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aliensunflower-fics · 11 months

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Dating ‘Prince Charming’ Part 2/3

[ Lila is finally starting to learn what its really like to be Adrien Agreste's girlfriend and finding out its not everything she hoped it would be. But while the liar struggles Marinette works toward her goals and meets someone new. ]

[ Prefer AO3? Link HERE! | Part 1 HERE! | Part 3 Coming Soon | Masterlist Link HERE! ]

Chloe made her grand return 3 weeks after Lila and Adrien’s big dating announcement. The bossy blonde had been away in New York with her mother and it was only in retrospect that Marinette briefly wondered if the entire timing of her and Adriens break up and Lila and Adriens announcement had been planned. After all Chloe had not taken well to Marinette dating Adrien and the class president was positive she would not take the news that Lila had swooped in right after their big breakup any better.

As it turns out Marinette had been right at least about Chloe not taking the news well. She’d walked into class early (for her) only to be met with chaos as Chloe and Lila stood opposed and yelling filled the classroom. Despite the fact that Marinette KNEW Chloe would hate whoever dated Adrien the sight was still enough to leave her mildly stunned after all Lila and Chloe had been tag team harassing Marinette since the second she and Adrien had started dating so to see the once allies now locked in a vicious match each using their unique brand of awful against each other… Well it was something.

Luckily Marinette knew she would not have to lift a finger to fix things. Because this? This was Adrien’s problem. And Marinette had no intention of helping or playing mediator. After all Adrien had let Lila and Chloe stomp all over their relationship when they’d still been dating, heck he’d even asked Marinette to simply deal with it so now he could deal with it and Marinette severely doubted that Lila would be even half as accepting or accommodating as she had been.

So while the two wannabe queens duked it out Lila with fake tears and Chloe with vicious mockery Marinette simply glided past the drama and up to her seat where she pulled out her sketchbook and started adding the finishing touches to a sketch of a brand new rock and roll suit for Uncle Jagged. Now that she wasn’t chasing after Adrien 24/7 and making him gifts and worrying about him or Lila or Chloe not to mention trying to keep up with her school work and grades all while also being Ladybug well Marinette had time on her hands and she’d been using it to study, track down Hawkmoth with Alya’s help, spend time with friends but most of all she’d been using that time on her career.

As she wrote in what materials she would need to get a certain sheen effect on the outfit, Marinette noticed the green eyes looking up at her desperately from the front of the class. Marinette glanced up noting how Adrien seemed to be trying to plead with her to help as he tried to reign in his dramatic new girlfriend and attack dog childhood friend; she only cocked her head to the side, smiled and offered him a little wave before continuing with her work. Yeah no way was she willingly throwing herself into THAT.

Sure enough before class could start Adrien managed to drag Lila out of the room and into the hallway no doubt to give her the same speech he had given Marinette when THEY were dating Lila bursting back into the classroom a few minutes later looking like she’d just swallowed a whole lemon only confirmed Marinette’s suspicions.

What Marinette had not expected was Lila openly complaining about ADRIEN at lunch, hours after the incidents of that morning. Marinette ate her steamed bun as she watched with mild surprise as the Italian wailed and threw a veritable tantrum as she told the girls all about how Adrien had put Chloe first and had asked Lila to simply deal with it. It was so painfully ironic that Marinette struggled not to roll her eyes. Honestly after the breakup Marinette had for a brief time contemplated revenge because truthfully. She was hurt and mad but Tikki had talked her out of it claiming that karma would have its way Marinette hadn’t believed the little god at the time too lost in her grief and her ice cream but now? Well now Marinette was starting to understand what Tikki meant. Because Lila wanted to be Adrien Agreste’s girlfriend no matter what it took, and she was only now starting to see what that really meant.

Sure enough in the weeks that followed Lila and Chloe kept each other busy allowing Marinette to for the first time in years relax at school. Of course Lila tried to redirect Chloe’s hatred back at Marinette by telling the blonde about how it had been Marinette who initiated the break up. But Marinette had easily overcome Chloe’s rage with honesty after all she had only broken up with Adrien because she knew they were incompatible and that Adrien would be happier with someone else, something Chloe agreed with though the way in which the blonde agreed made Marinette’s eye twitch just a little.

And then of course there was Adrien who was still trying to get Marinette to step in and help him handle his childhood friend and girlfriend but Marinette had been able to dodge him for weeks until they were having a class meetup at the park. Chloe was not attending due to wanting to avoid the ‘peasants’ as she so called them and Lila claimed she would be late due to an important meeting with some famous person. Honestly Marinette had not even bothered to pay attention. Adrien had noted the lack of ‘problem people’ and had decided to make a bold move calling Marinette out as they all hung out together to ‘talk to her in private’ yeah like THAT was going to happen.

Marinette knew Adrien’s modus operandi very well. He’d call you out, ask to talk to you privately and then lay on the guilt trip. No way was she doing that anymore she’d endured enough of them while they were dating to last a lifetime.

“Actually I would prefer not to talk to you alone, Adrien. You're publicly dating someone and we never know when your fans or the paparazzi might be around. Besides anything you can say to me in private you can say in front of OUR friends.”

Adrien looked like a kicked puppy at her words. But as their classmates quickly took her side and insisted he tell Marinette whatever he needed with them around the blonde was backed into a corner.

“Well the thing is… I was wondering if you could help? With the whole Lila, Chloe situation?”

Marinette wasn’t even given a chance to respond. The second the words left Adrien’s mouth the entire class bristled, many giving Adrien looks of confusion and shock as if he’d just spoken pure nonsense and honestly in a way he had. Nathaniel however was the one who said it best.

“Wait I’m sorry are you seriously asking Marinette to mediate between her long time bully and the girl you started dating not even an hour after your break up with her? Are you serious?!”

“W-Well I just thought-”

“Thought what Agreste? That Marinette should put herself in the worlds worst situation completely ignoring her own feelings just to make your life easier?”

Oof Kim going straight for the throat.

“B-But shes the class president!”

“So?! That doesn’t make her a genie! She can't just clap her hands and fix everything nor should she have to!”

Marinette had never heard Rose sound so upset in her life, which is when the young fashion designer knew it was her turn to say her piece and get things back under control.

“Adrien.” She ignored the hopeful look he shot her. “Not only do I not want to get involved but I don’t think it would help. Chloe doesn’t like me and Lila’s ‘disease’-” she said the word with barely concealed sarcasm “acts up when I’m around. So I’m sorry but no I will not help you with this.”

“But I’m sure if you just-”

The look the class shot him was enough to end the conversation and Marinette let out a relieved sigh as her heart filled with warmth she really loved her friends.

A month after the conversation in the park Lila Rossi got her second harsh wake up call to the ‘true joys’ of being Adrien Agreste’s girlfriend and it was a two for one deal.

Lila had seemingly been under the assumption that once she was dating Adrien her own popularity would rise to meet his but she was starting to learn that wasn’t the case. Adrien still got plenty more photo-shoots then she did and most were still solo and since they were fast approaching the spring fashion season Adrien was plenty busy with more and more shoots while Lila was left waiting for her turn in the spotlight.

Perhaps it was the frustration at not immediately sky rocketing her way up in fame or maybe it was the snide comments from Adrien Fangirls talking about the lack of couples shoots but Lila seemingly came up with the brilliant plan to force the spotlight onto herself by demanding, manipulating and forcing Adrien to take her on big flashy fancy dates where the paparazzi always conveniently found them Marinette had no doubt Lila was the one tipping them off but she kept her mouth shut. It wasn’t her problem.

However while Lila was enjoying her tabloid paparazzi fueled fame the class and more surprisingly Gabriel Agreste himself were beginning to notice the way it was wearing Adrien down. Between his photo-shoots and busy schedule all of Adrien’s precious free time was being filled up by Lila and her many needy antics and it was starting to show in the way Adrien carried himself and how exhausted he seemed.

Nino was the one who led the charge just as he had when Lila manipulated the class into thinking her ‘clingy’ but where Marinette had gotten some hurtful but well meaning lectures about her Adrien obsession which in retrospect DID help her realize her love was unhealthy. Lila was not given such a kind well meaning speech instead Nino got mad, something he rarely let himself become.

As it turns out Lila had worn Adrien down to the point where the blonde was too exhausted to function and he’d nearly passed out while standing and talking to Nino and that mixed with the fact that it had previously been Lila who painted the faux picture of Marinette as the clingy evil girlfriend isolating the boy from his friends was enough for Nino to harshly call her out. The liar did do her best to wriggle out of the situation trying to claim she only wanted ‘some’ private time with her oh so busy boyfriend but Nino was not having it and the class was too happy to back him up.

The more Lila tried to defend and excuse her actions the angrier Nino got and much to the liars annoyance the young musician had proof and plenty of it. Between his text correspondence with Adrien that revealed the model was constantly being forced to cancel relaxing friend days to take Lila out on flashy dates that always ended with paparazzi and fans swarming the location and forcing Adrien into high stress situations, and an extremely detailed schedule planner that Nino had made to keep track of his best buds work life balance (potential evidence to blackmail Gabriel Agreste if he ever threatened to pull Adrien out of school again apparently). The facts didn’t lie and they were showing that Lila was the real ‘clingy’ girlfriend.

Things eventually got so heated between Nino and Lila arguing that an akuma appeared to try and take advantage of the situation. Luckily for everyone Ladybug had been patrolling and stopped the naughty little butterfly from making things worse. In the end Lila was forced to grit her teeth and apologize to her darling boyfriend. Though perhaps what upset her more was the way the class proceeded to apologize to Marinette after the fact for ever accusing her of being clingy and taking up too much of Adrien’s free time.

However Lila still thought she had one last ace up her sleeve, and so after the class luncheon ended the liar proceeded to contact Gabriel hoping to get her new boyfriends dad to reign him in and do her bidding. Unluckily for Lila however Gabriel had been paying attention to the situation and that fact that it had ALMOST led to an akuma made him look even closer into things.

And he was not happy with what he found. The paparazzi pictures and articles that resulted from Lila and Adrien’s flashy dates had started positively enough with headlines and puff pieces about how cute the couple looked together, how it was nice to see the young Agreste in more casual settings with his girlfriend. But as the dates became more and more frequent and Lila’s constant demands and needs grew the articles slowly began to change soon they were discussing the concerning amount of money Adrien must be spending on his girlfriend, how exhausted and stressed the young Agreste heir looked under his strained smiles and was he eating and sleeping enough?

The akuma he’d sent had only further confirmed Gabriel’s negative feelings toward Lila though it did make him re-evaluate the young Lahiffe boy. Gabriel had originally thought the wannabe musician might just be interested in Adrien for money but seeing the lengths he went to defend his friend had the designer impressed and even a little grateful. So when Lila phoned to try and throw the boy under the bus and get Gabriel to side with her, well she had another thing coming.

Marinette heard later from Alya and the rest of the girls that Lila was ‘devastated’ how she’d wailed sobbed and thrown the tantrum of the century as she ranted and raved about Gabriel putting a 1 date a month maximum limit on Adrien and Lila. The two lovebirds could still hang out of course but it would be in the company of the rest of the class or other friends, or if they really wanted some privacy it would be strictly at the Agreste mansion for studying. Lila had told the girls that it was unfair and unjust that Gabriel was trying to get in the way of their love! Alya had relayed to Marinette that while the girls agreed that 1 date a month was a bit rough they all thought Lila’s tantrum was a bit childish especially when they all remembered how Marinette had rarely if ever got to enjoy 1 private date a month with Adrien and never in public.

Of course just because Lila had been told ‘no’ didn’t mean the liar was going to listen. And so she began trying to find ways to manipulate Adrien into ‘accidental’ dates, bugging the blonde to take her out instead of settling for lunch at school or trying to conveniently separate the two of them from the rest of the group during weekend and after school hang outs. But each time Lila tried Nino thwarted her eventually the Italian had gotten so angry at his meddling that she phoned Gabriel again this time to try and get the musician removed or banned or ANYTHING so that he’d back off, so when she instead learned that Nino had been asked by Gabriel to keep an eye out on for his son and that Adrien knew about it well the liar was furious.

Marinette learned later this time from Rose and Juleka that the Italian had tried to go on another tantrum tirade only to be stopped by Alya who would not tolerate anyone badmouthing her lovely boyfriend. Needless to say, Marinette was quick to notice the following Monday how Lila pouted and avoided the Ladyblogger like the plague. Luckily Marinette made sure Alya didn’t dwell on it too much by inviting the girl over to help her brainstorm some new ideas.

Because while Lila was focusing on leeching the fame and fortune off her boyfriend and being met with endless failures and a very hostile guard dog called Chloe. Marinette had been THRIVING. The suit she’d designed for Jagged had gone viral online and soon Jagged was passing on her contact information to a small selection of celebrities Marinette felt comfortable designing for. The fact that her identity was a secret and she had a very exclusive client list had only caused MDC to soar even higher in popularity with the public making it clear that they too wanted access to MDC fashion. And so Marinette had done her research and with the help of Uncle Jagged and Aunt Penny she’d set up an online store where she would sell ready made clothes.

Of course just because Marinette was seeing success didn’t mean she had forgotten about her friends. In fact the entire class minus Lila, Adrien and Chloe knew very well the true identity of the elusive MDC and that was because while Marinette was taking big steps toward her dreams she was helping her friends do just the same.

After all it didn’t take long for the internet to learn that the mysterious MDC designed Kitty Sections outfits causing the band to have a surge of free publicity that led to many people discovering their music and falling in love with the band.

Then there was Nathanial, Marc and Alya who Marinette or should she say MDC collaborated with while designing her ‘hero hoodie’ fashion collection all of them saw a boost in views with Marc and Nathanial’s comic picking up new readers though it was there brand new all original idea that had really flown off the shelves earning them an online cult following. Alya meanwhile got her blog spotted by Lois Lane herself who was impressed with the young future journalist and contacted Alya for a summer internship the scream Alya had made almost gave Marinette a heart attack.

And it didn’t end there. When Nino made a short film with Mylene and Kim of all people as his lead actors and uploaded it for free to YouTube MDC who was well known for supporting smaller creatives and signal boosting them on her social media was more than happy to make a tweet linking to the short film. Nino’s short film had been impactful and powerful despite being a comedy satire on Hawkmoth and it had quickly blown up earning Nino a summer internship at a film studio and Mylene and Kim several job offers. Kim had never been particularly interested in acting but after seeing the outpouring of love and support not to mention with the encouragement he got from his lovely girlfriend Ondine he decided to accept a few offers surprising everyone as he developed a new passion that he and Mylene bonded over.

Max, and Alix were also boosted in a similar way to Nino, Kim and Mylene when MDC retweeted some of their creative endeavors. Alix a video where she had used spray paint to recreate a few classical paintings though that had only acted as a signal boost that allowed the skater to be noticed for her real passion Extreme Sports! When a very exclusive extreme sports training summer camp contacted Alix about her attending she’d squealed almost as loud as Alya had. Max meanwhile had his demo for his work in progress video games retweeted by MDC and saw a huge surge in interest and a few interested investors and publishers even arrived with offers, though before he could agree to anything his popularity ballooned even further when a video of him showing off Markov surfaced. He had later joked to Marinette that while he appreciated the support he wasn’t sure how he felt about suddenly gaining a ‘nerd cult’ as Kim called it.

Of course all of Marinette’s friends knew she was largely responsible for their sudden surge of fame and good fortune and many of them tried to dismiss their own talents and give all the credit to Marinette. But the young designer simply threw it back at them. Yes she had signal boosted them and given them a helping hand but at the end of the day the only reason they had gotten so popular and stayed so popular after the brief burst from her influence passed and the internet moved on to the next big thing was because they were talented and amazing without Marinette.

The only problem with the classes' new found fame. Was that sooner or later Lila was bound to take notice. And take notice she did when Mylene appeared as an extra in one of Lila’s favorite daytime soaps. The liar had been so focused on Adrien and trying to leech her fame off him while beating Chloe back with a stick that she had somehow missed all the major developments. And she was livid.

She was supposed to be the most popular girl in school! She was meant to be the star, the one people admired and aspired to be like! The one they envied but loved too much to truly hate! And when she’d finally gotten Marinette and Adrien to break up she thought for sure that all her dreams would come true. But somehow while she’d been busy trying to reign in the pesky little blonde her classmates had all gone and gotten famous without her. Most of them wouldn’t even BE in Paris in the fast approaching summer since many of them either had internships, specialized camps, acting gigs, or in Kitty Sections case a whole music tour with Jagged Stone that for some reason Marinette was also a part of?!?

None of it made any sense and when Lila had gone looking for how exactly everything had happened she kept finding herself looking at MDC’s social media. The elusive and private designer was apparently a super sucker or something as every week they would highlight some small time random creator. Honestly it disgusted Lila who just handed out fame like that? Fame and popularity was meant to be exclusive! Earned! Something for only the most beautiful and talented of society. Not for chubby little idiots like Mylene or nerdy freaks like Max.

Of course Lila was nothing if not an opportunist. Sure in her opinion none of her talentless, average, classmates actually deserved their new found fame and popularity but the good thing was they were also a bunch of gullible idiots. And if she played her cards right they would surely carry her to the top. She already had the perfect lie, she would simply claim to be best friends with MDC and tell the class that she had been the one to recommend that the designer boost her classmates.

It was perfect. Genius really.

So then why did it fail immediately?

Lila stood in front of the class, her face frozen in shock as she was stared down by 10 pairs of angry glares. She had expected overwhelming thank you’s and the class bowing at her feet but the second the lie slipped out of her mouth the class instead turned on the liar like a close knit pack of wolves smelling a sheep. Honestly Lila could not understand where she’d gone wrong, and even if she had said something that was an obvious lie wouldn’t the class just normally brush it off as her disease? So why is it that they were acting this way?

It was Alya who broke the silence first.

“You want to run that by us again? Lila.”

The Italian girl swallowed the lump in her throat and ignored the obvious warning sign that was Alya’s sharp tone. Forcing a charming smile Lila brought out her sweetest voice determined that she could salvage whatever THIS was.

“I was just saying that I’m so happy for all of you! I didn’t want to say anything at the time BUT me and MDC are such good friends! So when he-”

“He?” Alix snorted and rolled her eyes. “Yeah that about confirms it.”

The entire class seemed to agree with Alix as they all shook their heads and shot Lila disappointed and annoyed looks before returning to their own conversations and or hobbies freezing her out. Ignoring her.

