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syrupgirl · 1 year

Note

Sorry if you have done this before but maybe you could do a neteyam x reader and he is introducing you to his family ?

Love ur work btw

a/n: I did change this a lil so I hope it’s still ok, so reader knows the Sully’s vaguely and has only been known as a friend to Neteyam but now he is introducing reader as his potential mate. Also thank you for your compliments :p <3

(sum more notes at the end <3)

reader uses she/her prns and her body stays un-described

Mate material -Neteyam

“Is this really necessary, Neteyam,” You whined, sulking behind him. “They already know who I am, I feel like I’m meeting them again.”

He smiled and continued to wade his way toward the shore.

“Well, you are in a way. They will be seeing you in a different light now.” This man. He has some cheek.

Water whipped around your ankles as you ran after him. Taking Neteyam’s hand in yours, you spun him around and tugged on his arm repeatedly.

“Do we have to tell them? Why can’t they…Just figure it out on their own?.” You felt like child now, complaining over something so simple, but that’s how being with Neteyam made you feel; all fuzzy and floaty on the inside. Things were simple and easy when you were with him.

He finally stopped waking and took his arm out of your hand, replacing it with his hand.

“I understand if you are nervous, they can be,” he paused as if to take a moment to find the words. “intimidating when they want to be.” It came out as a laugh.

You snorted, “Your mother in particular.”

“She loves you!”

“She likes me as your friend, she might not as a mate!”

Neteyam sighed and pulled you closer; he could tell this was really bothering you.

“It’s not like there has been some, huge, drastic change. We’re still us, just…A more together version of us.”

A reluctant smile bloomed on your lips. “You sound stupid.”

“Ah.” You giggled as he pushed you away in mock offence.

“I take back what I said, you should be terrified.”

“Neteyam!”

Eclipse had come and the Sully family were gathered in their Marui, happily feasting on their dinner.

All that could be heard was the crackling of the fire and chewing of food, until Lo’ak took it upon himself to break that silence.

“So, big bro, what happened with yn today?”

Suddenly, all eyes were on the eldest Sully. A small smirk jumped onto Kiri’s lips and she quickly went to cover it with her hand and Tuk looked genuinely worried for your health. Lo’ak had a shit eating grin on his face; he knew what he was doing.

Neteyam gulped, disguising it was swallowing a mouthful of his dinner. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I saw you two getting awfully close in the water.” Neytiri looked as if she had finally checked into the conversation, putting down her meal and looking to her sons.

“I just thought maybe, she might have been hurt?”

Like a hunter watches their prey, his family set their gaze on him, silently hungering for more information.

In an effort to appear cool headed, Neteyam shrugged. “She was fine, not hurt.” He looked to his brother and shot him a look, “Why do you ask?”

“Oh no, just curious.” It looked like Lo’ak would leave it now and Neteyam internally sighed in relief.

“How is yn, Neteyam? Haven’t seen her in a while.” Jake asked. Oh well, the questioning wasn’t over.

“I think they are onto us.”

You let those words sit in the air they were spoken into.

Neteyam’s arm tightened around you and you turned more into his chest. The pool of water around you wrinkled gently with your movements.

The two of you had stashed yourselves away in a lone terrace, not unlike the ones that bordered the lagoon outside the village, but this one was a secret place for you both. Where you could be with each other without worrying about prying eyes or annoying brothers.

Finally, you answered him, “What makes you say that?”

Neteyam sat up more, causing you to be partially shoved off of him.

“Lo’ak started asking me these annoying questions while we were eating dinner last night!” He looked like he was a getting really upset; brows furrowed, arms waving wildly, voice raising.

You frowned and caught one of his flailing hands. “What kind of questions?”

“Just stupid ones! Like, why we are spending so much time together and why we were getting so close to each other yesterday in the wate-”

“Be calm, Neteyam. Slow down.” You brought his hand to your chest. “Breath, deep breaths.”

Neteyam stopped his ranting and sighed out a long breath. As best as he could, he copied your breathing.

“Now, explain to me why this bothers you so much?”

He is still for a moment, looking a little embarrassed. “He’s putting his nose where it doesn’t belong, it is just not his business.”

You snort at that, “Are we not about to announce our relationship to your family? Honestly, it’s not a surprise that one of them found out before.”

Neteyam sighed again. He turned to face you and gently took your face into his hands, looking between your eyes.

“I want it to be on our terms, not because of Lo’ak’s prying.”

“I understand that,” you hummed. Your hand covered one of Neteyam’s on your face and you leaned into it. “Sounds like we need to act on our plans a little faster.”

A kiss was planted on your forehead and you smiled giddily.

“I don’t want to push you, I know you are a bit nervous.” He mumbled into your hairline.

Your free hand found his face and brought him back to where you could look him in the eyes. Your thumb glided back and forth along his cheekbone and his eyes drifted closed.

“I’m a big girl, I can handle it.”

It really felt like you could not handle it.

The sun was high in the sky, beating down onto your skin. On a day like this, you would usually be bobbing up and down in the waves, happily soaking up the rays, but on this occasion all it was doing to you was elevating your already rapidly growing panic.

You and Neteyam sat on the woven walkways not to far from his marui. Today was the day where you would finally announce your relationship to his family. A monumental occasion really; the eldest son of Toruk Makto and former leader of the Omatikaya, had found himself a partner, a mate, that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with.

You had met the Sully family many times before, you regularly spent time with Lo’ak and Kiri, even spending time with little Tuk. But now, you were seeing them on such different circumstances, they might as well have been strangers.

“What’s the worst that could happen?” Neteyam had offered, an effort to quell your growing nerves, unfortunately this just spurred into motion all the thoughts of things that could happen; ranging from awkward silences to Jake and Neytiri chasing you out of their marui for trying to take their firstborn away from them. Extremely unlikely and just downright stupid, but you were just grasping at straws for anything that could go wrong.

“Why can’t- why can’t you just tell them while I am far, far away?” Neteyam laughed heartily at that but you were deadly serious.

“Oh yes, I can see it now,” Neteyam gasped between giggles, “hey mom, hey dad, you know yn? yeah I want her to be my mate. Where is she? Anywhere you aren’t.” His laughed picked up at his own joke and you groaned, hitting his chest with your balled fist.

“I love your family, Neteyam. I really, really want this to go well!”

“And it will! We’ve had this same conversation over and over, i don’t know how else I can reassure you.” He reached his arm around your waist and dragged you closer to him. “Would you like me to tell you in english? I know a little.”

Neteyam said something you didn’t understand. The language sounded so silly you couldn’t help but cover your mouth to hide your giggles.

“Should we get going? They should all be home now.”

“Yeah, let’s go.”

“Neteya- oh, and yn?” Jake paused. “How are you, yn?”

The entire Sully clan, excluding Neteyam, were all seated around the cooking fire inside the marui. Jake and Neytiri parked up close to each other: Jake prepping fish for cooking and Neytiri wrapped then placed it above the fire in front of them.

Kiri and Tuk sat next to their mother. The older girl attempted to teach the youngest how to repair a torn Ilu saddle.

Lo’ak lay next to his father, apparently completely uninterested in whatever was happening around him, until the two of you entered together, after which he sat up looking infinitely intrigued.

Tucking your arms behind your back, you squeezed your hands together and mustered up a smile.

“I am well, thank you, Toruk Makto.”

Jake continued to de-bone the creature he was holding before speaking to you again, “To what do we owe the pleasure?”

You glanced to Neteyam, the nervousness you had buried starting to resurface again. He took a deep breath and reached behind you, taking your hand tightly in his.

Neytiri, who hadn’t looked entirely phased by your presence, suddenly perked up. Her eyes fell onto your intertwined fingers and then back to your face. It felt as if your heart was beating a mile a minute.

“Actually, sir, there’s…something I want to tell you.” Neteyam’s voice had an uncharacteristic nervousness to it and you could feel the smallest shake in the hand that held yours.

The whole family froze, each with sightly different looks on their faces. Lo’ak looked like he was on the verge of hysterical laughter, Kiri had her own little smile while Tuk was ready to hang off of your every word.

“What is it, Neteyam?” Neytiri asked. She stood and Jake followed suit.

The grip on your hand tightened before Neteyam spoke, “Yn and I, we wish to be mated. Before Eywa.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, the family before you reacted. Lo’ak, who had been quietly munching on his dinner, suddenly started to choke and thumped his fist against his chest in attempts to dislodge the obstruction.

Tuk and Kiri had the same reaction, shouting “What?!” at the same time. Tuk visibly more excited about the news, while Kiri looked like this was the stupidest thing she had ever heard.

“My son, you are not yet a man.” Neytiri urged, slowly pacing towards her eldest.

“I have passed two of the three rites of passage of our clan! And now that we live amongst the reef people, I can complete the three by passing one of theirs!” The two of you had anticipated these concerns and had done your research on the matter. Since the Sully’s no longer lived among their own, the three tasks Neteyam had to complete to be welcomed into the Omaticaya as a man were no longer possible. It seemed only fitting that he finish of these tasks by overcoming the Metkayina’s last rite of passage that their men had to accomplish.

“Taking a mate is a serious thing, son.” Jake was now face to face with Neteyam. He had a stony look on his face. “I know you’re friends with yn, evidently a bit more than that, but this will be the person you spend the rest of your life with.”

Coming up beside her son, Neytiri put a hand on his shoulder. “Your father is right, Neteyam. These decisions cannot be rushed.”

By Eywa, you wished the ground would just swallow you whole.

Neteyam noticed your embarrassment and doubled down. “I know that, we know that! We have been talking about this for a long time and we’ve thought of everything.”

His father narrowed his eyes, he still didn’t look convinced, so you decided oh well, you already ready feel like you were in over your head, what’s a little more?

“If I may,” All eyes turned to you, “your son is the most caring, most passionate, and most mature man I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. He is infinitely understanding and loves with all he has. I cannot speak on his behalf, but I trust in the decision I have made to have Neteyam as my mate.” Your words continued to get smaller and smaller as your felt their stares bore into you.

Silence filled the space, broken up by the soft sound of crashing waves and the chittering of stray Ilu.

Neytiri spoke first.

“This is truly what you want, my son?” The mother laced her hands with the sons free one.

“More than anything I have ever wanted in my entire life.”

A look was shared between Jake and Neytiri and their children stared on.

“Neteyam,” Jake sighed, “I give you my blessing to pursue your remaining rites of passage by the Metkayina.” His hand reached up and latched onto the back of Neteyam’s head, bringing it closer to his own.

“My son, I see you.”

Your partner’s lip quivers and his brows told upward, it is clear he is using everything in him not to cry.

“And you, yn.” Jake turned to you, bringing his hand up to his brow and then back down again. “I see you.”

You repeated his gesture and sniffed, emotions running very high. “I see you, Toruk Makto.”

Jake smiled. “No need for the formalities, not now that we’re family.”

The rest of that night was filled with light and laughter. With songs and delicious food. You couldn’t think of a better way to be welcomed into this beautiful family.

Your heart had never felt so full.

a/n: so we only know 2 of the Omaticaya’s rites of passage and judging from how Neteyam has a banshee, it’s safe to assume he had begun the process of becoming a man in the clan. I don’t know if he had done his dream hunt so i just said he had🤷‍♀️yeah this took so long because I did a chunk of words every few days💀 anyways until next time, bye :p

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justlillythinking · 1 year

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idk where to put requests bc i barely ask for stuff on here but basically my idea was this. neteyam x human reader that is hella funny. friends to lovers type thing where he feels his responsibilities and stress slip away when hes with them. kiss kiss love confession type thing. gn or fem would be cool mookie

neteyam x human!reader imagine

1.7k words

warnings- sfw, mutual pinning, soft fluff, a little angst ? love confessions

also while writing this it was inspired by in love with you by erykah badu and boogie nights/all night by erykah badu

hanging out with the sullys is always interesting, from going on ikran rides to sneaking on missions. when lo'ak says that you should all go on a ride right before eclipse, neteyam is fast to object.

"come on bro, you know dad is going to slaughter us if we are out at eclipse, lets just go tomorrow."

spider huffs before jumping on lo'aks ikran. god, my brother is such an ass, sometimes i just want to slap him so hard he can't feel his face for a week. i give neteyam a look, us both understanding that the only way to keep our stupid brothers in line is to follow them and keep them safe. he helps me up onto his ikran and we take off after spider and lo'ak, soaring in the calm sunset.

after flying for 10 minutes, spider and lo'ak land somewhere in the floating mountains, neteyam and i follow after them. when we touch down, neteyam picks me up and sets me down; something he loves to do to remind me he’s 3 feet taller than i am.

