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wexhappyxfew · 3 years

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The Nightingales of Fortune Favors the Brave

A Band of Brothers Fanfic Coming Fall 2021 (or presumably whenever Landslide finishes up!)

HELLO!! If you’re reading this, then as you can see, I’ve finally created a master post with all my Nightingales (well, not really mine THE PUBLIC’S but you’ve all gifted them to me ever so graciously, and it honestly, it means the world to me). Just to see the excitement and reception I’ve gotten from so many people in the fandom involving a female group of Pathfinders - an area of war, I have wanted to cover ever since nearly over 2 years ago I got involved in the fandom. All OC’s will have their creators name listed beside them - I did not create any of these OC’s, all credit goes to the lovely people who crafted and gifted them to me for FFTB!

Viewing where I currently am in my life, I’m going to going to college this year! I got accepted into the school I wanted, the program I wanted, even a scholarship! And I’m beyond excited. I really wanted to have something there for me when college does finally, you know, HAPPEN, and so Fortune Favors the Brave was the only way to go! To have a wonderful group of Nightingales, of female Pathfinders in the Band of Brothers fandom, seemed to be the way to go. Updates and such will definitely be different - I’m picking up more work hours this year, probably even summer classes, night classes, weekend classes - whatever I can do to benefit my degree and myself, I’m taking the opportunity.

And so, updates will presumably be quite different, depending on a variety of things, but...this will be my college story! No matter how many years it takes to complete and update and write, this will be the thing I have with me through it all for when I need a mental break from school! And I am beyond excited for when I do finally get to share this story more than anything!

We have such a great group of OCs here - different backgrounds, different reasons for joining, different creators who gifted them to me, different friendships, relationships and abundances of sisterhood and brotherhood moments. I’m truly beyond excited to showcase the Pathfinders side of the war in the light of 16 female OCs, whose stories will be told through their viewpoints based on different episodes whether whole or split!

So thank you ALL!! These past 2 years have been a joy in the fandom and let’s hope for another few more! I’ve managed 3 fics and 4 books total and I’m excited to bring, presumably, my FINAL Band of Brothers fic in the fandom to you all in the near future. Thank you!! <3

THE NIGHTINGALES

Team C DZ C for 506th PIR, 501st PIR

-> 2/506 PIR (Stick 2/Plane #4)

-- TOCCOA VETERANS --

Team Leader

Captain Eleanor Graham - @basilone

Eleanor Graham had never met a challenge she couldn’t conquer - the eldest of four and a farmer’s daughter, teamwork and diligence were drilled into her mind like clockwork, along with being as much of a leader in the eyes of her family as she could. There was more to life than a farmer’s wife for her future though, no matter how much she adored the farm her family had grown to craft from the ground up. Iowa brought no opportunity except the farm life deemed fit for her, so upon seeing the advertisement “ It’s Your Fight Too “, OCS had never seemed like a better choice in her eyes. Because it was all their fights - man, woman, child, anyone - it was a World War, a fight for all their lives, for human lives. And with the capability to obtain Captain just before leaving for Camp Toccoa, it solidified her position for not only leading in Easy Company, but leading the Nightinagles - the first stick of female Pathfinders.

Assistant Team Leader

Lieutenant Florence Godfrey - @pxpeyewynn

A British lady and an artist at heart, from the little town of Avebury, set inside Wiltshire of Great Britain, her father made it big in New York just as the war that swarmed throughout Europe, erupted into spitfire. And suddenly thrust into the world of an America before war, was unsettling. Her country fought while America remained neutral. Yet, when the advertisement flooded throughout New York City - she couldn’t help but take it as her only way to get into war. OCS was beyond enough challenges, but walking in as a Lieutenant for Easy and for the Pathfinders, she was no longer the little girl who prayed at night to whomever was above to end the people’s suffering, or avoided interaction to instead draw in her notebook. She was a Lieutenant, and she was a woman at war - yet what was she even fighting for?

Eureka Operators (each equipped with a Eureka Transponder each)

Sergeant (NCO) Marie Reynal - @thoughpoppiesblow

Grandmère Reynal always held her at night, under the dark night sky and sang in her soulful Cajun French, the words flowing from her lips and remaining an ever-present comfort in times where food was hardly ever on the table, or when she had to watch the other girls at school get the latest Mary-Janes and she was stuck with her old ones. Her grandmère taught her to appreciate the small things in life. But when the “It’s Your Fight Too” poster came out in the papers, Marie Reynal knew there were larger things in life than the newest Mary-Janes at school. Packing up what she could, Marie headed out to Camp Toccoa, equipped with nothing but some clothes and her fiddle.

Corporal Edith Lockner - @mercurygray

Remember to look up - her mother would always tell her that. Especially when things on their little farm got hard in Stanford, Illinois where the only thing that occurred there was the wagering price of corn that fluctuated with the ever-changing times. So...she figured that’s why she always tended to look to the stars when her mother would tell her that before bed each night, looking out the wooden window under her quilt as a cold draft blew in. She always imagined herself up there, amongst the stars and for once seeing what the stars saw. But to be up with those stars and to get to study them, she’d need a lot more money than what ever amount the corn tended to bring in. And the Airborne with a fantastic pay grade, along with the Pathfinders and their earnings -- it seemed her ticket out. Maybe there won’t be stars - but anything’s got to be better than here.

Wireman

Corporal Chiyoko ‘Luna’ Omori - @papersergeant-pencilsoldier

Know your place. Eyes down, mouth shut. And most importantly, honor your family. Chiyoko Omori has never been one to step out of line, nor has she been one to speak when otherwise not spoken too. Trained in the art of kendo, the Japanese martial arts that her ancestors trained in, she leads with discipline and integrity amongst the group of Nightingales training as Pathfinders, as the solo wireman of the group. Her intelligence, more than once, has saved her and in war might just save her again and again. Her father’s garage had always been home to a multitude of repairs and many she had learned to do herself. But there she had been Chiyoko. But for war, she must forget who Chiyoko is and embody the only other name besides her family name that she will ever know - Luna.

Lightmen (each equipped with 2 Halophane Lamps each)

Staff-Sergeant (Senior NonCom) Sarah Prowse - @junojelli

For once in her life Sarah Prowse would not have her twin brother by her side. He hadn’t been by her side for years after he went back home to fight with the English and lost his life at Dunkirk. But this was real, this was happening - and the Pathfinders withheld the opportunity to prove to herself that Edmund had died with valor and courage. And he would not have died in vain. The nannies had always said they were inseparable but they weren’t those kids anymore. This was real life. And in real life, there was love and loss and pain. And sometimes the only way to get through it all was to do the thing to distract you most from it all. Some days she wished her family could’ve just stayed in England - maybe Mum would still be here. With her sharp mind, and the ability to read people like an open book, rising to the rank Staff-Sergeant had come easily - reading the field and reading people were pretty similar...right?