Oh that? That pissed Lila off like nothing else. Her cheeks grew hot as she stomped her foot angrily, regaining their attention.

“You guys think I’m telling lies again! You all promised that you wouldn’t judge me for my disease but you are!” For added effect she started to sniffle and sob expecting the class to do what they always did and feel guilty about their treatment of her and rush to comfort her.

Instead she was met with even harsher glares.

“Uhh yeah no duh we think you're lying because you ARE. We” Alix gestured to the people currently in class. “Have all met MDC and SHE not ‘he’ is a wonderful person who helped boost our careers because she thinks we're all super cool and talented not because you asked her too.”

Lila felt her face screw up like she’d just sucked a lemon but she quickly worked it to her advantage as she began to loudly sob.

“T-That’s not fair! You know I can't help my disease!”

“Uhh yeah no. I’m stopping you there.” Alya stood up looking down from her perch at Lila with her hands on her hips commanding the room, Lois had been training her well. “We can accept that MAYBE your lying disease makes you claim things when your nervous or scared like how you always accuse Marinette of stuff, and we can MAYBE believe that your disease makes you mix up names and words so you end up giving the wrong information out about charities and celebrities and yes MAYBE we can believe that you sometimes make false claims about yourself when your stressed out like that time with Clara Nightingale stealing your dance moves. Whatever! But Lila that right there? You were not having an ‘oops I lied’ moment you were actively trying to deceive us to make the false claim that YOU are the reason MDC noticed us when we know the truth. And when I gave you a chance to correct yourself you tried to double down. That was intentional. That was malicious.”

Lila felt her mouth fall open, her eyes blinking in shock. Too late she tried to recover. Tried to explain away the situation and make herself out to be innocent. But the class was done with her and they made it clear in how they iced her out. Eventually she had no choice but to suck it up and sit down at her seat. Not long later Marinette rushed into class followed by Chloe who was latched onto Adrien with Sabrina in tow.

Soon enough the school year came to an end and Lila watched bitterly through the all seeing eyes of the internet as her classmates left for their internships, job opportunities, highly specialized summer camps, and more. Meanwhile she was stuck at home. Oh sure she got to go on a few out of country photo-shoots with Adrien but her fame was still nothing compared to her boyfriends, and it was quickly becoming less than nothing as her classmates rose in influence and popularity. Come the new school year Lila would need to find some way to force the class back under her heel.

Marinette was having the best summer of her life! Jagged had taken Kitty Section on tour with him and insisted on Marinette coming with them as their designer. Marinette hadn’t been sure at first worried about the Hawkmoth situation and her own career. But in the end Tikki and her parents had convinced her. Her parents loved the idea of Marinette leaving Paris and going to see the world with her friends for a bit, and Tikki had reminded Marinette that she had the Horse Miraculous and could come home anytime, besides Hawkmoth had been getting lazier and lazier with both his akumas and the amount of them. So in the end Marinette agreed and it had been the BEST decision of her life.

They visited England before eventually traveling overseas to America. The sights and sounds and new foods were filling Marinette with inspiration and she’d never been so busy sketching. Then of course there was the great company. Uncle Jagged and Aunt Penny were wonderful and quickly ‘adopted’ all of Kitty Section + Marinette. They'd act like doting parents one second and then the next they’d be ordering way too much pizza for the teens to share.

Of course everyone missed their friends and family but video call existed and it was only for the summer anyway. Ivan was the one who was probably the worst off pouting over his beloved Mylene but the group was able to cheer him up encouraging him to write a song for his girlfriend, the piece he wrote became a new hit single the second they performed it on stage and Mylene had loved it.

The group stopped by Florida first where Jagged took them all to Disney World and then Universal Park, pictures of the rocker wearing mickey mouse ears and a hufflepuff scarf of all things while being followed by a gaggle of teenagers had soon gone viral, after that it was off to New York, and then Metropolis where they spent a bit of time so Alya could see them and hang out. Her internship with Lois Lane was going well but she’d still been relieved to see her friends and get some down time to just chill. After that they went to Gotham, which was Jagged’s home town. Now most parents might veto a place as dangerous as Gotham but seeing as how Paris was under siege by an emotional butterfly themed terrorist and they were from a class particularly used to dealing with deadly akumas on a regular basis well they were able to convince their parents to let it happen. And to Marinette’s surprise Gotham turned out to be her favorite place of the whole trip.

Sure the city was gloomy but the gothic architecture somehow inspired Marinette, and while the people were not outwardly all smiles and sunshine they were kind in their own way. But the thing Marinette ended up loving most about Gotham was its beautiful parks and famous greenhouses. Thanks to the influence of Poison Ivy and Bruce Wayne the city of Gotham had become the greenest city in all of America and it was a never ending source of inspiration for the young designer. Not to mention it was thanks to all the inspiring greenery that Marinette had met HIM.

She’d been walking through one of Gotham’s older parks admiring the beautiful blooming wisterias that had been shaped into a long hallway arch when she got bowled over by a massive terrifying but very friendly dog. Marinette had been terrified at first until she noticed the fast wagging tail and happy smile on the dog's face. Tikki had warned her that one side effect of holding the Ladybug miraculous would be extra friendly animals a rather ‘tame’ side effect compared to the super strength, increased speed, and occasional urge to hibernate when cold but still the designer had never expected to be attacked with friendly happy dog kisses, not like THIS anyway. As she squirmed and laughed she tried to gently push the dog off. That was when the dogs owner had come to her rescue. Yanking his dog off of her while admonishing it Marinette was finally able to sit up and begin wiping the dog drool off her cheek with a laugh.

“Don’t scold the cutie too much I’m okay I swear he didn’t hurt me.”

“Even if he didn’t hurt you he’s been trained better than that. I’m very sorry, please allow me to help you.”

The boy’s voice was cool, firmly polite and matter of fact leaving no room for argument. To an untrained ear he might even sound annoyed or angry but Marinette could tell that wasn’t the case. As Marinette accepted the hand the boy offered and let herself be pulled up she suddenly came face to face with the most beautiful pair of green eyes she’d ever seen.

Where Adrien’s eyes were bright like a blinding peridot green, these eyes were soft and warm like the green of a pine tree and Marinette could feel herself melt into them. It didn’t help that the rest of the boy's face was also incredibly handsome. The designer quickly shook herself out of her thoughts and glanced away not wanting to stare. Instead she directed her attention to her assailant, the dog was sitting now staring up at her with its tail still wagging wildly. Marinette smiled and reached her hand down letting the dog sniff her before she gave him some soft pets.

“Such a softy for a big guy. What's his name?”

“Titus. And I apologize again. He really is trained better than that. I don’t know what came over him.”

Marinette felt a little bad but she couldn’t exactly say that she was the chosen champion of a god and a side effect of that was very friendly animals so instead she shot the boy a smile.

“Don’t worry I just seem to have that effect on animals. Back home the pigeons and crows have started fighting for dominance of my roof and balcony because they both want my attention.”

The boy gave her a stunned look before he made a sound that Marinette believed might be a covered up laugh. She smiled even brighter and offered the boy her hand to shake.

“By the way my name is Marinette. And it's a pleasure to meet you.”

The boy looked at her hand for a moment before he eventually grabbed it and shook it awkwardly.

“Damian… It's nice to meet you too. Though I can tell by that introduction that you're not from here.”

Marinette snorted at that.

“Really the introduction was what gave it away but not my accent?”

The boy seemed to blush a little at that before he coughed awkwardly. Marinette took pity on him and giggled.

“You are correct in your deduction mr.detective. I’m visiting from Paris, France with some friends and my uncle.”

If Marinette hadn’t been too embarrassed to look him in the eyes she may have noticed the spark of curiosity when she mentioned Paris. And had she known who Damian truly was at the time she would have known that his curiosity came from the fact that Batman and the other supers had recently learned about the situation in Paris thanks to Lois Lane taking on a new intern who ran the Ladyblog. Mayor Bourgeois had been doing a good job hiding the situation but he’d overlooked the civilian journalist.

“Hm. We don’t get many tourists. What brought you all the way out here. If I may ask.”

Naturally without much thought the pair began to walk through the park together as their conversation flowed. Marinette avoided using Jagged's name not wanting her new very handsome friend to take an interest in her solely for her connections. Instead she told him that Gotham was her uncles hometown and that this was the last stop on what had already been a pretty busy summer vacation. That turned into her telling him a bit about her family in general which got him talking about his family, he complained about his adopted siblings of which there seemed to be many but Marinette could tell he loved them.

Talking about family made him admit he’d come to the park to get away from them for a little while which got Marinette talking about the park and all the beautiful nature in Gotham which got the two of them talking about the best parks in Gotham and then Marinette brought up her sketches and suddenly they were talking about art and other hobbies. Before they had even realized it they were sitting at a bench together hidden away in the trees and wisterias chatting away. Marinette didn’t know why but something about Damian made her feel comfortable. Maybe it was the way he gave her his full undivided attention, maybe it was the way he made sure not to invade her space without consent or how he didn’t interrupt her when she spoke. Either way she felt safe, felt warm, almost like she was home. And judging by the way he seemed to relax the longer they spoke, his stiff body unwinding and his gaze softening, she thought maybe he felt just as comfortable with her as she was with him.

Honestly Marinette could have sat there chatting with Damian all day in fact it had already been several hours when the pair were finally interrupted. Both of their phones began to ring, Marinette’s with the tell-tale alarm of an akuma attack in Paris and Damian’s with an emergency as the Riddler had broken out of Arkham. The teenagers regretfully had to go both citing emergencies before they departed. It wasn’t until later that they realized they had forgotten to exchange phone numbers.

The akuma back in Paris had turned out to be Lila Rossi, it seems that Adrien’s fangirls had never truly warmed up to the liar and they had been trying to dig up dirt on the girl for months before finally finding there evidence. Alya may have privated the videos of Lila’s lies after finding out about the ‘lying disease’ but apparently someone had copied and saved them beforehand. And those videos had finally made their way out into the public. Luckily no one criticized Alya seeing as how she’d already had the common sense to remove the videos from her blog it helped that Alya also made a post explaining the situation in more detail which led to the general public agreeing that it had not been Alya’s fault when she had a teacher and a principle telling her to believe in a fake ‘lying disease’ clearly it was the adults at fault here not the young girl who had believed in them.

Needless to say the public ripped Lila to shreds for being a serial liar with more of her lies coming to light each day now that she had been exposed. And obviously the Italian had not taken it well and gotten akumatized.

Marinette knew that she should be happy that Lila had been exposed. Her classmates certainly were, but instead Marinette could not help but mope. Damian had been SO kind she really had wanted to get to know him better. The fact she’d completely missed out on getting his number gnawed at her. Little did she know that Damian was across the city thinking the same thing as he sat on a Gargoyle statue.

But fate likes to play funny games. A few days later Jagged got a call from Bruce Wayne, a few of his sons namely Tim, Jason and Dick had heard about Jagged being in town and tjat the rocker had brought MDC the famous designer with him. Apparently they were huge fans and had bugged, pleaded, whined, and eventually threatened a hunger strike until Bruce would ask Jagged to pretty please introduce them. So Jagged got the go ahead from Marinette and the gaggle of teenagers plus Jagged and Penny piled into a big van and drove over to the Wayne mansion.

Seeing it from the outside, Marinette felt only intimidation and dread. It was so huge and they were so rich. What if they were unimpressed when they found out MDC was just some teenage girl? Letting Jagged guide her and her friends push her forward Marinette nervously knocked on the door and let herself be led inside by the kind old man who introduced himself as Alfred.

Walking through the halls in wonder Marinette slowly felt her fingers twitch with the urge to design. But she suppressed it and focused not wanting to be rude. As the group turned a corner into a large sitting room Marinette’s blue eyes somehow found a pair of familiar green. She gasped, he blinked wide eyed.

“Marinette?” - “Damian?”

They blinked again, shocked. Marinette eventually snorted and laughed. Damian found himself smiling as he approached the small girl. And everyone else? Well they were just confused. Except for Damian’s family they were confused and freaked out.

“Is the demon spawn, smiling Dicky bird? Or am I hallucinating?”

“No I see it too Jason. He looks genuinely happy.”

“So it's official.” Tim added “we're all hallucinating.”

After some introductions and explanations things settled down with Marinette happy to take the Wayne’s on as clients. And the Wayne’s in turn being suitably impressed and amazed by the young girls accomplishments though the part they found most amazing was how she interacted with not only them but Damian. She was genuine and kind, no fake smiles or hidden double meanings, nor did she let their money and fame impress or blind her in any way. Jason soon declared her a little sister and Jagged preened and puffed as he gloated about not only Marinette but Kitty Section as well.

The rest of the summer spent in Gotham was tons of fun with Jason teaching Juleka and Marinette how to shoot guns and ride motorcycles, Rose and Marinette learning some of Dick’s gymnastics moves, Ivan meanwhile got along well with the quiet Cass and level headed Duke. Eventually Stephanie and Bab’s returned home as well and they also took to the french teens with ease they organized girl nights where they taught the girls how to break and enter something Marinette had a natural affinity for go figure. The most surprising development however was Luka. The slightly older boy had seemingly set his sights on the awkward coffee addicted Tim and had spent the remainder of the summer wooing him.

But while Luka was wooing Tim there was one other couple slowly forming. Everyone had seen the spark between Damian and Marinette and soon enough everyone was shipping it. The pair were often ‘conveniently’ left alone or were sent on errands that somehow conveniently became accidental dates. Marinette had been guarding her heart after Adrien had shattered it but Damian made her want to take the risk and fall in love. He was charming, polite, kind, sarcastic, and as she’d learned after telling him about the entire Paris situation akuma’s and all he was protective but without going so far as to undermine Marinette’s strength. He trusted her to be fast and smart and strong enough to defend herself (especially after they did a bit of fight training for fun and she laid him flat on the ground) but he did worry and care about her.

But still there was something holding back both teens. Something that shattered near the end of the vacation. Marinette had been caught by a villain. Poison Ivy to be exact. The plant villainess had taken note of the new frequent visitor to her greenhouse but what had really gotten her attention was how the plant life reacted to her. And furthermore how the plant life SPOKE about her. Ivy’s curiosity eventually grew too large and so she snatched up the young designer and brought her home. Luckily Marinette wasn’t particularly scared of Ivy or Harley, sure she didn’t like being knocked out but she felt no real fear, in the end Ivy, Harley and Marinette ended up having an unprompted girls day complete with junk food, ranting, bad American tv and more. Ivy eventually figured that Marinette was some kind of Meta one who had a strong influence over plant and animal life and that was enough for her to adopt the small half Asian girl and inject her with her special blend the same one she’d given to Harley to keep her safe in a town full of crazies.

But while Marinette was perfectly fine hanging out with 2 of the 3 sirens Damian had not taken it so well. He had scoured the city trying to find the sirens newest abode all while he gnawed his lip until it bled. Maybe it was the stress that made him slip up or maybe it was just Marinette being too smart for her own good. But when the young Robin came bursting in through a window yelling Marinette’s name something had immediately clicked and she knew who he was. After she’d calmed the situation down and made sure no one fought anyone else, Marinette thanked Ivy and Harley for the nice day and let Robin carry her away. After talking with Tikki and deciding to be reckless and selfish for once in her life Marinette confronted Damian the next day, revealing her own identity in the process. There was some freaking out and a LOT of talking with Tikki and the rest of the bat clan but in the end it seemed to work out for the best. Ladybug was certainly happy to accept the help anyway even if Chat Noir wasn’t going to be.

A week later Damian finally asked Marinette out. Two days after that they shared their first kiss on the ferris wheel. And come the end of summer Marinette, Kitty Section and surprise guests Damian and Tim Wayne were all boarding a flight back to Paris.

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caeruleums · 7 months

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𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐲 𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐦𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭, 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐢.

mother’s daughter: muse a has had a pretty rough childhood. when her mother was a teen, she got pregnant early with muse a and was tormented relentlessly. it made her snap and attempt to kill the girls who were making fun of her. in the end, she was apprehended and put in a mental health facility to live out the rest of her days. fast forward 20+ years and muse b is the child of the ‘final girl’. everyone thought that the baby had not been born, but muse a is out there, terrorizing muse b and their friends because of what happened to her mother. she could be hiding in plain sight, being friends with the group (and has been for years) or is a stranger.

bury a friend: after a freak accident, muse a and muse b accidentally kill their mutual friend. whether or not it’s an actual accident is up to you. muse a goes completely numb, and muse b is picking up the pieces, trying to figure out how to get away from the guilt. muse a ends up having a taste for killing, and muse b is left trying to clean up their messes so they don’t get caught.

twisted teeth: muse a is part of a coven of prominent vampires, who don’t often associate with other beings… especially humans. however, muse a is a bit of a rebel and likes to blend in with humans as a bit of a game. but when they meet muse b, everything changes. there is a primal desire to bond in a way that muse a has never felt before. now muse a is trying to figure out how to come clean to muse b, all the while trying not to feed from them.

maneater: two cannibals who fall in love, but neither of them know that they eat people and their taste seems to be for each other. think of mr. and mrs. smith, but instead of having a hit on each other… they’re just cannibals.

writer in the dark: muse a is a wanderer, going from place to place and just living life with nothing holding them back. muse b is a beautiful recluse, potentially some sort of demon/witch, who lives in a cabin in the middle of the woods. muse a ends up stumbling upon this cabin, and ends up getting locked in there with muse b. there is no way out, so muse a begins to learn how to live with muse b and being their muse.

rhiannon: muse a is a historian studying the hauntings of an old ghost in a small town, and has moved into a cheap mansion on the hill. newcomers will be bewitched by the ghost’s song. muse b is the ghost in question, burned by a scorned lover so she wouldn’t say his secrets. the ghost was murdered in the mansion that muse a is living in, and only comes to life when a resident is there. muse a finds themselves bewitched by the song and voice of muse b, who has been materializing in front of them. except it seems that the two are falling in love in an unconventional way.

bring me to life: muse a and muse b were newly weds when muse a died suddenly. muse b did everything they could to save them, and was greeted by a demon after a last ditch effort to bring their love back to life. they do a ritual, and end up beginning muse a back to life… except something is wrong. muse a has some sort of bloodlust, and muse b has to figure out how to satiate it as they navigate living new life.

