked very adorable whenever she was nerding and ranting about her passions.

“Well, The Weather is quite nice.” That was all Percy had to add.

“That means we have to re-listen everything!” Annabeth decided. Percy simply nodded. Yes, they would re-listen.

“We?” Katie raised a red dyed eyebrow. “Don’t tell me that you’ve become a we couple.”

“Of course not!” both denied. “And don’t be so sarcastic, Percy! We will re-listen!”

Clatter. The group turned to their right. Grover appeared wearing a flower crown on top of his horns, a torn green dress shirt… and nothing further down below. “That’s just unfair!” The Stolls’ yelled and pointed at his dark hairy goat legs.

“No, this is a way of nature saying, Grover you got this. Also be nice! Me taking off time as a Lord of the Wild should be considered a blessing,” the black satyr grinned.

The brothers huffed and Malcom rolled his eyes. “Where’s Juniper?” Annabeth asked.

“Couldn’t make it unfortunately,” the Grover pouted.

“And Will and Nico? Will promised us 90s Justin Timberlake with a puka shell necklace, meanest frosted tips and Donald Trump tan!”

The satyr shrugged. “They have decided that re-watching Corpse Bride for the millionth time was more important. Anyway. Annabeth, you got the straws?”

“Of course, I do. We have three groups á three people. Red is A, blue is B and green is C. Biggest candy stash wins, got it? Ultimate bragging rights, the last prank idea on Chiron and blue cupcakes from Sally. Let the Fates decide!”

“You sure about that?”

“Percy, shut up! Let’s just do this.”

The participants nodded. Team A consisted of Percy, Clarisse and Travis. Team B were Annabeth, Chris and Malcom. Lastly Team C was made up by Grover, Katie and Connor.

“Two Athena kids in one group is just unfair,” Clarisse huffed.

“Deal with it,” Malcom grinned. “You know the routes? Let’s begin! You’ve got three hours!”

*****

Percy rang the bell. A middle-aged woman with curlers opened the door. “Yes?” she mustered him.

Percy cleared his throat. “Lord Poseidon demands all of your candy!” he said with a deep booming voice.

The woman stared at him weirdly. “Poseidon as in the god of sea? Since when does a Greek god look like homeless person wandering around the beach?”

“Uh…Since always?”

“Alright, fair enough.”

*****

A young man opened the door. Annabeth was greeted by the smell of grease, Cheetos and bleach. The meanest hotbox fumes smacked her across the face. She coughed and felt her eyes tearing up. She wanted to experience the rush of winning, not feel that kind of high just yet.

“That your Halloween costume?” She simply nodded.

“Fucking sick, dude! You look like my college professor!”

“Well in that case hand your assignments in or give me all of your candy,” she grinned.

*****

A young mother and her daughter opened up for Grover.

“Wow! I want that costume mommy!” wailed the girl.

“Ellie, you’re already a witch. But how did you create those legs? They look so real?”

“They came off pretty naturally,” Grover shrugged.

“And the horns?!”

“I can’t spill all of my secrets, I’m afraid. I am but a humble servant of nature asking you to give something sweet back to us.”

The woman giggled. “Oh, and he’s a poet as well!”

“Uhh no?” denied Grover.

“Here take some of our candy!”

“Okay! Nature won’t forget your service, ma’am! And neither yours, Ellie!”

*****

The nine gathered at the Jackson’s hours later. Each team piled their candy stock. It was a clear-cut victory. Annabeth and Malcom looked proudly at their stash.

“We did it!” Katie yelled behind them. Team Grover won, they nearly covered the entire floor with chocolates and packs of sour patches. Satyr bonus probably. The Athena siblings lost their victorious smiles immediately.

“Looks like Team Athina kids lost!” Grover exclaimed with a smirk.

Annabeth looked like she’d all of a sudden love to possess Chiron’s horse ass to give him a massive horse kick. “Wait! Do we count the total mass or the individual candy because in that sense we would have won?” she questioned.

“Everyone saying that Annabeth would never cheat can now clearly tell that that was a fucking lie!” Percy shook his head.

“Well, work smart not hard,” Annabeth stuck her tongue out.

“There can always be a next time if we coordinate! And we will crush you!”