Corporal Jean Dawson - @tvserie-s-world

Life in Louisville, Kentucky had always been a sort of cozy-comfort that Jean Doxon had always enjoyed. The weekend fairgrounds filled to the brim with people enjoying the night life it offered, early summers filled with watching her father race horses around the tracks sprinkled throughout the town and nights by her boyfriend, Glenn Hartley, where the sky seemed to stretch forever into the night. That is before the war sent him away to the Pacific. And their only form of communication was reduced to letters, with pressed flowers and the hint of rose perfume. Jean refused to mope about, when she knew this war was hardly far from over. Quick-thinking on her feet, and a town champion for knot-tying in her days in elementary, she packed what she could and left for Georgia the second she was able to take the first train out. The Airborne had much to offer, but more importantly so did the Pathfinders.

Corporal Mercy Codonoa - @whoahersheybars

Mercy Codona always been a traveler, never staying in one place and always on the move to somewhere new that she might've never quite been before. This meant new neighbors, new friends and a new way of life. Something the United States readily offered. Each new town in a new state had a different way of life than the next. She figured that's why she was so quick to adapt to her surroundings - nothing was ever permanent, nor set in stone. Neither was family. Orphaned by 17 and left to fend for herself, left in the care of her mother's estranged sister, Mercy took the liberty by herself to do what she could to support herself. Taking up odd jobs in each town she traveled to and managing what she could to feed herself. But she was proud of her Romani-Croat heritage and what her ancestors had done in their past lives. She intended on continuing what their stories had not finished. If only she could continue to support herself. It was only when the "It's Your Fight Too" showed up newly on the Fort Wayne clipboard by the post office in April 1942 and then and there in that moment did she decided - with the extra money the Airborne offered, along with that of the Pathfinders, she'd be able to support herself in the future as well as possibly find people with the same dreams as herself for their futures, and for once finally belong.

Private Kennedy Rutlidge - MINE

Kennedy Docherty had always had quite a wild and exciting mind, always having a new idea, or a new method on selling the most recent paper that got her a few cents an hour. All through her schooling years and even up to her senior year, she took to the busiest corner on Lake Ave and Lyell Ave, calling out to sell her papers, before heading home for the night and running her normal routine the very next day. She spent summers at Lake Ontario, in her grandmother's home on the lake, where some of her fondest memories of her youth had been born. She always believed that's why she was always fascinated with flying, like one of the birds or hawks that flew out across the lake in the early morning. What she'd give to get that feeling just once in her life, away from school and away from the constant need to make as much money as she could to help with the family. The words "It's Your Fight Too" scrawled across the paper in early April had caught her eye within a second and left her running home just that night to break the news that she was signing up. And almost a week later, she found herself packed on a train towards Camp Toccoa, Georgia, bright eyes and the last bit of innocence fading from sight.

Security Personnel

Sergeant (NCO) Alexandra Calypso - @iilovemusic12us

A Boston girl who grew up with her proud Jewish faith, with a Greek mother, knew hard work and sometimes it was pushing yourself to the very limit beyond what the human body could handle sometimes. So that meant falling, scrapping your knee a few times, sucking up the tears, sending a quick prayer to God and moving on with your life. Life had always been like that - they weren’t the richest, nor the poorest, but there wasn’t ever enough food on the table or enough money to fix the roof, or even to keep the mortgage paid. But her parents never stopped working. And she supposed what drove her to the Airborne and to the Pathfinders was seeing how hard they worked. And they paid well she had heard. She could work with it. And if anything, the Pathfinders were more accepting than any school in Boston she’d been to.

Sergeant Nellie Shaw - @hellitwasyoufirstsergeant

Hailing from a small, coastal town in Maine, the proud Scot wanted more than anything to stay out of war when it finally came knocking on America’s doorstep. But Nellie Shaw, loyal as saint, knew that there was one thing she could do for this country and that was fight. Give her a pack of cigarettes or a bottle of gin, and she’d go in swinging for the war effort, even with her grumpy morning attitude that slowly became infamous in her elementary school days among the school children. She had no purpose on a farm on a mountain side anymore, rather destined to do what part of the fight she could. Taking Greer Riddell under her wing, the fellow Scot befriended the least likely person to enjoy her company and yet Nellie’s easy-going companionship slowly became integral to the entirety of Easy Company and the Nightingales.

Private Greer Riddell - @leighinthesky

Schruz, Nevada was home for 21 years and by the looks of it, home for the rest of her life. A bee farm in a tiny town wasn’t idle for the rest of her life, but if she never got the money for college to get out of the small town, she feared she wouldn’t ever leave. And knowing the military had offered 16 women a stick of a plane to get their shot at becoming Pathfinders for the Army was her ticket straight to Toccoa, Georgia for training. The pay could send her not only to college, but could get her out of that tiny town which had confined her to nothing but her family and a cute little bee farm where hard work always paid off. Don’t be fooled by her subdue and withdrawn nature, the second her hands touched the rifle - the field was hers and yet so was the valley.

Codebreaker [Betchley Park Member]

Sergeant Laverne Robinson - @vintagelavenderskies

For her 23 years of life, Laverne Robinson had known just about every spot in London where you could catch a smoke break and not get caught by one of the older women and get scolded for doing so. She blamed her older brother, he blamed her. It was a mutual thing. But that had been the only thing to fear in London - until war struck, which sent every eligible man off to fight for the effort. Her brother included, leaving her staring out the rain speckled window all alone as the smell of her mother's soup wafted past her nose. Yet, like many women of the time, she wanted to fight too. Fluent in French and German and skilled in mathematics and code-work, Bletchley Park seemed the best fit. Working on codes, both sculpting and breaking them inside the building, keeping her lips shut and going on about her normal day when not inside the institution, life didn't seem as dreary as she had anticipated. Because she knew she was apart of the effort to end this war. That was until, she was called upon in late March 1944 to join up with the 101st Airborne with the first female stick of 12 pathfinders to make the jump into Normandy and assist them in anyway possible. Laverne knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity and if her brother were there, he would've told her to run with it. Becoming a professor of mathematics would have to wait.

REPLACEMENTS

Corporal Alessandra Lisi - @tvserie-s-world

Alessandra Lisi had never known her parents. She was always told that sickness had taken them when she was just a child. Her brothers had been older than her and had tried to protect her from the sight of her parents dying. And so when their Nonna had taken them into her home without hesitation, Alessandra grew to look to her Nonna as the other parental figure she’d ever had. Of course, her brothers were always there for her, protective as they were, they never let her get into any sort of trouble without hearing about it first. Alessandra grew to adore her Italian heritage, cooking with Nonna on Sunday’s, inviting family over to enjoy the meals and even getting to stir the sauce as Nonna dropped in fresh, cut tomatoes. That was life and it had always been life as such. But when war sent her 3 brothers away, she knew she would not go down without a fight either. Upon receiving the paper in November 1943, she noticed the cover page withheld the picture of 12 women, adorned in jump wings as well as military grade goggles and scarves standing with wide smiles and bright eyes in front of a C-47, the title 'The Nightingales', lying just underneath. Female Pathfinders. If her parents were here, they would've been telling her what Nonna would've been telling her now. Fight for what you believe in, because while there's life, there's hope.

