#belt sander my beloved

[min-play]

banned from woodwork class

#min draw #min move #minbitt #they took my wooden knife #belt sander my beloved #this is the closest i can get to living my blacksmith dreams

[prismatica-the-strange]

I'll Forgive Your Sins | So C'mon, Show Me Home and I Will Go

Warnings: 18+, smut, p in v

Word Count: 1k

You Taste Like Wine by The Collection | Picrew Link

"Aleksandar," Krynn murmurs when the mattress shifts beneath him, "Sasha... come back to bed."

Her fingertips graze his back as she reaches out for him, "'Sander please."

He chuckles at the way she grabs for him, pulling herself up by gripping his shoulders and using him for support.

"'S too early, love," She pouts against the side of his face, her arms wrapped around his neck, "I'm not ready to give you up."

"My love," He sighs, holdling her wrists, "I have a meeting with the king."

"I don't care."

"Alright," he adjusts when she holds tighter, and nuzzles her face closer. He loosens her grip and turns to face her, pulling her into his arms, "What will it take for you to release me, Snowdrop?"

She whines and presses her lips to his jaw, kissing his scruff lazily.

"Kiss me," She murmurs, "Sate me with your lips. And then, and only then, can you go about your day, dear husband."

He grins at her sleepy theatrics. He's admittedly amused by them, and he hadn't wanted to leave the comforting embrace of her arms.

"If that is the price I must pay, then so be it."

He cups her jaw with one hand and kisses her softly for a moment before pressing harder against her, biting lightly at her bottom lip.

"Aleksander," She whimpers, her wandering hands lighting his skin ablaze.

"I'm right here."

He nips at her jaw, still in awe he'd found her, that he gets to spend the rest of forever with her.

Her nails dig into the back of his neck and shoulder as she arches her chest into him.

She moves her head to nudge his noise with hers and kiss him.

"Sweet one," He sighs blissfully between embraces, "Darling... my dear, beautiful wife."

They spend the next fifteen minutes with their limbs twisted together, sleepily kissing each other. And even then she whines when he goes to move.

"I'm sure the king will understand," She slurs against his lips, "We're married now, so you're mine before anyone else's. And I would gladly inform his majesty of that fact."

"That would be a sight," He grins.

"Yes. I'm sorry Moi Tsar, but the Darkling is my love toy first, your intimidating general second," She dramatizes, kissing the apples of his cheeks.

"Love toy?" He asks.

She hums, pulling him closer.

"As much as I would love to see that," He murmurs against her temple, "I have to go, darling girl."

She pouts up at him and holds his face.

"Please don't look so devastated, love."

"Can't help it," Her thumb strokes his stubble, "Some entitled monarch is trying to steal my Shadow Summoner."

He chuckles as he leans in to kiss her again, "I won't be long."

She groans and lets him pull away.

She watches him get dressed, falling back against the pillows.

He looks over to say something and the words catch in his throat when she pulls off her nightdress, "What are you doing?"

"You don't expect me to be waiting with clothes on, do you?" She teases, "What kind of motivation is that?"

"... Motivation?" He asks, shoulders squaring as he stalks back over to the bed, his eyes raking over her body like a predator.

She smirks, rising to her knees to wrap her arms around his neck, and presses her chest to his, "To hurry back."

"My little temptress," He growls against her lips, his hands gripping her thighs, "The things I am going to do to you."

"Be quick," She sighs, melting into his touch as he gropes the fat of her thighs and ass, "Or else I might be done by the time you get back."

Her eyes go wide when he suddenly takes her face in his hands and kisses her hard pushing her back on the bed and letting his weight pin her against the silk sheets.

"Virre'tcha?"

He pulls back to tear off his kefta and start undoing his belt, "What kind of husband would I be to leave my beloved to satiate her own lust?"

His hard cock springs free when he pushes down his pants and he pulls her close, her legs on either side of his hips.

"Is this what you wanted, my love?" He asks, his fingers rubbing slow circles on her clit, "Wanted the pleasure of my hands on your body? The pleasure of being split open on my cock?"

"Fuck," She groans, "Please, Aleksander. Don't tease."

He chuckles when she grabs at him, slowly pushing inside her as she tugs him down into her arms.

"Aleksander," She whimpers at the feel of him filling her.

"My love," He leans down, sloppily kissing her throat as he fucks her, "My light... my everything."

"Fuck, don't stop," She moans, threading her fingers in his hair, her hips rolling to meet his, "Rosh! Slower... slower... Don't rush."

The quick snap of his hips slows to long, languid thrusts that make her toe curl.

He hooks his arms around her waist and lifts her just enough to settle her in the middle of their large bed.

His head falls against her chest, eyes squeezing shut, "Fryce..."

He angles his hips to drag himself against her g-spot with every thrust, making her choke out a cry.

Her orgasm spreads through her like a slow wave, a heady warmth washing over her, burning in every limb.

"Sasha," She gasps, her eyes rolling back and falling shut.

Her name rumbles in his chest as he lets go deep inside her, "Snowdrop... my love..."

He collapses on top of her, breathing heavily.

"Darling," Krynn murmurs. He slumps against her, humming happily when her fingertips toy with his hair.

Moments pass and she addresses him again, this time get a more prominent sound of recognition.

"My love... the king is waiting."

He lets out something of a cross between a laugh and a groan at the reminder, his arms tightening around her.

"You're infuriating," He teases, "The king can wait. My wife's pleasure come first."

#prisma self ships #I'll forgive your sins #prisma writes #aleksander morozova #smut #aleksander morozova smut

[vaimetanyx]

Much later than I thought it'd be done, it's Stygius v2! Not absolutely perfect, but much better than my first attempt

(Full process under the cut)

[Skull pauldron] [Belt] [Greaves] [Toga + sash] [Wig + Laurels] [Armbands] [Flaming feet] [Satyr Sack] [Stygius v1] [Stygius v2] [Nectar]

For Stygius v2 I kept the blade the same, and used the same base pattern as v1 - the main change was the hilt, which I made shorter and adjusted the skull and pommel accordingly. To reduce the hilt diameter I also used some sort of shrink rubber (that I believe is meant to be used for electrical work) instead of covering the PVC pipe with foam like I did with v1

From there the process was much the same - cut away most of the bevel for the edges, then sand down to a smooth finish. I used a hand sander immediately instead of trying to get an even edge with a dremel, but even then I had some issues and decided to do the whole edge with foam clay for the smoothest finish

Before that though, I got to work on the pommel and skull! I used the same process for the resin gem at the end, but hated the colour so decided I would paint over it this time. I also made sure to pack the aluminum foil extra tightly when crafting the skull so it wouldn't have the slight give that Stygius v1 has, and caused a few minor cracks in the finish. The actual pommel was designed to be much shorter and with a smoother curve, though I was kinda making it up as I went to once again it became an area I had to fill with foam clay

Foam clay my beloved <3

After cleaning up the blade edges with foam clay and letting it set I could get started on the leaves. I used the same process as v1, though I changed the placement slightly and added a few on the sides. I also wasn't super happy with how easily the runes got lost on v1, so I cut the patterns into the foam instead of pressing them in for v2.

I used flexbond to prime the foam this time since plastidip is expensive and I have terrible luck with aerosols, especially since I don't have a dedicated spraying area and Australian spring and summer weather is all over the place which makes for a terrible outdoor spraying experience. That being said, I did use a base spray paint coat of ivory to get the sword a uniform colour before painting the colours and details

...by hand. all of it. Each colour needed a minimum of 3 coats

Then the only thing left was to spray the clear protective coats! Matte for the hilt and skull, gloss for the blade and pommel

While the edge isn't perfect and I would have liked the gem to be more glossy, I'm incredibly happy with how v2 turned out, and v1 now gets to live out its retirement sitting over my window watching over my room

#my cosplay #cosplay process #hades game #zagreus cosplay #cosplay props #stygius #NEW AND IMPROVED #I had a year to remake this but still only got it done the week before the con why am I like this

[femmemortes]

Traps I came up with for my SAW AU of my WIP but not a WIP because it’s more of just a thing I write, part 1.

Halo of Death / Halo Trap

So, I’m actually pretty proud of this trap because I felt so clever coming up with this and because I’m a sucker for traps that are connected to the person/are symbolic.

This was the first trap I wrote for the AU and the victim is none other than my beloved oc, Maxine.

The trap itself is a steel ring affixed around the victim’s head, connected at a collar around the neck. Inside of the steel ring is a series of thin metal wiring on motors that are attached to a series of hooks that are placed on select points of the victim’s face. The idea is, once the time runs out, the hooks will retract rapidly and flay the person’s face.

(Maybe an amount of suspended disbelief is required here, I’m not too sure, but we roll.)

In order for the victim to escape they must use two belt sanders that have been placed either side of them to sand off their skin and flesh to uncover the two keys that have been embedded into their arms. Both are used to unlock the trap.

I would go more in-depth for the lore here but this isn’t an OC lore post so… As for the symbolism behind the trap, in short, Maxine experienced a great deal of damage and religious trauma at the hands of the Catholic Church as she was growing up, especially between the ages of 15-18. She is 21 in the AU. This, among other factors, lead her to be destructive to not only herself but also other people and this continues even after she rebukes and leaves the church and no longer practices any faith whatsoever. This is actually an integral part of her character in the “normal universe” as with other oc’s arcs, I just translated them over into the AU.

The main symbolic aspect of this trap is the ring that encircles Maxine’s head while in the trap. I got this idea from the way that saints, angels and other holy figures are depicted in art found in stained glass windows and paintings. Rather the halo being a horizontally placed ring, it is instead a circle behind the head.

Here’s some examples of what I’m talking about along with a very rushed and basic drawing of the general shape of the trap with Maxine in it. The wires and hooks could also be representative of the lines you sometimes see running from the circumference of the halo to it’s centre? But honestly that’s more of a loose connection.

The symbolism just doesn’t end here though. Maxine is pretty self indulgent when it comes to appearance. This mostly comes from the people she socialises with but also because I think there’s something to be said for losing so much all you have left is your flesh and skin, so she puts so much effort into it because in a way it’s all she has left. So then having the threat of that being ripped away from her, literally and figuratively, is pretty symbolic. That and the way she’s also torn others apart, so in order to escape she must do the same to herself concerning the belt sanders.

The belt sanders also play a role, she has to kneel and put her arms in these box like cages where the belt sanders are fixed inside. Kneeling while holding your arms up/open is a pretty common practice in worship. That and also I feel like I could make a comment about this playing into the fact John Kramer does very much in-fact have a god complex? Either way, this entire trap was meant to be a mockery of her and her experiences and a more fucked up twist on, “turn to God, it’ll save your life.”

#religious trauma babes? god you’re just like me #I’m sorry if this is written super badly I’m tired and just wanna talk about silly stuff #I’ll be covering my other oc’s trap next #yeah I made Esme the apprentice in this AU #it’s called the lockjaw trap and although it doesn’t have ad much symbolism as this one it’s still got a quite a bit behind it so ya #saw #SAW AU #oc #saw franchise #sawposting #tw religious themes

[foxfirekit]

TOA Anniversary Munday!

Celebrating TOA and the people who contribute to make our group what it is.

Repost, don't reblog. Only fill in what you feel comfortable sharing!

Happy anniversary, TOA! Here's to many more years spent together.

Tagging: You. Right there. Yes, you.

Name: Sekhmet

Pronouns: she/her

Birthday (no year): 1st September

Where are you from? What is your time zone? Australia! Timezone is AEST (which means it is Tuesday for me not Monday kek)

Roleplay experience: I have been doing some form of roleplay, on an off, for nearly 13 years. I have good memories, and the Horrors(tm). I have spaces I will never return to, and now two RP homes ^^

---

Got any pets? TT^TT Not anymore

Favorite time of year: Spring! Not too hot, not too cold and it's heading away from Winter!

Some interests and things you like: Writing, art, reading, video games, Dungeons and Dragons, teaching!

Some funfacts & trivia about you: When I was in grade 8, during woodworking, I was probably the most accident prone student much to my teacher's horror. I managed to be attacked by the tools every single lesson. Including being attacked by the belt sander, I still have the scar from that. A more fun fact - I have an animation degree! I spent three years of my life learning and specialising in the art of animation! And then I became a teacher XD

What non-Fire Emblem games do you play? There are a lot but from the ones I play the most - World of Warcraft, Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy 7, 13, 14 and 15, Pokemon, Hades, Sims 4 if I'm feeling it, Splatoon, Tales of Series games

Favorite Pokemon type & Pokemon: I don't really have a favourite type, cause I like Pokemon by design, but my favourite pokemon would be Dragonair, followed closely by Victini, Snivy evolution line, Popplio evolution line, Umbreon, and Joltik.

---

How did you get into Fire Emblem? Uhh... I found a ROM on the internet one day.... *coughs*

What Fire Emblem games have you played? Shadow Dragon (unfinished), Blazing Blade (unfinished), Sacred Stones (unfinished), Awakening (finished), Fates (finished), Shadows of Valentia (unfinished), Three Houses (finished), Three Hopes (unfinished), Warriors (finished), Heroes (uninstalled and disowned)

First Fire Emblem game: Blazing Blade

Favorite Fire Emblem game: Awakening!

Any Fire Emblem crushes? *coughs* Matt Mercer's characters *coughs* (coincidentally too! Their personalities are just amazing <3) Chrom and Shigure! And also beloved street rat Yuri

If you’ve played the following games, who was your first S support? Who would you S support nowadays? - Awakening: First - Chrom, now - still Chrom - Fates: First - I honestly don't remember lol, now - Shigure or Nishiki/Kaden - Three Houses: First - incedentally enough, Edelgard, because of who I named Byleth after and I thought the match was funny. It would have been Seteth if Seteth had been available on Crimson Flower!!! Now though - Yuri. - Engage: n/a

Favorite Fire Emblem class: Witch

If you were a Fire Emblem character, what would be your class? .... Witch!

If you were a Three Houses character, what would be your affiliation? ....... Ashen Wolves/Abyss honestly. The AU Sothis followers I made would be how I'd interact with the world and the faith in the goddess, and that would very likely get me called a heretic.

If you were an Engage character, which Emblem would you Engage with? .... I don't know how Engage works XD

---

How did you find TOA? Rua told me! And then dragged me over cause I was trying to make an indie blog, and then I decided to apply instead of lurking like a cryptid.

Current TOA muses: Kinu (Selkie) and Seteth

Who was your first TOA muse? If you don’t have them anymore, could you see yourself picking them up again? Cordelia. Would I pick her up again? Maybe, though she would also be the first I dropped again if I decided to entertain another muse

Have you had any other TOA muses? Not .... yet

Do you think you have a type of character you gravitate towards? Chaotic type muses or serious and eloquently spoken muses - the two halves of my personality!

What do you believe you enjoy writing the most? Angst, writing emotionally deep stuff that makes people scream at me because of the feels I stabbed them with.

Favorite TOA-related memory: When Seteth immediately got bullied after I picked him up XD Please bully him more

How do you pronounce TOA? Tales of the Abyss *cough* Tee-Oh-Ay

Got any delusions that didn’t see the light of day that you’d like to share? A few....! Yuri, Shigure... Veronica or Thrasir... Shareena... The Twins from Warriors.... Mikoto... Takumi... The Rainbow Sage lives in my head rent free, silly old grandpa dragon that he is... Sitri through a lot of convoluted means.... Silque....

#[ooc] #month: july 2023 #toa anniversary

[dhampiravidi]

notes on my portrayal of Hawkwoman, previously known as Hawkgirl

First off, here's summaries for the "canon" versions of her that I'm taking bits of inspiration from:

Shayera Hol (DCAU): she was an advance scout for the Thanagarians who ended up siding w/Earth. Eventually, she has a kid w/John Stewart, after breaking off her engagement to Thanagarian Hro Talak. She barely interacts w/Carter Hall, her reincarnated lover from Ancient Egypt. Thanagarians have natural wings and an enhanced physiology & look 30 when they're a century old. She's got red hair and green eyes.

