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wangxianficfinder · 10 months

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SOS help emergency im going on a 19-hr flight soon and im going to need some reading materials. so if y'all could drop your fave long fics so i could download them to read, that would be most awesome 🙏🙏🙏 thank you so much for everything you do your blog has introduced me to so many wonderful fics <3

You know what to do everyone! We need to help Anon not be bored on their very long flight ~ send in some long fics for them to read ^^

- Mod C

Jumping in to rec 💖 love, in fire and blood by cicer (E, 360k, wangxian, immortal WWX, slow burn, pining, arranged marriages)

~Mod L

Many trigger warnings! Take them seriously. But this is a good one: burning camellias by AvoOwO (M, 284k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Sunshot Campaign, Prisoner of War, WWX is a Mess, Genius WWX, Torture, Aftermath of Torture, Blood and Violence, Blood and Injury, BAMF WQ, BAMF WWX, BAMF WN, POV WWX, Hurt WWX, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Sentient Burial Mounds, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Attempted Sexual Assault, No Golden Core Transfer, WWX Has No Golden Core, Poisoning, Smart WWX, Protective WQ, WWX & WQ Friendship, Medical Torture, Cannibalism, WWX & WN Friendship, PTSD, Dubious Consent, Consent Issues, Heavy Angst)

on restitution by glitteringmoonlight (M, 98k, LSZ & WWX, WWX & JL, wangxian, dark JC, not JC friendly, captivity, non-graphic torture, angst w/ happy ending)

Ok ok. So it’s not a loooing fic. But it’s worth downloading for a plane trip: a thousand hills, no birds in flight | 千山鳥飛絕 by defractum (nyargles) (E, 26k, WangXian, Mythology, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon adjacent setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort)

Death of a Ghost by Gotcocomilk (E, 107k, WangXian, WWX & JL, Canon Divergence, Ghost WWX, Hurt/comfort, Family bonding, Fluff, Angst)

Amazing world building through the sun shot campaign - lots of sex heads up: Better Things to Do with a Flute in Wartime by Anonymous (E, 365k, MingXian, WangXianJue, Sunshot Campaign, Fix-It, Magical Healing Cock, Dual Cultivation, mild Dom/Sub, Undernegotiated Kink, Golden Core Reveal, Breathplay, Choking, Painplay, Subdrop, Topdrop, Major Character Injury, Canon Divergence, What-If, Temperature Play, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Fisting, Spanking, PTSD, Trauma, Self-Harm, (in the pursuit of cultivational badassery) )

Have a safe flight! Awaiting Your Return by Karmiya (E, 118k, WangXian, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, the opposite of slow burn, Found Family, Canon Divergence, Age Difference, discussions of wei wuxian’s canonical abusive childhood)

Over the Rotted Bridge by vailkagami (T, 314k, WangXian, Temporary Character Death, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, LWJ dies, Wei Wuxian doesn’t die, neither do (most of) the wens, JYL also lives, Original Character(s), outside pov, YLLZ WWX, Canon Divergence, CQL Verse, Illustrated, Grief/Mourning, Non-Consensual Resurrection, mute LWJ, Hurt LWJ, Slow Burn, canonical death of a child (mentioned), Survivor Guilt, PTSD)

❤️ The Third Young Master of the Qishan Wen by KouriArashi

T, 139k, wangxian, canon divergence, romance, angst w happy ending, Wen WWX, hurt/comfort, politics, families of choice, revenge, sibling bonding, pining, everyone lives au, Mojo's post)

Ten miles of Lotus Flowers by Yukirin_Snow (M, 273k, wangxian, JC/LXC, ABO, Romance, Slow Burn, Pain, Hurt/Comfort, True Love, Pregnancy, Humor, No one dies that doesn’t deserve to die, Fluff and Smut, Eventual Smut, Angst, Fluff, Eventual Happy Ending)

to pierce your heart; to fill it full by stiricide (E, 210k, wangxian, NHS/Other(s), WQ/Other(s), royalty au, magic, bottom LWJ, angst w happy ending, smut, dark gusu lan sect, implied future LWJ/concubine because heirs, blood & gore, sharing a bed, under-negotiated kink, light bondage, minor character death, slow burn, power imbalance, sexual role play, consensual non-con)

With No Particular Affection by Chrononautical (E, 92k, WangXian, Modern AU, Arranged Marriage, Kid Fic, Miscommunication, Family Drama, JFM and YZY’s A+ Parenting, Good Uncle JC, Wedding Fluff, Genius WWX, Street Kid WWX, Homelessness, Rich LWJ, Oblivious WWX, Cinnamon Roll WN, Implied/Referenced Suicide, WWX Has a Pregnancy Kink, Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Angst)

Mud on Your Feet by AvoOwO (Not rated, 59k, wangxian, JC & WWX, nightmares, sentient burial mounds, possession, panic attacks, night terrors, hurt/comfort, fluff, good sibling JC, hurt WWX, angst w happy ending, blood & injury, hallucinations, insomnia, good sibling WWX, sleepwalking, sleeptalking, protective JC, WWX sees dead people, LWJ pov, PTSD, implied/referenced self-harm, yunmeng siblings feels)

Wei Wuxian Makes a Wish series by natcat5 (M, 119k, wangxian, major character death, underage, madoka magica au, modern w/ magic, time travel, high school au, body horror, self-harm, angst w/ bittersweet ending, time loop, mental instability, suicidal thoughts)

The Scarlet Lotus by rainbowninja167 (M, 137k, WangXian, Marriage of Convenience, Secret Identity, Fix-It, Angst with a Happy Ending, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Canon-Typical Violence, canon-typical war crimes, Yunmeng Bros, the mortifying ordeal of getting seduced by your own husband, nonlinear chronology we die like cql, just kidding nobody dies in this fic, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Miscommunication)

Mad about the Boy by TriviasFolly (M, 62k, wangxian, 1950s America au, greaser WWX, historical smoking, historical viewpoints, angst, internal struggle, pre-relationship, homophobia, sexual awakening, sexual experimentation, self-discovery journey, slef-love journey, gay academia, teenage dramatics)

The Fifth Type of Non-Contact Force by Caixx (Not Rated, 83k, WangXian, Modern AU, High School, Slice of Life, Slow Burn, Fluff and Humor, Actually Somewhat Canon, Mutual Pining, Horny Teenagers, Angst with a Happy Ending, Non-Graphic Smut)

I know what my heart wants by yakuso5u (Not Rated, 28k, WangXian, Modern AU, Single Father LWJ, Fluff, Mutual Pining, Getting Together, Accidental Child Acquisition, Domestic, Slice of Life, Christmas references)

In Imitation of Life by travelingneuritis (E, 70k, wangxian, modern cultivation, scifi au, android WWX, tone: neon seedy, rich people are bored and terrible, post-apocalyptoc landscape, happy ending, smut, severe major characger injury, time loss)

A Narrow Bridge by FrameofMind, Jo Lasalle (Jo_Lasalle) (E, 700k, WangXian, Time Travel Fix-It, Canon Divergence, Slow Burn, Getting Together, First Time, Pining while fucking, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, Angst with a Happy Ending, CQL Verse, almost everybody lives/almost nobody dies, epistolary-ish, canon-ish side pairings, radishes) the ultimate fix-everything in my opinion

Twin Demons of Mòby XiaoFeiFei (M, 358k, MXY & WWX, WangXian, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Injury, Abuse, Twin Demons of Mo, MXY Lives, Major Character Injury, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Angst, Minor Character Death, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Minor Implied/Referenced Incest, Implied/Referenced Torture, Near Death, Near Death Experiences, Canon Divergence, Self-Harm, Found Family, Sexual Abuse, Rape/Non-con Elements, POV Alternating)

🧡 Stunted, Starving Juvenility by TomatenMark (E, 663k, WangXian, WIP, Fix-it of sorts, Talisman master WWX, Not JFM Friendly, Study Arc, Getting together, Fluff and Angst, Engagement)

💖 Magical Marriage Ribbons series by starandrea (M, 1M, wangxian, ongoing, animal transformations, weddings)

WWX relives the story - I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the trope - it’s early for me: we’re starting at the end by Miss_Enthusiasimal (M, 92k, WangXian, JC & WWX, Time Travel, Canon Divergence, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Golden Core Reveal, Burial Mounds, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Starvation, emaciation, Cannibalism, Self-Harm, Amputation, Suicidal Thoughts, Sunshot Campaign, let JZX and WWX be friends club)

Madam Yu comes to cloud recesses instead of JFM when WWX punches Zixuan: 🧡 To have and to hold by Moominmammashandbag (M, 78k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Major character injury, CQL verse, Happy Ending)

WQ time travels back to the core removal: 🧡 Never Again by Hauntcats (T, 67k, WangXian, WWX & WQ & WN, Canon Divergence, Time Travel, Golden Core Transfer Fix-It, Angst, Not JC Friendly, BAMF WWX)

Second Summer by Anonymous (M, 152k, wangxian, canon divergence, post-sunshot, mystery, amnesia, memory loss, curses, not everyone dies au, golden core reveal)

Linger by the Door (I’ve Always Been Yours) by piecrust (T, 78k, wangxian, canon compliant, slow burn)

actually super fuffy and funny despite tags: Like a Water-Worn Stone by meyari (T, 41k, wangxian, major character death, hurt/comfort, cchronic illness, serious injuries, self-medication, disability, PTSD, depression, self-worth issues, implied/referenced child abuse, aftermath of war, aftermath of violence, prisoner of war, idenity issues, warning: JGS, discussion of enslavement, discussion of abuse)

LWJ saves WWX from falling at nightless city: Unbreakable Heaven, Luminous Earth by carolyncaves (M, 96k, wangxian, graphic depictions of violence, canon divergence, secret identity, sharing a bed, literal sleeping together, pining, getting together, suicidal thoughts, bloog & injury, caretaking, sexual content, fluff, angst w happy ending, power imbalance, JYL lives, not everyone dies au)

🧡 Song of Suibian and Bichen: Or, the Greatest (And Only) Furby Master of Demonic Cultivation by moonwaif (T, 64k, WangXian, Fix-It of Sorts, canon adjacent, The spiritual weapons are furbies, Angst with a Happy Ending, The parent trap but make it WangXian with furbies, Mutual Pining, Taking my favorite parts of every adaptation and smashing them together)

🧡 All will be well when the day is done by abCEE (T, 76k, wangxian, time travel, canon divergence, fix it, not YZY friendly, not Jiang friendly, butterfly effect, no sunshot, madam lan lives, lan WWX)

🧡 like speaking to my heart by SnowshadowAO3 (T, 613k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Daemons, Slow Burn, Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Some people live!, additional warnings in specific chapters, if you don’t know what daemons are that’s ok because I explain it in the author’s note, also by slow burn I VERY much mean slow burn)

The Same Moon Shines series by sami (Various, 799k, check individual tags from the works!)

Crossover between MDZS and Scum Villain, where Jiang Cheng and Liu Qingge meet, pretend to date, get married, and eventually fall in love. You don't even need to know that much about SVSSS, is so beautiful written that you can just read it: What married people do by Shamelesscooper (E, 216k, JC/LQG, crossover, SVSSS, marriage of convenience, slow burn, pining, demisexual JC, sharing a bed, masturbation, jealousy, slow burn WWX & JC reconciliation, chapter-specific tags in the notes, bathing/washing, enthusiastic consent, relationship negotiaitions)

Nearly 400,000 words, WIP gorgeous AU transmigration: The Tamed by Escheria (T, 366k, wangxian, LWJ/XZ, WWX/WYB, RPF, YLLZ WWX, combination of MDZS & Untamed, OP WWX, XZ is WWX, transmigration, isekai, WIP)

Many happy returns. by orange_crushed (E, 25k, WangXian, Modern AU, Mistaken Identity, Misunderstandings, Grief/Mourning, Loss of Parent(s), Implied/Referenced Suicide, Past Suicide of a Parent, References to Depression, Anxiety, Therapy, References to Anti-Depressant Medications, Escort Service, Loneliness, Everybody’s Abandonment Issues, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic Fluff, Moving In Together, Oral Sex, Penetrative Sex, Hopeful Ending, Recovery, References to Escorting/Sex Work but No Actual Escorting/Sex Work)

live from new york by varnes (E, 87k, wangxian, JYL/JZX, This is a SNL AU, however the juniors are featured and there are lots of shenanigans!, slow burn, friends to lovers, pining, getting together, happy ending)

Cure by Yukirin_Snow (M, 100k, WangXian, XiCheng, XuanLi, Modern AU, Hurt/Comfort, Sick Character, Cancer, Medical Procedures, Medical Jargon, Romance, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Angst, Love at First Sight, possible trigger warnings) i’ll keep reccing this time and time again until more ppl see how good this fic is!!!!!

#mod c #answers #long fics #long post #wangxian #mdzs #wangxian fic recs #i'm in the mood for a fic #the untamed #wangxian fic search #wangxianficfinder

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secret-engima · 1 year

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*slaps table* hi. This is the post where I talk about, yet again, why Kishi is an idiot when it comes to the implications of his own worldbuilding. Point 1. being that Kishi’s insistence that peacetime is bad for shinobi business is hot garbage and point 2. being the implications of ANBU being Scary even to other shinobi. Because the show makes it clear that ANBU are supposed to be the Scary Ones, the Dark Ones who do messed up stuff. Many fics have already talked about this, but not *too* many I've seen actually explore the implications of what that actually MEANS when put in the context of a society who thinks it's A-okay to give a knives and bombs to literal kids and shoo them off to fight things. Buckle up I’m going to flex my logic center and start talking economics even tho I never studied economics outside casual worldbuilding interest.

Okay to start off with, I’m need to talk about Not Anbu for a hot minute and describe some of the few things we *do* know about Kishi’s “worldbuilding” of the shinobi villages and their history.

1. Literally everyone but Madara the Madman agrees that the villages are a Good Thing that happened, even the missing ninja never breathe a word about wanting to go back to the Warring States Era where everyone was in clans. The implications of this could honestly be it’s own entire rant but I will restrain myself and focus on the topic at hand for now.

2. Konoha and every village barring the trash fire that is pre-Boruto Kiri have a thriving enough economy to be literal *cities* of very decent size and decent quality of life, which the civilians have a major hand in I’m sure, but tellingly the shinobi *make enough income to get by* and seem to do so very easily. I will probably come back to this as I go on.

3. Ninja villages not only have a wide array of mission ranks (which I will also come back to) but they are the ones who set the prices for individual missions, not the employers. This is seen in the infamous Wave mission when the bridge builder fellow lied about the danger of the mission because he *could not afford to pay for a mission above a C-rank*, which I remind you is the second lowest mission ranking in the system.

Alright with those in mind I’m gonna talk about the “peacetime is bad for shinobi” garbage because that does actually relate directly to the worldbuilding implications of ANBU. Just. Just bear with me here and forgive me if this kinda rambles in multiple directions, talking about anything with Kishi makes my braincells run for the hills on a good day.

JUMPING IN WITH THE PEACETIME THING. This is stupid. This is one of the stupidest things to come out of Kishi’s mouth in my opinion barring the existence of the cannibal space aliens. Why? Because despite Kishi’s love of explosions and giant flashy fights shinobi are supposed. To be. STEALTHY. And the vast majority of them now live in villages, which means they need steady income.

Post the unification of the clans into villages, wars actually became too big and messy to be profitable because it’s during peacetime that people have money to spend on hiring ninja. And we see them spend it on incredibly frivolous things when it comes to shinobi. Just look at all the D-ranks we see or are referenced in the shows. Babysitting, pet retrieval, fence painting, carrying shopping bags for civilian ladies, house cleaning, the list goes on. And these pay well enough, are priced high enough by the village, that Might Dai, a single parent, was able to feed, shelter, and clothe both himself and an extremely energetic child while also having time to train himself and his son and walk Gai to and from school. And the price tag for missions only goes up from there. Higher ranked missions pay more according to risk, but peacetime is when people will be able to afford those kinds of missions. *Wartime*, as war is defined in the show post-village creation, are giant, messy affairs where a lot of manpower goes to maintaining front lines and countering enemy action, leaving far *less* manpower and time to take on these kinds of missions, and with the mass destruction of land and resources that these wars cause, people will have less money to throw at having the magic ninja men do things like escort caravans, deal with petty crime, retrieve stolen items, etc. And those examples are just C-rank/B-rank examples. Most wartime missions that we see in the show are actually missions assigned by the village itself, not from an outside client, which means the pay is coming from the Village coffers and not an external source, which can get messy very quickly if they do not have the manpower to take enough missions from outside clients to refill those coffers. Remember that I’m coming back to it later.

Wartime, for village ninja, is loud and messy and ugly. *Peacetime* on the other hand, is the playground of the rich, the powerful, and the *subtle*. Peacetime is when nobles pay top dollar to *flaunt* that they can afford to hire a ninja or three to escort them around in broad daylight regardless of any enemies they’ve made. Peacetime is when nobles have the money to pay for ninja to go in and spy on rivals or steal secrets. Peacetime is when the Daimyo and other elites hire shinobi to escort luxury goods at high risk of theft, to deal with underground human or drug trafficking that is inconveniencing them, or to spy on their neighboring lands for information that will become useful next time they meet up to flex on each other in a “you don’t want to make trouble with me I have and know X”.

More importantly, peacetime is when the *lower* classes can afford to pay for the magic ninja as well. If D-ranks are enough to support a single parent and his child, then C and B ranks are actually going to be the *backbone* of a ninja village’s economy, not the A or S ranks. C and B ranks are going to be the highest pay for the lowest risk, and those will predominantly come from the merchant and working class who have enough spare cash to have someone deal with the wild animals harming their livestock, take out budding trafficking rings and bandit gangs or escort people and goods.

