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wiypt-writes · 3 years

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Riding High

Ch25: Keep it Simple

Chapter Summary: The events of Boston behind them, Frank, Fliss and Mary look forward to Christmas…and Frank has a big surprise planned.

Chapter Warnings: Bad Language words. Smut…NSFW and NO UNDER 18s!!!

Chapter Pairings: Frank Adler x OFC Fliss Gallagher

A/N: So here it is, the last in the series Riding High. Thank you to everyone who has helped and re-blogged and commended in any way. Do not fear, Frank and Fliss will be back in the next instalment of their adventure Riding On

Disclaimer: This is a pure work of fiction and classified as 18+. Please respect this and do not read if you are underage. I do not own any characters in this series bar Fliss Gallagher and the other OCs. By reading beyond this point you understand and accept the terms of this disclaimer.

Riding High Masterlist // Main Masterlist

Chapter 24

If you should ever leave me, thought life would still go on, believe me, the world could show nothing to me, so what good would living do me? God only knows what I’d be without you…

"Mary can you just hold on a second, please!" Frank sighed, grabbing the back of her coat to stop her shooting off into the crowd that streamed down the busy Manhattan sidewalk. "But Frank!" she turned and looked at him, her woollen hat jammed down over her ears "I just wanna see the stall!" "Yeah but you can't just run off!" He grumbled and beside him Fliss gave a chuckle. He turned to look at her "who gets so excited about damned wooden tree ornaments?" "Oh hush!" Fliss leaned up to give him a pack, her cold nose brushing his. In retaliation he pulled the front of her baby blue sparkly bobble hat down over her eye and she shoved him in the chest, laughing. "Fuck you!" "Chance would be a fine thing" he grumbled, taking Fliss’ hand as they headed after Mary. "Awww is that why you're grumpy?" Fliss grinned as they walked "Coz you haven't had any in nearly 3 days?" Frank pouted "No." "Liar..." "Ok, look...Frankie has needs..." he whined "I completely over looked the fact hanging out with an 8 year old in the room would be a cock block." "Always the shower..." Fliss teased and Frank snorted. "Yeah, right. Can you imagine? I give it 3 minutes before she came looking for us." "We go home tomorrow. I'll make it up to you then." Fliss grinned and he sighed. "What?" She laughed. "It’s just...you look so hot in all this winter clothing." Frank grinned. And he meant it. Seeing her wrapped up in a coat, hat and scarf had made her look all cute and cozy...and it had done inappropriate things to him for some odd reason. "Hmmm, you know most men get more turned on the less clothing their girls wear." She teased and he grinned. "Yeah, well, I'm not most men" She gave him a smile which he returned with a soft kiss as they stopped by the stall where Mary instantly dived into looking at the array of ornaments. After a few moments of looking she handed Frank one in the shape of a reindeer stag, and a doe for him and Fliss before selecting a robin for herself. "I think they're so pretty." She looked at the bird in her hand "I saw one at Evelyn's over thanks giving." "Ever heard the saying robins appear when loved ones are near?" Fliss asked. Mary shook her head. "No" "Well, I don't know about here but certainly in England we say it because there is an old belief by some people that a robin is a message from heaven, that a loved one is watching over you." "Do you believe that?" Mary looked at Fliss. Fliss hesitated "Well when my Dad's dad died I was 20 and I remember getting up the morning after he died and there was a robin on the fence of the back garden. Bill told me it was my granddad Alex come to check I was ok." "Do you think it was? Really I mean?" "I dunno sweetheart." Fliss sighed "I'd like it to be true..." "Then you should believe it was." Mary said, looking at her "Because isn't that what faith is? Believing something you want to be true?" Fliss looked at Frank who smiled and gave a small shake of his head. She turned back to Mary, smiling softly as she dropped a hand to the back of her head. This kid was unbelievably wise, but with such an innocence behind it all. "Yeah, I suppose it is." Fliss nodded. "Do you think the robin I saw could have been my mom?" She asked, her eyes wide. Frank at that point stepped in, carefully picking an answer that was ambiguous so as not to say yes, but also not dampening her spirits. "If your mom could I'm sure she would come and see you, make sure you're ok." Mary gave a nod, before she turned back to the stall, her attention back on the ornaments. "We need a dog for Thor, and a cat for Fred oh...and a pony for Monty." "What about Cap and Heidi?" Fliss asked, moving to inspect the selection of decorations. "Oh, yeah!" "This is gonna bankrupt me." Frank grumbled, his hands on Fliss' hips, chin resting on her shoulder as he observed the two of them. "Scrooge" Fliss shot back with a smile "Do you think Verity and Bill will like this one?" Mary held up a snowman. "Absolutely" Fliss nodded. "And can I get one for Evelyn?" She asked, selecting a snowflake. Despite the fact that they were now well into the fifty buck range for fucking tree decorations, Frank couldn't help but want to smile at Marys face. She was so thoughtful, the purity behind it all was, as usual, humbling. So he nodded "Sure she will appreciate it." He smiled. He moved to lift her up so she could hand the ones they had picked over to the guy behind the counter who asked Mary what names she wanted on each one. As she told him, he allowed her to sit up on the edge of the little surface, held in place by Frank to watch as he burnt the names into each ornament before he bagged them up and she took them with a thanks. "Our first family tree stuff!" Mary grinned and Fliss smiled, bending down to give her a hug. They set back off towards the hotel, stopping by a burger joint for dinner before they dumped their bags and returned back out for their final evening in the City. Frank had loved every second of their trip, and so had Mary and Fliss. Seeing Mary's reaction to snow and the Christmas lights had been amazing, along with all the bands on street corners, people walking around dressed up. It was magical and he wasn't afraid to let his inner child come out to play either, as Fliss had just found out. "Whose idea was this again?" He asked as Mary was bouncing up and down in the queue. "Yours!" Fliss scoffed as he took Mary's hand in his right "I seem to recall the very visible horror on your face yesterday when I told you I'd never done it before..." "That’s because it's an abomination that someone who's 34 has never been ice skating." "I was a professional athlete." She shrugged "I was banned from doing anything deemed dangerous " Frank looked at her "What do they consider more dangerous than flying a half tonne animal almost 2 meters into the air?" "Bungee jumping, sky diving, jet skiing, water skiing, ice skating.." Fliss shrugged "just to name 5" Frank shook his head as the queue shuffled forward a little. It wasn't too long now, luckily they had timed it right by arriving 20 minutes or so before the next lot of General Admission to the famous Rockefeller rink opened so there weren't too many people ahead. After another 10 minutes they got to the front and Frank nudged Fliss out of the way as she tried to pay. She scowled at him and he simply rolled his eyes and handed his card over. It wasn't cheap but then, he was in New York. What was? Together they headed onto the ice. Frank, having done it a few times as a kid found his legs fairly quickly and didn't stop himself laughing as Mary's completely went from under her and she landed with a thump on her ass. "Here..." he chuckled, offering her his hand. He pulled her up and moved her in front of him. "Give me your hands..." Mary extended her arms to the side and he took her mitten clad hands in his, holding her in front of him. Fliss was moving tentatively behind him, using the sides for support a little. "Ok slide your right foot forward, like on your roller skates..." Frank said. Mary did as she was told "now left...right...left...right..." He continued his chanting and glanced over his shoulder to see Fliss was concentrating on her feet, her tongue poking out slightly. "You good?" "Yup." She said, raising her hand to give him a thumbs up before she skidded slightly and went down in a tangle of limbs. Letting out a laugh he gently pivoted Mary so she could hold onto the side and offered Fliss his hand. Pulling her up into his arms he held her steady for a moment whilst her laughing subsided. He watched her for a second, her face creasing up into those adorable dimples, eyes crinkled so much they were almost shut and her shoulders shook with the force of her giggles. "I fuckin' love you..." he grinned and she smiled at him. "Back at ya sailor" After another few laps Mary and Fliss had managed to get the hand of it which meant Frank could leave them a little bit as he went off for what he called a proper skate. The girls watched calling him a show off as he crossed his feet and turned, skating backwards a little. Both of them debated sabotaging him and tripping him up but they decided not to, instead they simply pretended they didn't know him, resulting in him grabbing Fliss from behind just beneath the large tree, and