Shayera Hol; née Thal (Prime Earth): she's the reincarnation of the angel Shrra, who was cursed by The Presence when she spoke to Ktar Deathbringer, a servant of an evil entity. In her modern life, she was a Thanagarian officer who came to Earth w/her partner Katar Hol. They joined the JSA as heroes. Later, she becomes the empress of Thanagar Prime. She & Katar sacrifice themselves. The Presence talks to them in their original identities & they ask to be reincarnated in the 40s w/the JSA. They survive to the 40th Century. She's got red hair as Shrra and Shayera, but Shrra has dark brown eyes while Shayera has green eyes.

Shiera Sanders (New Earth): 1st life was as Chay-Ara. She & Prince Khufu were killed by Hath-Set using a dagger made of Nth Metal. The dagger started their reincarnation cycle. In the 20th century, the couple became heroes using belts of Nth Metal. Radiation slowed their aging. Their son Hector Hall would become Dr. Fate. She's got brown hair and brown eyes.

Kendra Muñoz-Saunders (Earth-2): because of her reputation as a treasure hunter, the World Army hired her and gave her wings. She works with the new heroes the Flash (Jason Garrick) and Green Lantern (Alan Scott). She has enhanced senses and she's highly skilled w/both handguns and the crossbow. She's got brown hair and hazel eyes.

Shayera ? (DC New Talents Showcase): She's a Thanagarian cop who poses as a human, telling her Chicago colleagues that she's on loan from the GCPD.

Here's the parts I'm using:

In her current life, she's Shayera Thal/Muñoz.

Reincarnation's due to the combination of her previous life, Kesi, successfully praying to the goddess Aset--asking Aset to heal her beloved (Tanus) who had been fatally stabbed, by using Kesi's life to save him--and the blade's Nth Metal.

She has auburn hair and hazel eyes in her current form (she changes her appearance when she reincarnates).

Shayera has never gone by Hawkgirl as an adult, just Hawkwoman.

She's a Thanagarian cop who came to Earth to investigate a case, then decided to stay on the planet to study human police.

Her Nth metal mace (which has been used by pretty much every version of the character) has the following properties: generates electricity (for attacks or defibrillation), easily disturbs/blocks magic, generates heat, regulates the wearer's body temperature.

She prefers using her mace, but her subconscious retains weapon proficiency from her past lives, allowing her to use handguns and a crossbow with little fault.

She'll have an AU where she's the empress of Thanagar.

#admin #dcau rp #dc rp #dc indie rp #hawkgirl #hawkwoman #shayera: headcanon #biggest inspo is Maria Canals Barrera who voiced her in JLU #dc universe rp

[shapa-likes-art]

[ID: A digital drawing of Virgil. He has pale skin, dyed purple hair, and bright green eyes.

He is wearing a white button-up with garters that go across his chest and black ripped jeans that has two chains tied around his belt loops. He has two piercings; a helix and a lobe piercing with a red ribbon-like earring and He has a black choker around his neck.

He is sitting sideways with his hand holding his neck, his arm raised slightly. His head is tilted up just a bit, his eyes looking between his lashes to the viewer. He has an uncaring and listless look on his face.

The background is a dark teal with light strokes, like a late afternoon sky. There are white diagonal lines framing the drawing. /End ID ]

I had the urge to draw Virgil wearing garters. And so here it is.

Initially, It was mean to be a quick sketch and lineart but I had the urge to color and before I knew it, I was done fbdbd

(Click for better resolution)

Reblogs are appreciated!

Taglist: @roseianxiety @royals-and-monarchs @virgil-sanders-the-gay-emo @Why-is-everyone-pretty @angstysunshine @downton-not-downtown-smh @some-fander @treeni @jervis-tetch-my-beloved @gattonero17 @anxious-chaos-art

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #ts virgil #virgil sanders #sanders sides virgil #virgil sanders sides #art #ts art #digital art

[seandarling]

Possible New Tumblr RPG???

Shot in the dark here, but I recently got reinterested in D&D, RPGs, and the like, and since I've been stuck on one particular hyperfixation/special interest for a while... it may have spawned a bit of an interest for me.

Would anyone be interested in a new Tumblr managed by me, where I set out a sort of @ask-fantasy-sanders-sides style story? (And for the tag, if you're not comfortable with this, lmk and I won't, I'm not sure if you're the first to do this particular style of game before? But the style is massively inspiring and interesting and feels like it would work well with the story I'm planning.)

It won't be directly related to any fandom, except D&D, and since I don't really actively play canon D&D at all (I tend towards Homebrew RNG RPGs with family), it likely won't align perfectly with D&D lore or mechanics, but I have the DM Guide, Player's Handbook, and Monster Manual on hand, so hopefully it'll at least be recognizable.

And to clarify: it will be 18+. There will be explicit scenes, both in gore and some more mature themes; this may include, at times, themes of sex, kink/BDSM/fetish, drugs, violence, and more. The overarching plot is mostly planned out, but the internal plot points, adventures, and interactions can be suggestions, my own ideas, or mixes of the two. The characters are OCs that were originally based on actors and their characters, but have since defied their origin to the point of their only similarity coming in their personalities, if that, and a slight hint in their backstories.

In terms of a teaser for interest?

...

A secluded Wizard searching for answers to his sudden inability to remember things, cursed with everything around him seeming to go wrong in the perfect ways, and a tower of cursed, blessed, and unknown magicks, tomes, items, and creatures that may or may not play a part in his problems.

A Human with no class, beloved sweetheart of his village, little to no exposure to magic, races, or otherly knowledge, with only one life experience under his belt that could be called an adventure, but otherwise nothing of interest every having occurred, and nothing planned in the future, nor does he have any interest in adventures or quests in particular. Only, the universe seems to see this as a challenge as a single afternoon changes everything he could have thought possible.

An aspiring Bard that appears to be mostly human, if not for his lack of human knowledge, culture, social etiquette, and the occasional non-human event that only adds to his strangeness, as much as an open book as he may be. Despite his Bardic aspirations, he doesn't think himself very interesting... until he meets a terrible band of adventurers that may or may not have saved his life.

A raging Half-Elf of Drow ancestry, defying Barbaric Class and his home and family to prove himself... to himself. And even if he wanted to avoid the terrors that come with the little band of mischief, frustration, and endless headaches, they seem to have already become attached to him. Not that he really wanted to. They seemed to have made him become attached to them as well.

A world that seems, at the surface, simple, but upon closer inspection, contains signs and symbols that don't fit no matter what way you look at it. A point of view that has no reason to exist. Things feel just slightly off, as if the universe itself were... wrong. Just enough to add tension to adventurers' shoulders as they travel, an undercurrent in their added hush when they whisper in taverns, questions of knowledge and possibilities that never existed, but may have existed long ago, or possibly far, far in the future...

...

Let me know if anyone is interested. I've been working on it for like 2-3 days and I'm so invested atm.

#ttrpg #dnd stuff #dnd homebrew #tumblr rpg #ideas #ocs #oc story #original dnd rpg #honestly it came from a vague idea from a tiktok and devolved from there #if this makes anyone uncomfortable i dont care except rotalde creator #but i probably wont do it if theres no interest at all #if theres no interest i might just make it a comic instead #but the interactive part is so interesting and enticing #there is a possibility of polyamory kinks and more if it so happens #NC-18 #im not entirely sure how to tag this post but here it is

[iwrestlenow]

TITLE: Many More To Die (Chapter 14)

FANDOM: Sanders Sides (Necromancer AU)

SUMMARY: A gift from the past secures the future. Knowledge is our greatest defense.

Or, this time, Logan means it when he says he'll never let go.

SHIPS: Logince (Logan/Roman), Moceit (Patton/Janus) and Dukexiety (Remus/Virgil)

WARNINGS: graphic descriptions of violence and death related grossness (i.e., decomposition and fantasy derived nastiness)

There's an epilogue after this, so sorry it's kinda short--and I'm not kidding, guys, shippy bullshit to follow for the next 739 years.

NOTES: This is based on the gorgeous piece of art by @gretacticdraws that can be found here. I ended up writing a ficlet for it, and then my brain got swallowed up. Breathe at me wrong, and I’ll write more…hell, who am I kidding? I’ll write more anyway because this? Is self indulgent drivel. XD

Also located at AO3 over here.

1023, A.A.

Thomas felt a little bit like he was going insane.

Venturing through the deepest of the forgotten sewer tunnels beneath the palace, he shut his eyes and thought of Nico—his unruly curls, his too wide smile, his infectious laughter.

It wasn't his imagination—he heard it echo, somewhere worlds away, bright as the sun.

The grief knotted tight in his chest for an instant before it began to loosen again, bleeding comfort into the raw places in his heart.

They keep the Vigil. He reminded himself. Outlaw wouldn't lie to you.

Taking a deep breath, he quickened his pace.

Once he reached it—a break in the tunnel, where the unfinished pipe sharply cut off into stone and earth, Thomas knelt before the spot where he'd buried the parcel that Outlaw—Josiah Crofter—sent him.

A simple wooden box containing a vial of ashes and a single thread.

“You know what the Vigil is: our funeral rite, our means of keeping the dead alive in the worlds beyond. The Necromata got no souls, so memory's all we have. So we lay their body to rest, and the memories...trinkets, letters, clothing...we give to the funeral pyre. One that never ceases burning.”

Reaching into his belt, Thomas pulled out a dagger.

“When the fire dies, ashes are collected from the freshest embers and kept—and every year, they are added to a fresh pyre. Ashes are collected. The cycle repeats. The fire always burns...so long as the Necromata hold the flint and steel, the Vigil will continue.”

Gritting his teeth, Thomas lay the dagger against his palm, took a breath—and drew the blade against his skin with firm, even pressure.

“But the power of the Vigil is stronger than that. A secret, long kept by our people...that the Vigil don't just safeguard life after death.”

The skin yielded beneath the blade, weeping a garish line of crimson.

“It can safeguard life itself.”

Thomas bit his lip at the sting, but made a fist over the little mound of earth before him.

“The vial I gave you—the embers of your beloved's Vigil, a single thread from the handkerchief you gave me, stained with his blood. Buried 'neath your palace, you join us in the Vigil's keep...offer it blood and a blessing, and the Sacred Souls will let your beloved keep yours in turn.”

He watched his blood hit the dirt, little drops of red catching kernels of earth on their surface.

“The living remember the dead to keep them alive...so it goes when the dead remember the living.”

“For our sons, my love.” Thomas whispered. “For them, and them alone, keep my Vigil.”

The drops of blood sank into the earth so abruptly it startled him.

He heard his husband's laughter again—barely an echo, worlds away.

Even as his tears began to fall, Thomas felt himself smile.

********** 1033, A.A.

THOMAS.

It didn't feel like coming back to life—it felt like remembering.

The heartbeat that eluded his thoughts, the breath that danced on the edge of his consciousness, thoughts and reason and existence that lay just on the tip of his tongue.

A body to live, of course, how had he forgotten? Eyes to open...yes, certainly...

...well, that was a little bit harder. Something was wrong, terribly wrong...

That was when Thomas realized that his body hurt—everything hurt.

“...I may be mortal, but I am still a Weaver...with power over life and death.”

Somehow, over the sudden din, Thomas heard the choked sound of someone unable to breathe. It was a sound he vaguely recognized—a sound that chilled his blood, which already felt strange moving through his veins...chill, sluggish...

THOMAS.

...Nico?...

FOR OUR SON...KEEP THE VIGIL.

Thomas finally managed to open his eyes, head slowly rolling to the side.

The first thing he saw was the door of his bedchamber shattering. A hound swiftly followed, a massive creature with glowing blue eyes that made a beeline for one of the royal guard. Half paralyzed, half fascinated, he watched the animal's jaws close around the guard's throat and his head shake, tearing flesh...

Ichor, black and nauseating, spurted from the guard's throat instead of blood.

On the animal's heels came...yes, that was a heart healer, picking through the splintered wood with a look of horror on his face. A mage came to his side, a prison mage from the look of his robes.

He heard swords clashing—a gleeful cry of triumph. Oh, Remus, his beloved slice of chaos personified...

If Remus could bellow like that, however, he could breathe.

Thomas's eyes finally found the middle of the room—a chair, Roman's body slumped in unconsciousness.

THOMAS.

“I know.” Thomas croaked, struggling to sit up. Every one of his joints felt stiff and brittle, his throat sandpaper rasping one face to another.

Still, he got to his feet. Still, he stumbled over to where Roman sat, reaching out a too thin, too gnarled hand to pat his cheek.

“Ro...Ro...Ro—damn it. Roman!”

Roman stirred, his eyes slowly blinking open with a moan.

“...not...Ro...Roman...”

“What? I don't understand...”

Roman's head lolled to one side, his features paling. Thomas followed his gaze...

He knew the soldier—Colonel Mori, the man he'd barred from that young necromancer's presence once he'd realized what had been done to the poor child.

A poor child sprawled on his back—and Thomas couldn't be sure how, but he knew, he felt it in that place within his chest that tingled when Remus learned a new way to blow something up. He knew it in that place behind his brain that lit up when Roman was about to burst into his chambers with some new poem or story.

The part of him branded father strained towards whatever it was within Roman that was branded son, and Thomas knew it was in the wrong body.

“Rest.” he reassured the boy in Roman's body, patting his shoulder. “I'll be back in a moment.”

Straightening, his limbs grew looser as anger swelled in his chest...no, rage.

Rage for the young life that had been stolen. Rage for his son, who lay dying on the ground—rage for a man that he hated for what he'd done to someone Thomas respected and trusted.

Rage, even, for his broken bedchamber door, and the bodies falling all around the room. Rage filled him, revitalized him, resurrected him from the last dying embers of the grave.

Walking up behind an unsuspecting Mori, Thomas reached out and, without a single shred of regret, grabbed the man from behind to pull him close.

“I should have let the executioner do this ten years ago.” he spat in Mori's ear before he gripped his chin in one hand, secured the other at the right angle, and wrenched with a cry of fury that only died when he heard the satisfying snap of bone and sinew.

He swore, as Mori fell, that he could hear another voice alongside his—no longer worlds away, but so close he could nearly smell the bright citrus of his favorite cologne.

“I'm sorry, my love—but today is not our day.” Thomas couldn't stop himself from whispering. “Wait for me?”

Nico's laughter rang right in his ear, clear and true, before it receded back into the worlds beyond the reach of the living once again.

Roman.

Remembering in the absence of two men's anger, Thomas fell to his knees. The body before him was too still, the eyes glassy and distant.

“Roman...Roman, please!...”

“Your Majesty.”

Thomas turned sharply. At some point, the din had died and silence fell heavy over the room. A young cadet knelt beside him, blood and ichor staining his clothing and his cheek. His eyes were wide and haunted.

“No.” Thomas breathed as the cadet looked to the body on the floor and reached out to gently close its eyes. “No, no no no...”

Arms wrapped around Thomas from behind. Tears dampened his neck—blindly, shaking, Thomas reached behind him to run soothing fingers through Remus's hair.

“Logan, he—he has a Claim.” Remus stammered through deep sobs. “He—he can't be dead. Not when Logan can't...when he can't...”

Thomas didn't understand, but as he glanced towards the chair where Roman's body had been slumped, he watched Roman stand slowly, shuffling towards them, and kneel carefully on the other side of Roman's corpse.

“The Claim is bound to flesh, and it suspends when the soul leaves the body.” the necromancer in Roman's body replied—Logan, his eyes cold and hard and nothing at all like his dear, passionate son.

“He wasn't supposed to come for me.” he continued, running a hand over Roman's hair, his voice too flat, too lifeless. “I warned him...”

Logan trailed off, his eyes widening. Something dangerously like hope sparked in Thomas's chest.

Before he could even draw breath, Logan slammed a fist into the corpse's chest.

********** Knowledge.

“Logan, what the fuck?”

Knowledge is how.

Logan planted his palm in the middle of Roman's chest.

He covered his hand with his other, firmly meshed his fingers.

It is our best weapon...and our best defense.

Throwing all his weight behind it, Logan drove his hands into Roman's breastbone, establishing a steady rhythm.

“Logan, you gotta stop...”

“Virgil, move.”

Remus's voice, deafening silence. Logan kept his gaze focused on his hands in Roman's chest, tried to keep his vision clear so he could do it right.

The way Roman taught him, as his brother taught him.