“fucking skxawng”, i mutter under my breath. before i can even turn around to shoot him a dirty look, he picks me up by my waist with one hand, laughing at me kicking him.

“what was that you just said?” he asks, still laughing at me.

i shoot him the dirtiest glare possible, “ i called you a fucking skxawng, skxawng. now put me down before i rip your braid out.”

neteyam laughs and sets me down, walking away like i huff. we both eventually walk over to spider and lo’ak, sitting beside them and admiring the forrest. we all talk and joke around, laughing about stupid jokes and talking about rumors. we eventually get on the topic of crushes, me teasing spider about his growing crush on kiri, neteyam rolling his eyes like lo’ak complains.

“cuz, come on, that’s my sister i don’t need to know that you want to bang her bro. how would that even work anyways, a human and a na’vi??”

i sigh to myself, knowing what lo��ak says about a human being with a na’vi is true and that neteyam and i will probably never grow to something more than just being friends.

little do i know, neteyam is having the same thoughts, wanting and wishing we could be more than friends, when in reality he knows that kissing me is probably off the table because of my exopack.

the conversation between all of us dissipates as we quiet down, all thinking about different things. i stand up and brush my legs off before saying we should head back so we can be home before eclipse. neteyam agrees while our brothers sigh with “do we have too” and “just like 5 more minutes i swear.”

we eventually all start walking back to the ikrans, lo’ak and spider racing each other. neteyam and i trail behind, talking and shoving each other and laughing. i look at him, the sunset shining on his beautiful blue skin and as it gets darker outside his freckles start shining. i realize that my feelings are futile, but it’s hard to be around the most kind, loyal, protective, beautiful man and not get attached.

i sigh, realizing i have gotten caught up in my own head again. when i look back up at him i see him with a sad smile.

“what’s wrong?” i ask.

“it’s nothing.”

“well it’s got to be something, you’re not usually sad for no reason.”

he sighs and says, “really, it’s nothing. we should try to walk faster so we get back before eclipse.”

he starts walking faster towards the ikrans, making me jog to catch up. i grab his hand and stop walking.

“neteyam, please, don’t keep stuff from me. we are best friends, and when we first became friends you promised to always tell me what’s bothering you.”

“stop digging y/n, i don’t want to talk about it right now. i just want us to laugh and talk like usual right now.”

“just tell me so that i can help you and we can go back to normal.”

“i don’t want to talk about it.”

“nete please-“

“fucking stop y/n, i’m not going going to talk about this with you.”

i stand there shocked, not used to him getting angry. he walks off and i follow after him, confused as to why he’s so mad. i know i shouldn’t have pushed but it’s not like him to be so sad.

when we get back to the ikrans lo’ak and spider immediately notice that something’s off, seeing the look on neteyam’s face. when spider and lo’ak look to me i shrug and shake my head. it’s awkwardly silent before neteyam clears his throat and says, “ y/n, how about you ride with lo’ak and spider rides with me tonight.”

lo’ak and spider both whip around and look to me, about to complain about how it’s never been this way when i just shake my head. spider raises an eyebrow at me but walks over to neteyams ikran anyways. i walk to lo’aks, waiting for his to grab me by the waist to help me but he doesn’t. i climb up, and go to hold onto his waist, but i stop and hold his shoulders.

neteyam and spider take off first, lo’ak and i soon after. we sit in science for a little before he asks, “so what happened?”

i sigh, “he just seemed off. he’s been more distant and sad lately, but i guess that’s just a journey of him becoming a man.”

“yeah well he has been stressed out about the whole ‘becoming a man and choosing a mate’ thing. it’s not like there’s not 20 girls that would die for him to stick it in them,” he snickers.

“ew come on lo’ak that’s disgusting.”

“i mean, i know who im choosing when i become a man.”

“the hottest girl who wants me, duh cuz. i mean that’s skxawng has always been picky, but now it seems like he’s trying to always want what he can’t have.”

“what do you mean?”

“come on cuz, you can’t be that blind. did you notice when he started getting all whiny earlier?”

“no? i mean after we talked i guess?”

“and we talked about what...”

i pause, trying to remember.

“ummmmm we talked about how you wanted to bang that girl we saw that was healing you and neteyam’s dumb asses, we talked about how spider is never going to find a na’vi that wants his tiny ass but let’s be honest, him and kiri totally have something going-“

“no you fucking skxawng we talked about humans and na’vi, then neteyam got all whiny and shit.”

i pause, “so?”

“so who is the human that neteyam spends all his time with?”

i stop.

“you’re saying that neteyam likes me?”

“YES THATS WHAT IVE BEEN SAYING AND YOU CLEARLY LIKE HIM TOO”

i blush and laugh, “ lo’ak, there’s no way he likes me. you said it yourself, he was like 30 hot girls lined up for him.”

“he totally does like you-“

“he totally doesn’t-“

“but you like him anyways. that’s the point, it doesn’t matter if you believe me or not because we all know that you two like each other.”

we ride back home in silence, i think about what he has said. could it neteyam actually like me too? is that why he didn’t want to talk about it with me? i wonder what would even happen if he did, it’s not like we could mate.

when we land at home, i get of lo’aks ikran and thank him for telling me. i walk to my tent and lay down, thinking about how this could change everything. i should probably talk to neteyam about it instead of just mulling it over by myself.

i decide to get up and go talk to him, even though i’m scared that lo’ak could be wrong. i mean, what if i talk to him about it and tell him i like him when he doesn’t even like me back? i stand by his family’s tent, not sure if i should go it on not.

while i’m standing there thinking, i don’t notice that neteyam walked up behind me. he taps me on the shoulder and when i turn around i see that it’s him.

“hi.”

“hey?” he says, nervously scratching his neck.

“i think we need to talk, i was about to go in and ask for you.”

“i told you i don’t want to talk about it-“

“lo’ak told me you have a crush on me.”

he stares down at me with wide eyes. i can see his cheeks turn purple as he blushes and he opens and closes his mouth, trying to say something. i grab his hand, my small one grabbing on to 3 of his fingers. i walk us over to my tent, thankfully lo’ak must have gotten spider to stay away for a little.

when we go inside my tent, neteyam looks so nervous that you would think i’m trying to shoot him. he starts rambling, “ listen i don’t know why lo’ak would tell you that because i don’t have a crush on you i mean, you’re my bestfriend that would be kind of weird right? i mean not to say that you’re not funny or pretty, because you definitely are but even if i did like you, i mean how would that even work, i’m na’vi and you’re human and we probably would even be able to kiss because of your exopack and-“

i cut him off, “neteyam, i like you.”

“you do?”

“yeah, i do.”

“but why me, why not lo’ak? or anyone else?”

i look at the floor, “because i don’t want lo’ak. i want you. i want your smile and how funny you are. i want to talk to you and go on your ikran with you. you understand me like no one else. i see you nete.”

i feel a his hand on my chin, guiding me to look up at him. he hugs me, my forehead on his chest.

“i see you y/n,” he says, kissing the top of my head.

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ckret2 · 25 days

Text

Chapter 50 of by this point human Bill Cipher is almost relieved to be imprisoned in the Mystery Shack again: Bill tells Mabel about his adventures, and Ford and Dipper tell Fiddleford about theirs.

But first Bill's gonna die for a bit.

"Guys! You're okay!" Mabel flung her arms around Dipper and squeezed him. "We were worried you were floating around and broke your legs when the gravity came back."

"N—no, we were fine," Dipper said.

Mabel let go of Dipper to hug Ford next—and then drew back, looked him up and down, and looked at Bill. "What happened to your clothes?"

Bill said, "We fell in the lake."

"Ha!"

"Tate was kind enough to loan us dry clothes," Ford said.

"You look like big dorks." She turned to Bill last, took in his dirty haggard appearance, and said, "And you look awful. Where have you guys been the last two days?"

"Thanks for asking! I've been in..." Bill glanced at Stan. "Am I allowed to say the name of the place I've been?"

Stan shook his head. "Not in front of the kids, you don't."

Bill sighed. "Agony. I've been in agony."

"Aww!" She hugged Bill last. "I like your stupid Fishmas sweater."

"Consider it yours as soon as I can change." He wriggled out of her embrace to point at his feet. "Check out the shoes, though!"

Mabel cracked up. "Omigosh, fish slippers! Fi— Fishlers? Fishppers?"

"Fishoes?"

"Fishoes!"

Soos said, "What did happen out there?" He was in the kitchen, cleaning and reorganizing after zero gravity had tossed everything out of order. "Did you heroically save Gravity Falls from imminent multidimensional devastation?"

Ford said, "No. Aside from the effects on gravity, it... turned out to be a benign phenomenon."

"Oh," Soos said. "Like... what Bill said?"

Ford grimaced. He managed to just nod instead of saying afraid so.

Again, he expected Bill to gloat; again, Bill said nothing. He didn't even look at Ford.

"It wasn't an eclipse, though," Dipper muttered, shooting a dark look at Bill. "It would've been an eclipse if it had gotten between us and gravity. It was basically the opposite."

"What do you want from me." The question was more sighed than spoken. "It was called an eclipse when I was growing up, I dunno what to tell you."

Ford, Dipper, and Mabel all looked straight at Bill at the mention of his childhood; but he didn't say anything more. He just trudged to the kitchen and leaned tiredly on the doorframe, watching Soos work. "Grab me something from the fridge."

"Sure thing, dawg." Soos opened the door. "What do you want?"

Bill was silent for a moment. Slowly, like a spirit medium channeling a faint message from the other side, he said, "I think... the body wants a vegetable. Gimme some guacamole."

"Sorry, dude, we had the last of it with dinner."

"Fine. Just give me an avocado and salsa, I'll make do."

"You got it."

"Two avocados."

Soos started rummaging through the jumbled mess in the fridge. "So if everything was okay, what took you guys so long to get back?"

"Yeah, I've been wanting to ask," Stan said. (He hadn't been able to in the car; when everyone realized Bill had passed out as soon as he'd sat down, they'd fallen into an awkward silence.) "Was the demon making trouble or what?"

Dipper and Ford exchanged a glance; who wanted to share the embarrassing news? Ford said, "Actually, under the circumstances, he was... well behaved." Ford resisted the urge to add the modifier "tolerably." It seemed mean-spirited. Bill had constantly complained, sure, but in retrospect could Ford say the complaints were unjustified?

"Then what took you so long?"

Now Ford felt Bill's gaze on him, watching him sharply. Ford understood now. This was why Bill hadn't mentioned saving them. He was holding it in reserve—offering a deal. If Ford and Dipper didn't embarrass him, he wouldn't embarrass them. If they mentioned his breakdown, he could cut in, claim it was natural for him to be in shock after performing such a difficult, heroic deed.

It wasn't blackmail, per se. Revealing the truth wouldn't cost anybody anything but a bit of momentary self-consciousness. But wasn't that just like Bill—only passing up an opportunity to boast so he could use it to shield his ego.

"It was Bill's fault," Dipper said quickly. Ford's heart leaped into his throat. "Because—we had to climb up and down the tunnel to Gravity Peak, and he only brought dress shoes and dumb fish slippers. We kept having to slow down."

Ford felt the pressure of Bill's gaze slide off of his face as he turned away, staring back into the kitchen. Bill said, "Yep. Guess I should have brought my hiking shoes—oh, wait."

Stan said, "You could've got some better shoes when we were at the mall! You're the one who wanted those dumb dress shoes."

"In my defense, I didn't think you paranoiacs would ever let me wander around in the great outdoors—much less force me to." He leaned more heavily against the doorway with a groan, muttering, "My legs are still jelly. Worthless human body."

Dipper glanced at Ford, as if checking with him to see if he'd made the right decision. Ford gave him a tiny nod of approval. After the day they'd had, humiliating Bill just for the sake of humiliation wouldn't have served any justice; it would have just been mean.

For the past three decades, Ford had always felt that Bill deserved the strongest possible punishment, both for his prior atrocities and to prevent future ones; but, he wanted to deal with Bill swiftly and efficiently. No gloating, no torture—just one quick shot. Sure, he got some grim satisfaction from knowing Bill was unhappy—knowing that Bill's vile intentions were being thwarted—and if anyone decided to treat Bill cruelly for cruelty's sake, he couldn't say they were wrong for it... but the thought of committing it himself made him uneasy.