spinning her round to face him. "Can I help you?" She teased and he gave a snort. "Yeah, you can... Mary?" He called to her where she was trying to perfect a turn and failing as she almost stumbled again. She looked up and headed over. "Can you take our photo?" "Only if you're gonna kiss..." she replied, making smooching noises. "Well we can’t disappoint her..." Frank shrugged and Fliss grinned, her smile turning into a shriek as Frank quickly grabbed her hips before he took one hand, keeping the other round her back and dipped her so she was bending backwards, planting a sloppy kiss on her lips. She laughed against his mouth as he gave her a wink, before kissing her a little deeper and then setting her upright, his eyes boring into hers which were shining in the Christmas lights surrounding the rink. "Oh that was great!" Mary howled and he turned to face her as she handed his phone back. Frank checked the photo and had to smile, it was a dammed good shot. He showed it to Fliss and she beamed. "A framer?" She asked. "A framer." He agreed. It took them ages to get Mary to finally leave the rink. Even a bribe of hot chocolate, marshmallows and cookies wasn't doing it. Eventually Frank put his foot down and told her it was time to go as it was almost 9pm and they still had that tree to go see before they headed to Central Park for one last walk in the lights. After handing their skates back and retrieving their belongings from the lockers they followed the path to the tree. As they round the corner Mary gasped. "It's huge!" She turned to look at Frank and Fliss, her eyes wide "Oh my God!" Frank smiled kissed Fliss' cheek as Mary walked slightly ahead of them down the walkway that was flanked with smaller trees and the famous lit up trumpeting angels . As they caught her up he slipped his spare hand in his pocket, his fingers curling round the small, leather box inside. The damned thing had been burning a hole in his pocket since he had bought it in Boston just after Thanksgiving. Fliss, Verity and Bill had all stayed for a very pleasant week rounded off with a damned good proper Thanksgiving dinner and the three of them had flown home on the Friday, as Fliss was starting to stress about her business. He and Mary followed on the Sunday after she had been given the all clear to fly after a week’s check up at the Hospital. On his spare afternoon, he'd taken a trip into the city with one goal, and it had been surprisingly easy. The first jeweller he has walked into had a perfect ring, and despite the fact he had visited several others none of them caught his eye like that. So he had gone back and asked the assistant for a closer look. It wasn't a huge rock, white gold and emerald cut with in a pave setting, but everything about it had screamed Fliss. It was delicate and feminine but with a wonderful sparkle just like her. He knew that sounded so lame when he had told the assistant but she has just smiled and told him that if he had that much conviction, it must be right. He had been lost when she asked him what size, but in a sudden inspiration he had remembered the Pandora ring he had bought her when he had gotten his first new pay check as supervisor. He mentioned this to the assistant who beamed and said she could easily size it from that by using a simple conversion chart and told him to come back the following day. His sudden good spirit had fallen as he explained he couldn't do and asked her to see if here was anything she could do, even contemplating taking it and having it sizes back in Florida. But, after the shitty run of events over the last week, his luck was in after she returned 5 minutes later with a slip of paper, informing him it would be ready by the end of the day. When he had told Mary he was going to ask Fliss to marry him, she'd been so excited. She'd asked when, where and when he said he didn’t know she'd given him the most exasperated look on the planet. The only one of his friend who he had confided in, Greg, hadn’t been much help either, simply telling him to do it in a way that meant something to them both. Simply put he just hadn't a fucking clue. He had agonized over how to pop the question. On the boat? Or maybe a sunset on their favourite spot at St Pete's beach? Did he wait for New York? As such, Frank had taken to carrying the ring around with him, waiting for that moment when it felt right. So far it hadn't happened at home and as it stood New York wasn’t faring any better. He had thought about it at the top of the Empire state, but it had been too busy. Then there was a moment in Central Park after they had been snowman building that might have worked...until Fliss had nailed him in the face with a snowball. So they'd had a snowball fight instead. Then when walking over Brooklyn Bridge, the skyline behind them… then when they walked back to the Hotel after seeing the Lion King on Broadway, going the long way round to see the display in Macy's window all lit up...and then that moment before when Mary had taken a picture of them kissing under the tree on the ice rink... but none of it felt right. It didn't feel like the moment for them. But now something stirred in his gut. This could be it. It wasn't too busy, the place was gorgeous, right in front of the tree Fliss had been so desperate to see... Ok Adler, you can do this. Taking a deep breath he pulled the box from his pocket when he heard Mary give a squeal. "Oh...wow! Frankie look..." Fliss' voice was a whisper and she nudged him, pointing to the base of the tree. He followed her gaze to see a blonde haired man down on one knee, presenting a ring to a dark haired woman who had her hands clasped over her mouth. Frank slipped the box back into his pocket and stared at the man as he placed the ring onto his now fiancés finger and did his best to look like he cared when Fliss let out a soft "Awwww" The man looked around excitedly, his eyes falling on the three of them before he asked Frank if he or Fliss would mind taking a photo for them. "Course not buddy, congratulations." Frank smiled. Fucking prick... ***** "It was AMAZING!" Mary gushed to Verity as they walked to the car, Fliss' parents having come to pick them up from the airport. "we saw so much stuff but nowhere near all of it but Frank said we could go back next year in the summer maybe and do a bit more." "Looks like someone else had a good time too." Bill smiled, nodding to Fliss who let out a loud yawn. Frank chuckled "She was up all night, I told her not to have more food so close to bed time." "I wanted a hot dog and a pretzel." Fliss mumbled, "Besides, it's nothing to do with the food...we did a lot of walking." Bill gave a snort "You ride horses for a living, you should be fit enough to walk round New York" "I probably skated about 4 miles too..." Fliss said looking at Mary "Someone wouldn't come off the ice rink" "You been sleeping ok otherwise?" Verity looked at her "I'm fine mum." She smiled "No anxiety?" 'V, she said she's fine so leave it" Bill said gently and Fliss shot a grateful look at her dad. She knew her mum was only concerned but she was fed up of assuring people she was fine. After the attack from John she had suffered a bout of delayed shock which had manifested in a few panic attacks, nightmares, and restlessness at night and on one occasion nausea. Luckily Frank had been brilliant at keeping calm when she had an episode, helping her work through it and the last incident she had suffered had been over a week ago. Once they were all in the car, Frank took the passenger seat after Verity offered it to him, Mary continued to chat all the drive home about New York, Fliss and Frank butting in here and there. They arrived home little after 30 minutes later and Fliss headed up the steps with Mary, Thor almost sending the pair of them flying when they opened the door. "Oh puppy I missed you!" Fliss smiled as she gave him plenty of attention and he kept licking her face, whining and emitting quiet little barks. "Did you miss me? Did you?" "Yerress" Frank did his best Scooby Doo impression as he walked past and Fliss let out a laugh, as she stood up and headed into the living room behind Mary, bumping into the girl as she stopped dead, giving a squeal as she saw the Christmas Tree in the corner. "Mum, Dad?" Fliss called, smiling "I take it you did this?" Frank appeared behind them both, smiling as Fliss and Mary exchanged a glance before they all turned to Bill and Verity who were stood in the doorway. "Well we know how much you like to get your tree up as early as you can and, well we were picking one up for ourselves so we got you one. You don’t mind do you?" Verity, looked at Fliss then Frank. "No, of course not!" Fliss grinned. "Saved me a job." Frank nodded "Thanks guys." "Can we decorate it tonight?" Mary asked "Pleeeeeeeaaaasssseee Frank!" Frank glanced at his watch before giving a sigh, he knew she wouldn't go to bed if he said no anyway so what was the point? Plus she was at the University tomorrow which didn’t start until 10 so... "Ok, but if you so much as grumble tomorrow morning when I get you up you'll be in deep trouble." He looked at her sternly as she stooped to pick Fred up. "Cross my heart, hope to die, we all know Fred's got one eye..." she chanted off, nodding. "We brought your box of decorations from the annex." Verity smiled at Fliss, nodding to the box on the floor. "We thought you could pick what you want to keep now you're combining."