“Stop.”

Remus's voice. Logan stopped.

Roman's chest barely lifted, then sank.

“Go.”

Logan resumed the compressions. A rhythm, a count...

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Stop. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Stop.

The vital breath—a means to raise the dead without magic.

The cycle continued. Logan gave up his soul with every thrust of the heel of his hand, let it fly into the ether, let it burn to nothing and filled himself instead with Remus's brisk instruction, with the drumbeat of the pulse he desperately tried to tattoo into Roman's chest--

“Logan, stop!”

Logan stopped. Someone was coughing, spasming, rolling to the side...

With an animalistic wail of agony, Logan flung himself around Roman, and followed his soul out of his body.

********** When Roman came to, he was hacking, his lungs burning, his whole body feeling...

...he lost the feeling as dizziness overcame him, and he was suddenly holding Logan instead of being held, the smaller man wracked with wheezing, desperate gasps for air. Everything still felt chaotic, off-kilter...

Chaos. The Animator.

This time, when Roman gathered him close, Logan didn't rear back. He burrowed hard into Roman's chest, shaking like a leaf, and clung so hard to Roman's shoulders he was certain there would be half moons left behind of Logan's nails on skin. Holding him tight, Roman surveyed the rest of his father's bedchamber.

There were bodies everywhere, many of them untouched. There was some blood, but most of the black stuff that filled the air with the smell of rotting death had been spilled from bodies under the Animator's control that were so long dead that their blood had turned to sludge—and now that they were inanimate again, in varying stage of decomposition as they lay, mutilated.

The only people left standing were the victors.

Emile and Remy, wrapped around each other, Emile strangely calm while Remy's solid black eyes took it all in with an equally strange, haunted expression.

Virgil and Remus, side by side, kneeling there before him. Virgil was visibly swaying, but Remus looked perfectly serene—blood and ichor dotting his face, smearing his hands, a rock in the middle of the rapids.

Janus, standing in the middle of the room, equally stained by battle and yet no less resplendent for it. By his side, still in animal form was Patton, calmly licking the blood off one massive paw. Janus had his fingers barely stroking Patton's head, and the side of his face layered with scales was spattered heavily with that same combination of red blood and black rot.

As Janus met his gaze and smiled, Roman felt certain in that moment that Janus had surrendered to Patton the human portion of his dual drake's soul.

Then there was his father, just at his elbow—somehow beautifully, miraculously, alive and watching him with a watery smile. He still looked...well, terrible, features still too thin and leathery, his pallor still that of a corpse dessicated by magic, but his eyes were open and sparkling with real, vibrant life.

“Hold on,” Roman breathed as he smiled back at his father and pulled Logan impossibly closer, “don't let go.”

Logan laughed, then hiccuped, pressing his face to Roman's neck. For the first time in ten years, Roman felt himself draw a true breath: free, clear, and clean as Logan clung to him tight and meant the words as he said them.

“I never have. I never will.”

#necromancer au #sanders sides #fanfic #roman sanders #virgil sanders #remus sanders #janus sanders #thomas sanders #patton sanders #logan sanders #logince #dukexiety #moceit #my name is liz and i swear to god i will fic again #this is all the artist's fault i'm just the hapless writer that stumbled across it

[a-vintage-snake]

Drift Away

Pairing(s): Romantic Royality

First chapter - Previous chapter - Next chapter

Warnings: Gaslighting, Remus centric stuff Characters: Roman Sanders, Patton Sanders, Character Thomas

Summary: Roman comes back to an unexpected surprise, but can it distract him from his missing brother?

Word Count: 5023

People who were asked to be tagged: @avocados26, @fandoms-will-collide @nottoonormalme, @bihighandgivinghighfives

If you want to be removed or added to the taglist, just ask!

Read on AO3 The second the castle came into view, Roman spurred his horse on into a fast gallop. He ignored the yelled protests from the general behind him. Within record time he arrived in the castle’s courtyard, where he jumped off his horse and sprinted inside. Navigating through the halls he kept running even when he bumped over several of the castle’s staff, causing them to drop whatever they had in their hands. Usually he would immediately assist them up, but now Roman only yelled “Sorry!!” over his shoulder and kept running. He had to get to his parents, and fast.

He could almost weep in relief when he rounded a corridor and saw his father walking towards the parlour.

“FATHER!!” He yelled. King Augusto turned, confused, but smiled when he saw his son.

“Roman! You’re back early. How did the monster slaying go?”

“Fine, fine!” Roman reached his father and leaned on his knees to catch his breath. “But there’s- something- something I need- need to-!”

“That’s great to hear.” His father interrupted. “You must tell all your stories at dinner later.”

“I need to talk to you!” Roman wheezed, trying to get his breath under control.

“It’s a good thing you’re back so soon, actually,” His father took him by the shoulder and started walking them both to the parlour doors. “It would be preferable if you freshened up first of course, but I’ll let it slide this time.”

“Please father, it’s important!!”

“Yes, yes, you can tell me everything later, but now there’s a surprise waiting for you.”

“A surprise?” Roman asked puzzled as his father pushed him through the door of the parlour. “What do you mean a-?”

Arms threw themselves around Roman’s neck before he could finish his sentence. Roman let out a startled shout. Dizzily he registered soft blond curls, a face snuggled in his neck, which was only slightly uncomfortable because of glasses on the person’s nose, and the scent of warm cookies that clung to their hair-

“Patton?!” Roman squawked out.

The person pulled back a little, proving Roman’s deduction correct as a radiant smile beamed up at him from a round freckled face, baby blue eyes shining from behind circular glasses.

“Hiya sweetie! Surprise!” Patton chirped.

Roman gaped at the chubby man for a few seconds, before he laughed and lifted the other into his arms.

“Love of mine!” Roman twirled Patton around, earning those sweet little giggles he loved so much. “My soft little puffball, my beloved fiancé that owns my whole heart! How are you here?? I thought you were at university!”

“How can I stay away from the most handsome prince in the world?” Patton peppered his face with small kisses. “I just-” Kiss. “Had-” Kiss. “To see you!” Kiss.

“Patton, you’re smothering the poor man.” An amused voice said. Roman halted in his twirls to see his mother and Patton’s father king Thomas drinking tea together near the window. “Let him catch his breath, son!” Their neighbouring monarch laughed. Patton blushed and mumbled a ‘sorry’, but Patton’s smile and one final kiss pressed to Roman’s nose proved that the shorter man was maybe not so sorry.

To this day Roman was elated that his parents hadn’t disapproved of his choice of love, as they had done with his previous paramours in the past. In fact, when Roman had fumbled through a confession of his feelings to his parents, they had encouraged him to court Patton. Which he had done with… Varying degrees of success.

Okay, this was it. Roman had it all planned out. It was a beautiful summer night, the moon was full, he had decorated the garden with candles, and he had composed the most wonderful ballad on his lute highlighting everything he adored about Patton.

Roman couldn’t help but letting out a soft love-struck sigh when he thought about the sweet crown prince from their neighbouring kingdom. How had it taken him years of just being friends with him before Roman realized just how lovely and pretty Patton was? From his sweet laugh, his gentle demeanour, to those dumb jokes that would be infuriating from anyone else but coming from Patton were just adorable. And his freckles, oh goodness… Roman had an entire verse in his song just dedicated to those freckles.

Now if he only found the courage to throw the pebble in his hand to his love’s window, so he could serenade him in the full moonlight. Roman swallowed nervously as he turned over the little stone in his hand, staring up at the balcony of the guest suite where his love resided. What if Patton didn’t like him back? What if he just ruined his friendship with him like this? What if-

“No! Be brave!” Roman whispered to himself. And before he could change his mind, he threw the pebble up against the window.

Roman waited with bated breath. Just when he considered throwing another one, he saw movement. The balcony door swung open. Roman’s breath hitched, but he quickly took the flower he brought out from his breast pocket (A blue dahlia, Patton’s favourite).

“There you are, my love!” He sung out, thrusting the hand with the flower upwards to the balcony, his other hand resting fanned open on his heart and giving his most dazzling, princely smile.

A smile directed at someone who was decidedly not Patton. Instead, king Thomas was staring down at him with quite possibly the most perplexed look seen on this side of the kingdom.

“Uuuuh…” Roman said, eloquently. Quickly he straightened up, bringing the flower to his chest like it could shield him from the blush he felt rising in his neck.

“This isn’t what it looks like! Well, actually it is, but this wasn’t meant for you-” Roman started babbling. “Not that you’re not a handsome man, sir! That sounded weird- I mean, you are, but you’re not exactly my age- I MEAN I DON’T MEAN TO IMPLY THAT YOU’RE OLD, BUT- Oh my god stop talking Roman…”

King Thomas took in the scene before him, the candles, the lute at Roman’s feet, the stammering prince, and a grin broke out on his face.

“Ah… I’m afraid you have the wrong window.” The king sounded far too amused for Roman’s liking. “My son is one balcony over.”

Roman’s face felt like it was burning as he turned his attention to the balcony the king pointed at.

“Of course! Haha, sorry, it’s dark- How silly of me! I’m such a simpleton sometimes, wouldn’t be able find my sword if it weren’t always next to me! Not like I sleep with my sword in bed or anything, it’s just always by the bedside table! See, I could your protect your son even when we’re married! NOT THAT I EXPECT HIM TO MARRY ME!!” Roman laughed in the strangled way of a man who was caught with his hand stuck in a cookie jar. “That is obviously his choice, but I would like it if he did- If he doesn’t that’s fine too, obviously, I would never want to impose-!”

“What’s all that noise?” A sleepy voice asked. Roman immediately (and thankfully) swallowed whatever dribble had wanted to come out of his mouth. During his little tirade the right balcony door had opened, and he was graced with the view of his love’s messy bedhead and soft blue pyjamas. Patton squinted down, confused. But when he pressed his glasses on his nose and saw just what lay before him, his eyes widened and his mouth opened in a gentle “Oh.”

“M-My dear heart,” Roman started, and he was rewarded with Patton giving a soft squeak. “I am here before you, humbled by your beauty and with the hope that you’ll listen to this ballad I have written… for you.”

“For… Me?!” Patton yelped. He buried his face into his hands. Roman’s heart soared.

“Always for you!” He belted out. He pushed the flower behind his ear and grabbed his lute off the ground. He opened his mouth to start, but stopped when he remembered his other audience member. He glanced at king Thomas, who was still looking like he was struggling not to laugh.

“Oh right, of course, I’ll just go,” King Thomas grinned at the two love-struck boys and moved back into his room. “You two have fun!” And with that he closed his balcony door.

Breathing out a sigh of relief, Roman turned back to Patton, who was peeking at him through his fingers. Roman beamed, and played the first chords.

Gently Roman set Patton back on his feet.

“So sorry dear heart,” Roman said with a shy smile. “I’m probably a bit smelly.”

“Little bit,” Patton admitted with a small grin. “But I won’t give you the stink-eye for it!”

Both of them chuckled, and Roman pressed his forehead against Patton’s, who took that opportunity to nuzzle their noses together. Roman sighed happily.

“Well, our plan appears to be successful!” His mother laughed.

“Plan?” Roman tore his eyes reluctantly away from Patton. “What plan?”

“To cheer you up.” King Thomas smiled kindly. “Your parents wrote us saying you were a bit down in the dumps lately, and they thought a surprise visit might just be the thing to get you back on your feet!”

“It would help get your mind off things!” His father added cheerfully.

Instantly Roman’s good mood plummeted.

“My mind off things…?” Roman said incredulously. “My mind off things?? A bit down in the dumps? Are you two-? Are you actually serious right now??”

“Roman?” Patton asked, a soft tinge of confusion and worry in his voice. Roman pulled himself away from Patton’s embrace. The smiles of his parents vanished.

“Sweetie, what’s the matter?” His mother asked. “Aren’t you glad our guests are here? They journeyed a long time specially to see you!”

“This is how you handle this?” Roman bit out, his voice shaking. His chest felt tight. “Hoping you’ll pacify me with shiny distractions??” He pointedly ignored how his parents were giving him warning glares and how their eyes darted between him, King Thomas and Patton, both of which were looking more and more confused by the second. Just like he pointedly ignored the scared little voice in his head that told him to stop right now what the hell was he doing??

“Roman, please!” His mother chided him. “You’re upsetting our guests!”

“Oh right, my brother goes missing, but the worst part is that I put a damper on the mood!” Roman laughed bitterly.

“Missing?” King Thomas frowned. “What happened?”

His mother smiled reassuringly to the other king, and she laughed a bit.

“Nothing, old friend! Remus is just on another one of his travels-”

“No, he’s not!” Roman interrupted. “Remus went to the Desolate Mountains!”

“The mountains? Are you sure?” King Thomas rose from his seat. Patton let out a shocked gasp.

“Yes I’m sure!”

“Now now, son,” His father laughed a bit strained as he grasped Roman’s shoulder tightly. “Didn’t we already discuss this? Of course Remus hasn’t gone to the mountains, we warned you both-”

“BUT HE STILL WENT!!” Roman exploded. He ripped his shoulder from his father’s grip. “REMUS WENT TO THE DESOLATE MOUNTAINS, AND YOU WANT TO KNOW HOW I KNOW THAT?? BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVE SEEN HIM GO!! MY BROTHER HAS BEEN IN DANGER FOR TWO MONTHS, AND WE HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T LISTEN TO ME!! YOU DON’T EVEN SEEM TO CARE!!”

You could hear a pin drop in the silence that fell. Everyone went stock still, including Roman. He breathed heavily, his heart beating painfully fast. Ice seized his veins as Roman realized what he had just done. He had just yelled at his parents. In front of guests no less. A whirlpool of fear opened in his chest and drowned out every bit of anger still burning in his veins. Dizzily he fell down on one of the couches and propped his head in his hands.

“I’m sorry…” He brokenly whispered. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

He didn’t see how his mother got up from her chair. He didn’t see how she and his father had a silent conversation over his head, but he did notice when the couch dipped at both of his sides when they sat down. Roman tensed, preparing for the worst when-

“Roman,” His mother asked in a trembling voice. “Are you certain that he…?”

Roman didn’t look up, instead kept his eyes firmly on his knees. But he nodded.

“The town where I was, they… They saw Remus go into the mountains.” He muttered. His mother gasped, covering her mouth in shock.

“Oh by the gods…” She whispered. “Augusto, our son, he-! We sent the knights the wrong way!”

Roman frowned in confusion. “Knights…?”

“We would never let our son endanger himself, Roman. So we sent knights to look for him.” His father said as he placed a hand that was meant to be comforting on Roman’s knee, but it did nothing than make Roman more nervous. “We sent them out to the sea, because that is where Remus… Where he always goes… He loves the sea, so we thought-” His father’s voice stammered. “Obviously we thought wrong.”

Roman said nothing. His mind whirled as he digested the new information. A part of him desperately wanted to shout, yell or scream again just to let the hurricane of emotions out. But that would be bad behaviour for a prince, so instead he focused on his breathing and the hand on his knee. Dully he inspected the large hand, marked with spots of age and wrinkles. His father always wore a small golden ring, a family heirloom shaped like a snake biting its own tail. Two tiny emeralds served as the snake’s eyes, and shone up to him indifferently. Roman had felt the sting of that ring on his cheek often enough that he forced himself to breath in deeply before he dared to open his mouth again.

“Why didn’t you tell me…?” He finally asked.

“You already have so much on your mind, Roman. We didn’t want you to worry over this as well.” His father shook his head. “That was our mistake. We’re so sorry, son...”

“Oh my goodness my son! My poor boy, my sweet Remus!” His mother suddenly wailed loudly. “How could we have let this happen?!” With another cry of anguish queen Nadia buried her face into her hands. The most heart wrenching sobs tore themself from her chest. Roman startled up in shock.

“Mom? Oh gosh mom I’m so sorry, please don’t- I’m sorry.” Hesitantly he embraced his mother, unsure if his comfort would be appreciated. His mother however immediately pulled him in a crushing hug.

“Please sweetheart, believe us… If we had known that Remus had thrown years of warnings into the wind, we would have marched our army straight after him.” His mother said wobbly as she gently rubbed Roman’s back.