#indie rp #indie horror rp #rp prompts #indie rp plots #rp plots #plot ideas #w. plot #indie plots #plot bunny #plot bunnies #ok to reblog!

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thebigsl33p · 3 months

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Last Words of A Shooting Star (Part One)

A/N: this is the longest fic I've ever written, and this is only part one. A lot of love has gone into this, I'm super excited to share it! If there any mistakes or stuff please let me know. Uh, Aleksander's kinda OOC bcs it's early days and I'm not traumatising him yet but I am gonna make everyone so miserable in Part Two, I promise, and then he'll become a mardy bastard. Masterlist will be up with the second part, and my main will be updated.

Main Masterlist

people I thought might appreciate being tagged: (If not, sorry!!!):

@augustwithquills @myanmy @noortsshift @archangelslollipop @vaguekayla @budugu @inlovewithfictionalmen444 @weallhaveadestiny @dreamlandcreations @bookloverfilmoholic @lost-tothe-centuries

Warnings: Violence - murder, not too graphic, I don't think. I think that's all, if not please let me know. tbf, canon level I think but maybe I'm delusional

Word Count: 8260

Fic Playlist:

Aleksander has always had a fascination with the night sky. He can’t help it. It’s the darkness, he thinks, it runs in his blood and makes up his flesh, how couldn’t he be absolutely enamoured with it?

Maybe it’s because it was the only constant.

So much of his childhood, his years as a teenager and as a young adult were spent travelling, creating new identities, learning new landscapes, new faces, new names, new buildings, all of which would disappear and be replaced every two weeks. And sure, the daytime was nice with the sun and all. But it wasn’t as peaceful, didn’t bring him that same tranquillity as when he would lay down in a field, gaze up and try to name all the constellations, find new shapes and make up new stories.

Perhaps it all changed due to the incident at the Grisha camp. He had loved sunlight, the dark had scared him. But now, something was different - that air of peace was replaced by a penchant for the tenebrosity that the night brought with it, and a love for the small lights which decorated the dusk.

No matter where he went, whether he was North, East, South, or West, the night-sky was the same. Always that deep monumental blue speckled with little dots - little lights, little moons, little stories - which people like him called Stars. There was nothing quite like laying in a field, feeling the cool summer breeze or the biting winter gusts and knowing that you were so small, so insignificant compared to everything that burned up in the cosmos.

He was young then. Young and naive. And it was before her.

Looking back on it, Aleksander should’ve known better. Hadn’t the incident at the Grisha Camp taught him that? Wasn’t it what his mother drilled into him constantly? Trust no one. Never show your abilities. Touch no one. He was, politely put, a fool.

He was a young man when his life changed, for the better and for the worse. It’s hard to remember exactly, but he believes he was around nineteen, and he remembers it was a hot summer’s evening. The day had been spent working. He couldn’t have known then, but that ‘work’ was the beginnings of The Little Palace. But back then, it was him being - as his mother would put it - foolish, and helping other Grisha travel across Ravka. They were hard to find, and even harder to trust, but gradually, slowly yet surely, he was building a good network.

But during the nights, just for a little while he could let that go. He could lay in the tall grass, head tipped towards the dark vast sky and he could stare up at the stars and pretend he was normal, that shadows weren’t absentmindedly curling around his fingers.

For some reason he struggles to remember memories before that time. They’re blurry and vague, little snippets and days that he’s lost with his extended age. But that particular night, he remembers it vividly - his long hair brushing his cheek in the wind, the hard dirt under his head, the hum of nature and bugs, the bustle of a town not so far away carried on the wind, and the stars. They were the brightest he’d ever seen them, almost restless, buzzing in their eternal placeholders. Something, he could feel, was wrong.

The image of the star falling to Earth is eternally seared into his memory.

It appeared faster than he could comprehend - one second it wasn’t there, and then one second it was. He sits up on his elbows, completely transfixed and stunned by, what he at first presumes, is a shooting star. But gradually, he realises it’s getting bigger, faster… closer.

This burning bright ball of cream yellow light, tumbling through time and space and existence, tumbling towards him. Sitting there in the field, stunned by the sight, he’s sure he can hear it fizzling and crackling, knows it’s completely impossible from this distance, but he’s certain of it. Something tugs in his chest, somewhere between unbridled intrigue and panic, his mother’s words of warning echoing in his head. The intrigue wins, it’s an easy internal battle of common sense and childlike wonder which he thought he had long abandoned.

Aleksander scrambles to his feet, accidentally getting dirt on his palms and his trousers but he barely notices, head still tilted to the sky and his breath caught in his throat. He can see the trajectory of the star, where it will land in a section of the forest just a bit off from where he’s camping out. His eyes widen, a small smile, and before he knows it he’s stepping towards the tree-line, his black boots thudding on the ground as his footsteps get quicker and quicker.

To anyone else, the forest might’ve seemed daunting, especially so late at night. But the Shadow Summoner stepped into it without hesitation, the wizened terrain underfoot switching to a softer crunch of twigs and leaves. Once inside, he loses sight of the star, the canopy of the forest shielding it from him, its only indication being the unnatural light it shines through the leaves onto the forest floor, making his journey easier. He dodges twigs, branches, spider-webs, ducking and batting them out of the way quickly, balancing looking at the floor and where he’s going with gazing up at the foliage covered sky for any indication he’s travelling the right way.

He doesn’t know why he’s following after the star. He doesn’t know how he knows it’s a star. It feels more akin to when you’re in a dream, and you just know something is. Something about it compels him, drags him forward and pushes him on, deeper into the forest.

When the star makes impact, he feels it. In fact, Aleksander’s sure the entire world might’ve felt it, the shake in the trees and the ground, the birds disturbed from their midnight peace quickly fleeing their homes at the rattle of the branches and leaves, the dust-like dirt stirring. And it guides him to the star - the cracking noise it made as it hit the ground unmistakably came from a fraction to his left and so, he followed that way.

He knows he’s getting closer when the damage becomes more destructive. It’s no longer just disturbed birds and dirt, it’s entire trees tilted at an angle as if God had pushed a finger into the dirt and tilted them, their roots peeking through the soil. But in the middle of the makeshift clearing it is dark, the disturbed dirt floating and drifting through the air and concealing his surroundings. The ground is severely dented and compacted, forming a large dark crater which Aleksander can barely peek over.

He shuffles from the damaged treeline, his boots creaking on the soil as he tries to catch a glimpse over the edge of the vast crater, but it’s wide and deep, and the edges are loose. He’s careful, his Shadows waiting obediently for his hands to move - for some form of attack or defence. But it never comes.

Instead, as the clouds of dirt clear, the centre of the crater gradually became more visible. The middle was, overall, smooth but it slopes and nicks here and there. He had expected to see a rock, some large grey bland thing which ultimately would’ve made this all less exciting. But what he sees instead has his eyes widening. There, in the middle of the crater, is a young woman. She’s asleep - passed out maybe - her arms loosely stretched outwards, her hair splayed, messy and white. It’s not even like he can say it’s grey, or silver, or blonde. No, her hair is white, paper white, as white as the dress she’s wearing. It fits her well, skims over her body without constricting too much movement. He notices she has no shoes on. It dawns on him that this sleeping woman, this girl, is the Star and his brow furrows softly.

He barely hesitates before he’s sitting on the ledge of the crater and sliding down it, his boots landing on the compacted soil with a thud. In a few strides he’s standing over the sleeping girl, and then in another quick action he crouches down and picks her up, the back of her knees bent over his arm, her waist in his other as he supports her back and her head lolls. He huffs in soft amusement, and walks back the way he came, gently hoisting her up the wall of the crater with as much care as he can, using his shadows when he has a spare hand. It’s hard, and takes a bit of manoeuvring, but he gets there eventually before he pulls himself up. It’s a surprise to him that she hasn’t woken up yet.

He didn’t feel comfortable leaving her there like that, asleep, vulnerable and barefoot where anyone could’ve found her and not have known what they had stumbled on. He picks her up again, and begins his journey back through the forest, a little slower and with a little more care, mumbling to himself - to her - as they go. She doesn’t stir once, her head propped against his chest, her hair tickling his arm slightly.

The journey back to where he was camping out is peaceful. It’s quiet, save for his footsteps or the rustle of clothes. Occasionally, the moonlight catches her and she sparkles a bit. Literally sparkles, reflects it like a goddamn mirror. It really is a sight to see and it makes his lips quirk up a bit.

When they get back to the field, he’s careful. Aleksander lays her down on his mat, adds a few more logs to the fire and covers her with his coat. He thinks of checking her for injuries or damage, but decides that can wait until she wakes up. He doesn’t want to be a creep, and if she’s in pain she’s probably better off telling him when she wakes up, than him finding out for himself.

And so, he settles himself on the other side of the campfire. He leans his head on his pack - considering the girl next to him has his mat - and tries to get what little sleep will come.

When Y/N wakes, it’s in unfamiliar surroundings. The first thing she’s aware of is the cold. It’s not freezing, but it’s uncomfortable, and she tucks her legs up under her until she’s in a ball, tugging the blanket under her chin. Blanket? No. She shouldn’t have a blanket. It shouldn’t be cold…

She sits up fast and quick, all lethargy gone from her body as her eyes widen and she takes in her surroundings. She’s in a field. On a mat. And someone’s dark, large coat is over her body. It’s early morning, the sky a pale grey, a low mist settling on her surroundings and a light dew coating the grass. She can feel heat on one side of her, but her head is turned towards the foggy treeline. She tries to recall the last things she remembers… being in the sky, existing, and then a sudden gap which she can’t figure out, and then she wakes up here.

She’s caught in thought, trying to make sense of her surroundings when a voice says, “You’re awake.” and her head whips around. On the other side of a fresh campfire is a young man, dark eyes, long dark hair, pale skin and dark clothes. He’s roasting a rabbit over the fire - no doubt freshly caught from the knife that sits beside him. His pack sits beside him, his eyes never leave her, even as she expresses soft panic.

She tries to get up, but her body aches, and he holds out a hand, “Easy. I’m not… I’m not going to hurt you. What’s your name?” he asks softly, waving to her to relax.

She answers hesitantly, her eyes scanning the boy, “Y/N.” she says eventually, “You?”

“Leonid.” Aleksander lies, looking between the campfire and her, “Are you hurt anywhere? You took… quite the fall.”

“Funny.” Y/N says drily, “How long have you been working on that one?”

From the grin that splits his face, he’s clearly secretly pleased with his dad-joke, “Just this morning.” Leonid - Aleksander - turns a bit more serious, “Are you, though? Hurt?”

She shakes her head, kicking the coat off her and putting it to one side so she can sit up properly, “No, I’m fine.” she mumbles, “Just achy.”

“Mhm, I suppose that’s to be expected.” he holds the cooked rabbit out to her on a makeshift fork, “Here, eat. You’ll need it.”

Y/N takes it hesitantly, sniffing it before picking a bit of meat off it with her fingers and eating it, “Thanks… who are you?”

“Leonid.” He repeats.

“No, I meant like - where am I? Who are you - like - how did you find me?”

“Well,” he leans back on his elbows, glances around, “You’re in a field, near Vernost, in Ravka.” he says, “and I am…” his brow furrows softly as he figures out how to phrase this. She’s a Star - would she even understand the difference between Grisha and Otkazats’ya?

He says it anyway.

“As I said, my name’s Leonid, I’m…” he’s hesitant - would a star really have prejudices? He hopes not. He takes a foolish chance. “Grisha. You know what that is?”

She nods, offers him what remains of the Rabbit. He waves it off, indicating that she finishes it. “Why are you helping me?” She asks, tilting her head.

“My, you’re just full of questions.” he sighs, “I saw you fall. I wasn’t just gonna… leave you.”

“Right.” Y/N’s eyes narrow slightly, “is this your coat? Here you can have it back.” she nudges the coat towards him.

He gives her an amused look, his eyes moving down, then back up, “I think you’ll need it more than me, zvezda.” he muses, smug almost.

She glances down at the dress she’s wearing. It’s simple, plain, and he’s right. It’s too thin for the current weather - she’ll be better off as it warms up during the day - but for now, she accepts the coat with a small, amused huff.

"C'mon, eat that fast," he says, indicating to the rabbit, "We've gotta get going before the sun is too high." He's already tucking away the few things he got out, "I'm gonna walk you to the nearest town, Vernost, leave you somewhere safe, okay?" he glances at her, "Get you some shoes and some more suitable clothes. Until then…”

He reaches into his pack, produces a spare undershirt and hands it to her with an almost apologetic look, "Better than nothing." she nods in thanks.

She takes the shirt with a grateful nod. Once she's finished the rabbit, she stands and hands him the mat, watching as he rolls it up and tucks that away too, and then they're set to travel. She pulls on the undershirt over her dress and while it hangs loosely it provides a bit more comfort, and then she shuffles on his coat. It’s too big for her, completely contrasts her bright eyes and white hair, the sleeves hang loosely and she has to roll them up.

He wants to make her as comfortable as possible, and so shows her the map he’s using, highlights the path they’ll be travelling with his finger, showing their way through the woods, worries a bit over her lack of shoes and then they’re walking.

The path to the town is simple, through the woods, past her crater, and then a little further for about fifteen or twenty minutes. He’s careful to go first, his harsh boots making some attempt at flattening the ground for her barefoot condition. Aleksander considers picking her up - no, too weird for someone he’s just met - and she doesn’t seem to be in any pain.

They keep walking. The sun rises higher, the morning beginning just as they make their way into Vernost. It’s a small town, but a good town. The hustle and bustle of people, farmers, artisans, builders and blacksmiths is accompanied by the gentle murmur of the small local market, travellers and locals who move between stalls and shops, horses’ hooves on the cobblestone, the crowd parting for an occasional rickety wooden carriage.

He glances over to her. The look of awe on her face is somewhere between sad and endearing. She’s struck completely by this tiny town, the smallest, simplest form of inhabitance, and yet it brings nothing but awe and wonder to her gaze. There’s a sense of yearning in the way her eyes run over everything as they walk, as if she’s desperate to take it all in, to retain it, keep it held to her chest - to make life hers. To have all of it - to know the joys and the sorrows like the back of her hand. Aleksander could practically see the light come to life behind her eyes, as if she’d finally woken up to something wonderful.

He smiles, somewhere between amusement and appreciation, and places a hand on her shoulder to steer her through the crowds which are slowly getting busier, “Easy tiger.” he says and she laughs sheepishly.

“It’s just all so…” she doesn’t know how to describe it, the words to explain the way her heart is racing all jam up in her throat. She has a heart. The rushing of blood, just the wind against her skin, it’s all she ever wanted to feel, and now that she can feel it, now she’s no longer confined to the night sky, she’s in complete and utter astonishment, raptured by everything around her.

“Kinda overwhelming?” He suggests, raising an eyebrow as they walk. He’s keeping an eye out for a Cobbler - or anywhere that sells shoes, really. Again, he casts his eyes down to her bare feet and feels guilt and concern rise in him, that the streets of Vernost, nor the woods are exactly clean, and they must be hurting by now.

But one glance at her face and he can tell she barely feels it. It’s just dirt - it can be washed off. However, it doesn’t ease the guilt.

The first time she ‘shines’, is over a piece of cake.

They’d been travelling together for a few weeks now. Aleksander was a fool to think he could leave her alone in Vernost, his worries, concerns and guilt over the Star getting the better of him. They stayed for a few days there, giving her a general introduction to the workings of human life in a contained and somewhat non-threatening environment.

In their few brief days in Vernost she tries a range of food, stews, desserts. He explains money, the current politics of the country over a bowl of stew from the Inn they were staying at, explains the prejudices and segregation of Grisha, the violence. They get her clothing, a shirt, an overvest, trousers and boots, and a small bag to carry her non-existent belongings. She folds her dress into it for the first few days - that silky silver material which catches in the moonlight - and it fits surprisingly well, tucks into the corner of the satchel. He explains to her how to read the map, all the different little symbols. In some ways, she’s like a child. Her lack of general knowledge about the world is understandable, but she catches on fast, much faster than anyone else could’ve.

Well, they’d been travelling together for a few weeks, developing a relationship that might even be called friendship. Aleksander had to make a few adjustments to the way he travelled - he was still telling Y/N his name was Leonid - occasionally they travelled at night. Honestly, it made more sense, he felt more comfortable in the darkness, and she had more energy. But it also made them bigger targets for suspicion, people travelling at night were often suspected of Grisha related activity… which is exactly what he was doing. She was just along for the ride, and the last thing he wanted was for her to get dragged into his problems and potentially harmed. Conflicting morals, he knows.

They’d passed through a few villages on their travels, small places which minded their own business and were good for occasional stock ups on food, water, supplies.

He doesn’t know why he bought the slice of cake. Aleksander had decided it was good for her to develop her own independence, and so she had gone to make her own way around this small town they’d stopped in. Meanwhile, he perused the sparse shops for anything of use.

The slices of cake were sitting in the shop window, all of them uniform in their cream decoration and the small slices of strawberries which sat inside and on top of the layers of sponge, and all of them placed delicately on little porcelain dishes. He enters the shop without thinking, purchases a slice to take away, lets the person wrap it away in a small tissue and carefully takes it, slipping it into a safe part of his own bag. He’s careful for the rest of the day in the way he moves - making sure not to squash or compromise the baked good. He can’t quite wrap his mind - nor his heart - around why he’s done it. Why did he suddenly feel the urge to buy her a slice of cake of all things. But he’s glad he did. Aleksander hopes she’ll like it.

He presents it to her over their campfire for the evening. It’s a small thing made of dried grass and twigs or any larger pieces of wood they could find but it provides light and heat and that’s enough. They’re sitting either side of it, across from one another, having just eaten bread and cheese for dinner. Twilight is setting in the sky, and he can see it on her - the way her eyes are slightly brighter, her laugh slightly more mellow as they chat over their food.

He reaches into his bag by his side, clears his throat and says, “I got you something.”

Y/N’s brow furrows softly, and she tilts her head as he continues, “I just… it’s small, but I thought you might like it.” and he produces a square shaped thing, slanted, and wrapped in tissue, still preserved, offering it to her in the palm of his hand over the campfire.

She takes it gently, “What is it?” as she delicately peels back the tissue. The cake is… well, cake. The sponge is a soft pale yellow, the cream delicately placed and the strawberries are slightly softer than they should be, but won’t make too much of a difference. She raises it to her nose and hesitantly sniffs it, which gets a chuckle out of him.