He tried to remember if he'd felt that way when Bill had first arrived.

"I found the salsa!" Soos called from the fridge. "Somehow it all floated onto the highest shelf? Which kind do you want?"

"That one with a picture of a sobbing baby on it."

"Extra spicy it is!"

When Soos handed over the salsa and avocados, Bill said, "Hey, Hick Junior said his father was making announcements about staying inside and low to the ground? You didn't happen to have anything to do with that, did you?"

"Oh—yeah, I called Old Man McGucket and said I had a hot anonymous tip about what was going on," Soos said. "You said it was this whole public safety thing, so I figured the whole town should probably know? He's the local respected science guy now, I thought he'd know what to do with that kind of important information."

Bill grunted. "Terrific, he gets credit for my help. But you'd all be giving me heck if I'd said nothing and half the town broke their necks, so... whatever, net zero. Here." Bill took off the Monster-Mon backpack and swung it over to Soos. "Your reward. Good job."

"Whoa, haha, this is heavy. What's in here, a bag of rocks?"

"No, just one." Bill pushed off the doorway, wheeled unsteadily around, and trudged toward the stairs.

Soos unzipped the bag. A drugged geodite blinked sleepily up at him. He gasped. "Dude! A real Monster-Mon! Is this my call to epic adventure with a lovable animal sidekick?"

Ford grimaced, remembering watching Bill feed a geodite cold medicine. "Ah."

"I think I'll name you... Rocky," Soos said.

"That—really shouldn't be here. Its natural environment is caves, I don't know if it's safe for it to be out here—for it or us." They had been known to bite.

"Aww." Soos cradled the backpack like a swaddled baby. "Do you think it would be okay if I made it a fake cave to live in?" He gasped. "I could make an exhibit for him! I'll say he's a living meteorite! People love aliens."

"I'm not sure that..." Ford sighed. Well, none of them were going back to the cave today. "Maybe you should put it in the cellar where it's darker."

"Great idea!" Soos carried the geodite through the living room. "Hey, I've already got a mattress down there. You're gonna love it, lil dude..."

Ford hoped Soos didn't get attached to that thing. He shot a glower at Bill.

Bill was already on the stairs. "Now everybody leave me alone. Except you." He pointed at Mabel. "I don't want to do anything but lay on the floor and talk about whatever Mabel wants to talk about for the next three hours."

"Cartoons and boy bands."

"Yes," Bill sighed in relief, already preparing to turn 95% of his brain off. "Wow, yes, that's exactly what I want to talk about. I can't wait." He grabbed the handrail as he climbed heavily, leaning against it for balance as he dragged himself upstairs.

Before Mabel could follow him, Ford put a hand on her shoulder. "Oh, before you go—there's something I wanted to tell you and Dipper." Voice low, he said, "You remember when you told me that Bill had mentioned Edward Bishop Bishop?"

"Yeah? When we were drawing our houses."

"Something Bill said while we were out shook a memory loose. It reminded me of a book I read as an undergraduate—Flatworld, written by Edward Bishop Bishop."

"Aww," Mabel said. "Not an artist?"

"No, although he did illustrate the book," Ford said. "It's a novella that combines Victorian social commentary with a primer on higher-dimensional mathematics by using an allegory about sentient shapes living in a two-dimensional world."

"That's what you were talking about in the boat, right?" Dipper asked. "When Bill said something about..." He scrunched his face, trying to remember, "'Up in the sky'...?"

"Upward-but-not-skyward," Ford said, "to describe something that isn't higher than us in the third dimension, but rather, in a higher dimension relative to us."

"How do you know about it?" Dipper asked. "The first time it came up, you said the name Edward Bishop Bishop was familiar, but..."

Ford sighed in irritation, "I read it as an undergraduate—in a haze of sleep-deprived exhaustion just before finals week—to get extra credit in a course on the history of mathematics. I immediately forgot ninety percent of it—which I'm sure is why I never thought of it in relation to Bill. If only I'd remembered the book thirty years ago, when it might have done me some good..."

"It's okay," Mabel said. "I forget almost everything I've read for class basically as soon as I've taken the test. I think it's pretty good that you remember anything about Flatworld at all!"

Ford smiled awkwardly. He was afraid that might say more about Mabel's study habits than about his. "Thank you, Mabel."

"And you did have a lot on your mind thirty years ago," Dipper said. "Like, Bill. Literally. On your mind."

Mabel added, "Doing creepy possession things!"

"I suppose that's true, too." What would he have done if he had remembered the book during that frenetic, delirious period when Bill and Ford had wrestled for control over his body? He'd been in no fit shape to go to the library. "I did think about it a couple of times in the multiverse—when I was visiting Exwhylia, for instance—but at the time I'd brushed it off as a lucky coincidence that I'd read a book that invented a society of shapes. It wouldn't be the first time science fiction predicted science fact. But now that Bill's mentioned it twice, I'd say it's less likely a coincidence and more likely that Edward Bishop Bishop was another of his 'students.'"

"Is there a way for us to find out?" Dipper asked. "If he was Bill's student, would he have left behind any... hints? Coded messages?"

"Like secret society conspiracy things?" Mabel asked.

"Yeah!"

"I suppose it's possible," Ford said. "If Flatworld happens to feature a one-eyed yellow triangle sharing the secrets of the universe, we'll know for sure. But, there's only one way to find out: now that I do remember the book, we can pick up a copy for research."

"That's great," Dipper said. "If Bill told the author about his home dimension... there's no telling how much we can learn about him by reading it."

"So it's basically a math textbook disguised as a story?" Mabel groaned. "That's just like doing word problems! The most confusing kind of math problems. Why does Bill keep making me have homework this summer?"

"You know what he's like," Dipper said, elbowing her with a grin. "Dastardly villain."

"Pure evil."

Ford huffed. "If it helps, as I recall the book teaches you about math concepts, but it doesn't make you do any math."

She let out a longer, more theatrical groan. "Fine. But if there's a cousin Throckmorton I'm throwing the book away."

"I dunno, sounds kinda neat," Dipper said. "It might give me a leg up when we start geometry."

"I don't remember the details of what it covers, but I bet it could," Ford agreed. "I have to visit Fiddleford this evening to return the equipment he loaned us, and... discuss the events of the last couple of days. If the library's still open when we're done I can go by and see if they have a copy of Flatworld."

"Can I come along?" Dipper asked.

"Of course. Just give me a moment to..." He looked down at himself, "change into something a little less ridiculous."

Dipper tried not to laugh. "Okay. I'll wait here. Mabel, do you want to...?"

"No thanks!" She pointed upstairs. "I've got a captive audience to teach about boy bands. I'm going to make him listen to Sev'ral Timez's entire discography."

"He's already had a pretty bad day. Don't torture him even more."

Mabel blew a raspberry. "He'll love it." She bounded up the stairs.

Ford headed to his and Stan's guest room. Dipper took off his backpack, dropped it in the living room, and stuck his hands in his pockets—then pulled one out in surprise.

The enchanted friendship bracelets. They were still in his pocket. Bill hadn't had them on since Dipper's out-of-body experience that morning.

Dipper stared at them uneasily; then hung them in their usual place on the entryway coat rack and resumed waiting for Ford.

####

It was a rare opportunity that Bill was allowed in the kids' room; but with Ford and Dipper out of the house, the one person most likely to complain wasn't around. So after having extracted a strict promise for him to behave himself, Mabel had let him in, for ease of gossip and CD-switching.

But even if Dipper had been in the room, he wouldn't have found much worth complaining about. Once Bill had finished his snack (he'd eaten the avocados like pears, skin and all, and drank down the salsa like a chunky smoothie), he'd laid down on the floor, and since then had remained a dead lump. Face buried in his crossed arms, curled up in the oversized Fishmas sweater and a set of loose stolen-from-Soos sweats to replace the towel skirt, he might as well have been a pile of laundry that had sprouted curly golden hair. Mabel had put Sev'ral Timez's first album on the boombox, sat herself on Bill's back, and started brushing out his damp, knotted curls without asking as she talked about each track.

To her delight, Bill started insisting they skip past the slow, emotional love ballads, saying he preferred the bouncier dancier tracks; she thought the fact that he was displaying a preference rather than begging to turn the band off was a good sign. He was actually listening to the music. Possibly even liking it! Maybe she'd manage to convert him into a fan. She recounted her experiences with the band's cloned members and Bill threw in the polite "Mhm" and "Uh-huh?" where appropriate without lifting his head from the floor or opening his eyes. She'd thought he might have had something to throw in about the cloning thing, that seemed like the kind of conspiracy nonsense he might have a hand in; but if he knew anything, he wasn't up to sharing it.

When she'd wrangled his hair into some semblance of order, she got to work on his fingernails. His arm was like a dead weight in her hands, loose and unresisting but not helping, either. He shifted his head over to rest on his other arm and otherwise didn't move.

"Your fingernail polish is destroyed," Mabel said. On three fingers the paint had been all but completely scraped off. When he'd left a couple of days ago, it had just been lightly chipped. She started stripping the remainder with nail polish remover.

"Is it?" Bill mumbled. "Mmh. Yeah, probably from clawing in the dirt."

"Pfff. What did you do the last couple of days?"

Bill slowly sucked in a breath so deep that Mabel felt his back lift her a little higher off the ground; and then he just as slowly let it back out. "Do not," he said, "get me started."

He got started.

He began with a tirade about the contempt that both Ford and Dipper had shown him and his far superior subject matter expertise for the last two days; and then about being hauled out and exposed during totality after repeating over and over how dangerous it was and how much he would prefer to not do that—Ford had even admitted he'd dragged Bill out into open air just because he knew how much he didn't want that!—and from there Bill looped back to listing a whole litany of gripes against what he perceived as egregious and undeserved disrespect from Ford over the last couple of weeks—"Youmight have lied to me about that glass pyramid, but at least you didn't laugh in my face about it!"

(Mabel thought Ford pretty much had the right to be as disrespectful to Bill as he wanted, after everything Bill had put him through. Lying about a silly imaginary cult was less mean than lying about taking over the universe. But part of being a good friend, she knew well, was lending a sympathetic ear to your friend's venting without suggesting that said friend might be in the wrong. She had a Color Critters episode about being honest with your friends she could show him later.)

Bill seemed to gain strength as he aired his grievances, bolstered by Mabel's encouraging "mhm" "uh-huh" noises. By the time she'd finished repainting his first hand (she'd picked a glittery purple polish she thought would complement all the yellow he wore), he was sitting upright and Mabel had to sit in front of him to start on his other hand.

"—and my stupid feet hurt," Bill griped. "Since Stanford made me traipse halfway through the mountain barefoot because he wouldn't let us go back down before the gravity returned and I don't even own shoes for spelunking. And my knees hurt, and my back hurts, and I could have killed for a walking stick but do think they'd have allowed me one if I asked? Because I don't think so! I tripped over—I don't know, a hundred roots."

"Worst hiking trip ever." Mabel finished painting his second hand, and started looking through her miniature sticker sheets for some fun stickers to put on Bill's first hand now that it was dry.

"Worst in the history of your planet! Even the Donner party had a better hike! At least some of them got something to eat," Bill said. "All I got for two days was a handful of cereal and Stanford's liquid meat in a toothpaste tube."

Mabel stuck out her tongue.

"And Stanford walks too fast. And your brother kept trying to squeeze through gaps between trees I couldn't get through. And Stanford kept fiddling with his—stupid—useless antique Civil War lantern he's so proud of, and he's just lucky that I thought to bring a way to find a light source even though I didn't even need one, because I knew he would bring that stupid Civil War lantern..." Bill's complaints petered out.

And then, voice oddly quiet, he said, "And I saw my corpse."

Mabel looked up from carefully placing a yellow butterfly on Bill's middle fingernail. There was a dark look in his eyes. "Oh," she said. "Oh, Bill. I'm so sorry."

This wasn't just a bad camping trip. This was serious. She had to treat it seriously.

She ejected the current CD from the boombox, put in another Sev'ral Timez album, and skipped to track 4: "This goes out to anyone having a bad day. Ladies, this one's for you. 'Girl, today has been—straight whack. You don't know how you're gonna—bounce back. But any time you're down, I'll always be around; I'll drive your heart back to Happy Town'..." Oh yeah. That was the exact energy Mabel was trying to channel.