Private First Class Bettie Smith - @sgtxliptons86

Brooklyn, New York had it all - the kids in the streets, the shops on the corners where you could get a piece of candy for as little as 5 cents, even the corner stores in the summer where you could get ice cream for a dime. And as Bettie Smith grew older, running the streets of Brooklyn became like a weekend job - checking in on the younger kids of friends, riding bikes past the floral shops and picking up flowers for her sister, getting a bag of charcoal for her father. Even throwing some curses towards the boys who would heckle her for the way she wore her hair or the old shoes laced on her feet. Her older sister wasn’t too pleased with it all, but ever since Ma had passed, she seemed to let it slide - it was an escape for Bettie. So when war came knocking on the Smith’s door, anger, yet pride for their country filled the home, as well as the streets of New York, as more men and women began signing up for the cause. More friends left to join the effort, leaving Bettie there on the concrete doorstep. So when Bettie received the daily paper in November 1943, showcasing the 12 female pathfinders of the 101st Airborne, front and center for all to see, Bettie took it in quite large strides and took the first train of December 1943 to Fort Benning, Georgia.

Private Annie Laine - @wereinadell

Annie Laine, the daughter of Finnish immigrants, had always dreamed of leaving the quiet countryside her parents had always preferred for their family for the big cities of the Midwest - maybe she’d go to Chicago and study theater, or maybe she’d go and finally attend college in Milwaukee. Anything to get out of the small town she currently resided in. But the countryside had brought alone its perks - orienteering and hunting were big in the Laine family and every child, her 3 brothers, her and her sister, had all been taught the noble art. Swimming the streams, fishing in the lakes, taking hikes through the forests and coming back with a deer for dinner - life had always been quite peaceful Annie felt. But she could always hope that one day it changed. And it seemed war rung those bells quite early on. Annie was tired of structured life and if anything, she knew that the start of structured life in the military would fall quite nearly to shambles once they hit war. The November 1943 issue of the daily newspaper brought upon not only sudden interest in the military, but in that of the female pathfinders who were paving their way in all of military history to be the first stick to jump into continental occupied-Europe. All it took was what cash she had saved for college and a small suitcase to get her on the way to Fort Benning, Georgia.

Private Marla Hughes - @hellitwasyoufirstsergeant

Lafayette, Louisiana had been home all her life - Baton Rouge just to the East and New Orleans just a little further. It had always been home for as long as she could remember. With the fancy parties her father always allotted for the family to attend, talking with the men in pristine suits, or the women with the big hats, some days Marla Hughes just wished to be able to go outside and enjoy nature instead of suffocating amongst the people who seemed to live in a world that didn’t even seem like real life. She supposed that was when she had hit her breaking point and joined the Airborne in Fort Benning, Georgia. She was tired of the life that did absolutely nothing for her. There was more to this world, so much more and yet she was confined to a party dress and an expensive glass of wine that tasted bitter when it rushed down the throat. There were small bars, where the music played, and you could dance until your feet grew tired, there were beer bottles awaiting to be clinked together with friends and there were people beside the stuck-up society she was forced into. The Airborne accepted anyone far and wide - and maybe she could strip of the posh life given to her and finally be set free.

THESE ARE THE NIGHTINGALES!!!

> if you have any questions, feel free to send them in! if not, it’s all good! these are our 16 nightingales! :) thank you to all of you who sent them in back in early December! It’s been an honor to craft these wonderful OC’s!

#band of brothers #fortune favors the brave #the nightingales #pathfinders #easy company #bob fic #band of brothers fandom #band of brothers oc #master list post

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

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I’ve often thought that a common sentiment in the public that people carefully avoid mentioning around Bruce - but not around Dick - is that Dick was adopted as a ‘consolation prize’ after Jason’s death. Ugly thought, true, but from the perspective of a public who loves gossipping about the Waynes and who have made their opinions of Dick all too clear in both canon and fanfic.....like, from their perspective, how must it look that Bruce raised Dick from the age of eight without ever making him anything other than his ward....and then they had that big fight apparently, that led to Dick moving out and basically being persona non grata around Gotham and never seen coming home.....whereas Jason was adopted by Bruce within months and was constantly seen being called son by Bruce, etc.

And then again as far as the public knows, Dick Grayson only ‘comes back’ after Jason’s death and he and Bruce seem to slowly be working on rebuilding their relationship....and a couple years after Jason died, and several years after Dick’s wardship expired on his eighteenth birthday without any mention from Bruce Wayne as to his now ex-ward’s status or even where he was or what he was doing with his life....no indication that Bruce was ever seen celebrating Dick’s eighteenth birthday or expressing any sentiment on what was effectively the severing of their legal ties at that point, and the end of Bruce’s obligations to Dick, no sign of him in Dick’s life or vice versa in years to follow, Dick rarely if ever seen keeping company with his somewhat little brother Jason....

Its only years after all of this that Bruce finally adopts Dick.....or like, people guess that’s what happens? Its not clear, exactly, because one day Dick’s got no legal ties to Bruce and hasn’t for years, and the next he’s been adopted. There’s no real scoop, nobody that got the exclusive about the event, because as far as anyone can tell....there was no event. There’s no story. Just he wasn’t adopted and now he was, and....neither Dick Grayson nor Bruce Wayne seem to have a comment on this, when it happened, WHY it happened, why NOW? After all this time? Why not earlier? Its just...there. Bruce Wayne, who famously throws parties for anything, pretty much, makes no official announcement about his son’s new status, there’s no party or celebration to honor it or mark the occasion, mark the adoption as noteworthy whatsoever.....

Because after all, it was just Dick and Bruce in the Batcave, Bruce handing him the adoption papers to sign and saying this is long overdue and doesn’t change anything and he’s always felt this way anyway.....

And to a guy who has not so secretly wanted this for YEARS, who has had Bruce literally throw his own knowledge of that not so secret yearning of his YEARS ago and thus who KNOWS full and well that its absolutely BULLSHIT to claim that ‘he’s always felt this way and knows Dick always knew that and didnt need a piece of paper so its not like this changes anything’.....like this had to be anticlimactic as HELL, but what do you say to that? How do you tell the dad who has caused you no small amount of angst and hurt and uncertainty as to where you even stand in his life that no, he didn’t take it for granted that Bruce felt this way, like, say, when Dick’s eighteenth birthday came and went with no sign of Bruce, no attempt from Bruce whatsoever to express in any way that he still wanted Dick in his life, still wanted to BE in Dick’s life, even without them legally bound to each other any longer.......how do you give your dad any of the well-earned shit he DESERVES for taking his precious time on this due to his own rejection and inadequacy issues in the moment he is at least FINALLY offering the thing you’ve wanted for so long and saying at least some of the things you’ve spent so long wanting to hear.....like...you can’t? Not then at least?