“Of course, of course…” Roman mumbled. “It’s not your fault, mom. I’m sorry for yelling…”

“We’ll search for him, Roman.” His father said, as he squeezed Roman’s knee reassuringly. “We’ll bring him home.”

“And I will help!” King Thomas said. Roman sat up alarmed. He had nearly forgotten king Thomas and Patton were in the room as well. Their neighbouring king looked sympathetically at the grieving family.

“I will assist you in every way to look for your son. I can have my best knights assist you in the mountains! With our strengths combined and enough man force I’m sure we can defeat the warlock-”

“That’s not necessary.” King Augusto said quickly. Both Roman and king Thomas frowned in confusion.

“What I mean is,” King Augusto clarified. “We simply cannot accept your generous offer, old friend. That would leave your kingdom without it’s best defence.”

“Are you certain?” King Thomas asked uncertainly. “It would be no trouble at all, really!”

“Please Thomas,” King Augusto rose and grasped the other king’s shoulder. “You are a good man, but this is about our son. He is our responsibility, and this is our mistake to fix. We won’t ever ask of you to amend our problems.”

The other still looked hesitant, but he nodded. “I understand.” King Thomas said. Roman bit his lip. He wished they would take the offer, but his father was right. That would be unfair to ask. Roman stood up.

“Then I will join the party to look for Remus!” He said.

“NO!” Both his parents yelled in unison, spooking the other three men in the room.

“I can help!” Roman tried.

“We forbid you!” King Augusto said.

“But-!”

“Roman, please,” His mother’s voice was strained. “One of our sons is already lost in the mountains. My heart would not be able to bear the sorrow if you would… Would disappear as well…”

“She’s right, Roman.” King Thomas said gently. “Trust in them; they will solve this.”

“You are too kind, Thomas,” His mother said with a shaky smile. “Your support means so much to us, especially in such-” She swallowed thickly. “Such horrible times…” With that his mother buried her face into her hands and once more started weeping grievously.  

Both of the kings sat with the queen to console her, and Roman was left standing feeling like the biggest jerk ever. Guiltily he watched how his mother cried and how his father tried his best to comfort her. How could he ever say that they didn’t care? What kind of horrible son was he?

Turning his head, he caught Patton’s gaze and guilt barrelled even down more on him when he saw that Patton was teary eyed as well. He knew he needed to step up, comfort his love, but the storm in his head made it impossible to do anything. Wow, he was a horrible fiancé too huh?

“Sorry, I need to go.” Roman mumbled before he rushed out of the parlour.

“Roman, wait-!” He heard Patton say before the door closed behind him. He didn’t stop and turn back. He had to get away.

--

There were a couple places Roman truly felt like he could calm down. The palace gardens were one of those places. With his head storming as it was, he had made a dash for his favourite bench underneath a big oak. He sat down; worrying his red sash over and over in his hands while his mind kept racing.

They were going to search for him. They would find his brother. Remus would be okay.

Maybe if he repeated that mantra in his head, his urge to disobey his parents and go look for Remus himself would die away.

Gentle footsteps approached him. Roman was so lost in his own anxiety he didn’t notice them until the owner’s shoes came into view.

“Hello there brave knight,” Patton’s voice was gentle, like he was trying not to spook a frightened animal. “Can this damsel join you?”

“You and I both know I would be the damsel, sweetheart.” Roman answered with half a smile. Patton ducked his head with a giggle, and sat down next to Roman. Tenderly he entwined their hands between them and laid his head on Roman’s shoulder. Roman pressed a kiss on his love’s head, inhaling the scent of Patton’s hair before he leaned his cheek against the soft locks.

One of the great things about Patton was that he always seemed to know exactly when Roman needed to talk about what he was feeling, and when he needed some more time to think. So time passed in silence, only occasionally broken by Patton as he would bring up their tangled hands to press a kiss on Roman’s knuckles.

“So,” Patton said after quite a few minutes. “Your brother is missing.”

“Yes…” Roman felt the dread of the past weeks curling in his stomach.

“Do you know why he would go to the Desolate Mountains?”

“He-” Roman took a deep breath. “He wanted to kill the warlock.”

“…Why?”

“I don’t know!” Roman stood up, pacing before the bench in the hope of loosening the tight knot in his chest. “Why does Remus do anything? I just don’t know!” He ran a hand through his hair in exasperation. “He’s done crazy things in the past, but never something like this!”

“Hey hey hey…” Patton grabbed his hands, stopping him in his tracks. “Take a breather, honey.”

“How can you tell me to take a breather right now?!” Roman yelled.

“Easy! With my mouth, kiddo!” Patton smiled.

Despite himself Roman snorted. It was a lame joke, even by Patton standards, but it eased the tension in his shoulders immediately. Under Patton’s loving gaze, he took a deep breath through his nose and focused his attention on their hands. Roman smiled at the contrast of his long brown fingers entwined with Patton’s pale freckled ones.

“I’m sorry Patton…” Roman said quietly. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you.”

“That’s quite alright, I understand,” Patton rubbed his thumbs over Roman’s knuckles. “This is a scary situation for you and your family! It’s no wonder you’re under a lot of stress!”

“Oh Pat…” Roman marvelled. “What did I do to deserve you?”

“By just being your wonderful self, you brave and beautiful sweetie-pie!” Patton gushed. Now it was Roman’s turn to blush and chuckle.

“Oh, you… You need to chill!” Roman laughed.

“Why? Because I’m such a…” Patton wiggled his eyebrows. “Cool guy?”

Roman let out a good-natured groan.

“Wow, there was snow way I saw that one coming!”

“Really? I thaw it coming from a mile away!” “Well, I’ll be going now.” Roman released Patton’s hands and dramatically sauntered away a bit. “It was ice knowing you.”

“Oh, don’t act so cold!”

They only needed to make a second of eye contact before both of them burst out laughing. With every giggle leaving his mouth, Roman felt the tight knot in his chest unwind bit by bit. He felt lighter than he had in weeks!

…Now he felt even more of a jerk that he yelled at his parents for inviting Patton over. They had just wanted to cheer him up, even if it had been a bit misguided.

Pushing that thought away for now, Roman sat back down next to Patton. Their mirth slowly died down, but there were still smiles on their faces.

“Feeling a bit better, honey?” Patton asked.

“Quite a bit, yes…” Roman couldn’t help but press a kiss on that freckled nose. “I’m just so glad you’re here.”

“Anytime!” Patton grinned. “Maybe you would like it if I come over more often?”

“What? But what about your studies?” Roman asked, a little shocked. Patton shrugged.

“I have the very lucky privilege that I can go back to university any time I want. And you’re going through a tough time right now! I want to be there for my lovely husband to be!”

“Aaaw, Pat…” Roman melted a little bit. “I couldn’t ask that of you!”

“Well, you’re in luck that I’m offering then!” Patton threw his arms around Roman’s waist and snuggled in. Roman happily answered his affection with another kiss to his blond curls.

“You’re my literal beam of sunshine, my love.” Roman muttered adoringly.

“Oh?” Patton asked mischievously. “Is it because I…”

“Oh no.”

“Light up your life?”

“That’s it, the wedding is cancelled.”

Another bout of laughter later the two lovers sat in comfortable silence, enjoying the setting sun and the disarray of colours that painted the sky. For a few minutes, everything was perfect. The cooling air, the few stars that dotted the quickly darkening sky, the beautiful man in his arms…

“I hope Remus is okay…” Patton murmured beside him, and with that the reality came crashing down once more.

“And here I thought you disliked him.” Roman half joked. Patton sputtered a bit.

“Well, dislike is a strong word-! Don’t look at me like that!” Patton pushed a hand against Roman’s sceptical face. “But you know what, even if I do, no one deserves something like this to happen to them! And besides, he’s your brother… Of course I want him to be okay.”

“Wow,” Roman was slightly impressed. “Even after what he did at our engagement party?”

Patton groaned and buried his face in Roman’s chest. “Don’t remind me…”

The whole room exploded into applause when Roman made the happy announcement that he was now an engaged man. Everyone wanted to congratulate the happy couple, but Roman and Patton barely had eyes for anyone else. Roman kissed his love’s hand and never wanted to kiss another one again.

The dining room was filled with wished of good health and cheer, all the court’s nobility toasting for a happy marriage. His parents were smiling proudly, and king Thomas discretely wiped a tear away. However there was one who didn’t seem happy.

Remus sat in his usual spot across Roman. That in itself already was quite unusual, since their parents had banned Remus from attending formal dinners with the court after he had asked the count if he was aware that he had birthed a literal pile of shit instead of a son. Roman however had wanted his brother to be there when the happy announcement was made. So Remus was dining with them, and he was… Glaring. Yeah, there was no other word for it. Remus was glaring, not at him, but at Patton for some reason. He saw Patton getting more and more uncomfortable with every passing minute, and still Remus didn’t stifle his glower.

Just as he was about to ask if Remus could just knock it off, his brother rose from his chair and smashed his wine glass into little pieces on the table. Shocked gasps and screams echoed across the table as bits of glass flew and landed on plates filled with food. Remus didn’t seem bothered as he leaned forward over the table, with a wide manic grin directed at Patton.

“Dare to make my brother unhappy,” Remus jeered. “And I’ll chop both of your legs off, slather them with honey and feed them to a local ant farm!”

Appalled everyone stared stock still at the younger prince. Patton looked on the verge of tears. Outraged Roman stood up.

“WHAT IS YOUR DEAL?!” He yelled. His brother looked taken aback.

“What is my deal?” Remus asked. “Uuuh, bitch, what is your deal? He has to know, hasn’t he? No one is allowed to hurt my bro-bro, or I’ll-!”

Their father grabbing him by the neck and forcefully dragging him out of the room cut Remus off. Remus made a choked sound of half-hearted protest, but Roman didn’t care. He sat down and whispered comforting words to his fiancé.

“Look, I know it was just his way of supporting me, but it was WAY out of line and-” Roman tapered off.

“…And?”

“…And I think that is the last time me and Remus actually talked.” Roman made a small hum of surprise. “Has it… Has it really been two years since we got engaged?”

Two whole years of not talking to his own brother. Two years were he was dismissive of every little thing Remus did, ignored him and made fun of him behind his back. And now his brother was missing, and he couldn’t be more terrified.

“…Did I overreact? That day at the dinner?” Roman asked.

“Absolutely not!” Patton immediately said. “What he did was horrible, and completely out of line, like you said! You have every right to be angry!”

“Right, right…” “But I think a more important question is… Did you two ever make up?”

That shut him up. Roman quietly played with his sash again, before he shook his head.

“No… No we didn’t. We used to be so close! And now I might never get another chance to tell him he was stupid knucklehead for doing that.”

And didn’t that scare him to death?

Patton intertwined their fingers again and gave them a gentle squeeze of support. Roman squeezed back and smiled lightly, before he sighed.

“It’s just… I thought I knew him, Pat… But lately I’m not so sure anymore.”

“He’ll be okay, Roman.” “How do you know that?”

“I can feel it! In my belly! And if the belly says it, it must be true!” Patton joked. Roman snorted.

“Not sure if that’s how it works, love.”

“You must trust the belly Roman…” Patton said seriously as he drummed out a little tune on his stomach. “Trust iiiiit.”

Roman laughed again, the weight on his shoulders lifting a bit. Gently he caressed his love’s chubby stomach.

“Alright, I’ll trust the belly.”

“Good. You better BELLI-eve it!” Patton nodded, satisfied. Roman looked up at the sky, as if to implore a merciful god to strike him down. The grin on his face ruined the effect though.

“That was awful.” He said, lovingly.

“Hush I’m hilarious. SO, on to a lighter subject! I’m here for two weeks! What would you like to do tomorrow? You can pick! Anything you wish!”

Roman thought for a moment. What could they do together? He would have no lessons or hangouts with his friends when Patton was a guest, so they had all the time in the world. His parents always said that he needed to woo his fiancé, make sure to do things he wanted to do. But he wasn’t sure if he could properly focus on giving his love all the attention he deserved. So what to do…

Suddenly an idea came to him. He turned to Patton, smile on his lips.

“Have I ever shown you the library, dear heart?”

--

From a window above the garden, the queen watched as her son talked to his fair-haired fiancé. Her tears had long since dried up. Her fingers tapped out a soft rhythm on the windowsill she rested her hands on.

“So,” Her husband moved next to her, gazing down at the pair as well. “Remus truly went to the Desolate Mountains.”

“It appears so.” The queen answered him.

“Should we be worried about this…?” The king asked hesitantly. The queen rolled her eyes with a short laugh.

“Please. That boy could drive a monk to first-degree murder. What makes you think the warlock spared his life?”

#sanders sides #sanders sides fic #royality #romantic royality #roman sanders #patton sanders #remus sanders #tw: gaslighting

[rosesisupposes]

Fall to Rise

Part 11 of Another Goddamn Hero Story

read on ao3

Chapter Relationships: Romantic LAMP; Familial LAMPT; Background OC pairings;

Chapter Warnings: Memories of trauma; questioning memories/reality; mentions of past death/murder; cadaver mention; Human experimentation; nonconsensual experimentation; cryogenic freezing; mention of blood loss

Word Count: over 7,600 i’m so sorry

Taglist: @residentanchor @royally-anxious@bewarethegrammarpolice   @jemthebookworm@arandompasserby  @sparkly-rainbow-salt @astral-eclipse@thelowlysatsuma @monsterinatophat @turtally-pawsome @um-yes-hi-hello @idkaurl @potestessemagishomosexualitatis@hawthornshadow

a/n: yeah, it's been a minute. i started law school, things got hectic. here’s a Lot of Things

D.R.E.A.M. Index #337501 [UPDATED] Classification: M.1.iv [Primary Tier Neutral, Unknown] Name: Agent Whisper Status: INACTIVE /////////Reason: Reformation-In-Progress, Enrolled Civilian Name: [CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET] Thomas Sanders Affiliation: Neutral Partners/Sidekicks: DI#A-4894 - Team Left Brain; DI#A-4895 - Team Right Brain; /////////The two teams volunteered to oversee his reformation Primary Foes: None Powers: Pathokinesis - Broad Spectrum; Illusions - Broad Spectrum; Self-Healing/Rejuvenation - Broad Spectrum; /////////[CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET] There have been multiple edits to this entry, and I’ve no idea why, and I can’t see the history. Can you check this? - Joan Costume: Black t-shirt with a skull that can change between white and floral, jeans. Age: 19 Height: 5’10” Pronouns: He/Him H.E.A.R.T.S. Class: Enrolled Note: Brother of DI#337437 - Gale Force; Presumed killed in IR15-Z-0632, apparently self-healed; Unclear if powers were created by [REDACTED], or if they were always present and [REDACTED]. /////////[CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET] Talyn, what’s going on? Why can’t I un-redact these phrases? /////////[CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET] I have no idea - these details weren’t added by me. It makes no sense. The note was added, and then edited and redacted. But from the code it looks like both changes were from… Logan?

~~~~~~

D.R.E.A.M. Index #337413 [UPDATED] Classification: Class A.2.iii [Secondary Tier Hero, anomaly] Name: Crimson Marauder Status: ACTIVE Civilian Name: [TOP SECRET] Roman Fitzroy Affiliation: Hero ///////// H.A.T.C.H. Status: On Call Partners/Sidekicks: member of DI#A-4895 - Team Right Brain; Works with DI#A-4894 - Team Left Brain; Primary Foes: N/A Powers: Psionic Construction; /////////Able to manipulate color of constructions along the red spectrum, unless it is a previously-created object being stored in a psionic pocket dimension; Constructs that have persisted need less energy to maintain; complete lack of consciousness can deconstruct Costume: Black Suit with Red Blocks, Gold Belt, Black and Red Cape with Gold accents; Black and gold mask Age: 25 Height: 5’ 11” Pronouns: He/Him H.E.A.R.T.S. Class N/A Note: Formerly known as Scarlet Prince, see DI#337321; Origin and family unknown

~~~~~~

D.R.E.A.M. Index #337437 [UPDATED] Classification: A.1.iv [Primary Tier Hero, unknown] Name: Gale Force Status: ACTIVE ///////// H.A.T.C.H. Status: Blackout Only Civilian Name: [CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET] Patton Sanders Affiliation: Hero Partners/Sidekicks: member of DI#A-4895 - Team Right Brain; Works with DI#A-4894 - Team Left Brain; Primary Foes: N/A Powers: Air Manipulation - Broad Spectrum; Costume: Grey calf-length tunic, slits up to waist with loose sleeves over loose white trousers; light blue belt; matching blue symbol of a hurricane across chest. Does not wear a mask. Age: 21 Height: 5’10” Pronouns: He/Him H.E.A.R.T.S. Class: Enrolled Note: Highly volatile, responsible for deaths of DI#265351 - Commander Eagle and DI#337236 - Silver Sparrow, see IR15-Z-0632; First appearance at Harmony City Foster Care; Origin and family unknown. ///////// Changed affiliation after unmasking of DI#337501 - Agent Whisper revealed to be his brother. Still unclear if he is an anomaly or if the Sanders bloodline is super, particularly because of DI#337501’s involvement in [REDACTED]. /////////[CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET] Talyn, it’s happened again here! Has Logan been messing in our files? /////////[CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET] Joan, this is really troubling - some of the edits have been made while I know Logan has been in the field. DREAM may have been hacked. I’m going to have to suspend all access until further notice.