“Speaking of decorations…” Frank said, looking at Mary.

“Oh…yeah…hang on…” She said, running to the sofa where she had dumped her little pink rucksack. She fished out the paper bag they had gotten from the stall and found the Snowman they had bought. With a smile she handed it to Verity who looked down at it, her face curling into a smile as her eyes started to prick with tears.

“Fliss said you wouldn’t mind the names Mary wanted on them.” Frank said, watching carefully.

“Of course we don’t mind!” Bill smiled, picking Mary up to give her a hug “We are Nanny V and Poppa B ain’t that right kiddo?” “Yep!” she grinned, hugging him.

“We’ll save it to hang tomorrow when you come over after school.” Verity said as Bill set Mary on the floor and she hugged her tightly.

After a little more chat Verity and Bill left and Frank instructed Mary to change into her Pyjamas before they did the tree. Deciding that was a good idea, Fliss did the same and before long they were all in the living room. Fliss and Mary going through the boxes of decorations, Frank wrestling with the tangle of fairy lights. How they managed to get so fucking knotted up after simply being in a box for 12 months was beyond him.

He had just about managed it when Thor came over to inspect what he was doing, and dropped straight onto his back on top of the string.

“Thor…get out of it…” he grumbled, pushing the dog who simply rolled over, taking half the lights with him, tangling them round his legs and his tails. “Jesus Christ…stand still…for fucks sake…”

Thinking this was a huge game, Thor started to bounce around, barking, and Frank shook his head. “Fliss, sort this mutt out….” Fliss gave a laugh and dropped off the sofa, calling Thor to her. He sat down, allowing Frank to remove the lights before he stood up, shaking them out. Together the 3 of them wound them round the tree before they made a start on the decorations.

“Frank got me this for my first Christmas.” Mary said, hanging a red bauble which had her name on it. “The glitter has all fallen off it now.”

“We can add more if you want.” Fliss looked at her and Mary shrugged.

“I kinda like it.” It didn’t take them long, and their wooden trinkets from New York were the last ones they hung, Mary ensuring they took pride of place. Frank then lifted her up so she could place the star at the top before they stood back.

“Ready for the big turn on?” Frank asked, grinning. Mary and Fliss cheered and began a countdown from 5. When they hit 1 Frank hit the switch and the lights on the tree came to life. He stepped back, looking up at it, his arm curling round Fliss’ shoulder, his other dropping to Mary as she grinned.

“Best Tree ever.” she smiled.

“Yeah, and now it’s time for the best bed ever…” he looked at her.

“Seriously?” Mary complained

“No moaning, remember?” Frank instructed her. “That was in the morning.”

“Well I just extended it to now as well.” he said, shrugging “Because I can, so get…” “Fine, fine, I’m going…” she grumbled. “Night Fliss.” “Night sweetie.” Fliss dropped a kiss to her head before Mary shot a filthy look at Frank who met her with a passive one of his own.

“I’ll be in in a second.” Frank shot after her, watching as she headed down to the hallway. He turned back to Fliss who was watching the tree, a smile on her face.

“Not exactly up to Macey’s standards…” Frank chuckled and she shook her head.

“I love it.” “It looks like an Elf threw up on it.”

“All trees should be like that.” Fliss shrugged, before she gave his cheek a peck. “Now, you go sort Mary and I’ll get us both a beer.” “Actually…” he said, looping his arms round her waist. “I believe there was something else you promised me tonight…” “Oh, yes, of course, Frankie has needs…” she replied with an almost uncanny impersonation, which made him snort. “Does that mean no beer?”

“No beer.” “You want me to wait in bed.” “Yes I do.” he nodded “Go, I’ll let Thor out and lock up.”

Grinning she accepted his kiss and smiled as she turned around, casting him a quite frankly sinful look over her shoulder which almost had him hard right there and then. Not wanting to wait a moment longer he sorted the dog, locked the door, poked his head into Mary’s room to wish her goodnight, and headed into their bedroom. Fliss was hanging her jeans in the closet after having simply discarded them on the bed earlier, and wasting no time Frank pulled off his T-shirt, tossing it to the side before he stepped up behind her, spinning her round to face him. He pressed his lips to hers, deepening the kiss as he slid his hands down to cup her ass and she smirked into the kiss.

“I like your ass.” he muttered. “I like yours too” she said back, “And your arms”

He laughed and pulled back to look down at her as her fingers trailed up his biceps. “My arms?”

“Yeah, your big, strong arms, and your big, broad shoulders and your stupid, handsome face…” she muttered, pulling him back down to her. In between the dizzying kisses Frank steered her towards the bed, and as her legs collided with the edge he stopped to gently trail kisses across her bare collar bone. His lips found her jaw and then, with a wicked quirk of his eyebrow he reached down for her thighs, and grabbing them he pulled them forwards, causing her to fall backwards as he pitched them both onto the bed. As she laughed he chuckled slightly before he kissed her again, and then it was a scramble to get out of his clothes as fast as he could before he fell back on top of his girl, his hands pulling up her camisole top, lips kissing at the spot just below her ear before he slid down her shorts, his mouth gently kissing a trail up from her belly through the middle of her breasts, up her neck and finally back to her mouth.

Fliss was utterly lost now, in the usual whirl of love, and lust and passion and kissed him back, hard as his hand gently dropped between her legs and he felt her slick against the tips of his fingers as he gently coaxed at her clit, continuing until she was nothing short of a writhing mess clawing at his back, aching for him. They locked eyes as he took her left hand in his, and slowly worked into her, both moaning simultaneously at the sensation, Fliss’s eyes rolling back at the exquisite stretch inside. Frank began to move his hips slowly, deeply, his thrusts weren’t measured in the slightest despite the fact he was absolutely aching for her. He wanted to take it slow, end what had been an amazing trip in the same mood it had started in, absolute pure love.

His mouth moved back to Fliss’s neck, nipping gently at her skin and she let out low moan as he picked up the pace ever so slightly, his spare hand kept hold of her hip, keeping her as close to him as she could possibly be.

“Fuck, Frank, right there…” she groaned as he hit her spot and he smirked slightly, he loved the way she got like this with him, ever so demanding at times, such a far cry from the timid woman he had fallen for the previous year.

“Yeah?” he panted as she gave a soft cry, her body tensing underneath him “Good.” “So good…” she moaned, arching her back. His mouth found hers again and his hand slid from her hip to gently tease her nipple and she rolled her hips to grind up against him, changing the angle slightly causing him to go deeper.

“Lissy…” he panted as he drove into her deeply, slowly, and then again and again, his pace increasing ever so slightly. Every single sense Frank possessed was on fire and he broke the long, lazy kiss that they were sharing to stifle a moan against her cheek when he felt her clench around him, a tell-tale sign she was nearing her release. The sheets rustled underneath and around them both as his hips pushed up against hers, and Frank saw Fliss’ head tip back, her throat bared to him in utter bliss as she came hard, her moans soft and breathy into his ear. Frank picked up his pace slightly, chasing his own end as he pushed her through hers, and when he felt that snake in his belly beginning to unravel, he gave a low grunt which morphed into a gasp as he clung to Fliss, spilling himself into her, his hips slowing to a stop as he collapsed forward. Fliss gave a soft chuckle as her hands gently slid up his back and into his hair, as she moved and pressed a soft kiss to his head.

“I know I keep saying it but I really do fuckin’ love you Cowgirl.” he said, voice muffled as his face pressed into her neck.