I don’t think I’m emphasizing this one enough. Look at a map of the Elemental Nations, look at the size of those countries. Now we don’t get a lot of info on cities in those countries (because KISHI) but there are bound to be plenty of villages, towns, and cities dotting those countries, and all of them are going to be connected in some way to each other via trade routes and highways. You’re going to have Konoha’s own supply lines and the trade deals they have with their own merchant families bargaining for preferential treatment in exchange for setting up shop in a ninja village on top of all the other merchants from all over the Land of Fire who, during peacetime, have both money and incentive to hire the fire-chucking magic people to ensure *all* of their goods arrive *on time, every time*.

You’re going to have merchants who have supply lines through multiple countries. Glass products from the Land of Wind. Inks, fine paper, and flavored teas from Land of Fire. Fish, oyster, and pearl products from the coast (which is especially high risk in areas near the disaster fire that is Kiri). Each and every country is going to have luxury products or famous higher-quality raw materials (*points at Iwa and their rock obsession, points at every product made out of high quality stone, silver, gold, or iron ore*) that the other countries are all going to want, and consequently you will have merchants that are going to be willing to pay top dollar to ensure those products get where they are meant to go and do so undamaged and in a timely fashion despite bad roads/bad weather/bandits/rogue shinobi hired by a competitor/wild animals/freak acts of the local kami because you forgot to pay tribute to their shrine last week.

The technology of pre-Boruto era is also still stuck in the *horse and wagon* stage, meaning you have caravans of this stuff moving on very strict, long term schedules, which means these are jobs that the village can charge per day or week on the road on top of the base price estimated from the level of risk to the shinobi. You have merchants who are going to give preferential treatment to the village of their home nation if they can, both because you Don’t Insult The Local Fire Breathers/Rock Gougers/Storm Summoners/Etc but also because the villages themselves likely offer discounts for natives of their country, or even contracts that are essentially subscription deals for those who have multiple caravans going out at the same time, multiple times in a year. A “pay this much up front and we will ensure that several shinobi are always on standby to guard one of your caravans” kinda deal. It’s been implied multiple times in the shows that the majority of any shinobi village’s workforce are chuunin and that jounin’s are elite, and C/B-ranks are literally stated in the wiki to be usually given to teams of Chuunin or sometimes two genin teams and their jounin pairing up for a joint operation. Chuunin are going to make their careers on guarding caravans, dealing with bandits, clearing road hazards, etc. If Chuunin are the majority of your workforce, then missions that chuunin can take are going to be, by necessity, the largest cashflow coming into your village.

If a war between two or more countries is happening, all of that gets heavily restricted because of the risk of infiltration, heavily impeded from road destruction and wartime front lines, or straight up *shut down* from lack of money and manpower to take those missions.

Can you see what I’m getting at now when I say Kishi’s peacetime line is stupid.

And here comes another fun aspect of this. Because where the money flows, so does the cultural norms. Now a lot of fics I’ve seen emphasize the child soldier thing and also how D-ranks are very likely a way to acclimate the genin to mission work while also training civilians to see ninja as Friendly Safe Workers who happen to have magic powers and knives. But the thing is, all of that work on acclimating the civilians to view their local shinobi as Safe To Hire is going to go out the window if you remind them too often that these people are literal killers for hire. Merchants are not going to want to hire Infamous Killers because that says to their customers and their potential business partners that they themselves are shady and possibly approve of murder to get their way. Poking at D-ranks briefly, farmers aren’t going to want to hire potentially unhinged murderers to till their fields, and nobody is going to want to hire even the genin to *babysit their kids*.

So.

In order to attract reliable patronage from these low risk, well paying areas, the ninja villages had to *alter their public perception*. Assassination missions, kidnapping missions, extortion missions, all of those over time became short-term gain/long-term loss for the village. So they took them on less and less, and those kinds of missions became increasingly *socially unacceptable* even to the shinobi, because if the village doesn’t approve of it, it’s not a good thing. What assassination/sabotage missions we do see or hear referenced in canon are always, iirc, targeting someone that can the ninja can safely point at and say “this is a bad guy”. High ranking rogue shinobi from other villages or crime lords or despotic warlords being I think the majority (if not the entirety) of the few examples canon gives us. Those are people that, when civilians hear about them being assassinated, the civilians are going to say “good riddance” rather than “oh no!”. And if those missions are the only ones that the common shinobi hear about themselves or take on, then that’s what they are going to associate with those types of missions. A high risk job that is nonetheless seen as Morally Right, even if their moral compass hinges mostly on who is the friend or enemy of their home village.

I could also get into how this has really interesting implications for what the Warring State Era shinobi economics were like and how Hashirama and Madara making Konoha was basically inventing the concept of unionizing but I’m not going to side track to that because finally, FINALLY, we get to the ANBU Are Scary Thing.

Because this. This whole thing about how peacetime is actually where ninja villages make their bread and butter and how the push-pull of being Socially Acceptable for Money turning into Actual Moral Perception is where ANBU’s identity as the Scary Guys comes into play.

Now we don’t know when ANBU was actually founded in Konoha or any other village, but I’m going to ballpark and say it was *after* the First War because of a few key things we know about ANBU.

1. ANBU are Scary.

2. ANBU are known to specifically hunt other ninja (specifically Kiri has a Hunter-nin branch of ANBU but logically every village would have this).

3. ANBU work is extremely psychologically and physically grueling to their members and has a high fatality rate.

4. Whatever ANBU does is considered messed up even by ninja standards. An example that comes to mind is a filler flashback where Gai ends up running into Kakashi on an ANBU mission where Kakashi is basically putting down enemy ninja that are defeated and attempting to surrender and Gai is visibly distressed by this.

The First Shinobi World War likely rocked the Elemental Nations as badly or *worse* than WWI did for the real world, because this was the first time “war” was not defined as two or three noble lords throwing peasants with spears or the occasional ninja at each other or two or three shinobi clans having a protracted blood feud that they could only initiate when they weren’t busy trying to feed their own families. Assuming Konoha has the average number of shinobi clans that can be found in a shinobi village, that means we had somewhere upward of 55 clans from various countries throwing everything they had at each other on open battlefields, destroying large amounts of landscape, and causing shinobi and civilian casualties on a mass scale that even the most fire happy Uchiha could not have achieved on their worst day. This was also after Jinchuuriki became a thing, so this war was the first demonstration of what it’s like to essentially duct tape a nuke to an emotionally volatile child soldier and see what happens when you throw two or more of them into a battlefield.

The economy of the villages and their respective nations would have been in chaos after the war. Entire towns, roads, and bridges are straight up gone, chunks of landscape for miles around have been drastically rewritten, the death toll is high and the missing persons list is even higher and in the wake of this you’re going to have *every* would-be warlord and their grandfather getting uppity and trying to stake a claim on what they can of the wreckage. This includes Rogue Shinobi, likely the first real appearance of Rogue Shinobi in ninja history, at least on this scale. Lots of shinobi are going to be disillusioned from the war, exhausted, more than a few are mentally broken from the traumas, and all the ninja who have no moral compasses and dreams of power are looking at this and deciding “hey, now is a great time to become a warlord”. On top of all this, since most of the wartime missions were assigned by the villages themselves and not an outside client (with *very minimal* cash flow coming from the Daimyo himself since presumably the war was partially his idea, but even the royal coffers are not enough to run a military city the size of Konoha kthanks), the village coffers are likely hanging out somewhere between “Naruto’s childhood allowance” and “I can offer you lint”.

Obviously, these things need to be taken care of pronto, and with the villages scrambling to have the money to rebuild, the Kage in charge are going to be much more willing to take on dirty missions like assassinations, extortion, blackmail, *whatever* just to refill the village coffers. But. The ninja villages still need to keep their social acceptability in order to start getting their C and B ranks back, especially after the war opened everyone’s eyes to how destructive shinobi can really be in large numbers. They cannot afford to be seen killing left and right and the Rogue ninja are a huge stain on their village’s reputation, but openly advertising that “hey, if anyone leaves the village we’ll behead them” really isn’t going to do any favors for keeping the shinobi who are in the same mental space Tsunade was when she got fed up and left Konoha altogether.

And this, I think, is what gave rise to the existence of ANBU. The Kages picking their remaining highly skilled and most loyal followers, putting them in masks so that they cannot be easily identified by civilians, and sent out to quietly complete these high level, socially unacceptable missions. They were sent out to deal with Rogue shinobi and make them disappear without advertising to all the other traumatized village shinobi that their village is “serve or die” rather than the more patriotic “we fight for our home” that they were raised with. They were sent out to perform civilian assassinations, extortion, whatever they were offered in order to shore up the village’s shaky economy of the time and enable the Kage to pay their soldiers.

Then, after the economy stabilized, the ANBU just kinda … never left. Because by then the respective Kage had realized that being able to take on these kinds of missions with high pay and no loss of social acceptability was useful, and in the wake of the First War with everyone being simultaneously paranoid of their neighboring country but also on eggshells to not start another war, the anonymity of ANBU became a convenient way to keep an eye on each other and subtly attempt to sabotage the other when it looked like they were getting too powerful. The next two Great Shinobi Wars only solidified ANBU’s role in the hidden villages for those very same reasons, even though I would argue that they were ultimately a Bad Idea because they put too much power in the hands of the Kage without their village clans being able to hold them responsible, and that’s how we get stuff like Danzo™ and the crimes committed by Danzo™ and the Sandaime against the Uchiha. The existence of ANBU and the ability to “anonymously” jab at each other also just encouraged the animosity between the Great Shinobi Villages, and allowed warmongers (Danzo™) to ensure that an actual peace never fully settled in until the 4th Shinobi War happened.

And the peace post the 4th war, by the way, SHOULD have been a huge boom in the popularity and use of shinobi rather than the detriment that the Boruto manga/anime insists on for like- all the reasons stated in the economics part of this rant as well as the rise of CORPORATIONS that would happily pay a lot for shinobi in a host of different capacities and also people paying for shinobi to pretty please come help rebuild our destroyed homes and farmland with your fancy ninja powers.

It’s also canon that several shinobi retired and went into other professions in the wake of this peace and alliance, such as *acting*, which opens up an entire potential slew of missions geared specifically toward movie producers using their new technologies and their bigger budgets to hire shinobi as stuff like stunt doubles, live special effects artists (need to rehearse but the set isn’t done yet? No problem!! Just hire someone with *genjutsu* to make your actors the ultimate set/stage), *makeup artists* (hey those infiltration skills come in handy in a lot of ways), and more. And that’s just one “modern” profession off the top of my head that would adore having Magic Ninja People available for hire.

I’m sure I’m missing a ton of potential peace time jobs and economic implications because again, I only research this stuff in relation to worldbuilding fictional places. But there we go, I have just gone a 3k rant about ninja economics in order to explain why ANBU are Scary. I hope ya’ll enjoyed.

A side note I couldn’t find a good spot for in the actual rant but another factor in the shinobi villages having to change their behavior and seem Socially Acceptable is because of the rise of civilian-born shinobi in their genin/chuunin ranks. Because there’s no way a civilian family is going to *want* their child to become a murderous psychopath. A competent, magic wielding defender of your merchant uncle’s caravans on the other hand…

Other rants I need to do at some point when my braincells aren’t mush are:

1. My personal HCs on Konoha’s orphanage/foster system (aka Hi, Let Me Give You More Reasons To Hate Sarutobi Hiruzen)

2. Ninja Economics Two: Warring States Boogaloo (Edit: now available here!)

3. Why Cannibal Space Ninjas Are The Stupidest Idea of Multiple Stupid Options

4. Boruto Ninja Cults: What Kishi Could’ve Done Instead of the Garbage We Got

5. Genin Corps (Aka Reasons Kishi Could’ve Given for Why No One Thought Kabuto Was Suspicious But Didn’t. Aka Ninja Economics 3 Babyyyyyy)

#Secret Engima Rambles #SE rants #naruto worldbuilding #ninja economics #boruto #taking red string and thumbnails of logic to Kishi's hot nonsense

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rowaelinscourt · 9 months

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Rowaelin Month: PROMPT LIST

HERE IT IS! The Rowaelin Month 2023 Prompt List! We are ecstatic to be back for a the full month of September once again!

We hope you all love these prompts as much a we do and we are so excited to see what everyone will create in honor of our beloved Fireheart and Buzzard!

We've included a handy calendar image for you all, but if for any reason the image isn't working or is hard to read, the full list will be written out below the cut.

START DATE: September 1st

Green filled boxes denote CANON SPECIFIC PROMPTS

1. Participation every day is not required. You can create a many or as few submissions for the listed prompts as you like!

2. Please remember to tag your creations with #rowaelinmonth so people following the tag can find them! And don't forget to mention @rowaelinscourt in your post do we can reblog it!

3. Please remember that all works MUST have appropriate tags and content warnings. NSFW content is required to be tagged clearly and hidden below a 'Read More cut. We want everyone to have a fun and safe time engaging with content!

4. All genres of work are welcome, but please note any major warnings at the top of the work so readers or viewers have some idea what to expect.

5. Canon Week is back (with 2 whole extra days!) to fill that canon shaped hole in our hearts! While we kindly request that Canon Week prompts remain specifically for canon scenarios, remember that any and all prompts are welcome to be interpreted as canon/a canon-inspired setting as well! With creativity and imagination, the possibilities are limitless!

6. Any kind of fanwork can be submitted for this event so long as it can be applied to the prompt! Fanfiction, fanart, headcanons, playlists or any thing else you can think of! There are no requirements and you can submit multiple works for the same prompt of your so wish.

Rowaelin Month Prompt List

September 1: Song Fic

September 2: Accidents Happen

September 3: Rowaelin as teens

September 4: "Friends don't do this"

September 5: A Bad Date

September 6: Forced Proximity

September 7: Vacation or Outdoor Adventure (ie a road trip, beach day, hiking ect)

September 8: Single Parents

September 9: Renaissance Fair

September 10: Co-host/Guest Star with Chemistry

September 11: Getting Arrested/ A Trip to the Police Station

September 12: Meet Cute / Meet Ugly

September 13: Babies / Kids / Next Gen

September 14: An Argument/ Making up After an Argument

September 15: Meeting the Parents

September 16: Mob AU

September 17: Mating Ceremony

September 18: Aelin with hawk Rowan

September 19: Telling Their Children about Their Tattoos

September 20: Drunken Antics

September 21: Scars

September 22: Magic/Shifting Lessons with the Children

September 23: Domestic Fluff

September 24: How Rowan Knew "Fireheart"

September 25: Arranged Marriage

September 26: Taking care of the littles solo

September 27: Person A is touch starved but didn't know how to reach out to Person B

September 28: Wartime Sweethearts

September 29: Firsts (date/kiss/time/child/ect)

September 30: A Missing or Alternate Scene from Canon

#rowaelin #rowaelinmonth #rowaelinmonth2023 #aelin ashryver galathynius #rowan whitethorn #tog

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aphelea · 4 months

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like an old enemy (keefitz)

Ao3 Link

hi @when-wax-wings-melt i was your secret santa!! apologies for the late gift, it got slightly longer than expected, but i hope you enjoy this keefitz royal AU :)

(also thank you @song-tam for hosting this!)

quick note: the fic is non-linear and the scenes alternate between the adult and child/teenage versions of fitz and keefe, with excerpts of letters in between.

Summary: There’s a long pause before Keefe finally replies. “I swear to the moon and the stars, Fitz. I would never, ever kill the only person who ever loved me like a son.”

And how could Fitz’s will ever hold against that?

(Or, the story of two princes, through childhood wonder and wartime unrest.)

Warnings: vague mention of vomiting and canon-typical violence

The guards find Fitz in the garden at sunrise, pen in hand as he attempts to write a letter to be sent with tonight’s delivery to Candleshade. He is surrounded by drafts deemed unworthy of his intended recipient’s eyes—though, these days, Fitz thinks that nothing he could write would ever be truly worthy enough for him. No words could ever fully communicate what he needs to say—and yet he tries anyway.

“You’re here early,” Fitz says, upon hearing approaching footsteps. He pats his pockets frantically and sighs. “I’m afraid I don’t have any payment for the delivery right now. Or a delivery at all, actually.” He turns, expecting to see the palace’s messenger—but he is instead met with the carefully blank faces of five goblin guards, each quickly moving to surround him. Grizel, his personal bodyguard, stands in the middle, but she refuses to meet his gaze—Fitz’s first clue that something is terribly wrong.

“Your Highness,” one goblin begins, after a long moment of tense silence. “I—”

She’s cut off by a scream, loud and harrowed, from inside the palace. Immediately, Fitz scrambles up and reaches for his own sword, but is stopped by Grizel’s outstretched arm. He casts her a quizzical look, but she only shakes her head and looks toward the doors.

“Who did this?” comes the next cry, now in his mother’s voice. Fitz’s heart stops for a moment. He’s never known such anguish from her.

“Grizel?” he asks, and his voice wavers dangerously. “Who…”

Fitz can’t bring himself to say the words. Of course, it isn’t the first time that rebels have come after one of their own—he still vividly remembers the night of Jolie’s death, and how the fires had been so deceptively warm for a moment—but today, of all days? If he knew better, he’d take it as a sign from the universe.

But even the universe could not have prepared him for the words Grizel utters.

“King Alden,” she says quietly, and the world stops for a moment.

Even the birds are silent, as if mourning alongside him.