Whatever the intentions of the writers, the sheer anticlimacticness surrounding Dick’s actual adoption kinda....backed him into a corner where he couldn’t really express any emotion other than gratitude or happiness over the adoption without coming off as a total ungrateful asshole.....even though you kinda gotta wonder.....what did he tell his best friends about it? How did he relay the story to Roy, to Donna, etc.....the people who actually KNOW what this meant to Dick and how badly he wanted it, and would want him to dish on every single moment of what happened, they wanted to savor it.....and thus who would of course know the second he hesitated that something was wrong, Bruce had done something to fuck up even Dick’s biggest wish, if Dick was obviously trying not to say anything bad or negative or hint that it wasn’t like.....how he’d envisioned it or what all he’d been hoping for....but also not wanting to tell them the truth without embellishment, because you KNOW Donna and Roy and Wally and Garth would just be sitting there like:

“Wait. Hold up. You’re telling me you and Bruce had just got done with a case, you were getting ready to go home, you’re both STILL IN COSTUME, and in the BATCAVE, freaking ALFRED isn’t even present, and Bruce just.....kinda hands you the papers and pen and says here, I know I should have done this years ago but I really mean it, be my kid please? THAT’S IT????”

Yeah. I do NOT see that retelling ever having played well with the Titans, which makes me suspect Dick kinda...delayed in telling them until he could sneak it in and mention it as something that had happened awhile back and he’d just been too busy with hero stuff to make a big deal about it at the time and now it felt weird like it’d been too long. Because imo he wouldn’t have WANTED the Titans to weigh in on how they REALLY felt about how Bruce went about it, because he was likely trying to hold on to all the POSITIVE emotions it’d kindled for him and not like......focus so much on the Bruce-ness of it all making the approach something of a letdown after all the time he’d spent waiting and wanting.

And like.....when you’ve gone about adopting the kid you have a monumental track record of fucking up on telling how you really feel about him....in such a way that he probably felt awkward directly relaying to his best friends in a ‘omg this is huge news, tell us everything’ kinda story....

YOU’VE FUCKED IT UP.

But anyway, point is, Dick’s actual adoption came and went with such a HUGE lack of fanfare in any and every community, superhero and public, and probably didn’t even become KNOWN until someone went to write something about them and got fact-checked like “according to public records, Richard Grayson IS actually the legally adopted son and heir of Bruce Wayne as of this date etc etc”.....and when THAT news hit the public, how else were they going to view things?

Like, a gossip hungry readership not known to view Dick Grayson favorably were never going to think “oh its probably due to personal feelings about his parents and not wanting to replace them, I bet he was the one who never wanted to be adopted before now, that makes sense.”

LOLOL. Like. No. That’s not how the DC public sees it, I bet you anything.

Nah, in my head its FAR more likely that they looked at all of that and did THIS math instead:

Bruce Wayne takes in a young circus boy out of the goodness of his heart, raises him from the age of eight, but never makes him anything other than his ward. Good thing too, probably, given they have some sort of falling out when the Grayson boy is older, and the kid leaves town and good riddance, we hear he’s up in New York partying it up with models and has some alien superhero girlfriend, but nobody’s heard so much as his name mentioned around Wayne in ages so he’s not exactly Gotham news anymore. But no matter, Brucie’s gone and done it again, taken in another young orphan but this time its a local boy he adopted as his son right from the word go! Now that’s a story!

PLUS

Bruce Wayne’s adopted son Jason tragically dies all too young. In the wake of his loss, it appears Brucie’s making an attempt to mend fences with his former ward, or more likely, he’s gone running back to cozy up to Daddy Warbucks in an attempt to milk some more money out of that softie’s heart with a well-rehearsed conciliatory gesture.

PLUS

A couple years later, people start finding out that Bruce Wayne apparently did actually legally adopt Dick now, after all this time, though neither has so much as mentioned it publicly until now, for some reason.

EQUALS

My guess for how the public views it:

Bruce Wayne took in Dick and raised him as his ward but never really felt THAT way about the kid, not like Jason Todd-Wayne who he took one look at and knew ‘this is my kid’....but after losing Jason tragically, and with his family-owned company and board of directors being after him for some time about the importance of an heir in the optics of the dynastic corporate sphere.....Brucie probably decided to try and make the most of the one remaining sorta son he had left, and make a go of reconnecting with the former ward who was CLEARLY never his first choice to adopt as his proper son and heir before, but now apparently is good enough.

*Shrugs* That’s my honest bet for something Dick’s probably heard about his adoption more than a few times: that he was adopted as a consolation prize after Bruce’s ‘real son’ Jason died and Bruce felt driven to try and surround himself with whatever semblance of family he had left.

I mean, what else are you gonna get when you offer the public a paparazzi-enabling, glamorous sneak peek of your life at all other times, and absolute nada for the occasion of finally adopting the kid you’ve raised since age eight with absolutely NOTHING to show for it, not even a family friend who can be quoted as having been there to bear witness?

tl;dr - After all the damn parties and galas Bruce trotted Dick out to whether he wanted to or not, because that sorta thing is just what came with being a Wayne (the Wayne Dick wasn’t), the :LEAST Bruce owed Dick after years of estrangement and doubts directly inspired by him and his unwillingness to even OFFER Dick the option of adoption if he wanted it.....was to invite him to a party celebrating Dick himself and showing the world once and for all that he very much did want Dick in his life and as a part of his family, nothing less.

Dick’s never hated PARTIES, Bruce you giant dumbass. Dick hated going to parties where people talked about how he didn’t belong or how he was nothing but a PR charity stunt for Bruce.

Dick, in point of fact, might have very very MUCH enjoyed an actual public celebration where for the first time in his life, NO ONE could claim he didn’t belong or try and insinuate he was nothing but a charity case to Bruce. An event where the only point was to show tangible proof to all the naysayers: Bruce Wayne is Dick Grayson’s father and Dick is his son, and not a damn thing less.

THAT gala, Dick might have been more than happy to attend.

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fourdaysofrain · 5 years

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A Short, Sharp Shock

Prompt: “You just called me Dad.”

(This is my gift to @aslanscompass for the IronDadGiftExchange! I had a lot of fun writing it, I hope you enjoy!)

Read on AO3

Peter would have to wear sunscreen next time he came to the lab. That, or convince Tony to buy some curtains. The summer sun cut perfectly through the window and beat down on the back of his neck as he leaned over his workspace. He rubbed it absentmindedly. There were too many small parts on the table in front of him to move to another area if he wanted to escape the heat. Besides, he only had to wait another hour or so for the sun to set past the window. He shook his head, trying to ignore the heat as he continued to take apart his drone.

If he ignored his uncomfortably hot neck, it was actually turning out to be a good day. He got out of school a week earlier, and this was the first of hopefully many days spent in the lab while May worked a shift at the hospital. Even though he spent most of his free time taking down criminals with no back-up, May still didn’t want him to be by himself in the apartment for too long. Thankfully, Tony was willing to step in and babysit (his words, not Peter’s).

Tony was working on the table behind him. If Peter were to describe this to himself from a few years ago, he would have been sure it was a dream. As it was, the only way Peter knew he was still there was from the intermittent clinks of tools being picked up and placed down. Their companionable silence was only broken by the soft music playing through FRIDAY’s speakers. It took Peter a while to admit Tony normally played music that was too loud for his enhanced senses, but once he did, Tony made sure to keep it at a comfortable level.