Fliss gave a chuckle “I’ll never tire of hearing it Sailor. “

He moved to look at her, flashing her a grin before he caught her mouth in a sweet kiss. **** "You still not managed it?" Greg asked as they stood at the bar, waiting for their drinks. Frank sighed and glanced at Fliss who was sat with Bonnie in the booth, the pair of them sniggering at something. "Do you see a ring on her finger?" He looked at Greg. "No" "Well there's your answer." "What's the hold up, man?" Greg frowned. "Nothing has felt right." Frank sighed "she won’t want a huge fuss in front of people so that basically ruled out all of New York...bar one moment when I thought it was time, in front of the tree at Rockefeller...and then some douchebag went and beat me to it, proposing to his girl whilst we watched..." "You're over thinking it." Greg said, looking at Frank "Take a step back. When are the pair of you at your best? The time you enjoy most, I mean" "Honestly?" Frank shrugged "at night when Mary's gone to bed and we finally sit down and just watch TV or joke around." "Well there you go." Greg shrugged "What, at home?" Frank frowned "Why not?" Greg looked at him "the point isn't to be showy or flashy but to show her you wanna spend the rest of your life with her." Frank pondered this for a moment. Greg has a point. They were at their happiest doing the simple things, spending quiet time together, being fucking normal. Fliss loved it when they curled up and Frank would simply cuddle her close and kiss her head, easy signs of affection that she had craved all through her wreck of a marriage. And Frank loved it too, because it made him feel grounded, time for him to simply be Frank in his own right, the very thing he used to use his Friday night drinking sessions for. Now he could feel it every night, thanks to Lissy…

And then, suddenly an idea came to him, out of nowhere.

Oh, it was perfect! "Greg..." he smiled, slapping the man on the back "you are a genius." "Glad I could be of service." Greg smirked "This means I get best man duty, right?"

Frank smirked at him, shrugging, not giving anything away. His eyes flicked back to Fliss who had now stood up, Simon having returned to the table sliding in next to Bonnie. Frank’s eyes travelled up her bare legs, from her high-heels up to the short little pink playsuit she was wearing, which was printed with black palm trees and other patterns, the small straps settling on her tanned shoulders, the front showing him just enough cleavage. She was wearing a black butterfly necklace that she had bought in New York and her hair was loose, falling over her shoulders in soft curls. Her brown eyes locked onto his and he smiled as he remembered the last Circle Of Truth Christmas outing the previous year, when he had told her he loved her for the first time. And here they were, now 5 days away from their second Christmas together.

“Hey beautiful” he smiled as she reached his side. His arm curled round her and he pressed a kiss to her cheek “You ok?” “Yeah, just thirsty.” she smiled. “Can I get a water as well as my gin please?”

“Sure…” he turned to look at the bar tender who was pulling their drinks together. Once he had attracted his attention and added a bottle of water to the order he turned back to her as Greg spoke up.

“Frank said you enjoyed New York.” “Oh, it was fantastic.” she smiled “Every bit as magical as I thought it was going to be.”

“Good, I’m glad you all had a good time.” Greg smiled “You deserved it after everything that went down.” “Yeah well, he’s banged up now. His brother is going to go down for Endangerment or whatever it is you call it, its’ done, it’s over.” Fliss smiled, “We got the rest of our lives ahead of us now.” “Well, if that doesn’t call for shots then I don’t know what does…” Greg smirked as the bar tender placed their drinks in front of them.

“No, Greg…” Fliss started to protest but Greg cut her off.

“Yes Greg!” he smirked, turning to the bar tender, “Can I get a bottle of Tequila pal and 8 glasses.” Fliss groaned “I’m teaching at 9 am!”

“Dumbass…” Greg looked at her and Frank gave a snort.

“I told you to switch them out…”

“I can’t!” she pouted “I already did for Boston and New York…” “Well…” Greg smirked as the bar tender set the bottle and glasses down in front of him “Looks like you’re doing it with a hangover honey.” “Fuck my life…” **** Fuck my life indeed. Fliss spent the following morning throwing up, groaning once more that she was never drinking tequila EVER again. Frank reminded her of how many times she had said that over the time he had known her and she’d simply let out a huge fake sob and thrown herself face down on the bed again declaring that she didn’t want to adult anymore as it sucked.

The days before Christmas passed in the usual chaos. Presents were wrapped and stashed under the tree, more drinks were had with Friends. Evelyn visited for a few days, which had actually almost pleased Frank a little. She wasn’t staying for Christmas, her arrangements having already been made, but she had hinted that maybe next year she could, to which Frank and Fliss had both agreed. She had been taken with Mary’s gift to her and had laughed out loud when Bill and Verity had presented her with a case of Malbec, the same Malbec she’d smashed a bottle of over John’s head. Her gifts to them both had been a substantial chunk of money, in the thousands, and when Frank had protested at the amount on the cheque she had waved it off as 8 years of owed presents. Mary’s was wrapped so it was placed under the tree for Christmas morning. Evelyn headed back to Boston on the morning of Christmas Eve, Frank and Mary driving her to the airport instead of her driver, where they had both bid her a Happy Christmas and waved her goodbye as she headed off to spend it with her friends in Newton.

After the final preparations were made Frank, Fliss and Mary collapsed onto the sofa for a Marathon of Christmas Films. Mary was, as usual, excited and the copious amounts of chocolate and candy she was shovelling down weren’t helping either, but what the hell, it was Christmas after all.

"You ok?" Frank glanced at Fliss as she sat on the other side of the couch. Love Actually was playing, the final film of the evening before Mary went to bed. Fliss, however didn't look like she was paying attention. "Huh?" She looked at him, blinking. "I said are you ok? You look like you were miles away"

“Yeah, sorry, I was errr…just running through things in my head, making sure nothing was forgotten.” Frank smiled. They were hosting Verity and Bill tomorrow as Steven and his family were at his wife’s parents for this year, flying out instead of the 28th to spend New Year’s with them all. Fliss had asked Frank if they could host, as she’d never had the chance to do that before and of course he had agreed, not least because of the excited look on her face when she had asked.

“The table is set, food and everything is ready to go…” he chuckled, looking at her “Just relax…”

He reached round Mary, his hand gently rubbing at Fliss’ back and she smiled at him, turning her attention to the TV.

20 minutes or so later the film finished and Mary jumped up, grabbing Frank’s hand to make him dance to God Only Knows as the final closing scenes played out. He smiled and picked her up, resting her on his hip as he twirled her round to the song, the pair of them laughing before he eventually dropped her down and told her it was bed time. She scooted off, Fred trotting behind her, his tail swishing as she skipped and Frank headed in about 5 minutes later to tuck her in, before he came back to the living room.

“She wants you to go and say goodnight.” he smiled,

Fliss nodded and stood up.

“You sure you’re ok?” Frank asked.

“Yeah, honestly, I’m just tired.” she assured him. Giving him a kiss she headed up the hall and Frank watched her go before he smiled to himself, and set about quickly putting the last touches to his plan.

She came back about 10 minutes later and he smiled at her as she walked into the room.

“OK, now she’s out of the way…I got something for you...” Frank smiled.

Fliss looked at him before she shook her head, chuckling a little “I got something for you too…Frank, I have-” “Me first.” Frank cut her off.

She looked at him for a second, his bright blue eyes were shining as he grinned at her and she rolled her eyes.

“Fine…” she smiled, “Ok, you first.” He grinned and then folded his arms “You gotta find it.” “What?”

“It’s hidden, on the tree, and you gotta find it.” Her face lit up as she gave a laugh “You are such a dork!” “Yeah, I know…” Narrowing her eyes playfully she moved to the tree, glancing at it. “Ok so it’s not very big then, seeing as I can’t see it straight away.” Frank shrugged as she continued her search.

“I haven’t put it high up, seeing as you’re a short ass…” “I’m perfectly average for a woman thank you.” “Trust me baby girl, nothing about you is average.” he winked and she let out a snort.

“Charmer.” she grinned, turning back to the tree.