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

“Pat, are you sure about this?”

“Don’t worry. I’ll catch you.”

“This just feels like the superhero equivalent of a whoopie cushion. Or ‘down low, too slow.’”

Patton hugged his brother around the shoulders. “I mean it, Tommy Salami! You won’t be hurt.”

“It’s a long way down, though,” Thomas said, eyeing the edge of the roof nervously.

“Never fear! Your knight is here!” Roman announced, landing gently by the brothers with a smile. He bowed gallantly to the teen. “Sir Roman Fitzroy, on official Safety Net duty!”

Thomas smiled shyly. “You’re sure?”

“Of course, my Very Special Agent! Even if you can’t fly naturally, you’ll feel just like a bird,” Roman said, gesturing off the roof with a flourish. Floating in mid-air was a giant red cushion, soft, plush, and downy.

Other students at HEARTS were mingling around in various levels of trepidation and excitement. Some were confirmed flyers, ready to practice more and to build up their reaction time. Some were like Thomas, testing for latent abilities in a controlled environment. And some knew they couldn’t fly, but were here for the experience anyway.

“Ready?” the teacher called. A ten-year-old wearing what looked suspiciously like a beloved blankie tied around their neck like a cape clapped their hands and nodded. “Here we go!”

The teacher scooped the little one up and tossed them onto the trampoline, launching them into the air in a burst of surprised giggles. Their cape fluttered behind them as they bounced, eyes squeezed tightly shut. When they finally opened them, it was to realize they were floating about fifteen feet above the heads of their classmates.

“I doned it!”

“Yes indeed! You did it!” one of the older students said as their classmates clapped and cheered. The elder girl floated up serenely to their level. “Can you get down yourself?”

The child frowned and focused on their feet. Slowly, they lowered down to the ground once more, sparking another round of applause as the next student stepped up to try.

Finally, it was Thomas’ turn. There were rounds of encouragement from the crowd, though more subdued than they had been for the others. But the youngest students didn’t flinch or waver, just cheered as Thomas offered his hand to the teacher. Patton floated just by the edge of the roof, Roman at his side, ready with the enormous cushion to catch him should he go awry.

Virgil glided up beside the two just as Thomas was tossed onto the trampoline. He bounced high into the air, making a strangled yell that grew louder as he immediately started to plummet. But in a breath, air wrapped around him and he was gently deposited on his feet by Patton’s side.

He smiled shakily at his brother. “I guess you got the ginger and the flying genes, Pat.”

“You okay now?”

“Yeah, I’m good,” Thomas said. He looked over at the other students. The ten-year-old who’d gone first was going for a second turn, keeping their eyes open this time. “I think I’ll leave the flying attempts to the experts though. C.C. was right - they said they weren’t sure I’d like it.”

“Who’s-” Patton started, but one of the students walked over with impeccable timing.

“Hi! I’m CC! I’m in Thomas’ class.”

Patton grinned and shook their hand. “I’m Patton, Thomas’ brother.”

“And you’re also Gale Force,” CC said with a nod.

“Only when I’m in uniform! I wouldn’t want you all to think I’m full of hot air,” he replied with a wink.

They laughed brightly. “Ooh, can I add that to my list? I’m documenting super school, you see. The conversations here are so much fun to overhear!”

Patton agreed willingly, and asked about their favorites and classes, watching with pleasure as they drew Thomas into the conversation too. Not everyone was so comfortable with his brother, the shadow of his past still lurking in their minds.

CC smiled suddenly at the brothers, interrupting the conversation. “Did you know? You’re going to be happy.”

“Is that another prediction?” Thomas asked them. He slipped a hand into Patton’s, a tic of seeking reassurance that had been carrying them both through their school days.

CC shook their head, smiling softly. “It’s a guarantee.”

Only feet away, Virgil tugged Roman towards him, fidgeting with the papers in his other hand. “Hey, could you come over here for a second?” Roman looked nervously at Pat and Thomas, not wanting to leave them. Virgil smiled in understanding. “We won’t go far - I’ll help you keep an eye on them. I just want to be safely out of earshot.”

Roman followed him to the the other half of the roof, where the building rose up into the elevated classrooms. He was intrigued by whatever Virgil had to say, but still took the opportunity to slip a hand into his back pocket to squeeze his ass.

Virgil turned with a smile, bringing them chest to chest, and leaned down to steal a kiss. “Are you trying to distract me?”

“Depends, is it working?” Roman asked with a wink. The past month had seen them all maintaining a laser-sharp focus on Thomas and his recovery, leaving only the occasional night and stolen moment for them to solidify the affections they’d finally expressed in so many words. Virgil, Logan, and Roman all cared far more about supporting Patton in his reunion and joint recovery with his brother than escalating their relationship - but there were still the occasional moments where they couldn’t, or didn’t want to, restrain themselves.

Virgil drew back smirking, one brow raised. “Up to you, Princey. We can get distracted in the closet right around the corner, or I can share the surprise with you.”

Roman exaggerated his pout, circling Virgil’s muscled waist with both arms. “How dare you pit my love of your kisses against my love of surprises. Can’t I have both?”

Virgil kissed Roman’s temple. “Here, read this first, and maybe there’ll be time for distraction after.”

He handed Roman the sheaf of paper he’d been twisting in his hands. Roman smoothed out the crinkles and glanced over it. He did a double take and looked over it again, reading closer, mouth falling open as he went.

“A new foster home?”

“Not just any foster home,” Virgil said, a smile slowly stretching across his face. “One that’ll allow supers to stay together with non-supers. One that’ll work with HEARTS without making kids leave their home to learn.”

“For them?” Roman asked, glancing back across the roof at Patton and Thomas.

Virgil nodded. “For them and everyone like them. And if a kid is staying there, there won’t be a cost to go to HEARTS. I’m working on Joan to allow the normal foster allowances to go towards school fees.”

Roman smoothed the paper again with hands that shook slightly. “For me,” he said quietly. It wasn’t a question, but Virgil nodded all the same, resting a comforting hand on his boyfriend’s waist.

Roman’s eyes filled slightly as he smiled up into Virgil’s dark ones. “Virge, this is wonderful . Where’s it going to be? Who’s gonna run it?”

Virgil rubbed the back of his neck, chuckling slightly. “My family’s house, actually. It was my moms’ idea. I already have to talk them out of adopting every single friend they meet - what if I just… didn’t talk them out of it? And I’m hoping that this means Thomas won’t ever have to be on call. His detail can just be protecting the kids, maybe keep Pat with him too-”

Any further words were cut off by Roman tugging his head down to silence him with enthusiastic kiss after kiss. “You wonderful, brilliant, beautiful man,” Roman said in between kisses. “You’re so considerate and sweet and smart!”

The packet of papers were discarded as Virgil responded with equal enthusiasm despite a spreading blush. Roman summoned a discreet wall around them, preempting any students stumbling by.

They could tell the others the news later, at a less interesting time.

~~~~~~

That evening found the brothers Sanders taking time away from the other students again. Mealtimes were fine, but the atmosphere after dinner, where teens and kids and young adults all mixed and played in the common areas still had twinges of uncomfortable familiarity.

So Thomas sat instead with his brother on the roof of the school in the setting sun, staring out at the reflection of the clouds on the harbor. The light bathed his face in blood-red tones as he listened to the crash of waves and call of gulls.

“Patton, I’ve been meaning to ask,” he started, then paused with a nervous laugh. “I don’t know that I really want to know, but I have to find out sometime. How do I know when it became real?”

“What do you mean, kiddo?”

“I spent so long hallucinating in what I think was the facility. But I saw myself escaping almost every day. When did I do it for real? When did I start infecting everyone else with my visions?”

Patton turned to look at his brother. The boy looked scared, but his face was set, even as he refused to make eye contact.

“It was a bit over a month ago that the first attack came,” Patton supplied.

“What happened in that one, Pat?” Thomas asked. His voice was strained and distant.

“Are you sure you want to know, Tommy? You didn’t know what you were doing, you can’t blame yourself-”

“Yes I can, Patton!” Thomas interrupted. “I have to! I didn’t know it was real, but I still chose to attack innocent people, even if I thought they were just illusions. I could have stayed nonviolent, I could have just tried to hide from it all, but I just… it hurt, so much, every time I watched the home collapse around me, every time I had to feel the fire and bricks blasting through us, and I lashed out. I need to know what I did. How else will I ever make up for it?”

Tears leaked out of Patton’s eyes. “You’re… Thomathy, I know you will make up for all of it. We both will. I lashed out, too. We’ll work hard, and we’ll become the heroes we needed when we were younger. We’ll help.”

Thomas grabbed Patton’s hand, squeezing too tightly. “I still need to know, Pat. What did I do that was real? What happened that first time?”

Patton sucked in a shaky breath. “How many of our friends do you remember, from before? From when we were kids?”

Thomas closed his eyes. “I remember… I remember Leo. And Derri and Dahlia. And… Ms. and Miss Parson.” He opened his eyes, looking anxiously at Patton. “Am I right? Were they real?”

“They were real,” Patton confirmed. “They were our Hundred-Acre Wood friends and our moms, or the closest we got.” He steeled himself, breathing in deep. “Do… do you remember Damien?”

Thomas frowned, responding slowly. “Yes, I think I do. He was older than me? He left, early. There was… something happened. An accident?” He looked for confirmation.

“Sort of. The experiments weren’t an accident, but the fire in the lab was. Dam’ got adopted and then the man who’d taken him turned out to be not very nice.”

Thomas stiffened at the mention of ‘lab’, but he squeezed Patton’s hand tight and forced himself to relax. “I… yes, I remember. Did he…?”

“He survived, but we didn’t know it. I only learned he was alive recently… the day of your first real attack. He was transformed, given powers, so he got sent here instead of back home.” Patton gestured to the brick school underneath them. “Tommy… do you remember who was with Damien when he left?”

Thomas spoke sadly, eyes fixed on the horizon, staring off into distant haze of remembrance. “Val. Valerie. Kanga. She… we lost her too.”

Patton swallowed. “She… was in the same place as Damien.”

“And the same thing happened to her?” Thomas turned to look at Patton, his eyes searching for confirmation. At Patton’s nod, he looked off, eyes flitting as he poured through his twisted, unclear memories. “I dreamed about her a lot. I saw her so many times. She kept coming back, sometimes the same age I remember her, sometimes older. One time she brought me Teddy. But usually she just hated me. She blamed me for letting her go and letting her get hurt and... I could never help, never enough.”

Patton squeezed his brother’s hand. “What was the last time you saw her?”

Thomas frowned. “I… the day I hurt Roman. She was there, angry with me, telling me that Roman was the reason she was so hurt. She had burn scars from his light powers, and dark bruises all over.” He looked up. “What that real?”

“No, it wasn’t, kiddo. Roman never met her,” Patton said. Tears were coursing down his face, and his voice was thick. “The last real time was three days before that. She… she was given powers too, like Damien, but they were painful. She had feathers growing out of her skin, purple and black ones…”

Thomas scrambled to stand, backing away from his brother. “No. No, you’re lying! That time wasn’t real, it couldn’t have been!”

Patton stood too, grabbing Thomas’ hand before he walked off the roof by accident. Tears continued to fall down his face. “I’m sorry, Tommy. It’s real.”

“But that means that I-” Thomas choked out, and then the sobs took over as he crumpled to the ground. His entire body shivered and convulsed as the reality of his actions took hold.

Patton knelt with him, trying to hold as much of him as possible, crying into his shirt. “You didn’t know,” he whispered. “You didn’t mean it.”

“But I did it anyway!” Thomas wailed. “What have I done, Pat? What kind of monster am I?”

“The one you were made into,” his brother said, voice hardening despite his grief. “The one the world created, leaving you behind. Like they left me behind.”

“The world didn’t create me, Pat,” Thomas responded. “People did, and I did.”

Now Patton looked at him in confusion. “The heroes? They created me too. They’re part of the world.”

“No, Pat. The people in that facility. The lab. Whatever it was.”

Patton hesitated. “I don’t want to make you talk about it, but… what do you remember of that place? Do you remember faces?”

Thomas wiped his eyes. “No. Maybe I did once, but I- no, I don’t want to remember. It’s too much. Too much pain and fire and…” He curled in on himself again. “Please don’t ask me to remember them, ” he asked in a tiny voice.

Patton wrapped his arms around as much of him as he could, holding him close. “I won’t. I’m sorry, Tommy. It’s okay now. You’re here. You’re safe.”

Thomas reached up a hand to bunch in Patton’s shirt, gripping tightly. “Is this real?” he whispered.

“Real, Thomas. It’s real.”

~~~~~~

Things weren’t always great. Logan had learned to be okay with that. Thomas had nightmares, waking in cold sweat and anger, lashing out at anyone who got close. But slowly, he was recognizing them all faster, seeing them as safe. Recovery would be a long road, but they were all on their way. Virgil had started therapy, partly at Logan’s urging and partly as encouragement for Roman and the Sanders to go too. Logan came sometimes for group sessions, more a supporter than a patient. Roman and Patton had nightmares too, but they always woke to the tangle of limbs in the enormous bed that now dominated most of Virgil’s apartment bedroom. They had a good arrangement, even if Logan was finding that he became far too easily flustered by Roman and Patton’s much more overt forms of affection. It was new and intriguing, but the frequency with which he blushed now was, frankly, embarrassing.

He had time to discover all the new shades of red he was able to turn because the level of super activity had also dropped sharply. Virgil and Logan hadn’t been called since that last attack, and they’d been reveling in their newly-free time by exploring the city as civilians, bringing their boyfriends and Thomas out to the Skylar home in surburbia, and taking them on leisurely flights above the cloud cover. When Logan received a call one morning to go see the mayor at City Hall, he was more intrigued than alert.

“Virge, wanna come?”

“Hm, I didn’t get the call, you think I could?”

“Why not? It’s just Joan.”

“You’re right. C’mon, starlight. Want a lift?”

They walked into the office together, stopping short as they realized the alert hadn’t been quite the casual call they’d assumed. The windows were blocked out with heavy shades. The table was covered in printout and status reports that threatened to drown a very frazzled-looking Talyn in paper.

“Joan, Talyn, what’s going on? You needed to speak with me?” Logan asked. “I brought Virgil, I hope that’s okay…”

Joan paced backed and forth, their normal worry lines looker much deeper than normal. They paused one or twice, about to speak, but glanced at Virgil and Logan, then around the room, and away as they resumed pacing. Finally, they sighed and asked, “Can we go to the roof?”

The roof of City Hall was the same graceful style as the rest of the Neo-Renaissance building, with swooping arches and balustrading that made it stand apart from the marble of the other government buildings. The roof had a cupola that had clearly been designed to make it even more distinctive. Now, it functioned as an entrance for flying supers into the building, one that Virgil preferred if he was arriving without Logan. But that wasn’t its only purpose.

“I’m going to turn on the dampers,” Joan told them bluntly as they filed into the small space from the stairwell.

Logan stiffened in shock, glaring at the mayor.