They had just finished with their lunch break and Peter had snuck in another couple of slices of pizza back into the workshop despite Tony’s only-semi-joking glare. He continued to eat them as he worked on his project. His suit’s drone had been a little jerky the last time it flew, so he was hoping to get it back into working order by the time the night was over. A drop of sauce fell onto one of the bigger pieces and, without thinking, Peter licked his thumb and swiped it across the spill to clean it off. As a reward, he got a short, sharp shock from the piece. He hissed through his teeth.

“Bad…” he scolded, rubbing his thumb and forefinger together to try and get rid of the buzzy feeling.

“Yeah, Pete?” Tony called from a few feet away. Peter looked up at the mention of his name just to see Tony freeze.

“What’s up, Mr. Stark?” Peter cautiously asked, his forehead creasing.

“You just called me Dad,” Tony spoke as if he was talking down a wild animal. Peter’s eyebrows flew upward.

“I--” Peter blinked a few times. His brain was having a difficult time processing the words Tony said. He shook his head a bit, hoping to make sense of the situation. “No, I--”

“It’s okay kid, I know it must be weird having me be so involved in your life. I can back off if you want me to.” Tony took off his tinted glasses as he stood from his chair.

“No, Mr. Stark--” Peter was about to say he wanted anything but that when Tony interrupted him, continuing with his rushed speech.

“I don’t want you to think I’m replacing your father for you. Or your uncle, for that matter. I figured it was only a matter of time before this happened.” Peter felt like he was going to get whiplash from this conversation. Tony was starting to pace around his desk and Peter could tell he was getting anxious.

“Only a matter of time? Listen, Mr. Stark--” Tony was a freight train. Peter couldn’t get a word in.

“If you want to call me Dad, I’m okay with it. Really. It’ll just take some getting used to, but as I said, I’m trying to break the cycle of shame. There’ll be some ribbing from Rhodey, but I can handle that. I’ll make sure I get the brunt of it. Wait ‘till he sees me tell you about the time I caught him cuddling his pillow like a--”

“Tony!” Peter’s shriller-than-usual voice finally got his attention. Tony’s head snapped to Peter, his mouth hanging slightly open before he shut it with a click. Peter huffed out a breath before saying, “I didn’t call you Dad.”

Tony’s eyebrows drew together as he said, “No, you did. I just heard you say it.”

“I said bad, with a B. Droney shocked me.” Peter looked back over his shoulder at the offending piece of tech. This was all Droney’s fault.

“I definitely heard Dad. FRIDAY?” They didn’t have to wait more than a second before FRIDAY came online.

“Peter’s right, boss.” FRIDAY’s Irish lilt washed over the room and Tony slumped back into his chair.

“Oh. Nevermind then, forget I said anything.” Tony cleared his throat and put his glasses back on before returning to the tools laying on his desk.

Peter turned back around and looked at the drone guts in front of him. He tried to remember where he was at in the process, but couldn’t stop thinking about the way Tony looked at him when he thought he had called him Dad. For just a moment before he closed it off, Peter saw a look of pure affection and pride on his face. He could count on one hand the number of times he’s seen Tony look like that, and he wouldn’t need most of his fingers.

The same piece shocked Peter again while he was lost in his thoughts. He made sure not to say anything out loud this time, instead just letting the slight zing make its way through the tip of his finger.

Tony was the main male adult in Peter’s life. It didn’t help that he had looked up to him since even before he saved his life at the Stark Expo in 2010. Peter did see him as a father figure, but he couldn’t just say that to him. Tony’d probably be weirded out by the creepy Spider-Kid that’s overstepping his personal boundaries. He sighed.

They had to talk about this. Peter knew how Tony avoided anything to do with emotions. If he didn’t say anything now, they would both just ignore it and never bring it up again. He had to bite the bullet. It was the mature thing to do-- May would be proud of him for being so adult. He chewed on the inside of his cheek as he thought about where to start.

“Mr. Stark,” Tony looked up from his hands at the sound of Peter’s voice, “do you want me to call you Dad?”

There’s a dull clang as Tony loses his grip on the screwdriver he was holding.

“Give a guy some warning, Pete,” he finally sputters, his voice reedier than normal.

“You’re avoiding the question.”

“Yeah, I’m avoiding the question, it’s a big question!” Tony sputters out nervously, and Peter tries to hide his discomfort at the slight increase in volume.

“That’s-- I’m not mad at you.” He lowers his voice back to a normal level. He sighs and runs a hand over his face, removing his glasses in the process. “Listen, you can call me whatever makes you comfortable. I just assumed that at some point, you’d call me Dad on accident. I did it to Jarvis a few times when I was younger, it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Plenty of tykes call their teachers Mom or Dad, and I’m certainly teaching you enough.”

“I’m not ashamed. I just haven’t called anyone Dad in almost a decade, so it’s not going to happen by accident.”

A beat of silence. Peter hated the sad look that crossed Tony’s face when he alluded to his dead parents. There was only so much pity he could handle in one day. He pretended to be focused on the hem of his shirt so he didn’t have to look at Tony.

“You still haven’t answered the question,” Peter murmured.

He didn’t know why he was pushing this question so hard. What did he want Tony to say? It’s not like Peter wanted to call him Dad, he just… wanted some validation, he supposed. It was so hard to get a read on Tony.

“I don’t know, Pete. I don’t know. Calling me Dad is a lot of pressure and I’m definitely not the ‘Dad-type.’” Tony punctuated his words with finger-quotes. He looked away from Peter and added in a lower voice, “For a while, I thought that I could be.”

Peter looked back up to Tony to see him leaning over his desk. He looked tired. Peter had read the articles online about him and Captain America. He’d also read a few of the many stories published about Tony’s life. He knew that the people close to him kept slipping through his fingers. Peter didn’t want to be another name on that evergrowing list.

“I mean,” Peter let the words flow slowly out of his mouth, feeling the curve of every vowel, “you don’t have to be called Dad to be a big part of someone’s life. I never called Ben my dad and I don’t call May my mom, but they both still mean a lot to me even though I call them by their names.”

He let his nervous words hang in the air, hoping that Tony would understand what he was saying without him having to explicitly say it. Tony was his family in a way that didn’t have a label on a standard family tree. He was paternal in an estranged uncle sort of way, with just a dash of older brother. Peter could already picture him being there for his graduation, his wedding, the birth of his child… But he’s only been actually spending time with him for a handful of months, so he couldn’t shove all of his emotional orphan-baggage onto him. He glanced up at Tony, expecting the worst.

Tony was looking at him with warmth in his eyes. The tension in his shoulders had finally started to dissipate and he looked away with a small grin. Whatever message Tony had interpreted, he must have liked it. Peter found himself smiling in return.

“Alright kid, back to work.” If Peter didn’t know better, he would have thought Tony was ignoring what he said. But he knew that Tony kept his cards close to his chest; he showed the majority of his affection without words. “I want that drone to be in ship-shape before you go on patrol again. Can’t have Queens’ favorite vigilante going around with a faulty suit, imagine what the press would say.”

Peter couldn’t suppress his smile as he turned back around and started working again. He was finally able to focus clearly on it. As he continued searching for the fault in the electronics, Tony started to hum along to the music.