Fitz’s throat thickens. He’d seen his father just hours ago, in this very garden. They’d spoken about the state of the world, and as always, he’d told Fitz that there was no reason to worry about the rebels, and Fitz had scoffed and told him to stop treating him like a child. Was that truly the last thing he’d said to him? The last thing he would ever say to him?

His turmoil must be evident on his face, as Grizel reaches out and places a comforting hand on his shoulder. But he can only stare at the ground, unblinking.

“I thought the palace was secure,” he says, after a long moment—ever since rebels burned the old Havenfield Palace, the Alliance kingdoms have been incredibly careful with who enters and exits the palace grounds. Everglen is perhaps the most secure kingdom of the five—or, rather, it used to be.

From the grim expressions on the guards’ faces, that might no longer be the case.

“It appears to have been the work of a clever assassin,” Grizel says, and Fitz is surprised to see true fear in her eyes. In all his years of knowing her, nothing has ever shaken her composure, and certainly not enough to be plainly visible on her face. “They somehow exploited a secret entry into the palace just outside the gardens.”

A secret entry.

Fitz tries his best not to react, but he knows the recognition is all-too-obvious on his face. The only other person who knew about the path was…no, that’s impossible. He wouldn’t do this.

And Fitz wants, so desperately, to believe it. He wants to say that he trusts him more than anything—but when it comes down to it, in the final choice between right and wrong? Fitz isn’t sure where he would go.

Keefe has no reason to kill a king, he tells himself.

But the people he keeps company with certainly do, his mind rather unhelpfully supplies.

Fitz shakes his head, as if that will erase the presence of his thoughts. Why does he torment himself with speculation like this? He looks to Grizel, trying to appear as unshaken as possible, the furthest from his true turmoil. “Who did it?” he asks; the only way he has ever taken after his mother.

Grizel is silent and unreadable. But she has experience in stealth that the other guards do not, so the glances between them are all-too-obvious to Fitz now. “Who did it?” he repeats, raising his voice. “Who? Answer me!”

“Fitz,” Grizel warns, in that familiar way that tells him he won’t like the answer.

“Was it Alvar?” he asks, well aware that his voice is slipping into an unrestrained shout, but he can’t bring himself to care. “Quinlin? Biana?” She frowns, but remains silent. “Somebody just tell me!” He doesn’t realize he’s drawn his knife until it’s pointing at Grizel, tickling her throat.

Gently, she removes it, watching him with all the sorrow he’s not sure he deserves. “We recovered one of the many arrows found at the scene. It carried a…familiar flag.”

“Of the rebels?” Fitz asks. He knows the sign of the swan by heart; he has known it since it graced the cloaks of Jolie’s murderers, all those years ago. And it would make sense—too much sense, perhaps.

“No,” she replies, her voice so soft it’s barely a whisper. “Though that would be more predictable.”

“Then who?” Fitz asks, racking his brain for another group that would both want his father dead and shatter him badly. He doesn’t exactly keep close connections with many people, personally. With war looming over them, it’s easier to trust nobody but the people he loves.

Grizel lets out a shaky breath. “It carried the flag of Candleshade.”

Oh.

Oh, God.

Fitz leans over and throws up in the roses.

Dear Prince Keefe,

Hi! It’s me. Fitz. Obviously you know that, because what other royal from Everglen would be writing to you (unless you’re secretly pen pals with Biana, which would be weird since she doesn’t even know how to send a letter yet. Also, her handwriting is atroshous atrocuos atrocious.) I figured since it takes forever to get from Candleshade to here, it might be easier for us to send letters while we can’t see each other. Although, my father says that your father is coming over next month for a trade meeting, so maybe you can come then?

(Please come. Biana and I are really bored without anyone else our age around.)

Anyway, I used that goop you gave me earlier to prank my bodyguard. It worked! She was stuck to the wall and I swear it was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life. Biana and I were laughing so hard that the other guards ran in because they thought we were choking! Then we had to get her out, sadly, and Grizel was pretty mad, even though some of the other guards were definitely laughing too. But at least I didn’t have to do my sword fighting training. So thank you! I’m sending some ripplefluffs along with this letter as a thank-you gift.

(I didn’t make them, though. I’m still banned from the kitchens after that prank we pulled last time.)

Oh, and on that note, I also found…

The first time Fitz speaks to Keefe, it’s by Jolie’s insistence. They’re eight years old, sitting in the gardens of Everglen and pointedly avoiding each other’s gazes—it’s the first time that the prince of Candleshade has ever visited, and he seems to be much more interested in his sketchbook than speaking to any of the other children. Though Fitz isn’t exactly interested in being social, either; he’s still sulking from being banned from the meeting room, despite the fact that he’s certainly old enough to be discussing grown-up matters. And if Alvar is going to be there, then why isn’t Fitz allowed? It’s all stupid. And unfair. And stupidly unfair.

The Princess of Havenfield, to her credit, listens to all of Fitz’s concerns. She doesn’t let him leave, of course, but at least she doesn’t treat him like a baby like other adults. This appeases Fitz a bit—but that still doesn’t mean he wants to run around the gardens playing games with his little sister and her new best friend. He’s not six anymore.

“I know you’re not,” Jolie says, sighing. “But I’m sure they would still really appreciate it if you joined them. Hey, you two, what game are you playing?” She directs the last sentence to the two girls who are currently galloping around a tree and waving sticks around wildly.

Princess Stina stops and grins. “Super Cowboys!” she shouts gleefully, then returns to hitting the air violently. Woltzer, Biana’s bodyguard, watches the whole situation with clear discomfort—it’s only a matter of time before he’s forced into playing one of their characters. Likely as whatever thing they’re killing.

Jolie raises an eyebrow. “And what are you cowboys fighting?”

“Rebels,” Biana answers, glaring at whatever imaginary person she must see in front of her. “We’re fighting rebels!”

Jolie pales, ever so slightly, but she still manages a smile. “See?” she tells Fitz. “You can play a…rebel-fighting cowboy.”

“I don’t want to be a cowboy. I hate cowboys.” Truthfully, Fitz doesn’t know much about them, but he definitely doesn’t want to be running around with a bunch of babies. He’s almost nine. If he’s going to be a good prince for his kingdom, he has to give up on childish pretend games now.

“Why?” Jolie asks. “Cowboys can be fun.”

“Yeah, but you only think that because you live in the land of cowboys. That’s different.” Fitz has never been to her kingdom, but he remembers learning about Havenfield during his diplomacy lessons—while it’s certainly not lawless, the towns on its outskirts are nowhere a prince should be sent to. Plus, it’s the closest Alliance kingdom to rebel country, so danger is always lurking around the corner outside the capital.

Grizel snorts behind him, and Jolie sighs. “Look,” she tells him, standing up, “it’s fine if you don’t want to play with them. But your father told me to watch over you here, so don’t plan on going anywhere else. At least, nowhere where I can’t see you.”

Fitz only wrinkles his nose and turns away. Why can’t his father just trust him? Alvar’s been attending Alliance meetings since he was nine. And Fitz has excelled in all his lessons; he’s done even better than his brother in most of them. And he’s not ignorant, either—he knows why today’s meeting was called. He’s heard the whispers of the growing rebel conflicts in all the kingdoms; he’s heard the rumours being spread about the real reason the Crown Princess of Havenfield was sidelined to babysitting instead of speaking for her kingdom. Rebel sympathies, they say. Will Princess Jolie’s first act as queen be removing her kingdom from the Council Alliance? Who was the mysterious commoner seen at her Winnowing Gala? Is she truly planning on betraying her country?

“Maybe you can talk to Keefe, then,” Jolie says, after a moment. “I’m sure he’d like some company.”

“Who?” Fitz asks, and then notices the boy sitting on a bench near them, drawing quietly in a sketchbook.

The boy—Keefe, apparently—looks up upon hearing his name. “I’m fine, actually,” he says, then returns to his drawing without giving Fitz so much as a glance.

Fitz scoffs. “Yeah, me too,” he says, moving to sit on the furthest possible bench that’s still in Jolie’s sight. Which, unfortunately, isn’t far. He should really ask his father to build more benches in these gardens.

For at least ten minutes, they sit in tense silence—Keefe, with his nose buried in his sketchbook, and Fitz, sulking and glaring at the dirt beneath him. Jolie and Grizel are having a conversation about the hardships of babysitting, or something. Fitz tunes them out.

Then, he feels a tap on his shoulder, and he turns to find Jolie looking at him with raised eyebrows. “What did the ground ever do to you?” she asks, gesturing to where he’s kicked up enough dirt to create a small hole in Everglen’s perfectly pristine path. Oops.

“Nothing. I’m fine,” Fitz replies. It’s a lie.

She sighs. “Why don’t you two just talk to each other? I’m sure he didn’t mean to offend you earlier. Besides, you two must be about the same age.”

Fitz huffs, but he knows she’s not wrong. He can’t sulk like this forever, after all. And the artist in front of him does look to be closer to his age—which is refreshing, since Fitz is used to spending all his time with either his six-year-old sister or his nineteen-year-old brother. Life in the palace isn’t exactly conducive to healthy social development, anyway.

So he sighs, gets up, and sits down next to Keefe. “Hi,” he says, in a perfectly normal and very chill way.

“Hi,” Keefe replies, still focused on his drawing.

“Uh,” Fitz starts, but he doesn’t quite know what to say. It’s then that Keefe finally looks up and meets his gaze, and it’s then that Fitz suddenly realizes who the boy in front of him is: Keefe Sencen, Prince of Candleshade. Of course, how could he not have realized? He’s seen the king and queen of Candleshade dozens of times, as Everglen’s closest ally. Fitz had been vaguely aware that they had a son, though he’d never stopped to think about him much.

“Want a cookie?” Keefe says, after a long moment of awkward silence.

Fitz stares at him. “What?”

“Here.” Keefe shoves a cookie in his face, and Fitz accepts—at first, for politeness, but then he takes a bite and he’s not sure he’s ever tasted a cookie this good. “I made them yesterday.”

“You…made these?” Fitz replies, frowning slightly. He’s never even been in the Everglen kitchens. And he doubts he could make a cookie that’s even edible, much less tasty.

Keefe shrugs. “Yeah. I like baking. It takes my mind off things.”

“Wow,” Fitz says with wide eyes. “I wish I had time to learn that. I feel like I spend all my time in lessons or training or something.”

Keefe snorts. “Oh, I’m supposed to be doing that. I just skip.”

Fitz’s jaw drops. “You…skip? Your lessons?”

“Yeah,” Keefe replies casually—clearly, he has no idea how much he’s just completely overhauled Fitz’s mind. “If I don’t want to be there, I just don’t go. Besides, I already know pretty much everything they try to teach me.” He pauses and wrinkles nose. “Except for the sword fighting stuff. That stuff sucks.”

“Woah,” Fitz breathes. “That’s pretty cool.”

The longer they talk, the more Fitz starts to forget about the meeting he’d so desperately wanted to attend. Something about this boy—a boy like no other he’s met before—is entrancing, the only puzzle Fitz has ever encountered that he hasn’t been able to decipher immediately.

He resolves, that night, that one day he will figure out the mystery of Prince Keefe Sencen.

No matter how long it takes.

Dear Keefe,

I think something serious is happening. You know how your father arrived in Everglen over the weekend? I’ll admit, I was kind of disappointed that you weren’t with him, but I think I understand why now. He, King Grady, and my father have been locked in the King’s office for nearly three days now—and every time I see them, they have these terrible, grim expressions on their faces. I’ve been asking everyone for information, but nobody will tell me anything! Not even Alvar. He keeps telling me that everything is fine. What a liar.

I know that it’s something to do with the rebels, though. I can see it in their eyes.

Anyway. I just want to make sure you’re okay, since I heard that there were a lot of rebel attacks in Candleshade recently, and you haven’t responded to my last letter yet…no pressure to respond quickly, of course. I just like knowing that you’re not dead.

I miss you I hope you’re okay, Keefe…

“You have a lot of nerve asking me to come here,” Fitz says. He doesn’t turn around; he won’t give Keefe the satisfaction of looking into his eyes, no matter how much he desperately wants to.

Keefe’s breath is warm on his neck—it’s December, and Fitz is so, so cold without someone to hold—and he sighs. “And yet, you still came.”

“I need to know why,” Fitz says. He keeps his gaze trained on the horizon, even as Keefe moves to stand in front of him, begging for his attention. What attention does he deserve? The attention of a prison guard, perhaps. Not a prince.

Keefe shakes his head in Fitz’s peripheral vision. “I didn’t know,” he says, and Fitz can only scoff.

“Didn’t know what?” he says incredulously. “That I would find out? Your kingdom’s flag was on the arrow that killed him! They found footprints on the path behind the roses—the path that only you and I know about. I’m not stupid, Keefe. I know what that means.” Fitz is well aware that he’s shouting, now, but they’re deep enough into the woods that he doesn’t quite care anymore. He directs his fury at the air beside Keefe’s perfectly-maintained curls—of course he has the nerve to look pretty even among all this pain. Fitz wouldn’t expect any less.

But Keefe only stares at him, with something akin to grief in his eyes. “Fitz, please,” he begs, stepping forward. “Look at me.” And if they were just a few years younger, Fitz wouldn’t have hesitated to do so; after all, most of their childhood had been spent following each other blindly. Now, though, they are both hardened by the war at their borders; now, Fitz shouldn’t trust Keefe as he once did, even if his faith in him has become muscle memory.

“Just tell me it wasn’t you,” is all Fitz can manage to say without succumbing.

There’s a long pause before Keefe finally replies. “I swear to the moon and the stars, Fitz. I would never, ever kill the only person who ever loved me like a son.”

And how could Fitz’s will ever hold against that?

So he gives in, and finally meets the gaze of the only man who could ever ruin him; it’s stormy, terrifying, and all too familiar. Under the moonlight, it reminds Fitz of their younger days—before war caught up to them, when they would spend most of their nights together running off to where they weren’t meant to be and ignoring the shouts from their bodyguards in favour of each other. He’s forced to remember that the boy in front of him is the same boy who taught him how to prank his tutors, years and years ago; the same boy who taught him that love is as easily taken away as it is given.

“What happened to you?” Fitz asks, and even he’s not quite sure what he means by it.

Keefe chuckles dryly. “You’ll have to be more specific.”

It’s then that Fitz notices the bruises on his cheeks, nearly covered by the blood and mud smudged across his skin. “You’re hurt,” he realizes. He reaches out to examine further, but stops midway—he can’t hold Keefe like this anymore. They aren’t who they once were.

“Oh, that,” Keefe says, rubbing his face. “I lost a fight with some rebels.”

Fitz gapes at him. “What?”

Keefe looks away and moves his hair across his face, presumably trying to hide the extent of his injuries. “They attacked the palace three days ago. It shouldn’t have been as bad as it was—we have more than enough forces to counter them—but they were one step ahead of us. As they always are.”

A million situations run through Fitz’s mind, but he’s studied the rebel tactics long enough to understand what Keefe is saying. “They had people on the inside.”

Keefe nods. “They knew every weakness in our defense, and every single passage in or out of the palace. Even the ones I thought only I knew about. I was only able to run because Ro fought them off behind me.”

That means… “So the rebels killed my father, then.”

Keefe pauses. “I don’t know. I’ve been on the road for three days—I didn’t even know he was dead until I got into town. But I can’t imagine that my father would choose to make an enemy out of our only allies.”

Fitz sucks in a breath. “Which can only mean that Candleshade has fallen.” It seems almost impossible, but if what Keefe is telling him is true…then the rebels have grown much more powerful than he ever thought.

“This is the start of the real war,” Keefe says quietly. “They’ll stop at nothing to take down the Alliance. And with your father dead…Everglen is definitely going to be next. It’s an easy opening for them.”

“Then I suppose we’ll have to prepare for a fight,” Fitz says. “After that, hopefully, we can help you reclaim Candleshade.” And with it, perhaps, they can reclaim some of themselves too.

At this—strangely—Keefe’s face falls, and he winces. “About that…” he begins, and suddenly, he won’t meet Fitz’s eyes. “I’m leaving.”

Fitz stares at him. “What?”

“I can’t stay here,” Keefe says. “You said it yourself—people think I’m a killer. And even once I tell them I’m not, if they believe me…what can I do? The rebels need me dead to end the line; they’ll be searching for me everywhere. I’ll only bring death to your door even quicker.” He chuckles, though it’s as dry as the winter air surrounding them.

The idea is so absurd, Fitz can’t even believe it’s coming out of his mouth. “So, what, your best solution is to run away?” Fitz snaps. “You have a duty, Keefe! A duty to your kingdom, a duty to your legacy, a duty to—” He stops himself before he can say something ridiculous like a duty to me.

Keefe scoffs. “I have no obligation to a kingdom that despises every bone in my body.”

“You’re a prince.”

“I’m well aware,” Keefe snaps. “Not all of us are as obsessed with our legacies as you, Fitzroy.” The name is like a punch to the stomach; it’s a dirty trick, hitting where he knows it’ll hurt Fitz the most.

The reply tumbles out of his mouth before he can fully process what he’s saying. “Then maybe you should just leave!” Fitz says. “Clearly I can’t stop you.”

For a moment, the devastation is evident on Keefe’s face, But it’s gone in just a second, replaced by a fiery determination unlike any Fitz has seen before. “Fine. If that’s what you want.”

Is this what you want, Fitzroy?

“I’m not the one who called you here. I don’t care what you do,” he lies. “I haven’t cared in a long, long time.” Lies, lies, and more lies. Keefe can see through it, of course—he knows Fitz better than to believe anything he says out loud.

“Fine,” Keefe says. “Then I guess this is it.”