“It’s cake.” he answers, “Go on, try it.” Aleksander encourages her with a wave of his hand.

She raises her eyebrows and lifts the cake to her mouth, taking a small bite. Her eyes instantly light up, and he laughs at her reaction as she mumbles, “Oh, Saints, this is really good..” Around a mouthful of cake.

She eats a bit more, and then holds it out to him, “Want some?”

And that’s when he sees it. She’s shining. Literally glowing. Radiating light, her very skin and hair giving it off like it’s nothing. His breath hitches as she lights up the field. It’s not particularly bright, but it’s strong and it makes itself known. She’s like a mellow night light, and it only causes his smile to widen, “You’re um…” he gestures at her - at her glowing.

Her brow scrunches up - it’s cute - and she laughs sheepishly, “Shining?”

“Yeah. That.” he grins, leaning back on his palms.

She huffs, a huff of mock exasperation, “I’m sorry - I can’t… it’s not something I can really control. It just happens, y’know. Like…” She averts her eyes to the flames of the small campfire, “If I’m happy. I shine - it’s what stars do best.” They both laugh a little.

“Well, it suits you.” Aleksander says gently - his voice much softer than he meant it to be, or than he’s comfortable with. When did he get so… compassionate? He internally grimaces, but for some reason he feels an odd sense of endearment to this girl.

“Yeah,” She responds with a wry grin, “I should hope so. I am a star, after all.”

And again, they both laugh.

Aleksander didn’t intend to keep her with him for so long. He didn’t intend to introduce her to his friends - to his connections, to the people across the country who help him with his work. He didn’t intend to get her involved. But they’ve been travelling together for three months and in that time, he’s discovered a wide array of things.

The first is that she’s good with a sword. Perhaps good is an understatement. She has a natural balance about her, maybe it’s her celestial nature, but watching her with a sword is like watching art. The handle sits in her palm with an easy weight, she swings it with an air of freedom and lax, yet with complete control. The blade is, undoubtedly, hers.

They had discovered her penchant for swords in a rather unfortunate situation. They had been a touch careless. He was feeling more secure with someone else travelling at his side. And so, had paid less attention to his surroundings. If there was one con of her having her around, it was that she was a touch of a distraction.

They had passed through a village. They stayed to briefly eat lunch sitting in the town square, and then had gone to pass on just as quick as they came. It shouldn’t have drawn attention. But it did.

They hadn’t noticed the group of men watching them, looks of disdain on their features as they eyed up the two of them, mumbling to one another. They’d managed to avoid trouble so far, steering clear of Druskelle and negative situations, but on that day, something had given them away as both travellers and Grisha. It was hard to say what - perhaps it was the way they murmured and laughed quietly with one another, maybe the tell-tale way his hands moved. Perhaps he’d been careless and a slip of shadow had been noticed. They couldn’t say for certain. But these men, standing and sneering, they knew.

Either way, Y/N and Aleksander were followed back to where they were camping out by the night. It was just a clearing off the main path they were following, and they had been very comfortably sitting, eating, laughing as they did each and every evening, lit by firelight and accompanied by the low hum of bugs and the weather slowly turning cold. She noticed the figures first.

They seemed to come out of nowhere, far enough away that she could tap his shoulder with a quiet, “Leonid. There’s people.”

His brow furrowed softly, and he turned over his shoulder in the direction she was looking at. Three men, two shorter, one that was a bit taller and lagged behind - all three variously armed. One man - short, dirty blonde hair and a face marred by smudges of dirt - carried a small dagger. The second, slightly taller with a slightly more muscular frame, had dark hair that was greying at the roots, a knife, and a snarl. The third and final man, the tallest of the lot was passive, but his eyes glinted in the firelight with nothing malevolence, and in his goliath hand was a sword.

The man with the dark hair speaks first, accented and gruff, his eyes pinned to Aleksander, “Grisha, aren’t you?” he asks the question in a way that betrays he already knows the answer.

Aleksander doesn’t answer. He’s careful. Delicate. She’s sitting behind him, watching the interaction, hesitant to move. He needs to think this through in a way that puts Y/N out of harm's way. His eyes never leave the men.

There’s a movement out of the corner of his eye - the second man, wielding his dagger up quickly, his movements fueled by disgust. Aleksander’s quicker, raising his hand with two fingers pointed up, creating a wall of shadow which the dagger clashes against, and in that moment he’s scrambled up to his feet, grabbing Y/N by the arm and pulling her up with him. He runs.

He’s not used to running. He’s used to fighting. But at the moment he’s responsible for two people’s safety, and so he pushes forward, yelling at her to go. He expected the men to follow. He didn’t expect the largest to go after her, the three men separating into groups of one and two. The two come after him, dagger and knife, and he has little time to worry about Y/N before they’re gaining,

Aleksander’s efficient, his hands move fast to bring forth his shadows, forming sharp points which pierce the chests of the two men with harsh crunches, their weapons dropping into the grass as their bodies go limp, blood drooling from their mouths as the light leaves their eyes.

He breathes a sigh of relief, but then he’s alert again at the sound of someone crying out from behind him. His head whips around, and he sees Y/N, and the largest man. He’s backing her up against the tree line, she’s almost frozen in fear when she trips over her own feet and onto her back. Her eyes widen, the man leers over her, sword readied and in a brief moment of fear and desperation she rears her legs and kicks his knees.

The man grunts, hisses in pain as the sword drops from his hand so he can clutch at where she kicked him. Amateur. And in the next instant she’s lunged across the ground for the sword, where he dropped it, scrambling for it. She’s still on the floor, and she turns onto her back as the man’s attention is brought to her again, large hands reaching to cause her harm.

The sound of the sword cutting into the man is almost deafening. She does it without thinking, pure survival instinct as she cuts the man's stomach, her hands firm on the handle as blood coats them both, her breathing heavy as she pulls the sword out and the man falls back, dying slowly.

She’s frozen, and Aleksander’s eyes are almost as wide as hers. He takes a few loose footsteps towards her, a few more which are a bit firmer before he’s by her side, kneeling beside her and cleaning the blood off her cheeks with his sleeve, gently taking the sword from her iron grip and laying it beside her.

“Are you okay?” He asks quietly, and it feels stupid. She’s covered in blood, shaking, tears in her eyes and the only thing he can think to ask is ‘are you okay’? Saints, he’s an idiot.

He moves on, still wiping the blood off her as well as he can as she nods her head shakily, “It’s alright. You’re alright.” He says quietly. He remembers the first time he killed someone - the guilt, the fear, the horror at yourself. He frowns softly, as the thin shine of tears comes to her eyes and she looks away.

Without thinking about it much more, he picks her up, scooping her into his arms, hooking the back of her knees over his arm as she turns and curls into his chest, her crying quiet and barely audible as he carries her back to their camp.

After that, things are different. They’re closer, in a way.

Y/N keeps the sword, keeps it tucked by her side, takes care of the metal and the handle. She’s good with it, he knows for a fact, and he feels more comfortable knowing she has a means of handling herself. The emotional toll of the murder hit her hard. Perhaps, she thinks, she wasn’t meant to feel emotions like this. Her very existence is in conflict. She’s not meant to be able to feel this way, she’s meant to be a star for Saint’s sake!

But there is something so very human in the guilt she carried in the days after the attack. She was quiet, much quieter than she usually was. At first, she was hesitant to carry the sword. So, instead he carried it for her, catching her eyes flickering towards it occasionally, the way it swung by his hip and the metal caught in the sun.

One evening as they walked, she offered to take it instead.

“Do you want me to take that?” she had said, a quiet, unspoken I think I’m okay now.

“Are you sure?” he asked, “It’s not heavy, I’m okay to carry it for as long as-”

“No, I’m sure.” She nodded, her look determined and firm, “My safety shouldn’t be your responsibility alone.” She explained, “We should be responsible for one another if we’re going to be travelling together. And I can’t do that if I’m unarmed.”

He nodded in understanding, and softly unhooked the sword and the holder, and offered the handle to her. She took it, measuring the weight in her palm, before she put the holder on herself and slipped the sword into it. She took a breath.

He spoke first, “I should tell you something, Y/N. Y’know, if we’re going to be stuck together for a while, I don’t want to keep you in the dark.” he said.

She didn’t respond, simply nodded and waited for him to say what he had to say.

“My name isn’t Leonid, I lied. I’ve spent most of my life having to conceal who I am, what I am, and so I hope you can understand and forgive my deception.” He paused, breathing relief into the night air, “My name is Aleksander.”

“Aleksander?” She echoes, and a small, intimate smile finds her features, “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Aleksander.” She says, in that half-teasing tone he’s become so accustomed with.

He rolls his eyes but can’t fight back the grin, “You’re an ass, do you know that?”

“Ah, you may have mentioned it once or twice.” She shrugs, unable to wipe off that teasing smile from her features.

He huffs in mock exasperation before his tone turns softer. He’s found he has a habit of doing that. Something about her makes him better, gentler. He almost feels human around her, “I mean it Y/N,” he says quietly, “I’m sorry I lied to you, especially for so long.”

“It’s fine,” she says with a small smile, nudging his shoulder, “You’re forgiven, if that eases your conscience.” She’s still slightly teasing, but her tone is mostly compassionate. Endearing, even.

“Thank you,” he says, grinning as he nudges her back, “Saints, you’re insufferable.”

She gasps, dramatically feigning offence. For a star, she’s caught onto the culture of sarcasm and drama rather well, and he laughs at her display, wrapping an arm around her shoulder as they walk. It feels right.

“How are you finding it?” He asks, as they walk, “y’know, being human? Is it weird?” He checks in on her this way every now and then to make sure she’s not overwhelmed. But this is the first time she answers differently.

“...As a star…” She sighed softly, weighing up her words, “You’re constantly watching. You’re up there, watching all these little people have adventures and lives and romance, and it’s… it’s yearning. You want those things too, y’know? You want to be flesh and bone as well, to feel emotion. To cry, and be happy, and be angry, and to know what love feels like. You want adventure, the big things in life like… meeting someone. Or having a family. Or getting an education. Making a difference.” She laughed softly, “But you also want the little things - like cake, for example. And music, and friendship, and to share meals with people you care about.”

She glanced at him, and then back to the path, “I’m glad you found me. I don’t think anyone else would’ve done such a good job at making me feel welcome in a world that isn’t strictly mine.”

Her words were soft, quiet, and sincere. And it made Aleksander’s heart stutter in his chest, but he kept his composure and managed, “I’m glad I found you too.”

Aleksander takes her to a place he calls ‘the sanctuary’.

He explains it to her on the way there - a building, a place, where Grisha can support, aid and train other Grisha.

It’s been months since they first met, and by now the warm comfort of the summer is fading, replaced by cold golden sunlight and browned leaves, wetter grounds and harsher gales. And so, he takes her there.

The sanctuary is a medium-sized, pale stone structure, hidden away in the middle of nowhere, concealed by thick woods and trees. It’s squat, but wide, the front of it gives away nothing but a set of rounded wooden doors. He takes her hand - she’s not even sure he realises that he’s done it - and guides her with him to the front. Her sword swings at her side as she follows, standing beside him as he raps his knuckles on the wooden door a few times.

The door opens a crack, she can’t see who’s on the other side, but Aleksander’s gaze meets theirs and they open it. On the other side is a man, short brown hair and green eyes. He’s rather skinny, but his strength is held in his eyes. He lets Aleksander in without issue, nodding his head softly. Their hands are still linked together and so, she goes to follow.

But the brown haired man stops her, a hand coming to her chest to halt her, his eyes narrowed and dark, glancing back at Aleksander. He answers, “She’s with me, Andrei.”

“Grisha?” The man interrogates.

Aleksander huffs, “No, Andrei. But she’s been helping me for the past five months, let her through.”

Andrei’s eyes narrow in suspicion, and he glances at Aleksander finally before letting his hand drop and allowing her entrance. She nods her head softly, and follows after Aleksander. Y/N feels him squeeze her hand, a quiet apology. She squeezes back as he guides her deeper into the sanctuary. They pass rooms, beds, people who nod at him as they pass and whose eyebrows furrow when they see her trailing after him, and her stark white hair.

Inside, the sanctuary was busy. It was filled with the hum of people working, all in various clothing - some injured, some healing, some cooking, some reading, teaching, training - it was almost a wonderful study in the kindness of human nature and community that had her eyes widening.

“Are you alright, Zvezda?” he asked softly, turning back to her over his shoulder, “Are you overwhelmed? We can…”

“No, it’s… it’s wonderful.” She said quietly, her wide eyes meeting his, “I mean- it’s astounding. I’m good.” she nodded, indicating for him to keep going, “It’s just… in all our time travelling, I’ve never seen anything like this.”

He laughed softly, pulling her closer by her hand, “I guess,” he grinned, “I’m proud of this place. I’m glad you can see it like that.”

They spend at least three weeks at the Sanctuary.

Aleksander takes his time to introduce Y/N to those around her. He shows her around to all the Healers, the Heartrenders, the Inferni, the Squalors, Tidemakers - technically, he shows her off to everyone. But no one knows, really, who - or what - she is. He doesn’t say. People press and ask and inquire, “Oh, what’s her Grisha order?” “Grisha, are you?” And everytime, one of them answers, “Oh, uh, No.” and refuse to elaborate further.

It has the entire building utterly perplexed as to who this strange white haired girl is, and why she has the Shadow Summoner wrapped around her little finger. Not that The Star or The Shadow Summoner can see it, no, they’re completely oblivious. They don’t see how they’re quiet giggles, teasing, conversations might be perceived as intimate. Nor how the amount of time they spend together might be seen as suspicious.

But when you’ve spent everyday with a person for just over five months, all day, everyday, it’s very hard to separate yourself from the comfort they bring.

The confession comes late at night.

Now that they’re in a place like the Sanctuary, they have their own rooms. They’re only small, and they’re a short walk away from one another, and it gives them each a privacy they haven’t experienced for a few months. For the first week - it’s nice. Having their own beds, their own time, being able to spend some of it alone with their thoughts.

He notices it first. That he’s restless. It’s late at night, most of the building is asleep save for those on night watch, and he can barely close his eyes without feeling disturbed. He feels the need to do something - anything - and so, he gets out of bed, slipping back on his boots at the end of his bed and deciding he’s going to go for a walk. Maybe it’ll help clear his mind.

Aleksander’s almost embarrassed. He can’t… he can’t stop thinking of her. He’s annoyed at himself for it, for letting him get that close, for letting him be so vulnerable to someone who wasn’t even human, who had a child’s grasp on the world…

No, that was being unfair. He calms himself as he steps out of his room. He knows he’s just agitated, tired, a little giddy, and he takes a deep breath as he starts off down the corridor, careful not to let his boots thud too heavily. He doesn’t know where he’s going, he decides he’s just going to walk until he comes across something distracting or gets tired.

His feet take him to her room.

It’s the same size as his, and from the crack in the door he can tell she’s still awake, can hear a slight shuffling inside, candle light flickering on the floor. He realises now, why he’s there. What he’s come to do. And his heart lurches in his chest, but he understands that it’s now or hold his tongue for another few months and he doesn’t want to do that.

Aleksander wants her to know about the Y/N shaped cavern she’s carved into his life. He wants her to know about how all those nights spent travelling in fields were not something he was willing to give up so easily - that when spring came he hoped to do it all again. With her. That he thinks of her endlessly. That when he wakes he hopes she’s still sleeping beside him, just a campfire away. And he wants her closer. He wants her. It’s as simple as that, that he wants to see her smile at him, and laugh - he doesn’t care if it’s at him or with him - Saints, he just wants her happy.

The revelation comes to him, standing so close to her yet so far, on her bedroom doorstep. He takes a breath, steels himself to the sound of her soft humming from the other side of the door, and then raises his fist and knocks three times.

By the first knock, the humming stops. By the second, she’s walking over to the door, he can hear her footsteps. And by the third, the handle is turning. The door opens and he lowers his hand. She’s standing on the other side. Of course it was her, he knew it was her. It doesn’t stop his heart from thudding against his ribs, nor his breath hitching quietly.

The light from the candle makes her seem fully celestial, casting a golden hue across her features, and darkening half her face to accentuate them. It bounces off her silver hair, catching in the strands like a contained forest fire.

“Aleksander?” Y/N greets softly, a small amused smile as she tilts her head in soft confusion, her brow furrowing.

“Zvezda,” He greets softly, his eyes catching in the candle, so dark you can barely separate the pupil from the iris, “Can’t sleep?”

She shakes her head with a small laugh, beckoning him in with her hand, “Always got more energy during the night,” she sighs, “And it’s taking some getting used to, not sleeping in a field, not waking up…” next to you.

But she doesn’t need to finish the sentence, he simply hums in agreement and shuts the door behind him, leaning on it, “I know, it’s a big adjustment.” He runs a hand through his long dark hair, “How are you finding the Sanctuary?”

“It’s nice,” she says softly, briefly fixing her words in a slight hurry, “Sorry, that sounded- it’s lovely. The people are kind, the community is wonderful, food’s much better than bread and cheese and meats,” She grins, “No offence.”

He laughs, his nose wrinkling with the action, “None taken. In fact, I completely agree.”

She sits on her bed as they talk, tucking her legs underneath her, “Can’t sleep either?” She probes.

Aleksander shakes his head as well, “No, feeling restless. Same reasons as you.” He admits, feeling a bit more at ease with the slight indication that the comfort they feel around one another may be mutual, “I guess,” he sighs, bracing himself to admit it, “We spent so long together. A week was fine - but it’s weird. I keep on… waking up and expecting to see you.”

“I know,” she agreed quietly with a small laugh, her head bent down to her hands in her lap, “it’s strange, isn’t it? I feel weird not… walking with you, or doing something, seeing a new town or whatnot. And I have this feeling.” She frowned softly to herself.

He tilts his head, folds his arms, “What feeling, Zvezda?” He asks, his brow furrowing gently.

“I… I don’t know.” she said, her eyes narrowing as she looked not quite at him - but just over his shoulder - “It’s like… this…tightness.” her hand came to her chest, her nose scrunching softly, “Here. Like… nausea. But not quite - I’m not going to be sick. And I can feel my heart. And it… it feels like wanting. But stronger?”

His eyes widened a fraction, “And uh, when do you feel it?”

