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inchidentally · 4 months

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@vastappenen LISTEN okay so this is the full spin-off of the Charlos part of my Prince Lando AU post

I cannot write real fic so this is just like me doing a retelling of what's gone on in my mind lol - and this is the post of Charles in White that's screencapped above

(side note my friend was listening to this haunting music while I wrote this so it might help set the scene - it's called "Fancy on a Bach Air" by Yo-Yo Ma)

this gets a bit NSFW toward the end so fair warning!

ok so to start, this is what was in my original post

Unfortunately the royal courts of Europe were shaken by a quick series of upsets: His Serene Highness Lorenzo of Monaco abdicated the throne in search of a quieter life - his heart had never been in it since his father, the former Sovereign Prince, had become ill and abdicated. This left Lorenzo’s unwed brother Charles to be hastily crowned Prince Regent at the tender age of 22 (too young to be crowned Sovereign Prince bc modern monarchy rules I’m inventing). As a result Charles suffered the loss of his long-time suitor, nobleman Sebastian Vettel, who couldn’t bear the thought of being Sovereign Prince let alone of a land that wasn’t even his own.

Enter the Sainz Vázquez de Castro elders seizing the opportunity and negotiating a deal with Monaco in private conclave with the Papal State (??) to wed their son Carlos to the Prince Regent. Carlos is ashamed at giving in to the temptation… to not just be Prince Consort but to be Sovereign Prince, to rule over the vast wealth of Monaco and by extension the Holy See, to have the coveted beauty Charles in his bed. So he agrees to be spirited away to Monaco and the ugly business of dissolving his betrothal to Lando is left to members of church and state.

But Carlos experiences a complete conversion when Charles is on his knees in the cathedral - looking up at him with docile green eyes as Carlos’ fingertips touch the warm red roses of Charles’ lips as he holds the chalice of holy wine for Charles to drink. Carlos was almost hard beneath the ermine and velvet robes in a house of God when the crown was on his head and Charles next to him - and slightly below - smiling up at him with filaments of gold hanging from pendants on his chaplet, framing his achingly beautiful face. If Carlos feels his immense happiness and prosperity darken whenever he sees Lando’s picture or encounters him at one of the courts then no one need know.

ok so I've removed this from the narrative to of course be charlos true happiness endgame and removed Seb entirely, or he can just be called a close confidante and possible candidate to marry Charles but not very serious.

I imagine young Carlos Jr. moving through the royal courts as a child and teen and seeing the royal children of Monaco sometimes. in my weird version of royalty I have it that Lorenzo is the natural successor to the throne and therefore has always been allowed to dress and be seen "normally". as a second child, Charles was always the rightful property of whichever alliance would maintain Monaco's independence. he was raised mostly in the Prince's Palace and when playing or venturing to where he could be seen he's attended by a retinue of guards each carrying a gonfalon to conceal the young prince from view. on the rare occasions that the prince will be around those not within his immediate family or private staff, he is carefully wrapped in embroidered, jeweled white silks or cottons (depending on the climate) with only his eyes visible. the only color allowed being a scarlet silk girdle around his hips. until he reaches maturity or is married he wears a ferronnière with a single white diamond at his forehead. (I imagine the wrapping as looking like fancy white fireproofs that cover the hands as well and a long, flowy tunic over the top with smart little white renaissance boots (that Charles hates).

Prince Charles is also not permitted to speak outside of his family circle/staff but he is taught multiple languages and fond rumors spread that the prince has a charming lilting accent that comes from a little of everywhere. he is also taught the piano and there is a place on the shore that only locals know of where fairy echoes of his playing can be heard. they call it his 'lone voice' because the mood inside the palace can be judged by the prince's choice of music. childish and jolly for a while, then more challenging pieces, until his eighteenth birthday and an unknown dirge for his godfather who had perished during a racing tourney that summer. the prince's music would change over the years but it would never be joyful again.

I imagine many instances over the years of Carlos Jr. being coaxed by a conniving Carlos Sr. into bowing low to the small, mummified-looking creature that everyone assures him is a prince. the eyes and vague suggestion of white-clad hands and feet are the only indications that this is true, but the big green eyes are very expressive and seem to smile whenever they meet Carlos' own big brown eyes. Prince Lorenzo has a kind smile and would be a good playmate but solemnly maintains his position by his parents' side. Prince Arthur comes along in a bundle of energy and mischief - being blessed with a birthright to total freedom so long as his elder siblings are alive. he enjoys being swung around and thrown in the air by Carlos Jr. which helps pass the tedium of royal engagements. Arthur is clearly the favorite of Charles who rather mothers him - especially when the Sovereign Prince falls ill and hushed preparations are made behind palace walls for Lorenzo to take the throne. Charles is so deep in mourning for his godfather and soon his own father that his presentation at court is delayed indefinitely as it would be cruel to open him up to marriage bids that would inevitably take him from his home.

in the meantime, Carlos Jr. has grown into his large features and promises to inherit all his father's looks and daring. at his father's encouragement - "by the time you wed a virgin, you will need to know everything there is to know about pleasing them" - Carlos enjoys countless conquests across every continent on the globe. he's a seasoned bachelor by the age of 20 and has been given his own estate outside of Madrid to party, race expensive cars and drink expensive wine. but even as he wakes between the thighs of this or that beautiful boy or girl, his mind recalls the hours spent at court in Monaco trying to discern the subtlest lines of Prince Charles' body beneath the absurd layers of drapery. he knows for sure that the prince is slim but not scrawny. that his posture is upright and proud and stands about the same height as Carlos. at times when he scoops Arthur up to hold on one hip, Carlos can discern the fine dip of a small waist - probably small enough for Carlos' big hands to meet around. what a gift-wrapped present for whoever got to marry him!

but by the time they next meet, news has traveled all over of the Sovereign Prince's health and plans for the reluctant Prince Lorenzo to be hastily crowned. during their first visit after this news, Carlos Jr. makes his usual low bow to Prince Charles but when he looks up he sees tears clouding the prince's green eyes. it twists Carlos' heart and he boldly takes the prince's hand and presses a hurried kiss to the silk and at the same time trying to speak with his eyes how sorry he is for the prince. the small noise Charles makes at Carlos' boldness is a precious secret Carlos holds like a tangible thing against the breast of his tailcoat as he hurries down the steps before any of the other royals can notice what he's done.

[this is when the above section from my AU comes in and Carlos is attempted to be married off to Prince Lando, Lorenzo abdicates, Charles can only be named Prince Regent bc of his status etc and a hasty arrangement is made for him to marry Carlos]

at their wedding I imagine Charles' veil/headdress to be much lighter and tied in a simple knot at the base of his head. the only time Charles is called to speak is to swear fealty to the crown, to his country, and to his husband (it's also the first time Charles' voice has been heard by almost everyone in the Cathedral including Carlos. it sounds like joyous music, dipping deep and rich one moment and high and sweet the next - with a little bubble of laughter at the end. Carlos wants to hear him talk forever.) when the priest finishes his blessing, Carlos put a hand beneath Charles' chin and guides him to stand. he moves closer to Charles than he has ever been permitted and circles his arms around his neck to untie the knot. the veil falls away and a collective gasp rises up from the cathedral through the clouds of incense. Carlos doesn't gasp so much as suck in a triumphant breath through his nostrils and lifts his chin in triumph. Charles is not just the chaste ideal of beauty that the court and citizens of Monaco had whispered about for years, he is the vision of temptation itself: a delicate brush-spatter of freckles beneath a flush on finely molded cheekbones, a straight French nose that was the final word on French noses, and perfectly smooth lips in the shape of a patriotic 'M' and the exact red of Monaco's flag. the prince's hair and brows have all the shades of a glossy hazelnut and a thick fan of lashes surrounded the green eyes - all that Carlos had known of him until now. but soon, he would know everything about Charles and in a way no one else ever had or would.

Carlos is supposed to buss a small, ceremonial barely-there kiss to Charles' lips to please the court but of course he can't help himself and, holding Charles' face in his big hands, presses a fiercely possessive (thankfully still close-mouthed) kiss that nearly makes Charles collapse. murmurs go around the cathedral of "well, those Spaniards, you know".

when they are crowned, my version of royalty has the priest setting the heavy gold crown on Carlos' head but Carlos in turn places the chaplet of gold leaves and gemstone pendants on Charles. Carlos is flying as high as mortal can when he can finally lead Charles out to the balcony and show him off to the waiting public. Carlos wonders if there's a man on earth who possesses more wealth than he does at that moment.

but there's one more thing he doesn't yet have! oh you bet the bedding ceremony is weird and fucked up and poor Charles is using the short time they have alone as they move through the halls (merely flanked by guards) to nervously and apologetically explain to Carlos what they will need to do. something about protocol for regents who found it difficult to "perform" under such circumstances etc. Carlos just puts a big warm hand to Charles' lips as they are rushed along, leaning into to whisper that he'd take Charles' virginity in front of his own grandmother if that's what was required and his desire still wouldn't be dampened.

the chamber is small and has one purpose. the clergy stand behind wrought iron mullioned screens but Charles can see their eyes clearly and has known many of them all his life. he'd probably faint dead away from nerves if Carlos didn't pull him close and kiss him so deep and dirty it should've turned Charles' white gown red with lust. Carlos tells him to look only into his eyes, that he'll take good care of him. there's a whole intense sexy element to Carlos unwrapping Charles the rest of the way, just like the birthday present he'd imagined when he was a teenager. he probably spends WAY too much time on foreplay considering the witnesses are only there to see one thing and then leave but Carlos knows that Charles deserves this. by the time they've reached the point where Carlos can reach a hand between them and literally 'come' up with the goods to hold up and be viewed, Charles' moans are reaching up to the rafters. there's a rustle and murmured blessings as the priests finally withdraw.

Carlos is like FINALLY and decides to give Charles every bit of the benefit of his vast experience and looks smug as hell when Charles' attendants have to physically carry Charles to his own bed bc Carlos fucked him senseless lmao

agfalsgfsla this was so weird and detailed and I do not know WHERE it came from but if an actual writer sees this and wants to write it properly PLEASE tag me or message me!!!

EDIT: these are great photo references for adult Charles and Carlos in this AU

source

#charlos #carlos sainz jr x charles leclerc #mine #I hope you enjoy @vastappen !!#f1 royalty au #prince of monaco

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warmaidensrevenge · 3 months

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Love and pinball

Pairing: Eddie x Plus!size fem reader

A/N: Oh man it's been a long while. I've been taking a long needed break. But now I'm back and I have a bunch of ideas that need to be written. So I'm looking forward to what's next. I would also like to add that I had help from @salenorona23 to write this fic. I would liked to thank you. You honestly come up with the best ideas.

Thanks for sticking around. I appreciate all of you. I hope you enjoy the conclusion of Love and Pinball.

The song I added was an inspiration to me. Kay love ya. Byyyye.

Word count: 3,199

I do not give permission for my work to be published anywhere else. Please respect all creators. All the pictures I used for my collage were taken from a Google search. A credit to the original posters

Warnings: 18+ no minors please. Sexual implications, loss, grief, heartache and angst. Not proof read.

Part 8: Together

Summary: Grief will rip us apart. But love, real love can help us back to each other.

You stirred a little and placed a hand on your stomach. There was something wrong. You felt empty.

You weakly called out for Eddie. " B-baby?"

Your eyes opened slowly and the sun was blinding. You looked around and saw Paul and your mom. Then you saw Eddie who was sitting next to the bed, holding your hand. He had never looked so bad.

It was quiet. The silence and the single heart beat on the monitor was ominous. You remembered a little of what happened when you got to the hospital. But you were in and out of it.

"Is-ugh-is the baby okay?" You asked, trying to sit up.

Eddie and Paul stood quiet as your mom came to your side and started stroking your hair.

" Honey…I'm so sorry."

You cried for four days straight, with your mom never leaving your side. Even though you knew Eddie had to be with Liam. It hurt so much more to go through the loss of the baby without him.

Those four days were the worst in Eddie's life. When he was away he wished he was with you. And when he was with you all he did was hold you as you sobbed.

He felt like he was the reason you guys were suffering.

On the fifth day, you were going to be discharged from the hospital. Eddie had left work early to be the one to take you home. However, when he got there you were already gone.

Confused and worried he went home. Only to find suitcases by the door.

" Sweetheart?" He called out.

He found you in the nursery clutching the baby blanket from the hospital.

" Sweetheart?"

When you looked at him, he had never seen so much pain in someone's eyes.

You were dreading this moment ever since you decided to run. The only thing that kept you from taking off without a single care was the respect you had for Eddie. He deserved more than him coming home to see you were gone. He needed to know that you would be okay.

You looked back at the empty crib and felt such heartache. To the means of something you could not put into words.

" My mom went to say goodbye to Paul and Natalie. She's going to be back soon."

Eddie remained quiet and watched you. Waiting for the other shoe to drop.

" I-I'm gonna go back with her."

His heart sank.

" I need some time…"

You didn't need to finish for him to understand what you needed. And though it tore him apart, he wanted you to be okay.

He took a few steps towards you. "Y/n, I think it's a good idea. You should be with your mom for a few days."

You tensed under his hand that was suddenly on your back. He almost lost it. He almost broke down. But he couldn't. So he didn't.

What he did instead was help put your bags in the trunk and helped you with your seatbelt.

Not once did you look at him. You barely said anything at all.

" Sweetheart, I'll be here when you get back."

Your head was hung while you nodded.

Eddie's heart shattered all over again watching the car fade into the distance.

Maybe this was for the best. Maybe it wasn't what was best for him. But it was what you needed. Right now all you needed was family.