He turns, and Fitz can only watch, frozen, as Keefe mounts his horse. Say something, his mind begs him, Tell him you don’t mean it! But wouldn’t that be too easy?

He waits silently, until Keefe is entirely out of earshot, before he mutters one final wish to the wind—perhaps Keefe might think he’s forgotten about what today is, but of course, he hasn’t. He can’t. “Happy birthday, Keefe,” he says, hoping that the wind can carry his message home.

Then, he begins on the path back home, and resolves to forget that this—that Keefe—ever happened.

He fails, obviously.

Keefe,

Do you see her too? In your dreams, in your nightmares…Do you hear her screaming? Because I do, every single day and it doesn’t stop please Keefe you’re the only one who understands

Look, I know there’s snow piling outside my window, I know it should be icy and frigid and terrible without a fire on—but somehow I can’t stop feeling like every inch of me is warming up, exponentially and endlessly until I’m burnt to a crisp. Like a pig on a spit, forever roasting.

And logically, I know we’re not there anymore; I know I’m safe behind the walls of Everglen—well, as safe as anyone can be, in these times. But somehow, for some reason, I can’t stop feeling like I’m still stuck in Havenfield, doomed to watch her burn forever.

I guess what I’m asking is…does it haunt you too? Does she haunt you too?

You’re the only one who saw it like I did. Running to the woods for just a moment, and then we come back and the world’s on fire right in front of our faces…were we the last people she saw? The last people whom she trusted, I mean.

Or maybe I shouldn’t be asking these kinds of questions. It’ll only make it worse—at least, that’s what my mother says. But what does she know of real terror?

I think life was easier when I saw the rebels as this distant, intangible thing. I used to be obsessed with being allowed into Alliance meetings, and I never understood why they wouldn’t let me in when I knew so much about the war—but I understand now. I had the information, but I didn’t truly know them. I didn’t have the fear that’s required to really understand what they’re capable of. I didn’t have these dreams that remind me of how cruel the world can really be to people who don’t deserve it.

I do now, though.

I don’t know why I’m telling you this. Maybe because nobody else listens? My mother tries, but she just can’t understand what I’m feeling. And my brother keeps ignoring me, for some reason. I’m trying not to read too much into it.

I just wish you were here, Keefe. Being around you is kind of like a cure for everything, you know? Like I’m a walking wound and you cauterize me. Or maybe you burn me. I’m not quite sure yet.

The unfortunate consequence of sneaking out of the palace at night is that the much-harder process of sneaking in has to occur eventually.

The first time Fitz and Keefe find themselves in this predicament, they’re fifteen, and regretting many of the night’s decisions as they stare up at the heavily guarded palace in front of them. Sneaking out hadn’t been incredibly difficult, surprisingly. It’s Grizel’s day off, and her substitutes aren’t quite used to the antics of the young royals yet, so they’d employed Biana to distract the goblins—with a promise to do whatever she wants for the next three days—and had successfully lowered themselves out through a first-story window. Easy.

What’s less easy, however, is getting back in. They’ve searched for an easy entrance back into Fitz’s room for nearly an hour, now, to no avail—and Fitz is starting to shiver, in the cool autumn air.

“Do you want my cloak?” Keefe asks, and he doesn’t even wait for a response before slipping it off.

“Won’t you be cold?” Fitz replies, staring at his friend with wide eyes—Candleshade is considerably warmer than Everglen, so there’s no way Keefe is used to the cold here. Fitz isn’t even used to the harsh winters of his home, and he’s lived here his whole life.

Keefe shrugs. “I’m really not cold, and your nose is turning red, so.”

Fitz probably turns even more red at the comment. “I’m fine,” he swears, and Keefe raises his eyebrows. “...Maybe I’m a little cold,” he concedes.

With the admission, Keefe grins and reaches around Fitz’s shoulders to wrap his cloak around him. He’s forced to step closer to pin it shut, and Fitz finds his face burning once again at their proximity. Please don’t notice, he begs, but of course, the universe hates him.

“Are you okay?” Keefe asks, frowning. “You look a little weird.” He hasn’t moved, yet—he’s still just inches away from Fitz, so close that he can make out all the little scars on Keefe’s face.

“I’m fine,” Fitz replies, and he knows he’s staring. But how can he not, when Keefe is so close?

What he doesn’t expect is for Keefe to meet his gaze with equal intensity, a small smirk growing on his lips. “Are you?” he asks, with a teasing lilt to his voice.

And for a moment, Fitz is stunned speechless.

Then Keefe leans forward, kisses him lightly on the cheek, and steps back as if it’s just a casual motion—as if he hasn’t just stopped and started Fitz’s heart all in the span of two seconds. “Hey, what’s that?” he calls, already running toward a random patch of roses before Fitz can say a word.

Not that Fitz knows what he would say, if Keefe had waited. He can’t confess to feelings that he doesn’t understand.

So he runs after Keefe, as he always does, bracing himself for the pain of the thorns. Hopefully the healers don’t ask too many questions about his cuts and bruises from the night—though it’ll be obvious to them once they notice that he matches Keefe. (It’s nice, knowing that they’ve been marked together. Even when the wounds fade, his memories certainly won’t.)

“What are you doing?” Fitz whispers once he finds Keefe crawling beneath a particularly thick rosebush.

“There’s something beyond this,” Keefe says, pushing forward. “Something hidden in the roses. I think it’s a clearing of some sort.”

Fitz scoffs. “Why would there be a hidden clearing in the middle of our gardens? What could we possibly have to hide—”

“I found it!” Keefe suddenly exclaims. “Come on, come through!”

Well. That’s certainly strange. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he mutters to himself as he makes his way through the dirt, wincing each time a thorn catches on his clothes. Thankfully, he has Keefe’s cloak to protect his arms—though he can’t imagine how scratched up Keefe must be, with only a sleeveless tunic to protect him.

After a minute of fighting a maze of flowers, Fitz emerges in a dark clearing, with flowers above blocking the moonlight. The ground beneath him is dusty, and he realizes with a start that this isn’t just a clearing—it’s a path. “What the hell?” he mutters, and Keefe snorts.

“It’s a bit concerning that the Prince of Everglen isn’t aware of a secret passage into his palace,” Keefe says, and Fitz can tell he’s grinning even without seeing him.

“This goes all the way into the palace?” Fitz asks, glancing around at the little he can see.

“Yeah,” Keefe replies. “I followed it to the end. Turns out, Everglen isn’t quite as secure as it claims to be.”

And Fitz really shouldn’t be celebrating a secret breach in the castle’s defense. But clearly, no potential intruder is aware of it, since no-one seems to have discovered it…so there’s really no harm in using it himself, right? “You know what this means, Keefe?” he asks.

“What?”

A Keefe-like grin makes its way onto Fitz’s lips. “This means we can get in and out of the castle any time we want.” It’s both a terrifying and exhilarating thought—for the first time in his life, he’s free. At least, in some sense of the word.

Keefe laughs. “I guess you’re right,” he says, smiling softly. “Oh, and, by the way, I have a gift for you.”

At this, Fitz raises his eyebrows. “A gift?” he repeats. “Why? It’s not my birthday.”

Keefe shrugs. “I just thought you would like it.”

“Oh.” Oh. It’s a strange feeling, to be known like this, and Fitz loves every second of it. He watches Keefe bring something out of his pocket and hand it to him, gentle and delicate, and it takes him a moment to realize what it is—then he’s blushing wildly again. “Is this a rose?”

Keefe smiles. “Yeah. It’s classic, you know?”

Fitz does know. In fact, he knows quite well, since he’s read practically every novel in the library…but Keefe can’t possibly mean it like that.

In response to his shocked silence, Keefe steps forward and tucks a strand of Fitz’s hair behind his ear. His hand then falls to Fitz’s chin—still as gentle a touch as ever—and Fitz can barely breathe. Maybe he’s reading far too much into this, but… “Isn’t a kiss classic, too?”

Keefe grins. “I suppose it is.” And Fitz doesn’t know how long he’s been waiting to hear it, or how long he’s been waiting to step forward and hold Keefe’s face like this—like a lover, like a dearest friend. But he holds him, now, and it feels like releasing a breath of air he never knew he’d been holding.

Keefe’s lips are as soft as morning sunlight.

And Fitz’s world has never been so peaceful.

Dear Keefe,

I wish we could live forever. Just you and I, immortals for eternity—wouldn’t it be fun? We could look at the stars together, every night until the end of the world. We could speak as we wish and love as we’d like and nobody would have the guts to bother us…we’d be gods, really, in our own little world.

But since we aren’t immortals, I think I’d like to know you for every remaining night of my mortal life. And who knows how long that will be?

Truthfully, Keefe, I’m terrified. I’m terrified that this war will take over our lives and we’ll forget who we truly are amidst the chaos. I’m terrified that I’ll become someone who you don’t know how to want anymore—I fear, sometimes, that I already am.

I just wish you and I could stay the same forever. I know it’s ridiculous—impossible, even—but wouldn’t it be nice to have something constant in our lives?

Just promise you’ll never let go of me, Keefe. Not until our dying breaths.

“I heard about Keefe,” Biana says from the doorway, and Fitz startles. He’d been so engrossed in watching his ceiling that he hadn’t even noticed her come in—a luxury he doesn’t have, now that rebels could be coming for him any day now.

“What about him?” he asks, forcing himself to seem as nonchalant as possible.

It’s impossible to hide anything from his sister, after all these years together. “That he’s gone,” she states, three simple words for such a complex thing. “I’m surprised you’re not with him.”

Fitz scoffs. “I wouldn’t abandon our family like that. Especially not now.” Not now, when the throne where Alden should sit still lies vacant, with no agreement on who should fill it next. Not now, when there could be killers around every corner.

Biana’s expression softens, and she moves to sit beside him on his bed. “I know,” she says quietly. “But…don’t you ever wish you could? Just leave, and be free of all this. Be a normal person.”

Every single day, he wants to say. But these are times that call for his strengths, not his weaknesses. “That’s what the rebels want us to do,” he says. “Run away from our lives, and give them our kingdom without a fight. We can’t give up so easily.”

“But we can’t let our fear of them control our lives, either,” Biana replies. “Let yourself be selfish for once, Fitz. What do you actually want to do? Who do you actually want to be?”

Fitz laughs dryly. “When did you become so wise?” he asks, hoping to avoid a real answer. But she keeps her gaze sharp and steady on him, and he realizes that there is nowhere for him to run from this. “I don’t know,” he finally answers—the most honest he’s been with himself in a very long time.

Biana smiles. “Yeah. Me neither,” she says, and it’s strangely comforting.

But as peaceful as not knowing sounds, Fitz knows that he can’t afford to indulge it for very long. Perhaps, as a child, he’d been able to run and play to his heart’s content, but those days are gone now. Those people are gone.

“I can’t afford to be selfish, though,” he tells her. “Maybe in a few years, once this is all over, I can be who I want. But not today.”

For a long moment, Biana just looks at him, with something like sadness in her eyes. “Well,” she finally says, her voice wavering slightly, “I suppose you’ll make a great king, then.”

What?

Fitz sits up so quickly that there are spots in his eyes. “What are you talking about?” he asks, because there’s no way she’s saying what he thinks she is. Because that would mean…

“Alvar officially abdicated this morning,” she tells him, softly. “The throne is yours now.”

Fitz…doesn’t even know what to think. For as long as he can remember, he’s had a set path for his future—Alvar would be king, and Fitz would work by his side, a prince with the freedom to travel the continent, learning everything he possibly can. “Why would he abdicate?”

Biana sighs. “You know he and Dad were never on the best terms.” It’s true, though Fitz hadn’t understood why until he was nearly an adult. Alvar has always had drastically different ideas on how to run the kingdom, and there were certain things that Alden simply wasn’t willing to change.

The older he gets, the more Fitz realizes that neither of his idols are quite what they seemed to be.

“You know, you don’t have to do it,” Biana says. “You don’t have to bear the burden of the crown just because it fell to you. We have more than enough cousins to give it to.”

And the idea is tempting, for a moment. Handing off the crown and living life as a normal citizen, away from the pain that this palace has brought him…but he has a duty, both to his father and to his kingdom. Fitz was raised a prince, unlike his cousins—this has to be his burden to bear. It has been his burden since he was born.

“No,” he tells Biana. “I won’t run away. Not anymore.”

If this is what his destiny is, then so be it.

Fitz will be a king.

Dear Keefe,

My Winnowing Gala is set for November.

Isn’t it strange, how old we are now? I don’t feel old enough to get married. Or engaged, even. Though I suppose I don’t have much of a choice—with how long Alvar is waiting, my family is itching for a wedding. To bring joy to the citizens, if nothing else.

Anyway, I’m writing to you to ask if you can come. I need someone sane to be around while everyone is caught up in the chaos of finding me a perfect match. That, and honestly, I don’t think I’ve attended a single gala without you since we were twelve, and there’s no reason to change that now.

Also, I miss you.

Please come.

Fitz spends the first ten minutes of his Winnowing Gala hiding in his bedroom, watching the swarms of carriages arriving through his window. There can’t possibly be this many women here to see him. This must be more people attending than he’s met in his entire life—though given that he’s only ever had two friends who weren’t related to him, perhaps that isn’t much of a bar to set.

While he panics, Keefe is standing at the vanity, aggressively scrunching hair gel into his curls. “You look fine,” Fitz says, after hearing far too many frustrated grunts—and then he really stops to look at him. “More than fine, actually. You look incredible. So stop fussing around with it!”

“The beauty is in the details,” Keefe replies, carefully adjusting one singular strand of hair. “It has to curl away from my face. Not toward. That’s my secret to looking perfect everyday.” He sends Fitz a wink, and for some reason, Fitz’s face burns. Charming fool.

But he rolls his eyes anyway. “You would look perfect even if you dyed your hair green and shaved half of it off,” Fitz says, and immediately regrets it as a grin grows on Keefe’s lips.

“Good idea,” Keefe replies, that familiar mischievous twinkle in his eye—but before he can elaborate on his terrible plan, they’re interrupted by a loud banging on the door, accompanied by a chorus of shouts.

“Your highness, where the hell are you?” comes Grizel’s voice.

“You lovesick fools better be hiding in there, or I’ll kill you!” comes Ro’s.

“Fitzroy Avery Vacker, get your ass out here right now!” And Biana.

None are particularly promising.

Fitz immediately runs to hide behind his curtains—he can’t possibly go down there and speak to all those people, what if they hate him? What if he trips and falls in front of everybody? What if he scares off every single possible match?

(That last one doesn’t seem so bad, actually. It’s not like he wants to get married soon. He can’t imagine falling in love with anyone else, right now.)

Keefe grabs his wrist before he can fully tuck himself away. “Fitz,” he says, and his voice is suddenly serious. “You’ll have to go eventually, you know. Might as well get it over with now.”

“I thought you didn’t want me to have a Gala,” Fitz says with a scoff. “Suddenly you’re a fan?”

Keefe sighs, but his hold on Fitz’s arm never wavers. It’s a comforting constant, right now. “I didn’t want you to go through with it only because your family asked you to. I thought you, of all people, should get at least somewhat of a choice in who you love...but it’s too late to change that now, isn’t it? The Gala is happening. So we might as well show up, if all of this is in your honour.”

“I suppose,” Fitz agrees, electing to ignore the parts he doesn’t understand. He has his suspicions, of course, as to what Keefe is implying—they’re suspicions he’s carried himself, after all—but this is hardly the time to be thinking about that. Now that he is about to walk into the traditions of a prince, he cannot be bound to his past distractions.

Though his worst distraction still sits here, holding his wrist gently as if it were porcelain. And Fitz cannot bring himself to send him away. (He brought him here, after all, despite his parents’ protests—rarely are friends allowed to attend Winnowing Galas, but Fitz had insisted. He couldn’t bear to think about love for a whole night without the boy who personified it by his side.)

Another series of loud bangs on the door prompts Keefe to stand up, bringing Fitz with him. He sends Fitz a look—the kind only the two of them can decipher—and Fitz nods. He is as ready as he can ever be—which still isn’t quite ready at all.

“Finally,” Biana says when they open the door. “I’ve been fielding questions about you left and right. Your potential matches are awfully inquisitive.”

Keefe snorts. “Good luck with that.”

As it turns out, when they reach the gala, the attendees are indeed strangely curious about him—his favourite colours, his morning routine, his favourite things to cook, and more ridiculously irrelevant things. More than once, their conversations fall into awkward silence, because Fitz finds that he has nothing substantial to say to them. He isn’t actually interested in finding a wife here, anyway.

Though many of them aren’t even here for him—they’re only here to see the legendary palace of Everglen, and he’s simply their ticket inside. Which he doesn’t quite mind, except for when they’re swarming him and asking him a million questions about the size and the material and the location of the palace…things that he doesn’t know, and things that he cares even less to talk about.

And now there’s about twenty people trying to talk to him at once, and probably at least one hundred people surrounding him, crushing him, suffocating him, and suddenly Fitz just can’t breathe.

“Get me out of here,” Fitz whispers to Keefe, interrupting his conversation with some blonde Noble from Havenfield who looks eerily like Jolie.

Keefe mutters an apology to the girl—Sophie, apparently—and immediately slips out of the room beside him, a worried expression on his face. “Are you alright?” he asks, and Fitz shakes his head.

“There’s people everywhere,” he says. “Nobody is giving me space to even think.”

Keefe sighs. “Yeah, well, seeing how many people are on that list, I’m not surprised you’re overwhelmed.” He gestures to the wall behind them, where a long scroll is pinned to the wall, covered with a long list of names and check marks.