She tilted her head, her eyes zeroing in on him in confusion and uncertainty, “When…” when I think about you. “Oh.” She said quietly, “Is that what that is?” her hand gently rubbed her chest, clearly where she felt it strongest, a sheepish laugh as she turned her eyes to the candle, anywhere but him, “They don’t describe it like this in the books.”

He breathed a sigh of relief as he realised that he wouldn’t have to explain to her that what she was feeling was, at least, a crush. If not more. Aleksander laughed softly, “No, no they do not.”

Y/N laughed too, mildly embarrassed and still somewhat avoiding looking at him, her hands fidgeting, “Look, I’m sorry-”

“Don’t be.” he cut her off, “Don’t be, please don’t be, you’ve done nothing wrong.” He cleared his throat and took a sharp breath, standing up from leaning on the door, “It’s… it’s mutual, Y/N.” and he took a hesitant step towards her, “Zvezda.” He said the nickname to get her attention.

It worked, her head turning slightly, and he continued, “Please don’t ever apologise for having feelings.” He said, his tone so much softer than he was comfortable with, “You’re a human now.” he laughed a little, crouching down in front of her as she sat on the bed, “It’s your job now. To feel. To make the most of life. So,” he said with a playful shrug, “we both have… crushes on one another.” It felt childish to say ‘crushes’ but he couldn’t think of a better word.

“I mean…” he sighed softly, “That’s kind of… why I came here.” He confessed.

“Really?” she asked quietly, watching him intently as he spoke.

“Really.” he echoed, standing up. She patted the bed beside her for him to sit, and he gratefully took it, glad she was taking this all so well and she wasn’t clamming up about their feelings for one another, “Look, Y/N, Zvezda. You’ve changed my life,” he said with a small laugh of disbelief, “I mean… you’re a Star, for Saint’s sake. You are, by nature, brilliant. And you’ve been nothing short of that in the months we’ve been travelling. Even if your humour is appalling.” He softly teased, earning a playful grumble of, “It is not.” from her.

“It is!” he insisted with a teasing grin, “You laugh at all my bad jokes, dear.”

“Yeah well,” her initial embarrassment was beginning to fade as they engaged in their usual banter, “I think that says more about you for making the bad jokes.” to which he scoffed, and she dispersed into laughter, the two of them leaning back on the single bed.

The laughter lasted a moment longer before fading out with a soft, content sigh. He grinned at her from where he was, a hand reaching forward for hers as he softly, half-teasingly, murmured, “You’re doing it again.”

“Doing what?” “Shining, Zvezda.”

“What can I say?” she laughed quietly, her head finding his shoulder, “I’m happy.”

A/N: I cannot wait to go to bed. And also to start part two. Goodnight!! <;3

#Last Words of A Shooting Star AU #Stardust AU #the darkling X reader #Shadow And bone X reader #aleksander morozova x reader #aleksander x reader #shadow and bone fanfic #general kirigan x reader #kirigan x reader #stardust au #thebigsl33p

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strawberryspence · 1 year

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happy valentines day, to my lovely people. i’m not going to tag each person, but you know who you are. no, you will literally know because i am going to send it on discord. you guys are my favorite tiny lil humans in my phone. i hope this makes sunsets/sunrises a little better. (im also hoping that it heals some of the pain the original sunset fic caused) ♥️

Steve Harrington has always loved the sky.

To Steve, there was something so captivating about it, something so bewitching. There’s no start, nor end to it. He has always been fascinated at how vast, and free it is. More than anything, Steve loves the way it changes colors with the season and weather. Sunsets and sunrises, and the things they signify. Some people hate the way it makes them feel smaller, like they could get lost underneath it, but Steve loves it. As long as he’s underneath the bright blue sky, he is safe.

At the early age of five, Steve’s first memory is of his mother, sitting beside him in the garden. If other kids learned their colors through flashcards and crayons, Steve learned his first colors through the skies. A sunset is where he learns his first hue of orange, and yellow, and blue. She was the one who taught him colors and it’s one of Steve’s favorite childhood memories.

At thirteen, the sky becomes Steve’s only friend. His parents started leaving more often now, saying something about how he’s old enough for it. Steve loves it some days, hates it some days. Today, he loves it as he floats aimlessly around the pool. No one’s going to scold him that his skin has started to wrinkle, or that he’s wasting his time watching the clouds change into different shapes. Being under the big sky is a reassurance— that he may be alone in this big, dark house, but he’s at least not alone in this world.

At seventeen, Steve finds comfort in the night sky. He finds it as the moon watches over him and as the stars sparkle and dance against the dark. It’s the first time he’s ever loved someone and the first time he has gotten his heart broken. He doesn’t cry, because “Harrington’s don’t cry.” He’s never alone though. It’s always going to be him and the big vast sky. There’s more horror in the world, like 12 year olds that get experimented in labs, a girl getting pulled in his pool and to her death and monsters living under the ground he is laying on. But the big dark sky stares from above him and Steve feels a little better in the uncertainty. He’s being wrapped within its darkness, almost like a comforting hug from an old friend who understands.

At eighteen, Steve meets his soulmate. Not the sky, but Robin Buckley. The half of his soul, a friendship forged from scooping ice creams and drugs injected into their veins. Robin— Robin is the rain after a long drought, giving him another reason to live and fight. The mall burns down and there’s— there’s so much death and he wishes he could’ve done something more. Two nights after the fire, unable to sleep, Steve asks if Robin would lay beside him on the ground. They lay in silence as the stars wave their goodbye, and as the sun greets him hello, signifying a new day, a new beginning. Underneath that new brand new day, Steve and Robin finally fall asleep, secure under the sun and clouds and safe in each other's arms.

At nineteen, Steve meets Eddie Munson. Really meets him, while the world is ending. It’s the night after they come back from the upside down, Steve's sides are aching and they’ll probably go back to the upside down tomorrow. Nancy has a plan, because she always does and he wants to take a nap, or eat something, but he can’t. He’s paralyzed in the uncertainty and danger around them. He sits at the back of the trailer, away from people that could see him, and that's where Eddie finds him.

“I can’t believe you guys have been doing this for years.” Eddie says, disbelief apparent in his voice.

Steve shrugs, “I don’t either. They’re—“ He pauses, thinks about El who’s only 15 and has the weight of the world on her shoulders, thinks of Will who’s been through hell and death, thinks of Max who’s still grieving her dead brother only for it to be used to lure her into death.

He thinks of the kids, the kids who're all barely 15 fighting this entity, “They’re all too young for this.” He finishes.

Eddie stares at him and Steve doesn't like it at all. It feels like he’s being studied, feels naked under Eddie’s eyes. Like Eddie can see through him, see the broken pieces Steve has glued together for all of them.

“You’re young too.” Eddie answers back, gently kindly, “You, Robin, Nancy, even me.”

Steve shrugs, even though he knows it's true, “I guess. I just want this to end already.”

Eddie looks away, staring at the skies as it finally starts changing its hues, “Maybe after this we can all go on a trip.”

Steve hums, “Definitely. Maybe a beach. El’s never been to one.”

Eddie chuckles, a smile on his lips as he looks forward. They watch the sky change its hues, a new day rising right in front of them.

“I don't really like sunsets.” Steve turns to him, offended and ready to defend his oldest companion.

But Eddie continues, “I’ve always liked the sunrises more, you know? Sunsets are— endings and though they are beautiful endings, nothing beats a new beginning, a new slate.”

Steve stares at him, watching silently as Eddie smokes. Steve knows the sun is rising, and he’s never been one to miss it when it’s right in front of him. But there’s something about the way the sunlight is hitting Eddie’s face, the colors dancing on his skin and the colors illuminating his brown eyes, making it brighter.

It's lighting him up in ways Steve has never seen before and something awakens in him, his heart beating against his ribs like it wants to break free. It’s breathtaking, Eddie’s breathtaking and it makes him feel things he’s never felt before.

When the silence grows heavy, Eddie breaks it, “Plus I really like it when the darkness turns brighter.”

It’s the first time Steve has ever ignored the sky and with Eddie here, he knows it won’t be the last.

At nineteen, Steve learns that the sky could also be red. He doesn’t remember much, just Dustin crying over Eddie’s body as the red sky above him thunders on, menacing and cackling at their demise. They killed Vecna and the victory is so close— so close.

It’s hard to look up at the sky then, when they finally emerge from hell while he cradles Eddie’s body. Steve thinks that no clear blue sky, or no dark starry night, can ever give him comfort again, not until he finally knows that Eddie’s safe.

At twenty, three months after defeating Vecna. Steve is on some beach with his friends— his family and they’ve survived. There’s no more danger impending to happen, all gates burned and closed forever.

Steve has just turned twenty, and he has real friends. He sits there, sand against his toes, as he watches the kids play around the water under the golden glint of the sun. They finally have their chance to enjoy being a kid.

“Is this what you wanted?” Steve looks up. Eddie’s hovering above him, with a can of Pepsi in his hand.

He hands Steve a can and plops down beside him on the beach towel. Eddie’s shirtless and yes, Steve’s ogling him but there’s also a clench in his heart as he tracks the taut skin, and pink scars surrounding his whole body.

It’s okay.

Because they’re all alive, and safe, and the scars are there to be reminders of what they’ve survived. Whatever the horizon offers them, it’ll be okay.

Steve smiles at him, opening the soda in his hand with a hiss.

He stares at Eddie, holding out his can to clink it against his can, “It’s exactly what I wanted.”

At twenty-two, Steve moves to Boston with Eddie, Robin and Nancy. It’s a weird group. It’s his soulmate and her girlfriend, who was also his ex-girlfriend. On top of that, there’s Eddie. Eddie’s his best friend, but also the same man he’s been pining over for three years.

But they’re Steve’s family (aside from the kids) and he’d go anywhere if Robin asks. It’s the happiest Steve’s been in years, and he wouldn’t do anything like confessing to ruin the dynamic they’ve created.

Steve spends most of his days with Eddie, laid on their backs as they watch the clouds. Eddie makes him coffee in the early mornings, Steve never really understood why he’s awake to watch the sunset with him, but he’s there even if he hates waking up early. At night, Eddie watches as Steve outlines the stars for him with his finger, not knowing that Steve would climb the damn moon and take it in his back pocket for him.

It’s a conversation they’ve always avoided, whatever this thing Eddie and Steve had, the endless dance they do around each other.

Eddie’s almost death has always been hard for the three of them. There’s this overwhelming thought that— somewhere out there, somewhere far away— is a universe where Steve was too late, that Eddie died, that all he has is the tint of orange in the sky. A universe where Steve didn’t know that Eddie likes his coffee sweet, but doesn’t like ordering it because it doesn’t fit his image, where Steve didn’t know that Eddie snorts in his sleep and likes to wear socks under the sheets. A universe where the only thing Steve knows is the what ifs, the what could’ve beens.

It all comes out one day. The anniversaries have always been harder, not only were they far away from the kids, but the Vecna spring anniversary always hits them the hardest. It’s also Eddie and Max’s almost death anniversary, to make it worse. Robin plans it all out for them, they all call in sick that day, skip classes, just stay inside all day. Just watch movies, eat snacks, and stay wrapped in comfortable blankets. The four of them fall asleep in the middle of their fourth movie of the day, all tangled together and it’s days like this that makes it harder to ignore the fact that the four of them— are four halves from the same whole.

When Steve wakes up, Eddie’s not beside him anymore, Nancy and Robin still sleeping peacefully on the other side of the couch. The digital clock— they all can’t stand the silent tick tocking of a clock, reminds them too much of a grandfather clock, no matter how big or small— blinks at him, it’s almost 5:21 in the afternoon.

Steve knows it’s almost time for the sun to set, he charts it every weekend so he can take a few minutes to watch the sun wave her goodbyes. Steve swings the blanket on his shoulders and heads out to the balcony.

It’s not a surprise to see Eddie already there, watching the sky start to change colors, the sun impending to set in a few more minutes.

“Hey.” Steve slumps beside him, extending the blanket over to Eddie’s shoulder.

Eddie snuggles closer to him, “Thank you.”

“You doing good?” Steve asks, not able to take his eyes off Eddie.

“Yeah. Just—“ Eddie sighs, “Today is hard. I talked to Wayne.”

“What did he say?”

Eddie shrugs, “All the sappy stuff. He was thankful that I am alive and here. That he loves me.” There’s a hitch in his voice when he says it, that makes Steve’s eyebrows furrow.

“Wayne’s right. You do know that, right?”

Eddie turns to him, his legs hugged closer to his chest and head leaning against his knees, “Is he though?”

Steve opens his mouth to say something when the words spring out of Eddie, “It’s been three years since I let Chrissy die and ran away from her dead body like a coward. She could be the one who’s living this life, alive and happy. I could’ve tried.”

Eddie lets his eyes flutter shut, and for a second he looks so fucking peaceful, “Sometimes when I remember her dying in front of me, I try to think of something else. Anything else. My mind brings me to different places. Chrissy where she gets to graduate. She wears this pink dress, with her blue eyeshadow. She’s happy.

Chrissy where she gets to go to Paris. She looks like the kind of girl that would want to visit Europe. She’s wearing a beret, with the brightest smile on her face. Chrissy where we get to be friends. She’s always been kind, maybe she could’ve lived with us, maybe she could’ve been my own platonic with a capital P.”

Eddie opens his eyes, brown eyes shining with tears, “And then I open my eyes. And I remember that she’s gone. And I am here. Why do I get to live and not her? She deserves it more than I would ever.”

“Eddie.” Steve hisses, “Don’t ever say that.”

Eddie blinks at him, tears rolling down his face. Steve swipes it off his face, in the gentlest matter, “You’re here because you are here. Chrissy deserved better, yes, but she’s gone. We couldn't have done anything about it. The life you have right now? You deserve it, Eddie. It’s always been meant to be yours. There’s nothing you could’ve done to help her.”

Steve cups his jaw, thumb softly drawing circles on his cheek, “If you really think she could’ve been your platonic soulmate, then she would want you to live your life. She would hate you for saying all this.”

Eddie chokes up even more, his voice shaky when he finally speaks, “Thank you for saving me that day, Stevie.”

He smiles, a lump burning against his throat, “Best decision I’ve ever made.”

Eddie stares at him for a few seconds, brown eyes staring intently at him. There’s a spark in his eyes that could rival the brightest stars, “I am in love with you, Steve Harrington.”

And right there, as Steve watches Eddie, the colors dance behind the love of his life, Steve says it back.

“I am also, insanely, in love with you, Eddie Munson.”

Eddie beams at him, moving closer to capture his lips into his. And if Steve had to describe the kiss, he would say that it’s exactly how he feels when the sun rises in the morning. It’s the feeling when the first hue of orange paints the sky. The feeling when the sun greets him once again. It’s a promise of new beginnings, captured with so much tenderness and adoration.

It’s comfort and skies and softness. It’s Eddie Munson.

When they pull away, Eddie moves closer, resting his head on Steve’s shoulder as they turn to the sky, waiting for it to change. Steve has watched maybe hundreds, maybe thousands of sunsets in his life. Together they watch as the day of the anniversary ends, with what Steve could only call the most beautiful sunset he’s ever seen in his life. Just before the darkness, it breaks into the most beautiful hue of pink.

Eddie starts shaking against him, a hand flying to block a gasp that comes out of him. Steve fights the smile forming on his face, his own eyes filled with tears.

“Hi, Chrissy.” Eddie whispers. Steve kisses the top of Eddie’s head to comfort him.

It’s a beautiful ending.

At twenty-six, Steve graduates with a Bachelor of Science, majoring in Atmospheric Science.

Steve never avoids the sky. He studies it now, and writes the weather news for a big Boston channel. He stops to point out random objects in the sky, and has a telescope set up for constellations. He drinks a hot cup of coffee every morning, watching as the sun rises.

Eddie is always with him in every endeavor. He works as a music teacher in the middle school near their home. On the weekends, Eddie plays in a bar, singing his own songs and playing his Sweetheart. He makes Steve a cup of coffee every morning, watching as the sun rises.

Steve lays in the grass with Dustin and Suzie’s son and teaches him how to cloud watch. Eddie will then pester them, and try to teach the kid D&D. Steve takes time to send reminders to Max and Lucas to wear a raincoat if he sees that it’s going to rain in California. Eddie will slip an umbrella on his satchel when Steve forgets, because he could only think of Max and Lucas and the other kids.

Steve talks to Will and Mike for hours, just trying to describe to them a weather phenomenon so Will could draw it and Mike could write it for their latest best-selling comics. Eddie teases Mike for it. It annoys Mike so bad that he slams the phone. They laugh so hard, their ribs ache. Steve knits El a gorgeous sky blue scarf, because he knows how cold it gets in New York. Eddie gets her a matching hat for it.

Wayne calls them, every other day, to ask how the weather is in Boston and Steve asks how the weather is in Indiana. Eddie will talk his ear off. They have Thanksgivings together, year after year, thankful for the life they were given.

Steve and Eddie spend a few summers in the guest room of the farm house Joyce and Hop bought in 1986. Steve stays and writes about the stars and the planets because the skies are so much clearer in rural places. Eddie stays and writes tunes and rhymes, sings and records it in the empty barn on the back.

They still live with Robin and Nancy, but they’ve moved to a bigger house now. Steve has his own equipment for sky watching in the backyard and Eddie surprised him with a sunroof in his office. They have a dog named Hetfield and a cat named Sabbath.

And more than anything, Steve loves sunrises. He wakes up early for it everyday. He’ll set the alarm early, wake up, tell Eddie that he doesn’t need to wake up with him. The next morning, Steve will always find the kettle hot, and a hot coffee waiting for him as his husband wraps an arm around his waist, face smushed on his neck.

They wait for the sky to turn from darkness and brightness and smile when the sun waves at them with hues of colors— different everyday.

It’s a hello, a how are you, a comfortable hug.

It’s a reminder of new chances and new opportunities.

And as long as Steve Harrington is in Eddie Munson’s arms, everyday is a new beginning.

→ the original angstier sunset fic and it’s siblings <3

#the way i teared up over this #this is my heart #in writing #steve and eddie living their happily ever after #damn #steddie #daeheadcanons #dae writes #steve harrington x eddie munson #steddie headcanon #steddie fanfic #steddie ficlet #steddie hc #steddie fic

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phantomwitch16 · 6 months

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So I just learned the Nanbaka ending. Safe to say that it was not what i expected and I wanna talk about it :,)

Warning to the many people who have not been able to make it past chapter 192 or only watched the anime, the majority of what i know is from TikTok's, the comments of the vids and what i've pulled together by myself and what i've seen on Pinterest. Plus, despite my like for the series, I don't know much, its been a few years since I've done anything with the series , there is a cut off point with the manga and even then i don't know if it was in any particular order.