Virgil reached out a gentle hand to rest on his boyfriend’s back. “I trust it’s for a good reason?” he asked Joan drily.

The mayor nodded. “It’s not about you two. It’s to keep other powers out. I really, really don’t want anyone to overhear.”

Logan sighed, his shoulders falling from their tense position. “I know you wouldn’t ask if it weren’t important. Go ahead.”

Talyn quickly tapped in a PIN on one of the columns, then a now-glowing button. Walls of light blinked into being around them and sealed over the entrance to the rest of the building. Virgil flexed and stretched his free arm. Knowing that his strength and durability were being neutralized wasn’t a comfortable feeling, even if he understood that it was sometimes necessary. He kept the other hand solidly on Logan’s lower back, feeling the man tremble slightly and offering comfort.

“What’s so important that needs all this secrecy, Mayor Stokes,” Logan asked, voice clipped.

Talyn came over with their tablet in both hands. “It’s the database. DREAM’s been compromised.” There was a slight tremor in their hands as they showed Logan the screenshots from the most recently-updated records. “I created this tool, and Joan is the highest-ranking official in the city, and neither of us can read these edits. All we know is that according to the system, you were the one making them.”

Logan took the tablet, staring hard. Finally he looked up. “I didn’t make these changes.” Three pairs of eyes looked back in concern. “But,” he continued, looking at the screen in confusion, “I think I know who did.”

“And who would it be?”

“Drs. Atticus and Portia Lancaster,” Logan said. “My parents. I- it looks like it might be related to their work on the origin of powers. They’ve been hinting at some more exciting experiments.”

“Hold up,” Joan interjected. “Why didn’t I know about this?”

“It was all under the umbrella of EANSC 2.0, and my understanding was they weren’t sure there was anything to find, let alone brief you on. If you didn’t read the full reports, you might not have noticed,” Logan said, removing his glasses to rub his temples. His fingers shook, but his voice remained steady, if a bit detached. “I don’t know the full details myself. If I’d known you hadn’t been informed, I would have procured a summary for you.”

“Lo, we need to get these dampers off and go talk to them,” Virgil said. “If they can tell us more about how to help Thomas, we need to know sooner rather than later.”

Logan replaced his glasses. “Yes. Yes, of course. I- Yes. We shall do that. Yes.”

Virgil paused in his pacing and came over, cupping Logan’s chin in his hand. “Lo? Are you alright?”

Logan looked up at him and attempted a smile. “I… I am trepidatious. I am unclear as to why they would have neglected to inform me, if they made a breakthrough like this seems to imply.” His voice sounded oddly formal and strained. “Let us go discuss with them at once. And, Virgil, if you would - permit me to take the lead, as it were. I am quite confident there will be a perfectly reasonable explanation for all of this. We need only ask without accusation, and it should be all revealed to us.”

“Logan-” Joan started, but Logan just shook his head. Talyn typed in their PIN again to deactivate the dampers.

“You’ll at least let us know what they say?” Joan asked as Logan and Virgil stepped to the edge of the cupola.

Logan took a deep breath and looked back. “You’ll be the first.” He stepped off the edge, becoming a blur as he did so.

Virgil nodded to both Joan and Talyn before leaping out to follow his partner.

~~~~~~

“Logan! Virgil! What a lovely surprise!”

The Drs. Lancaster were both in their lab at the university, and Portia greeted them both with a smile and a little wave. Her red hair was pulled back into a bun, but wavy strands had popped free, held back only by the headband tied into a bow. Virgil had asked, once, how no one ever recognized the former public face of Harmony City’s Heroes, even if she had changed her last name. The doctor had winked, tapping her frames, and said, “It’s all in the glasses.”

Her husband was able to pause his work too and came over smiling. Virgil had always liked the Docs - they’d welcomed him into their home as his ‘City Family,’ once it became clear he couldn’t commute out to his mums in the suburbs as much as he would have liked.

He really, really hoped that Logan was correct.

“What brings you ‘round, big guy? It’s been months!” Atticus asked, going for a hug. Virgil didn’t so much hug back as he patted the man’s shoulders awkwardly, glancing meaningfully at Logan.

The young man cleared his throat. “Mom, Dad, I have a question for you.”

Atticus’ eyes lit up, looking at Virgil and back to his son. “Are you asking us for our blessing, finally?”

Logan did a slight double-take. “Beg pardon?”

Portia chuckled, slinking an arm around Atticus’ waist. “Your father here has been hoping you’re going to make an honest man out of Virgil soon.”

Virgil blushed deep crimson at that. “I- uh. Our boyfriends might object if we got married without them?”

Logan elbowed him. “Virge, I hadn’t told them that yet-”

“Shit-”

“Boyfriends? Multiple? Are you starting a collection?” Atticus asked, blinking. “Is it like a butterfly collection, are you collecting taxonomic details?”

Logan cleared his throat. “No, Dad. I- Virgil and I have started mutually dating Roman and Patton. All four of us as equal romantic partners.”

A slight crease formed in Portia’s forehead. “Roman and Patton? Have we met them?”

“Not as such, no,” Logan said, not meeting either parents’ eyes as he fiddled with his glasses.

Atticus and Portia stared in a mixture of confusion and concern. Logan shot Virgil a pleading look, linking their fingers together.

Virgil flinched. This conversation was far more personal than he’d been prepared for, but he’d gotten them into this mess in the first place. “You may know them by their super names - Crimson Marauder and Gale Force.”

Logan squeezed Virgil’s fingers so tightly that he would have bruised, if he ever bruised.

Portia pursed her lips, the wrinkle in her brow becoming more pronounced. “Weren’t you fighting them, dear?”

“Yes, Mother, I was,” Logan started. “But things, ah, changed. And they’re reformed now.”

Virgil wasn’t sure he’d ever seen Atticus’ face in something that had to try so hard to taken as a smile. “But they’re villains, Lo?”

“They were villains,” Virgil clarified. “They both went through-- god, they went through some rough shit, and the anger from their experiences made them more villainous for a while there. But they really are wonderful men, and they’re nonviolent now.”

“Well. I suppose such a thing is possible, hypothetically,” Portia replied. She tapped her lips with a long, elegant finger. “If trauma was so involved in their moral failings, what on earth could have shaken them enough that they’re now attempting to erase them?”

If Virgil had been a cat, he would have hissed. Instead, his shoulders and back stiffened even as a chill ran down his spine. He exhaled slowly, making sure he didn’t accidentally squeeze Logan’s hand back. Feeling like this, he might hurt him inadvertently.

“Actually, Mother, Father, the answer to that question is the very question we have come to ask,” Logan said. He stood ramrod straight, meeting his mother’s eyes levelly despite the difference in their heights.

“What’s with the fancy-talk, Lolo?” Atticus asked, chuckling uncomfortably. “We’re all family here.”

“Speaking of family,” Logan continued, “Patton and Roman found their perspective on what makes a hero or villain dramatically changed by the events of the last several months. This was largely to the reappearance of Patton’s brother, Thomas Sanders.”

Virgil had never quite determined if his acute awareness of others’ body movements was part of his powers, or if it was just the natural power of anxiety. But it was enough for him to notice that both the Drs. Lancaster blinked in a way that looked a lot like recognition.

“That may be another name you have not heard, I am aware,” Logan continued. “But I am quite confident you know who he is. His alias was Agent Whisper.”

Portia gasped. “Goodness, how upsetting for your friend that his brother was such a terror upon our city! No wonder he was so upset. Such a reveal, and losing even an evil sibling would be terrible, I’m sure.”

“Dr. Lancaster,” Virgil cut in, “Patton didn’t lose his brother again. Thomas is also in reform. I thought you knew.”

“How would I know, dear?”

“Because you’ve been in the DREAM Index,” Logan replied, taking back the thread.

Atticus smiled, round cheeks crinkling. “Lo, you know she doesn’t have access to that anymore! They can’t let just anyone see all the supers’ data!”

“But you two do. You asked for my information, when I handed off my dissertation. To cross-reference, you said.”

Portia pursed her lips. “We did, didn’t we. It must have slipped my mind.”

Logan frowned. “Mother. Please. One of you has been making edits under my name. I’d like to know why, and what it has to do with Thomas.”

“That was me,” Atticus said. “I was preserving the integrity of our research. You know how important that is.”

“Which research was being implicated?” Portia asked conversationally, as if her only son wasn’t still staring her down.

“Project Charcoal.”

“Ah, a good call, my love. That’s far too sensitive to be revealed.”

“Even to the mayor?” Virgil asked innocently. “Because not even they could see past the redaction.”

Atticus walked over to the lab bench. “Lo, come sit. No need to be so suspicious - you know we’ll tell you everything.”

Logan looked to Virgil automatically, who shrugged in response. Are we ready to do this? Do we have a choice? They squeezed their interlocked hands and sat across the bench from the doctors.

“So. My dissertation became Project Charcoal,” Logan stated.

“Yes, that’s what it came to be called,” Portia said. “EANSC 2.0 was too much of a mouthful, and lost accuracy.”

“And you didn’t tell me this sooner because…?”

“You never asked, kiddo,” Atticus said with a smile. “We were telling you about our experiments - the refining of the dampener field, the RNA sequencing, that’s all under the project!”

Logan frowned. “And yet, there is clearly more that you neglected to mention.”

“Well, yes, but we didn’t want to distract you. Your hero work was more important,” Portia explained. “We were continuing our research on side-effects of EAs on civilians and it ended up being merged together, that was really the only big change we didn’t tell you about.”

“...the side-effect research?” Virgil asked quietly.

“It started after the Mystic Magician,” Logan explained. “He managed to succeed, in a terrible way. The Viper is proof of that, and the Condor was too. But it rocked the conventional understanding of enhanced abilities. My parents and the larger genetic research community started looking into whether or not civilians were affected by being exposed to active abilities.”

Atticus nodded. “We wanted to minimize collateral damage beyond what could be seen. Were bystanders being slowly mutated? Was the density of supers here self-fulfilling? So we looked at both demographic data and autopsies of casualties from super fights. We started seeing the beginnings of patterns, but nothing definite. And then we hit a wall completely when Logan was about nine years old.”

“And then, in a fluke, we discovered the EANSC - the Neutralization & Stasis Chamber. And the dampening field,” Portia said, eyes alight. “An electromagnetic field that affected the use of powers. For the first time ever, there was the idea that abilities could actually be affected externally. We had a whole new way to conceptualize the side-effects and to focus our research. And only two years after we perfected EANSC enough to implement, Logan joined us in studying just how the emotional effects of the dampers were connected to the use of abilities.” She smiled fondly at her son. “If we hadn’t been inspired before, getting to work with you was what really did it.”

Logan smiled back, relaxing. “Thanks, Mom.”

Virgil was frowning, though. “But what were you looking for?”

Logan grinned at his boyfriend, squeezing his hand. “We’re scientists, Virge, isn’t it obvious?”

Virgil raised an eyebrow.

Logan opened his mouth to speak at the same time as his mother did the same.

“A greater understanding of the world!!”

“A way to stop supervillains forever.”

Logan whipped around, jaw going slack. “What?”

Atticus nodded. “Loberry, don’t be naive. We don’t get these kinds of resources just for being lecturers at the university. We don’t get highest clearance in the city for teaching undergrads how to run a simple gel electrophoresis. We’re on a direct research mandate from the State. Why do you think your mother thought this work was more important than remaining an active-duty hero?”

The blood was slowly draining out of Logan’s face. “I- she was taking time off for us, for me and Bea and Jem, right?” He looked at Portia, who smiled.

“Of course, dear, that too. But I’d been fighting for almost 20 years. I was practically a senior citizen in hero years. And I was so tired of fighting villains, over and over, knowing there would always be more. So when we were asked if we’d like to work towards ending the fight once and for all, I couldn’t very well say no!”

Virgil looked sick. “You- and what, you’d unmake villains? Like the Magician tried to make them?”

Atticus laughed. “Of course not! The Magician was so ham-handed, it was sloppily done and clearly had painful results. We wanted a painless way to remove the risk. Like declawing a cat.”

“Declawing a cat isn’t painless, it’s mutilation,” Virgil snapped. “It leaves them entirely unable to fend for themselves. Was that the plan? Non-heroes left defenseless?”

“In captivity, preferably, until we were sure they could re-enter society,” Portia said with a shrug. “It’s more humane that the life sentence they get now, except for those who break out.”

Logan had released Virgil’s hands, instead gripping the table until his knuckles had turned white. “You never told me,” he said to himself quietly. Shaking his head to clear it, he looked up. “You know more about Agent Whisper than you’ve admitted, too. Tell me. Now.”

Atticus made eye contact with Portia, who inclined her head.

“We examined bystander casualties directly after some incidents and were able to find electromagnetic signatures in the brains that resembled damper fields, but different in a very key way. They were equal and opposite. If the fields correspond to suppressed emotions, then these brains had their emotions intensified, instead.”

Virgil shivered at the thought, reaching for Logan once more under the bench. Without looking, Logan moved a hand to link their fingers once more. He kept his gaze fixed on his parents.

“If there was a heightened effect happening as collateral in bystanders, we thought, there was a chance we could recreate it deliberately,” Portia continued. “And if it persisted enough to show up in autopsy, that modulation in both directions could potentially be made permanent. We could replicate dampers without the tech! But we needed to look at side effects first. We had to wait for more casualties with exposure to extreme ability usage.”

Virgil felt a headache starting to drum in his temples, the ache of anger and tears that he refused to let fall as the pieces connected before him. “And you got the fucking golden opportunity, didn’t you. At the foster home. All of Pat’s rage and grief just created the goddamn ideal specimen.”

Atticus blinked at the venom in Virgil’s voice, but responded calmly,. “It was a tragedy. Heartbreaking, of course. But tragedy breeds emotion, and emotion is the lifeblood of your abilities.”

“We were only trying to use the fields to affect the brainwaves that hadn’t yet petered out,” Portia said, as if that excused it. “We shocked when we picked up a renewed heartbeat. But the brainwaves hadn’t changed. It was still brain-dead by any measure.”

“He.” Virgil’s voice was iron and blood as he spat out the correction.

Logan was paler than Virgil had ever seen him, even when he’d needed treatment for blood loss back in the earliest months of their heroing. “And you kept going? What happened to only experimenting on organ and science donors?”

Atticus smiled in confusion. “Lo, that was never the case. We didn’t perfect the EANSC with cadavers, we had villains to test with.”

“I’m sure they agreed to be lab rats, too,” Virgil accused.

Portia just shrugged. “Anyway, we kept the body in cryo except when running more tests. It still appeared to be brain-dead, right up until the day it- sorry, he,” she corrected exaggeratedly, ” He escaped. And started killing people.”

Logan looked ready to yell, his face yet, but he stopped and took a deep breath. “Are you familiar with his powers? Have you heard about what his memory of that time period is?”

“I’ve read the Index entry,” Portia replied blandly.

“He relived his entire life hundreds of times, and the accident at the foster homes thousands more,” Virgil said quietly, dangerously. “He saw everyone he loved die, then alive and loving him, then dying again. And when the memories were done replaying, new ones started being created. All emotionally charged, extremes of elation and sorrow and fury.”

Atticus looked at Virgil, eyes glinting with interest. “So you’re saying the prolonged exposure to the modified dampers actually created this power? Fascinating!”

“What the fuck, Dad?” Logan spat out. “This isn’t some mere curiosity! This is someone’s life. You destroyed the psyched of a real, living, breathing kid and all you care about is what it means for your fucking research grant?”

“Logan, there’s no need for such language,” Portia chided. Virgil shot a glare in her direction. She looked back, eyebrow arched. “It’s just research.”

“Research that you’re going to stop, correct?” Logan asked.

“When we’ve just gotten confirmation of the biggest breakthrough to date?” she asked incredulously. "We’ll take more precautions going forward, of course, but by no means will we stop. That would be illogical.”

Blood pounded in Virgil’s ears. “I’m sorry, what? You’re going to keep going? Hell fucking no.”

Portia narrowed her eyes. “Virgil, be serious here. This is too important to let a tantrum get in the way.”

“Oh, you want a tantrum?” Virgil rumbled. He stood, bracing himself in a fighting stance. “Let me show you what a tantrum looks like.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, I’m not going to fight you,” Portia scoffed, though she stood too. She looked over at her son. “Either of you.”

“So you agree to end the program then? Because it’s one or the other,” Virgil snapped. He tapped his watch decisively. “The mayor is hearing about this. Now or never, Professor Polarity . End this madness, or get ready to see your precious EANSCs up close and personal for the foreseeable future.”

Portia’s metal hair tie popped out of her bun, letting her hair fall free as the tie flew into the air beside her. She lifted her hand, and a metal apparatus flew from the back bench to her grip. “Don’t be stupid, Virgil. I’m immune to it. It’s an electro magnetic field. You, however, aren’t so lucky.” She flicked a switch on the machine, bringing it to life. The familiar glow of dampers show out the front.

“I’m sorry, Lo!” Virgil shouted, and dove at Atticus, easily manhandling him and trapping him, one arm around his neck. “Don’t try it, Portia. I don’t need powers to be able to cut off his air. You turn that on me, you won’t like what happens.”

“You see, Logan?” Portia said, not turning as she scowled at Virgil. “You see what happens? Virgil’s spent so much time with those villains that he’s resorting to their tactics. It’s a contagion. This is why they can’t be forgiven. What reformation can there be, when their lack of morals spreads so?”

Logan was frozen, eyes flicking between his boyfriend, who had his father caught in an uncomfortable chokehold, and his mother, who was pointing a weapon at his boyfriend.

“You don’t exactly have the moral high ground here,” Virgil growled at the former hero. “Unless torturing a child is considered a virtue now.”

“Use it, Porsh!” Atticus rasped around Virgil’s arm. His fingers scrabbled to get a grip, but Virgil’s muscles were unmovable. “He’s bluffing!”

“Am I?” Virgil asked. “You said it yourself, I’m clearly infected by the influence of my other boyfriends. Who knows what I’m capable of, now? I know you love your experiments, but you just might want to not put this particular hypothesis to the test.”

Portia sneered, her face managing to look lovely even when twisted in scorn. “Atticus, dear. I love you very much. I apologize in advance if the max setting hurt you, too.” She aimed the damper squarely at Virgil and hit the switch.

Except she didn’t. And her arms were tied behind her back with pure rope, nothing metal. And the damper was secured in a plastic bin at the corner of the lab. And Logan was standing between his mother and his boyfriend, chest heaving.

“Mom,” he said, voice breaking. “How- how could you? Why?”

“I’m a hero, Logan,” she replied, as steadily as someone who'd just been bound by a family member could be. “I serve the greater good. I thought I’d taught you that, but clearly I failed.”

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, my love,” Atticus interjected. Virgil had released his neck, though he kept his arms twisted up behind his back. “We both tried. It turns out he wasn’t as much a Lancaster as we’d hoped.”

“Shut up,” Virgil snapped. “I’m tired of your bile, both of you.” He turned to the window, seeing the reflection of flashing lights.

Logan had his back to them all. Virgil saw the quiver in his shoulders and knew he was crying and trying to hide it. He quickly grabbed a stray zip tie and secured Atticus by the wrists to the lab bench. Then he crossed to Logan and wrapped his arms around him.

He didn’t speak. He just let Logan turn and cling to him, face buried in his chest.

Let it out, love. I’ll keep the world at bay.