“Oh,” Fitz realizes. “That’s my match list.” He never even knew that they had taken it from his bedroom—but, then again, he had stayed as far away as possible from the gala planning.

Keefe walks forward to examine it, and Fitz’s breath catches. These two worlds—his duty and his choice, his head and his heart—were never meant to exist so close to one another. And yet, here Keefe is.

“Your number one match is Sophie,” Keefe reads out, his expression indecipherable. “She seems nice enough. Maybe you should consider her.”

The words are so incredibly foreign to hear—Keefe, telling him to marry someone else. Some stranger. As if Fitz was ever truly going to walk out of this ball engaged. He doubts he’s even capable of giving his heart to anyone else, now. He’s invested too much of it in one place. In one man.

“You know,” Fitz says, after a long moment, “I wanted it to be you.” It’s as close to a confession as he’s ever gotten, and Fitz regrets the words immediately after they’re spoken. Now, Keefe is staring at him like he’s said something outlandish, when it’s certainly nothing he didn’t already know.

After a minute, Keefe rips his gaze away from Fitz, and stares at the wall with the intensity of a thousand stars.

“Keefe?” Fitz says. If only he could read his thoughts.

Keefe shakes his head. “I’m sorry,” he says, so quietly it’s almost lost in the din of the Gala.

“What?”

Keefe sighs. “You deserve someone better than your kingdom and better than me. I’m not what you really want, Fitz. You just don’t know any better.”

And before Fitz can respond, before he can protest that he’s not a child, he knows exactly what he wants—Keefe is gone. Out the main doors, into the rain.

And the silence that lingers has never felt more suffocating.

Dear Keefe,

Happy birthday, you idiot.

I miss you.

Please respond.

What the hell am I writing?

I can’t tell what you want from me. You tell me to want freely, and then tell me I shouldn’t want you. You want me to live selfishly, and then claim I can’t live beside you. Do you despise me? Do you fear me?

Or is it that you’re too afraid of it all, yourself?

I know that I can be both your prince and Everglen’s. I resigned myself to living two lives, long ago—but you? You’ve always wanted more. More than your duty, more than our secrets—but when will it all be enough?

Part of me doesn’t even want to send this letter, because I know you won’t respond to it.

Happy birthday, Keefe. I hope you think of me.

His coronation is far too grand for the times, but Fitz lets it slide. The kingdom needs some joy, after all. (And a distraction from the fact that their new king, who is supposed to lead them through war, is barely twenty years old.)

There’s still over an hour before it’s set to start, but the hall is already filled with decorations and massive displays of opulence. The guest list is small, by Fitz’s own request—he can’t risk inviting anyone he doesn’t know well into the heart of the palace. It would be far too easy for someone to send an arrow through his throat while he’s distracted, even with Grizel’s extra security measures.

Right now, though, he’s more concerned with trying to find his siblings. In the chaos, he somehow managed to lose Biana, and Alvar is, of course, nowhere to be seen. Though that isn’t entirely unexpected; ever since Fitz had agreed to take the throne, his brother hasn’t spoken even a word to him. Alvar walks out of every room Fitz enters, eats only in his own bedroom, and refuses to even look at him. Fitz can’t deny that it hurts—in the span of just a month, he’s lost three of the most important people in his life, and only one is actually dead.

But he pretends to be unfazed, for the sake of Everglen. He can’t let his personal issues get in the way of leading his kingdom.

Through the crowd, Fitz suddenly notices Alvar, pushing through and running with some strange sense of urgency. Where could he possibly need to go right now? There’s nothing in that wing of the palace except for…

Except for Fitz’s room.

Fitz drops his staff and rushes after him.

But when he finally reaches his bedroom, he finds it to be empty. “Odd,” he mutters aloud. He looks around, but everything seems to be as he left it in the morning, with nobody else in sight. Fitz could’ve sworn he saw Alvar run up these stairs. Where else could he have gone?

He gets his answer in the form of cool metal to the back of his neck and a sudden, strong grip on his shoulder.

“Don’t move,” Alvar snarls, pressing his dagger into Fitz’s skin.

“Have you lost your mind?” Fitz snaps. “What are you doing?”

“I can’t let you become King,” Alvar says. “I can’t let you continue this madness.”

Fitz scoffs. “What madness?”

“The madness of the Alliance, Fitz!” he spits. “Not one of these kingdoms truly cares about their people. Don’t you see? The endless exiling of so-called rebels, the matchmaking system—it’s all built for maximum control.”

“So your solution is to kill me?” Fitz replies, and he so desperately wants to run, but he needs to understand whatever curse has befallen his brother. This cannot be the man he idolized as a child.

“I had high hopes for you,” Alvar says. “You used to be more than a prince, you used to have passion! I really thought you would be the one to change things, when we were younger. Now I see you’re no better than your father.”

“Our father was a good man!” Fitz protests, but even he can’t entirely believe it.

Alvar scoffs. “Alden was a good king, but he could never be more than that. That’s why he had to go.”

It’s a strange way to word the statement, and to Fitz, it almost seems like… “You’re talking as if you killed him.” The idea is absurd, but the more he thinks about it, Fitz can’t deny its plausibility. In the months leading to the King’s death, Alden and Alvar had had such dramatic disagreements that practically the whole palace knew about them. Fitz had been too worried about Keefe to really pay attention, then, but…it certainly makes sense.

“Because he did,” a voice suddenly says from the shadows behind them.

Fitz’s blood runs cold.

Alvar’s dagger falls from his neck and he pushes Fitz to the floor, whirling to face the intruder. A cloaked figure emerges from the corner, a pair of curved blades in their hands—blades that Fitz is all too familiar with.

“Keefe Sencen,” Alvar sneers, stepping backward. “The disgraced prince returns.”

But when Keefe’s hood falls, Fitz is practically faced with a stranger—his face is decorated with scars from all manner of weapons, and his once-beloved hair is now a tangled mess that reaches past shoulders. No longer is he the man Fitz had known. This is someone new.

“I’m not a prince anymore,” Keefe says, bringing his hand to his chest where a small pendant sits—too small for Fitz to really make out what it is. But Alvar seems to recognize it, as his eyes widen.

“So the Black Swan have finally decided to emerge from the shadows,” Alvar says, reaching for the sword at his waist. “How cute.”

“Step away from the king,” is Keefe’s only response.

Alvar glances between the blades, both pointed at him, and Keefe’s dark scowl. “And what if I don’t?” he asks. “What will you do when the strongest kingdom in the Alliance falls to us?” He steps forward, drawing his own sword and matching Keefe’s stance.

Quietly, Fitz draws himself up to a sitting position. Neither Keefe nor Alvar are paying attention to him anymore—they’re too focused on each other, waiting for the first strike. And while Fitz knows that he and Keefe have been strangers for far too long, he doubts that Keefe’s skills in swordsmanship have improved enough over the past year to beat Alvar. He’d been a sword fighting prodigy in his youth, after all.

So while they circle each other, Fitz draws his own dagger from his pocket—a gift from his father, once upon a time. He wonders how Alden would feel, if he saw his sons now. Probably disgusted.

And then it all happens at once—Alvar lunges toward Keefe, and Keefe parries wildly though it’s clear he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Fitz scrambles to stand up, watching with increasing alarm as Alvar pushes closer and closer toward Keefe. There’s a clear winner, already, and Fitz knows this fight will not end until Keefe is too injured to fight any longer.

He watches Alvar kick Keefe to the floor, some unbridled fury in his eyes. And as he holds his blade above Keefe’s chest, Fitz realizes he has only one option.

He lunges and tackles Alvar to the floor, sinking his dagger into the skin above his collarbone.

It’s deathly quiet, for a moment.

Then Alvar starts gagging, and Fitz suddenly realizes that his hand is covered in blood. The blood of his brother.

“Fitz,” Keefe says, his voice wavering. “What did you do?”

Alvar squirms beneath him, and the horror of what Fitz has done washes over him like a wave of fire. “I had to,” he says, as if he can make himself believe it. “He was going to kill you.”

Keefe is silent, for a moment. Then, he says, “I didn’t think you would care if I died anymore.”

“No,” Fitz replies, laughing bitterly. “I didn’t think I would either.” Somehow, in the month since he’d left, Fitz had managed to convince himself that he didn’t care about Keefe at all. He’d convinced himself that he had finally grown out of his old distractions; that with the crown, he could be reborn with a fresh heart to give.

But the blood on his hands is proof that he can never truly break free of his childhood devotion. And the body beneath him is proof that he has let this love corrupt him beyond his ideals.

“I hate that I love you,” he confesses, and it’s as much a confession to himself as it is to Keefe.

Keefe rests a hand on his shoulder, as gentle as when they were kids. “I know,” he says. “I know you.”

I know you.

And Fitz hates that he’s right.

#kotlc #kotlc secret santa 2023 #i put random lore in here because i do plan to expand on this au someday. not today though #keefitz #oh and fun fact this about 8k more words than i ever expected to write!#august's writing!#sorry to anyone who is passionate about sword fighting. this is probably not super accurate

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consistentsquash · 5 months

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HP Rec Fest - Day 17

Fest - @hprecfest. Theme - A fic that made you cry.

Snarry is good at angst. So I made a list! 10 fics with 10 types of angst :D

The Boy by themoonandstars1989. What if Snape wasn't a good guy? :D Read the warnings!

The boy had grown beautiful — alabaster skin and dark red lips. Snow White personified, waiting for a prince's kiss to wake him up.

Mostly Harmless by emilywaters1976. What if Harry wasn't 100% good guy? :D Read the warnings.

After the war, former Voldemort supporters go into indentured servitude. Snape becomes Harry's slave. That's when things get complicated.

Morior Animus by vain. You know where this is going but you cant stop reading :/

". . . You seem to be enjoying the book." "Read it twice through," Potter replied, vacant gaze staring just a little bit over Severus's left shoulder. He sounded proud of himself. The sad smile reappeared and he shrugged slightly, sensing if not seeing Severus's raised eyebrow. "I like happy endings."

No Sex, No Galleons by Ziasudra. Snape Whump :D

Even after the death of both his Masters, Severus Snape couldn’t escape a life of servitude. Tonight, just as every other night, he stood on a shaky wooden platform, with nothing but a tattered robe wrapped thinly around himself.

Help Wanted: God & Executioner by pir8fancier. Wartime really sucks when you have to be the one doing the thing.

"You are quite willing to let the rest of us shoulder your sins, are you? Kill for you, so that you can exit this war with a relatively clean soul?"

So Lonely Without Me by caligryphy. Wartime also really sucks when you can't do anything.

"... What if they’re dead? What if no one knows we’re here—what if they’ve sold us out—what if the war is over and Voldemort’s won? Dumbledore secreted us away—he can’t do the same for himself. What’s to stop the assassins from gunning for him? What’s to stop Dumbledore from dying—he’s the only one who knows where we are—the only one—"

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence by cluegirl. Voldemort wins is the worst situation ever :/

"Delusional child, don't you remember what you are?" He hissed between blows that rocked Harry breathless, "Have you let our Lord's indulgences fool you?" Lucius grunted, and the whip bit again, "Fine robes! Elegant chambers! Laughable titles do not make you anything but a slave!"

Always Hungry by melora98. More wartime whump. Sometimes you have to make big sacrifices to save the other person :/

Harry didn't know how long it had been. He slept, jerked awake, his mind spun. Walking around the small perimeter of the cell exhausted him and he would collapse flat on his back, staring up into the darkness until fitful sleep caught him again.

The Impossibility of Crows by LoupGarou. Wartime. Doing the right thing means giving up on a lot :/

"I have to do this." His voice was so soft I had to strain to hear it. "Of course you do. You never did have any reasonable understanding of your own limitations."

Standing on the Shoreline by tofsla. Postwar. You can totally have postwar Snarry angst. This one is melancholy and really brilliant as a Snape character study.

He never undresses, not for this. It was circumstance and then it was habit, and why would he have wanted anyone to see his body, anyway? He has little enough going for him as it is, even with the mark gone. And besides, the dresses are—are— But he almost wants to say yes. Roll over onto his stomach and let Potter unzip him, open the dress from neck to arse. He could almost let Potter expose him like that.

Also bonus!

If You Are Prepared by Cybele. Nobody is prepared for this one :/ A sweeping old school Snarry epic.

The boy cannot know.

#snarry #snarry fic recs #hprecfest2023 #hprecfest2023 squashrecs #snarry angst fics #hp

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catofadifferentcolor · 5 months

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Terrible Fic Idea #81: Harry Potter, but make it Aberforth's Daughter

Having been told that choosing to be a muggle in the Wizarding World is "not getting into the spirit of things", I set about determining under what circumstances I could bear to live in the British Wizarding World. This is what I came up with.

Or: What if the SI were to replace Aberforth Dumbledore's OC daughter?

Some context:

First, we're leaning heavily on book canon while dipping our toes into Hogwarts Legacy as far as the extended magical communities in the Scottish Highlands are concerned. This means no Fantastic Beasts movies, no Credence Barebone, but the Hogwarts Legacy map and the implication the Wizarding World is bigger than just a school and alley - and actually magical.

Secondly, the OC wakes up with memories of her past life as the SI on her fifth birthday. This is less of a true SI than a modern woman in the British Wizarding World, with the middle-aged SI being a critical HP fan with an engineering background.

Thirdly, the SI takes the place of an OC - Aberforth's daughter, Aishwarya Devi, born in early 1979 as a result of fling with an Anglo-Indian astrophysicist by the name of Sandhya Devi who moved to the UK as a young adult. Although Aishwarya - Ash - is never unaware of who her father is, her parents agreed before she was born that Sandhya raises Aishwarya by herself for a variety of reasons that are part wartime paranoia, part not wanting to burden a child with the expectations of the Dumbledore name, and part Aberforth really not being cut out to be a husband or father. Assume she existed in canon, was sent to school in her mother's native India, and never made it into the pages of the books.

Just imagine it:

Ash grows up in the town of Brocburrow in the Hogsmede Valley. She is a quiet but inquisitive child - two traits that only grow more pronounced after she remembers he past life as the SI.

It becomes painfully clear early on that there is nothing she can do to prevent the Second Wizarding War from her position as an untrained underage witch, so Ash concentrates on learning everything she can so as to survive it, soaking up everything her mother can teach her - Wizarding and muggle astronomy, plus more runes and arithmancy than most ever learn in Hogwarts - and reading everything she can about this new world she has unfortunately found herself a part of.

The more she learns, the less impressed with the British Wizarding World Ash becomes. Too much power is concentrated in the hands of too few, with most wizards willing to blindly follow the most magically powerful among them because of a lingering belief that the magically powerful are magically powerful because they are deserving of it. (Think of the similar medieval concept re: nobles and their presumed nobility.)

Aberforth has little role in her childhood. If Ash had really been a child, it would have been easy to mistake his distance for lack of care, but having once been a semi-functional adult it's easier to see that Aberforth simply has no idea how to interact with children. He tries for her sake and Ash can't help but love him for it, even as he fails miserably.

Although Sandhya initially wishes her daughter to attend her alma mater back in India, Ash manages to convince her to let her attend Hogwarts in the fall of 1990, one year before Harry Potter is set to start his schooling.

To no one's surprise, she ends up sorted into Ravenclaw - and wielding an acacia and huma feather wand. ("A kingmaker's wand," Ollivander says.)

First year it's her intention to keep her head down and avoid attracting the notice of her uncle. Ash succeeds in this, coming across as just another academically gifted Ravenclaw, albeit one who makes a bit of a name for herself complaining that the muggles know such much more about outer space than we do. And math. Calculus was invented before the Statute of Secrecy, you know.

She also manages to strike up a surprising friendship with fourth year Percy Weasley - their usual tables in the library are next to each other and so they form a quiet academic acquaintanceship that evolves almost without them realizing it into true friendship. As least half of this is based Percy once telling his brothers off for a prank that borders more on bullying than humor, and the rest on Ash being just that advanced in astronomy and arithmancy.

Second year Ash is determined to stay out of the sorcerer's stone debacle - but also sets out to cultivate a friendship with Harry Potter, initially because it's the only way she can think of to get him away from the Dursleys (as any sensible adult should have done the first time he crossed their path) and out from under her uncle's thumb, but later because he is genuinely a sweet kid who soaks up all the affection he's given and returns it threefold. She does this by inviting him to celebrate Diwali with her and the other Hindi students - which opens up a can of worms regarding Harry's hereto unknown desi background - and establishes herself (and through her, Percy) a trustworthy older student Harry can rely upon.

This works out better than she can possibly dream when Harry takes his fears regarding the stone to Percy, who then presents them to McGonagall in a way that leads her to stake out the third floor corridor in her animagus form, catch Quirell in the act, and watch him die when Voldy deserts him.

Third year starts fairly close to CoS, but after the first petrifaction - about which the Headmaster does nothing save almost seem to encourage the rumors about Harry being the Heir of Slytherin - Ash decides to use her first Hogsmede weekend to act. She goes to the Hog's Head, tells her father exactly what is happening in the school, and watches as Aberforth's face turns into a storm cloud.

She has no idea what Aberforth actually does - only that the next morning the Headmaster announces the school will be closed until the person behind the petrifications is caught. She spends a week at home before the school reopens and though there are rumors the Aurors found a basilisk in the school, not a word of explanation is ever given to the students.

Ash's third year continues without further incident - except now she is on the Headmaster's radar. Albus had been kept carefully unaware of his brother's child, but now that he knows of her existence, he's eager to fit Ash into his Greater Good. Ash rebuffs him, but it's hard to be sure if even that isn't part of his plans.