"And I didn't feel anything when I touched it." Bill was staring down at his hands like he barely recognized them. "No energy, no connection—nothing. What if there isn't a connection anymore? What if I'm just a human now?"

Did that weigh on Bill? Clearly, enough that he'd decided to endure imprisonment in the Mystery Shack rather than kill his body to see if there was still a triangle inside.

But he'd never talked about it before now; she'd thought maybe he just didn't worry about it.

But that was dumb. Of course he worried about it. He was just like her. When something scared him, he just pushed it down and hoped that if he ignored it enough, everything would be okay! Until he couldn't pretend anymore.

And she'd never heard him sound this scared before.

She took his hands and hoped that would help.

He squeezed her hands so hard it hurt. His still-wet nail polish smeared on her hand. "What if I'm really gonna grow old and die in this rotting meat doll, what if I never go home again—? There's so much I haven't done, I was going to throw an eternal party, it would have been beautiful, everyone would have loved me, but now— and now—" He let out a choked noise, head bowing over their joined hands, posture broken. Hot tears landed on the backs of Mabel's hands. "And I didn't even get to, just, die and be done with it, I have to know I'm dead, I have to know everything I was going to do..."

"Hey—come here." Mabel tentatively wrapped her arms around Bill's neck and shoulders, compressing his bouncy curls. She half expected him to pull away.

Instead, he buried his face against her shoulder and hugged her back like she was the only thing keeping him from drowning.

After spending the last two days suppressing his grief and fear so hard his body couldn't function through it—after spending over a month suppressing his grief and fear—finally, finally, he peeled the tape off his cracked shell to let it leak out. He couldn't hold it together anymore. He'd barely put himself back together long enough to get on his feet and make it to the shack. This was the only place it was safe to fall apart. He muffled his sobs in Mabel's sweater.

And Mabel—who was used to being comforted by adults but who had never been called upon herself to comfort anybody but her brother and the occasional friend—had no idea how she was supposed to comfort a zillion-year-old almost-definitely-adult alien through an existential crisis.

Not for the first time, she wondered whether she might have gotten in over her head.

She pushed the worry down. Everything would be okay. Bill needed her—she could feel him trembling—and he didn't have anybody else in the world he could trust. And if she didn't know what else to do, at the least she could keep hugging him.

Voice so tight it almost squeezed out as a whisper, Bill said, "I was going to make a utopia here, but now I'm just gonna die here."

"I'm so sorry." How do you comfort someone processing the fear of mortality? She'd never processed it herself, she was thirteen, it was just another scary future thing she'd deal with when she had to. The best she knew how to do was be nice. "But... I'm here, okay? For—for anything you need." (Anything that wasn't evil, anyway—but now was not the appropriate time to make Bill feel like her support was conditional.)

"Tell me I won't die."

"You won't die! You're never, ever gonna die." Mabel hugged him tighter. "I'll fistfight Death. I'll—break his bony kneecaps."

"Thanks."

"I'll swing at the reaper with a baseball bat."

Bill laughed feebly. "With nails in it?"

"Yeah! And barbed wire! Connected to a battery!"

"Oh, we're taking Death down. Nobody's dying ever again."

"Everybody lives forever!" Mabel laughed; but it quickly petered out. "But... I'm not gonna let you die. You're my friend, and I won't let anything happen to you."

Bill's trembling had stopped, and his embrace was less death-grippy. "I owe you one, Shooting Star." From Bill, "thanks" sounded hollow, but "I owe you one" really sounded like a thank you.

"Hey. If I tell you a secret, do you promise not to do anything evil with it?"

"Sure. Promise."

Mabel doubted it, but that was as good as she was gonna get. "I've always thought you're still a triangle on the inside. You've got those creepy cat eyes that see the future and stuff! If you were just a normal human, wouldn't you have normal human eyes?"

Bill made a noncommittal noise.

"Plus, if you'd really been turned into a human on the inside, then being in a human body wouldn't feel so bad—right? It'd just feel normal."

Bill was silent for a moment. Voice hoarse, he whispered, "I hope you're right."

####

Fiddleford answered the door himself. "Stanford, Dipper, come in! I was just cleaning up." He had a broom, and the great hall's floor behind him was sparkling with broken glass. Ford was relieved to see Fiddleford had put on shoes. Unfortunately, they were fuzzy slippers. "Pardon the mess!"

"Think nothing of it. The shack's been turned upside-down, too." Ford stepped around a broken chair. "Don't you have anyone to help you clean, though?"

"Oh, I do, I do! I built me a Janitorial Executive Drone to tidy up," Fiddleford said. "I'm just cleaning up the mess JED left."

Ford and Dipper looked around at the shattered glass, broken furniture, scorch marks around the fireplace, and torn curtains. Dipper asked, "Did... JED make this place any cleaner?"

"Not at all!"

Ford and Dipper caught Fiddleford up on their scientific findings of the last couple days. Ford was almost embarrassed to admit they hadn't found any noteworthy quantities of micro-rips, as if he were confessing to a personal academic embarrassment—even after Fiddleford pointed out that it had been his own theory, not Ford's. (All the same, Ford hated to be so wrong, even by association. Being wrong felt like a moral failing.)

In return, Fiddleford told them what he'd been up to. He'd confirmed with them NASA fellas that the odd gravity effects weren't detected anywhere but Gravity Falls. At their behest, he'd set up some sensors around town, and when gravity suddenly reversed, the measurements they'd taken had allowed him to make a very loose model of the shape of the force that caused it. He showed Ford and Dipper the model on a computer in his lab, black screen with sharp glowing green lines forming an armature in the shape of a force. It looked like an enormous flying sausage that tapered down at one end. Too little detail to tell exactly what it was; but it certainly could have been an axolotl.

It was turning to look at the cliff where they'd stood.

Fiddleford wasn't pleased to find out the information he'd passed on from Soos had originally come from Bill; but he'd suspected it and already done all his soul-searching before reluctantly sharing his advice with the masses and hoping it wouldn't come back to bite him. "He didn't bother to warn us that gravity would actually disappear today, though," Fiddleford said indignantly. "So he could crow about being right and still get to see some folks get hurt, I reckon."

"Actually, this time I don't think he was hiding it. I kinda think he just made a mistake?" Dipper said.

Ford nodded. "Dipper's right. Bill was incredibly alarmed this morning when it became clear our estimates were wrong. It only made more trouble for him."

"I suppose," Fiddleford said grudgingly; then gave them a sharp look. "This mornin'? You took him camping?"

Ford and Dipper winced. Ford mumbled, "Not for fun."

"Stanford Pines—!"

It took a minute of hooting and hollering before Ford could calm Fiddleford down enough to explain the circumstances: that they'd only brought Bill because of just how much he explicitly did not want to be brought; that it had been a thoroughly unpleasant experience for everyone and Ford had never expected it to be otherwise; and that Bill had proven useful—Ford decided not to share the details—but he hadn't forgotten that Bill always made himself useful before he betrayed someone. If a man helped a little old lady cross a street, opened her door for her, put up her groceries, and then knocked her out and burgled her house, only one of those actions mattered.

(Dipper fell silent rather than help reassure Fiddleford. Ford supposed that was because he'd objected to bringing Bill, too.)

Fiddleford grudgingly admitted that under the circumstances, bringing Bill had been logical. "But that's just the thing—sometimes your logic don't account for the fact that you've got human emotions, too."

"Ah, yes, those human emotions. One of my worst flaws," Ford joked.

Fiddleford didn't laugh. "I mean it, Stanford. The most logical plan in the world don't mean nothing if he talks you into throwing it aside."

Ford thought of all the times he'd let his temper get the best of him over the last couple of days. Could he really say he'd made the logical decision when he'd made it out of anger? "Yes. I... see what you mean."

"Just be careful," Fiddleford said. "I saw you under that demon's oppression for months and never thought it was anything worse than how you always got around finals week—heck, for all I saw, I reckon he coulda started possessing you without me noticing—and I don't want that to happen again!"

Dipper winced. Ford found somewhere other than Fiddleford's face to look.

"What?"

"He... did. Possess me." (Dipper didn't pipe up with his experience. Ford didn't blame him.)

"He what? When?!"

"Remember toward the end of the project? When I started pulling all-nighters to finish the calculations...?"

Fiddleford smacked his forehead and sank down into the nearest chair.

Ford winced again. "I should have told you." During their talks over the past year, he'd been very reluctant to mention Bill or the fallout at the end of the portal project. They both had. "But—I assumed you'd guessed by now. What did you think was happening?"

"Frankly? I thought you'd started taking something illicit."

Ford snorted. "I—all right." He'd done stupider things during finals week.

"If he was possessin' you, why didn't you ask for help? I could've found somebody who knows how to do exorcisms. Did he not let you? Or—or did I miss you trying to tell me...?"

Ford shook his head. "No, I didn't want an exorcism." He wasn't sure Bill was the kind of "demon" that responded to exorcisms anyway. "At the time, I thought... that he was helping me."

Dipper reluctantly piped up, "He... possessed me once too. I didn't know that's what he was doing until too late, but... Even after you know he's a bad guy, he's really good at making you think he's just helping."

Fiddleford didn't immediately say anything to that. Ford couldn't meet his gaze.

Finally, Fiddleford said, voice low and worried, "Just tell me you won't let him get into your head again. Either one'a you."

Dipper shook his head. "Definitely not."

Ford said, "As he is now with all his powers gone, I don't think he can enter my head. Anyway, I had a metal plate surgically installed—"

"I didn't mean that way."

Right. "I won't. I promise."

Fiddleford nodded. "Didja really get a metal plate installed?"

Ford knocked on it demonstratively.

"Hmm." Fiddleford stroked his beard thoughtfully. He pointed at a contraption in the corner that looked like a ten foot tall tuning fork with electricity arcing between its tips. "Try not to get within five feet of that thing."

Ford eyed it nervously.

####

Fiddleford insisted Ford and Dipper stay for dinner. It was the first proper meal they'd had after two days of tubes mushy meat and mushy vegetables; so they tried not to show their disappointment when they received mushy meat and mushy vegetables. Fiddleford's automatic meatloaf-and-mashed-potatoes maker did its job more competently than JED did its, but Ford suspected that was partially because it didn't have legs to let it go get in trouble.

As they drove back into town, a stoplight turned red at the intersection with Main Street. Ford glanced down Main toward the library and asked, "Do you still want to stop by the library?"

Dipper, who'd nearly nodded off, blinked sleepily. "Huh?"

"To pick up Flatworld?"

Dipper yawned. "Honestly, I kinda just wanna go home and sleep."

"I hear that." He'd almost drowned today. He was exhausted. "Perhaps this weekend."

"Aren't you going to that concert with Mabel?"

"Was that this Saturday?" He'd lost track. Mabel had won four tickets from some radio contest to see Phrancisco in Portland and had asked Ford if he'd like to come. "I'm undecided. I'd like to go—I've been a fan of Invisible Plastic Yellow since they formed." He was the one who'd told Mabel about the band after their Portland trip and gotten her their albums. He'd had a phase when he'd really gotten into cutting-edge underground new wave music. It had made him feel conventionally cool, which not many things did. Now, all his musical tastes were three decades behind. He hadn't even known Phrancisco had a solo career until Mabel came home with tickets.

"But she's bringing her friends, and whoever has the fourth ticket needs to chaperone; and I'm afraid an old man escorting around three young girls would look... odd. It may be more appropriate for one of the other girls' parents to go." But he did want to see Phrancisco. "Perhaps I'll wait and see whether Mabel talks me into it."

"Better pack your bag now, then."

Ford laughed. He had a point. "If I do go to Portland, maybe I can stop by a bookstore to pick up Flatworld. If it tells us anything useful about Bill, I suspect we'll want a household copy for reference."

He was eager to reread it. He'd forgotten so much of it since college. He only recalled the vague, overarching plot: something about a third-dimensional sphere teaching a second-dimensional square about realities with higher and lower dimensions—from zero dimensions up to four—and a stuffy society based on what geometric shape you were... but that was it. He probably never even would have remembered the phrase "up but not north" if Bill hadn't referenced it. He wondered how much it could have helped him if he'd reread it sooner.

Dipper yawned again. "Sounds good."

The light turned green; and Ford drove past the library and headed on home.