…

3 weeks later

You always did hate how hot New Mexico was. You hated the bugs and the disgusting dry heat. But all of those things didn't bother you anymore. Those inconveniences were nothing compared to the suffering you felt.

It had been three long weeks since the loss of your baby girl and you couldn't find it in you to get out of bed. Or to really talk things out with Eddie.

Sure he called countless times, asking when you were gonna come home. But the answer was always the same. You didn't know.

That wasn't true though. You were never going back. How could you? How could you go on and pretend that baby Claire never existed? How could you face the man you loved knowing it was your fault she didn't make it? That the family you wanted was gone.

Chrissy gave him something you couldn't. A baby. And you hated her for that. You hated that she had a healthy beautiful baby boy, while you were left with this empty feeling.

That wasn't the person you wanted to be. And it was definitely not something you wanted Eddie to see.

It took everything you had to breathe. To wake up and not blame yourself.

But the agony you felt wouldn't go away no matter how hard you tried. And no matter how many tears flowed, there was always more.

It especially hurt when Eddie would call and you could hear Liam crying. It was excruciating to hear cries that weren't hers.

Deep down you wanted to be with Eddie. And you really did love Liam. But you just couldn't do it. It was too hard.

On the fourth week you were woken up by a tiny human.

" Tee? Wake up Tee."

You opened your eyes and found big blue ones looking back at you.

"Morning Tee."

You smiled as she climbed into bed and gave you a big hug.

" Hi baby. Oh I've missed you."

Natalie giggled when you gave her a bunch of kisses.

" Hey champ."

You looked up from Natalie and saw Paul standing by the door.

Your eyes started to swell and your chin trembled." H-hi."

After hello hugs you went to the kitchen and sat there watching Natalie eat.

" What're you guys doing here?"

Your mom poured you and Paul coffee and put a hand on your shoulder.

" Honey, your brother is leaving Natalie here for a while."

You looked over at Paul and he nodded. " I uhhh Natalie needs you…and I think you need her too."

You frowned and tears filled your eyes again. Then you nodded and sniffled. " I do."

You wiped away your tears and lightly laughed. " I'm sorry."

" Tee don't be sad."

You smiled softly at her. "I'm just really happy to see you."

She giggled and got down from her chair and raised her arms up for you to pick her up. Once on your lap she started humming.

" Tee, can we make cookies?"

You kissed the top of her little head. " Of course baby."

You looked up at Paul and your mom and saw them giving you small smiles.

For the first time in a month, you felt ok…Better.

Eddie was going through it. Sure he still had Liam, but he lost a daughter too. And he started resenting you for leaving him. Especially since you were only supposed to be gone for a little bit.

It was now a month and a half later and you still haven't said when you were coming back.

That was until you called him.

" Hey sweetheart."

" Hi."

He sat down on the bed. " How are you?"

You sighed. " Better."

His brows pinched together. " Yeah? That's good. I uhh miss you.”

“Eddie I- ummm I left a few things and I was hoping you could send them to me?”

He was quiet for a second. Didn't you miss him too?

“ Uhh yeah. Yeah. Sure baby. What do you need?”

He wrote down the list of things and was confused. Photo albums, jewelry and your diploma. Things that were important and likely irreplaceable.

“Umm sweetheart? Do…do you really want me to send this stuff?”

You cleared your throat before answering. “ Yeah.”

He nodded and fought back his tears. Why did it feel like you weren't coming back?

" Y/n? You're coming home…right?"

He heard you sniffle and knew your answer.

" Baby, please. I-I-"

"I have to go. I'm sorry."

When you hung up, it was like you felt everything you felt a month ago. But ten fold. It was horrible.

You originally hoped calling him would change your mind about not going back. Instead, all it did was solidify that you could never go back and face him.

You laid in bed that night thinking of all the things that you should've said to him. You should have said you were sorry for falling that day. For losing Claire. For running away. But most of all you wanted to say you loved him very much.

All the pain you felt started making you cry. After a minute or so you felt a little bit of movement behind you. Then you felt a tiny hand stroking your hair.

You turned around and saw Natalie staring at you.

" Don't cry Tee."

You whimpered a little as you wiped your eyes.

She grabbed your hand." Everything's gonna be alright."

" I know, baby. I know."

" Then-then why are you crying?"

You sniffled. " Everyone cries baby."

Natalie frowned. " I don't like it when you cry Tee. It scares me."

Your brows pinched together and you reached up to tuck her hair behind her ear. " Why honey?"

" Because when big people cry, that means something bad happened. And I don't want bad things to happen."

You sucked in a breath and nodded. " I'm sorry. I-I won't cry anymore."

She held out her pinky. " Promise."

You let out a small laugh and hooked your pinky with hers. " I promise baby."

She leaned in and gave you a hug and a kiss before getting under the covers. Then she started humming a familiar tune until she fell asleep.

You squeezed her gently and thought of the day you guys went shopping with Eddie replayed in your head.

It was at that moment you knew what you had to do.

It was time to work on getting better. For your family. And for Eddie.

Eddie cried after he hung up the phone. He never felt so alone before. Or so sad. What did he need to do to get you home?

He wanted to go to you, but with Liam and work he really couldn't. On top of that he was heartbroken.

But what made things worse was that Chrissy decided to give him full custody of Liam. All she said when she dropped him off was that Jason proposed to her. So she handed him Liam and paperwork that she had a lawyer draw up.

That was a week ago.

Thank God for his friends. He didn't know what he would do without Gareth or Robin. They were his saving grace. But the only person he really wanted was you. Looks like he wasn't going to get that happy ending he always wanted.

Two weeks later

It was a stormy Saturday afternoon. Eddie had just put Liam down for a nap. He had been so fussy today. He had this little cough that scared him. So after a doctor's visit he gave him some medicine and put him to bed.

Eddie went outside to sit on the porch and look at the paper. He was searching for an affordable place that he and Liam could move into. He felt that it wasn't right to stay in your place without you.

However, the only place he could afford was in Forest Hills and he wanted better for Liam. But there was no other choice.

He closed his eyes and sighed. “ Wish you would come home.”

He then heard a car door close. When he looked up he saw you standing there. Umbrella in one hand and a suitcase in the other.

When the cab drove off you started towards him.

He was in shock. With no clue what to actually say or do, he just sat there.

You reached the steps and stared at him. All you could think about was how much you've missed him.

“I…I know there's nothing I can say to take back what happened and how I reacted to it. Just know that I am so sorry for leaving you.” You moistened your lips and continued. “ I should've known that losing our girl was going to hurt you too. I was selfish and a jerk… and I get it if you can't forgive me. I just came back to apologize and to say if you need me, I'll be here... And I need you to know that I'm not 100% right now. And...and I don't think I ever will be. But I'm willing to try and be. For you and Liam...For me too.

He stood up and dropped the newspaper. Just then the slight drizzle turned into a downpour. He went down the steps and pulled you into a hug. Your body trembled in his arms as tears filled his eyes.

“ I missed you so much baby.” he leaned back and kissed you.

After a few seconds you guys heard Liam cough.

He looked down at you and put his forehead on yours. “ I know what you're gonna say. But I don't care. I like how much of a cliche we are together…That's how I know it's real.”

You nodded. “ I guess you're right…Curls?”

“ Yeah sweetheart?”

“ I'm not leaving again. Not ever. Well not willfully.”

He chuckled and went to kiss you again but you put a hand on his chest.

“ Common bud, I wanna see Liam.”

He nodded and grabbed your luggage. Following you inside.

You never ran. Not when Chrissy came back crying that Jason left her and then tried to take Liam. Not when he was let go from the plant. Even when things got overwhelming when Hannah and Layla were born. When postpartum hit you like a truck. You didn't leave.

Even when things got better and the band got a record deal and he spent more time on the road than at home. You stayed and supported him. You said and did all the things a partner should. You challenged him to be better and you were honest with him. You did so much for him and the family. You took care of the house and the kids, even though you needed help. You didn't leave when he missed so many birthdays, little league games and ballet recitals.

Because you loved him and he loved you. No matter how hard or easy things were. You both showed up for each other. No matter what, you had each other's back.

Eddie hadn't been home in a few months and you never missed him more. Maybe it was because the kids were asking when he was coming back. Or maybe it was because your anniversary was coming up and you needed your anniversary kisses. Either way he was way overdue for a cuddle session.

All day you tried to focus on the daycare. And for the most part you kept it together. That was until you were about to leave for the day.

He was there. Leaning against his red BMW with his legs crossed at the ankles and hands in the pockets of his leather jacket.

You could cry right now. But instead you melted seeing him smile at you.

“ Hey Mrs. Munson. Beautiful weather we're having.”

You shook your head and went to him. Giving him hugs and all the kisses you've been saving just for him.

“ Mmmmm sweetheart. Let me get you home first.”

He led you to the passenger side and opened the door. As soon as you slid in, you climbed down from cloud nine. You opened your mouth to say something when he closed the door and held up his hand.

“ Don't worry, your car will be safe here and the kids are at Paul's. It's just you and me tonight.”

You didn't make it past the living room. You were on each other as soon as the front door closed.

Eddie sighed with satisfaction. “ God I've missed you.”

“ Better have.”

He chuckled and placed a wet kiss on your cheek. “ I always miss you when I'm gone. You and the kids.”

You swallow and nod. “ So how long do we get you for?”

He hummed and pulled you to lay in his arms. “ I'm not sure. 1 or 2, maybe 3 years.”

You lifted your head and gave him a surprise look.

He grinned at you. “ The band decided we needed a break. To get back to our roots and be with our families. So we all agreed that a long vacation would do us good. Obviously, we can't just disappear for 3 years.”

“ Right.”

He reached up and tucked your hair behind your shoulder. “ Yeah. So we set it up to only do local shows a few times a month and do 9 big venues in the surrounding states. But only in the summer so I can bring you guys with me.”

You were speechless. You've been wanting to hear those words from him for a long time now. It was the best thing he had ever said to you.

You smiled softly.“The kids would love that.”

“ What about you?”

You laid your head back on his chest. “ Well I don't know. I guess I can take it or leave it.”

He gasped. “ I beg your pardon!” He then started to tickle your sides and made his way on top of you.

“ Ahhh curls! Okay okay!”

He stopped and grinned down at you.

You smiled back at him. “ I would love nothing more than for all of us to be together. I love that you're home…I miss you bud. So much.”

He nodded slightly before leaning for a kiss.

“ Mmm sooo speaking of all of us…I was thinking maybe we could work on baby 4 and 5.”

You clicked your tongue. “ Hmmm that sounds fun. Maybe pinball after?”

He chuckled lightly. “ Love then pinball?”

“ Or.” You raised a brow. “ Love and pinball?”

“ Oh you're naughty baby.”

You both grinned at each other for a moment before he got up.

“ I'll get us snacks and juice boxes.”

You laughed as he helped you up. “ I'll be down stairs beating your score.”

He smacked your bottom. “ We'll see about that “

As you stood in front of the thing that started it all you couldn't help but feel joy. The very same Grand Prix game you guys played all those years ago was now yours. Well it has been since Eddie gifted it to you as a wedding present.

You sighed happily as you took the quarter from the return slot and popped it in. The lights and music were the exact same as always.

You pulled back the spring handle and the ball was off. Whirls and dings were all too exciting. It was perfect. And in a few minutes you were almost to the high score. But then there were hands on your hips pulling you back so that you were flushed against his chest.

“ No distract-” you tried to say but cut off as you watched as the silver ball fell right between your paddles. Then you heard a slight chuckle.

“ Sorry sweetheart. You lost.”

Sighing in defeat, you turned around in his arms and wrapped yours around his neck. “ No bud. I think I won.”

Eddie looked back and forth between your eyes and understood what you meant.

He put his forehead on yours. “ We won.”

...

@marsmunson86 @browneyes528 @erinsingalong @salenorona23 @emsgoodthinkin @eddie-is-a-god @manda-panda-monium

#fanfic #eddie munson #eddie munson x female original character #eddie munson x you #stranger things #eddie munson x plus size reader #eddie x reader #eddie my beloved #eddie x fem!reader #eddie x y/n #eddie stranger things #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson series #eddie munson smut #plus size reader #Spotify

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sophietv · 9 months

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The ULTIMATE LSK Thread Of Koincidences

I've decided to piece together all the Koincidences that I could find since fall 2019.

It's easy to not understand LSKs when you haven't seen all the flagging that they've been doing, especially with how the Lover Era went as well as Folkmore. But once you start to piece all those hints together in a timeline, it paints a pretty clear picture.

I've spent hours in both their social medias pages and searching for Timelines done by other amazing blogs on here.

I'll credit when needed and link to the timelines.

I'm used to doing threads on Twitter and posting everything, not just link. I'll do the same here because I've notice that a lot of posts linked into timelines on here were deleted. This way all the informations are in one place.

If there's things that I missed, don't hesitate to tell me and I'll update the thread!

IMPORTANT: I've linked all the important piece of Kaylor Lore when necessary for you to better understand the references. So when there's a (X) beside something, it's a link to more informations about that subject to help you better understand.

August 2019:

August 3rd: Karlie's birthday. Taylor posts the famous Bi Hearts Crispies Treats, that will star in the Lover Lyrics Video later too.

August 8th: Taylor is on the Cover of Vogue.

She is wearing a Cartier Love Ring. Karlie wears one too, she has wore it for a very long time now (years before this article) on her right ring finger.

Right ring finger is used by LGBTQ+ couples for marriage or to indicate that the person is in a serious relationship.