Fourth year follows PoA fairly closely, though it's Ash's house Harry runs away to following events with Marge. Sandhya is more than happy to take her daughter's friend in, but the more she learns about Harry's home life, the more concerned she grows, and starts the ball rolling in the muggle world to have the situation investigated. This plays out quietly in the background while the school year otherwise follows canon - up to and including Wormtail's escape at the end of the year.

The summer before fifth year starts with both Harry and Dudley being removed from the Dursley home. Harry gets to stay with Ash and Sandhya while the Wizarding World fights over who gets to become Harry's legal guardian. They never get to decide - Harry is legally emancipated when he's forced to take part in the tournament - but the whole situation shines a bright light on everything that has been going on at Hogwarts the last few years. Dumbledore comes out of the situation with his titles intact, but his reputation in tatters - particularly after he claims Voldemort's return, which many think is a way to try to regain his former prestige.

Sixth year - OotP - is where things really start to change.

Despite his emancipation, Harry continues to live with Ash and Sandhya - Ash having very much taken up the mantle of protective older sister at this point.

With Dumbledore's political power already on a downward arc, it makes no sense to send Umbridge to Hogwarts. So Percy Weasley is the new DADA instructor instead. This makes a certain amount of sense, as Percy's frantic work keeping Crouch Sr.'s department running even while he was imperiused/ill/dead meant that things actually ran smoother. Fudge sees Weasley as a potential rival to be cut off at the knees... and one of the few Hogwarts graduates in his employ with an O in DADA.

This is awkward for a number of reasons, not least because despite having remained friends throughout Hogwarts, after running into each other at the Yule Ball (Ash was Harry's date) they're in that awkward stage of waiting for Ash to be older before investigating the attraction between them.

Sixth year goes well, with Percy setting out to teach not torture, and doing just enough to keep the ministry off his back - there are some parts of Hogwarts that need to be investigated, i.e. security and the reduced class offering - as well as doing just enough for his fellow professors to think he's a ministry toadie - Flitwick and McGonagall are not convinced by his act, but others are. There's still an incident at the DoM at the end of the year, but Harry is able to tell the relevant adults so that it's they who spring Voldy's trap, not half-trained children.

Ash's seventh year - HBP - goes by similarly smoothly. The major change here is that 1) Harry repeats everything he learns from Dumbledore to Ash, whose takeaways from the memories are far more critical of her uncle, and 2) Ash and Percy begin dating, but so little changes between them that only those they've explicitly told notice.

With the Wizarding World at war, it's a bit of a culture shock when Ash begins muggle university the next year, majoring in astrophysics. Her flat near the college serves as a well-warded base for Harry and co to hunt for horcruxes after Grimmauld Place is lost. She fights in the Battle of Hogwarts, and though she'd intended to save as many as she could, it's still a surprise when she manages to save Fred Weasley from his canon fate.

Afterwards, Ash goes on to gain a doctorate in astrophysics in the muggle world and work on integrating muggle discoveries with Wizarding knowledge, as her mother had done for the past several decades. Her friendship with Harry means that her work is put in a greater spotlight, and when Professor Sinistra finally retires Ash is the one asked to replace her. Sometime between all this she and Percy marry - much to the surprise of the other Weasleys - and have a single child just old enough to start Hogwarts when Ash begins teaching.

Harry himself takes a more political role in this world, having come to the conclusion very early on that oppression and ignorance help no one, and that it's the Wizarding World's belief that might makes right that got them all into this situation in the first place. He's Head of the DMLE for several years before being elected Minister for a maximum three terms. His administration is marked by efforts to shift Ministry hiring practices from nepotism to merit, as well as make laws apply legally to people of all magical backgrounds. He's not entirely successful, but it's a vast improvement.

Bonuses include: 1) Albus Dumbledore not evil so much as misguided - he honestly, genuinely thinks that he knows what's best for everyone. Maybe he even does. He's simply forgotten that people are not pawns and just because you want what you think is best for them doesn't mean that they want it, or that it is what is personally best for them. All of this should be brought up when he tries to pull Ash into his web; 2) An institutional problem with bullying in Hogwarts. All houses have villains and victims, but Gryffindor has more than its fair share of the latter, compounded by Dumbledore's nepotism and McGonagall being too busy to breathe most days. This eventually comes to a head during GoF, when Ash ties a charm into the school wards that writes the word Bully across the perpetrator's face when they violate standards borrowed from a muggle secondary school's guidebook; 3) Aberforth playing a greater role in Ash's life as she grows older, especially after she comes to him for help with his brother in CoS; and 4) Ash and Harry becoming siblings of choice. Ash never displaces any of Harry's friend group, but is there and willing to listen in a way no one in his life had been previously. And that changes everything.

And that is, surprisingly, more than I'd thought I'd have. As always, feel free to adopt this bun, just link back if you do anything with it.

Other SIs: Aberforth's Daughter | Lysa Arryn | Petunia Evans | Princess of Dol Amroth

More Terrible Fic Ideas

#plot bunny #fic ideas #harry potter #self insert #aberforth dumbledore #female original character #desi harry potter #hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry #wizarding society #wizarding world #percy weasley #families of choice #found family #desi oc #hp #original character

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nat-of-personifs · 4 months

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Okay but like. What if we whumped personified places

(This isn’t directed towards most of my follower base so that’s why I sound different)

I say ‘whumped’ but they could fulfill pretty much any role. Of course there’s the usual stuff about sensitive issues and whatnot, but also, royal/political/iron curtain whump (@dresden-syndrome) are already established things and so is the existence of multiple fandoms dedicated to personifications that contain HEAVY angst. Countryhumans may be a cautionary tale but hers is not the only one we should tell.

She/her is the default for personifs who are not primarily located on the internet (such as fandoms), and all personifs accept being referred to with she/her by humans, regardless of their gender(s).

Personification as Whumpee:

-countryspirit trying to survive under the rule of a monarch who is incredibly oblivious to her needs, or a paranoid dictator carrying out purges of her best at random and leaving her confused and disoriented.

-Personif bodies are composed of the feelings and memories of the people they, well, embody. Removing a memory is removing a physical part of themself. Enter a dictator trying to rewrite history.

-environmental whump, as the victim of a natural disaster. ‘fire season fic’ is a whole ass genre in Welcome to the Table and it absolutely decimated me, go read When The Fires Burn by TWolf_XD on AO3 if you haven’t already.

-eternally, conquests and invasion.

-the personification’s own people persecuting her as a witch, or similar undesirable.

-cityspirit of fame struggling to keep up with the cameras.

-personification completely dependent on one person. extra spice if it’s the founder. (shameless plug for my Ira and Aaron series)

-unrecognized personification suffering under the weight of not being considered real.

-cityspirit in the process of being demolished.

-the victim of sacrificial rituals. they are the whole life of the community and can be beheaded as many times as is necessary, as they will not die, at least permanently.

-their ruler-to-be’s whipping boy (gender neutral).

-places where the government and society are conceptualized as a family—with the absolute monarch as father.

-personification forced to marry her despot. capital cities were once considered the wives of their patron gods.

Personification as Whumper:

-eternally, conquests and invasions.

-exploiting exchange with her leader to the point where they collapse from somatic burnout.

-laughing at the miseries of those she has outcasted.

-the ‘mother country’ and her ‘children’.

-the private torment of the ruler-to-be.

-cause of environmental whump; leaving her least favorite people quite literally out in the cold.

Personification as Caretaker:

-the entire concept of the mother/fatherland. she will be there, welcoming you home.

-the anger of a personification when you hurt someone she loves is *not* something you want to be in the way of.

-cityspirit becoming surrogate mother to an orphaned child.

-countryspirits sending aid to one of their own.

-personiftranslate Operation Yellow Ribbon.

-countryspirit taking care of her wounded ruler-to-be, providing them with solace and a window to the lives of the common people.

-personification literally just existing in a space where she is needed. she is made of the feeling of belonging the way we are made of connective tissue, so long as she accepts you.

-human finding a fandomspirit and answers to why they are the way they are (me).

I just finished a book about SA during wartime and I have Brainrot but I’m not sure if I should elaborate.

#personifposting #whump #whump prompt #whump ideas #otj #NTJ #personif gen #personif meta #*inhales*#wttt #countryhumans #hetalia #not sure what I should tw this with #uh #tw colonialism #?#is that right

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skyfallscotland · 26 days

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my only issue with the trope is when it's used as a plot device to bring 2 people together in a relationship for the first time/the forced proximity being used to give a character a second chance because thats just idk kind of boring to me lmao(thats personal preference though and theoretically can even see it but just not my vibe lol) like kind of centering the growth of a relationship around a child/ using a child to create conflict in a relationship are just not that interesting to me from a narrative perspective I think, but since I think the way you would take the story(ofc purely speculating) is more of their relationship still being solid and it being something they figure out together as a team and the conflict being more them vs world than them vs each other, I would be intrigued to see how they both react because remi is like the most caring character when it comes to her loved ones and also the most fiercely protective so she would v well burn down the world for the kid and same for xaden, like seeing them navigate such a situation in wartime could be so interesting, so like I'm more or less neutral on it because while it may not be my favorite trope(because I've not seen it done well a lot too maybe) I think like I love your writing sm I do think you would do it justice and make me love it. Also im so in love in your characters and world i really don't think anything could stop me eagerly waiting for updates(still recovering from ch 10 loll) anyway I rambled a lot and idek if any of this gives any insight lmaoo but just a lot of thoughts.

I totally get what you mean. I think it’s a great plot device if used in the correct way. Like a lot of the tropes I do like have forced proximity, which I find fun, but in this case they already have so much history which I think keeps it from being boring or like…repetitive of the traditional, stereotypical way the trope is used, if that makes sense.

I definitely (for example) didn’t appreciate the way SJM used it, but I’ve liked it in fanfic before.

I think if I did do it it would probably fall into some of those tropes in a minimal kind of way, but also explore a lot of other themes that those fics usually don’t, like the aspect of bringing a child into war, having a child when you carry a genetic illness and all the scary and difficult things that can entail that healthy people don’t have to deal with, things like that.

Definitely appreciate your perspective, thanks for writing! 🖤

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llondonfog · 1 year

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For the fic meme thing maybe some angst like Lilia protecting an injured silver maybe?

[✐meme] three sentence fic meme

As a soldier, there are certain limits to compassion on the battlefield. A moment's pause of sympathy could mean the difference between survival and a falchion in the throat, the choice to defend a companion gravely wounded bearing the cost of two lives instead of only one. Lilia has grieved this lesson in the blood of the dearest friends unsalvageable, forged it in the hardness of his battle-weary furnace heart; in wartime, duty can be all that matters.

( "Nothing else but Malleus' safety can be of importance when you're protecting the prince. Should anyone other than him be harmed, even yourself, you are to never waver in your duties— that is what it means to be his knight. Do you understand, Silver?" )

He has spent over five hundred years upholding the rules of war; one does not become Briar Valley's most celebrated General in acts of kindness and salvation. He has allowed the deaths of countless fellow fae standing by his side because he knew he could not save them, no matter how they may have screamed and pleaded otherwise. He is not some fledgling thrown into a world he does not understand, he knows how the game is played, the sacrifices that must be made.

So how is it, that as his son, his one and only darling, dearest son, crumples to the ground from a vicious strike of blinding viridescent lightning, Lilia finds his body and mind acting as one despite centuries of discipline to propel his limbs forward with a fear the likes of which he's never known?

Malleus still rages blindly before them, the shouts and desperate commands of those who had foolishly come to help echoing dimly above his head, but Lilia's awareness has been reduced to a wide expanse of Silver's torso that's been horrifically burnt away by the lightning bolt, the colors of his skin wrong and flesh mangled with melted uniform as an ugly stench begins to build in the air between them. And the boy, the blessed sweet child, is trying to fight against what must be a howling pain to fulfill his wretched father's ridiculous guidance, teeth clenched to stifle whimpers that pierce Lilia through the gut as if each one had been specifically designed to maim him in the worst way possible.

Lilia has never once turned his back in battle, but he falls over his son now, heedless of the streaks of colored lights crisscrossing the sky as spells are cast uselessly against the thick hide of dragon scales. His boy, his child, is lying injured in his arms, and Lilia has not one drop of magic to heal him.

"F—Father, you have to— Malleus-sama—"

"I'm afraid I will have to beg the prince's forgiveness, but to lose two family members in one day is simply something I cannot allow!"

It's only fitting then that he becomes Silver's shield while Kalim takes one look at the expression on his face and shouts desperately for help, altering the course of their battle as he's forced their friends to choose between the saving of their own. Only fitting that for Silver, for his chosen human child, he throws away the most callous of rules that had allowed him victory over the boy's kin.

Lilia's always known he'd go to war for this child; now, he supposes he'd stop one for him too.

#twisted wonderland #twst spoilers #twisted wonderland silver #twst silver #lilia vanrouge #twst lilia #lettie's asks #lettie writes #the way i had teardrop by massive attack on repeat for this #'love is a verb love is a doing word'#ITS THEM UR HONOR #none of these have been three sentences who am i fooling anymore

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thecarnivorousmuffinmeta · 1 year

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I love your and Vinelle's Bacchanals fic, the whole time I thought Tom and Lily weren't actually together, then seesawing that maybe only Lily thinks they aren't, (and then ignoring it, trying to figure out when they are and how are they living live), not even getting to that part where Tom keeps bringing up that Lily left Spinner's End for him meant anything solid to me, not even when it was pointed out that Tom keeps bringing up SEVERUS, it wasn't until my 3rd time reading it that I realized that was a boyfriend thing, probably, and it wasn't until Carlisle was being told that they're engaged that I realized Tom was being jealous

It makes me pause at how shameless and expressive this Tom is, Lily keeps being the polite person, this is good btw, I love it, maybe I've just read too many fics with Hogwarts Head Boy Tom, I love how he's called a con man here, it's also been a long time since I've read LATAOBS and MNATDOW, I'm pretty sure those were also Head Boy persona Toms, which fits with them, I also loved those Toms

I loved the detail where Tom brought cigarettes as well, it left me surprised because I've read no other Tom Riddle that did something like that though it makes sense since there's no Hogwarts and this Tom still lives in wartime London, I love that it's there, it showed how different Tom would have been without the wizarding world

And WOW they were 14 when they moved in together, WOW Severus got into a fist fight with feral child Tom when they we're 14

And how are Lily and Tom gonna fit in the Cullens, at least they're the same age, I wonder if Lily would still think they're just friends by that point and then Edward would hear those thoughts, god I hope Alice doesn't plan their wedding, or any of their weddings

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bacchanals by me and @therealvinelle

I am floored by this prase and glad you enjoy it so much.

Look, @therealvinelle, praise!

#twilight #twilight renaissance #harry potter #how i learned to stop worrying and love the bacchanals #lily evans #tom riddle #lily evans/tom riddle #praise #vinelle #therealvinelle

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dramioneasks · 2 years

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hello, may i know whats your top tier/top notch werewolf!draco fics? thank you

Here are some of my faves:

Cold Side of the Moon by RZZMG - E, 11 Chapters - Released from Azkaban and tossed into the Forbidden Forest for Voldemort's entertainment, Hermione Granger must escape the predators and survive for eight days to earn her freedom. She doesn't expect to make it, especially knowing Draco Malfoy, half-breed werewolf, is somewhere in the forest, too, just waiting for the next victim of The Games to arrive.

Don't Look Back by Onyx_and_Elm - E, WIP - It’s the smell of it. Chemical. Bitter and sharp as a raw edge on metal. Just a hint of it as she passes him at breakfast — but enough to stop her dead, mid-step. There is Wolfsbane in his tea.

A Spoonful of Happiness by orphan_account - E, one-shot - Draco Malfoy is registered as an unmated werewolf and has twenty days to choose his mate. Hermione Granger is assigned to Draco by the Ministry to coordinate organic meetings with his potential mates and be prepared to support him should his behavior veer towards mania as an unmated werewolf. However, Draco has already chosen his mate; she just doesn’t know it yet. Posted for Farewell To Summer: The 31 Flavours of Smut

Finding Peace by goldhorse - MA, 4 chapters - Hermione and Draco have horrific experiences during the war that cause lifelong turmoil. Peace is impossible to to achieve. Or is it?

The Sacrifices We Make by LR_Earl - E, 28 Chapters - After Harry Potter falls in the final Battle, a desperate Order of the Phoenix needs Draco Malfoy's pack of werewolves to defeat Voldemort. Hermione plans to offer the reclusive Alpha the one thing he can't refuse: a child of his own. But sometimes we find ourselves in the sacrifices we make. 2018 Granger Enchanted Awards - Best H.B.I.C Hero!Hermione, Best Wartime!Hermione, and Best Smut Winner!

Perfectly Matched by ADHARYN - M, 20 Chapters - When Auror Draco Malfoy is mauled by a werewolf on a mission gone awry, his partner Harry entrusts his best friend to care for him: Healer Hermione Granger. But now his heightened senses won't allow him to escape the one witch from Potter's crew he'd always kept at a distance, and his new and volatile wolf has decided she's his perfect match.

Bond by HalfwayThrough - E, 29 Chapters - Years into the war, Hermione is trapped for an entire night between a broken wand and a Death Eater. She leaves tangled in a web of strange bonding magic and lycanthrope that blurs reality and makes her second guess everything.