####

(After going full tilt for two months, we finally get a breather lol. I hope y'all enjoyed, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts!)

#bill cipher #human bill cipher #mabel pines #fiddleford mcgucket #grunkle ford #dipper pines #gravity falls #gravity falls fic #gravity falls fanart #fanart #my art #my writing #bill goldilocks cipher

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zvtara-was-never-canon · 27 days

Note

https://www.tumblr.com/allnewalldifferentwildspider/748862622231838720/the-reason-im-so-vulgar-in-regards-to-aangs

What a bunch of bullshit.

"He makes no effort to get to know or understand her" they're literally traveling the whole world together - and their original reason for doing that was because he wanted to help her go to the North Pole to learn waterbending, something which means a lot to her. Just because the writers didn't think the audience was stupid and needed a scene of them sitting down and telling each other a list of their flaws, qualities and motivations, doesn't mean their relationship was shallow.

"We get the MALE GAZE from him" Wow, he thinks a pretty girl is pretty. What a crime.

"He doesn't try to find out what happened to her mom" he didn't have to, she fucking told him basically right away. Complaining about that is like complaining he never asked if Sokka was her brother, even though one of the first things Sokka ever said to Aang was "And this is Katara, my flying sister"

"He always gets surprised when she's mad about something" Aang, the naturally cheery person, is pretty much ALWAYS surprised whenever ANYONE is angry, because that's not an emotionl he usually experiences much. Doesn't mean he doesn't get her - and I say this as a very grumpy person.

And ya know who else gets surprised at Katara's anger all the time? Zuko. The guy that sent an assassin after her group because Katara had to bring Aang back to life after Azula killed him - which only happened because Zuko helped her when Aang and Katara had her cornered.

Funny how things are only bad when Aang does it, but totally okay when Zuko does them in VERY different contexts that obviously paint him in a negative light for good reason.

"He hates the food and culture that she loves so much" Disliking a culture's food is not the same as hating said culture. We only see him talk shit about the Water Tribe's hunting culture once: in the Bato episode, in his friends are accidentally shutting him out of the conversation because they're too excited about being reunited with someone that is basically family. A 12-year-old throwing a tantrum is not the same as him being openly racist. Ya know what IS racist though? Zuko supporting his nation's attempt to genocide the water tribes.

"He doesn't respect her boundaries and kisses her twice without her consent" ONE poorly timed kiss is not the same as him forcefully holding her in place and kissing her, or even asking first then going for it anyway after she said an explicit no. And Katara visibly enjoyed the kiss during the eclipse episode, and was basically cuddlying with him on Appa afterwards.

"He keeps trying to talk for her when she's angry" You mean literally the same thing Zuko did in Southern Raiders?

"He expects her to do the work for their relationship... but he also makes wild assumptions about them being an item already... but he also wanted to talk things out with her to make sure he got it right..." I don't even need to tear these apart, the OP did it for me by making their arguments contradict each other. How kind of them.

"Aang wants the beautiful image of Katara. He wants that pretty face, those big blue eyes, that body, those long legs, those hips, the chest, and the hair that is just so manageable" While Aang is attracted to her, he NEVER mentioned a single one of those things, ever. The hair thing was literally MENG being insecure about her own hair. If you wanna simp for Katara, go ahead and do it, there's nothing wrong with it, but don't act like Aang only sees her a piece of meat.

"He has no interest in the complex, strong, hurt, angry, and caring person that Katara actually is" Ah yes, that's why he doesn't cheer her on when she's fighting Pakku, or helps her with the Painted Lady thing because he admires her compassion, or tells her she gives him hope, or calls her sifu, or accepts that she won't kill Yon Rah but also won't forgive... oh wait, he did do all those things.

"I'm calling it like I see it" Too bad you need glasses and refuse to wear them.

"Aang doesn't actually like Katara; he's just really horny for her" Considering your random description of why she's so hot in a post that has nothing to do it, all while ignoring her agency that used to choose Aang, I'd say that's more likely to be an accurate description of YOU than of our protagonist. Sorry, just calling it like I see it.

#anti zutara #pro kataang #pro aang

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ikamigami · 4 months

Text

Okay, this stupid fandom needs to hear something!

Why are you surprised or/and mad that people are talking about Sun when he's one of the main characters?

It happens in every fandom all the time that most people talk about main characters and they are concerned mostly about main characters.

What's wrong with you? I'm seriously asking.

What stops you from making your posts with theories and analysises of other characters? Nothing.

But go ahead and complain about others liking one of main characters.

I legit saw someone on Discord complaining that no one is talking about Moon's mental health. Go ahead and start doing it yourself! No one is stoping you! But no. You feel the need to throw a tantrum that people are talking way too much about Sun. Boo hoo!

When I started talking about Sun here on Tumblr there were no posts about him.

Most people were focusing mainly on Moon and Eclipse and later on Lunar.

I wanted to complain at first but I decided that it would be better if I just write posts about Sun myself.

If no one will give analysises on him, I'll do it myself. That's what I thought to myself and I did exactly that.

So why can't you do that yourself with your favourite character?

I know that I'm complaining a lot about Discord sams server. But people there are annoying.

People on Discord are mostly okay when you talk about any other character beside Sun. And better beware if you think that something is wrong with Sun because they'll start attacking you. That's what happened to me.

You have to always agree with big names on Discord because if not then you're immediately treated like the odd one. I'm not talking about VAs because they never said anything and I think that if something bothered them they as adults would tell me to my face that I'm bothering them. I think that there's no need to speak for VAs because they're adults for goodness sake!

Also I saw there was one person that tried to tell me that I shouldn't talk about certain things with main tags of the show and that I dragged anyone into something.

That's complete bs because I didn't drag anyone. Did I named anyone in any of my posts? I don't remember doing anything like that.

If you come to my posts and start arguing with me then that's on you. I made such mistake myself. I apologized. And I won't do that again.

Also people are concerned about other characters beside Sun as well. People are talking about other characters beside Sun as well. People are theorizing about other characters beside Sun as well. Just search those tags. Or create something on your own. And stop complaining about Sun's fans talking about Sun. Because I mostly see this type of complaining being directed at Sun's fans.

#sun and moon show #sams #sams fandom

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mama-qwerty · 4 months

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Eclipse is a rare mix of after living on the comet, he'll eat almost anything, so he's a good eater. But he will complain the whole time about the foods he doesn't like.

"What's this?"

Eclipse poked at the green thing on his plate. It looked like a little tree. Why was this woman feeding him trees?

"It's broccoli," she said, scooping a spoonful onto Silver's plate. "It's good for you. Helps you poop."

"I don't need help to do that." Eclipse curled his muzzle, shoving the green thing off his plate. "I don't want it. Give me more meat."

"Number one, that's rude. Number two, I can't keep feeding you nothing but meat, that will blow our whole grocery budget in about a month. Number three, I've smelled what happens after you go to the bathroom. Humor me and eat the broccoli."

"Why should I?"

"Because it's important." Silver popped a floret in his mouth, and pointed toward Eclipse with his fork. "If you don't eat enough vegetables, you could get sick. Maddie says."

"I won't get sick," Eclipse sneered. "I'm the ultimate weapon, created by the brilliant minds of the Black Arms. I can eat anything and not get sick."

"Good!" Callie said, taking her seat and picking up her fork. She used it to place the green thing back on Eclipse's plate. "Then you won't have any problems eating it."

The darkling snarled at the tree. "I don't want to."

"Then no dessert," she said with a shrug.

"That's not fair!"

"Then eat it. Seriously kid, you'd be done by now if you'd just eaten the thing instead of argued about it."

She was so mean. Horrible woman. Terrible, evil, cruel woman.

Eclipse grabbed his fork and violently jabbed it into the stupid green thing, before shoving it into his mouth. His sharp teeth made short work of it, and it honestly wasn't that bad, but he wasn't going to let her know that.

"I hate this. It's terrible. No wonder it helps you poop because that's what it tastes like. Ugh, why do you weird humans grow this stuff, let alone eat it? I'm the best parts of the Black Arms! I'm stronger than any of you! I shouldn't have to eat this! Why would you make me do this??"

He'd swallowed the gross green thing halfway through his rant. The woman was just sitting there staring at him, a tired, bored look on her face.

"Finished?"

Eclipse curled his lip into a snarl. "Yeah."

"Then have another pork chop and see if you can find it in your heart to forgive me."

He jabbed his fork into another meat slice and dropped it on his plate before grabbing it with his hands to tear into.

"I'll think about it."

"I wait with anxious anticipation for your decision."

"Huh?"

"Nothing. Just eat."

Eclipse grumbled as he finished his pork chop. Humans were so weird.

#ask shortie #ask me #ames stuff #eclipse the darkling #callie macpherson #silver the hedgehog

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piracytheorist · 2 months

Text

Grrrhhhnnn okay venting time because doing that to my family will either make them sad or they'll tell me I'm exaggerating.

So in my family there's two group chats. A big one with relatives from the side of my late father, and a smaller one with relatives from my mother's side. The first one I'm a part of, and though I'm not very active, I do pop in to see photos of the family whenever they share.

The second one I'm not a part of anymore. I was in it, but my aunt was in there, who can be perfectly described as a Facebook aunt, complete with Minions memes posting. Anyway, I was mostly ignoring the stupid memes she shared in that group chat, until she started spouting anti-vaxxing shit and I was like okay yeah bye. And I left the group chat.

Considering that everyone else in the group chat HAD vaccinated against covid and was PRO vaccine... I expected they'd talk to her and I'd come back into the group and we'd just never have to deal with her shit again.

But nope. I was left out of the group. I told my mother about my complaints over that, and she was like "Yeah okay we'll talk about it" and then we just never did.

It's been years since, and all along they've been sharing photos and news and having video calls in that group chat and I'm just never in, and then they go like "Oh yeah, you're not in that group" LIKE YEAH. FOR A FUCKING REASON. I have mentioned that a few times but they're just like "Eh okay".

Anyway, I've been mostly ignoring the fact that I feel pretty much left alone by my own family, because we Shan't Upset the Anti-vaxxer Facebook aunt, but today I realized my sister, who is visiting the States, did a video call DURING THE FUCKING ECLIPSE. And I wasn't even given the chance to take part. I realized that because she shared a video her friend took with his phone while she was talking to the others, and I could hear her greet someone from the Facebook aunt's camera. In the video (which she shared in the group chat of the other side of the family - which I get why she didn't call there, this group chat has some 30 something participants, while the other has like, seven) the eclipse is very clearly shown, and fantastic tbh, while in the video call she made she says the eclipse wasn't visible. So, I shouldn't get to complain, I guess?

Fuck that, though. Because no-one wants to talk some sense to our aunt, even though we all agree she's wrong, I missed an opportunity for something my sister knows I love. I know I wouldn't be able to see the eclipse from her video call, but seeing her being excited about it live would do as much.

And the thing is... who do I complain to about this? I can't complain to my mom, because I was raised in a "don't make mom sad" mentality, and she has lost her parents, two of her three siblings (with Facebook aunt being her last remaining close relative), her closer aunts and uncles, and recently her husband. How do I come up to her and tell her "Your bitchy sister, the last person left alive from your original family, made me miss a great opportunity for a bonding moment, and it's all the fault of you and the rest of the family for deciding that It's Okay that Nette isn't in this group chat where we share all about our family, and it's better that we keep anti-vaxxer Facebook aunt instead." How do I do that?

I can't complain to my sister who witnessed the eclipse, because I don't want to sour it for her. It was a great moment for her to witness it, I'm happy for her, and I don't want her feeling sad because she clicked "video call" on the group chat of the extended family, which is the one with the most activity.

I can't complain about it to my oldest sister, because she's the type of person who will blame me for overreacting on Facebook aunt's comments, for not talking about it, and for caring so much for a fucking eclipse or whatever. We don't have a lot in common and sadly she has a hard time understanding that I am passionate for different things than she is, and my passions are just as legit as hers. So I'm pretty sure she'll just scoff and blame me.

I could complain about it to my brother, but he lives far away and has little to no contact with Facebook aunt aside from that group chat. He won't disagree with me but he might say I'm exaggerating, and he won't be able to provide any help.

I don't want to complain to my therapist, because I have better use of my 40 euros per session than a stupid Facebook aunt.