~~~~~~ ~~~~~~

D.R.E.A.M. Index #265345 Classification: A.2.i [Secondary Tier Hero, Legacy] /////////[CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET] Do we update this? - Talyn /////////[CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET] Let’s archive this one. Save the legacy. We can record the truth in clearance for now. We can at least save Logan some heartache. - Joan Name: Professor Polarity Status: INACTIVE /////////Reason: Retired /////////[CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET] Reason: Jailed pending trial Civilian Name: [CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET] Portia Lancaster née Portia Price Affiliation: Hero ///////// H.A.T.C.H. Status: Blackout Only ///////// [CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET] H.A.T.C.H. Status: Inactive Partners/Sidekicks: DI#A-2305 - Forces of Nature Primary Foes: DI#265333 - The Mystic Magician; Powers: Magnetokinesis Costume: Jumpsuit patterned in red-and-blue rectangles; blue cape with Ampère model of a magnetic field; gold belt with a buckle in the shape of a horseshoe magnet Age: 54 Height: 5’6” Pronouns: She/Her H.E.A.R.T.S. Class of ‘82 Note: Mother of DI#337255 - Dr. Vectorious; Co-inventor of the Enhanced Ability Neutralization and Stasis Chamber (EANSC) now in use at City of Harmony Enhanced Ability Containment Center (CHEACC). [Hall of Fame notes archived]. ///////// [CLEARANCE: TOP SECRET] As architect of the covert Project Charcoal, she attempted to discover a ‘cure’ that would strip supers of their abilities. Involved in reviving and creating DI#337501, see IR19-Z-0001

~~~~~~~~

a/n: It’s been over a year since I started this story, which is insane. So much has happened since I woke up with an idea of “what if royality were villains.” Thank you so much for reading and leaving kudos and commenting and particularly for theorizing. I’ve been in love with this idea, and knowing that anyone liked it too gave me incentive to finish it.

One last epilogue coming up. I promised the boys a happier ending.

#Another Goddamn Hero Story #aghs #roses writes fanfic #it's a doozy #lamp #lamp/calm #platonic lampt #familial patmas #angst tw #hallucination tw #human experimentation tw #questioning reality tw #cadaver mention tw #blood mention tw #cryogenic freezing tw #superhero au #sanders sides fanfic #sanders sides fanfiction #ahhhhhhhhh #i had so much fun writing the scientists #fuck u portia #i love you

[girl-with-cat-eyes]

Love As Strong As Stone (2/?)

Summary: Virgil and Thomas are two princes about to be married and things couldn’t be happier for them. But when disaster strikes, they will have to do everything in their power to stay together.

Ships: ThVi, Logince

Chapter 1 

AO3

A/N: Here we go with chapter 2!!! This is a long chapter so be warned. Special thanks to @forever-forgotten-angel for helping me with this, they are a huge help with my writing. Now we actually get to see our boys being cute. Also beware for references. And without further ado, chapter 2. 

~

~5 years lates~

    Elusia was a beautiful sight midsummer. The trees were abloom with all kinds of flowers, the fields and vast, and the gardens lush with life. There was certainly never a better time for a wedding than June, a royal one at that. The kingdom was once again a flutter with activity, once more stemming from the palace. Servants bustled about, finishing the last minute preparations needed for the wedding. Flowers were attached to the pews, streamers being hung from the ceiling: it was a sight to behold. And in his room the King of Elusia stood, staring at his balcony at his kingdom. 

    It all truly is beautiful this time a year, he thought, at least the view is. Virgil sighed and turned away from the window. There was no point in wishing for something that couldn’t be. After all one step over that borderline and he would be turned to stone. Seeing his kingdom simply wasn’t an option, it never had been. The King shook his head and began putting the finishing touches of his wedding suit on. Today was supposed to be a happy day, and here was ruining it with his negative thoughts. 

    He was finishing putting his pins in place when he heard the door open behind him. “There he is!”, a voice boomed behind him. Virgil turned around and saw his brother dressed in the decorative armor customary for knights to wear during weddings. Roman walked forward and pulled him into a hug, “I cannot believe that my little brother managed to get married before me.”. 

    Virgil ducked his head and finished with his pins, moving to attach his scabbard to his belt, “Well, everyone has been pushing me to get married since I was 20. I am king after all, it comes with the territory. You know that from when…”, he trailed off, struggling to attach his scabbard to his belt. 

    Roman sighed and approached his brother, going to help him with his task, “Hey, I chose to give up the throne of my own volition. No one coerced me into doing it, I did it because I want you to be safe. I like being a knight; I get to all sorts of cool things. Besides, You’ve been an amazing king these past 4 years.”, with these words, the knight finished attaching the scabbard, and stepped away to admire his handiwork.  

    Virgil looked at him with a grateful smile, “How is it you’re so good at that?”  

Roman handed him his sword,”Years of practice.”, Virgil went to his mirror and stared at his reflection, “You know, Mom and Dad would be so proud of you.” 

"Really?"

    “Absolutely. You grew up to be the exact type of ruler that they’d always hoped you would be. You care so much about the kingdom. They’d tell you the exact same thing if they were still here. In fact they’d say that you look almost perfect.”

    Virgil looked at him in confusion,”Almost?”. 

    “Well a king needs his crown.”, Roman picked up said crown and placed on his brother’s                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              head, “ There: now you look perfect.”

    The King chuckled softly, turning softly at the sound of a knock at his door. 

    “Come in!”

    Both men smiled when they saw Patton walk into the room, a smile on his face, “So are you ready for the big day?”. 

    “As ready as I can be.” 

“Hey. Everything will be ok. I couldn’t think of anyone better to marry my cousin.”, Patton smiled and clasped Virgil’s shoulder before pulling him into a bear hug, “Besides, you’re my best friend.”

Virgil smiled gratefully at Patton’s seemingly innate ability to sense when Virgil was feeling anxious. He sheathed his sword, “Well, how do I look?”. 

Roman and Patton both gave encouraging nods, “Like you are about to marry the love of your life.”

Patton turned towards Roman, a thought popping into his, “Oh you should Logan, he wanted to see you.”

The knight blushed at the mention of his fiance and turned to leave, stopping at the last moment, “I will meet you at the base of the stairs to walk you down the aisle at-”

“At noon, I know. Now go, your fiance wants to see you.”, Roman smiles before leaving. Virgil turned towards the remaining man, “So what did you need?”

“Why are you assuming I need something?”

“Because you are supposed to be helping Thomas get ready. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t need something, so what’s up?”.

“Maybe I just wanted to see my best friend before the wedding.”, Virgil gave him a look, “Ok, ok. Thomas went and got ready early and is now in his study and nothing I can do to get him out is working.” 

He sighed, ever since Thomas had learnt about the curse on Virgil he had made it is mission in life to find a way to break it. He spent so much time in his study researching magical cures, each coming to a dead end. Virgil tried to tell Thomas that his parents had researched it for years to no such luck but it hadn’t worked. Truthfully, Virgil understood why he did it. He didn’t want Thomas to be shackled to the palace forever because he couldn’t leave Thomas deserved the world, not to be stuck in one spot. 

“I’ll go see if I can get him out.”

~

“You know that today is your wedding day right?”, Thomas looked up from the account he was reading. He smiled at the sight of Virgil standing there in his wedding suit. His fiance was gorgeous. Thomas couldn’t believe that he was going to marry him today. 

He stood up and walked over to his fiance, giving him a quick kiss in greeting. Thomas chuckled at the blush that adorned the King’s cheeks as he pulled away. Virgil had always been easy to fluster when it came to affection. He pulled him into the room with a smile, “Of course I know what today is silly. I just had some free time is all.”

Virgil gave him a look, “And so you decided to spend it researching ways to break an unbreakable curse?”

“I know what you’re going to say but I think I’ve found a lead this time.”

“Well can’t you look into it after the wedding?”

“I think I’m going to be a little preoccupied with my beautiful husband on our wedding night. Just listen, please?”

Virgil sighed before nodding,”Ok.”.

“So there’s this carpenter in town, and he’s never had any kids. But one day people reported seeing this 10 year old boy following him around, calling him dad. And when asked about it, the boy said that he used to be made out of wood, but a nice fairy brought him to life.”

“Thomas, he probably adopted the boy-”

“But what if it’s real? If this fairy could do that, surely she could remove your curse. And you could see the world, see your kingdom. Don’t you want that?”, Thomas would give anything for Virgil to be able to see the world. He deserved that after everything he had gone through.

Virgil looked deeply into his eyes before speaking, “Alright, but can’t this wait until after we’re married. First thing after the honeymoon we’ll send for this carpenter and ask him what happened. But right now, we have 15 minutes until the wedding.”

Thomas pulled him close, kissing him softly. He loved this man so much, “Ok. I have to get going then. I’ll see you at the altar?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

~

The crowd whispered as the King of Elusia walked down the aisle, his older brother giving him away. Most of the kingdom had never seen the elusive king, his illness keeping him stuck inside the palace. Nonetheless, he had been a great king since he took the throne 4 years ago. Yes, King Virgil Elusian of Elusia had been lead a good, kind rule so far. This marriage to the Crown Prince of Ophaeseon and subsequent merging of kingdoms would also be a good decision. 

Virgil looked at his beloved standing at the altar and couldn’t hide his smile. He was the luckiest man on the planet to marry Thomas. He looked at Roman, thankful that his brother was giving him away in the absence of their father. Losing both of his parents to illness had broken Virgil’s heart. He hadn’t had time to grieve before taking the throne. He didn’t know how he would have gotten through it without his brother, betrothed, and friends. So while he did wish that his parents could see him, he was glad that Roman was here. 

Reaching the altar, Virgil took Thomas’s hands before the pair turned towards the priest, who began to speak, “Dear citizens, we are here not only to celebrate a union of people, but a union of kingdoms. Neighbors for centuries, the kingdoms of Elusia and Ophaeseon have had a peaceful relationship. And both kingdoms have had long prosperous years themselves. So it is not unreasonable to see that this merger will be beneficial to kingdoms. With this marriage the kingdoms of Elusia and Ophaeseon will become one. Marriage is a special thing, especially for royalty. The stronger the bond, the better the rule. These two young men already meet this criteria: they are both smart, kind rulers who are in love. They know better than to marry someone they would hate. Now it is time for the vows”, he turned towards Virgil, “Repeat after me: I, King Virgil Elusian of Elusia”

“I, King Virgil Elusian of Elusia”

“Take Prince Thomas Sanders of Ophaeseon”

“Take Prince Thomas Sanders of Ophaeseon”

“To rule alongside”

To rule along-”

The doors slammed open and the crowd gasped. Virgil turned towards the entrance to see a stranger. He had diagonal green tattoos on his face and a large burn covering half of said face. Virgil didn’t know who he was but he didn’t trust him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Roman draw his sword. 

“Well, well, well look at this beautiful display of love.”

~

A/N: Cliffhanger!! Things are about to go down! You guys might figure out what’s going to happen but don’t spoil a thing. I mean it. 10 points and a cookie if you can guess the reference I made. Leave a comment and tell me what you think! I am also going to take prompts on this au about Virgil and Roman’s childhood, his meeting Thomas, etc so send those if you have an idea. Also send me a message if you want to be added to the taglist.

Taglist

@forever-forgotten-angel

@5150brotherbear

@sanders-sides-uncorrect-quotes

@kai-the-person

@thomassandersismygayidolll

#sanders sides #thvi #thomas x virgil #thomas sanders #virgil sanders #roman sanders #logan sanders #patton sanders #deceit sanders #unsympathetic deceit #logince #my writing #thvi fairytale au

[miguel-manbemel]

Sanders Sides as Eurovision songs part 6: Eps. 1x16, 1x17 and 2x01

New part where I sort each episode of @thatsthat ‘s Sanders Sides with a particular Eurovision song. With this part we end with season 1 and start with season 2. It’s time for the Accepting Anxiety finale in Eurovision music format.

Episode 1x16: “Accepting Anxiety Part 1″: This is the part where the Sides suddenly realize that Anxiety is missing and the consequences it has on Thomas’ behavior. For this episode I took a “Meanwhile on the Mindpalace” approach, showing what Virgil would be thinking in the meantime while he decided to lock himself in his room. For that I chose the song that represented Russia in Eurovision 2000, “Solo”, performed by Alsou. The whole lyrics really tell what Virgil would be thinking in his room while the other’s were realizing his absence: “Sitting alone, here in my room, staring at your picture [the Sides’ picture] from midnight to noon. Counting the hours, counting the days... You know that I miss you in a million ways.” Because of course Virgil would be missing the Sides, he lov... liked them very much. But he says that he’s leaving anyway, even if it hurts him: “Now I wait in the cold and this is getting old, No more stories, no more lies, take me off this ride. When you see me in the hall, I'll look at the wall. By my actions you should know – I'm going solo. Going solo.” Later he mentions the Dark Sides: “My friends [the Dark Sides] try to tell me, I didn't want to listen, 'cause I'm the kind of person gotta find out on my own. I gave you [to the Light Sides when he felt rejected by them] my heart, you tore it apart. [to both Light and Dark Sides, meaning he’ll overcome this someday and he’ll work “solo” from then on] But I'm coming back strong, I knew it was wrong.”

Episode 1x17: “Accepting Anxiety Part 2″: This is the episode where the Sides go to Virgil’s room and try to convince him to come back with them. Roman ended up being the most effusive in showing him love and support to come back, so, knowing that he speaks Spanish, I had to choose a song in Spanish about the matter, and I chose the song that represented Spain in Eurovision 1995, “Vuelve conmigo” (”Come back to me”), sung by Anabel Conde. Perhaps I went a little too prinxiety-mode, but the song really suits the situation of Roman being extra while asking Virgil to come back with him. And he would belt these notes out the bottom of his lungs like the singer does at the end.

I have felt the emptiness and a sleeping memory wakes up again I don’t have you with me And I’m hurt inside by so much loneliness. Who knows where you are? Who knows where you are?

Come, come, come back to me. Come, come, because I need your love. Come, I don’t forget you. Come back to me, my love.

There’s nothing left in the soul, only this flame that will never die, which burns my chest when alone, in my bed, I see you’re not there. You gotta listen to me. You gotta listen to me.

Come, come, come back to me. Come, come, because I need your love. Come, Come back to me. Bring to this winter your warmth. Come, come, come back to me. Come, come, I’ve already asked you to forgive me. Come, I don’t forget you. Come back to me, my love.

Episode 2x01: Fitting In (Hogwarts Houses)