Karlie has been wearing hers a lot more (in almost all her pictures) since summer 2022. (X)

And it's the very definition of Love Locked Down (X)

On the website it says: "Lock in your love forever" (X)

August 16th: Lover is out as a single exactly 13 days after Karlie's birthday The lyrics video is completely filled with Kaylor's references. I did a thread on Twitter (X). Also, Lover lasts 3:41, wich is 143 backwards = I Love You.

August 18:

Karlie was listening to Lover on repeat on Spotify.

It was even reported by Taylor's news accounts on Twitter:

August 22:

Lover MV is out. Taylor uses the You Are In Love lyrics to announced it.

Confirming that it was inspired by those lyrics: "You two are dancing in a snow globe round and round" wich are a reference to VSFS 2013.

I will not do MV analysis in this thread because it will never end if I start. But I'll link them when I have.

Septembre 2019:

Septembre 9th :

Paris City Of Lover Concert.

The mural on the stage is extremely Kaylor Coded.

Here's a post I did about this (X)

Septembre 27th:

Eye theory reference by Karlie on Instagram

Ps: On this thread I'll refer to only the ones I find very clear, because there's so much.

If you don't know about The Eye Theory, it's a piece of lore extremely important. Here's a post I did about it (X).

Septembre 29th:

Karlie does a post leaving Paris and saying "Au Revoir" wich is oddly similar to a post Taylor did in May that year.

Octobre 2019:

Octobre 2nd:

Karlie talks in one of her Klossy video on YouTube about the time she cut her hair short. How at first she was insecure about it.

And she talks about the 2013 VSFS where it was the first time that she walked with her hair short.

And she says that people would come to her to say that they wanted the same haircut.... like Taylor did.

youtube

Octobre 29th:

Taylor posts on her Instagram about the International Cat Day. Karlie liked the post. (I'm pretty sure it's the last Taylor's post ever that she'd like).

Novembre 2019:

Novembre 13th:

Kaylor meeting anniversary (X)

Taylor:

The Lover Remix with Shawn Mendez is out.

There's the new line written by Taylor : "Look into my eyes they will tell you the truth, the girl in my story has always been you".

The Lover and the heart on her eye are now gold. (X)

The lyrics video is on a snow globe now, throwback to YAIL.

She announces the new remix all over New York's billboards.

Karlie

She releases a Klossy video where she shows what's on her phone.

And you see a sequence where she answers a group chat nammed BFFs, and Taylor is in it. (You see her Lover Instagram pfp of the time).

youtube

Novembre 24th:

Karlie announces on Instagram a new community phone number that you can use to text her.

And if you do... the text you receive says: "all other texts are coming from ME!"...

Also...Eye Theory.

Novembre 25th :

Taylor performs Lover at the AMA.

During the number, there's a ballerina dancing that seems to always want to go toward Taylor but keeps coming back to the man instead.

There's even a moment where she's drawn back to the man and hit him to run back to Taylor, but he brings her back to him.

The Ballerina is Misty Copeland. (and here's the scene described above)

Source of the video: iwanthermidnightz (X)

In April 2017 Karlie said in an interview for Love Magazine with Derek Blasberg that she was fan on Misty Copeland. (X)

Ballet is VERY important for Karlie since she was young.

Misty follows both Karlie and Taylor on Instagram

And in 2021, she wore a "Like a Kloss" shirt on pictures she posted.

Decembre 2019:

Decembre 4th:

Kissgate anniversary (X)

Taylor wears the Victoria Secret Angel Ring.

She wore this ring for the first time on Octobre 23rd 2016, the last time Karlie and Taylor were papped together at an event (Drake's birthday) AKA 2190 days exactly since Midnights release (Glitch).

See my Love Blackout post for more informations (X) She wore it ever since at important events to signal Karlie.

Decembre 10th:

Taylor post Cats promotion on Instagram with picture of her through a giant door.

The next episode of Project Runway, Karlie walks though a giant door the same way for a Cats promo.

Decembre 11th:

Eye Theory post on Karlie's Instagram

Decembre 17th:

Karlie post a video on Klossy where she mentions falconery, seemingly out of context with what she was saying. And put an accent on it by having a Falcon animation.

youtube

Wich is interesting because back in August, Taylor released the Lover Lyrics Video with a lot of Kaylor references (see the link I put back in august).

But on that video, there's a reference to their Big Sur second trip (X)

With a picture of Taylor holding a falcon.

Decembre 31st:

Karlie post a collection of her Vogue covers on Instagram.

And there's the one that she did with Taylor. (X)

There you have it!

Fall of 2019.

It's pretty loud but honnestly in the Timeline, it's the less loud period of all.

Things gets REALLY interesting toward 2020-2021 and SUPER loud in 2022 and SCREAMS in 2023.

I'll continue this thread tomorrow but rebloging and adding to it years by years.

If there's things I missed don't hesitate to tell me so I'll add it!

I'll probably edit this to add things if there's things I forgot. I'll note everytime something is added.

This Masterpost helped me make this part (X)

The 2020 Part 1 is ready here (X)

#lsk #kaylor #koincidences

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andreal831 · 14 days

Text

This fandom needs to back off of Matt Donovan and Zach Roerig

Starting with the ridiculous: Zach Roerig and Julie Plec never dated. It's ridiculous that I have to say this. There is a blurry picture of him leaning in to Julie Plec at some point. I even tried to do the work for you all and could not find one shred of evidence of an actual kiss. Y'all are just wild for this rumor. If anything, my search revealed that Ian and Zach were in a relationship. I mean look at that affection.

Also, with just a tiny bit of research, we can find out that Zach was in a relationship when he started the show and, due to issues at home, he ends up fighting for full custody of his two year old daughter while on the show. The only romantic connection there is any reports on is with Candice King and that was relatively short lived. Otherwise Zach was just a single father, trying to raise and support his daughter.

Now people will try to say Zach is racist as well. I've heard he was racist because of dating Plec. See earlier paragraph. Or that he made racist comments to Kat. Again, there is zero evidence of this. People keep pointing to this interview saying that he either does the Nazi salute or a black power fist and it is such a reach it's ridiculous. He is looking at Kat because the question asked related to Bonnie and Matt and he reaches forward as a hand gesture and then raises his fist in a fairly generic way.

I can't tell if people get Matt Davis and Zach confused because he plays Matt or if people just love to hate on Zach because he plays Matt. Either way, it is disgusting to spread rumors about someone being racist when there is no evidence as far as I can tell. It's also terrible to distract from the actual racism that Kat had to deal with on the show.

From every interview I've seen he seems like such a sweet person. He even said working on the show was a "healing process" and yet the fandom treats him like this. Zach goes to the panels and none of his coworkers seem uncomfortable and avoid him. Not that them liking someone means that person is good, most of them still interact with Matt Davis and yet unfollowed Michael Malarkey.

Now onto Matt Donovan.

First of all, the fact that y'all pretend this man isn't attractive tells me all I need to know. Objectively, Zach Roerig is attractive. You can not like his character but you all just sound goofy.

The biggest complaint with Matt is that he is "useless," but this to me just shows you are watching the show for either the romance or attractive people and not for storytelling.

The role of the "human" in fantasy is so important. We, as an audience, are humans and we need to have a threshold character. A character that reminds of that even though we are rooting for the supernatural creatures, they are still not the good guys. It's why supernatural stories often revolve around humans. It gives the show the humanity that it would be in danger of losing if it just focused on the predatory species. Matt reminds us of the humanity that is at stake in the show.

Matt is particularly important in this show because he not only the sole human in a pack of supernatural creatures, but he is the only one without financial privilege in TVD. Matt not only comes from a family that is struggling financially, but his parents are gone and his sister is struggling with addiction. Matt is working it appears full time while in high school full time. All of his friends are going to parties and given cars and clothes, planning for college; while Matt is having to figure out how to afford his mom's mortgage/rent. Season 1 opens up focusing on how much Elena is struggling with the death of her parents but dismissed Matt's struggles as some lovesick teenager. When in reality Elena at least had a support system. Sure Jeremy was spiraling like Vicki, but Elena and Jeremy had Jenna. Matt was struggling with the purposeful abandonment of his parents and his sister's drug addiction with zero support system. He even loses his childhood friends when Elena and he break up. He only really has Tyler, who, let's be honest is not the best friend in Season 1.

He is also the first person in the show to lose someone due to the supernatural. His sister ends up attacked and in the hospital and he then has to figure out how to pay for that while taking care of Vicki who is clearly struggling even more than normal. When Vicki does end up dead, he knows there is more too it and the entire town, including his friends, gaslight him. Matt has every right to hate vampires. They murdered his sister in cold blood.

Matt is so devastated by Vicki's death that is haunts him throughout the show. He even risks his life just to talk to her ghost for a few moments.

People say Matt hates the supernatural, and he did, but he had reasons. And despite that, he was always there for his friends. Even when he was terrified, and in much more of a risk than his vampire friends, he was always there for them.

Yes, Matt is the one driving the truck when Elena dies and Stefan saves Matt over Elena, but none of that is Matt's fault. He was attempting to save his friend's life with Jeremey's help. How is that any different than Elena having Stefan compel Jeremy to leave town? Let's also not forget who helps Elena feed in her early days. But the fandom never wants to give him credit for that.

Matt is constantly used, berated, manipulated, and compelled by the supernatural around him. Mystic Falls needed someone like Matt to stand up for them since they were unaware of the supernatural world. Even the "good vampires" killed humans. Matt was trying to protect his town.

The last complaint ties it all in, that Matt only survived so long on the show because he was dating Julie Plec. Again, that's a lie. He never dated Julie, and it especially had nothing to do with the show writing. I would also like to point out that the character Matt is based on, Matt Honeycutt, in the book never dies. So why are we surprised he doesn't die in the show? Matt had a lot of close calls and even had a Gilbert ring for protection. No one ever asks why Steven McQeen (Jeremy) doesn't die or assumes it's because he was "sleeping his way to the top." These assumptions are immature and baseless.

All Matt wants to do is live a normal life, something he had to fight much harder than the rest of them for. He is the most consistent friend out of all of them. People love to say "how did Matt get so many girls?" Because he's nice. Because he respected them and fought for them, even if they didn't deserve it. They would all have been better off ending up with Matt.

Honestly, Matt and Cami's purpose are similar to me and both of the actors deserve such a huge apology from this fandom. Some of y'all need to learn to separate a show from reality.

#some of you all need to chill #making up lies about real life people is wild #it's okay that you're mad he pulled more than your favs #he was just a kid trying to survive #why are you all so mad that he made it #most of your favs got to live for hundreds/thousands of years #let Matt have his normal 80 something human years #this fandom acts like being human is a crime #and men having emotions is worse than being literal serial killers #the vampire diaries #the originals #tvd #tvdu

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x-aefx · 11 months

Text

ONE TIME THING - BELLA RAMSEY (PART5)

Pictures above are not mine

Summary: unbeknownst to you, you meet actor Bella Ramsey. You two hit it off but your paths lead two different directions.

Bella Ramsey x female reader

Taglist: @evieguhbyebroski @amberputh @assgardangod @niwritespoetry @mainslutsblog @obsessedmunson @guacala @that-one-little-soybean

Warnings: none (?)

A/N- I am sorry this took so long, I've been studying for my exams and only finished them on the 1st. Not proofread.

Part one⬇️

★★

It took you the entire journey home to register what was happening, the moment you stepped into your home the wheels in your brain started turning and you realized you were about to get ready to meet with Bella.

Bella Ramsey. Mildred Hubble. Lyanna Mormont. Bella fucking Ramsey.

You wouldn't ruin this for yourself. You wouldn't over procrastinate or stress so much that you end up convincing yourself not to go. You would calmly get ready and have fun.

You cringed slightly. You knew that wasn't going to happen.

Aware of the time you ran upstairs to your bedroom.

Choosing an outfit has never been a worry before. A graphic tee would be your go-to in this heat, was that too casual? You didn't even know where you were going.

You continued your search.

Your hands dived deeper, everytime they moved another shirt that was one size too small, or a too revealing dress, your determination grew. Simple was the best option. You doubted Bella would show up dressed to the 9's, they seemed more laid back. Your fingers clung to the soft white fabric of a sleeveless tank top. Your head turned to your window. It was sunny today, not a single cloud in the blue sky. Last time you checked it was 21°C, you were sure it had gotten hotter. You decided that would be the top to wear. Standing back from your wardrobe you moved to your drawers.

Pulling the first drawer opened your hands rummaged through the folded trousers until you saw the familiar trusting blue high waisted jeans.

You wanted to put together a fancy outfit, and you were surprised you didn't, but it was just so hot and your mind was still processing today's events.

When your hair was brushed and your eyelashes curled you turned to your mirror. This would have to do. Taking your phone from the desk you checked the time. You were disappointed when you seen you still had plenty time. Bella had texted you an address, which lead to you typing it into Google maps.

The results were a nice looking vegan restaurant, one you had never heard of before and was only a ten minute walk from your home.

A simple lunch. Don't overthink it.

To keep your mind occupied you watched a few of Bella's past interviews. Somewhere along the way you had found one from when they were on the Worst Witch, you had to admit they were adorable and their long hair suited them.

When the interviews weren't enough to keep your anxiety at bay, you decided you would continue reading your book. You were quick to realize the words were not registering in your head.

Sighing you left your room and made your way to the living room to find something to put you at ease.

There wasn't anything worth watching on the tv, food didn't seem appealing as of right now, you didn't even have any chores to do.

Plopping down onto the soft cushions of your couch, your hands rested on you stomach as you tried to relax. You had seen your mum do this after every shift at work, it seemed to help her.