I don't want to complain to my Facebook aunt, because she won't listen and, just like my oldest sister, she won't understand why what she originally did was stupid and insulting considering she knows I have a heart disease and I am a high risk group for any disease so anti-vaxxing can be just like lethal danger for me, and she also won't understand why it was important for me to witness the eclipse with my sister, or at least witness her witness it.

And like... UGH. I might go for a walk and listen to some music, fuck this shit. I'm tired of being second thought to anti-vaxxer, minion-posting, ignoring-her-daughter's-very-obvious-learning-disabilities-and-near-arrested-emotional-development aunt.

#personal

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visionthefox · 3 months

Note

I am brain-rotting about your AU idea, since KC doesn't just turn good out of nowhere and instead of "dying" Old Moon has to actually face what he's done to Sun and mend what he broke, becoming a better person like New Moon in the process instead of just forgetting, plus the Stitchwraith thing on the side is kinda funny in an ironic way

EEK! YES!! idk if I WILL DO something, but I have scenes in my head.. nothing in order.. but YES YES! something I always complain not only how stupid of Moon was to leave the literal demon that tormented him his whole life, but reseting himself? leaving all of his power to someone, who, could have been lying in his face? never felt right with me, felt like a rushed idea .. and look, I love new Moon, but I wish he could be New on his name would be a more "im a new person because I chosse to let my old self away" type of deal.. KC- is literally made to kill, If he does change? I want him to be full of guilt, feel remorse for , not only! all the lifes he took away, those innocent he feed on- but for what he did to BloodMoon and Eclipse! I know the two arent innocent, but lying to an already emotionally unestable ai, and keeping inprision another one? felt like too much and I feel like he did tortured them a lot, feel like something he would do when "no one is looking" and Im trying to watch all the things realed to Stitch- (I will write his name wrong , so sorry is just hard!) - he does seem like a true neutral party.. he seems to "care" for his "brothers" and at least be aganst Creator. so there's that.. so yea yea aaa I want true found family, I want the bad guys to find comfort and safety in each other, truth each other because everyone else hurted them already..

#sams #tsams #in this note-I been thinking how Eclipse is literally the only part of old moon left #eclipse has the code of old moon in him still-of had to have it for a long time #eclipse was old moon but worst- that was never a secret and old moon had its slow grow to be better I want eclipse to have that too #but with ppl who understand his evil side and just let him be

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kikiwritesfanfic · 8 months

Text

Tainted Magic, Tainted Blood - Chapter Five

A "The Sun and Moon Show" AU x Reader

Masterlist || AO3 || Chapter Four || Chapter Six

*****

Eclipse huffed as he watched the garden staff whispering among themselves, glancing in his direction repeatedly. They weren't even attempting to hide their smug looks, seeing that a commoner like him was so horridly out of place in the palace gardens without being accompanied by anyone of importance. But just as he was about to storm off and call it quits, he heard his name called.

"Eclipse! I'm so sorry!" Y/N's voice called towards him as she appeared from around a corner of one of the hedge bushes. She was breathing heavily, trying to catch her breath as she reached him. She keeled over and put a hand to her knees, holding the other up to hold his attention for a moment. "Okay," she said once she got her breath under control. "I'm sorry, they held me back for another one of those stupid meetings," she complained, rolling her eyes. Eclipse smiled.

"Well, I was about to leave," he admitted, glaring back at the gardeners as they went about tending to the various plants of the palace gardens. The princess laughed and leaned over to one of the bushes actively being trimmed. She plucked one of the red roses from the bush and brought it to her nose to inhale the sickly sweet scent deeply before holding it out to Eclipse. He took it, brows furrowed in entertained confusion. "What's this for?"

The princess shrugged before grabbing his free hand and pulling him into the hedge maze. He chuckled at her spontaneity, allowing himself to be dragged by her. She stopped after they rounded a few corners and looked up at him with a cheesy grin on her face. "You're never going to believe what they told me though, during today's meeting," she said, her voice low.

Eclipse tilted his head to the side. "Oh?"

Y/N made a show of looking around to be sure nobody was around to hear them. Eclipse couldn't help the way his heart fluttered at her innocent glee. She was always so happy, and he couldn't even begin to wonder how he had gotten so lucky as to become friends with her, but he didn't question it often. She wore a beautiful puffy coral dress today, her hair up in a complicated mess of twists and braids. He would never admit it out loud, but while he enjoyed when she was dressed up like this, he preferred when she donned her pants and tunics when they would go out into the city. She looked like a dress up doll when dressed like this - although that wasn't too far off from what was going on anyways. There were several maids that would dress her and do up her hair. At least, that's what she told him when she was irritated about that fact as if it were the worst thing in the world.

"My parents want me to start looking for a suitable husband!" she exclaimed, a baffled look on her face. Eclipse blinked down at her, shocked at her apparent resentment to the thought. She sensed his confusion and went on to explain herself. "I'm seventeen, Eclipse! I want to see the world and have fun, not think about settling down and having... children..." Y/N visibly shuddered at the thought. She then looked back up at Eclipse and listed her head to the side at his look of discomfort. He couldn't help the blush that immediately rose to his cheeks. He wasn't thinking about having children with her or anything, but the thought had crossed his mind a few times at this point when it came to marriage. But he hadn't known that she had felt so negatively about it. Not that he had really made it known that he liked her. He didn't have a chance, anyways. He was a commoner, and her, a literal princess - destined to one day rule over him and the rest of the kingdom.

Sensing his mood, Y/N only smirked at him. "You weren't thinking about marrying me, were you?" she taunted, placing both of her hands to her hips like a mother chastising their child after finding out something bad they had been doing. Eclipse put his hands up in defense, one still holding the rose she had handed him earlier.

"I wasn't- I mean, if you were then- I couldn't even-" he stuttered, unsure of how to get himself out of this. Y/N just laughed and plucked the rose from his hand, turning and walking away from him. She waved the flower around above her head.

"It was just a joke, Eclipse. I know you wouldn't have the guts to ever ask me out anyways," she teased, rendering him speechless for a moment. He stared at her as she walked away giggling, before hustling after her, newfound determination in wake of her challenge.

A hand shook Eclipse's shoulder, startling him from sleep. He peered to his left to see who was disturbing him. Solar Flare stood over him, worried expression upon his face immediately drawing any amount of drowsiness from his body.

"What is it," Eclipse hissed, and Solar pointed to the star that was still floating above the desk next to him. His memory slowly returned, making his blood boil again.

He was keeping tabs on how BloodMoon had been treating his beloved fiance, but must've fallen asleep when things slowed down. He glanced to the window and saw that it was long after the sun had risen, meaning he had slept through the night.

Solar Flare shook Eclipse's shoulder again, apparently thinking that whatever was going on with Y/N was urgent, so he leaned closer to the star and watched as the scene before him came into view. He froze, confusion clouding his brain.

Sun was very much alive and well, currently riding on his horse with the princess sitting uncomfortably behind him.

How did this happen? Had his stupid brother succeeded in killing BloodMoon? Eclipse was so sure that Sun didn't stand a chance when it came to saving the princess - it was his twin that might've been able to pull through. But even at that, they were up against a literal demon. How did they manage to pull this off?

"How long have they been riding like this?" Eclipse asked Solar Flare, rage drawing his brows together. His body physically shook at the realization that his entire plan had been completely ruined. Solar Flare blinked at Eclipse and said nothing. Eclipse remembered the spell he put on him and groaned, turning to the book that still laid open on the opposite side of the desk. With a few complicated words and a flash of light, Solar Flare lifted his hand to his throat and tested his ability to speak.

"I-I do not know how long they have been traveling, sir," he said, just as surprised by the turn of events. He then stood a little taller and continued. "If you allow me to use the star myself, perhaps I could-"

"Absolutely not," Eclipse interrupted. He glared at his advisor. "Do you take me for an idiot?" Eclipse reached out to the star and watched as it morphed into the soft white orb he was used to as he pulled it back towards him. "What do you suggest?"

Solar adjusted his standing position, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He knew he had to draw out how long it was until Eclipse stepped in and caused Y/N more pain. There was just too much on the line, and Eclipse's patience was wearing thin. Without BloodMoon, that meant that Eclipse only had the star as a power source now. And that was a limited resource.

"I would recommend leaving them be," he said, watching as Eclipse snapped his head up to him and glared. But before he could give him another angry outburst, he continued. "Sun and Moon are cursed, yes? The princess has been through enough trauma - eventually she will find out about their lie to her, and she will want nothing to do with them." Eclipse pondered his words for a moment, while Solar turned to one of the bookshelves and ran his finger down the spine of one of the books. "You would know best out of everyone how much the Princess despises liars."

There was a moment of silence, and then Eclipse spoke the same spell that originally rendered Solar Flare mute.

***

"Princess Y/N," a voice sounded, far away enough that Y/N didn't open her eyes. She groaned and rolled over, feeling her entire body ache once again. Her name was called again and her eyes shot open suddenly, memories instilling fear into her as her blood ran cold. She sat up quickly, smacking her head on the taut line of twine that held the tent together. She cried out at the jolt of pain and held a hand to her head as the fabric of the tent was yanked backwards. Light blinded her vision as a shadow of a figure stood in the doorway, spewing questions at her faster than she could keep up with. "Are you okay? What happened? Let me see!"

The princess yelped again as she was suddenly dragged from the tent and stood up. Sun was pushing her hair around, feeling her scalp for the invisible injury. "I'm okay, Sun," she said tiredly, brushing his hands away. "Just scared me is all."

Sun jumped backwards, bowing his head down briskly. "M-My apologies, Your Highness!" he stuttered. Y/N listed her head to the side, confusion written in her expression.

"What? Why?" she asked, watching as Sun stood back to his full height and clasped his hands together to nervously fidget.

"F-For startling you- It... It wasn't my intention to-"

Y/N waved her hand in the air as she figuratively brushed the thought away. "No need to apologize. It was an honest mistake," she said, now looking around at the little camp that Sun had set up at some point in the night. The horse was tied to one of the nearby trees, and a small stretch of fabric was splayed next to a fallen tree. There was a small fire going in front of it, and suddenly the princess could smell something cooking. She couldn't help the way that her stomach growled as she wandered over to it, curiosity and hunger driving her to investigate.

"Oh, I found some chickens that had taken residency in one of the decaying houses just up the road, so I took it upon myself to scramble some eggs for you!" Sun explained. He seemed a little eager and proud of his discovery, so the princess turned to him and smiled.

"That is very sweet of you, Sun. Thank you," she said, sitting down on the log in front of the fire. She watched as her savior blinked at her for a moment, seemingly surprised by her words. Then he snapped his fingers together and reached down to his belt, pulling off a canteen. He handed it to the Y/N and explained that he had also found a small stream nearby. She thanked him again as she took the water from him graciously. He watched her as she undid the cap and lifted the canteen to her lips, exposing the bruises and cuts on her neck. They had turned to a nasty sight over the night, coloring the princess's neck in various shades of blue and purple.

Just as he was about to offer to help her with them, she looked back to him. "Aren't you going to stir the eggs?" Sun's eyes widened as he rushed over to the food, stirring it with a little wooden spatula and keeping his head down. Y/N watched him curiously.

A million thoughts still swirled around in her head. Just in the small bit of interaction she had with him thus far, she could tell that Sun was rather clumsy and extremely anxious. But he stirred the eggs with steady precision, like he had done it hundreds of times before. Something told her that he had done it before, and somehow that she already knew that. But when she tried to expand on how she could possibly know that fact, a jolt of pain shot through her head, forcing her to look away from him with a hiss.

Sun immediately looked up from his task, worry on his face once again. "P-Princess?" he asked.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she said, rubbing her temples. "Just a headache. Been happening for a while now." Her savior's eyebrows drew together in concern, but he didn't press any further. He seemed to mumble something to himself as he pulled the eggs from the heat and set the little cast iron pan down in the grass.

"I'm going to start packing up camp while you eat," he said, rising back to his feet and smiling down at her.

"But aren't you going to eat?" she asked almost immediately. Sun wore the same expression he did when she thanked him, but recovered more quickly this time and shook his head.

"You're the priority. You need to regain your strength," he said resolutely. Y/N opened her mouth to protest but said nothing as Sun just walked past her to the tent. She huffed, but ultimately her stomach won her battle of stubbornness as she reached down and grabbed a bit of the eggs.