After a few hours had passed, Droney was finally flying smoothly around the lab. Peter was busy piloting it around the machinery when he felt Tony clap his hand on his shoulder.

“Good work, kid.” Tony’s words caused a flush of pride in Peter’s chest. He mumbled a thank you. “And for what it’s worth, I like having someone else around in the lab. I’m looking forward to the rest of the summer.” Peter tried to control his inner child at being praised by Iron Man. He knew a statement in passing like that was the Tony Stark equivalent of singing praises from the rooftop.

“I am too. I’ve just got that Decathalon field trip to MoMA next week, ‘cause they scheduled it for after school got out for some reason. But after that, I’ll be over here practically every day. I mean, if that’s cool with you. I don’t want to--” Tony cut him off with a slight squeeze on his shoulder.

“Kid, May and I already talked about it. You can come over whenever you want. God knows she deserves a break from putting up with a certain spiderling.” Peter huffed dramatically as Tony took his hand off of his shoulder and leaned against the desk. “Speaking of a certain spiderling, we need to take a break so you don’t get scoliosis, hunched over the table like that. What do you want to do? Your choice, as long as it involves a bit of movement.”

Peter thought for a second before lighting up with an idea.

“Do you want to go patrolling with me?” He hoped he didn’t come off as too excited. He leaned back in his chair casually (he hoped). Tony smiled knowingly at him.

“I was thinking of something more along the lines of walking to the freezer to get some ice cream, but huh. Saving kittens from trees, helping with directions, returning bikes? I certainly don’t have anything better to do.” He gave Peter’s shoulder another pat before walking back to his own workspace where his nanotech housing unit sat. Peter couldn’t stop a grin from spreading across his face.

“Go get your suit, Underoos. We’ve got some petty criminals to scare the bejeesus out of.”

Peter wasted no time in grabbing his backpack and finding a bathroom to change into his suit. Once it was on, he gave himself a moment to bask in the state of his life. He thought he would never recover from losing Ben. But now, about to fly around New York with Iron Man, he felt happy. Genuinely happy. He grinned at himself in the mirror from behind the mask before rushing out to meet up with Tony. He hoped summer would never end.

He had all the time in the world.

Tag List: @ironfamjam @addi-is-amazing @mysterio-is-a-little-bitch

#aslanscompass #irondadgiftexchange #woo my first prompt!#if anyone wants to send me other prompts... i would not be opposed....#but i might not get to them in a timely fashion lmao #this was a really fun event!#im hype to see what my guy wrote for me :)#especially cause i kinda forgot what prompt i gave lol #anyways #art writes #irondad #iron dad #spiderman #spider-man #iron man #marvel #mcu #iron dad and spider son

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somedayonbroadway · 4 years

Note

Woah- Harry Potter AU please?

Okay! So here’s my Harry Potter AU that’s a little more focused on Jack and the boys (a completely different AU from the one featuring the Delanceys)

Harry Potter AU

Characters

Jack Kelly- Harry Potter

Crutchie Morris- Hermione Granger

Racetrack Higgins- Ron Weasley

Katherine Plumber- Ginny Weasley

Warden Snyder- Lord Voldemort

Thaddeus May (OC)- Sirus Black

Todd Kloppman- Dumbledore

Obadiah Wiesel- Snape

Vince- Draco

Oscar Delancey- Crabbe

Morris Delancey- Goyle

Buttons- Dobby

Teddy (Roosevelt, but we’ll call him Teddy)- Hagrid

Smalls- Luna Lovegood

David Jacobs- Neville Longbottom

Miss Medda Larkin- McGonagall

Mike- George Weasley

Ike- Fred Weasley

Albert DaSilva- Percy Weasley

Henry- Charlie Weasley

Darcy- Bill Weasley

Pulitzer- Arthur Weasley

Emmaline Pulitzer (OC)- Molly Weasley

These are all the characters that I have so far, because there’s so many other characters in both of these fandoms it’s hard to commit to having each person in just one place 😂

If you have any suggestions for which other characters should go where, Lemme know!

The Story

Jack Kelly is an orphan. He has been ever since he was a baby.

He grows up in foster homes all over the place, mostly Harlem and Brooklyn until he is settled in Manhattan with an uptight couple and their snotty son want nothing more than to look like saints to the rest of the world. That, and after the systems finds out that the wife is actually Jack’s estranged aunt, he’s stuck there. (Don’t have the Dursleys down yet. Any ideas?)

Jack’s aunt basically disowned her sister after finding out that she was a witch.

Anyways

Jack is stuck there from the age of six and made somewhat of a servant in the household. His room is the broom closet beneath the stairs and he gets locked in at night, only to have his cousin wake him up by jumping up and down on the stairs over and over again.

From a young age, Jack is well aware of the fact that he is different. Odd things have always happened to him. Like magic.

But he never believed in magic. At least, the last time he’d said he had his aunt had slapped him across the face. So he kept quiet about the idea until nearly his eleventh birthday.

He gets a letter. One his uncle won’t let him read.

Upset by this, but unable to argue in fear of being locked back in the closet or starved, Jack lets it go. Until another letter comes.

Letters come everyday at a constant and Jack’s uncle makes a point to throw them away or burn them and never let Jack read it. Not even after a flock of owls come to deliver his hundreds of the same letters.

Eventually, after running them away from home to avoid the letters. and camping out somewhere far away, a mysterious man comes to see Jack on his birthday.

The man, Teddy, is large and odd and Jack is frightened of him at first, before Teddy explains to him what’s going on. Jack is a wizard. And it’s time to start wizard school at Hogwarts.

Ecstatic at the very idea, Jack rushes to go immediately, but is grabbed by his uncle and pulled back, told he is forbidden to go. So Teddy casts a spell on the other man, giving him features of a pig, before taking Jack and leading him away

Teddy tells him about his parents James and Lucille Kelly. He tells him about how Jack himself is a legend in the wizard world and once they make it to diagon alley everyone would immediately recognize Jack because of the lightning bolt scar he’d had on his chin ever since he was little. (Yes it’s on his chin, on the right, i think. Deal with it)

Teddy would get him everything he needs with the money that Jack’s parents left behind (also... do they ever explain how on earth Harry’s parents had so much money. I’m not quite a Harry Potter nerd. Not yet. But... how?)

Jack would get his wand (yes with a Phoenix feather core) he’d get his animal. A snow owl. Hedwig. It’s still Hedwig. She adores Jack.

When it’s time for Jack to finally head off to school, he’s left alone in the train station with his ticket that has station 9 and 3/4 written on it. He can’t find it, and after asking for help, he’s shoved aside only to fall into another boy with a large family in front of him and a mother who immediately tells him to get up and hurry along.

The boy introduces himself as Race and asks Jack where he’s headed. Jack tells him the truth and Race’s face lights up.

Race is the youngest of seven kids. Yes, it’s the Pulitzer family. Yes, Pulitzer is a good guy in this. Yes, Katherine is still older than Race.

Race is just so excited to have met someone his age before getting on the train. He does not want to spend the entire ride with four of his big brothers and his big sister all alone with them trying to frighten him about starting a new school

Race asks his mother if they can show Jack how to get to the train and Emmaline Pulitzer would tell Jack not to worry, that it was Anthony’s first time too. And Race would get mad at her for telling Jack his real name.