"Ugh" you groaned. You dug your hands into your pocket and pulled out your phone. Relaxing might be your mum's thing, but not yours.

You had a new message from Aaron and two from your sister. You were still mad at your sister so you decided to open Aarons instead.

You bit your fingernail, a nervous habit you had developed. You hadn't told Aaron about how you had ran into Bella multiple times since sitting beside them on the bus. You didn't know if you should tell him or not.

Aaron was your bestfriend. You told him everything, and trusted him completely. You didn't know why you were so hesitant to tell him.

You didn't want Aaron thinking the situation was anything more than what it was. You stared at the text and thought about your options. Finally your fingers began moving across the keyboard.

You leaned back into the couch. You hated lying, especially to Aaron.

It wasn't a complete lie anyways, you were almost sure that was why your sister had messaged you. She barely texted you for anything but favours.

You watched the three dots move. What if he knew I was lying?

You smiled thankful that he didn't seem to pissed.

You spent the next hour scrolling aimlessly, rotating from social media to online clothing stores.

★

4:48

You jumped from your position on the couch once you realized the time. You wouldn't be late.

Grabbing everything you needed you made your way out of your home, google maps opened on your phone and Mac Miller playing from your earphones.

What would you even say to them? What would you both talk about?

You tried to focus on your music.

With every stop the restaurant got closer and your nerves grew.

Why did you agree to this?

This was way out of your comfort zone.

Suddenly you wished you had told Aaron. He would give you shitty advice, but it always managed to calm you.

You guessed what he might say if he were with you.

You won't be able to marry them if you can't go on one single date.

Pretend its Granny.

If you don't want to talk or don't know what to say, shove your mouth with as much food as possible.

Pretend you don't speak English

Maybe it was for the better that your best friend wasn't here.

You sighed, the music was becoming annoying so you took your earphones out and safely tucked them into your trousers pocket. The restaurant was up a head, you could just about see it so the Google maps wasn't in need anymore.

You fiddled with your hands, sometimes your finger would play with one of the many bracelets on your arm.

Please don't be awkward

Don't mess it up

You calmed your breathing.

The restaurant was nice. It was a red brick building with a large wooden door. Flowers were overgrown from their plant pots above the door and at the bottom of the building. Ivy was growing on the side.

From the large windows you could see the wooden floor and tables inside. The fairy lights creating a soft glow. There were a couple of people inside, not completely busy.

You passed a red fiat car parked at the side and made your way to the wooden door and inside.

Here goes nothing

Pushing the door open your eyes began searching for the familiar brunette.

"hello miss, how can I help you?"

You looked to the smiling waiter.

You smiled back, "I'm fine, just looking for a friend." The waiter nodded.

You then seen those dark messy curls, black t-shirt that had writing you couldn't make out. Their head was ducked as they typed on their phone but you knew it was Bella.

You slowly walked over.

"hope I didn't keep you waiting too long."

★ ★ ★

Bella sighed. They didn't know why the person they chose to confide in was the 40 year old man who still was mentally 13 years old.

"walked right into that one." Bella muttered.

They didn't want to admit it, but they arrived twenty minutes early, hoping time would speed up and you would be here already. That wasn't the case. It only gave them more time to stress. Bella began typing out their response.

"hope I didn't keep you waiting too long."

Bella's head snapped up from their phone to the voice, to you.

In that moment Bella felt all air leave their lungs. They didn't know what to say or how to say it.

★ ★

You watched as Bella's confused face disappeared and a smile formed on their lips.

"Hi" Bella breathed out.

You chuckeld at their nervous state.

"hi" you replied back as you took your seat across from them.

It was silent for a moment, but it wasn't an awkward or uncomfortable silence. You both took the time to take in each other. All your previous meetings felt rushed and observed, but right now it felt like time slowed. The few people in the restaurant weren't paying any mind to the two of you.

Bella put their phone away and sat straighter.

"you know, I was worried you wouldn't show up. Actually I think it's concerning that you did. I am basically a stranger after all." Bella teased.

You faked offence.

"you know your right. I think I should get going-"

As you turned your body in your chair and was about to stand up you felt another hand on top of your own from across the table.

The feeling of their cold rings on your warm skin sent goosebumps all along your body.

You turned to look at Bella's hand holding yours and then to their grinning face.

"you wouldn't." Bella squinted their eyes and you could see their lips were trying to conceal their laugh.

"oh I would." You threatened teasingly. You turned to the table beside you, "but man does the food look good here."

Bella finally let out the laugh they were trying to contain. Their hand left yours and suddenly you wished you had savoured the feeling of it more.

You sat back into your seat. The same waiter who had greeted you at the door walked over to your table, pen and paper in hand. He smiled at the both of you.'eric' his name tag read.

You quickly opened the menu and scanned through your options whilst Bella told the waiter what they wanted.

You decided on the Vegan carbonara pasta.

"I'll have that brought out for you in a few minutes"

The waiter left and it was just you and Bella again.

"how long have you been working at the café?" Bella was the first to start the conversation.

You pondered the answer in your head."I'm not sure exactly, can't be over a year though. It's only until I start college."

Bella listened intently to every word you spoke. They gave you their undivided attention.

Once you finished talking about your hopes for college you decided to ask Bella a question.

"aren't you studying environmental science?"

Bella raised a brow, that familiar grin back on their lips."were you stalking me online?"

You scoffed. Their teasing tone and their face full of pride making you embarrassed.

"No" you mumbled as you drank the water from your glass.

Bella laughed, "you definitely were."

"you would do the same if I were super famous!"

Bella laughed again at your words.

"oh definitely"

Your food was eventually brought out. Bella and you ate, still you chatted about each of your lives and what you had in common. You had to admit it was probably one of the best conversations you've ever had.

★

The food was ate and time had passed, the sky had darkened and the restaurant gradually emptied, only a few lingering at the bar area.

It never got awkward between you and Bella, no silences. You found talking to them easy, always having something to say and them having a response.

But all good things had to end.

You glanced at the clock on the wall across from you.

You knew it was meant to be raining later and you didn't want to have to walk in it or the dark either.

Bella must've noticed your disappointment.

Bella noticed your eyes wander to the wall behind them, knowing there was a clock there due to the amount of times they had visited the restaurant.

Their cheeks flushed in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry if I've kept you too long, I didn't notice the time move by." Bella apologized. They rubbed their hands on their thighs, a habit that came with nerves.

"no-no it's not that, I walked here and I'm aware it might rain later." You explained. "I wouldn't mind staying longer. I've had fun. Getting to know you and all "

Bella smiled. No one would ever know that inside their heart was about to explode from their chest, and their mind was coming up with thousands of scenarios and hidden meanings to your words.

"I'll walk you" the words left Bella's mouth before they could register what they were saying. They don't know why they said it, but part of them was glad they did because they knew normally they would never have the courage to ask.

You stared. You didn't know how to respond.

"yeah sure-i'd like that." You smiled.

Fuck you and your awkwardness! You thought to yourself .

Before you knew it both of you were exiting the restaurant together after dividing the check.

Bella was reluctant to let you pay even a penny, but you could be stubborn.

Bella paid no mind to their car as both of you passed it. They didn't want to tell you they drove here and could easily drive you back to your home, because that would mean they would have to say goodbye to you sooner, and they wanted to stall that as much as possible.

Bella walked with their hands in their pockets and you with your arms at your side.

The walk was quiet for the most part, bella would sometimes tell a cringy joke or recall a funny story from working on set. You enjoyed listening to them talk.

Bella didn't notice how close you were getting to your home, but you did. You wanted to be selfish and stall for as long as possible to avoid saying that dreaded goodbye.

"I'm glad I accepted your offer to get to know you better. " You avoided eye contact, choosing to play with your bracelet.

"I'm glad you did too." Bella smiled at you and watched you fiddle nervously. You met their eyes briefly before looking away, Bella's smile widened.

"I have interviews and meetings for majority of the week except Friday, maybe we could meet again?" Bella asked almost shyly, they felt like a kid again the way they got all giddy inside.

You frowned. "As much as I would love to, I'm meeting with an old friend on Friday." You apologized.

Bella masked their disappointment with a smile

"another time?"

"absolutely."

The rest of the walk to your home was quiet.

"I'd invite you inside but I don't want you walking in the rain." You said when you reached the door of your house.

"I wouldn't be able to stay long anyways, I have an early appointment tomorrow." Bella reassured you.

It was silent until bella spoke up again

"I had fun today. Text me, yeah?"

You agreed to and the both of you said your goodbyes when you couldn't stall it anymore.

The smiles on both your faces remained long after you said your goodbyes.

Part 6⬇️

A/n: I'm so excited for the next chapter, I have such a cute idea-

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baejax-the-great · 7 months

Note

ao3 exists, plus it doesnt even matter what terms i search for on tumblr 100% of the time theres fanfiction. literally you can search any words on this website and some kpop guy/ reader fanfics flood the results every single fucking time. plus some of us are not here for fandoms??? your circus/clown analogy is stupid

So I'm incredibly allergic to shrimp-- to the point where if I ate a single shrimp I would die, to the point where I don't really consider shrimp food anymore--and it's the weirdest thing, yesterday i went to Target to buy hair conditioner, and they were selling shrimp. Don't they know it wasn't what I was looking for and I can't eat it anyway? Why would they do this? Totally fucked up of those shrimp catchers to try to poison me like that.

But analogies clearly aren't your thing, so let me break this down for you.

AO3 does indeed exist, but your suggestion that fanfic live there and ONLY there is akin to saying that imgur exists, so nobody should be posting images, whether they be photos or art, on any other website. Twitter exists (sort of), so really nobody should be posting shit posts or hot takes that are fewer than 140 characters or whatever.

Not everyone uses AO3. There is no law saying that if you write fanfic, you must post it on AO3 and nowhere else. There will never be a law that says that, because that's not how the internet works. Tumblr, one of the few social media sites that allows longform blogging, is in fact a great alternative to AO3 for one-shots. It's a little trickier for multi-chapter posts, but I've seen people make it work.

AO3 is not social media. People can't DM there, send asks, make friends, bump their post to the top of the feed (unless they are an asshole who is about to get blocked by half of fandom for pulling that move). Do you like social media? I mean you're here, on tumblr, bothering a total stranger, so you must see some value to it. Guess what--fanfic authors also enjoy being on social media and sharing what they've been up to, including their WIPs.

Things you aren't looking for being part of your searches is literally just life on the internet at all times forever. Earlier this month I was looking for a reference of draped fabric for drawing purposes. I googled 'chiton drawing' (chitons like the ancient Greeks used to wear), and all I got were drawings of molluscs of the genus 'chiton.' Alright, I did a google search for "toga drawing" and learned that there is an anime girl named Toga and people very much enjoy drawing her. Were the artists of the molluscs or the anime girl to blame for me having to slog through a bunch of irrelevant pictures to find one that could help me with my drawing? No. They correctly labeled what they were doing. That's just life.

Seeing fanfic in the tag doesn't harm you. At all. It doesn't matter if you find it cringe, or it's a ship you don't like, or it's xReader. For like ten seconds you looked at words you didn't particularly like, and then you moved on. How is that different from literally any other post on tumblr? I see bad takes and essays I don't care about on this site all the time. It's called scrolling. Again, this will be the case for every website on the internet forever. Are you telling me you read every tweet in your feed? Every reddit post? Sometimes you see irrelevant stuff. I guarantee some of my mutuals have already deemed this long ass post irrelevant and are scrolling on by. What makes fiction that much more abhorrent to you than the rest of the nonsense?

If you really hate seeing fanfic, tumblr has content blocking and tag blocking. You can block the phrase "x Reader." You can block the tag "fanfic." You can block all sorts of things, and if that doesn't work, you can just block the writers whose existence annoys you.

Sorry man, you personally not liking fandom and not using tumblr for it has really no bearing on what everyone else is doing. Like it or not, tumblr is a hub of fandom, and fanfic authors are going to be a part of every fandom on this green earth. Just because you came to the circus in order to admire the pretty fabric used on the tents doesn't mean the performers are in the wrong for doing their thing.

#ao3 #get a load of this clown #tumblr #surprised it took me this long to get a braindead take in my inbox about this #this really feels like genZ bullshit where they see one thing they don't like online and become karens of the internet #honey other people exist doing things that have nothing to do with you #and occasionally you will see them and the only correct response is to move on with your life #by all means anon call up tumblr and explain to them that people are posting fanfic on their website and you just don't care for that

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arthyritis · 6 months

Text

A Wonderful World (Welcome Home/Puppet Friends AU) - Chapter Five

Phoebe sank into her bed with a drowsy sigh. A lot of searching, crying and being cuddled by four little puppets later, she was exhausted.

Pip was nowhere to be found and she was vaguely reminded of the time a couple of kids she'd known from the library had taken one of the puppets home with them for the night and returned him with a tear in his arm. She glanced at Ren, eyes tracing the many stitches on the asleep pig puppet with guilt.

All of the puppets were asleep now. Well, all except for Sweetie, the fox sitting lonesome on the windowsill and staring into the night. The street was quiet but Sweetie was following something, anyway, and Phoebe assumed there was a squirrel or something out there, though she couldn't get up to check herself.

"Scout, retrieve," the human girl whispered to the German Shepherd dog lying at the end of her bed. She pointed to the tiny fox puppet and the dog jumped down, tail wagging happily as he walked over and nudged the puppet playfully before spinning in a circle. Off-duty service dog behaviour. Phoebe giggled.