Even without any seasonings that she could see, Sun had somehow managed to make the most delicious and fluffy eggs she had ever eaten. She turned to compliment Sun but thought better of it as she watched him already deep in thought as he pulled his cape from the tent and tied it back onto his shoulders.

Y/N sighed as she turned away from him and continued to eat the scrambled eggs. With every moment that passed, it seemed like more questions just appeared in her mind. And although she didn't have the same splitting headache she had the prior night, her body still ached incessantly. But it wasn't enough to render her thoughtless as she sat there, finally allowing herself to relive the recent events of her life.

She still had no idea how or why BloodMoon had kidnapped her. There wasn't anyone in her life she could think of that would want to cause her the level of trauma she went through in that tower. The kingdom had no known enemies ever since they merged with the one she currently sat on the outskirts of. She had no siblings or distant family members that would try to steal the throne from her, and even if she had, they would know she didn't even want to be crowned queen to begin with.

"That, pretty red, is a truth you are simply not ready for."

The demon's words reverberated through her thoughts.

"Every ounce of veracity in your life, crashing down before your eyes."

Y/N heard the words over and over again as she sat there. Had BloodMoon been messing with her when he said that? Or had he known something she didn't?

Well, obviously he knew things she didn't know. Someone had to have sent him to devour her - but for some unknown reason, he hadn't. He kept her alive and toyed with her for hours, brandishing her skin with cut after cut until she was littered with them. And he laughed, as if it were just some sick game.

The princess absentmindedly fiddled with the sleeves of the green dress, reliving the uncomfortable instances in her mind. She turned to look at the looming shadow of the castle in the distance, feeling the same fear she had felt up in the tower. Truly she thought she would die there, alone and in pain, every last drop of her blood consumed by that... thing.

"Well, that's just about everything," Sun called to Y/N, snapping her out of her thoughts. She turned to him and gave him a weary smile before placing the last bite of eggs into her mouth and grabbing the now-cooled cast iron pan to give back to him. He took the pan from her and packed it away with the rest of his tools before hopping up onto the horse. His hand extended to help the princess up, but she hesitated.

"How long will it take to get back home?" she asked, looking out at the unfamiliar terrain surrounding her. The trees loomed high up above her and the sounds of unfamiliar birds singing caught her ears.

"Well," Sun said, pulling his hand to his chin in thought. "If we travel each day and stop to rest before the sun goes down, it should take us around five days." Y/N's lips parted in surprise.

"Five days?" she asked incredulously. "That means I won't get back until the day before-" She cut herself off and took a deep breath. Sun looked taken aback by her sudden outburst, but ultimately said nothing. "Guess that means we should be heading out then, huh?" she asked instead, now holding her hand out to be hoisted back up onto the horse.

Sun pulled the reins and they continued their journey back to Adrastea. For a while, Y/N just sat in silence, trying her best not to disturb or distract Sun from his concentration. But she soon grew bored. The landscape around her quickly descended in fascination, especially as the decaying houses turned to farmland and then plains. Very few trees littered the rolling grass that stretched on as far as she could see.

Not wanting to be left with the intensity of her thoughts, she finally spoke up. "So, you didn't want to tell me who sent you," she started. She could feel Sun tense under her sudden attempt at conversation. "So I guess I'll just move past that. Instead, I'm curious," she continued, leaning to the side so she could see his face around his shoulder. "Where did you learn to cook eggs like you did this morning?"

Sun's posture relaxed slightly. "Well, I learned by watching others," he said simply. But that answer didn't satisfy Y/N.

"But who did you watch? There's not many people I know that can just whip up perfect scrambled eggs with nothing but a pan, small fire, and wooden spatula," she challenged, rolling her eyes. "And I quite literally have the best chefs in the kingdom cooking for me every day."

"W-Well," Sun started, seemingly fighting his own inner conflict. He didn't continue for a long moment, making the princess draw her brows together. Finally he responded. "That doesn't really matter, does it? I've watched so many people cook that I couldn't amass my ability to cook eggs just to one person."

Y/N huffed. He was avoiding giving her a straight answer for some reason. Her frustration quickly subsided though as another question popped into her mind. "Do you work for the palace?"

To this, Sun threw his head back and laughed almost instantly. "Oh heavens no," he chuckled, before quickly regaining his composure. "Not that it would be a bad thing- I just- I have important responsibilities that require me to know how to cook a proper meal."

"Do you have kids?" the princess asked, glad to finally be having a conversation.

"Wha- No! I mean- Well, sort of?" He sighed, placing a hand to his face and dragging it down his cheek. "My personal business is not really cause for much concern now, is it Princess?"

Y/N felt a jab of offense. "Well, I'm interested in the very person who saved me. Is that really such a negative thing?"

Sun tensed again. "No- I just- My apologies, Your Highness."

"Y/N," she responded. "Just call me Y/N."

"Are you sure? I don't know if we've- if I've earned the right to call you by your first na-"

"I'm very sure, Sun," she cut him off, rolling her eyes again. "I don't much care for royal titles. They only complicate things."

Sun stayed silent, gripping the reins tightly. But then he relaxed again and chuckled. "Okay, Y/N," he said. "Why don't you answer one of my questions." He turned so he could face the princess, who smiled up at him, glad to finally be getting somewhere. "How did you even end up in a tower in the neighboring abandoned kingdom being held hostage by a literal demon?"

The princess's smile faltered for a brief moment, until she looked away from Sun and bit her lip. She still didn't know the answer to that herself. Should she tell him that? Would he think her unintelligent and naive? She sighed.

"I don't know," she said simply. "The last thing I remember is leaving the masquerade ball. Then I woke up in that tower, and I have no idea how I got there or who even sent BloodMoon after me."

"BloodMoon?"

She hummed. "That was the demon's name." Sun stayed silent for a long while after that. Y/N looked back out at the passing stretch of tall yellow grass. "You killed him, right?" she asked suddenly. Sun tensed yet again under her grip on his midsection, and she guessed he didn't like being asked questions with any level of weight at this point. Still, he recovered quickly.

"Yes. He's gone," he said, dropping the rein with one hand to place it instead on her arms as they gripped him tighter at his words. "He won't hurt you again." He ghosted his fingers over the scabbing stretches of red along her forearms, making her close her eyes and let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.

The relief that washed over the princess, however, was brief. She felt a sharp pain through her head again. And for a moment, she swore she heard something...

He's lying.

Y/N pulled one of her arms free to place to her head. Sure, she just met Sun, but what reason would he have to lie to her about such a thing? Unless this whole thing was just some ploy to torture her further. But Sun didn't seem like he was acting. In his own way, he seemed genuinely concerned. And maybe it was naive of her, but she felt an odd sense of familiarity as she talked with him. There wasn't really a reason to feel this way - as far as she knew, she didn't know him. But just as she had felt with the stranger she danced with at the ball, she felt like she had met him before.

Heavens, the ball. Despite being less than two days prior, it felt like an eternity ago that she had been prancing around the ballroom with that gold mask on. She dwelled on the memory for a long while after that, headache subsiding as she remembered her dance partner's daunting blue eyes and flirty quips.

The two of them rode in silence for hours as the sun trailed across the sky slowly. The scenery around them slowly morphed from dry grasslands to rolling green hills, and the princess adored the patches of colorful flowers they passed by.

The pair paused their travels at some point later in the day to eat and stretch their legs. Sun told the princess to stay put while he wandered a bit to see if there was a nearby stream to refill his canteen, but being as she was, Y/N drifted further into the green field before her. Pinks, purples, and blues; reds, oranges, and yellows - a rainbow of flowers dotted the cool grass beneath her toes. She reached down and plucked a few of various colors, stringing them together to form a flower crown. She remembered making them all the time when she was younger, giving them out to younger children in the city. The thought brought a flurry of emotions through her stomach, and she began to feel a bit dizzy.

Y/N stared at the flower crown in her hands, trying to steady her balance, but failing as she lost her footing and fell to the grassy floor beneath her.

"Here you go!" Y/N said, giggling with the young child before her. His giddiness brought a warmth to her chest that she knew couldn't be replicated by anything else. The boy ran back to his parents, excitedly rambling on about his new gift. His mother gently took the blue flower crown from his little hands to secure it to his head. She then looked up at the princess and smiled, mouthing a quick 'thank you' before turning and leading her happy son away.

"Why do you even feel the need to do that?" a voice asked from behind the princess. It sounded younger, but familiar as it talked. She huffed and rolled her eyes, somehow already knowing who was speaking to her. The basket of flower crowns she held shifted from one side to the other as she stood back to her full height and walked in the opposite direction. "Wait! I'm just curious!" the voice called after her, huffing as the person it belonged to struggled to catch up to her. "You know I love that you do things like this, but I just don't get it."

"Because it's nice. And it makes people happy," Y/N responded, speaking as though she's already said this very thing before. She also sounded younger than she remembered. She kept her head forwards as she continued down the cobblestone path.

"But you're a princess," the voice continued. "The people should be giving you flower crowns, not the other way around."

"Oh, Eclipse," Y/N said with pity, stopping abruptly and turning on her heels to face the owner of the voice. He almost crashed into her as she stopped, looking down at her with confusion.

"What?"

The princess opened her mouth to say something, but quickly shut it. She decided it wasn't worth it. She knew Eclipse hadn't understood many of the things she did, but he hadn't been shown the same kindness that she tried her best to show the younger ones frequently. Instead, she smiled up at him and reached into the woven basket, pulling out an orange and yellow flower crown. Before he could realize what she was doing, she reached up and placed it upon his head and giggled. "If you're so jealous that the children have all of my attention, you could just say so," she mused. Then she turned on her heels again and continued down the cobblestone path, leaving Eclipse standing there, too stunned to continue after her immediately.

"Princess!"

Y/N jolted upwards at her name being called, unexpectedly colliding her head right into Sun's. He cried out in pain as he stumbled backwards while she brought her hands up to her face and hissed. "I'm so sorry," she gritted through her clenched teeth. Sun whined from his spot in the grass next to her.

"No, no, I shouldn't have shouted so close to your face," he said, sitting up slowly. "You just worried me. Why did you wander off? What happened?"

The princess tried to piece together what she had been doing, but was drawing a blank. She looked around at the green grass surrounding her and spotted a ring of flowers next to her feet. Her hand reached out and picked it up, looking at it with confusion. Had she made it? And if she had, why couldn't she remember?

Sun stared at Y/N as she turned over the flower crown in her hands. "Okay, don't answer me, that's fine," he mumbled, standing up and holding his hand out to help the princess up as well. She took his offer and allowed him to help her stand and lead her back towards the horse. They mounted the horse just as they had several times before now, a confused silence hovering over them. Y/N stared at the spot they had been sitting in the grass as they passed it, still desperately pulling at her thoughts to procure what she had been doing. But then the familiar jolt of pain shot through her head and she closed her eyes to try to ease it.

Her savior seemed to be catching on to the fact that something was clearly wrong with the princess, but he still said nothing as they rode, only ghosting his hands across her arms as they hugged him tighter. It was a long while before either of them spoke again, but once they did, they picked up conversation as if nothing odd had happened.

"So if you had to choose, you-"

"Well I don't like being forced to choose!" Sun whined playfully, trying to hold back the chuckle that was shaking his torso. Y/N giggled loudly, however, amused by his refusal to play her games.

"It's really not that hard of a choice," she said with a teasing air to her voice. "Just pick a season!"

"What would you choose?" he retorts, still refusing to answer her question. She rolled her eyes and giggled again.

"Well, summer is always a great choice, but there's always so many bugs," she started, looking thoughtfully out at the sun lowering in the sky. "And I love the cold mornings of spring, but there's too many allergies," she continued. "Winter is too cold, and the snow is always so irresistible to play in, thus never failing to make me fall ill."

"So you'd choose autumn?" Sun concluded for her. She hummed.

"The colors are beautiful! I get the chill in the morning, while still getting the warmth from the sun in the afternoon. And I must admit, the harvest festival is my favorite festivity of the entire year," she mused.

"Then I guess I'll have to agree with you," Sun said, smiling as he looked at her from the corner of his eye.

"That's cheating!" she joked, smacking his arm gleefully. "You can't just choose it because I did!"

"Well, last time I checked, you never set any rules for the game," he denied, chuckling again at her playful attitude. Y/N tutted, crossing her arms and butting her head into Sun's back. He looked up at the sky and sighed. "We should set up for the night, anyways," he said, looking out at the grassy expanse and spotting a couple of trees in the distance.