And after the Anxiety finale, the Harry Potter beginning of season 2. The song I chose for this episode is titled “Magic, Oh Magic”, it was sung by Al Bano and Romina Power and represented Italy in 1985. The title, of course, mentions magic, but the lyrics also have deep connections with the plot. In this case, it is the greeting to Virgil after almost leaving them the previous episode, accepting him as a real part of the group now even when Virgil himself still felt lonely and confused: “Hello to you, my beloved friend, Hello to you, who knows what goodbye means and you're waiting for a better day that is full of love and someone that notices you.”

(Magic, oh magic, there's strange music) (Magic, oh magic, a little bit Italian)   Hello to you, my beloved friend Hello to you, who knows what goodbye means And you're waiting for a better day That is full of love And someone that notices you   Hello to you, who doesn't dream Hello to you, that one day you will return Thinking of a faraway place When you were a child You were playing with her   Magic, oh magic, there's strange music Magic, oh magic, a little bit Italian   It has the colour of hope Of the infinity in one room And suddenly that room doesn't exist anymore   Magic, oh magic, there's strange music Magic, oh magic, a fata morgana   Hello to you, who never surrenders Hello to you, who will restart Singing new words Walking towards the sun Even if the sun isn't here anymore for you   Magic, oh magic, there's strange music Magic, oh magic, a little bit Italian   It has the colour of hope Of the infinity in one room And suddenly that room doesn't exist anymore   Magic, oh magic, there's strange music Magic, oh magic, a fata morgana

And this is it for this part. The next part will only have two episodes instead of three, you’ll see the reason why then, but it will be focused solely on the Moving On two-parter, eps 2x02 and 2x03.

Part 5 - Part 7

#thomas sanders #sanders sides #eurovision

[theother-will-grayson]

So in a lot of human!aus I see the sides have completely different jobs and Roman is really the only performer but like...Thomas is a musical theatre nerd so it makes sense to me that all of the Sides would be different types of performers adding little bits of themselves in every performance.

I go to a performing arts college as a musical theatre major, so I know what I’m talking about. Therefore, I present: 

Sanders Sides as Musical Theatre People That I Know and their signature Broadway song

(Deceit and taglist under the cut)

Roman

There is no one gayer.

The only boy in the first semester advanced ballet class.

Will not stop twerking randomly, always goes clubbing.

Specializes in over the top funny songs, but can play a really grounded and real leading man when he wants to.

Has really solid instincts, but sometimes needs to let the song or scene be funny because it’s funny rather than the fact that he’s funny

Idolizes Beyonce

Knows the lyrics to everyone else’s songs

Always trying to steal female songs

Very new Broadway (Hamilton, Dear Evan Hansen, Be More Chill, Wicked)

Always down to be the background dancer in your song for you. 

Never afraid to make the bold choices as an actor.

Pretends to be an overconfident bitch who roasts the shit out of people just to be funny but is actually down to earth and incredibly kind.

Open fascination with famous musical theatre divas

Signature song: Could be “I Believe” from Book of Mormon or “I’d Rather Be Sailing” from A New Brain

Patton

Special skills include looking like a smol bean but then will kick the door down and belt his heart out.

Incredibly supportive to a fault

Always shouting things like “I DON’T OBJECTIFY MY FRIENDS BUT YOU’RE SUPER SEXY YOU’RE SLAYING”

Has a cute aesthetic and then one day shows up for a scene in a sexy minisKIRT WHAT THE FUCK (and slays it???????)

Definitely has a sound you would not expect

Can flip between sexy growl belting and a classic operatic sound a la Kristin Chenoweth

Is always super philosophical and can get deep really quickly

Great taste in memes but will also talk about the current events he’s referencing with good knowledge on their impact.

Is incredibly kind but not above talking shit when someone is a dick, and therefore you know a person is really bad if Patton has a bad opinion of them

Is infamous across sections for being a neverending font of positivity

Mom friend, always a listening ear

Kind to teachers but doesn’t kiss ass

Casting type all over the god damn map

Signature Song: “I Am What I Am” from La Cage Aux Folles or “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables

Logan

One of those actors that also takes writing and directing and film classes

Watches at least one new movie a week for fun and research both

Refuses to date for at least his first semester 

A really precise actor to a fault

Can sometimes over think and over plan his scenes and songs

His best performance of the semester was when he had to do a song where he just sat down and sang a ballad without any blocking and it was so real and beautiful that everyone was fucking sobbing.

Always complimented on his work ethic

Universally beloved

Analytical and always working

A good scene partner who will never flake out on a rehearsal

Gives good notes, director friend

Fills out character analysis sheets and thinks about mannerisms etc. like his life depends on it.

Solid knowledge on different acting teachers and styles

Needs to rely on instinct more but is far from a bad actor.

Has more sound than you’d think

Signature songs: “What You’d Call a Dream” from Diamonds and “Purpose” from Avenue Q

Virgil

Actor that relies on instinct

Would kill to play Peter Pan

Does not take bullshit

Is really bad at taking notes because he forgets that a note from a director is not an insult to your skill, but a NOTE to make you BETTER

Has a hidden talent in sardonic comedy

Surprisingly good at silent physical comedy

Character actor -- can play a physical comic and dramatic roles with a big personality, but can nail being strong and real when he really tries

Loves playing angry roles

Great skill for playing chorus roles and bit parts

Not a dancer but he puts forth his best effort in every dance class

Has a hyperfixation on becoming really good at stage combat and juggling

Has an open disdain for certain popular shows like Cats and Grease

And gets really oddly excited about the shows that get glossed over sometimes like Godspell and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers

Gives really good notes and is extremely helpful in improving others’ performances, but is always afraid to speak up and give notes for fear of seeming like a dick who thinks he knows everything

Extremely self-critical and has gotten called out by certain teachers for being more critical of himself than they are of him.

Makes edgy jokes

That one person who always sings a song badly for the meme

Has a wealth of knowledge about musical theatre history in weird spots but not other spots that you would expect (for example can list an extensive timeline on how gay rights are connected to theatre and how closeted playwrights birthed the drag queen, or how Hello Dolly killed the movie musical,  but got several questions about Sondheim wrong on his Musical Theatre History exam)

Is constantly watching video essays on film, will wax poetic about the directing style/acting style of ANYBODY he loves and has the knowledge to back it up.

Gives self-deprecating compliments

Needs to make people laugh to validate self

Love for old broadway

Idolizes the 25th Anniversary version of Phantom because of the screamo punk aesthetic and can tell you the exact timestamp where you can see Ramin Karimloo's wrist tattoo

Defends movie versions of musicals

Really wants to be a leading man but it just isn’t his casting type

Has a background in straight plays

Wealth of skill in technical theatre, background in competition shows and forensics

Signiature songs: “Santa Fe” from Newsies and “Extraordinary” from Pippin

Deceit:

Compulsive Liar

Constantly telling everybody about his long list of credits and everything that he’s done (he was in a Reeces Puffs commercial, he was in a circus and his favorite was the aerial silks, he’s a professional figure skater, he taught pointe to national champion ballet dancers even though he’s in low level ballet and he can’t do pointe himself, he can bench way more than the guy who works out all the time and is obviously bigger than him) and no one ever believes him because of all the bullshit he spews.

Idolizes the other guy who plays his type in the class and literally copies everything he does except worse.

Can be really condescending at times, always taking the lead in a bad way and ordering people around. 

Everyone that doesn’t hang out with him regularly likes him because he’s charismatic while everyone who is in his class shakes their heads

Always buttering up teachers except he never takes their notes because he’s above them I guess

Rubs Virgil the wrong way the most

Always doing his own choreography in downtime during classes even though that’s really disrespectful to your current choreographer

Over indicates his acting

Is the one person anyone has ever seen Patton talk shit about

Never does his homework or reads the script like he’s supposed to -- once he didn’t know anything about Les Miserables of all things (”I think it’s French?”) and you just hear someone from the back of the room go “Didn’t you say you were in this show???”

It’s really a shame because everyone can tell that he’s a really talented singer and kind of a cool person and would be amazing if he stopped being an ass.

Signature song: “You’ll Be Back” from Hamilton

Taglist

@ironwoman359 @sandersstudies @cattonsanders

Also tagging @abraca-datass because Patton is definitely based off of her

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #deceit sanders #virgil sanders #logan sanders #roman sanders #broadway #musical theatre #headcanon #from the bitch that brought you veggie sides #amda #hamilton #avenue q

[your-fave-is-catholic]

Your Fave Is Catholic: The Gabor Sisters (Zsa Zsa Gabor, Eva Gabor, & Magda Gabor)

Known for: Beloved actresses, socialites, fashion designers, comedians, & singers from Hungary. All three of them were known primarily as big Hollywood socialites with several marriages under their belts for most of the 20th century. Magda, the eldest, was the least well known, & was mainly known for her several marriages to big celebrities, one of them being Academy Award winning actor George Sanders. Eva, the youngest, was the hardest working of the three sisters, & she was probably most well known for starring in the hit television series Green Acres. Other major acting projects of hers include The Wife of Monte Cristo, Love Island, Paris Model, The Eva Gabor Show, The Last Time I Saw Paris, My Man Godfrey, Touch of Evil, Gigi, The AristoCats, Match Game, The Rescuers & its sequel The Rescuers Down Under, & The Edge of Night. Besides acting, Eva also started a successful fashion line that creates wigs, clothing, & beauty products. Zsa Zsa, the middle child, was the most famous of the sisters, known for her big socialite personality, her modeling (she won the Miss Hungary pageant in 1936), her many marriages, & for her many acting roles. Acting projects for Zsa Zsa include We’re Not Married!, Moulin Rouge, Death of a Scoundrel, The Man Who Couldn’t Talk, Touch of Evil, Queen of Outer Space, Pepe, Make Room for Daddy, Boys Night Out, Mr. Ed, Burke’s Law, Gilligan’s Island, The Love Boat, As the World Turns, California Girls, & many many more. She was also the mother of Francesca Hilton. For reference, Zsa Zsa is the girl dressed in pink in front of the pink background, Eva is the girl dressed in white in front of the yellow background, & Magda is the black & white girl.

Evidence of Faith: Originally, all three sisters were actually of Jewish descent, as many sources seem to emphasize their Jewish heritage. However, when they moved to the United States during WWII, they all probably converted to Catholicism, whether to avoid Nazi persecution or because of their own personal change of faith. The website for the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills states that both Eva & Zsa Zsa had their funerals held at this church. There’s certainly more evidence that prove Zsa Zsa’s faith, as both a Catholic.com article & a CNN article mention that when Zsa Zsa was seriously ill back in 2010, she requested a Catholic priest deliver last rites. There isn’t much to prove Magda’s faith due to how little there is about her, but it’s safe to assume she was Catholic just like her sisters.

#Catholic #celebrities #Gabor Sisters #Zsa Zsa Gabor #Eva Gabor #Magda Gabor #actresses #socialite #Hungary #model #fashion designer #television #film #stage #movie #sisters #convert

[wp-yahoo-style-1042-yahoopa-blog]

Ivanka Trump wears $1,655 floral dress during Ethiopia trip — where her visit to textile center sparks 'sweatshops' jabs

Ivanka Trump wore an Emilia Wickstead dress for her meeting with President Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia. (Photo: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

While stepmother Melania Trump caused a commotion — and sparked accusations of glorifying colonialism — with the outfits she wore during her trip to Africa last fall, Ivanka Trump is steering clear of pith helmets and Out of Africa-esque ensembles.

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The first daughter arrived in Ethiopia on Sunday and kicked off her four-day trip — which aims to help promote economic opportunities for women in developing countries — with two long and loose dresses. The first, a light blue cotton number with black piping, is available for $138 from J.Crew. Trump then changed into Tibi’s $595 white midi-length wrap dress cinched with a brown belt.

View this post on Instagram

Joined @USAIDMarkGreen and the Ethiopian Women in Coffee Association (EWIC) for a great discussion (and coffee cupping!) with inspiring female entrepreneurs. With @USAID support, they are overcoming a lack of access to capital and growing their businesses. #WGDP

A post shared by Ivanka Trump (@ivankatrump) on Apr 14, 2019 at 5:55am PDT

Day two began with an all-black ensemble and lace veil, worn to Holy Trinity Church in the capital of Addis Ababa to pay respects to those killed in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash last month.

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Today, @USAIDMarkGreen, OPIC CEO Dave Bohigian, and I visited Holy Trinity Church in Addis Ababa to pay our respects and honor the memory of the lives lost in the tragic Ethiopian Airlines crash. My heartfelt sympathies to all the victims’ families and loved ones.

A post shared by Ivanka Trump (@ivankatrump) on Apr 15, 2019 at 12:54am PDT

The senior White House adviser opted for a more vibrant look for her Tuesday meeting with the country’s president, Sahle-Work Zewde. Trump turned to a designer beloved by royals Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle, Emilia Wickstead.

Trump’s dress is priced at $1,655. (Photo: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The mother of three made a bold splash in Wickstead’s floral Jaz Shirt Dress, priced at $1,655. The button-down midi-length dress features large pink, red and blue blooms, and was paired with white heels and a matching belt.

While Trump’s travel wardrobe hasn’t come under fire like the First Lady’s did, her trip to Ethiopia — with a stop in the Ivory Coast also planned — has. Some critics have mocked her meetings with local women, with her visit to a textile manufacturing center prompting references to allegations that workers in China for her now-defunct fashion line were exploited.

Ivanka: “Can you sew? Is $1 a day ok?”

— CB (@CBTweets7) April 14, 2019

Did you tell them how your clothes were made in sweat shops in China!

— sweet_emmee/Emily (@sweet_emmee) April 15, 2019

@CNNPolitics @cnnbrk @AC360 @donlemon @ChrisCuomo Ivanka did you really mean “export” or “exploit”?? I love how you continue to find ways to exploit cheap labor under the guise or an economic plan. You Trumps amaze me on your audacity…

— pbarragan (@pbarragan) April 14, 2019

More like … she found new slaves to create her line of clothings

— shark (@e_quality_4all) April 14, 2019

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Sarah Sanders called ‘an embarrassment’ for saying Congress isn’t ‘smart enough’ to read Trump tax returns

Ivanka Trump reportedly wants to be president, and Chelsea Handler isn’t here for it

High school student says her ‘Make America Great Again’ shirt was too controversial for school’s patriotic event

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#news #_revsp:wp.yahoo.style.us #_uuid:a68e2376-9c3f-3c08-b246-883e1f6b4d74 #ivanka trump #tibi #_author:Erin Donnelly #_lmsid:a0Vd000000AE7lXEAT #emilia wickstead #jcrew