“Ok, you’re miles off…” he said, and she moved to her right “Gettin’ warmer…warmer…ok, yep, nearly there…” Fliss continued to search, and then something caught her eye. There was something shiny handing from the nose of her Doe ornament. She stepped forward slightly, and when she realised what it was her right hand flew to her mouth. Frank’s breath caught in his throat as she spun to face him, her eyes wide.

"You, me and Mary have been hanging out together since August last year now...” he said, clearing his throat slightly “How do you feel about hanging with us forever?" He watched, holding his breath as Fliss' chest heaved with emotion as she looked at him, those brown eyes he could happily stare at all day were full of tears, the hand which had flown to her mouth in surprise was now shaking as it slid to the spot beneath her throat, that dip in her neck that he could nuzzle at forever. "I'll hang with you for as long as you'll have me..." she whispered, taking a deep breath. "Is that a yes?" Frank inhaled sharply and a watery laugh burst through her tears. "Yes. Yes, a thousand times yes!" Frank's face split into a huge grin "shit..." he sputtered before she threw herself into his arms and he lifted her up easily, her legs wrapping around his waist as he held her close, kissing her neck. She pulled back and placed a kiss to his lips, long and short pecks being shared as she laughed and he laughed, the pair of them simply lost in the moment until eventually he set her down and with a shaking hand he reached out to retrieve the ring from where it was hanging. Taking her left hand in his, with a deep breath he slipped the diamond onto her finger.

Fliss looked at it, admiring the way the delicate band sat underneath her knuckle, the beautiful diamond twinkling in the lights of the tree.

"Oh Frankie...it’s gorgeous..." she whispered, before she looked at him, taking his face in both his hands and pulling him down for a deep kiss. "I love you so much."

"I love you too." He smiled, kissing her again before he pulled away, his hands linking behind her back.

"I err, got us some champagne." He smiled, "I know it was presumptive of me but figured we could have it tomorrow if you turned me down." Fliss looked up at him, blinking before she took a deep breath “First I need to get you…just wait here…” He released her from his hold and she turned and headed out of the room, Frank watched her go, blinking for a moment before he shrugged and headed to the fridge, the smile still plastered on his face. She said yes!

Not that he had doubted she would, not really, but there had always been that little bit of fright she may have done. But that was all gone now. As he popped the cork on the bottle he found himself thinking about how he would be doing that soon enough on his wedding day. He poured 2 glassed and headed into the living room with them wondering if maybe a late Autumn wedding next year would be nice, October perhaps when it started to cool off slightly. They could do the beach wedding she always wanted, hire a marquee... Lost in his thoughts completely he jumped a little when Fliss spoke his name and turned to look at her as she stood in front of him, the back of his thighs brushing against the sofa slightly. He noticed her hand was in her pocket, clutching something. Playfully he nodded towards it “I assume that’s not a spanner." He chuckled, referencing the joke they often shared and Fliss shook her head, biting her lip. "No it’s a bit bigger than that" With a shaky hand she pulled out a small, white stick of plastic and held it towards him. It took Frank a moment to understand what it was and as soon as he did his eyes widened and he looked at her, then it, then back again.

"You're...we're...no!." he stuttered, reaching out to take it from her. "I found out this morning." Fliss whispered, watching his reaction carefully "I suspected last week but thought it might all be down to stress and stuff but..." "How, I mean..." "I should have started a new pill packet when we went to Boston but I forgot to take it with me. I thought I'd be ok if I started as soon as I got back but..." "There's a baby in there?" Frank cut her off as he stumbled over his words, nodding to her stomach "Yeah" Fliss nodded. "You put it there." Frank's legs grew shaky and he dropped onto the sofa, staring down at the test in his hands.

2 blue lines. 2 blue lines that had just changed his world forever. "I'm sorry, I know this is sudden and I should have been more careful..." Fliss took a tentative step towards him and he reached out, his hands on either side of her hips, gently pulling her t-shirt up. He leaned forward and placed a soft kiss to her belly, his forehead resting just above her navel. "I'm gonna be a dad." he pulled back, his eyes watering. "Frankie, you already are." Fliss said, her own tears once more springing forth. "I know you hate it when I say that about Mary but it's true." He looked at her, a dazed smile split his face into two as he pulled her onto his lap, where she straddled him, and he kissed her, hard, leaving her slightly breathless before he rest his forehead against hers. "Fuck, Lissy." he whispered, his eyes closed "You're cooking a little person..." She spluttered a laugh, nodding, her forehead brushing his as she did. "Was it made in Boston...is that the right word?" He pulled back to look at her and she laughed, brushing her hand through his fluffy hair as his gently reached out to rest against her stomach. "Yeah and most likely." "It's a little Boston Bean" he grinned and she laughed again, pressing her lips to his. "You're ok with it then? I know it's probably not what you would have planned but..." "Ok? Of course I'm ok!" He smiled "I love you and the thought of us making a little person that's half me, half you...fuck, it's amazing." She smiled and nodded, her voice a whisper "I know..."

"There is one problem." Franks said, his arms wrapping tightly around her. "What?" "You just ruined Christmas forever...because nothing is ever gonna live up to this ever again."

****** Fliss, Frank and Mary’s adventure continues in RIDING ON

#riding high #frank adler #frank adler x ofc #frank adler x original female character #gifted #gifted fan fic #chris evans #chris evans characters

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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The Legend of the Three Caballeros: Shangri-La-Di-Da and Sheldgoose Squaredance Reviews: The Last Ride (Comissoned by WeirdKev27)

SALUDOS AMGIOS.. THIS IS IT! The finale review of my retrospective on the Three Caballeros THE RIDE OF THE THREE CABLLEROS. It’s the final ride. While there will be, as i’ve said the last few time, a little epilogue to celebrate finishing this, as clocking in at 15 reviews, one best of list coming next week and covering a film, two sizeable comic book stories, and 18 episodes of television, this has been one of my largest projects and one of my proudest. But there will be time to look back next week. For now i’m amped up, excited about this series and excited to finish. So after the cut join me for one last full ride as our heroes face their final hour!

Shangri-La-De-Da: Our penultimate adventure begins with the Cabs returning home after training with King Arthur, where they apparently got a years worth of training in a day.. because apparently Camelot is one giant hyperbolic time chamber. But the training’s paid off as our heroes are now at their most skilled and most powerful: As a result Jose skifully and perfectly cuts an orange in seconds, Panchito ropes an apple from a nearbye stand (and the owner’s really cool about it since Panchito gives him the money for it “Thanks magic rope!”) and Donald.. breaks everything but in a really impressive ways. Our heroes are at their best and ready to take on Feldrake when the time comes, while Ari and the Bear.. are hiding what happened last episode with the girls investigating. Hey can’t win em all. Meanwhile Sheldrake is leading Sheldgoose into the Manor.. after a few goofs on him running into the barrier because he’s a petty asshole. They decsend into the depths bellow leaving Leopold to guard.

Back at the Cabana Donald just wants one more thing... Daisy.

I’ve.. gone on about why he shouldn’t do this last time. He deserves better. Xandra is right there and while she’s treated him shabbily from time to time. it’s more human error versus... everything with Daisy just everything. This plot point has been nothing but pain and suffering for me and it’s not changing that track record in these last two episodes, though thankfully it’s barely in the finale, so my own track record of screaming about daisy in text form every time she shows up will also remain in tact. He does this because Xandra offered them a vacation so he won’t be distracted.. again why isn’t she the love intrest? I dunno maybe sh’es more into Jose. And Daisy sucks on arrival, phrasing, as her response to Donald’s call wasn’t to just.. tell him no but to go to his place to clearly tell him no to his place saying “Let’s recap, you abandoned me in a bad part of town, spent our date in the bathroom all night in a hula skirt, then brainwashed my nieces into helping you trick me with a dummy”. Okay Daisy, you want to recap, you insufferable, pompus, selfish, self absorbed, overly demanding, overly haughty, golddigging rose colored shrew?