When i first started the series, I felt like i had a good idea of where the series was going. Like as the series would progress, we learn the pasts and motivations of the main cast, like Uno, Rock, Nico and the others, while seeing Jyugo learn about the shackles and the man on the scar. Then at the end, some shenanigans results in our main cast of idiotic prisoners being released early or finishing off their sentences in around a year or two. but because they either grew attached to the prison or liked the perks of working there (annoying Hajime, anime and food), they decide to go back and become guards of building 13. With Jyugo possibly doing something like this each day.

But that didn't happen. Instead we get something a lot more different than what I originally imagined.

In the end of the series, we learn a lot about Jyugo's backstory, how he and the boys first me and more about the man who shackled him. As it turns out, Jyugo was never friends with Uno, Rock and Nico. They met him but they weren't friends, I think. Initally, I didn't think that he even met them before the start of the series until finding some of the fan translated pics of the manga on Pinterest (Search Nanmaka manga ending Jyugo and you should find something, just find one and keep on scrolling). All the memories that Jyugo had with them were fake ones that were inputted by the clone of the man with the scar/his biological grandfather, i.e. this guy, Hiiro, I think is his name. Hiiro with black hair, scar guy with white guy down here 👇

I'm not entirely clear on what they were planning initially but Hiiro was the one who inputted the memories and orchestrated him going to Namba and becoming friends with the three, who possibly have at least met them individually at tone point. From what I am aware, Jyugo was the clone of Mashiro Mutsuki's (Scar man), grandson who alongside his daughter's, Touko, Jyugo's mother. She died while she was pregnant with Jyugo and Mashiro kept her body so that she could be cloned and give birth to Jyugo.

There were bit and pieces of Jyugo's childhood, with him and Hiiro. And Jyugo was nothing like how he was during the series. He was serious, had no general emotions and all that and i think his clone body was falling apart or he was sort of shapeshifting. He only became somewhat normal and acts similar to how he does to the series when he put the shackles on.

But the shackles had another function and it was to repress his memories and powers. Specifically his memories with Hiiro, the scar man and what his friends did to him. Uno, Nico and Rock were brought in to teach Jyugo how to live in order to be released from prison and gain their freedom. And kill him some time before the series started. This was part of Hiiro’s plan but I’m not too sure about his reasoning. They did that, and when the shackles are gone we see the evidence of it on Jyugo's neck.

All this makes looking back on previous adventures quite differently. In short they were never his friends for a time but did grow close in the time afterwards and began to feel guilt for what they did to him. They eventually come to talk to Jyugo about it and apologise but at this point, it was too late. Jyugo remembers everything when the shackles break and is practically reverted to his previous state. And it leads to a bitter confrontation that leaves the three shaken. As seen below 👇

I'm not sure to what degree of involvement Nanba Prison and the staff there had. By all accounts, its seems that Hajime and the other guards were just as or even more in the dark than Jyugo. Upon finding him, Hajime treats him like he's always has.

The only moderately positive thing and relatively Jyugo related thing that the reverted Jyugo does is that he has a brief interaction with Hajime’s cat who he says goodbye to.

In the end, Jyugo disappeared from the prison with a splatter of blood left behind, leaving apparently with his grandfather. Then that's it. A very WTF kind of ending for a comedic series. It...honestly not what i expected. Beautiful art stuff, yes. WTF moments, yes. Hilarity, yes. A very bitter ending with barely any sweetness in it…neat.

#nanbaka #nanbaka jyugo #nanbaka nico #nanbaka uno #nanbaka rock #nanbaka hajime #nanbaka ending #nanbaka manga #jyugo

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youngpeachenthusiast · 16 days

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this is going to be a post about my experience with my gender identity and there's definitely going to be some (a lot of) oversharing so uh... more under the cut??

sometimes i find myself reflecting on how my identity came to be, and the more i think about it, the more i think my mom is very wrong when she says there were "absolutely no signs".

while throughout my childhood i did present very femininely, i remember that ever since i was a little boy i secretly was convinced that one day i would literally just grow a penis. i understood that there was some kind of difference between the genitalia of boys and my own, but i thought it was simply a matter of time and my very own penis would grow in its own time. i started puberty very early on and when my clitoris started enlarging i thought "this is it, it's finally happening".

needless to say it didn't happen. and when a few months later we got our very first sex ed and i learned that i was inevitably going to become a young lady, well... i was devastated. i remember crying on multiple occasions to my mother because i desperately didn't want to go through puberty. having real proper panic attacks about it. i remember the first time a friend commented on my breasts coming in. i remember trying to bind with a headband only to be caught and punished by my mother. i remember getting my first period and doing everything in my power to hide it from her, because as long as she didn't know i could still close my eyes and cover my ears and pray that it would just go away.

even not taking the relationship with my body into account, i was changing my name multiple times a month because mine didn't fit, and i just couldn't figure out what was going on.

all of this long before i even knew that something such as being transgender existed.

i was 13 when i first met a transgender person. as soon as i saw them and i learned who they were, i knew the answer. that was me. that had always been me, indubitably.

it took some time before i actually accepted that in no way i could ever stay alive and be a woman at the same time. when i finally did, that's when my life started getting better. years and years of self hatred found their answer in something so trivial as being a man.

so i think of my mother, who argues that "there were no signs" and still refuses to refer to me by my name and pronouns because she's convinced i'll change my mind (after five years of very much not changing my mind), and i do not know how to feel.

there were so, so many signs. i'm not sure i would even call them signs, it was just me existing after all.

and sure, early signs don't matter and i can still be trans even if nothing pointed to it in the slightest in the past. but also. the signs were there, and i'm very tired of pretending they were not.

i don't know why i'm here posting about all of this. discussing my early view of genitalia and all. i suppose i'm just looking for someone like me, who will make me feel less alone. the "girly girl" who always kept so much of his discomfort to himself.

i am honestly amazed that human beings can experience this kind of feelings over their body and social constructs and... everything, really. it does hurt like hell, sure. but it is incredible how deep of an experience i can have with something as simple as an organ of my body.

anyway. thanks for reading my oversharing. or whatever. goodnight!

#elliot talks #transgender man #transgender #trans man #trans people #gender identity #gender dysphoria #dysphoria #queer #queerness #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtqia #lgbtq community #lgbtqia community #transblr #trans

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rxmqnova · 8 months

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Reunion

Y/N: 12 years old Story: Y/N reunites with her mother after being away from her for 8 years… ——————————————————

Y/N'S POV I was taken to the Red room by the Black Widow herself when I was 4. Dreykov doesn't know that, but his mind controling doesn't really work on me. I've learned to just stay quiet and follow his orders, cause the whole brainwashing thing was pretty painful.

I miss my mom so much though. I still remember the sadness in her eyes when she couldn't do anything to save me. She didn't have powers back then, neither did uncle Pietro. They were just 19, mom had me pretty early. But Dreykov must have known something, cause he used to have this weird talks about some powers before I actually got mine.

But now I'm 12 with the same powers like my mom has. I was just chilling in my 'room' when the Black Widow with some weird bunch of guys took down the Red room. She's tried talking to me, but I'm still mad at her. I can't forgive her just because she's dating my mom. I will never understand how mom can date a woman who took her own daughter away from her.

"Y/N, wait, listen to me" She tries again. I was about to walk away, ready to spend the rest of my life alone in the forest when her hand stopped me from walking. I sigh, turning around to face her.

"Why? You dragged me in here, took my childhood, then you ran and now I should listen to you?" I say with a raised eyebrow, crossing my arms over my chest.

"The kid has a point" Yelena speaks up, receiving a glare from Natasha.

Yelena's cool, I didn't know she's Natasha's sister, but she's nothing like her. We're pretty close actually, she was my team leader and my best friend.

"Thank you!" I sigh.

"Y/N, I'm sorry" Natasha kneels in front of me, taking my hands in hers. "I really am. I'll take you to your mom. Let me make it up to you" She's practically begging me with her eyes, but I only roll my eyes in response.

"I can't just go back to her after everything I've done, Natasha. She can't know her daughter is a monster" I tell her, anger in my voice. Never ever in my life I wanted to do any of the things Dreykov made me to do. All the innocent people I've had to kill…

"You're not a monster, Y/N. You were being controlled, nothing you did is your fault. And there isn't a day your mom wouldn't think about you. I promised her I'd get you back. Please come back with me" Natasha begs again, giving my knuckles a rub with her thumbs. "I promise I'll try my best to make everything up to you" Okay… How many people can tell they made the Black Widow begging? I guess not many, so at least I have something to tease her about later.

"Fine" I sigh, giving up. I miss my mom anyways, so hopefully she won't be mad or disappointed in me. "But I'm sitting next to Yelena" I walk over to Yelena who's already waiting in front of the Avengers jet Natasha and her band used to get here.

We walk in and I immediately take a seat next to Yelena as I said. I cuddle up to her, resting my head against her arm, and the jet finally takes off. Natasha's eyes are practically glued to me, looking at me with a hint of guilt in her eyes. Her friend's piloting, I think his name's Clint or something. There's also this Captain America guy sitting next to Natasha.

I think I fell asleep for a while, cause we're now landing. The first thing I see when I get out of the jet is the biggest building I've ever seen. "Holy shit, you live here?" I ask, looking at the three Avengers shocked.

"Language, kid" Is the first response I hear, and of course, it's from the America guy.

"This is your new home, Y/N. Come on, I bet your mom's nervously walking around the kitchen now" Natasha smiles, walking to the big building.

I walk right behind her, Yelena beside me and the two men behind us. Yelena looks shocked as I do. I'm glad I'm not the only one with this impression printed on their face.

We walk into the kitchen and then I freeze. It's really happening. Mom's looking at me, tears in her eyes and I can't move a single muscle, just staring at her.

"Mama" I whisper, tears forming in my eyes. I've wanted this for 8 years and it's finally happening. My mom is walking to me, tears running down her cheeks.

"Y/N/N" Mama whispers, hugging me tightly before lifting me up, so now I'm wrapped around her like koala. I'm pretty light weight and small, so it's not a big problem. "I'm so sorry" She cries out, kissing my cheek. "I missed you so much, baby"

"I missed you too, mama" I cry out this time. There really wouldn't be a day without thinking about her.

"Okay, okay. Can I now meet my almost sister-in-law?" Yelena says impatiently, now standing in front of us with her hand stretched for a handshake.

"Yelena, they haven't seen each other for 8 years. Let them have their moment" Natasha looks at Yelena with a glare. I'm not gonna lie, Natasha sometimes looks really intimidating.

"Sorry, sorry" Yelena puts her hands up in defense, making me chuckle.

I wipe my tears and mom stands me back on the ground, keeping me close as I'm hugging her side.

"Wanda" Mom stretches her hand to shake Yelena's.

"I know, Natasha won't shut up about you. I'm Yelena" Yelena says, shaking mama's hand.

"I've also heard about you" Mom smiles at Yelena, rubbing my arm with her hand.

"Natasha spoke to you about me?" Yelena asks excitedly, sparks in her eyes.

"She did" Mom answers with a smile, now playing with my hair. "You all must be hungry. How about Nat and I show you two your new rooms and then we meet up for dinner?" Mama asks looking at Yelena and then at me.

"Yes, please" I agree with a smile. I'm starving, last time I ate was just a piece of bread for yesterday's dinner.

Natasha deals with Yelena while mom shows me my new room. They're right next to each other which is great, cause I really like spending time with Yelena, even though she can be really annoying sometimes.

"Do you like it?" Mom asks me as soon as we step inside and I take a look around.

"Like it? It's the coolest room I've ever seen!" I tell her excitedly. Mom smiles, cupping my cheeks with her hands before pressing a kiss to my forehead.

"I'm so happy I have you back. I'll never let anyone to take you away from me again. I promise"

"Mama?… Can I ask you something?" I ask with a sigh. I just can't understand how can she be with Natasha after everything. I just need to ask.

"Always" She smiles.

"How can you date HER?" I ask after taking a deep breath. She sits on the bed, pulling me onto her lap.

"You know, honey… I was really, really mad at her. And… I did some things that weren't really nice. Your uncle and I got powers. We were trying to find you for years and we also wanted revenge" She explains. "I almost killed her, but then… then I read her mind and saw everything she's been through. All those things they made her to do… one of them was to kidnap you" She keeps explaining, rubbing my knee with her thumb. "She's been feeling very guilty about it. She promised to bring you back to me… And while we were trying to find where the Red Room was, we got closer and it just happened… I know it's not easy, Y/N/N… but I'd be really glad if you tried to give her a chance"

"… I can try, but I think it'll take a while" I tell her with a sigh. Mom seems to like her a lot and I don't want to ruin her happiness even though I'm not a fan of Natasha.

"Thank you" She smiles.

"Do you love her?" I ask.

"I-I do" She answers in shock. I guess she wasn't expecting this kind of question from me.

"Okay" I give her a quick smile. "But not more than me" I look at her seriously.

"You, my little monkey, are the person I love the most on the entire world" Mama smiles widely, rubbing the tip of her nose against mine which makes me smile back.

"I love you too, mama"

----------------------

Part 2

Series masterlist

Masterlist

#wanda maximoff #wanda maxmoff x y/n #black widow #scarlet witch #scarlet widow #wandanat #natasha romanoff #yelena belova

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highabovethecloudssomewhere · 8 months

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the WINGS THE WINGS THE WINGS tell me more about. the wings

👏 👏 OKAY SO THE WINGS

I’m still hashing out the finer details on this AU and I’d love to write something for it one of these days but the long and short of it goes like this:

The people of Xerxies are descendants of an ancient minor deity/eldritch being, and the people of Xerxies through bloodline inherit a pair of wings. The wings exist in a pocket-dimension and can be manifested or banished as their person wills.

Edward and Alphonse, being half-Xerxien, were born with a set of Xerxian wings. It takes time to learn how to manifest/banish the wings in and out of the pocket-dimension, so they just sort of let the wings do whatever they wanted for most of their early childhood. Hohenheim kept his wings to himself while the two of them were growing up because the memories of his people were too much to bear. Once he left, Edward and Alphonse started keeping their wings to themselves more often too.

Since Edward and Alphonse are only half-Xerxien, their wings do require the occasional maintenance (preening) and sometimes Edward struggles to control whether they appear or disappear (reservations against Hohenheim, wings responding to his emotional state/impulsiveness, etc). He’s more torn on his wings, but tolerates them because it’s something he has in common with Alphonse and Alphonse loves their wings.

Then their mother died. Then they tried to bring her back. Alphonse lost his body; Edward lost his arm and his leg. Edward refused to bring out his wings after that, no matter how many times Alphonse urged him. What did it matter, anyway? Alphonse’s wings were taken along with his body. Hohenheim was never coming back and neither was Mom.

For years, Edward lived as a grounded Icarus.

Then there was the ‘incident.’ Edward reacted without thinking, because a moment’s hesitation meant life or death, and his wings manifested before he could think. But something was wrong. He kicked off the pavement, his arm outstretched, only to come slamming back down. That was when he realized the Gate was cruel beyond coincidence.

It’d taken one of his wings—just one—to make sure he never forgets that he used to be able to fly.

(This marked the first time Mustang and his team saw Edward’s wings. Edward had never so much as mentioned them before, but Mustang heard stories of the ancient civilization that flew on wings made of comet tails and stars.)

(It was supposed to be a myth. It isn’t.)

— Aaaand that’s what I’ve got on this AU so far. TL;DR Edward somehow needs even more hugs

#Fullmetal alchemist #Edward Elric #Xerxien Wings AU #Fma #I have several thoughts on this that I cannot articulate at the moment #but if you guys have any questions about it I’d love to hear your thoughts!#this has been a fun AU to work on artistically #I freaking love wings #cloud rambles #cloud draws #dismemberment #tw dismemberment #Sort of #tagging just in case #Answered ask

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wheregoodthingsthrive · 8 months

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Hellsing Headcanon Mass Post

I had been wanting to make one of these for a long while. Compiling a lot of my overly fleshed out ideas for the Hellsing five especially is a fixation for me and a lot of these are 8+ years in the making. This is long and covers Seras, Integra, Pip, and Walter. Alucard isn't in here cause I want the others to get more love lmao. I'll do Iscariot and Alucard eventually. I just want to try this out-- I want to make more Hellsing friends, especially one's willing to build on the lush free real estate we have here :3

Seras Victoria

Born February 9th 1979*

I refuse to believe she was 19 and a cop. *I don’t know how old I want her to be exactly but part of me thinks she’s either Integra’s age (22) or younger by a few months. I refuse.

Her middle name is Marie, which is her mother’s name,

Speaking of her parents -- her parents, Marie and John-Mark Victoria, were an elementary teacher and a cop (duh) respectively.

They were a pretty chill middle class family, known in their community pretty well as they were often involved in a lot.

So the brutal breaking and entering double homicide of the family and the orphaning of Seras was a big deal. It was in the local news. Definitely contributes to Seras having an intense need to NOT stand out.

Her time at the orphanage is a seriously blocked out time period for her and for good reason -- it was a very emotionally and mentally isolating place. And she was disciplined. A lot. As canon explores, she was very violent, aggressive, and apprehensive of relations. She never truly got the therapy she needed and she surely thought the orphanage’s religious predisposition would not help.

Protestant turned skeptical agnostic. She never understands religion all that well after her traumatic childhood.

She went to a private school until her graduation. She had a massive passion in the law and enforcement, leading her to become a cop for emotional reasons she could never really place (traumatic memory blocking lmao)

Despite being picked on and being seen as a little lesser, Seras really did enjoy her job as a cop and hoped to one day become a sergeant or a head of the office. Her fellow coworkers really wanted to see her succeed…

In/Beyond Hellsing

The TV show was onto something with having Seras and Integra have quite the strained relationship. Seras just wanted to be liked and definitely understood that she was seen as an ‘invader’ into this strange little found family.