Sweetie looked down at Scout, then over at Phoebe, quickly accepting the ride to the bed and climbing under the covers next to Phoebe without saying a word.

As long as she was safe there, that's all Phoebe cared about, huffing as Scout jumped back onto the bed and lied down.

She lay there awake for a few more minutes before deciding she needed to do something.

Sweetie had fallen asleep in a flash and once the puppets were asleep for the night, it was near impossible to wake them up, so she sat and scooted to the edge of her mattress, flipping the blanket off of her and pulling her wheelchair a tiny bit closer, just so she could transfer into it to get to her desk.

When she got there, she pulled out some paper from a drawer and a pen from her holder and got to work sketching a picture of Pip, the word 'MISSING' in big, bold letters at the top.

Wally had convinced Pip to make a real breakfast, even after it had said the banana was enough.

So now bacon sizzled in the pan, grease popping up every few seconds and scaring Pip every single time. It'd just planned to make a sandwich, but there wasn't much in the way of meat in the house, despite all of the other food that existed, and meat would be more substantial, especially since its hunger seemed unrelenting at the moment. It could hardly focus because of it.

"The neighbours have taken quite a liking to you," Wally said suddenly and Pip jumped as the grease popped at the same time. "News travelled fast once you'd arrived and everyone is thrilled to meet you. The ones who have can't seem to get enough. Heck, I've barely gotten a moment alone with you."

All he could do was shrug noncommittally. "It's been nice hanging out with the others."

Why Wally felt so entitled to a moment alone with it was a mystery.

"I'm sure it has. That's the point. A fresh face." Wally glanced at the table. "Someone new for our neighbours to grow attached to."

"The point--" Pip glared at the yellow puppet with all of the hatred in the world until he looked up at him. "The point of me being here is that?! All of this, for THAT!"

Wally frowned at the loud tone of voice, the first time Pip had seen his seemingly permanent smile drop. It took a lot to get on this puppet's nerves, Pip noted.

"It's the way of Home, Puppet--"

"Stop calling me that," Pip reacted quickly. "Only one puppet calls me that, and it's not you."

"You're angry, so I won't take that personally." The smile had reappeared on Wally's face, and if Pip hadn't had such a visceral reaction, he would've thought he'd imagined it being gone before. "Pip, Home has reasons I will never understand for bringing puppets here. I'm certain there are two neighbours you'll get along with fantastically, if family is so important to you, actually."

For a moment, Pip ignored anything Wally was saying in favour of retrieving his food from the pan. It was a little crispier than he thought he might be able to handle, but he didn't care.

An egg was next into the pan before its attention was back with a sigh.

Two puppets he'd get along with who were just as family oriented as it was? Well, it doubted they had the same type of connection, or that Wally even understood the importance of its family or family in general to even try to compare, but it actually appreciated the effort of thought on this one.

"Barnaby had a mother hen before he arrived here. Whatever happened to her, he doesn't know..." The way Wally said it was off-putting. "And Julie has siblings."

A start. It was a start.

He cracked the egg and then flipped it, once again a little bit burnt, but not anything he couldn't ignore.

Wally kept talking about Barnaby and Julie's families. He seemed to know a fair bit about them and was willing to just let it all out as Pip sat and ate slowly, eyes averted and tracing lines in the oak table.

Then, silence sunk in. Comfortable, at first, until Pip felt Wally's eyes on it. It froze midway through a bite of egg.

Wally was watching it eat in the specific way that it was. Like it was fascinating. He could say the same about Wally's method, but as the attention was on him again, something nagged at him.

He ate the rest of the egg in three bites, then the bacon, then washed the grease off of his plate. "Why'd you come here, Wally?" he asked again, finally.

"Morning check-in," came the quick reply. "I usually do so over the telephone, but your line appears to be... forever preoccupied."

Pip swallowed, facing the sink. He felt like he owed the yellow puppet an explanation now. "The phone is off of the receiver, yeah. I just... need my space, okay? I'll... I'll come around soon." Heavy emphasis on the unspoken, "maybe."

"Speaking with my neighbours to ensure their safety and wellness is just a part of my routine; adding in another neighbour was easy, but adhering to your pleas isn't so. I hope you'll reconsider soon."

Wally's grin stretched to an almost felt-ripping degree, but it was gone within a second, so that one Pip might have actually been imagining.

Pip nodded and upon completing the dishes, just stood at the sink with the water running, listening as it buzzed in his hearing aid strangely,

growing louder and louder,

gradually,

until it stopped.

Yellow felt was in Pip's line of sight as Wally reached in front of it to turn off the tap, smiling stiffly now. "Let's not waste water, neighbour," he said, and then they were saying their goodbyes.

Apparently in its daze, Pip said it would go talk to one of the neighbours who wasn't busy today--that left both Poppy and Frank off his list. Convenient, chimed Pip's cynical thoughts. An offer to see Barnaby with him that Pip declined, before shutting the door on the yellow puppet and taking a deep breath. Alone, at last.

#welcome home fanfic #Puppet Friends #grey does writing

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themurphyzone · 8 months

Text

BatB AU: Lost and Found

AN: I've been waiting to write this one! Pinky goes through the wringer here but he gets a happy ending!

Ch 27: Lost and Found

AO3 Link

Pinky's fingers drummed anxiously against the floor, his tail lashing from the tension in the air. Nobody was having much luck in their research.

He was still nervous from his earlier freakout when the Warners' book castle collapsed, though it was quickly forgotten while everybody was trying to find out as much as they could about Warnerstock, King William, and Queen Angelina.

He didn't remember rushing into danger, picking up Brain, and getting him out of there.

But the Warners all swore that it was one of the coolest things they'd ever seen him do, even if he had no memory of it. Brain didn't back them up. He'd seemed pretty confused by the tears splashing onto his head, though he thanked Pinky for the rescue.

Pinky still felt Brain glancing in his direction every now and then. Though Brain tried to be discreet about it, Pinky could see his large ears drooping whenever he looked, completely giving him away.

Pinky didn't draw attention to it.

I'm okay, he silently promised Brain. Let's focus on helping the Warners. They deserve to know what their parents were like.

But they perused atlases, journals, encyclopedias, tomes, even a pop-up book about the countries of the world because they were desperate, yet there was hardly anything about Warnerstock or its royal family.

And when the country was given one or two mentions in a single passage, on a single page, somebody always wound up screaming at the book in frustration.

The only thing Pinky had learned was that Warnerstock really liked naming everything Acme for some reason, though nobody could figure out what the random assortment of letters stood for. There was Acme Castle, Acme Falls, Acme River, and Pinky's personal favorite, Acme Butte.

It had taken Pinky and the Warners five minutes to stop laughing over that one, despite Brain's insistence that Acme Butte was just an elevated area of land, had no relation to a certain body part, and they were all immature for laughing at their purposeful mispronunciation of a geographical feature.

If only the rest of the few things they'd found about Warnerstock were that funny.

"A primitive land filled with anarchy and untamed savages who don't observe any type of authority whatsoe-" Brain slammed The Greatest European Empires in History shut. The sound echoed around the room. He shoved the book away in disgust. "I never realized how horribly biased this author was to every country that wasn't his native England."

"At least you can read it," Yakko scoffed, holding up what appeared to be an old journal. "Can't make heads or tails of this one. Too much fancy script."

"No pictures?" Pinky asked. He'd tried flipping through a few non-picture books, but he found it really difficult to focus on words alone.

He'd gotten really frustrated with himself until Brain swapped books with him, then assigned him to skim a pile of books that had pictures in them while he took the heavier texts.

So far, he wasn't having much luck, but he was grateful to Brain for trying to make things easier on him.

"No pictures," Yakko confirmed.

Yeah, that made everything harder.

Wakko was playing with the discarded books more than he was reading them. Nobody dissuaded him from this activity, because it kept everyone from tearing out their fur in frustration.

Meanwhile, Dot poured over a thirteen part set about kings and queens in the past century. Unlike Brain's more methodical and careful search, she flipped through each page with vigor, her expression growing impatient as the discarded pile beside her grew larger.

After twenty minutes, she angrily huffed and crossed her arms.

"Brain, don't you have a part fourteen of The Accomplishments of European Royalty lying around somewhere?" she demanded. "I can't find any mention of Mom or Dad anywhere!"

Brain glanced up from his own book.

"You're going too far into the past for your parents' reign," he said. "Look for publications in the past two decades."

Dot scowled. "That's the thing! You don't have any books that were published recently! Everything is way out of date!"

Brain’s fur bristled as he stood up, fully intending to prove Dot wrong. He flipped through book after book, and Pinky had never seen anyone read so quickly before.

“1742, 1704, 1721…” Brain said each publication date out loud, his ears sinking with the realization that Dot was right. He pushed away the encyclopedia in front of him when he wasn’t even five pages in. “The curse didn’t leave me a lot of opportunities to expand my collection...”

He shook his head, accepting defeat with a resigned sigh.

“We could buy newer books,” Pinky suggested. They couldn’t lose hope on finding answers yet.

There had to be something out there, right?

But nobody else seemed to have much hope for finding anything about the siblings’ homeland.

Dot crawled over to Yakko and buried her face into his fur. Her normally perky ears flopped to the side, tears rolling down her face as she desperately held onto her older brother. Yakko wrapped his arms around her, lifting one arm so Wakko could crawl into his embrace as well.

“...I just wanted to know them,” Dot whispered, her voice tiny.

Pinky’s heart broke for her. Dot was tough, but sometimes she was fragile too. It was easy to forget.

Brain’s library was enormous. But it couldn’t help Dot feel connected to her parents, no matter how much they wanted to pretend otherwise.

And when Warnerstock was mentioned, the authors didn’t seem to like the country at all.

I was just trying to help…and I made her feel worse.

“I’m sorry, Dot,” Pinky whispered. “I really thought this would work…”

Dot lifted her head. “It’s okay, Pinky,” she said quietly. “Thanks for trying. You too, Brain.”

Brain glanced at his enormous collection of books. “We didn’t make any progress today. But I will try to obtain some written records about Warnerstock and your parents over the past ten years, even if it won’t be easy with all the censorship surrounding the topic.”

Wakko tilted his head, looking very much like a confused puppy. "Why would they censor our parents?" he asked.

"Too many bad words for our innocent ears," Yakko joked, trying to lighten the mood. His ears twisted into a circle above his head, mimicking an angelic halo.

"Oh yes, you're the very picture of innocence." Brain rolled his eyes as Pinky, Wakko, and even Dot laughed at Yakko's display.

"Unfortunately, the censorship surrounding Warnerstock began two centuries ago, when a Warnerstockian king committed a grievous offense against the French crown. As revenge, the French royal family decreed that Warnerstock's name and accomplishments would be scrubbed from all its history books. Warnerstock could be invited to major events to avoid damaging foreign relations, but they were never to be trusted and under watch at all times. And the grudge persists to this day."

That all sounded a bit silly. The entire reason they couldn't find anything was because somebody was mad at someone else long before any of them were ever born?

"That's…a bit much," Dot admitted. "What kind of offense was it?"

Brain wrinkled his nose with disdain. "The exact reasons have been lost to time. Which leads me to believe this grievous offense could've been a slightly embarrassing, yet harmless prank instead of anything drastic like an invasion. Overall, it's a silly and archaic law, but the king is bound to tradition no matter what."

There was a hint of bitterness in his tone. Like he had personal experience with questioning this ancient grudge and was shot down mercilessly.

"It's stupid," Dot scoffed.

Brain sighed. "That's what I said, and then I was punished with a fifty page essay covering why the censorship was justified and why certain books like Robin Hood needed to be banned for their pro-revolution content. With an abstract. And underlined key words. And proper citations with a bibliography."

He shivered, and Pinky moved closer in case he was cold. There was a slight draft from the window. Maybe they needed to close it.

Brain leaned against him with a grateful sigh.

"I have no idea what any of those are," Pinky admitted. "But I'm sure you worked very hard on it."

"Well, I'm glad you think so," Brain murmured. "I've never seen so much red ink in my life after I got it back."

Disheartened from the lack of progress, nobody made an effort to put all the books back where they belonged. Even Brain didn't say anything about it.

There was an unspoken agreement that the books would all be put away later.

"Pinky?" Wakko said, surprising everyone. He was soft-spoken compared to his siblings, and nobody really knew when he chose to speak. "Do you remember your mom at all?"

Dot lifted her head, watery eyes gazing curiously at Pinky. She must've had the same question too.

A gentle smile. Laughter. Hugs and kisses to the top of his head. A voice reading fairy tales and getting just as excited as him when the prince and princess kissed and lived happily ever after. The sweet smell of cheese and apple pie clinging to her apron.

Her name was Brie. She was tall. She was graceful. She wore a flowing purple cloak.

And she was…faceless.

Pinky's heart pounded against his chest, his breath stolen away.

He couldn't remember what she looked like. The exact shade of her fur and the color of her eyes were lost on him.

"I-I'm sorry. I think…I just need to be alone for a bit," Pinky stammered.

He dislodged himself from Brain so fast that the smaller mouse nearly toppled face-first into the carpet.

Pinky stumbled as he rose to his feet. Four uneasy stares burned into his back.

A small hand slipped into his, a silent plea to stay.

But Pinky let go, fleeing the library without Brain and ignoring the voices calling for him to come back.

I can't remember Mama's face. I can't help the Warners get to know their parents. I can't save anybody I love.

o-o-o-o-o

He didn’t know where he was, or where he was going. He just wandered wherever his feet took him, though he wasn’t sure where he wanted to go.

Brain and the Warners were probably worried sick about him. He could still hear their voices calling his name, begging him to come back so they could figure out what was wrong.