Jack and Race would be friends immediately. Even after Mike and Ike ask Jack a whole bunch of questions and do their best to embarrass their little brother.

Jack buys Race and him candy when the cart comes around and Race turns down anything even though it’s so clear that he wants some. Jack recognizes a poor kid as a poor kid himself. So he buys them a bunch of candy.

Eventually, another boy joins them in the train. A Charlie Morris. An intelligent, quick witted know it all who Race immediately clashes with but who Jack takes a liking to.

The three of them are rarely ever apart after that meeting, especially when they all realize that they have all been misfits their entire lives. Jack because he’s an orphan, Race because he’s poor and the youngest of seven kids (six brothers), and Charlie because of his bum leg.

Though Jack is immediately popular at hogwarts, he still has that feeling of not belonging and clings to his two friends all though his journey at this school

The Pulitzer family is know for being the large, poor family who have sent their kids to hogwarts for years. Joseph Pulitzer used to be extremely wealthy and was known for doing whatever needed to be done to keep it that way until he met Emmaline and she eventually told him she was pregnant. He used to be on Snyder’s side, but left for the sake of his family who he loves more than life (he is especially close with his only daughter)

He lost most of his money when Snyder came back around to get revenge on him for leaving and telling others about plans he had or any information that could potentially lead anyone to finding him. When this happened, it was close to the same time Snyder had killed James and Lucille Kelly. Snyder goes after Pulitzer, planning to kill him, threatening Pulitzer’s whole family, including his youngest son who wasn’t even one at the time, that he’d managed to pick up and almost take away.

The very idea of that happening haunts Race to this day

Race used to have nightmares about it, not fully remembering the situation since he was so little, but being told about it by one of his big brothers one day.

Race would run to Pulitzer almost every night after that, complaining and sobbing about a nightmare.

During that encounter, Pulitzer gave Snyder everything he had to protect Race before Emmaline managed to take her baby away from the evil wizard and Race believes he is the reason that his family is now poor

(If that all makes sense)

Charlie is a muggle-born wizard. He was born with one bum leg that he eventually fixes for himself after a lot of studying. But that doesn’t happen until nearly graduation, after several others offer to help. He always refuses. He wants the satisfaction of doing it himself

He has two very loving parents who did their best to spoil him rotten as a child and were so excited to find out that their little boy was magic.

They are so supportive of everything he does and they make a point to tell him how much they love him.

Those are just a couple ideas. Anything you guys would change? Any scenes you wanna see? Any specific characters you wanna hear about? Send me an ask! And for more AUs, check out my list! (PS, I have three asks for The Outsiders 😂 so that ones coming)

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darkpetal16 · 5 years

Text

Pride & Humility - Chapter One

Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Fanfiction

Genres: Gen, Friendship, Family, Adventure, Hurt, Comfort

Summary: “Friends look the other way. Best friends eat the body.” -Selim B. The story about an innocent and disturbing friendship between homunculus and human. Old soul OC. Surprisingly wholesome.

Warnings: Violence, gore, death, excessive child abuse, profanity

Beta: Taintedletter

Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. Elizabeth belongs to Midnightwishes, but I will be borrowing her for this journey.

Next Chapter

This will be my only beginning A/N.

This is a tribute story to Midnightwishes. I wish you all the love and happiness in the world, and hope you’re able to enjoy your next great adventure. Rest in peace, sweetheart.

This story was originally going to be my very first fanfiction, but I lost motivation when I lost my friend. I made a hard switch to the Naruto/Pokemon fandom, and found it difficult to return to FMA.

When I clearing out my drop box, I found this old story again, and… well, here we are.

This story is a slow build up.

This is NOT an EdOC, AlOC, or RoyOC story. I am perfectly happy with their canonical pairings.

Note about canon / AU: This is to clarify the established canon in my story.

In the manga / wiki it’s stated that Pride is able to adjust the age range of his container by around 5ish years. I’m going to go ahead and AU it so that he can freely adjust the age of his container to whatever he wants it to be.

Did you know that Bradley’s first name is King? I did not until I checked the wiki, so führer Bradley is named King Bradley here.

Mrs. Bradley will also get a lovely first name, because she very much deserves it: Katherine.

Lastly, King Bradley genuinely loves his wife.

Smart!OC, so if you don’t like reading about OCs with high levels of book-smart intelligence, this won’t be your cup of tea.

This story will eventually be posted on Fanfiction.net and Wattpad, but for the moment it will remain on tumblr until I write enough of it.

✧✧♡✧✧♡✧✧♡✧✧

Death was not the end, nor the beginning. It was a bump in the road, an interlude in the story.

Dying did not mean one ceased to exist, but rather, one’s existence changed.

Memories are not meant to survive the transformation, but there are always exceptions. When taking the first breath in a new body, one can usually remember the last breath in the old body.

But too soon what defined the previous life will fade away, and the new life will be given a (mostly) blank slate.

They’ll likely still retain some knowledge, some experiences, or information too vital to forget. Maybe they’ll remember the face of their lover, or their talent for music. Maybe they’ll be drawn to an old friend, or they’ll retain unexplainable fear over a past lives trauma.

Someone terrified of the ocean might have drowned in their previous life.

A man or women overcome with unshakable insecurities might have been cruelly hurt before.

Regardless, death and birth did not mark the end or beginning for one’s existence.

It simply meant a change in scenery for that soul.

✧✧♡✧✧♡✧✧♡✧✧

This is the journey of one such soul being born in a world it was not meant to be a part of.

It, like all the others, knew it had been reborn at first.

But unlike the others, memories of its past lives did not flee right away.

No.

Oddly enough, they stayed for a solid three years. And even when those cherished memories of dear friends and family left the soul, knowledge remained.

Knowledge of math and science.

Of medicine.

And of an undeniable, insatiable thirst for more.

More knowledge.

More adventures.

More everything.

✧✧♡✧✧♡✧✧♡✧✧

Elizabeth Luxanna was born to the estranged daughter of a retired general. The daughter, Hannah Luxanna, had eloped with a simple farmer after a bitter argument between her father—Crow Luxanna—and mother—Isabella Luxanna.

Hannah enjoyed over a decade of blissful marriage before her husband tragically died from an unknown illness. To make matters worse, Hannah was pregnant, and they had lost their home in a terrible fire.

With nowhere else to go, Hannah returned home to find her mother already dead, and her father consumed with bitterness and regret.

Crow accepted his daughter back with great reluctance, and the time leading up to Elizabeth’s birth was filled with despair and grief for Hannah.

The young woman’s heart gave out after birth, and she left her only daughter orphaned.

Crow Luxanna adopted his granddaughter, but he did so with a thoroughly broken and blackened heart.

He did not know how to handle her.

He did not want to handle her.

So he hired plenty of servants to take care of her for the first year of her life, and dismissed them shortly afterward.

Next came tutors.

So soon? Some might ask.

But Crow Luxanna did not want to raise a granddaughter. No, he wanted to force her to grow up as soon as possible and send her out.

Ideally into the military.