I don’t have much more on this in terms of Seras’ side because Integra’s side has more potential for nuance. See Integra section. <3

Overall, Seras has a very skittish relationship with everyone. She does get close to Walter though, as he’s the most merciful with her regarding her development as a Hellsing agent and vampire alike. She gets on the tradition of being up early enough to enjoy morning tea with him. (She can’t drink it but it helps her feel normal)

Her vampiric arm CAN formulate into a normal, fleshy arm but she prefers it not to as it reminds her of her strength. She can equally dissipate a lot of her body, mainly her eyes and back alongside her arm, but she can’t go full shadow like Alucard can on a whim.

Vampires of different classes have different arrays of abilities. Seras learns a lot of hers is illusionary and omnipresence. Shadow work, shape shifting, illusions, and expert third-eye vision are her specialties.

Miscellaneous

Her favorite drink was London fog or a classic pint of beer. Her sweet tooth was unbeatable.

She has a nice list of hobbies and interests! She loves dancing, can crochet, learning calligraphy for fun,

Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing

Born June 17th 1977

It’s van Helsing but whatever. Hellsing is the popularized version of the surname but if you ever ask her to sign a document or write her name, she always fills it out as ‘van Helsing’ because it is “correct”.

Childhood and Parents

Integra is conceived out of wedlock between Arthur and Ahalya. They met in 1975 and Integra was born three months after their official wedding. Both of her parents were on the older side.

Her ‘bastard’ status was a big issue in her inheritance and caused, frankly, a lot of tension between Arthur and Richard and more so doubts among the Round Table.

Arthur defended his decision till the day he died. Integra was the best thing that ever happened to him.

I AM TIRED OF SEEING NEGLIGENT FATHER ARTHURS. WAKE UP GUYS.

Arthur was a devoted, very loving, very gracious father. Meeting Ahalya and really taking the Hellsing position seriously since his 30s helped prepare him to be an engaging father and dedicated spouse. While he was busy and often away, any moment he got with Integra was intentional and held his undivided attention.

Integra’s mother was present until she was ten. Her mother was a little less emotional but equally loving. She was very adamant on Integra’s education and development into a young, respectable lady. She was very against Integra becoming the next head of Hellsing but Arthur was insistent.

While not always perfect, Integra and her mother got along. Her mother passed away in the spring of 1987 due to terminal illness.

She was basically raised by Walter whenever neither of her parents were around. They were the best of friends and could read each other like books. Where Arthur taught her the occult and leadership, her mother etiquette and poise, Walter taught her self-reliance and strong headedness.

Their relationship was not always perfect and definitely hit a rocky patch when Alucard returned. She still never understood what their deal was.

Early adult years - Integra is the most socially inept but poised individual. Talking to men? Talking to women? It’s near impossible. She’s a brick wall. She’s real fun at parties when she is either obligated or strongly convinced to go to them.

Definitely earns herself a Elizabeth I reputation. The only time she ever dated was when she was 15 and she had a picnic with a guy her age once. Never again.

Hellsing Era

Integra’s ascent into the head of the organization was agonizingly painful. Walter served as her legal guardian and Alucard was her…strange project.

This is truly when she adopted her more masculine persona and this…closed off nature. It was the only way she saw herself being protected from all the prying, doubting, and slander of the bureaucracies. Was this damaging to her? Absolutely.

Despite this, she grew very close with her father’s trusted friends. Penwood is more at an arm's length while surprisingly, despite his intensity, Irons is her closest among the RTC.

Irons definitely sees Integra as his daughter as well, not even as Arthur’s child.

Her relationship with Alucard at this time is very odd. Mentor/mentee, master/servant, Hellsing/vampire. She didn’t quite know how to appreciate him at this time

A major contributor to their relationship growing was her discovery of Hellsing experiments and frankly more shameful works. While not inherently positive to their dynamic, it definitely changed the way she viewed Alucard forever.

Adding onto the Seras/Integra segment here from Integra’s perspective. Integra can not afford to lose her ‘normal’. She is a creature of habit and stability. She would never admit it but the upheaval of her life via the death of her father, the absenteeism of Walter, the introduction of Alucard, her first kill, etc. ruined her perceived safety and it took her many years to regain it.

She had a new, safe, constant normal with Walter and Alucard. So when Seras is introduced, Integra feels threatened. Her vampire acted irrationally and now she has to pay for it (literally and socially). Seras was an unfactored element to her that invaded her life and threw her into disarray. Obviously, this feeling does not last forever, but she detests Seras at first.

I could also make a point about Integra having no real positive feminine influences in her life after her mother dies. She lives in such a masculine bubble that when Seras is introduced, she frankly does not know how to respond to a positive, feminine presence. That’s a whole other bag of marshmallows for another time.

Post-Hellsing

She dies fifteen years after the time skip finale from natural causes.

Miscellaneous

Operas are her favorite. Her favorite is Tosca. Her favorite activity with Arthur in her youth was to attend the opera and ballets and the likes.

She pulls just as much as Arthur did. :)

She is fluent in Dutch and English, and knows a decent handful of French and German from her governess days.

Pip Bernadotte

Born March 27th 1972. Left handed.

His full name is Pierre Andre. ‘Pip’ stuck in his youth.

I have an unhealthy loyalty to believing he is French-Belgian-Columbian. Why Columbian? Because I said so.

His father served on a mercenary job in Columbia where he met Pip’s mother and he brought her back to Europe with him. Pip was born in Belgium and his parents split up shortly after his birth but they never married. He was left with his dad as his mother returned to the Americas.

He was primarily raised by her grandfather due to his father’s pretty constant absenteeism but whenever his father was around, it was very pleasant and he has a good, positive recollection of his father.

His grandfather though? It was complicated. He was a stern disciplinarian.

His father passed away in Pip’s 20s. They hadn’t seen each other for a few years leading up to his death, not in a negative way…just…kinda went down their own paths.

Pip skipped Belgium and backpacked all around Europe for a long time after his basic level education. He used to have aspirations of being an actor but well we all saw what he actually is so say goodbye to the dream.

He was engaged at least three times. Absolute dumbass heartbreaker.

This is a running joke with the Wild Geese and definitely contributed to his dedication to Seras. She really made him want to settle and stop and be still. Sobs.

Leading up to Hellsing/Hellsing

He was dumb, young, and had both eyes when he joined his first mercenary group. It was not the Wild Geese but there were some guys in there he met who would soon coagulate into the WG.

That being said, he found he could make more money if he ran the show, so entered the formation of the Wild Geese.

When he lost his eye, he temporarily considered getting a fake glass eye but (thank you cocolacola <3) Seras gave him the eyepatch as a “welcome to Hellsing sorry for flicking you” offering.

He’s got some unsorted trauma from losing his eye but he’s an adamant “it’s not that bad I don’t need to talk about it” kind of guy. Toxic masculinity or whatever.

In general. He’s got a lot of unresolved/undiscussed trauma. Will he ever discuss it? No.

Y’know. I feel he and Walter clicked too. They’re both a pair of war dogs who refuse to talk about being said war dogs. Pip is also under the illusion that Walter is pretty normal too until he soon realizes he is NOT. Pip and Walter worked together a lot in creating training drills, tweaking defense systems, and Pip ran the whole “this is our new defense plan” by the latter and both were maybe too excited to bond over insane artillery.

Pip is not allowed in the gunshop though.

When it comes to Integra, this man has mad respect for her and after the first greeting, he would never dare to disrespect her to her face or without good humor.

Alucard is another…can of worms. Pip and Alucard have this odd ‘bro code’ honor between them but not much else. Really Pip only talks to Alucard because Seras serves as some type of liaison.

As Seras’ familiar, I feel he develops ‘powers’- in a non-traditional sense.

Memory barricades, psychic blocks/links, a minor form of omnipresence, and an adaptation of Seras’ skills when he branches out of her arm.

He can materialize fully but not for long and is tethered to Seras via her shadow, so if that is cut, he dissipates.

Miscellaneous

He is a polyglot! French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, English fluently. Arabic, German, and Greek intermittently.

He's a pescetarian. A failing one.

Pip is a practicing Protestant but you’d never hear him be too open about it and he’s not a calendar Christian either. He’s pretty devoted.

Walter C. Dornez

Born September 30th, 1930. Left handed.

The ‘C’ stands for Christaan: yes that’s how it’s spelled, it’s Dutch.

This is my small blip on anon about his parents

Tldr; Walter is maternally a Seward. His mother is Seward’s daughter and served as a nurse in WWI. She’s also the original holder of the monofilament wires, a vampire hunting weapon devised by the Sewards and their assistance to Hellsing in the early 1890s-1910-20s.

His father is from the Netherlands and served in the war.

He grew up in Rotterdam, Netherlands, until May 1940 when the Nazis invaded the Netherlands.

In their exit from continent Europe, his parents parted ways. Mother took him to England, father stayed behind to aid resistance. He never came back.

His mother left him in the stead of Hellsing as they are technically family friends and also left him with her precious wires.

Started as a hall-boy, moved to a footman in 1941 and then was conscripted into Hellsing full-time forces in 1942, earning the moniker the same year.

A 14 year old being a butler is ridiculous. As a history major, one who has an area of study in grand-house culture (staff and aristocracy) and hierarchy, it would be UNFOUNDED to have someone so young and seemingly inexperienced serving in a role like that.

Now when he’s older? Plausible. Especially given the decline in house staff necessity, especially after the war. So anyways, his official title is butler to the Hellsing family and valet to Sir Hellsing.

Dawn Era and Further

He was the Hellsing infantry’s lil guy. His only friends were grown men who were either scared of him or thought he was puny. He definitely had to work for his respect and favor, with lots of blood, sweat, and tears.

A big credit to his success in the ranks was his aptitude with gunsmithing. Making Hellsing’s literal arms makes you a valuable player.

If he wasn’t using wires, he was using his own handcrafted sniper rifle: Pandora.

This will be indulgent.

Warsaw, Poland 1944. Kid can not remember any of it save for emotions, blurry recollection, and now his neck hurts on occasion.

That Captain fight left him unrecognizable, even to himself, and absolutely shattered the early camaraderie he TRIED to have Alucard.

He struggled to reconcile that Hellsing was any different than Millennium given he felt they were both out for him, just in different ways.

Sometimes it’s best he doesn't remember.

Poland definitely changed him for the worse - intense conditioning to violence made it near impossible for him to adapt back to the real world and being so pivotal in Hellsing forces so early on gave him quite the ego.

He attended Balliol Harvard to study politics and economics. It was a fine time. Definitely awoke something in him. GAY. HE’S GAY. College was in general not too kind to him in the regard that trying to go back to a strange calm after his tumultuous teen years was……..immensely damaging to his psyche.

Alucard. God where do I start. They had a…rivals to friends to no-contact to rivals to coworkers to friends to lovers (?) to amorous thoughts to haters to rivals to classy exes to…vampire fights in leather. It’s complicated.

Integra is his absolute darling. He loves her so much despite being a ‘I hate kids’ individual leading up to that. He loved her as the daughter he never had/never will have and also because it evened Arthur out completely.

Speaking of Arthur. Walter and Arthur have a complicated relationship- not quite father/son, not quite employer/employee, not quite sir/valet. Arthur was almost too casual with Walter early on but later, they developed a strange, taut but friendly mutual respect.

Events of Hellsing

He died in ep5. He looked like a shattered jam jar on the streets of London when the Captain was done with him. I refuse to accept otherwise.

Vampirism obviously saved him- for better or for worse is up to you.

This is another bag of marshmallows but I like to think his vampire form is. Uncanny. He’s got some strange new features that distinctly set him apart from natural vampires, a common trait with Millennium engineered vampires.

Miscellaneous

Woman magnet. This man pulled from his 20s to his 40s. Crazy thing though? This man is not into women. Lmao. He has the ‘single attractive bachelor who is single for a reason’ vibe.

Despite not being a fan of Arthur’s…colorful liveliness…he did some fun, maybe wild things in his youth too. He was no stranger to drinking, going to clubs, dancing, and has perhaps tried a substance or two. Anything to cope.

Not even he knows how the wires work…he only knows they listen to him.

They also function like web shooters or hooks if he controls the tension correctly.

He is decked in scars from monofilament training. Has almost lost fingers MANY TIMES

#hellsing #hellsing ultimate #hellsing the dawn #long post #long text #headcanons #seras victoria #integra fairbrook wingates hellsing #integra hellsing #pip bernadotte #walter dornez #walter c dornez #character building and lore building #my own ideas in long form #please interact with this i am begging #go zero notes go!!

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w0nd3rplay · 3 months

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W0ND3RPLAY'S MORTAL KOMBAT

SATOSHI IN THE NEW ERA

inspired by @running-with-the-feels and @laismoura-art. Fuck NRS for not letting their own mascot be happy. @theelderhazelnut @bloody-arty-myths @starneko123

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THE SHIRAI RYU IN THIS VERSION FIRST....

In the new era, the Shirai Ryu is mostly composed of pyromancers and plant magic users as opposed to the Lin Kuei, but their origins on how they came to be are different: the founder was a pyromancer himself and couldn't handle the cold environment, also got homesickness, so the Lin Kuei grandmaster assigned him to start a japan branch but then founder got shipwrecked and met a bunch of plant magic users, who have a redeemed Cetrion as their patron goddess. The island is her blessing towards them.

The matriarch of the plant magic users was the one to become grandmaster, as the founder see her as deemed worthy of the role when she was participating in the Mortal Kombat tournament.

The Shirai Ryu takes on the same role as the Lin Kuei but the difference is they deal with a bunch of external threats towards Earthrealm while internal threats are dealt with by the Lin Kuei. Both clans are on civil and friendly terms. (This may explain Harumi's connection to Outworld and the Umgadi)

NOW BACK ON THE SUBJECT!

There was no massacre that took place, just Hanzo and Harumi living a happy life with their beloved son. As I said, fuck NRS.

Hanzo wasn't a pyromancer after becoming Scorpion, it was by birth, and this goes the same toward Harumi as she's one of the best plant magic users within her clan. Oh, not to mention she's the official grandmistress.

Satoshi was born on October 11, making him a Libra.

In his early years, there were many marks that looked like scars and injuries that made Satoshi look like he grew up in a terrible household much to his parents' concern, they went to see the doctors but it was always concluded that Satoshi was perfectly healthy overall, no serious skin condition going on whatsoever.

Then a psychic came over to the village, they told them that Satoshi has a soulmate, and there was bad energy surrounding those marks because whoever was predestined to meet him must've grown up in a not so pleasant home life. They told his parents that their son must simply wait for his soulmate as that person would eventually find him, assuming around his teenage years.

By the time he was 5, the marks appeared less frequently, then for two months where it kept popping up left and right. Satoshi also had a really vivid nightmare of a village being destroyed with its residents being killed in the most gruesome ways possible, which was very alarming for his parents and that was a time where security measures had to be held up because they assumed it meant something wrong was about to happen to the clan.

Satoshi grew a habit of making up stories about the random scars that appear in his body, thinking they were from other different lives, from the past to the far future. Even his playmates get on the fun. This is because he didn't understand this whole soulmate ordeal at the time until much later in life when his parents sat down with him that day.

Is childhood besties with Takeda, as Kenshi settled down in the Shirai Ryu after freeing his own clan from the yazuka and marrying the love of his life, Suchin. They were practically raised like brothers growing up and liked to push each other's limits to ensure they grew up to be great warriors. Takeda loved being a big brother figure towards Satoshi as they were both only children with no siblings whatsoever.

His favorite pastime was gathering plants in the island's wide variety of otherworldly plants, he lets his parents cook the plants he's gotten during dinner. It even stayed after his childhood.

Another one was catching bugs with his dad, his favorite being those butterflies. He also learned how to paint and was a gifted artist like his mother.

Got a HUGE FNAF phase around when he was like 7-9 years old, his favorite animatronic would be Bonnie (blame @laismoura-art, those headcanons with Bi-han are truly hilarious) and shipped him with Freddy before he even knew shipping meant.

Inherited his father's facial features and resting grumpy face, though that resting face becomes more prominent once he was 11 years. It was also when he started to take on grandmaster training as per the clan's tradition.

He eventually started to learn how to hunt to practice his assassin skills, helping other villagers and members as a way to connect with them. He's now often seen practicing in the Fire Gardens or in the courtyard.

He also took on babysitting duty as well and eventually became like a protective and loving older brother towards the little fellas, he started becoming good with kids at this point too.

Satoshi didn't know about Zhenbing, the son of Bi-Han & Sareena until he began his grandmaster training despite knowing Zhenbing's parents personally due to monthly annual meetings between the Shirai Ryu & Lin Kuei, because he was often sent to Kenshi's home to be babysat while the meetings took place. They bonded over the fact they went through a FNAF phase albeit Zhenbing happened to him pretty early (sometime around 6-7) and the high expectations, pressures that comes with being both future grandmasters.

When he first met Zhenbing's adoptive older sister, Frost, she was responsible for Satoshi's bisexual awakening and had a brief crush for only two months. Currently he's a pansexual in denial.

He started to experience a growth spurt once he was 12 years old, and was 6'0" by the time he hit 13, his current age. (My boy would've been freaking in the NBA with the height I gave him at this point 💀)

He's also gotten more intimidating looking in terms of appearance due to the grumpy resting face that he has, but don't worry, he's a sweetheart but is really omniverted at best.

Whenever he wants to wind down and relax or wants some alone time, he goes to this huge lake with a pretty waterfall hidden within a forest only he knows and even plans to show his soulmate this place once he's trusted and got to know them more. He usually paints or plays with the small animals that come and stop by.

When an Ainu elder joined the clan, he got to get more connected to his heritage since while his father was afraid to pass on the traditions to his wife and son yet due to being disowned after joining the Shirai Ryu, so he takes that opportunity for a nice father-son bonding, since he too wants to take pride in his heritage as well and let his father join on a journey in learning about themselves. This was a core memory during Satoshi's teenage years (I loved the 'Hanzo being Ainu' headcanon from that one anon sent to @running-with-the-feels)

He enjoys reading those old choose your adventure books he'd find in those bookshops as well with some nature books, he's a huge fan of horror and fantasy novels as well.

His music taste consists of 90's japanese hip-hop, along with some from its western counterpart, along with indie rap. He listens to artists like Joey Valence & Brae, MC Hammer, Kid N' Play, and Salt N' Pepa

As Satoshi is now a teenager and now understands the whole soulmate ordeal that he has, he starts to wonder what his soulmate would be like in person, other than being such a reckless idiot as marks resembling external injuries tend to pop up often. He often says to himself 'Oh what they've done now??' or 'Here we go again...', yet beyond those scars, he wishes to meet them but alas, a psychic told his parents that he must wait. For now.......