The End

#they're all ooc because they're essentially me. also this shit's wack. why am I posting this. well too late I guess #pjo #pjo fanfic #halloween au #percy jackson and the olympians #annabeth chase #grover underwood #katie gardner #malcom pace #percy jackson fanfiction #clarisse la rue #chris rodriguez #travis stoll #connor stoll #mel writes

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i-just-love-spop · 4 years

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8, 40, 48 and 78 for Scorfuma kids, please? :D sorry if it's too much tho :( (I love your oc's they're so cute 😔💖)

@leiazh Awww, thank you for loving my characters so much, that you do makes me so happy 😢💖

And it’s fine, always feel free to ask as many questions about them as you want, I had a lot of fun answering this one, so thank you! Just... be warned that the answer might take a while and also possibly be... really long 😅🤣

This whole thing is about 4.2k words long... whoops.

I answered the questions in order, the kids are sorted from oldest to youngest for each question (except for the twins who are the same age, nobody really knows who‘s older since they were born via c-section and their parents either didn’t ask or at least didn’t tell them [the kids don’t know which one of these is true], although Kohana does insist she’s the older twin).

I also didn’t include Frosta as a character in the ask for this one despite her being the oldest Scorfuma-kid, since she’s not my character and most of these questions wouldn’t have made much sense to answer for her anyway, since they get answered in the show, so it’s just the five kids that are actually my own characters.

Frosta does show up in some of the answers, though, obviously, along with Scorpia and Perfuma.

Also, please don’t take the way I sorted the “good” and “bad” traits too seriously – some of these would definitely be considered good or bad by most people, but other things like shyness aren’t really good or bad, they just can make your life more difficult in certain situations (which I say as a shy person) and I had to sort them into one of the categories somehow so I could include them at all.

I hope you have fun reading!

8. What are their good and bad traits?

Clover

Good traits

He tries to help his moms any way he can, both around the house and in the garden, and will do so without being asked to do it. He’s a very caring older brother that will gladly get up in the middle of the night if one of his younger siblings is upset and needs him, and he’ll also stay up late and read them to sleep when their moms are preoccupied. He’s really good at cooking and often does it for the whole family, and he’s also very creative and makes really beautiful flower arrangements. He rarely has any trouble focusing on what’s important, and he’s very enthusiastic about the things he loves, so much that it’s infectious.

Bad traits

He has trouble dealing with some of his insecurities and will lash out at others when he doesn’t know how else to handle them. He also worried about being a bother to other people when he’s upset and will often keep quiet about what’s making him sad or angry or scared rather than opening up about his emotions. He often comes off as cold to people that don’t know him very well because of this.

He also has a bit of an attitude around people he doesn’t like.

Thorn

Good traits

She always tries to take care of her friends and family and, if possible, keep them out of trouble, and she’d never say no if someone needs her help. For most people, it’s really hard to dislike her because she’s always friendly and polite and cares a lot about others, always tries to give the best advice she can and brings fresh food from the family garden everywhere. She’s really outgoing and has a relatively large friend group because of that.

Bad traits

She’s kind of naive, to a point where her desire to help others lands her in trouble every now and again because she ends up being exploited in one way or another – she doesn’t have a very good judge of character, and because of this, she has “friends” that just befriend her because she’s the crown princess, and she’s so excited to be making new friends that she doesn’t question their intentions very often, especially when she’s still a child.

It’s especially bad with a person she meets when she’s about ten, who she likes a lot, but who her parents are always kind of wary around – whenever that particular kid shows up around their house, things start disappearing, especially Thorn’s favorite toys.They eventually ask her about it, and she just says that her friend liked them so much that she gave them to the other kid, but the way she says it makes it pretty clear that she’s actually really unhappy about it and really misses her toys.

She’s actually kind of like Adora to a certain degree – she doesn’t take her own happiness into account that much and rather makes sure everyone else is happy first... but her family and her real friends always have her back and make sure she’s also having fun and feeling happy. Messing with her is not a very good idea, and if only for the relatively large Thorn-protect-squad.

Willow

Good traits

They’re really smart and pretty patient when it comes to learning new things, and they like trying out stuff they’ve never done before.

When it comes to their friends and loved ones, they show affection openly and often and even get pretty bubbly despite usually being so shy.