"We should sleep beneath the stars tonight," the princess said suddenly, startling Sun.

"W-What?" he asked, unease practically dripping from his voice. Y/N shrugged as she looked at the perfectly clear sky above them.

"I've been told that the stars look beautiful outside of the kingdom," she said. Immediately after stating that fact, she furrowed her brows. Who had told her that? She didn't remember ever having a conversation with someone about the stars outside of the kingdom, but how else would she have that knowledge?

"I don't think that's a very good idea," Sun said quietly, drawing the princess from her thoughts. She frowned.

"Why not?" she pressed, curiosity making her lean to the side so she could see Sun's face. He just turned away from her and veered the horse towards the few trees that were close together enough to tie up the tent.

"Dangerous," was his one-word reply. Y/N didn't like his answer, but she didn't press him any further. He was her savior after all. If anyone would know what was or wasn't dangerous out in the world, it would be him. He had made it out to her, after all, so he already knew of any of the dangers of the land around them.

She watched as Sun worked to set up the tent again and wandered to gather some dry brush when he asked her to. She then listened carefully as he taught her how to properly start a fire. She was amazed as she watched his hands move with precise intent, just like it had when he was making the scrambled eggs that morning.

"And be sure to keep blowing on it- No, not that hard, just enough to get air to the smoking part right there- Yeah, like that! Keep going- there you go!" Sun praised the princess as a flame appeared. He grabbed some of the dried leaves and grass the princess had gathered and placed it on top of the flame. Immediately the small light grew, and he placed sticks into it, then thicker branches, and then he sat back and gave her a cocky grin. "And that, my lady, is how you start a fire."

Y/N clapped and pretended to cheer on Sun while he stood and took a mock bow. She then placed her hands out to feel the warmth from the flames while he went to pull some of the rations from the side pack on the horse. Besides the heat emanating from the fire in front of her, she felt warm inside. That same odd feeling she had when she had experienced earlier returned, leaving her confused again as Sun sat down next to her. She reached out to take the little bundle of dried meats, letting her fingers linger on his as she grabbed it. "Sun?" she said suddenly, looking down at her hands as she spoke.

"Yes, Starlight?" he asked, unraveling his bundle with quick and practiced fingers. She opened her mouth to speak but froze.

Starlight?

Hadn't she already been called that recently? Y/N looked up at Sun, seemingly searching his face for some kind of sign that would make that query make sense. He lifted his head, freezing as he looked into her determined expression. She could see that his body tensed as he realized what he called her. But the princess didn't spend too much time dwelling on that. She felt her heart race in her chest as she stared into his eyes.

His blue eyes.

She knew those eyes. But from where? She narrowed her own as she assessed them further, but then quickly shut them as another jolt of pain shot through her head. But she fought it, dropping her ration as she brought both hands to the side of her head, keeling over but delving further into her mind. She heard music, felt herself spinning, and then she saw it. She saw the stranger from the ball.

"I could never doubt you, Starlight."

Y/N cried out as the pain overwhelmed her, instantly feeling Sun's hands grab her to keep her steady. He called her name worriedly, dragging one hand down to tug desperately at the canteen on his hip. She shook her head as the pain overwhelmed her senses, Sun taking the lead in keeping her conscious.

"Y/N, I need you to tell me what's wrong," he said, letting go of her briefly to finally pry the canteen free. He pulled the cap off as she whined.

"M-My head," she stuttered, still squeezing her eyes shut. "It hurts- s-so bad-"

"Okay, your head," Sun repeated, gently pulling her hands away. "Go ahead and keep your eyes closed, but I need you to try to drink some water, okay?" She nodded slightly, still hissing through her teeth at the pain until she felt the canteen touch her lips. She drank slowly at first, just trying not to focus on the pain. But then she snatched the canteen from Sun's hands and began gulping down the water like it was her lifeline. Sun watched her in fearful curiosity, gently taking the near-empty water container back once she appeared to be done. She blinked her eyes open, and Sun had to do a double take.

For a moment, he swore he saw red donning the lights of her eyes, but it must have been a trick of the light from the dancing flames behind him.

"Better?" he asked, securing the canteen to his belt once more. She nodded, looking up at him with a terrified expression.

"I-I don't know what that was," she whispered. "I was just- I just wanted to remember something," she started. But then the princess figured it was useless to try to explain. How would Sun understand the pure agony and pain that trying to remember things seemed to bring her? He would probably think her insane and refuse to take her the rest of the way home. "Nevermind," she said, turning away from him so she could bend down to pick up her rations. Luckily, she hadn't opened them yet, so they weren't ruined.

"Are you sure you're okay, Princess?" Sun questioned, tilting his head further down to bring himself back into her line of sight. She refused to look at him, just nodding again as she untied the twine holding the cloth around the rations secure. He sighed, getting back up to walk over to the horse once more.

Y/N also sighed, just not until he was out of earshot. The pain had subsided now, just as quickly as it had shown up. It was getting worse trying to remember her past. But it made no sense that something so close in the past would be so difficult to remember. She had just been at the ball two nights ago.

But that wasn't what had scared her the most. For a split second, she swore she heard a voice again. It wasn't Sun's as he was giving her instructions on how to handle the pain. No, it was more gravelly than his voice. It sent a shiver down her spine and made her wearily eye the green sleeves that hid the scabs that still donned her arms.

The voice she had heard was BloodMoon's.

Was she just feeling the guilt of him being murdered by the hands of her savior? She didn't know how to place her feelings about death yet - she hadn't even spent much time to sort out how she felt about her parents' death, so how could she feel so deeply about a demon's? Y/N took the last bite of her rations and looked up at the darkening sky.

So many questions, and even fewer answers.

"Are you ready to get to bed?" Sun asked from behind the princess, holding the cloth to the tent open so she could crawl inside. With one final look up at the peeking stars, she decided to call it a day and proceeded to curl up inside the tent, Sun's cape wrapped as tightly as she could make it around her shoulders.

***

"I really think it's something we should be more concerned about."

Moon tossed the small rock he found up into the air, watching as it rose up and up, before gravity stopped its ascent and pulled it back down so he could catch it and do it again. "She seemed like she was in a lot of pain."

I know, brother. But if she doesn't talk to me about it, how am I supposed to help her? Sun asked from inside their shared consciousness. Moon adjusted on his back, looking up at the stars with a sour expression on his face. He tossed the rock again, pondering his brother's words with disdain. He didn't like that he was right, wanting so badly to be able to put an end to whatever was hurting the Princess.

"By the way, could you try not to be so stupid with your words?" Moon asked, deciding he'd had enough of the rock by sitting up and throwing it out in the opposite direction of the tent as far as he could. It was soundless when it disappeared into the grass, disappointing him a little bit more. "As far as she knows, you haven't ever met her before."

I'm sorry, Moon. But it's hard to pretend like I haven't met her before. Especially after that... feeling we had when you danced with her... Sun trailed off his voice, jealousy seemingly on the back end of his tone. Moon scoffed.

"Well, if you let her know what we are, you probably won't ever get to talk with her again," he threatened. "Let alone dance with her." He could practically hear Sun roll his eyes.

I know that, idiot, Sun said. Although the 'idiot' part of it was a lot quieter than the other three words, making Moon snicker. He glanced over to the tent where Y/N currently slept, allowing his mind to drift back to their dance at the ball. That stupid feeling he had - it was taking over all of his waking thoughts. He knew Sun could feel it, too. It was overwhelming every time he replayed that dance in his head. The sarcastic comments, the little flares of personality in the moves - but especially the way she had looked up at him.

He wished she would look up at him like that again.

If he could frame the memory in his mind, he would. Her laugh reverberating in his ears after his dumb little joke made his heart flutter. Her smile forcing his stomach to do somersaults in his abdomen. The pure innocence and trust in her eyes as her chest rose and fell quickly from the intensity of their dance-

Moon slapped his hand to his face, overwhelmed once again with how much his body physically reacted to the memory. There was nothing he wanted more than to interrupt her sleeping just so he could talk to her again. But he knew it wasn't an option.

He was a freak.

Both him and Sun were.

So he turned over to his side, facing away from her tent - fiddling with a blade of grass between his fingers. He laid that way for a long while, until he heard faint mumbling coming from the princess.

He turned back over, staring at the tent as if he didn't believe that he had actually heard anything. But then she groaned in her sleep, and Moon couldn't help how quickly he was on his feet and approaching her tent with concern written across his face.

Wait, she's probably just dreaming! Sun yelled, making Moon freeze in his tracks. He stared at the tent, waiting to see if she would make any distressed sounds. No other noise came from the tent, so Moon made to turn back around when suddenly she was whining and mumbling more coherent words.

"No, no, please," the princess's voice grumbled. "I-I'm sorry... No, I didn't mean it..."

Moon stayed rooted to the spot, unsure of whether or not it was smart to enter her tent. Sun was no help either, staying silent for once in their shared mind.

"Don't hurt me!" the princess suddenly yelled, and within an instant, Moon was inside of the tent, sitting next to Y/N's shaking body. She wasn't awake, thankfully, but she was clearly having a nightmare.

Moon reached his hand forward, pausing just before he touched the princess's shoulder.

Console her, Moon, Sun said gently. She needs it.

And with that, Moon brought his hand down to her shoulder and caressed her gently. Nothing seemed to change at first - the princess still writhed and whined in her sleep. So he scooted closer to her and brushed a few strands of her hair out of her face, shushing her and whispering gently.

"It's okay, Starlight. I'm right here." He placed his free hand over hers and she gripped his fingers in her sleep. "Nothing is hurting you. It's just a dream." Y/N's whining slowed, and after a moment longer, she finally stopped tossing and turning. Moon couldn't help but wonder what she could've possibly been dreaming about. Without thinking much about it, he pulled her arm forwards slightly, staring at each of the cuts on her arms. Just as Sun had been doing earlier, he ghosted his fingers across the red lines. His body seethed with rage as he began counting them. Sun tried to warn him about something, but Moon ignored him. Seventeen marks donned just this one arm alone. Seventeen.

If Sun hadn't been so adamant on not letting Y/N discover their secret, he would have marched into the castle the moment they had arrived. But instead of approaching the castle when they were close enough, they waited out the last few hours of darkness until the morning. But Sun had fallen asleep. So they arrived so much later than they had planned on.

Maybe if he had just discarded the idea of keeping their secret, there wouldn't be so many of the cuts. Maybe she wouldn't be in as much pain as she was in. Maybe she would have the same light in her eyes that she had that night they danced. Maybe-

"You..." the princess croaked, pulling her hand from Moon's. She barely had her eyes open, but Moon was absolutely positive she was looking right at him. "What are you doing here?" she mumbled. Her hand reached up to her eye, rubbing it gently as if trying to determine if he was actually there or if it was a trick of her mind. Acting quickly, Moon shifted in his seat so he was directly behind her head, maneuvering her so that she was snuggled up to his torso.

"You're still dreaming, Starlight," he cooed, speaking in a soft enough voice that she yawned in response. His voice definitely did not reflect the inner panic he felt, especially with Sun practically screaming inside his head. "Just close your eyes and fall back asleep," he continued.

"Sleep, yeah.." Y/N mumbled, turning onto her side and snuggling closer to Moon. He didn't dare move, or even so much as flex a muscle. He just continued to gently run his fingers through her hair until her breath evened out again. Even then, he waited another few minutes before ever so slowly shifting her off of him. She took to his movements quickly, turning over completely and freeing him out from under her sleeping body.

Moon then took the opportunity to crawl to the entrance of the tent, looking back at her and letting out a sigh of relief. He pulled back the curtains and froze as he heard her muffled voice one more time.

"Goodnight, Moon."

*****

A/N: RAHHH When I tell you that last bit gives me so many butterflies?? I mean even rereading it before posting made me smile like the biggest idiot ever!

I just adore Moon so much - especially how I write him in this story. He's so down bad for the princess but he knows that Sun's wishes of not being discovered are important so he pushes his own feelings down just for him ahhh I can't with how caring he is...

Anyways, tell me how you feel! We're finally at the bit where my chapters start getting a LOT longer! So if you've made it this far, congratulations!!! This is where the story starts getting REALLY REALLY GOOD.

As always, likes, comments, kudos, and reblogs are MUCH APPRECIATED!! Stay sweet, my lovelies~

Taglist: @jack-o-cel (comment or message to be added to the taglist~)

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