They don't know. I’ve been hiding the truth since that night. Keeping it in, hoping they don't find out so they'll still call me a friend.

He’d betrayed the entire castle and nobody ever realized the truth. They still smiled, laughed, and talked to him like nothing was wrong.

He wanted to be brave like Brain. But he was too scared of what could happen if he told everyone that he’d led Snowball and the mob to the castle. They’d shun him like the villagers did, or kick him out altogether. And Pinky didn’t want to leave. He loved the castle, Brain, and all his friends too much to ever leave them again.

It was selfish to keep this secret, he knew. Guilt clawed at his heart, the silence overwhelming in this strange, misty landscape.

Did he wander too far from the castle? With all this fog, he couldn’t see the tall spires even though he was sure Brain’s castle would be pretty hard to miss for anyone who wasn’t blind.

There was nothing he could use as a landmark. No rocks or sticks to make an arrow with, no trees to mark, or a dirt path to follow.

The thick mist pooled around him and blocked the sky above. No sunlight reached Pinky, and he didn’t have the moon and stars to comfort him either.

“Brain?” Pinky called, anxiously wringing his tail when he couldn’t hear Brain’s voice. “Papa? Dot? Can anyone hear me?”

No leaves crunched under his feet. No birds were singing in the nonexistent trees. There was no breeze to cool him off, nor any sign that anyone else was around.

Pinky was alone, and nobody was around to help.

Though he was afraid of the mist, not wanting to know if there was anything waiting in the shadows for him, he didn’t want to stay in one place either.

Cautiously, he walked through the mist in search of the castle. He’d be safe then. Brain would make sure of that.

Heart racing, he pushed forward. Giving up wasn’t an option. Not until he found his family and friends.

Maybe he needed to stay put after all. Maybe moving forward just meant that he’d lose his way and make it difficult for anyone to find him.

But Brain would find him, no matter how lost Pinky was.

His ears pricked at the sound of hooves clopping against the ground.

Pinky’s heart leapt. Pharfignewton was close by! She’d help him find the castle! Her sense of direction was miles better than Pinky’s.

“Pharfignewton, is that you? I’m here! I’m really happy you showed up!” Pinky called as the sound of thundering hooves drew closer. “Can you take me to the castle please?”

A dark silhouette appeared in the mist.

And Pinky’s hopes were dashed when the silhouette took on the shape of an enormous, shadowy horse-drawn carriage. The horses stopped in front of Pinky, whinnying in agony as the coachman mercilessly cracked his whip against their backs and commanded them to move.

Pinky’s feet were rooted to the spot, fear overwhelming him as he stood in the shadow of Mr. Itch’s carriage, the words Maison des Lunes emblazoned in crimson red.

And one of the exhausted and beaten horses forced to pull the carriage was…

“Pharfig?” Pinky whispered, horrified by her agonized whinnies. He covered his ears against the awful noise, but he couldn’t block it out. It echoed in his ears and rattled him to his core. “N-no, that can’t be you…”

Long, deep scars criss-crossed her white pelt, her once beautiful mane and tail forcefully slashed into tiny, thin strands. Her hooves were cracked and untrimmed, her reins choking her neck and muzzle, leaving her barely able to breathe.

Her blue eyes were lifeless and dull, a far cry from the vibrant horse Pinky knew. Her bones were outlined against her too-thin frame, head bowed close to the ground.

She didn't have the strength to pull the carriage, nor enough to stand.

A chill ran through Pinky. He tried to tell himself that it wasn't Pharfignewton, it was just some horse that looked like a sicklier version of her, but even he couldn't believe his own flimsy lie.

This was Pharfignewton, more exhausted and despairing than she should've been. Pinky had met her when she was just a lost, small filly, but she’d never lost her spirit then.

Help me.

Her eyes were pleading.

“H-hold on, Pharfig,” Pinky whispered, his heart breaking at the sight. “I’ll free you. Poit.”

He didn’t know why she was pulling Monsieur Itch’s carriage, but Pinky knew that Pharfignewton would never do such a horrible thing willingly. She was too sweet, and she didn’t deserve this inhumane treatment.

But when he reached up to try and loosen the reins around her muzzle, a fiery whip suddenly lashed across his hands, and Pinky cried out in pain when he was forced to let go. But Pharfignewton barely reacted. She took the cruel blow quietly, and the new, bleeding scar across her muzzle was the only sign she was affected at all.

“Now, now, I can’t just allow you to steal my horse,” the coachman said, twirling the whip in his hands, the fire not affecting him at all. “She’s a useful servant, even if she doesn’t quite look the part.”

“She isn’t your horse!” Pinky screamed. “You’re torturing her! Please, let her go!”

The white mist turned crimson red, and the coachman chuckled as a flame appeared in the palm of his hand, illuminating his face.

Pinky gasped, burned hands flying to his mouth in horror. The man before him had a thin mustache, slick black hair, and a finely tailored suit. There was a wicked smirk on his face. He was enjoying every second of Pinky’s suffering.

The coachman was none other than Monsieur Itch.

“And just why would I do that?” he asked. "Surely you can't expect me to haul your old man back to the asylum all by myself. I prefer to commit unwilling mortals with style."

Pinky froze with horror at a loud clang from within the carriage.

"Pinky! Don't let them take me! Help!"

"Papa!" Pinky cried out, rushing over to the carriage and scrambling up the wheel. The burns on his hands stung, pain searing through his body, but he gritted his teeth and hauled himself onto the footstep of the carriage. He pressed his ear to the door, ignoring the blazing heat of the carriage. "Are you okay, Papa? Are you hurt?"

Please…I can't lose the rest of my family too….

He thought of Mama, whose face he couldn't remember, and of his unborn sibling, who never had a chance to live.

Papa coughed. His voice was weak and raspy, the clanging fainter every passing second.

"Please, save me, son…"

Pinky's tears stung his face and blurred his vision.

"I will! Don't worry, Papa!" Pinky shouted, unable to keep the panic out of his voice. "I'll make your favorite broccoli and cheese soup as soon as we get home! You'll get better and stronger in time for the fair! You still have time to win that lovely blue ribbon for Madeline, and Pharfig and I will be there to cheer you on and-”

Pinky tried to climb towards the latch, but fingers clamped around his tail and lifted him into the air. Itch’s fingers seared his flesh, tears leaking out of Pinky’s eyes.

He kicked his legs and reached for the carriage, but he couldn’t escape the tight hold.

“Relax, Pinky. We always take excellent care of the inmates at the Maison des Lunes.” Itch said, and Pinky shrieked as flames scorched his back. Itch only laughed cruelly. “Thank you for your patronage, but I believe I’ve kept you long enough. Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

He carelessly tossed Pinky over his shoulder, and Pinky only caught a glimpse of the carriage disappearing into the mist before his face hit rough cobblestone. He pushed himself up to his feet, ignoring the aches in his body as he tried to figure out the direction the carriage had gone, but the mist made it impossible to see a path.

“Go away!” Pinky screamed, swatting at the mist. Hitting it wouldn’t make it leave, but he tried anyway, even though his attacks did nothing. “I need to go after them! Leave me alone!"

He screamed until his throat was too raw for him to continue. Gasping for breath, Pinky could only lay on the cobblestone while tears streamed down his face.

I have to find them! I have to save them!

He couldn't just lay here and do nothing! Why couldn't he stop being so useless?

But when his cries fell silent, the sounds of a fierce, raging battle filled the air.

He heard triumphant bellows mixed with cries of pain.

And the cries of pain were from his friends.

He'd been thrown right onto the doorstep of the castle, right in the midst of his village's attack.

I led them here. They're in trouble because of me. *italicize*

He was responsible for this battle. Which meant he was equally responsible for ending it.

Pushing himself to his feet, Pinky stumbled over himself before rushing into the castle. The door had been knocked off its hinges, its wood splintered into pieces along the ground.

The lobby was filled with the bodies of his friends. Though they were inanimate, they didn't deserve to be treated so cruelly. Many had fallen, torn apart by the villagers' weapons and bare hands. Others continued to fight, pushing past their injuries and grief for their fallen friends, but they were slowing down and wouldn’t be able to keep their strength up anymore.

Pinky carefully avoided the pile of scattered feathers on the floor, not wanting to tread on the remains of the Goodfeathers. Nearby, a broken halo laid next to a crumbled gargoyle.

A heart wrenching, desperate howl echoed through the lobby.

In the shadows, Runt cradled Rita’s broken body between his wooden legs. There was a knife caught in the fabric on his back. Half of his golden tassels were ripped off, leaving dangling, ripped threads behind. Rita was lifeless, her wings torn away by force and her Christmas angel’s dress in tatters. A bent wire poked out of her head, her golden halo missing.

Quietly, Pinky approached the mourning ottoman and returned the halo to its rightful place on Rita’s head.

“...a-are you awake yet, Rita?” Runt whined, gently nuzzling Rita’s head. “You said you had a special song for me. I really wanna hear you sing, Rita….”

Pinky backed away before Runt could notice him. He didn’t have the right to say anything when his own stupidity caused her death.

He blinked back tears, almost stumbling over a knight’s helmet. He couldn’t cry and grieve yet.

Brain was still missing.

Maybe it wasn’t too late. Maybe he could still find Brain and help him and everyone escape the castle.

Pinky rushed upstairs, trying to block out the chaos surrounding him as he raced towards the West Wing. He hadn’t seen Snowball yet.

Panic coursed through him, and he wondered if he’d arrived too late to help Brain fend Snowball off.

I can't think like that! Brain's gotta be okay! He has to be…

Though he wanted to stay and help the servants drive off the villagers, he knew the battle wouldn't end until Snowball was defeated. The Crown Prince had only one goal in mind, and he wouldn't stop until it was accomplished.

Just as Pinky reached the second floor, there was a loud scream from downstairs.

"Get your ugly mug out of our castle!" Dot screeched, struggling against Jacque’s tight grip. But the older man only laughed, not reacting to Dot’s attempts to pummel him with her base. As a fragile teacup, she was completely helpless.

Yakko’s fire burned a furious white. Though one of his candles was missing, the intensity of his flames would’ve put a furnace to shame.

“LET MY SISTER GO!” he roared, charging at Jacque, but before he could set his coat ablaze, another villager suddenly kicked him away.

Yakko landed in a puddle of water that had been thrown by one of the buckets, his flames going out instantly. Wakko rushed in to help his older brother up, and several men descended upon them while they were in disarray.

She no longer had her brothers’ protection.

Jacque hurled Dot to the ground, shattering her into tiny porcelain shards.

“Dot!” Pinky screamed at the motionless teacup. She was broken beyond repair, and all her attempts to prove that she wasn’t fragile amounted to nothing.

But nobody heard his cries. The battle raged on.

The Warner brothers continued to fight for their lives, even though Pinky could see their grieving expressions from afar. They weren’t granted a chance to mourn their loss.

This needs to end. I can’t let Snowball hurt everyone I care about.

Pinky rushed to the West Wing before his helplessness overtook him. The halls were empty of servants and were emptier than Pinky had ever seen them. Not even a knight or a maid to be found.

Echoes of the battle plagued him, the gargoyles’ eyes glaring accusingly as he passed by.

You did this to our home, they said.

Except for the battle under his feet, it was silent. The only company was the gargoyles and darkness.

His mother and sibling were long gone. Itch took away Papa and Pharfignewton. Brain, his friends, and this castle were all he had, and Snowball planned to destroy them too.

I can’t beat Snowball. I’m just a peasant. He’s a powerful prince. But…I have to try and make him leave everyone alone. It’s the only way.

A deafening, agonized roar echoed off the walls, and Pinky's heart leapt with horror as a voice snapped at him to shut up.

"-why would Pinky ever want you? Did you really think he could ever love a disgrace and an abomination such as yourself?"

Pinky ran faster. He couldn't allow Brain to endure Snowball's cruel mockery alone.

"How far you've fallen since your exile. It's truly pitiful."

Pinky's lungs burned from exhaustion as he finally reached the West Wing doors, though he couldn't let himself rest until Brain was out of danger.

"Now, allow me to put you out of your misery!"

The doors were wide open, and Pinky froze as Snowball held a dagger high above his head, cackling with delight at a barely conscious Brain, who laid helplessly at his feet.

He didn't do anything to defend himself.

His pink eyes were downcast, his long ears drooping. He could only let out a sad, longing growl.

"Get up, Brain!" Pinky screamed. He'd seen Brain fight a wolf before! He could easily fight back against Snowball! "You have to get up right now!"

But Brain only lifted his head, his gaze falling on Pinky. His thick brows lifted, ears perking up. His despairing growl turned soft and happy.

And the dagger plunged into his back.

Brain's happiness swiftly turned to pain and shock, his breathing ragged as crimson blood flowed out of the wound and stained the ground.

Desperate to get Snowball away from Brain, Pinky charged at him.

Snowball only smirked.

And Pinky passed through Snowball like he was never there, his hands closing around empty air before he collapsed on his hands and knees. Snowball laughed, his body and dagger disappearing into mist, stained red from Brain's blood.

The enchanted rose's last petal blackened and withered, fluttering helplessly in its dying moment.

Pinky trembled, staring at the spot where Snowball had vanished. There was nothing he could do against Snowball.

He’d won.

Pinky couldn’t free Papa and Pharfignewton from their torture. He couldn’t save Rita or Dot or any of his friends. And now the mouse before him, who Pinky treasured more than life itself, was dying a slow and painful death.

In the end, Pinky had no one to blame but himself. He couldn’t stand up to Snowball, and everybody he loved paid the price.