They’re also a really good listener and don’t back down when it comes to speaking up against someone who’s being mean to other people – they’re also extremely loyal. Their friend group isn’t huge, but if they befriend someone and that person makes them happy, they’ll go to the ends of the world for them, are extremely supportive of their goals and help them achieve them if they can.

Bad traits

They’re a... bit forgetful when it comes to certain stuff – especially things like watering plants, but also where they last put their things – including the tracker pad that’s literally in their hands when they start looking for it. They probably have the tidiest room in the entire house, and they still never freaking find anything.

They’re also really shy, so they don’t make friends very easily, and they also take criticism very personal despite not openly showing it a lot of times because they’re too embarrassed to – when someone tells them they think Willow is annoying or weird, they’re just going to keep quiet about it and then crawl into bed to cry when they get back home. They’re confident when it comes to protecting others, but they’re also really insecure when it comes to being criticized themselves.

If they’re genuinely hurt by someone, they can’t just laugh it off two days later... they take a long time to forgive others, especially if it’s people that know what they’re insecure about and still push their buttons anyway.

Aster

Good traits

He cares a lot about his family, and always knows how to cheer his siblings and especially his twin up when they’re upset. He’s also not afraid to make mistakes and doesn’t get very nervous about giving a wrong answer when he’s asked things because for him, wrong answers only mean that you learn new things you didn’t know before. If he’s good at something that his friends can’t do, he often offers to teach them and would never brag about it. He’s also really good at playing the drums.

Bad traits

He’s extremely chaotic and can also get pretty loud. He also likes fighting – sometimes it’s just friendly wrestling with his sister, and that’s fine, but they might end up breaking some stuff when they wrestle, and after he connects to the Heart Blossom, he often underestimates his powers or uses them accidentally, which results in both huge chaos and often at least smaller injuries. After he learns to control his powers better, the number of injuries decreases, but the chaos remains, especially when he and Kohana start deliberate making their powers a part of their friendly but heated competitions. They once tore half of Catradora’s living room apart on semi-accident – Finn was very excited. He’s also not good at listening when people tell him what to do – his parents sometimes get through to him, and Frosta often does, but most people out of his family don’t.

Kohana

Good traits

She’s open-minded, more likely to listen to others than her brother is, and she has a pretty healthy sense of humor. She’s also the best fighter out of all the kids – she’s been taking lessons from Frosta, Lonnie and Catra respectively since she was about ten. She’s courageous and creative and if she’s certain someone’s apology is sincere, she’s pretty forgiving, even to people who have hurt her in the past and maybe don’t deserve it. She’s also trustworthy – if you tell her a secret, she’s going to take it to her grave. She also always takes her time to pick out heartfelt birthday gifts for the people she loves because while she’s not that good with words, she still likes finding ways to make their day.

Bad traits

She’s really, really impatient and gets bored and frustrated easily – if she doesn’t manage to succeed at something during the first or at least second attempt, she just gives up frustratedly and goes on to punch something to let out her frustration. She also gets jealous really easily, especially if people learn the things she can’t do really quickly.

Like her twin brother, she’s really into fighting for fun, and she also doesn’t really learn how to pick her fights for a while. Since she’s connected to the Black Garnet rather than the Heart Blossom, she also causes destruction way more easily than Aster does. She’s also more scary than her brother if she wants to be – think chipped-Scorpia level scary.

40. If I wanted to draw them, what would be distinct physical features that I would have to know to draw them correctly?

Clover

He has yellow skin, short teal hair that’s a bit curly, pink eyes, cyan wings – the left one is torn slightly at about 3/4 of the wing which is why that one is harder to move for him – and regular elven ears that are his skin color yellow outside and a darker yellow inside.

He’s the shortest Scorfuma-child except for Frosta, about one head shorter than Willow.

Also technically not a physical feature, but he rarely ever wears formfitting clothes.

Thorn

I posted a princess maker pic of her a while back (along with pics of some of my other next gen kids), but most distinctive physical features would be: Short curly white hair (about chin-length) with flowers in it, a red scorpion tail – which is actually her only Scorpioni-trait –, dark brown eyes and Perfuma’s skin-tone.

As an adult, she’s actually the second tallest of the kids, about as tall as Scorpia.