LUPINE by LilithShade - E, one-shot - Draco was not an Alpha, not really. To truly take the mantle of Alpha one needed a pack and he was alone, utterly alone. Yet he had killed Fenrir, ripped his sire’s heart clean from his chest with his own clawed hand during the Battle of Hogwarts. That violent act had imparted on him an ancient magic. Pack magic. Alpha magic. He had first caught her potent scent that very night, it was a pure beacon amongst the oppressive metallic tang of blood and decay. He had known in that moment what it meant, that she was his. His mate. Written for HP Kinkfest 2020 - Dramione Breeding Prompt by TheLastLynxNominated for the 2021 Granger Enchanted Awards: Creative Gem Award - When Life Gives You Lemons Award - Perfect Picture Award

Addicted to You by Kittenshift17 - M, WIP - An act of kismet whilst herb gathering sees Hermione interacting with an unknown werewolf. When he bites her while she is in her animagus form, he sets into motion a twisted destiny that binds them together as mates. With Remus and Sirius there to help her through, Hermione's biggest worry is finding out the identity of the werewolf who marked her.

Instinctive by goldhorse - NC-17, 3 Chapters - Voldemort has discovered a new punishment for his victims. Will it make or break them?

Chains by Aneiria - E, 2 Chapters - 'Draco,’ Hermione crooned, making her voice sound as soothing as possible. She reached up to wrap her hands in his soft blond hair, tugging firmly to try and force him to look down at her. His hands were holding her tight around her waist, almost meeting around her middle, but he looked over her head to where the official was now lying sprawled on his back. ‘Look at me, Draco,’ she tried again, tugging his hair harder. Finally he tore his eyes away and looked down at her, still breathing heavily. Hermione gasped when she saw the usual silver of his irises had brightened to an ethereal blue, his pupils narrowed into elongated slits.‘Oh, Draco…’ she breathed, concern building in her as she reached up to stroke his cheek. Draco purred and rubbed his face against her palm. ‘We need to get you home.’

With Teeth by dulce_de_leche_go - M, 5 Chapters - Halloween Creature Fic. Werewolf!Draco, EWE, mostly PWP. Infected during the war by Fenrir Greyback, Draco survived one struggle to find another. His return to Hogwarts and so-called “normal” life was a cute attempt to move on but, as always, one insufferable woman turns that on its head as well. Short story, dark setting, controversial themes. Draco 1st Person POV

Shiver by HeartOfAspen - T, one-shot - Hermione heads to the library to reference some books for a Potions project, only to find that somebody else has already claimed them all…

The Hunger by eilonwy - E, 10 Chapters - Written for the Dramione Couples Remix fest on LJ. My chosen couple were Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. This story is a dark-ish, contemporary retelling of the original fairy tale with some twists. It’s actually a bit of a hybrid. See if you can guess which other fairy tale contributes elements to the story as well.

And this great comic:

How to date a Werewolf by gubabuba - E, 9 Chapters - If you could only see the beast you've made of me I held it in but now it seems you've set it running free Screaming in the dark, I howl when we're apart Drag my teeth across your chest to taste your beating heart My fingers claw your skin, try to tear my way in You are the moon that breaks the night for which I have to howl My fingers claw your skin, try to tear my way in You are the moon that breaks the night for which I have to Howl, howl Howl, howl - Florence + the Machine -

If you’re really into this trope, I’d suggest checking out our Draco: werewolf tag or going through werewolf!Draco fics on AO3 because, as you can see, there aren’t that many of them.

- AgnMag

#anonymous #draco: werewolf #favourite fics

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wangxianficfinder · 9 months

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Fic Finder

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1. Hi! I'm looking for a fic which was about LWJ and his feelings about relation WWX&LSZ. It was post-canon fic. LWJ felt hurt because Sizhui was formal while speaking to him meanwhile he treated WWX like parent, calling him Baba (or other word but with the same meaning)or joking with him etc. LWJ haven't told anyone. I remember that they were going to nighthunt but LWJ fainted and that's how WWX noticed that sth is wrong. WWX told Sizhui sth like "your father miss you"

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2. Hi, I was wondering if you know a fanfic where it’s like during war time,wei ying and nie mingjue get together and than add lan zhan to the mix. Thank you @chloecov4506

FOUND? Bruises be damnded red and green by amykissthedark (T, 44k, WWX/NMJ, wangxian, NMJ/WWX/LWJ, canon divergence, everyone lives au, character study, PTSD, trauma, canon-typical behavior, pining, blood & gore, YLLZ WWX, golden core reveal, sunshot campaign, warnign: JGS, polyamory, fix-it, slow burn, WIP) not sure but it could potentially be this one. At least the description reminds me of this one

FOUND? Better Things to Do with a Flute in Wartime by Anonymous (E, 365k, MingXian, WangXianJue, Sunshot Campaign, Fix-It, Magical Healing Cock, Dual Cultivation, mild Dom/Sub, Undernegotiated Kink, Golden Core Reveal, Breathplay, Choking, Painplay, Subdrop, Topdrop, Major Character Injury, Canon Divergence, What-If, Temperature Play, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Fisting, Spanking, PTSD, Trauma, Self-Harm, (in the pursuit of cultivational badassery))

FOUND? An Elegant Solution by giraffeter (E, 205k, niewangxian, canon divergence, arranged marriage, friends to lovers, fix-it, everyone lives au, courtship, polyamory, smut)

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3. Hey! Hope you guys are doing well.

I was looking for this fanfic where the sects send their heirs to vanquish the Yiling Patriarch, but none of them return. Even Lan Sizhui goes missing, and Jin Ling takes matters into his own hands and goes to find the Yiling Patriarch himself because he's grieving.

So he goes there but the situation is entirely different. All the sect heirs are at Burial Mounds safe and dound they just didn't go back because of all the responsibilities their parents have for them.

Also, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are actually together, and Wangji just sent Sizhui because the teen misses his other baba. And so when Jin Ling gets to know and Lan Wangji comes and they establish them as a new sect and all that jazz.

I'm not sure if the fix is actually complete. But please find this for me cuz I really really love the feels in this fic. @poetic-writes

FOUND! Safe in the Arms of a Demon by Starlight1395 (G, 19k, JC & JL & WWX, wangxian, LJY/LSZ, canon divergence, angst w happy ending, hurt/comfort, WWX doens’t die instead quarantines in BM, WWX adopts every child he sees, uncle nephew bonding)

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4. help to find a fic please. So there was this Wangxian fic, where Lan Wangji is rescued after being tortured. I don't think it was very long; probably on the shorter side. One quirk I remember is the narration being in second person, though I don't know if I'm remembering correctly. There was a mention of sea glass near the end of the fic. That's all the details I remember. Please help me find the fic.

I think #4 is one of those mer type fics, where lan zhan is held hostage and either his scales are being harvested for medicine or he's tortured to give tears, I have to research some more , but does the requestor think it could be along those lines ?

FOUND? ocean eyes by bunnylan (weiyingpretty) (T, 10k, WangXian, Modern AU, Human WWX, mermaid LWJ, Childhood Friends, Memory Magic, Getting Back Together, Fluff, Angst with a Happy Ending, First Love, Hurt/Comfort, First Meetings, Mutual Pining, Temporary Amnesia) tho I don't know if this is 2nd person narration ?

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5. Hi!! I'm looking for a fic where lwj is a fanfic writer and wwx was a podficer? is that the word? anyways that's all I remember from it because I only read the summary :')

FOUND! Your Words, My Voice by AverageFandomEnjoyer (T, 5k, wangxian, modern, canon divergence, fluff, kissing, pining, falling in love, writer LWJ, podficcer WWX, meet-cute, minor miscommunication) and has a podfic! :)

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6. Could you please help me find a colored-blood fic? It was canon divergent, where people with golden cores had golden blood (and normal people had normal red blood). After the core transfer WWX’s blood slowly turns back to red and he has to be careful not to get injured or it will show that he lost his core. In that scene after he is revived JC doesn’t whip him, WWX pretends to be MXY and shows his red blood to “prove” it. I am dying to read this again! It was most likely on ao3.

FOUND? who cares when you're gone by camellialice (M, 22k, WangXian, Hades (Video Game) Fusion, Canon-Typical Levels of Self-Sacrifice, Canon-Typical Levels of Spitting Up Blood, Canon-Typical Levels of Pining) this is a bit of a stretch, but 'who cares when you're gone' by camellialice on ao3 might be #6 on the fic finder. it has the gold blood / red blood thing but not the mo xuanyu part of the ask.

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7. Hi can you help me find a fic I read a couple of years ago? It was a modern au where all the sect heirs were sent to another planet/alternate reality (?) for some kind of reality TV show. I think JGS was behind it but for some reason also sent JZX. I remember that NMJ is killed while they are trying to escape and WWX stays behind alone to allow the rest to escape. He has to survive in a wintery wilderness until the others manage to rescue him. Thanks for your help. @i-amnotawriter

FOUND? and from our own/live to ourselves by betweentheheavesofstorm (M, 105k, WangXian, Modern AU, Fantasy, Reality TV, Arctic Survival, Blood Magic, Blood and Gore, Getting Together, Pining, Angst with a Happy Ending, Self-Harm, Bloodletting, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, Animal Death, Hunting, Mild Sexual Content)

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8. helluu! i have this one fic that i really want to re-read, but i cant find it for the life of me. i remember it was pretty long and so well written so i really hope you can help. what i remember is it took place during (after?) the guanyin temple arch, and i think JGY forced WWX to make a time travel array for him. dont remember much but i belive WWX LXC NHS and JC end up sacrificing themselves to get the array working and they send back the junior quartet to the time of Jin Lings one month anniversary party (i just remember random facts from here and there) but i think the try to fix things up with jin zixuan’s death so it doesn’t happen..? i hope any of that makes sense. could you please help me find it? @constant-brainrot-24-7

FOUND? ❤️ Tragedy is Not the End by Hobbsy3 (T, 358k, wangxian, Time Travel, Torture, Hurt/Comfort, Golden Core Reveal, Canon Divergence from Qiongqi Pass, Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Yunmeng sibling bonding, good dad wwx, good dad lwj, JZX Lives, JYL Lives, Junior Quartet Dynamics)

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9. Hi! It's me again hahaha.

I was reading a fic and suddenly I remembered another fic, but I can't find it in my bookmarks. It's a Canon Divergence where WQ transfer the half of the golden core back to WWX with the permission of JC.

I hope you can help me, thanks ☺️. @wangxiansgirl

FOUND! The Fire Lapping Up the Creek by notevenyou ( E, 66k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Blood, Respiratory Illness, Major Illness, Fever, Grief/Mourning, Burial Mounds, Angst with a Happy Ending, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Hunger and food scarcity, Surgery, Fix-It of Sorts)

Not FOUND in this place where we don't have a prayer by Cerusee, Mikkeneko (T, 42k, WangXian)

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10. 👋Hello! I'm a big fan of your blog! ❤️ I've seen that you help to find fics and I'd like to ask for help to find one. 🙏

It's a Wangxian and takes place after the war ¿? 🤔 I think. I remember that Lan Zhan has to accumulate power in his golden core and then transfer it to Wei Ying.

And Idk if it's the same fanfic, I think not, but Lan Zhan has to create a second golden core for Wei Ying.

I'm sorry, that's all I can remember. I have a terrible memory. Please help 🙏😔

FOUND? 🧡 Discarded by teawater (E, 141k, WIP, WangXian, Lots of Angst, Hurt/Comfort, YLLZ WWX, Golden Core Reveal, Case Fic, Depression, Family Issues, Self-Esteem Issues, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Worth Issues, Angst with a Happy Ending, POV Multiple, BAMF WWX, dubious morals in the Lan sect, Feels, Pining, Grief, Fix-It, BAMF LWJ) I remember a scene where LWJ gives WWX the second core he slowly grew over the years specifically for him in this one? - Mod C

FOUND? these colours fade for you only by doodlebutt (T, 36k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Fluff and Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Everybody Lives, Golden Core Transfer, Golden Core Transfer Fix-It, …eventually, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares, bed sharing, Mutual Pining, like really unreasonable amounts of pining, Slow Burn) i'm not sure about the details, but maybe this fits? iirc lwj starts cultiivating a new core during sunshot and gives it to wwx right after

FOUND? three surgeries and a mercy kill by MarbleGlove (T, 11k, Medical Procedures, Demonic Cultivation, Canon Divergence, Fix-It, Self-Indulgent, WWX Has a New Golden Core, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies)

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11. Hi,This fic has the whole group thinking wei ying commited suicide but actually he ran away thinking everyone hates him and living in streets. Accidentally meets Lanzhan in a coffee shop who feels connected to him even though LZ thinks he is Mo xuanyu. starts taking care of him and the huisang plots to reveal weiying to all so things happen.LZ is super protective and its super angsty. Also LZ sleepwalks. Know the fic? @mridhu6

FOUND! Where You Fell by Sweet_William (E, 303k, wangxian, 3zun, NHS/JC, JYL/JZX, modern, coffee shop au, angst w happy ending, homeless au, pining, getting together, slow burn, implied/referenced child abuse, suicidal thoughts, self-esteem issues, autistic character, WWX has ADHD, panic attacks, hurt/comfort, implied/referenced sex work, implied/referenced substance abuse) but i dont remember reading about some of the details the asker mentioned, so it might not be the same fic

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12. Hello! Read a fic a couple months ago and have been scouring the internet to find it for the past week. (My apologies for the very bad recalling of what happened in the fic) Anyway, basic plot points that i remember was wwx had been asked to paint lwj bedroom walls and was given a key to his apartment (fairly sure they were already friends before this tho) also lwj had a pet rabbit that wwx would often feed. Sorry! I know there's not much to work with it for finding fic but I'd really appreciate @mopdopplophop

FOUND? show me a quiver, give me tonight by spookykingdomstarlight (E, 115k, wangxian, modern, artist au, communication failure, pining, angst w happy ending, demisexual WWX, mentioned past LWJ/OMCs, eventual smut, gossip, getting together, crack treated seriously, friends to friends w benefits to lovers, WWX pov)

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13. Hi! I'm trying to find a fic I've read a while ago. On that fic, an old person at Yilling confuses Wwx with a woman, and gives him a discount because they think he's a young woman who was abandoned with her son by her husband. Wwx starts dressing as a woman to gain people's sympathy and get discounts. He accidentally describes his husband as being Lwj, and when Lwj goes to Yilling people all but siege him because they think he's the scoundrel who abandoned his wife and son.

FOUND? Mother Knows Best by misbehavingvigilante (M, 12k, wangxian, canon divergence, crossdressing, food issues, gender identity, gender noncomforming, trans WWX, poverty)

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14. A) Hi, I'm trying to find a fic where its female wei ying who becomes pregnant with twins and is perilously I'll so lan zhan volunteers to marry her but something about a caravan attacked by jin and her becoming so I'll happens.. any idea

B) Hi, I'm trying to find a fic where wei ying is disguised as lan zhans bride fo be and weirdly makes friends with lan Quiren by being he model in law? @quxxnrandonmness27

14B)

FOUND? Wei Wuxian, Who’s That? by bumbledees (T, 48k, wangxian, crossdressing, pining, sibling feels)

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15. Hi could you help me find this fic, I think it's been deleted

I know the summary went like this

Wei Wuxian begins weakly, but Lan-laoshi, cruel as he is, continues speaking.“Well? I have provided you with three choices. You move, you act, or you let Wangji tutor you after school.” Lan-laoshi raises an eyebrow. “I, of course, recommend option two, as it would solve everyone’s problems, but alas. Teenagers.”He should choose to move classes. Lan-laoshi is right – it would help him focus, and it would help his grades, and Madam Yu would be less disappointed in him than she usually is. And Lan Wangji would be rid of him, which would undoubtedly make him more comfortable in his own damn class.But Wei Wuxian is weak. And horrible, and selfish, and so he chooses the third option. “Lan Wangji,” he says, turning to him with pleading eyes, “Lan-er-gege, light of my life – would you terribly mind tutoring me after school?”

Any help would be appreciated @imgonnablogtheworldtodeath

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16. Hi so i read this fic but i cant remember its name.this is a fic in which wangxian adopt a abused ayuan .he was abused by xue yang i think.and they adopt him and ayuan still has that trauma but slwlu overcomes it @rosy1324

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17. Hii for the next fic finder pls help me with a story where

wwx gets de aged (post canon) and doesn’t remember that Jiang Yanli is dead but he gets happy to see jin Ling even says something about JY to him (that he should address him better cause he’s his nephew). Then he goes to lotus pier because he wants to be with JC but he starts remembering more things and is sent back to cloud recess. The more the time pases the more he remembers and he gets where he remembers the wens, he’s happy to see Sizhui but discontented with the fact that after all he dies.

After that, His body kind of shuts down (replicating the years that was dead) and lwj has to keep passing energy so he doesn’t die and after a week or something he finally wakes up with full memory of what happened.

Thank you!! 💙💙

FOUND? Rewritten by yamadori (Katsumi27) (G, 6k, wangxian, JC & WWX, age regression/de-aging, hurt/comfort)

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18. Fic Finder for a twitter thread fic? It was Modern AU, LQR POV, and he was Convinced WWX was abusive toward LWJ. LWJ gets very sick and isn't answering LQR's phonecalls, and LQR assumes WWX is isolating LWJ from his family; it's implied LWJ had actually pulled away from LQR because of LQR's behavior. WWX and LWJ owned a farm with the wens and were raising a-Yuan. LQR goes to the farm for the first time and ends up seeing how much WWX cares for LWJ. @lewiscarrolatemybrain

FOUND? Twitter thread by enigmatree

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19. Hi! Can you help me find a fic? it is a time travel fic wherein Wangxian, Ayuan, Xicheng time traveled in the middle of Past wwx and jzx's fight? Yilling Laozu was hurt and he's craddling ayuan. There's also a part where the past characters thought HGJ and YLL were married and had a child which is Ayuan. It is also not Xicheng friendly if I remembered correctly. Thank you! @sandralyne07

FOUND? How did I end up with this Frozen Heart? by Grace_ShadowWolf (TaubeLePigeon) (T, 53k, WIP, WangXian, Time Travel, Fix-It, PTSD, Angst with a Happy Ending, YP!WWX, twin prides of yunmeng are horrified at the relationship between their future selves, YP!WWX has short hair, Canon Divergence, Self-Indulgent, wangxian get together early, Songfic, JC Bashing, LXC Bashing)

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20. Hello! I’m looking for a fic where I think WWX was a dragon or fox who imprinted on LWJ and refused to leave him. I don’t remember much but I think there was a scene where LXC says he can’t do anything about it because dragons/foxes are celestial beings and that LWJ should study some books… or something like that.