Let’s fucking recap: He left you in a bad part of town because he got FIRED from his job and found out his house burned down, something you REFUSED to let him explain. You found out about this and then proceded to berate him over dinner, saying he couldn’t possibly help people. While he did spend a while in the bathroom with a hula skirt nad never explained it the ONE point you have.. he LEFT to go help his friends, with you once again leaving instead of letting him come back and explain later or leaving but going to his place to hash this out or just dump him. THEN, something you CAREFULLY omitted, you moved on which is fine.. as a way to make him jealous, bringing the guy to his door to rub his beak in your new relationship with not a hint of shame,a nd ran off whie he was fighting for his life clearly. Now seeing things were more complicated, you asked NO follow up questions, imposed a date on him and while he did lie your nieces WERE NOT FUCKING BRAINWASHED. This was of their own free will you unbleivible she demon. You are so up your own ass you can’t even see the obvious. And then you came here JUST to say all this and be mean to Donald one more time. While Donald shoudln’t of called you up it’s not because of all that it’s because your a heartlress, selfish, shrivled husk of a person. You care about NO ONE but yourself, and that includes Donald. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.

So Xandra just zaps them away and says she’s perfect for Donald.

Donald and Daisy end up in the himlayas.. cue the music.

youtube

Why isn’t this game on Switch? Questions for later. Point is our heroes find a cave to duck in and a yeti.. who after clearing their throat reveals Xandra left them at the entrance for Shangri-La, and the inside is intorduced.. with a very lackluster musical number. A weak note for the songs to go out on but not bad, though Donald is pissed off because that’s his schtick here.. though credit where it’s do: Since I didn’t know everything and hadn’t finished it turns out his anger was delebrate.. but we’ll get to that and why it dosen’t work in a moment. Back at the Cabana the boys fence with bread before Panchito gets a flash as Sheldgoose puts the first amulet into..some kind of melting pool... and the girls confirm what happened seconds later. Feldrake has the amulets, which were used to seal him last time as revealed in last episode, and is melting them into his own power. The final battle is nigh! So Xandra goes to fetch Donald.. and comes back as she CAN’T. Donald and Daisy signed a contract and they can’t leave till ALL their problems are solved. And given Donald is carried off after his anger issues not only are evident when, given a pillow representing his frustratoins he destroys it, but he DENIES having anger issues, he’s dragged off to some extreme thereapy.. i.e. a Self Reflecting reflecting pool that manifests his anger as a giant, sausgey, pissed off version of himself and he reacts as you’d expect and gets flattned. Back at the Cabana, Xandra breaks the bad news.. and whie Jose TRIES to reassure them, his amulet is next to go so he gets a flash of it being destroyed and our heroes now have to scramble to take on Sheldgoose.. WITHOUT Donald. Back at donald’s inner hulk.. man I love this fucking job, Donald is pounding away until his own flash breaks things for a moment.. and sends him into his own head. We’re then treated to an acid sequece, an homage to Donald’s surreal reverire from the original movie that while not as wild, is still gloriously bizzare. Donald rencounters the teapot ghost thing that’s apparently part of his psyche from the first episode that gets him to consider why his life is like this and he goes through a lot of moments of the first episodes.. conviently eddting out daisy’s questionable behavior and the fact some things had actual catalysits. See the idea of Donald FACING his anger issues and growing from them is fine. But this has two faults. One, it assuems you can just.. cure anger issues. You can’t. Anger is a normal emotion and as someone with them I hope to generally work thorugh mine with a therapist.. but I know they just don’t magically go away and therapy is a process and your mental issues are lifelong things you have to grapple away. It’s not the MOST insulting treatment of emtoinal issues i’ve seen, as Total Drama you know had someone with MPD cured with a fucking button press, but it’s not great. And the second is this was poorly set up. Donald was an angry asshole all series yes and it was an issue.. but it wasn’t really FRAMED as a character arc. Just Donald being donald. So while having that be the source of his issues is a good idea for a character arc for im it comes off sloppy and forced because it’s been treated more like a joke or a character trait and less like a SERIOUS issue or the problem with him and Daisy. Hell they put the whole Dapper duck thing in there when he was fine that episode and is rightfully angry about that if at the wrong person. This whole thing just feels rushed, forced and unsatsifying and is a hsame for such a good idea

The payoff is good though, as when Donald awakens and let’s his anger wash away.. he just stands as the anger donald tries to beat the crap out of him.. but can’t do anything to him since he’s calm. He’s fine, and he’s released.. and his shock collar is disabled. Good quick gag. Meanwhile our heroes aren’t sure what to do despite having tons of magical items.. until they think what would donald do.. and he’d just at least try and thus corm a GIANT FUCKING MAGIC CANON OUT OF THEM. Very nice. They blow the doors off.. and through the back.. and into the money bin where we get a scrooge cameo.

And he’s voiced by Eric Bauza.. which is sadly not great because it’s far from his best work and dosen’t even really attempt a scottish accent.

But our heroes storm the gate.. after Xandra easily disposes of the dog guards.. who Sheldgosoe apparently raised to do this... still not entirely over that. They find the staircase and the triplets op to go back while the rest charge in and prepare to fight leopold.

Back at the Cabana, Donald and Daisy return via tub and Donald, seeing the swirling vortex of darkness outside sheldgoose manor, tells daisy he has to go his friends need him it’s his destiny, gives her one hell of a kiss she dosen’t deserve.. oh and earlier he told her “Thanks for being patient with me” and she tells him it was worth the wait. Ha ha... I hope you get hit by a rusty tractor you unfathomable blight on duck kind.

So part one ends with Donald heading for the treasure chamber to armor up.

Sheldgoose Square Dance: Part two begins with Sheldgoose putting the staff in place, and an egg emerging. Weird.. and as a result of that Leopold sense his ‘Daddy’ and leaves, and before the cabs can charge in donald shows up, now confident, at full strength and after tripping as you’d epxct, with the other cabs armor and in his. The guys suit up, and we get to see both jose’s.. amazing.. toned.. stomach.

And Panchito’s big belly.. which I have one of those so we’re twinsies. And Xandra of course watches Jose change slyly. Eh i’ts a bit creepy but I can’t blame her for sneaking a peak as long as she didn’t linger.

So our heroes are suited up, look awesome and have their trademark weapons Let’s fucking go!

Back at the ranch, the Nieces talk to daisy and having grabbed a weird document last time, are trying to piece it together. Daisy.. is suddenly really good with puzzles and helps them with it. They reform it and.. don’t really do much until after the danger has passed and I avoid another cornary yelling innterally at this unpleasant pile of hippo excrement.

So while the Cabs dash to stop feldrake feldrake awakens.. as a demon baby. And Sheldgoose has about a minute of mockery before feldrake smacks him around with telekensis and agrees while his mind’s affected by his current state, he’s still fully aware and can talk and seeing the cabs are coming gives him a bit of power, i’d say about as much or a little more than what feldrake had as a staff, and sends him after the cabs.

So we get one of the most awesome moments if not THE most awesome moment in the entire series as something from EVERY episode makes a come back as shelgoose, after trying some zaps, back in full robe and cloak, MAKES HIS OWN ZOOM POINT. Thus it becomes an utterly awesome back and forth as sheldgoose summons one thing from the past and xandra summons another to counter. And it avoids reptititon as the sheer sight of characters from each episode battling it out, and never knowing which ones next, keeps it intresting.

In order: Sheldgoose summons the moon bots, Xandra summons the roman gods to hack them to pieces, after the boys get some shots in too. Sheldgoose blocks the way with lava lizards, the cabs respond with a goblin army who block the lava river and use a cat launcher against them, courtsey of king vomit. Sheldgosoe unleashes the tengu, the cabs unleash king arthur.. and we get the immortal line from donald “Thanks king arthur!”. Sheldgoose summons his ancestors, the cabs summon the ghost presidents! And in a call back that had me clapping Sheld summons the termintes.. and xandra summons THE MINOTAUR! And Sheldgoose thirsts over him. .huh.. so shledgosoe is bi good for him. And for a final distraction sheldgoose summons.. the dragon.. that was from the adventure they just had he had no way of knowing about.