She’s the one that’s based off of Rae’s Scorfuma-child.

Willow

I also posted a princess maker pic of them when I made their bullet point list, but most distinctive physical features would be:

They have dark skin and dark brown eyes, freckles, curly black hair that almost reaches their shoulders, and their Scorpioni parts are black rather than red like Scorpia’s. They’re kind of short as a kid, but pretty tall as an adult – not quite as tall as Scorpia, but almost that tall, and also at least somewhat buff.

Also, I know this isn’t a physical feature, but they always walk around with that little flower trinket in their chest – Sagi has a similar one. He found it in a box when he was little and when Willow saw him with it, they promptly decided they wanted the same one, so their parents got them the same one. Neither Willow nor Sagi take them off very often, they actually still wear them well into adulthood.

Aster

He has freckles, dark brown eyes and extremely short white hair which you can see would probably be a lot more curly should he choose to grow it out. His skin-tone is somewhere in between Scorpia’s and Perfuma’s. He also has some red Scorpioni-features – the shoulders, the tail and the waist-parts.

He’s shorter than his twin sister Kohana for most of their childhood, but eventually outgrows her by about five inches when they‘re in their teens.

He’s also the only one of the kids that actually ends up being taller than Scorpia when he’s fully grown.

Kohana

She has dark brown eyes, Scorpia’s skin-tone and freckles, also long straight blond hair that she usually grows out to about waist-length and then wears in really any kind of plait, but most often a ponytail, but she cuts it off almost completely on a couple of different occasions throughout her life, mostly because it sometimes if it gets in her way or on her nerves all of a sudden.

She has pincers, as well as the knee and waist-Scorpioni-features.

She also has her ears pierced and likes wearing different kinds of colorful earrings from a pretty early age on, often even mismatching ones.

She’s relatively tall, give or take about as tall as Willow, maybe slightly taller, which makes her almost as tall as Scorpia.

And, again not a physical feature, but she also has either flowers or grass or both either on her clothes or in her hair at all possible times, varying from stuff like flower crowns and actual jewelry to just a grassy reminder on her shirt that she had another wrestling match with Aster in the garden.

48. What does their room look like?

Clover

His room is pretty tidy for the most part.

He has shelves filled with astronomy, gardening and cooking books that his siblings often lend and that are then never returned to him again – except for the cooking books because he’s made it very clear that he can’t cook as well as he usually does without them when too many of them disappeared that one time.

He also has a bunch of different CDs because he’s really into music – he can’t play any, but he really likes listening to it –, and he also has a couple really terrible old movies that he likes to make fun of with his parents and siblings, especially if one of them is having a bad day, as well as some children’s books that he often read to Willow and the twins when they were little and then kept because of the good memories.

He has a photo album where he keeps pictures of all his loved ones that he always keeps somewhere close to his bed, and an old baby blanket that he brought from the orphanage, which was the only memento he actually wanted to keep when it became clear that Scorpia and Perfuma would stay his moms for the rest of his life.

Thorn

Her room is very flowery, different potted plants standing on most of her wooden furniture as well as embroidered flowers on her white curtains.

The room is kind of tidy, but there’s a lot of notebooks and pens scattered all over it – she started keeping a diary pretty much since she first learned how to write, and she keeps all of them so she can look at her memories whenever she wants. When she’s a teen, she also picks up a habit of writing – sometimes stories, but more often, poems, which she keeps locked up in a treasure chest because she’s too shy to show them to anyone.

There’s a bunch of different genre novels on her shelf – she’s mostly into RomComs, stories about friendship and horror –, she also has a bright pink meditation mat that’s always lying on the floor in front of her bed for when she needs to relax, along with a tea set that her parents gifted her.

She also has a secret stash of sweets to make herself feel better whenever she’s upset that she keeps in a jewelry case with a false bottom in a drawer in her bedside table.

Willow

They have a bunch of cacti in their room, because they’re the only plant that Willow can actually have that they don’t accidentally end up killing after, like, a week of constantly forgetting to water them. Most of them are on their window sill. Their room is probably the tidiest in the entire house, including their parents’ bedroom. They have a calendar over their bed, a bunch of fluffy pillows and a mint-green blanket on their relatively large bed. They’re also the one that got to keep Scorpia’s little scorpion plushie – Frosta had it for a while after she was adopted, then Thorn until Scorpia and Perfuma adopted Clover, and then Willow got it. The twins each got their own separate plushie, so Willow ended up keeping this one, and it’s been sitting on top of their science book shelf since they turned twelve.