And when Elizabeth Luxanna began to show exemplary intelligence, and whispers of a prodigy started to arise, Crow Luxanna finally took an interest in his granddaughter.

And what a shame, that was.

✧✧♡✧✧♡✧✧♡✧✧

Grandfather Crow was a short, well-dressed man. He was a proud retired general, and had high expectations for all those around him. Rules were meant to be strictly adhered to, and when boundaries were pushed too much he enforced harsh punishments.

He wasn’t one for social visits. Not even for his last living family.

Elizabeth was quiet, well-behaved, and completely devoted to her studies. It became blatantly apparent early on that she had difficulty connecting to her peers, and after enough incidents her grandfather forbade other children from entering their home.

She rarely saw anyone aside from her tutors.

Especially Grandfather.

Which was why when Grandfather told her to eat dinner with him, she was surprised.

Thankfully, he cut straight to the chase and explained why he was there.

“The exam you did yesterday, do you remember it?” Grandfather inquired stiffly, his well-groomed mustache quivering as he tried out a smile. It looked terribly awkward on him.

The young girl nodded at his question. After months of completely devouring her lessons, and answering all of her tutors’ questions they had come together and devised an extensive exam for the heiress. It took Elizabeth six hours to complete, and the trio (one for science & math, one for history & English, and one for etiquette) watched her intensely the entire time.

Grandfather tapped his fingers on the table, his dark eyes staring straight through her. “Mm. Yes, well, you’ve exceeded expectations. Your intelligence is remarkable for someone your age, a true prodigy.” Again Grandfather tapped his fingers, and his gaze didn’t seem to notice her anymore. “The military will want your mind, do you understand?”

Elizabeth mutely shook her head.

“They will want you,” Grandfather repeated. “I am a loyal soldier, so I will not refuse them.”

Her brow furrowed as she tried to follow the conversation. “I’m going to be enlisted?”

Grandfather blinked once, now focusing on Elizabeth. “Yes, and no. You are too young, but… But they will claim you one way or another. I want to make sure you survive, and do our family proud.”

“Why would they claim me?”

“You are a talented child, and I am a loyal soldier,” Grandfather repeated. “Retired or not, I would sacrifice everything for my country, for my führer.”

Including you, went unsaid.

“Your mind… yes. It will be good for the military. For Central. You will serve our führer well,” Grandfather Crow said.

There was no permission to be sought out.

There was no debating, or discussion.

Elizabeth knew in her heart that there was no fighting this.

She was a single little girl, who just so happened to be a little good at math and science.

She had no power to refuse.

No confidence to say no.

Even a hint of disobedience would land Elizabeth locked away in her room, with no lights, or food for however long her grandfather wanted.

She had nowhere to go, and no one to turn to.

So Elizabeth swallowed back her nerves and tried out a wobbly (fake) smile. “Yes, Grandfather.”

The retired general smiled. It was disturbing to see. “A mind like yours… They need State Alchemists. Yes, you will do well there. I will hire a new tutor for you.”

“Yes, Grandfather.”

And that was that.

✧✧♡✧✧♡✧✧♡✧✧

“I am Lisa Delve,” introduced a middle-aged woman. Her graying hair was swept up in a tight bun, and she dressed very modestly. Her dark blue eyes narrowed when she looked at Elizabeth, and a sneer curled back on her lips. “You are my student?”

“I am,” Elizabeth answered quietly, her green eyes lowering when she saw the plain scorn in the women’s eyes.

She knew then that Mrs. Delve would not be any companion to Elizabeth.

“A big game was talked up about you. Do not disappoint,” Mrs. Delve said, her voice clipped. She turned her back to young curly-haired brunette, and began to draw on the blackboard.

All tutoring was done in the small library, where not a window could be seen. It was dark, dreary, and stuffy.

Elizabeth wished she was anywhere but there.

“This,” Mrs. Delve said as she finished her drawing, “is a basic transmutation circle. Memorize it. I am told you already know your periodic table?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Recite it.”

Elizabeth did as ordered, and the alchemist scoffed. “Speak up, girl. You are the heiress of the prestigious Luxanna family, and the granddaughter of one of our greatest generals. Have you not taken any etiquette classes?”

“I have, ma’am,” Elizabeth said, sitting up straighter in her uncomfortable wooden seat. “Sorry, ma’am.”

“It’s not me you be apologizing to, but your family,” Mrs. Delve snapped. “Have you done any reading into alchemy before this session?”

“Only that human transmutation is illegal, and dangerous,” Elizabeth softly responded. She only knew that because it was mentioned offhandedly in a biology textbook.

But that was fine.

Elizabeth had no interest in human transmutation.

No, what drew her focus was botany and how alchemy could be applied there.

She couldn’t find any concrete information on alchemists who worked with plants. She knew it had to be a difficult science since alchemy applied to any living organism was tricky, but she didn’t think it would be that hard.

Plants didn’t have nervous systems, after all.

And if she could find a way to create hybrid plants, she might be able to invent new species of plants that were more effective than modern medicine.

At least, that was her initial hope.

“Rudimentary. Very well, let us begin. Do keep up, as I will not be repeating myself.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

✧✧♡✧✧♡✧✧♡✧✧

Elizabeth Luxanna was largely left alone.

At first, when she was mentally a grown adult who enjoyed her solitude just fine, she had no complaints.

She was an unusually obedient and quiet child, and as long as she was given enough books to read, she didn’t complain.

If she did complain, she’d be immediately locked in her bedroom and forced into isolation for however many days her Grandfather saw fit. Food would be shoved through the slot in the door, and not a single peep was allowed to be heard.

Since Elizabeth was an adult (a very, very old one at that), she was able to comply with these rules without much fuss.

But when her adult memories slipped away from her one night, and she was suddenly left a child without any companionship, being alone started to bother her.

Grandfather Crow was a stern man, and had no patience to raise a granddaughter. All the servants that worked for the Luxanna family were veterans who had to retire premature, and were uncomfortable dealing with Elizabeth.

While she no longer had all the memories that made Elizabeth an old adult, she retained her knowledge of math, science, and other similar topics. She couldn’t explain how she knew what she knew, either, which gave others the wrong impression about her.

At first glances Elizabeth was a child with a seemingly high intellect.

From the Grandfather’s Crow point of view this was to be taken advantage of for the betterment of his country, of his führer. It was an asset to be used to its maximum potential.

But from Elizabeth’s point of view it simply made it that much harder to connect with others.

Children her age didn’t even understand what an electron was, let alone wanted to talk about it.

Adults either didn’t take her seriously, or only saw her as someone to be used.

There was no way for Elizabeth to form any kind of positive bond, let alone a friendship.

For five years she was confined to a bitter home without a single person to care for her.

This made for a terribly lonely little girl.

So painfully lonely she would wish for any kind of friendship.

For anyone to show her even an iota of warmth.

And then came the day that person showed up.

Her only friend.

Selim Bradley.

✧✧♡✧✧♡✧✧♡✧✧

Welcome back to my loyal readers, and hello to new ones!

Cover by @cantrona.

Question: Would you open the gates to Truth? What for, and what would you sacrifice?

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