So with that out fo the way our heroes and villians both reach feldrake.. whose awakened and is.. this

Really.. weird , if still threanting, deisgn aside, Feldrake now at full power turns new quackmore into the psycadelic starry battlefield we saw in the intro to the series and thus the final battle begins. We see the fight from the start.. but it’s now even MORE beautiful and glorious with context. Before we saw three strangers, if ones we knew from other works fighting some evil we never met. Now we’ve seen our heroes grow, both as people, and as heroes, learning from every encounter, getting stronger with every fight and slowly getting noticably more compitent: going from falling all over themselves just to work a ship, to defeating dragons, tengu, and other horrors as a team. And we’ve seen jus thow petty and cruel feldrake is.. and how serious the stakes are and what our heroes tand to loose should they fail. It’s not perfect.. we could stand to loose daisy and new quackmore dosen’t mean much, though Sheldgoose gets to zap regina into a worm, but it’s still AWESOME and feels like a tremendous payoff and Donald’s predator bro fist thing with Panchito has more weight. Our heroes have risen to their peak and now they face one last obstacle to becoming legends. The fight is fluid, awesome and gorgeously animated and utterly epic in every sense of the word and we catch up to their seeming defeat.. only for something we DIDN’T know about last time to help.. Xandra who gets htem out of the way. It’s a long and fantastic fight, with our heroes eventaully getting knocked over to a pool while Xandra tries her best to hold feldrake off, but is clearly wearing down despite doing her best.

Yeah while itw as established Feldrake was melting down the amulets and we saw a pool of resdiual magic, so teh magical pool of stuff the cabs find them at WAS set up.. but what happens next remotely wasn’t. The cabs fall in and commuincate with blazebeak the creator of the amulets who embues them with their power. Where he came from, why he’s just showing up n ow.. I dunno, it comes off as a really badly setup deus ex machina.. but it still dosen’t hurt the finale that bad. A little yes, as everything else is so well paced and feels like so much payoff.. but the awesomeness of our heroes glowing with their signture colors, rushing in to save xandra and then ari, who swiped the rest of the magic goop, giving it to xandra to reivvie her.. overrides it. Sometiems somethings too stupid to be awesome.. and sometimes it’s so awesome it overides common sense. So yeah poorly set up yes.. still fucking awesome also yes.

Our heroes tear feldrake apart and realize once they see the now empty staff floating in the void they can simply reseal him. Sheldgoose interupts it.. but the nieces arrive riding on humphrey and knock him inot a golden toilet... again I fucking love this job. Our heroes then try ghost bustering him back into the staff and SHeldgoose tries saving him by breaking it. And it seemingly fails.. new quackmore is restored, Sheldrake’s gone and the town remembered EVERYTHING, cheering at their new heroes and saviors. Sheldgoose finds the staff gone and bemoans his lost master.. and soon looses his presidency as regina strips him of it. With his own powers gone Sheldgoose flees on Leopold, and while Regina tries to take the presdiency for herself.. the girls reveal the document explains if a sheldgoose is absent.. a coot takes his place. And since Donald is the only remaning coot apart from Della and she’s busy actually raising her kids in this continuity apparently, Donald is the new president. While Regina vows to beat him in an election.. our heroes are now happy, with the lawyer from the first episode backing Donald’s claim up. So Donald now has a new job, a new purpose in life, his girlfriend back, which is negiably a good thing, and a new family he dearly loves and tells them as much. Awww. Also he gets the mansion, which our heroes promptly plan to move into. Donald and Daisy fight, of fucking course, our heroes claim roms and Xandra and Jose share a moment. The series gets a truly satsifyign and happy ending.. and a sequel hook as it turns out feldrake is now in sheldgooses body and the tow are going ot have to share it as Sheldgoose has leopold take them to a house with legs.. so the baba yaga then. Sadly we’ll probably never see with this leads.. and this is the end.

Final Thoughts on the finale two parter: While the first half is a bit weak in the yeti stuff, the rest of it is incredibly strong and Sheldgoose Square Danc,e while having the worst name of the series.. is easily it’s best episode, tying everythign together greatly and being one, tense and epic finale the whole way through. A true masterpiece and a clear sign the series would be even BETTER going forward had it actually been allowed to live and a true shame.. but even with the sequel hooks aside.. it’s still an utterly sastifying, joyous note to go out on and i’m GLAD I saved this one for last, as it provided a great capper for both the series and this retrospective.

Final thoughts on Legend of the Three Cablleros:

This series.. was excellent. While at first I wasn’t sure it’s rep was warranted, as the first three episodes were good but had flaws and four and five were not great.. everything after that is sublime. The series has it’s flaws, the character devlopment is uneven, the characters can be made into caractures of themselves once in a while and the writing on Daisy is horrid and i’ve said enough on that to last me a lifetime and is easily the worst part of an otherwise fantastic show. But yeah.. as I said OTHERWISE fantastic, as while the daisy stuff is very bad, it’s for the most part in the background of a VERY good show with great voice acting, fun pacing, and beautiful animation. It’s a loveletter to clasic disney animation, holding tons of mythology gags and refrences and having humphrey as a main character, but with unquie touches like letting the nieces have a starring roll and everything about xandra and sheldgoose. It’s a unique, wonderful and awesome addition to the disney animated canon and deserves a second season or some other sort of revivial. This was a wonderful note to go out on and I’m throughly glad I finally watched it. So with this the Ride of the Three Cablleros is almost over.. but come back, let’s say next week, for one last party as we count down the top 12 cabs moments and celebrate these happy chappies in matching serapes one last time. Until then.. it’s been a pleasure.. and Kevin.. thank you.

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sebastianshaw · 3 years

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I feel like The Dark Phoenix novelisation tries too hard to emulate The Avengers version of the Hellfire Club with its copied dialogue from Harry. He ends up being a worse version of John Cartney and sounds too tacky for an X-Men villain. In a way it makes me appreciate Claremont's take more, considering that he fits the Hellfire Club in the context of the X-Men and still managed to write unique personalities like Shaw instead of the usual villain types.

Is THAT where that came from? That. . . makes sense, actually, because it sounded way wrong for Harry. Which I think proves your point---Harry isn’t on-panel long in the comics, but Claremont still managed to give me enough of an impression of the guy that hearing him say shit like that sounded WRONG. One of the things I really do appreciate about Claremont is he really did try to make people individuals. Yes, he had a fondness for falling back on certain types, and some villains were DEFINITELY designed to facilitate his personal fetishes, but he had a real knack for giving unique traits and backstories even to very minor background characters. For instance, we never learn too much about Pyro as a person, but he was a Gothic romance novelist and I adore that quirk so much (and I wish even ONE X-Men adaptation incorporated it) And Senator Kelly is an actual human being, who doesn’t come out of the woodwork just hating mutants, we SEE his process and how/why he gets there, and it’s tragic. Or, as with Shaw, giving him actual real-world political philosophy instead of just making him Scrooge McDuck the Mutant, and having him started out as a better person. He even gave personal moments to the likes of Donald Pierce, who is pretty unsympathetically evil through and through, such as in Uncanny X-Men #249, he and Lady Deathstrike look at paintings by Colossus, and they have this conversation: Lady Deathstrike: “Life is a torment for him. Not even death is a release, merely a prelude to greater tortures. There is no joy left in him.” Pierce: “A man after my own heart. Almost a shame to kill so kindred a spirit. But Colossus is both mutant and X-man, therefore…his fate is sealed.” Like, Pierce is horrible as hell, but this one moment, one sentence, gives a ton of insight into his inner life---he’s admitting he’s in pain and that not even death can release him, and that he can relate to Colossus in this even though Colossus is a mutant. It’s a small thing but it’s so much more than most writers would give a bad guy who is the sort Pierce is and not the tragic noble kind like Magneto. And Magneto only *is* tragic and noble BECAUSE of Claremont, who is the guy who gave him his backstory as a Holocaust survivor and friend of Xavier. Claremont not only created great characters, he built them too upon pre-existing characters that had been fairly flat til then. Again, Claremont’s got his flaws as a writer. His dialogue style, while great in the 80s, really doesn’t work in modern comics. His addiction to exposition has reached meme status. And plenty of his characters are, again, barely disguised fetish fuel. But goddamn, the man was a great character writer, and he really CARED about giving EACH of them a past and a point of view, even if we could only get to see that briefly.