There’s a fluffy colorful carpet on the floor, and some equally colorful curtains to fit the picture, and a really bright nightlight on their bedside table that they‘re allowed to leave on day an night if they want to.

Willow also always has their swim gear somewhere in reach, which is probably the only thing in the room that they never end up searching for.

There’s also a bunch of different photos all around their room – family photos, and of their friends, mostly photos of Willow and Sagi and also some of them with Angie.

Aster and Kohana

They share a room for most of their childhood, so I’m going to do them together.

The fact that they share a room is mostly because it was just easier that way when they were little – they were offered to get separate rooms when they grew older, but they didn’t want to, and only actually end up getting separate rooms when they’re around fifteen years old.

These two are chaos incarnate, and so is their room. There’s books and toys all over the place, but despite that, both of them always know where everything is, surprisingly – and if one of them asks the other to hand them something, the other does it immediately without ever searching before. Their parents sometimes joke about how that’s their real magic skill rather than their connection to the Runestones.

There’s also a sword somewhere amidst the chaos that’s hopefully but probably not a toy that Frosta got them for one of their birthdays, as well as Aster’s ice skates and aways at least one canvas that Kohana starts painting on and then gives up on at least three times a week until she’s eventually satisfied and it gets hung up on the wall in the hallway or the dining room. Because of this, there’s also tons of art supplies scattered everywhere, and a huge red stain on the otherwise light brown carpet where she accidentally knocked over a cup of paint, tried to clean it up and just made everything worse. They sometimes joke about how someone that got on their nerves was murdered there.

There’s also a bunch of pictures on their wall.

They’re often just standing in the middle of their mess, painting and drumming, respectively.

78. If they had a nightmare, who would they run to?

Honestly, that really depends on who’s around in the scenario with most of them, but I’m just going to go with “if they could pick literally anyone”.

Clover

Perfuma, that’s not even a question. He’s thirteen when he’s adopted, so it’s not the kind of “mommy there’s a monster under my bed”-nightmares, but he does have some bad dreams about more serious topics – he doesn’t remember much about his biological parents, but sometimes he hears shouting at the back of his mind when he closes his eyes and wonders if it’s them, and sometimes he has dreams about being back at the orphanage with that one kid that bullied him.

He then knocks at his mothers’ bedroom door softly, enters and wakes Perfuma – she told him very early on that she doesn’t care how late it is, he’s always allowed to wake her or Scorpia if he needs them –, and when he wakes her up, the first time she does is leave the room with him to talk to him alone for a moment. She always asks if he wants her to wake up her other mom as well, and sometimes he does because sometimes the only thing he needs is to cuddle with his moms on the couch in peace until he calms down...

But especially shortly after the adoption, he don’t want to feel like a burden to his new adoptive parents, and it’s worse enough that he’s annoying one of them – he’s pretty afraid they’re just going to decide they don’t want him after all if he turns out to be too difficult of a child, because he has friends and acquaintances that were adopted and eventually cane back to the orphanage because the adoption didn’t work out –, and despite Scorpia being the softest, friendliest person he has ever met, he’s also kind of intimidated by her at first because she’s so tall and buff and he is a really short forest elf, which is why it’s a little easier for him to talk to just Perfuma about his nightmares at first. ...and he also gets a little overwhelmed with multiple people questioning why he’s feeling bad sometimes, even if they mean well, so sometimes one person works better for him.

Scorpia sometimes feels insecure about this, but really, she just wants her kid to be happy, and if her wife can help him more than she can, that’s fine, and she’s obviously not going to blame him for it or make him feel bad about it.

Perfuma always makes him tea if he wants one, and then they’ll just cuddle under a blanket on the couch, and if he wants to talk, she’s going to let him talk, but she’s also not going to force him to speak to her about things he’s not ready to talk about. Sometimes, she tells him stories from her childhood to show him he isn’t alone with at least some of his fears, but of course only if he wants her to. Sometimes she’ll just take him outside into the garden so he can get some fresh air and lay down in the grass to look up into the sky and at the stars – he’s really into astronomy, and if he can’t talk about what’s bothering him, telling her stories about different constellations always calms him down and makes him feel better, so she will gladly listen to that for several hours if that’s what he needs.