FOUND? To lurk, to lie in wait by trippednfell (M, 124k, WangXian, Modern with Magic, Huli Jing, strangers to co-parents to lovers, Strangers to Lovers, Dragons, Kid Fic, teenage juniors, background NieLan, Angst with a Happy Ending, Case Fic, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Not Really Character Death, Fox Spirit WWX, Dragon LWJ, Blood and Injury, Additional Warnings In Author’s Note)

#20 sounds like a fic where Wei ying was a literal tiny noodle dragon 🐉 that literally imprinted on lan zhan and would ride on his shoulders and go to classes with him lol and they had to research how to get him back to human form. Wei ying apparently was messing around with arrays or something and sumoned and then was trapped by a celestial dragon being form. they fix it and then Wei ying becomes human and wakes up in bed with lan zhan lol

FOUND? Strange Magic by Sabinasan (T, 18k, wangxian, Alternate Universe, Cursed WWX, Fluff, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Falling In Love, Cuddling & Snuggling, Possessive WWX, Protective WWX, Sharing a Bed, Sharing Clothes, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Hair Brushing)

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#wangxian #mdzs #wangxian fic finder #wangxian fic search #the untamed #wangxianficfinder #long post

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secret-engima · 1 year

Text

Konoha’s orphan system

BACK AT IT AGAIN BOISSSSSSS. So a few people expressed interest in hearing me ramble about my HCs for Konoha’s orphan welfare system (aka more reasons to hate Sarutobi Hiruzen), so I GUESS I’M DOING THAT. Before we get into this, just know these are 100% HCs that only acknowledge canon long enough to kick it in the nuts. I *did* try to make it reasonably canon compliant so that it could work for multiple aus (yes ppl can use these HCs in their fics if they want, just credit me pls :)) but canon is barely compliant with itself so…

With that out of the way. ONWARD.

The Konoha Orphan Welfare System was established by Tobirama sometime before the First Shinobi War, likely around the time there was a population boom of civilian inhabitants that were not tied to any shinobi clans. Now shinobi clans all have their own system for caring for in-clan orphans (some better, some worse), but the civilians, and specifically the rising population of civilian born shinobi … didn’t have that. If the parents died and there either wasn’t any close family to take them in or the close family that remained were somehow unable/unsuitable for it, then you had kids on the streets and that is both against the literal reason for Konoha’s founding and also a security hazard, so Tobirama set up the orphan system in a way that could be expanded upon as the population required going forward.

The first layer of the system are the Konoha orphanages. While there was likely only one or two to start with in Konoha’s early days, by now there have to be more. Depending on where you estimate Konoha’s total population sits (I have been informed that canon references like- 80k exactly once?? But I don’t remember and I cannot find it on the wiki so *yeets*) I’m going to spitball and say there is somewhere around 10 large orphanages in Naruto’s time. That is probably nowhere near enough orphanages but in CANON we have Literally One so baby step improvements people.

Now, when a child of civilian or shinobi parents is orphaned, there’s a call put out in Konoha (and *only* Konoha, again, ninja security concerns) for relatives who can come take the child. If no one steps forward in a week’s time, then the child is put into the orphanage system. During wartime, this layer of the system tends to get overcrowded for … obvious reasons, especially with refugee children like Kabuto being shuffled into the orphanages alongside born Konohans. Any child from infancy to age 6 (academy starting age) lives in these orphanages under the care of the Matrons who run it, some of whom are civilians, but a good portion are actually retired shinobi (male and female, similar to nurse, the term is gender neutral in this context), I will come back to that in a hot second. Now, during wartime, again, this system can get backed up and so you’ll have kids above the age of 6 still living there as was the case with canon Kabuto. But when *not* clogged by a refugee/orphan influx, the next stage of the system are the Orphan Apartments.

At the age of 6 (or when there are openings during overcrowded times), kids are sat down by the Matrons and given the choice to join the Ninja Academy or not. Obviously since this is a shinobi village they are encouraged to take that route, but they are actually allowed other options, and kids who have things like physical disabilities are sometimes encouraged to stay out of Academy instead. Whether they are in Academy or not, they are then moved out of the orphanage they live in and moved into the Orphan Apartments.

Orphan Apartments are multistory buildings funded by Konoha and consist of a base floor with a common kitchen, common washroom for clothes, and storage room for extra blankets/bedding/etc. The floors above that are small, one room apartments, 11 per floor, as well as a group shower room (the apartments have water closets). 10 of these are given to the kids, one per apartment (barring twins/triplets/etc, who share an apartment), and the 11th belongs to the Floor Caretaker. The Floor Caretakers are all retired shinobi who have some reason for no longer being able to take missions, either ones who willingly chose to retire (rare) or ones who have lost limbs or suffered some other kind of disability and are no longer considered fit to serve on missions above a D-rank.

The Floor Caretakers are in charge of making sure the 10 kids on their floor are fed and healthy, as well as teaching them basic life skills like budgeting their orphan allowance, how to safely use appliances like washers/dryers, how to cook basic healthy meals, etc. They also help them with schoolwork if necessary and crucially, for the Academy students, teach them additional chakra exercises, weapon basics and other skills that the clan children would already have been taught, in order to help ensure the orphans aren’t all left in the dust by their counterparts. For Academy students living in the Orphan Apartments, they will be there until they graduate, at which point they will be moved to a genin apartment complex (there are lots of apartment complexes that cater to a specific rank of shinobi, with each rank having a set rent based on the average “a shinobi of this rank should be able to make at *least* enough to handle this on top of food” income. Of course, if an orphan is adopted pre-graduation, they will move instead into the home of their new family, freeing up the apartment for another orphan out of the orphanage.

Speaking of ADOPTION.

Any child in the orphanage or orphan apartments is up for adoption, obviously, but most adoptions don’t happen until a kid moves into the orphan apartments and has been added to either the Academy track or not. The Floor Caretakers compile regular reports on each kid on their floor to show to interested (and vetted) potential parents. Many clans choose to add new blood via adoption of a promising orphan rather than relying on marriage (though it is likely if the orphan marries later it will be to someone who has the clan blood), and will send discreet shinobi members to observe (spy) on the prospective kids for a second opinion rather than solely rely on the Floor Caretakers’ reports.

Children who are not on the Academy track tend to get adopted out more often than their shinobi counterparts, this is because children who are not going to Academy are instead encouraged to become an apprentice of one of the many professions keeping Konoha running. Adults who take an orphaned apprentice also become their legal guardian in the eyes of Konoha, until they have achieved mastery or reached the age of 17, whichever comes first, and are required to be able to adequately house, clothe, and feed any apprentice they seek to take before they are allowed to adopt/apprentice them.

Shinobi clans will often keep a close eye on non-Academy orphans as much if not more than Academy orphans, as each clan does have civilian specialties to pass on and enough shared resources to enable the adoption fairly easily. Apprenticed orphans are expected to work to pay off their “debt” to Konoha for 5 years, during which up to a third of any income they make will be taxed to Konoha. As apprentices *are* paid during the latter half of their apprenticeship, it’s usually expected that the apprentice will still be living with and at least partially provided for by their guardian/master during those years of service and so aren’t at risk of being taxed right out of house and home or anything. The point is to make more artisans and masters of needed crafts, not create a homeless population that poses a security risk remember.

Orphans who are either Academy students or apprentices can also be Sponsored. A sponsor is different from a formal adoption, and adopted orphans don’t lose their Sponsor if they are adopted down the line. Sponsors are … well basically anyone who has good standing in Konoha and at least *some* money to back it up. These can be retired jounin, retired *ANBU*, civilians who’s family have been in Konoha for at least 3 generations, or businesses who have been in Konoha for more than twenty years (and also aren’t owned by a new resident to Konoha, again, paranoid ninja security reasons). Sponsors can only sponsor up to three orphans at a time. A Sponsor will provide additional funds for clothing, equipment of the orphan’s intended profession (shinobi tools/protective mesh for Academy students, tools for any apprentices of a certain profession), as well as additional learning opportunities.

To use an Academy student for an example, a sponsored Academy orphan will be able to petition their Sponsor for money to pay for better equipment, and if they take an interest in a specific skillset, the Sponsor will use their influence to help procure additional training or mentorship in that skillset. An Academy orphan with a sponsor who takes an interest in becoming a kenjutsu practitioner, for example, won’t have to wait and hope their future genin sensei is proficient in a sword. Instead they can petition their Sponsor, who can then use either money or connections to secure a teacher in kenjutsu. Sponsors, in turn, can expect something in return once the Academy student graduates. For civilian Sponsors this is *usually* just being given priority by that shinobi for any missions they put forth in the future (or a discount for services rendered if the orphan is a civilian apprentice instead of a shinobi). Business establishments also get discounts or priority treatment from the orphans they sponsor. Some businesses that employ shinobi on the regular as security intentionally Sponsor orphans who only want to become career genin or chuunin, since those are far more willing to take “boring” long term jobs than a shinobi looking to climb the ranks and become a jounin (and are less likely to be pulled and sent off on a risky A or S-rank down the line).

Jounin who are retired also use this system as a roundabout way of passing on their skillset or encouraging talented young shinobi without having to worry about actually adopting a kid. ANBU agents in particular don’t necessarily have time or the mental balance to adopt a kid, but if an orphan catches their eye, they can Sponsor them to help them get the resources to excel, whether or not that kid ever grows up to join ANBU.

Okay so. With all that- mostly covered and hopefully I’m not forgetting any gaping holes in my worldbuilding, you might be wondering “how does Naruto’s and Sasuke’s horrible childhoods fit into this???” To which I say:

Shimura Danzo and Sarutobi Hiruzen.

Remember that bit I said earlier? That *all* orphans in the orphanage and orphan apartments are up for adoption so long as they live there? Remember how I also mentioned that *clans* usually have their own in-clan system for dealing with clan orphans and so those don’t get put in Konoha’s system? Welllll.

To start with Naruto: Naruto by rights *should* have never entered the orphan system, since he has a godfather (Jiraiya) and presumably a godmother (I do not know if it’s *canon*, but the fanon I see everywhere is Mikoto, which makes sense considering she was canonically good friends with Kushina). But Jiraiya is a (horrible no good waste of space) spymaster who lives on the road and Mikoto is an Uchiha, which Danzo has been subverting for years and in fact was still subverting *while* the Kyuubi was rampaging everywhere. Iirc he’s the one who ordered the Uchiha to not engage and instead stay back and guard the civilian bunkers, which led to a lot of rumors (that he also started) about the Uchiha’s “suspicious” involvement in the Kyuubi attack. Hiruzen is a pushover when it comes to his old “friends”, we see this in canon, and especially to Danzo, so it’s no wonder why Mikoto was never allowed to claim custody of Naruto even if you fanon that she was his godmother and had a legal right to him.

So what about the other clans? Minato was incredibly popular and beloved, the other clans by rights should have been fully willing to take Naruto in, even with the whole- Kyuubi Jinchuuriki business. But then you have to consider the Politics™ of the situation. Jinchuuriki are considered less people and more living nuke repositories. We see this all over canon, in literally every village. If a Jinchuuriki’s identity is known, they are shunned and feared. So handing Naruto over to another clan would not, politically, have been seen as giving a child into the custody of someone who can raise him, but rather handing *one* clan the keys to immense power that the other clans wouldn’t be able to fight against. Massive power imbalance. Which Hiruzen wouldn’t want in the wake of the Kyuubi attack and then like 3 years later the Hyuuga Incident, and Danzo certainly wouldn’t want because he’s a paranoid old coot who thinks that the only person who can be trusted with ultimate power is himself. So Naruto is, politically, kind of impossible to adopt without majorly upsetting the power balance of the clans.

So. If we want to be *generous* and assume Hiruzen didn’t default directly to sticking Naruto in a shoddy apartment on his own when he was a literal infant, what he probably did was try to loophole his way out of the situation by not revealing Naruto’s parentage to anyone if he could help it and submitting Naruto into the orphan system during the high influx of post-kyuubi orphans in the hopes that Naruto would skate through unnoticed until Hiruzen could either arrange for a civilian family to adopt him or just hope that Naruto can slide by unnoticed in the system until he’s a genin and leaves the orphanage/orphan apartments.

Cue red-eyed t-posing Danzo meme. Because of course Danzo wouldn’t want a “weapon” like Naruto to fall into the hands of cushy civilians. Danzo is at fault for the entire campaign to smear and isolate and then kill an entire founding clan of Konoha, spreading the rumors that Naruto is actually the Kyuubi in human form or other such things is absolutely within his preferred method of isolating perceived problems. So Danzo has a few key people leak Naruto’s existence as Not A Normal Child throughout the village, causing a grieving, traumatized village to pick him as their scapegoat of choice, which meant Naruto would never be adopted by civilians. Because the civilians would either hate him or be too afraid of the reprisal of their neighbors if they went near him. With the civilian option shredded, and also the anonymity that could have let him skate through the orphan apartments unadopted until his genin years also destroyed, Hiruzen’s options are then “have this child raised outside the system entirely” or “give the child to Danzo and Root” and Hiruzen at least had the braincells to realize giving his old friend who has tried to murder him in the past a *whole entire Jinchuuriki* was a terrible idea. So into a slummy apartment all on his own the toddler goes. As for why it was a slummy apartment and not being raised by Hiruzen himself?

*Points back to the clan power imbalance thing*, *points at Hiruzen being a pushover doormat who let Kumo behead a HYUUGA TWIN BROTHER OF THE CLAN HEAD to avoid conflict*.

As for Sasuke, very similar deal. Konoha’s system was never set up with the total annihilation of a clan in one fell swoop in mind. A mass genocide like that was just- never meant to happen. Sure clans can dwindle and die out during wartime (see- the Hatake clan), but that was not an instant process, there is supposed to be time for a dwindling clan to see the worst coming and prepare for it, make arrangements for what they want to happen to any orphaned kids if the clan adults all die out. Sasuke didn’t have that, and the Uchiha *had* no system in place. Arguably if they had a system for such a catastrophe in mind it likely would have been an agreement between them and the Senju, that either clan would take on the orphans of the other if the worst should happen. But by that point the Senju clan is just Tsunade, who has already run for the hills years ago.

Once again, Sasuke got treated less as a child in need of help and more as a political piece that no one could claim without causing a riot among the other clans for the imbalance. Now I’ve seen different fanon on if Sasuke grew up in the empty clan compound or had an apartment in Konoha, and canon has … literally *both* interpretation depending on *what flashback episode you are watching* so either Sasuke got taken out of the compound and moved into a genin apartment that Hiruzen paid for out of guild (not orphan apartments because again, anyone in there is available for adoption by legal default), or Sasuke just had to suck in up and live with ghosts for 6 years, which did his head NO FAVORS.

ADD TO THIS is Danzo again, who categorically would not want Sasuke to get help of any kind. Because Sasuke is a loose thread that he can’t take care of himself. Canonically, before Itachi leaves after the clan is dead, Itachi goes to Danzo and says something like “you do anything to Sasuke and I will come for your head and air all of your dirty laundry to Konoha on my way in”. If Danzo is seen taking Sasuke into ROOT, or killing him, or harming him, then Itachi will come for him. But if Sasuke is just … benignly neglected by Konoha as a whole to the point of death or defection … well that’s not his fault. His hands are tied.

I could *also* at this point go on a long ramble of my personal hcs that it’s REALLY INTERESTING that Shippudden introduces the glorified radar seal keeping track of any intrusion into Konoha and yet Orochimaru (who has worked with Danzo before to commit inconvenient warcrimes) and Sound Four (who work for Orochimaru) managed to get in multiple times specifically to try to kidnap and subvert Sasuke (thereby taking him out of Konoha without Danzo being to blame and making it far more likely he will be killed by a third party and thus is no longer a loose thread in Danzo’s machinations). And yes I know it’s actually just an example of Kishi’s swiss cheese worldbuilding but I just went on a 3k rant about an orphan system I made up wholesale to deal with those holes SO. But I think I’ve rambled enough for one post so I will leave that there.

#Secret Engima Rambles #naruto worldbuilding #ninja economics #my headcanons #naruto #konoha #this probably has holes in it #but I TRIED MORE THAN KISHI DARNIT #HEY REMEMBER THAT TIME DANZO TOOK OVER AS HOKAGE #AND THE FIRST THING HE DID WAS PUT A BOUNTY ON SASUKE'S HEAD #WOW RANDOM HUH #ESPECIALLY FOR THE GUY WHO'S BEEN ADVOCATING WW4 FOR YEARS #TO JUST PUT A BOUNTY ON SOMEONE'S HEAD SUPPOSEDLY BECAUSE THEY ASSASSINATED A RIVAL VILLAGE'S JINCHUURIKI #okay i will shut up now

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