“...I’m sorry,” Pinky whispered, though no apology would ever make up for his betrayal.

His hands shook as he removed his cloak and pressed it against Brain’s back, though it didn’t do much to stop the bleeding.

Even if his actions were useless, he wanted Brain to feel some kind of comfort. He deserved that much.

“...Pinky?” Brain murmured in surprise.

“Shhh,” Pinky gently hushed him so the bleeding wouldn’t get worse. “Just rest. I-I’ll try to stop this bleeding.”

Brain's body shifted as he turned to check his wounds, and Pinky held him steady so he didn't make his wound worse.

"Bleeding? What bleeding?" he asked in confusion.

He probably didn't realize he'd been stabbed.

"Snowball…h-he stabbed you, Brain," Pinky said softly. "So please…stay still so I can heal you properly."

He'd had plenty of experience patching up Papa when his inventions exploded. Cuts could be bandaged. Herbs could be used for bruises or pain.

But…Brain's wound was too deep, too painful to be healed with Pinky's limited knowledge.

I…I can't give up…I have to keep applying pressure…it's gotta stop eventually! Please, just stop….

But his vision became misty and his hands wouldn't stop shaking.

The bleeding wouldn't stop.

Blood soaked through his cloak, staining his hands crimson and spilling onto the floor, covering every surface of the West Wing.

Pinky choked back a sob, tears splashing onto his bloodstained hands.

I can't do it. I can't save him. I can't save anybody.

All his strength left him, and he could only collapse against Brain in exhaustion, hating that he couldn't do anything for him or anyone else.

The white mist spread across the West Wing until all the furniture, walls, and floor disappeared.

And Pinky was lost, adrift once again with only his spiraling thoughts for company. There was nobody here, no place to seek shelter or help.

Only Brain was left, and Pinky clung to his dying body, afraid that Brain would be gone forever if he let go.

Brain was barely clinging to life, but once he succumbed to his wound, Pinky would be lost and alone once more.

Guilt ran through Pinky. He didn't want Brain to put himself through all that pain just to keep him company.

His eyes stung from crying, but before he could try to soothe them on his own, a clawed hand gently caressed his cheek.

Stunned, Pinky barely registered that Brain was ignoring his fatal injury in favor of helping him feel better.

"Y-you shouldn't be sitting up," Pinky whispered into Brain's thick, warm fur. Strong arms circled around him, pulling him against a broad chest and soothing heartbeat. "Please, don't make your wound worse…."

His heartbeat sounded oddly strong even though he was on death's door.

"Pinky…” Brain murmured, his voice pained. “...what exactly are you seeing?”

Did he not realize he’d been stabbed? It must’ve happened so fast that Brain didn’t even know.

Maybe he should’ve insisted that Brain lay down more. Maybe he should’ve been calling for help because he was too weak and exhausted to move Brain somewhere more comfortable on his own.

But Pinky was too scared of being alone in this strange misty landscape. It was safer to stay with Brain for as long as he could.

If Brain would let him once he knew the truth.

"I…I showed Snowball and my village where to find you with the mirror,” Pinky admitted. He didn’t understand why Brain only pulled him closer instead of pushing him away in disgust. “They were trying to throw Papa into a horrible asylum cause he said you were real and they didn’t believe him, s-so I pulled out the mirror and showed them your face, a-and Snowball convinced everyone you were a threat, a-and it’s my fault the castle was attacked and now everyone’s gone cause I put them all in danger! Y-you’re dying…cause I led them right to you…”

He heard a chorus of whispers come from somewhere in the mist, though he had no idea who was speaking or if they wanted to drag him further into the unknown so that no one would ever see him again.

Frightened by their voices, Pinky huddled closer to Brain, tears streaming down his face as he realized that he was going to lose the only comfort he had. Brain made a strange noise at this, yet after a moment, he hesitantly reached for Pinky’s hand.

Shocked that Brain wasn’t pushing him off in disgust, Pinky tried to pull away, but Brain didn’t let go.

“...they’re worried about you, Pinky,” Brain said quietly. “You’re somewhere very far away right now. And wherever that is…it seems to be a terrifying place.”

Pinky whimpered, clinging to Brain's warmth for as long as he would let him. He was the only one who could protect him in this horrible place.

"There's nothing here, Brain," Pinky whispered. "It's all mist. You're…you're gonna disappear like Pharfig and Papa and Rita and Dot and everyone else very soon. I'll be alone and I can't ever escape."

This was punishment for his betrayal. In trying to save everyone he loved, he lost them all.

He messed up too badly to ever be forgiven.

Yet Brain didn't let go of Pinky's hand. And when he spoke, his voice was soft but full of conviction.

"You can escape, Pinky. You just need to wake up."

I need to…wake up? Was I dreaming this entire time? It all seems so real…

But even if Pinky didn’t know what was real or a dream anymore, he trusted Brain to tell him the difference. Still, it didn’t completely get rid of his fear of the unknown. He didn’t know where he’d be if he escaped this nightmare.

“Brain…if I wake up like you say, can you tell me where I’ll be afterward? I’m really scared…”

Brain touched his large forehead to Pinky’s."You’ll be home, Pinky. There's a soft bed with fluffy pillows and a sun-patterned comforter. A window with an exquisite view. A wardrobe with your favorite dresses and a wardrobe stocked with perfume. A serving cart full of warm honey tea and chocolate chip cookies that melt in your mouth. And…everyone is here too. They're here to make sure you're okay."

"Everyone?" Pinky whispered.

"Yes,” Brain nodded. “Your father and Pharfignewton. The Warner siblings are here too. Rita, Runt, Mindy, and Buttons. And more who we had to bar from entering because it was becoming overcrowded. They're waiting outside the room."

"...is everyone alive?"

And they all wanted him to be okay? Even though he couldn’t save them?

"Everyone is alive and well. I promi-no, I Pinky promise you'll see all of them when you wake up."

With that solemn promise made, Brain hooked his little finger around Pinky’s, intertwining them together so firmly that nothing could separate them.

Though Pinky was still nervous about facing everyone, he trusted Brain with all his heart. He wouldn’t be alone in a strange and frightening landscape anymore.

He would be safe. He would be home with everyone he loved.

Pinky closed his eyes and took a deep breath, imagining himself nestled among warm blankets and fluffy pillows, surrounded by all of his friends and family. Everyone smiled and laughed as they passed delicious chocolate chip cookies around, humming with delight as they told corny jokes and playfully roughhoused with each other. Nobody was hurt or afraid or sad.

They were all happy. And they wanted him to be part of their happiness too.

And when he lifted his head and opened his eyes, the very first thing he saw was Brain, who blinked in surprise before he exhaled heavily, a small, relieved smile crossing his face.

“Welcome back,” Brain murmured, cupping Pinky’s face in his hands and touching their noses together.

He was a normal mouse again, no horns or claws and only a tiny pair of fangs that fit inside his mouth, but whether he was a mouse or a beast, he’d always be the same Brain to Pinky.

Pinky nuzzled Brain back. Though Brain resisted a bit at first, he gave up with a resigned huff and accepted his fate, allowing Pinky to pull him into an embrace. Carefully, Pinky touched Brain’s side, where Snowball’s dagger had fatally wounded him.

Brain’s shirt wasn’t ripped. There was no blood or pain anywhere. In fact, there was no wound at all. Brain was relaxed and serene in Pinky’s arms.

“You’re okay,” Pinky whispered, his vision blurring with tears.

Brain was moving and breathing and living and that was all Pinky wanted for him.

“Of course,” Brain replied. His rose-pink eyes were watery too, and he quickly wiped them, though it didn’t do much. “Ugh. Do you have to make me produce tears too?”

Pinky only laughed in response. Brain looked away and folded his arms grumpily, though there was still a tiny smile on his face.

Somebody coughed, and Pinky remembered what Brain said about everybody waiting for him. He and Brain weren’t alone. Papa, the Warner siblings, and Rita were all spread out over the bed too, with plenty of room to spare. Runt stood on his back legs on the floor, his front paws resting on the comforter as he wagged his tail happily. Pharfignewton stood next to him, whinnying with relief. Buttons was trying to coax Mindy down from the dresser.

“Honestly, I’ve seen trees less sappier than both of you,” Yakko said, playfully sticking his tongue out.

Brain’s fur bristled indignantly. “I wasn’t being sappy!” he protested.

Rita gave Brain a toothy grin. “We’re all eyewitnesses to everything you were telling Pinky in his sleep, boss. There’s no point in denying it.”

Brain blushed, his ears flattening at their teasing. “Y-you were just mishearing things in an emotionally charged situation-”

“Oh, none of us misheard your little Pinky promise,” Dot added. “That bit was cornier than a cornfield.”

“Cheesier than the cheesiest cheesecake,” Wakko declared as he reached for a chocolate chip cookies from the serving cart.

Brain groaned, covering his beet-red face with his hands. “That’s it,” he grumbled. “I’m firing all of you and your replacements will be rocks who can’t talk back.”

The Warner siblings and Rita burst into laughter, completely unfazed by Brain’s threat.

“We love you too,” Yakko smirked.

Brain only mumbled something nobody could make out.

After such a lonely dream, Pinky found it refreshing to hear everyone’s voices and laughter again. But part of him wondered if they’d let him be part of their happiness too once they learned the truth about that night.

If they knew he’d caused the attack on the castle.

Even if they cast him out, he thought they deserved to know.

“Everyone…there’s something important I need to tell you-” Pinky began.

Brain shifted closer, letting Pinky lean against him without comment.

But Dot held up her hand to stop him. Pinky clammed up instantly.

Instead of anger, there was only sympathy in her eyes.

"Wakko explained everything," she said quietly. "We already know."

Pinky remembered when Wakko, a mantle clock back then, popped out of his bag and asked him if he could come back to the castle because everyone loved having him there.

He hadn't realized Wakko saw Papa getting thrown in the asylum wagon because everyone thought he was insane, Pinky trying to save him by proving the Beast's existence with the enchanted mirror, and Snowball riling up the villagers through fear and flames.

And Wakko saw Pinky's betrayal firsthand.

He was too scared to even look at Wakko…but he knew he'd have to face whatever he had to say.

Wakko glanced down at his lap.

"I told them you were just trying to do everything you could to save your dad," he admitted. "And that you tried your best to stop Snowball and his followers."

There was a heavy weight attached to Wakko's words.

If Wakko and his siblings had been old enough to try and save their parents from King Salazar, then they would've taken the chance.

They understood, and they didn't blame him in the slightest.

"You were thrust into an impossible situation. Any action you took would've had consequences," Brain said. He brought Pinky's head down to eye level and gave him a kiss on his muzzle. "Still…I admire your bravery in standing against Snowball. You may be frightened of him, but you fought hard to save everyone from his wrath. And I'm grateful for that."

Pinky hadn't done any physical fighting that night. He'd been terrified that he could lose all his friends and family, regretting the decisions he'd made, and crying because there was nothing he could do to save anyone.

“I…I wasn’t brave that night,” Pinky confessed. “I was too scared, and I wasn’t useful to anyone. A-and I hurt all of you too…”

Pharfignewton stomped her hoof, stretching out her neck and giving Pinky a small nip to the ear. She whinnied in protest.

It didn’t hurt, but Pinky’s hand flew up to his ear anyway.

“Pharfig?” he said in confusion. She’d never nipped him like that before.

She was strong and healthy, not the sick and frail horse that Pinky had seen in his nightmare. There were no burn marks anywhere on her body, her eyes bright and her pelt sleek and well-groomed.

She never pulled Mr. Itch’s carriage in real life, but Pinky still wished he hadn’t pushed her so hard to take everyone to the castle when she was injured.

Pharfignewton lowered her head until Pinky’s hand touched her muzzle.

“It was her choice to push through her injuries, Pinky,” Papa finally spoke up. He crossed the bed and wrapped Pinky in a hug. “She’s a stubborn mule when she wants to be.”

Pinky hugged Papa back, relieved that he could see and feel him instead of only hearing his frightened voice begging to be saved. “She’s not a mule, Papa,” he said. “I thought you knew the difference.”

Papa nodded sagely. “Of course, of course. My mistake. She’s obviously a zebra.”

He seemed a little too proud of his terrible joke, and Pinky couldn’t help but smile..

Pharfignewton snorted indignantly. Rita and Brain rolled their eyes while the Warners laughed.

Runt cocked his head to the side, his tongue lolling out. “I don’t get it,” he said.

“Zebas live in Arica!” Mindy helpfully proclaimed from the top of the wardrobe. Nobody knew how she managed that climb. Buttons balanced on his hind legs, ready to catch her if she fell.

Fortunately for him, Yakko took notice of his distress and scaled the side of the wardrobe. He was careful to not make any noise so Mindy wouldn’t be startled by him sneaking up on her. Once he was in arm’s reach, he grabbed her by the strap of purple dress and pulled her close to his body before leaping down from the wardrobe with Mindy secured against his chest.

“Don’t worry,” Yakko said to a very grateful Buttons. “I’ve got plenty of experience at keeping little goblins alive.”

Dot scowled, much to Yakko’s amusement. “Who are you calling a goblin, you ogre?”

Buttons saluted Yakko and promptly passed out on the floor, already in a deep slumber.

It was nice to see how much Buttons trusted them to look after Mindy now. He used to get so worried and stressed if she wandered out of sight.

"Here, kitty!" Mindy squealed, making grabby hands as soon as she saw Rita.

Rita quickly moved as far as she could from Mindy.

"Don't feel like having my tail pulled tonight," she said. "I can only tolerate so much."