...that, and also sometimes he just needs to hear that mom will kick someone’s ass with flowers if they bother him again.

Clover and Perfuma grow really close pretty quickly if you couldn’t tell.

Thorn

When Thorn has a nightmares, she usually just wakes both of her moms when she’s little – this changes a bit as she grows older and realizes there’s different kinds of help she needs depending on how upset she is and what kind of nightmare she had. Sometimes meditating with Perfuma helps her calm down and feel better, sometimes she just need Scorpia’s hugs and some hot cocoa – but honestly, this can be applied to most situations when she’s upset, not necessarily just nightmares.

Sometimes, also just she really needs someone to talk to, and, depending on the topic, it’s easier to just talk to one of them instead of both because she knows which one of her moms will understand her fears better, but sometimes she also just needs both of them.

She rarely ever goes back to her own bed after a nightmare and instead just climbs into bed with her parents.

Sometimes, when they stay over at Bright Moon, she also goes to cuddle with Arrow when she’s scared because Arrow glows and that calms her down – and also, Arrow will absolutely stage a kitchen robbery for some sweets in the middle of the night just to cheer her up.

Willow

They connect with Scorpia very well very quickly, so usually it’s Scorpia that they run to after a nightmare for some late-night cuddling and the best, most beautiful singing in the world to put them back to sleep.

Willow rarely ever has any nightmares that they can put into words – they wake up terrified and shaking, but without an actual memory of what they’re so afraid of, so there’s usually not a lot of talking involved. Scorpia usually makes them some tea, then sings to them and leaves the lights on when her child falls back asleep so that they’re not as scared anymore when they wake up again. After particularly bad nightmares when Willow doesn’t want to sleep again at all, Scorpia usually just puts on a movie or two until eventually, their tiredness catches up to them and then Scorpia sleeps on the couch with her kid sleeping on her chest.

They also often wake up Thorn who allows them to sleep in her bed and then reads to Willow until they fall asleep. When it’s especially bad, she hands out some of her precious emergency candy to make them feel better.

Aster and Kohana

Since Aster and Kohana share a room, the first person they usually wake is each other – sometimes deliberately, and sometimes accidentally, either by waking up screaming or by turning on the light.

After that, who they run to depends which one of them had the nightmare – if possible, they both like to wake Frosta who will definitely beat up any possible monster under their beds.

Other than that, Aster usually wakes Clover who takes their minds off things by either going downstate with them for a midnight snack that they prepare together, or by reading funny stories to them where the hero always wins and defeats the bad guys – he then convinces them that the stories about the good guys winning are way too scary for any possible monsters in their room and that they’ve long fled by the time the story ends, but also offers to read another one, then another and another of they’re not completely convinced. This goes on until they fall asleep, and sometimes Clover doesn’t even make it back to bed and just falls asleep in a chair in between their beds while he’s reading.

Kohana on the other hand usually wakes Scorpia, especially after she’s learned to control her magic more, so her mom can help her practice her magic outside to take her mind off things and help her feel stronger. Aster often joins in on the training as well, and then they end up being so exhausted that not only do they fall back asleep when Scorpia puts them back to bed afterwards and sings them to sleep, but they also sleep in in the morning – which rarely ever happens to any of the kids, but especially not to those two with their seemingly endless amount of energy.

—

Here are the questions again if anyone wants to ask anything else.

#scorfuma #scorpia #perfuma #spop #she-ra #scorfuma kids #she ra #she-ra oc #my ocs #spop Clover #spop Thorn #spop Willow #spop Aster #spop Kohana #answered #spop next gen

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dawniebb · 4 years

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We Must Be Strong

I’ve never published a She-Ra fanfic here (even if I have 2 in Ao3) but, since it’s ending tomorrow, I thought it was...adequate. I’ve been in this fandom since the show’s first season came out and to think about it’s coming to an end it’s very bittersweet, at least to me. I remember watching the first season during the week I was finishing my first semester at university and I remember that semester as one of the best ones of my academic life, so I’m really grateful She-Ra came into my life in that period. This was a great experience even if each season gave me like four breakdowns per episode :’) <3

This was supposed to be a Catradora fic but I ended up writing about Adora and Bow because I love them and they’re brotp material :’3 kind angsty, but that’s how I feel about She-Ra right now, so :’).