#🌠// lucky's headcanons #🐲 // w0nd3rplay's mortal kombat #satoshi hasashi #hanzo hasashi #harumi hasashi #subscorprumi #takeda takahashi #kenshi takahashi #suchin takahashi #forest fox #shirai ryu #bi han #sareena #mortal kombat #mk1 2023

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fizziepopangel · 1 year

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A Fizziepop Take: Let's talk about Stolas and Blitz's Relationship

There's a lot of controversy surrounding the healthiness of this relationship and because it's one of my favorite ships, I wanna break things down. Let's pop the top on this and get into it!

So to start, we have to look at how our favorite business imp and hellish prince learned about love. That of course starts waaaayyyyy back when with baby Stolas and Blizo before the 'o' was silent.

As children, neither boy was ever given a look at a healthy love, nor were they shown love in appropriate proportions. With the little we know of their backstories as of now, it seems that both boys got love primarily from their mothers while seeing their fathers there but not present.... In fact, their fathers are both portrayed as caring only about what the boys could do for them or what they represented at any given time rather than just caring about the boys as their children, with Paimon not even remembering his own son's name and needing to ask the imp assigned to care for him, and Buckzo actually selling his son off to virtual strangers for the day in hopes of robbing the royal family. While I haven't gotten a clear sense of what happened to their mothers, it seems that both women were removed from their children's lives somewhat early on; therefore taking the boys main source of love with them. Given the father figures they had, neither Blitz or Stolas were ever shown love from a masculine point of view, so they had to navigate that on their own.

Going into the two having to navigate love on their own because of the lack of love from parental figures, Blitz has attempted to look for love at almost every turn. This most likely would've resulted in a sting of relationships that were purely sexual or a sting of failed relationships, with Verosika probably being his longest lasting relationship.... Stolas on the other hand had his future planned for him and was told from his childhood that his future wife was already picked for him so he could sire a cautionary heir when the time came. While Blitz went from lover to lover looking for something without knowing what exactly that something was, Stolas tried to make the best of a marriage in which he was constantly reminded that he was unloved and abused.

Now, this is where I think it get's interesting. As he languished in a loveless marriage, Stolas was conditioned by his narcissistic wife to neglect his own emotional needs in order to keep up with meeting hers while also attempting to be a present father for Via once she was born. After not having experienced adequate familial love, then being shoved straight into a major relationship with someone who found her joy in abusing him physically, psychologically, and emotionally, Stolas believed he was supposed to be unwanted and unhappy. The love he knew was "I have to love my wife because....", and then the parental love between Via and him; a relationship that has also begun to hit the rocks because of Stolas not having an understanding of love and therefore getting lost in the slightest inkling of it with Blitz.

Blitz on the other hand, turned his need for love into something almost selfish. I believe he's afraid to be left alone, so in his mind, it makes the most sense to not let anyone too close and/or to be the first to run if something seems to feel too real. I'm inclined to believe that that's what happened with his relationship with Verosika Mayday since, as Moxxie says in the hallucinations in "Truth Seekers", Blitz has become a master of pushing those who do truly try to care about him as far away from him as impishly possible. With this self-sabotage, I believe he's trying to give people a reason to deem him unworthy of receiving love so that he actively knows why people leave rather than being left to wonder what he did wrong to make people want to leave him. The only people he truly seems mostly comfortable with are Millie, Moxxie, and Loona. Blitz's relationship with M&M is actually really interesting because the lack of boundaries he seems to have when it comes to them is linked to him wanting the kind of love they share but not understanding how to get it or what to do when he does because he's spent so much of his life alone and on the run from love like he's a wanted man.

So, now, we have two grown ass demons who struggle to express love while simultaneously craving it. Putting the two together seems logical at this point, so it wasn't super shocking that the ship became canon, but because neither man can express love properly, almost every move they make together seems toxic in some way, shape, or form. And the relationship already started out in a bad place, because of the agreement that was made. With the agreement in place the way it is, Stolas is in a position where he's holding a power over Blitz, and he knows this because when the agreement is made he is the one that puts it in place. This already gives off a very harsh dynamic between the two, but then you also have to add the fact that Stolas also feels like he is only being used for his grimoire. So now you have Blitz in a position where he feels that he is essentially no better than a blow up doll, and Stolas who feels like he is no more than a means to an end. If you add in the fact that both of these men are very bad at communicating, it makes things worse because there are no boundaries or limits set in place for either of them so neither man knows exactly where he stands or how far forward or backward he can step without changing the dynamic of the relationship completely, which is what we see in "Ozzie's".

In the episode "Ozzie's", we see stolas unintentionally change the dynamic of their relationship by not standing up for Blitz when Asmodeus and Fizz started going in on him. He didn't do it to be an asshole, he did it in a moment of panic and self-preservation. Growing up Stolas was constantly taught that he had an image to uphold, being a Prince of hell and dating or sleeping with an imp, which is one of the lowest classes of demons that we see, doesn't go with that image. Stolas has been shamed his entire life and made to feel insignificant and small, and always told if he was not upholding the family standard he was essentially worthless to them. Even his wife would go out of her way to publicly humiliate him in front of family or friends or whoever would go to the parties that she would throw, so he already felt very very low on that totem pole before Blitz drew attention to the fact that they were there and had a spotlight quite literally shown directly on them.

The issue is that Blitz sees this change in their dynamic as intentional. Given the agreement that they have, Blitz already feels as if he's no better than a sex toy because essentially that is what he has been to this man. He does not believe that Stolas could actually genuinely love him, not only because he believes he doesn't deserve love but also because he understands the difference in their statuses and how their dynamic came to be, so he feels very used and taken advantage of. Despite the fact that he does genuinely have feelings for the prince, Blitz believes he's only good for a good time, and Stolas has not done very much to combat that because all of his advances seem sexual or at least sexually suggestive. Well the advances being sexually suggested or sexually motivated is not completely the prince's fault, it's never something he takes into consideration to see if there are other ways to express a desire for the imp. When every other sentence coming out of the prince's mouth has to do with going to bed with him, and Blitz is given nicknames like "my impish little play thing", it would be hard for him to see how he was wanted for something more than just his body. As I said before though, Stolas is not entirely to blame for this issue with Blitz. Blitz is the one who spurred the advances on the first time, and he never stopped to correct him as their relationship progressed to know stolas believes it's just what he likes, and he'll continue to believe that until Blitz himself tells him otherwise.

Similarly, Blitz does treat Stolas like he is a means to an end. I don't believe it's intentional, because you can see in a lot of different scenes where they're together that Blitz does truly care for this man, but his original plan was just to manipulate Stolas into letting him use the grimoire so that he could perform his business and their entire agreement hinges on that exact thing. Outside of taking him to Ozzie's, Blitz never does ask Stolas on a date, or spend very much time with him outside of the bedroom, and even in that episode the only reason he does is because he has an ulterior motive. In the episode taking place at Ozzie's, I believe Blitz is so fixated on studying and living vicariously through what Moxxie and Millie have together, that he himself was not present with Stolas on the date he invited him to, and despite the prince's best efforts, he's not able to reel him back in until the spotlight is on them and Stolas has the immediate reaction to hide himself from the spotlight while leaving Blitz essentially naked and alone in that moment. The action was never meant to hurt him, but it told Blitz that he was an embarrassment to the prince. It solidified the idea that Stolas was essentially lying to him when he said that he wanted him..... And upon leaving, Blitz is so hurt that he wants nothing to do with the prince for that time, and despite trying to show Blitz how bad he feels, Stolas never actually verbally apologizes to him. After Blitz drops him off at home, and verbalizes that he's not in the mood to have sex with him and tells him that he understands that all they are is fuck buddies, Stolas invites him in and offers cuddles but when Blitz ultimately declines he just says good night, rather than offering it real apology, further solidifying Blitz's thinking but he is not worth the care that it would have shown to have an apology.

As I said in the beginning, I do think it is genuinely just coming down to the fact that neither of these men were ever shown how to care for or love another. Well it's true that they are both raising daughters, who they love unconditionally, everything that they have done for their children has been something they had to pull out of themselves. And they have never done that for each other. I don't think the relationship needs to end, especially not on the note that it did the last time they were together, but I think they both need to mature a little bit more and start understanding the communication that needs to happen between them in order for their relationship to move beyond just sex and heartache. If both Stolas and Blitz are willing to put in the work, and communicate with each other openly I think they could have a very, very healthy and wonderful relationship, which they both very much deserve after everything they've been through.

I definitely trust the process of the writing, but I would absolutely love to see this ship continue to be a thing and thrive, but story-wise I don't think either character is there quite yet. Both demons in question still have a lot of growing to do, but even if that is the case and that is the way the story goes, I don't believe that this is the end of their story together. I feel like these characters will always be drawn to each other, and whether or not there is a pause in their relationship well they take time to figure out their own goals, I believe that both of these men find home in each other and they will always be drawn to that peace.

#fizziepop thoughts #helluva boss #helluva boss blitz #blitzy #blitz needs a hug #stolas goetia #stolitz #stolas needs a hug #helluva boss stolas #blitz and stolas #millie helluva boss #moxxie helluva boss #just a thought #fizziepop take

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clockmax · 1 year

Text

In Turn for Revenge

A/N: I’m gonna say sorry for the shitty ass writing. Literally my first fanfic I’ve written so I was pretty nervous writing this ahaha… anyways you can just slightly enjoy it if it doesn’t get too cheesy because I’m bitchless and need a new hobby other then wanting to fuck blue alien men

Warnings: mentions of hating Jake, brief mention of kidnapping, mentions of being homesick, pet names, fingering, orgasm, one mention of daddy/sir, porn with little to no plot,reader is in heat (I got carried away..) not proofread /barely proofread, I think that’s all tbh

PAIRING: Miles Quaritch x Na’vi!Fem!Reader

MDNI. REBLOGS, LIKES, AND COMMENTS ARE APPRECIATED

That’s when Miles Quaritch came into play. He had the sole mission of eliminating Sully. You could remember the exact night you had met. A wakeful night for you as you set camp in the forest, eventually being ambushed by the recons. No matter how much you put up a fight and tried to bite them, you were taken away.

For a while, you felt a void in your heart. You had loved Eywa and pandora, yet this empty room stripped you of any connections with the outside. The worst part is you could on,y breath the air for a bit. It was always cold compared to the tropical temperatures of your home. It all distorted you for a bit, lashing out and making so many attempts to run and get out.

You gave up on fighting, you gave up on escape. No matter what you did, Quaritch seemed to detect your motion and put you back in your place. You finally started spitting up information on what you knew. It almost felt like word vomit with how much information you’d spill. You had no one else to talk to during solitude, so it was best for you to talk with the colonel.

With time, he let you grow close to him. Your curiosity about everything only grew. You wanted to know so much more about Miles. Your tail would perk up just from hearing his voice talk to you. Eventually he was able to sneak you away to get some time outside. In return, you gave more information and taught him basic Na’vi

Even if this was all bad, you really didn’t see a problem with it. You hated Jake just as much as Colonel. It’s how the blossom started. Over your months here, you grew close to the recom soldier. Frequent visits to your room for conversations, or excuses to bring you outside to talk. It’s not like anything would go any further. After all, you were what his enemy once was.

You sat in the corner of the room, staring at the mirror as you tail lays beside you. Everything’s quiet and now it always is. You’ve adapted to the room with each day, almost making it your new home. Sure, you wanted to be back in nature with Eywa, but you’ve learned to adapt. Adapted during the war, and adapting now.

Taking a breath from your air pack, you simply sit there in silence. Mind roaming free, thinking of all kinds of situations. That’s until you’ve settle on a certain.. situation with the colonel. Great mother eywa, it was so bad and dirty to even think of a friend like that. Your tail picked itself up, wagging. Your hands covered your face which was burning with blush, the tip of your ears almost going red. No matter what distraction you tried, your mind was stuck on that singular thought.

The thought of him pinning you down, pleasuring you to the brink of stupidity. You just thought your heat had rolled around, but that was quickly thrown away when you realized it’s still too early for heat. As the thought progressed, your core lets out its arousal. The liquid soaking your loincloth, sticking to your thighs.

The feeling was almost uncomfortable. A burning sensation threatening to burst in your stomach, mind going places where it shouldn’t have. The rising arousal was just something out of your control, bothering you to the point you were almost irritated.

Getting up from your corner, pacing the room. Trying to recall memories of your childhood or a song, anything to get your mind. But nothing worked, your mind was fixated on this man; What’s even worse is you thought about him sexually. That was the thing that tinged at you the most. If he even saw you in this state.. Eywa knows the humiliating jokes that would follow.

All this continued for the following minutes. The pool of arousal growing, your core almost pulsing for a touch, tail swaying out of excitement. No matter what your words was, your mind and body were giving away the situations. At this rate, you were convinced this was your heat kicking in early. There was no other plausible explanation you could think of.

You were so conflicted over your thoughts that you never noticed Miles walking in, almost watching this as if it was entertaining.

“Aye, ya gonna snap back into reality? Been watching you pace like a anxious dog for too long.” His voice is firm, though a small underlying tone of worry was hidden underneath. Your body came to a complete stop, thighs squeezing together as you stood awkwardly.

How on earth were you going to have to explain the heat cycle to him? Even worse he seemed to be all your mind thought about. To your view, he seemed so much hotter in person. You wanted to pounce on him and feel him up. God what was wrong with you.

“Y/n? Are ya okay?” Quaritch asked again, snapping his fingers to get your attention.

“Im uhm-“ You pause, taking a shakey breath as you try to ground your thoughts, “I’ll be okay..”

“Is that so? Ya been pacing around for no reason?” The colonel raised a eyebrow, questioning your words. You were just a hot mess at this point. Eywa sometimes had such a cruel sense of humor. This was humiliating almost.

“If I say you will laugh..” Your voice trailed off as your crouched down to the floor, almost sinking back into your corner. You felt ashamed to tell Quaritch. No matter how close he was to you it just felt like it would make it awkward.

“Come on pumpkin, you know I’d never laugh at you.” The echos of his footsteps stop when he finds his way in front of you, crouching down to your level. The effect he had on you was something you could never explain. It just made your aroused whenever he called you those names or touched you.

“I have reason to believe my heat cycle has rolled around early.” Mumbling, you avert your eyes to meet Miles’. The eye contact almost sent shivers down your back. The moment those words left your mouth, something changed.

His pupils were blown out, gavial expression changed. He almost looked hungry, like he wanted to devour you right then and there. Something you’ve never seen before. It was common for unmated Na’vi to help each other in heat cycles, but this didn’t seem like he wanted to help.

It was like he’s been waiting for a chance to fuck you, smelling the restraint he used to hold himself back from going down on you right then and there. The aura itself was something ravishing.

“So you want help solving ya issue? Just say the word and I’ll make it real good for ya.” The colonels voice was seducing, drawing you in closer. It felt like your faces were just mere millimeters away. Your breathing sped up, your heart almost popping out of your chest. The word themselves was enough to stir your insides up more, dripping down your inner thigh.

“Use your words, princess. Cant do nothin’ with silence.” Lifting a finger to hold your chin, keeping eye contact.

“Miles.. sir please fuck me.” The words almost rolled off your tongue with ease. All dignity was thrown out the window, all your mind could think about was Quaritch.

“Remove your loincloth and top, want ya on full display for me.” Miles said firmly , wanting to waist no time. If anything, he wanted to see your pretty little face contort with please from him. He wanted to see just how far he could take it until overstimulation became too much for you.

Within seconds you had removed your clothing, leaning into the wall. You did your best to relax, letting the man have his way with you.

“Damn.. if I knew you were this beautiful naked I woulda stripped you sooner..” The words only stirring up your heat more, body practically begging for his touch. Leaning in, lips locking in almost a fiery kiss.

Neither of you pulled away until you couldn’t breathe, almost attached to each other. The Colonel’s hand moving down to your aroused core, fingers forming small circles over your aching mound. Waves of pleasure rippled through your body, hips jerking up into his fingers.

The feelings of his cold, calloused fingers pressed up against your bud was something like no other. Your body giving away just how much you really enjoyed this, maybe more then you should have. Tail whipping against the air, a string of moans falling from your lips.

“Miles, please-“ You whine, hips lazily grinding against his fingers. Your body craved more, wanted more. You wanted Quaritch, you wanted him so bad. It’s like your body was made for him, everything Miles wanted in a women.

“‘Atta Girl, don’t hide your noise.” Eywa, the grip this man has you is insane. His voice was firm enough for you to obliege, yet soft enough to cause that tight feeling in your stomach.

All thoughts going interrupted, the feelings of two fingers entering you almost sending you overboard. The stretch was not too painful, but pleasurable. Velvet walls squeezing on them, slick coating a new layer on the man’s fingers.

“Suckin’ me right in, bet ya’ wanted this.” Miles was right, the amount of times you’ve dreamed of this was almost embarrassing. The feeling of his thumbs on your clit and fingers in you, your mind was going blank.

Only blabbing out incoherent sentences, face going flush. The expert book of the man’s fingers hitting right against the gummy spot in you. Legs shaking, the coil in your stomach almost threatening to snap any minute.

“Sir please-! Right there ohmyeywa-“ You we’re going absolutely blank on him. Hips snapping back with his rhythm.

“That’s it, cum on daddy’s fingers.” If anything, it almost sounded like a command. You didn’t even have to say anything for his pace to pick up.

The knot in your pit got tighter and tighter. Pleasure overwhelming you, body shaking as if this was your first orgasm. It wasn’t long before you did overboil.

Thighs closing, cutting off Miles’ arm from moving. You could feel yourself gush around him, coating his fingers in your sweetness. The sight was something to behold. Fucked out face, shaking legs, if only Quartich could keep you like this forever.

“There we go, feeling better now?” The recons head cocked, making sure you weren’t too overwhelmed. The slight nod from your head telling him all he needed to know.

“Thank you-“ Most of your energy faded away, grabbing your loincloth. The feeling of cold air was starting to bother you.

“Take a few minutes to relax, you’ve got about fifteen minutes before we go back out.”

Oh geez, would have been nice to know that before. You slightly rolled your eyes, giving one last nod before the man walked out.

———

#miles quaritch #miles quaritch smut #avatar smut #miles quaritch x reader

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