To distract Mindy from Rita, Yakko quickly gave her a cookie, and she happily ate the treat while giggling at the silly faces Wakko made at her.

"Gee, Rita," Runt yapped. "You look like you're having loads of fun up there."

“Sure am,” Rita said, stretching out her body luxuriously. “You’re missing out.”

Runt backed up from the bed, tail wagging so fast that it appeared to be a blur. “I definitely don’t wanna miss out, Rita!”

Rita froze mid-lick, her eyes comically widening when she realized that Runt was about to jump. “Hold on, we don’t have enough room on the bed for-”

She was the only one who didn’t get into a safe position in time. Everybody else pressed themselves to the edges of the bed, not wanting to be flattened by an eighty pound dog.

Within seconds, Rita was buried under a massive amount of fur and bulk. She yowled in displeasure with only her lashing tail sticking out from Runt’s chest. Runt glanced around in confusion. “You were right, Rita! Definitely right! This is lots of-hey, Rita? Where’d you go?”

He stood up and looked around the bed, finally giving Rita a chance to catch her breath.

“I’m right here, you big lug,” Rita scowled at him. Her fur stuck up like pine needles.

“How’d you get there so fast?” Runt asked.

“I teleported, you dummy,” Rita frowned at the messy fur atop Runt’s head that never seemed to lie flat. “Now lie down. Your fur’s a mess and I don’t trust you to clean it properly.”

Runt happily flopped down, his tongue lolling out as Rita positioned herself behind his head and started grooming his fur.

Pinky thought it was adorable, but he decided to let Rita keep her pride and kept that thought to himself.

A plate filled to the brim with cookies was set in front of him.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Wakko exclaimed with a grin. “There’s plenty here for everyone!”

But Pinky hesitated to take one.

Pinky betrayed them. And now they were offering him cookies.

Maybe…it wasn’t really a betrayal after all. They understand how I felt that night, and they know I just wanted to save everyone I love even when I messed up. And most of all…they still want me as their friend. They want me to know I belong here.

“Go on, Pinky,” Brain assured him, placing one of the largest and most chocolate-filled cookies into Pinky’s hands when he hesitated to take one. “The chocolate will be beneficial to you.”

The cinnamon scent was heavenly. Unable to resist, Pinky took a bite. It was one of the sweetest things he’d ever tasted in his life.

“Thank you, everyone…” he whispered, and he was rewarded with smiles from his family and friends in turn.

o-o-o-o-o

The bedroom was dark, the only light coming from the full moon and twinkling stars outside. The candles and lanterns had been blown out hours ago, and everybody was sleeping peacefully.

Everyone insisted on staying in the bedroom to protect him from nightmares, and Pinky enjoyed their company too much to say no.

Pharfignewton, Papa, and Buttons were curled up together on the floor. Rita was sleeping on top of Dot, who nuzzled into Yakko’s chest with Mindy sprawled out on his arm. Runt’s paws were twitching as he snored, though this didn’t bother Wakko, whose feet were on Runt’s back while the rest of his body remained on the bed. Despite his odd sleeping position, he seemed to be rather comfortable.

Pinky’s head rested against a slumbering Brain’s chest, while Brain’s arms were wrapped around Pinky’s head. Sometimes Brain forgot that he was smaller than Pinky and would still try to protectively cuddle Pinky against him like he was still a Beast, except that it tended to leave them tangled in an awkward position when they woke up.

But Pinky didn’t mind. He found it rather sweet.

Brain continued to snore the night away. He didn’t realize Pinky was awake yet.

Though it was dark, Pinky wasn’t afraid. He had Brain and Papa and Pharfignewton and everyone else to protect him from his worst fears.

He just wished he could get to sleep. He knew he wouldn’t have another nightmare tonight, but there was one thing he needed to do.

He couldn’t let his mom remain faceless. He wanted to know what she looked like, so he could remember her better.

Unlike royalty, she never had her face painted and hung on a portrait for all to see.

Snowball tried to force me to forget who I am and where I came from. He tried to take my family, friends, and my home away. He was so powerful, and I was afraid of him, but…Brain told me I was brave to stand against him even when I didn’t feel brave.

Pinky lifted his head from Brain’s chest, carefully slipping out of Brain’s arms to avoid waking him. He knew how he could accomplish his goal.

The enchanted mirror rested on the bedside table. It could show him anything he wanted.

I want to remember her face. And for that…I need to be brave again.

He tiptoed over to the bedside table, carefully avoiding any stray tails or limbs as he crossed the bed. Grabbing hold of the tablecloth, he hauled himself up.

I can do this.

Though he was afraid of what he might see, he wasn’t alone. His friends were behind him.

He’d be alright.

He took a deep breath and picked up the mirror. It hadn’t been used since the night of the mob attack. Neither Pinky nor Brain had been inclined to ask the mirror for anything.

The handle was heavy in his hands, silver edges glinting in the moonlight.

He kept his reflection turned away from him, bracing himself for an image he wasn't sure he wanted to see.

Then he opened the doors to the balcony, allowing a fresh breeze to rush into the bedroom. It was better to take the mirror outside so he didn't wake anyone up when the mirror glowed.

The full moon and stars provided enough light to see by. It was peaceful and serene out here, a calm over the surrounding forest.

Pinky sat down and held the mirror with both hands. He was ready now.

"Please…I'd like to see my mom. Just one more time," Pinky whispered, closing his eyes as he waited for a green flash of light.

But the mirror never glowed, nor did it make a sound.

Confused, Pinky repeated his request and gently tapped the mirror. Yet no image appeared.

While Pinky didn’t necessarily expect to be successful, he slumped over in disappointment anyway.

Brain said it could show me anything. Maybe he didn’t know there was a limit, and it can’t show anyone who passed away.

The Warners wouldn’t be able to see their own parents through the mirror either. It seemed like all their attempts to help them remember their parents ended in failure.

Pinky sighed, setting the mirror aside and gazing up at the bright moon that cast its gentle light onto the earth below. He heard an owl hooting in the distance, a cool breeze stirring the highest treetops of the surrounding forest.

Somewhere beyond this castle laid his old village. He wondered what they were doing now that Snowball was gone.

Was the baker still waking up as soon as the rooster crowed to bake his fresh baguettes? Was the market still bustling with activity? Were the mothers still trying to juggle basketfuls of eggs and fish while managing their energetic children?

He pictured shepherd boys herding sheep past a flowing fountain, farmers and merchants shouting loudly as they negotiated their prices, and groups of young women secretly giggling over a man they liked.

And he saw a cozy cottage on the edge of a meadow, a babbling stream, and blooming wildflowers dotting the landscape.

That was the village he wanted to remember. A little orderly and strict for him at times, but there were many things to love about his old home too, even when he couldn’t fit in.

Were Slappy and Skippy doing alright? They’d only stayed for a few hours of rest after the battle before leaving the next morning, and he hadn’t seen or heard from them since. The villagers had turned on them too. They tried to commit Slappy to the asylum and steal Skippy from the aunt he adored. He wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted to move somewhere else.

Then his ear flicked at the sound of approaching footsteps.

“Enjoying the moonlight?” a voice asked.

Startled, Pinky turned around. He hadn’t known Papa was awake.

Papa’s fur was somewhat messy from sleep, but he was healthier than he’d been in ages. Pinky couldn’t have asked for anything more than that.

“Just thinking about a few things,” Pinky admitted as Papa sat down next to him. “Sorry for waking you up.”

Papa smiled. “I’m glad I did. This castle has a wonderful view.”

Pinky leaned against Papa. He hadn’t done this in a long time, not since he was a child. Of course, he was much taller than Papa now, but he didn’t mind taking Pinky’s weight in the slightest.

“Did you ever find what you were searching for?” Papa asked softly, his fingers threading through Pinky’s fur tuft.

Pinky made a soft noise, loving every bit of fatherly affection he was getting. He didn’t remember the last time they enjoyed a peaceful night together. But he was happy to have these moments again.

“...I have a wonderful home with even more wonderful friends. My family is bigger, together, and safe,” Pinky murmured. “And Brain…he helped me in so many ways that I can’t even count. He loves me for me, and I’ve never been happier.”

Everyone accepted him. Everyone wanted him to feel like he belonged, where his nightmares would never come to pass.

“I can tell,” Papa replied. “If only Brie were here. She’d be so proud of you. And I'm sure she’d love to meet everyone.”

A wistful expression crossed his face, and he wiped his tears on his sleeve.

Pinky didn't hear Papa say Mama's name out loud very often. When she first died, Papa always clammed up whenever Pinky asked about her. Then he threw himself at his inventions, working vigorously during all daytime hours and sometimes well into the night, except when Pinky managed to convince him to clean up and eat. He rarely told Pinky stories about her, and the few times he tried, he never finished out of grief.

“...and I want to apologize for all the times I made you worry over me,” Papa whispered. Pinky quickly drew his father into a hug, not wanting him to blame himself. “I wasn’t there for you as I should’ve been.”

Dinner that went cold and untouched. Crumpled papers full of inventions that would never be brought to life. A blank, unseeing expression that remained even when Pinky spoke to him, lost somewhere in a happier, yet imaginary time.

Yet Pinky held no grudge for all those times they had to move because they were broke, or the grief became too much and they had to run, or because people decided they didn’t want them around.

“It’s okay, Papa,” Pinky whispered. He understood the helplessness and grief that came when a loved one died. “I know you loved her, and you loved my baby sibling just as much. I was never mad at you. Poit.”

Tears rolled down Papa's face, but Pinky could feel the old mouse smiling against him.

And though he didn't want to cause Papa any more pain, he knew he needed to ask him a question about his mother, before it ate away at him for good.

"There's something I wanna know about her though," Pinky admitted. Papa's eyes were still watery, but he nodded in encouragement. Since they came to the castle, it seemed Papa was more open to talking about her more. "I…I have trouble remembering her face. I just wanna know what she looked like…"

Papa gently squeezed Pinky's hands, his gaze falling onto the enchanted mirror.

"May I see your mirror?" Papa asked.

Pinky's ears drooped as he gave the mirror to Papa. "I've already tried asking it to show Mama. It didn't work. I don't think it can show anyone who passed away."

But Papa was undeterred as he pointed the glass at Pinky.

He stared at the image in silence, not asking the mirror for anything.

"Aren't you gonna ask?" Pinky said in confusion.

But Papa kept Pinky's reflection in the mirror. To his surprise, Papa shook his head.

"I'm already seeing what I want to see, Pinky," Papa replied. "Look for yourself."

But Pinky only saw his reflection. White fur, blue eyes, that messy tuft he never could comb down, and a pair of buckteeth.

And yet…

The image rippled, and whether it was the magic or just his imagination, he couldn't tell for certain.

There was a second reflection over his own.

The eyelashes and fur were slightly longer, and the nose a bit smaller, but the resemblance was unmistakable.

I…I look like her. That's why Papa doesn't need to ask the mirror….

"You have her face," Papa murmured. "And her heart. So the next time you look in the mirror, you can remember how much she loved you, and how much of her spirit you carry within you."

Papa's words echoed in his ears, and he shed the last of his tears. Yet unlike the others, these tears were happy.

His fears of forgetting his mother were laid to rest. All he needed to do was find his reflection, and he would see her.

And for the first time since that fateful night, Pinky hugged the mirror to his chest.

It was a precious gift from Brain, and he didn't need to fear it any longer. He could truly appreciate the mirror as a way to remember his family.

“Thank you, Papa,” Pinky whispered, enveloping his father in an enormous hug.

Papa patted his back. "You’re welcome. Now let’s get back to bed, shall we? I’m missing my beauty sleep.”

His father’s sense of humor never failed to make Pinky laugh.

They returned to the bedroom, and Papa yawned as he walked back to Pharfignewton and Buttons. He was fast asleep the moment his head hit Pharfignewton’s fur.

Shaking his head fondly, Pinky placed the mirror on the bedside table. He left it face-up this time. There was no need to fear it anymore.

Everybody slept peacefully, unaware that Pinky had gone out to the balcony at all. Somehow, Wakko and Runt had migrated over to Yakko, Dot, and Mindy without waking up, and now they were just one massive pile of slumbering bodies.

Only Brain hadn’t joined in with the others. His rose-pink eyes were half-open and drooping from exhaustion. He’d kicked off the covers, his hands twitching restlessly as if searching for something that wasn’t there.

“...Pinky?” he called, his voice barely audible.

Pinky laid next to him, nuzzling Brain’s cheek as he pulled him into his chest. Brain’s fingers curled into Pinky’s fur, their tails intertwining until nothing could pull them apart.

“I’m here, Brain,” Pinky whispered softly, kissing Brain’s forehead. All the tension in Brain’s body vanished, and he fully melted into the embrace.

“...good,” Brain murmured, and that was the last word he said before completely succumbing to sleep.

And I always will be.

He belonged here. He was loved. He felt safe.

The nightmares never came back.

End AN: Pinky's nightmare went through a few revisions for me. At first, he would've just been wandering around in a misty landscape and coming across the fallen bodies of his loved ones. Which does make it into the final version you see here, but the original didn't have him interacting with anyone and he would've been alone. The second involved Pinky in front of a mirror with his reflection mocking him for his failure to save anybody that night, but it didn't feel very involved so I scrapped it.

Brain really was saying all that stuff out loud while he was trying to get Pinky to wake up. He was desperate.

Still trying to work out the kinks of where I'm taking this story next. Now that we've gotten a lot of the mice's leftover emotional trauma out of the way, I can finally bring the story into a new arc.

#beauty and the beast au #patb fanfiction #pinky and the brain

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