Also, English is not my first language, but I hope you like it.

For the honor of Grayskull, y’all :’) thanks for making this fandom great.

Bow had been here many times before.

Many, many times before...and he was certain, very certain, that never had the Bright Moon’s castle felt so empty.

He also had been here without Glimmer many times before. Many, many times before, whether it was sneaking in by himself when she wasn’t available to help him, or he had been requested by the Queen (Long live the Queen) to help her take her stubborn child out of her room so she could be properly lectured; and that wasn’t it. Bow had been through the halls by himself very late at night, when Glimmer was out of power during slumber parties and one of the two had to sacrifice themself to go steal snacks from the kitchen; he had talked to the Queen by himself; he had walked through the gardens by himself when the stupid fight had gone too far and now they had to find a way to apologize.

He had been here without Glimmer many times before, but never had he doubted he would see her again.

The thought of never getting to see her best friend again had never crossed his mind, but right now it was all Bow could think about.

He was usually a patient and somewhat realistic person (at least that was how he liked to consider himself) but right now, even for someone like him, it was infuriating to see how while the world inside of his head was suspended in time, the one on the outside was still moving at its regular pace, even if it was in shambles.

Clocks ticked. Hours passed. The weather changed. The breeze turned too cold or too hot. The foreign stars shone up in a sky that appeared to be somewhere it wasn’t meant to be. People spoke. People asked. People stared.

People mourned Queen Angella, because she would’ve known...No, she would’ve done better than this.

People mourned Queen Glimmer, because oh, that poor negligent heir, whose crown was too big and heavy for her head.

People mourned She-Ra, because what was Etheria to do without her; because what is that child to do without her sword.

People, hesitantly, celebrated King Micah’s return because if it wasn’t Angella, and if it wasn’t Glimmer, then he was the one to fix the mess they had left behind. Or at least the one to take their place in that unfortunate throne.

Bow had been confused and disappointed the whole time. Confused and disappointed on how they seemed to care but at the same time they seemed to not be getting it at all; how they weren’t capable to look above their own pain and realize they were falling into pieces too; How Angella had been someone’s mother; how Glimmer had been someone’s best friend and someone’s daughter; how there was a normal girl inside of She-Ra and they were lucky she was still alive; How King Micah had returned home only to find his wife and daughter to be gone.

Bow felt confused and disappointed on them until he remembered they all were in the middle of a war.

A war that, at least today, they had lost. Of course, they had won some things and, at the end of the day, they were still here in one piece.

But they had also lost too many things they weren’t supposed to. One of them being Glimmer...And She-Ra’s sword. And Bow knew they would manage to keep fighting because that’s what they always did, but he wasn’t sure how.

Scorpia was the one who came and told him there was something wrong with Adora, and Bow didn’t ask for any further proof because she had the right to feel bad and to feel absolutely destroyed. She was only human. A normal girl, even if people refused to recognize her as such because a big sword had decided to turn her into a tall, shiny, gorgeous lady.

But because he was her friend and he was supposed to be there for her, and because Scorpia looked genuinely worried, Bow decided to go check on her.

The walk to Adora’s chamber was the longest he’d ever had to walk, mostly because he had moved very slowly, scared to find out what was Scorpia referring to. Still, when the door was right in front of him, sheer courage ran through his veins along with his blood. And then, in a blink, Bow’s knuckles were knocking against the door.

No response, as expected, but now that Bow knew he had taken the time to knock and try to be polite, his conscience was clean, so he opened the door even though permission had not been granted.

When he faced the conditions the bedroom was in, there was only one thing that popped in Bow’s head:

“We hit things.”

Sometimes thinking about small children being under the Horde’s care was enough to make Bow’s heart ache for days as if it were breaking piece by piece.

Those poor creatures; stolen childhoods, stolen happiness...stolen lives.

The room looked like an hurricane had torn it apart.

Some of the furniture was on the floor; there were broken things, ripped paper sheets, ripped documents, including a map of Etheria and some unnecessarily complicated notes about Princess Prom; in fact, the only thing that appeared to have been treated with delicacy was the broken sword; placed on the bed, and all of the pieces they managed to recover placed in order, like a puzzle, only it was still detached.

Adora was the last thing Bow’s eyes found; she was knelt down, really close to one of the walls; Bow couldn’t see her face, but he could almost bet her stare was blank; her hair was down, as it had been when they had arrived, but it looked more like a mess now; her hands were placed on her lap, but even from here Bow could see her knuckles were bruised and had tiny red spots, which made him feel speechless...even breathless, he dared to say. And the need to run towards her and shake her was unbearable, but he tried to hold himself back as if his life depended on it.

And he gave her time, until Adora felt his gaze fixed on her and her head started turning around to face him. Very slowly, as if she were yet to process her body was experiencing movement.

When Bow saw her, he saw exactly what he was expecting to see.

Her eyes were red and swollen, and her cheeks looked shiny due to the tears that were still drying on her skin.

Still, when she managed to identify him, she cleaned her nose with her arm and then sniffed. Next, her dry lips were the shape of a forced, broken, barely put together smile that, if anything, made her lower lip quiver more than it made it look more relaxed. A look that, as a whole, made her emanate a more worrying aura.

Adora took a deep, faltering breath before speaking.

“Hey, Bow.” She said in a hoarse voice.

That’s when he allowed himself to finally approach her, kneeling down behind her.

Slowly, Bow hugged her from her back; Adora sniffed again, interlocking her fingers between Bow’s as her way to correspond the hug. A couple of seconds later, she was mildly shaking, but he could feel her swallowing very hard with every breath.

Bow held her tighter, closing his eyes.

Beneath her shirt, Bow could feel the traces on her skin from the scratches Catra had given her some time ago. He had never seen those scars, but he had been there the day Adora was laying face down while they tried to heal the wounds (To be honest, Mermista and Frosta hadn’t helped much).

Actually, Bow had been there most of the times Adora had allowed anybody to take care of her wounds; people tended to see her as this invencible giant lady because that was what She-Ra looked like but, in reality, Adora was scarred.

She was tossed around in every battle as if she were a mannequin; she was wounded, injured, bruised and emotionally and physically attacked every single time she had to face the war. And people didn’t seem to notice that.

Or maybe they did but refused to admit it, because it was more relieving to think of She-Ra as this almighty warrior who would get up every time even if she was bleeding to death.

And she did, but not because she could, but because she chose to do so.

And, to Bow, it was unfair to ask this much out of a person; it was unfair to be in the middle of a war; it was unfair to scar someone’s body and mind this much and this bad.

Like any kid who had grew up in the Horde and any kid who had been born in the middle of this conflict, Adora was stolen. Her everything was stolen. Literally, because she had been taken from her family when she was just a baby.

And now, even when she was in a safer environment than the Horde, the consequences of that kept taking things from her.

Bow felt as if he were hugging what was left of her, and if he dared to let go even just a bit, she would turn into dust.

This was just Adora. No longer She-Ra. And even if in other circumstances that could’ve been liberating, this time was the opposite.

She-Ra was gone.

Just like Angella.

Just like Glimmer.

Bow rested his forehead on her shoulder, and he felt her hold getting tighter, as she leaned her cheek on his skin.

“I’m getting her back.” Adora muttered. “She-Ra or not. I’m getting her back.”

“We’re getting her back.” Bow corrected. His voice sounding like a very thin thread. “She’s our best friend.”

And it was unfair. Very unfair.

“But we must be strong.”

Adora shivered. Gulped again. Breathed.

Spoke.

“We must be strong.” She repeated.

Because they couldn’t waste more time mourning Glimmer’s absence, because they had to use that time to find a way to bring her back.

The world was still spinning.

And time was running out.

#spop #she ra and the pricesses of power #netflix #noelle stevenson #she ra #fanfic #my fanfic #adora #glimmer #bow #send help this is not a meme #im going to miss this gals so much its unreal #there goes one of my coping mechanisms #she-ra season 5 #spop s5 #brotp #she-ra eve

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