#chris claremont #claremont #Anonymous

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what-is-your-plan-today · 4 years

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Riding High Ch 25: Keep It Simple

Chapter Summary: The events of Boston behind them, Frank, Fliss and Mary look forward to Christmas…and Frank has a big surprise planned.

Chapter Warnings: Bad Language words. Smut…NSFW and NO UNDER 18s!!!

Chapter Pairings: Frank Adler x OFC Fliss Gallagher

And yes, I know it ain’t Christmas but…well, in my mind it should be Christmas every day!

Series Masterlist // Main Masterlist

Chapter Song: God Only Knows by the Beach Boys

If you should ever leave me, thought life would still go on, believe me, the world could show nothing to me, so what good would living do me? God only knows what I’d be without you…

"Mary can you just hold on a second, please!" Frank sighed, grabbing the back of her coat to stop her shooting off into the crowd that streamed down the busy Manhattan sidewalk. "But Frank!" she turned and looked at him, her woollen hat jammed down over her ears "I just wanna see the stall!" "Yeah but you can't just run off!" He grumbled and besides him Fliss gave a chuckle. He turned to look at her "who gets so excited about damned wooden tree ornaments?" "Oh hush!" Fliss leaned up to give him a pack, her cold nose brushing his. In retaliation he pulled the front of her baby blue sparkly bobble hat down over her eye and she shoved him in the chest, laughing. "Fuck you!" "Chance would be a fine thing" he grumbled, taking Fliss’ hand as they headed after Mary. "Awww is that why you're grumpy?" Fliss grinned as they walked "Coz you haven't had any in nearly 3 days?" Frank pouted "No." "Liar..." "Ok, look...Frankie has needs..." he whined "I completely over looked the fact hanging out with an 8 year old in the room would be a cock block." "Always the shower..." Fliss teased and Frank snorted. "Yeah, right. Can you imagine? I give it 3 minutes before she came looking for us." "We go home tomorrow. I'll make it up to you then." Fliss grinned and he sighed. "What?" She laughed. "It’s just...you look so hot in all this winter clothing." Frank grinned. And he meant it. Seeing her wrapped up in a coat, hat and scarf had made her look all cute and cozy...and it had done inappropriate things to him for some odd reason. "Hmmm, you know most men get more turned on the less clothing their girls wear." She teased and he grinned. "Yeah, well, I'm not most men" She gave him a smile which he returned with a soft kiss as they stopped by the stall where Mary instantly dived into looking at the array of ornaments. After a few moments of looking she handed Frank one in the shape of a reindeer stag, and a doe for him and Fliss before selecting a robin for herself. "I think they're so pretty." She looked at the bird in her hand "I saw one at Evelyn's over thanks giving." "Ever heard the saying robins appear when loved ones are near?" Fliss asked. Mary shook her head. "No" "Well, I don't know about here but certainly in England we say it because there is an old belief by some people that a robin is a message from heaven, that a loved one is watching over you." "Do you believe that?" Mary looked at Fliss. Fliss hesitated "Well when my mum's dad died I was 20 and I remember getting up the morning after he died and there was a robin on the fence of the back garden. Bill told me it was my granddad Alex come to check I was ok." "Do you think it was? Really I mean?" "I dunno sweetheart." Fliss sighed "I'd like it to be true..." "Then you should believe it was." Mary said, looking at her "Because isn't that what faith is? Believing something you want to be true?" Fliss looked at Frank who smiled and gave a small shake of his head. She turned back to Mary, smiling softly as she dropped a hand to the back of her head. This kid was unbelievably wise, but with such an innocence behind it all. "Yeah, I suppose it is." Fliss nodded. "Do you think the robin I saw could have been my mom?" She asked, her eyes wide. Frank at that point stepped in, carefully picking an answer that was ambiguous so as not to say yes, but also not dampening her spirits. "If your mom could I'm sure she would come and see you, make sure you're ok." Mary gave a nod, before she turned back to the stall, her attention back on the ornaments. "We need a dog for Thor, and a cat for Fred oh...and a pony for Monty." "What about Cap and Heidi?" Fliss asked, moving to inspect the selection of decorations. "Oh, yeah!" "This is gonna bankrupt me." Frank grumbled, his hands on Fliss' hips, chin resting on her shoulder as he observed the two of them. "Scrooge" Fliss shot back with a smile "Do you think Verity and Bill will like this one?" Mary held up a snowman. "Absolutely" Fliss nodded. "And can I get one for Evelyn?" She asked, selecting a snowflake. Despite the fact that they were now well into the fifty buck range for fucking tree decorations, Frank couldn't help but want to smile at Marys face. She was so thoughtful, the purity behind it all was as usual humbling. So he nodded "Sure she will appreciate it." He smiled. He moved to lift her up so she could hand the ones they had picked over to the guy behind the counter who asked Mary what names she wanted on each one. As she told him, he allowed her to sit up on the edge of the little surface, held in place by Frank to watch as he burnt the names into each ornament before he bagged them up and she took them with a thanks. "Our first family tree stuff!" Mary grinned and Fliss smiled, bending down to give her a hug. They set back off towards the hotel, stopping by a burger joint for dinner before they dumped their bags and returned back out for their final evening in the City. Frank had loved every second of their trip, and so had Mary and Fliss. Seeing Mary's reaction to snow and the Christmas lights had been amazing, along with all the bands on street corners, people walking around dressed up. It was magical and he wasn't afraid to let his inner child come out to play either, as Fliss had just found out. "Whose idea was this again?" He asked as Mary was bouncing up and down in the queue. "Yours!" Fliss scoffed as he took Mary's hand in his right "I seem to recall the very visible horror on your face yesterday when I told you I'd never done it before..." "That’s because it's an abomination that someone who's 34 has never been ice skating." "I was a professional athlete." She shrugged "I was banned from doing anything deemed dangerous " Frank looked at her "What do they consider more dangerous than flying a half tonne animal almost 2 meters into the air?" "Bungee jumping, sky diving, jet skiing, water skiing, ice skating.." Fliss shrugged "just to name 5" Frank shook his head as the queue shuffled forward a little. It wasn't too long now, luckily they had timed it right by arriving 20 minutes or so before the next lot of General Admission to the famous Rockefeller rink opened so there weren't too many people ahead. After another 10 minutes they got to the front and Frank nudged Fliss out of the way as she tried to pay. She scowled at him and he simply rolled his eyes and handed his card over. It wasn't cheap but then, he was in New York. What was? Together they headed onto the ice. Frank, having done it a few times as a kid found his legs fairly quickly and didn't stop himself laughing as Mary's completely went from under her and she landed with a thump on her ass. "Here..." he chuckled, offering her his hand. He pulled her up and moved her in front of him. "Give me your hands..." Mary extended her arms to the side and he took her mitten clad hands in his, holding her in front of him. Fliss was moving tentatively behind him, using the sides for support a little. "Ok slide your right foot forward, like on your roller skates..." Frank said. Mary did as she was told "now left...right...left...right..." He continued his chanting and glanced over his shoulder to see Fliss was concentrating on her feet, her tongue poking out slightly. "You good?" "Yup." She said, raising her hand to give him a thumbs up before she skidded slightly and went down in a tangle of limbs. Letting out a laugh he gently pivoted Mary so she could hold onto the side and offered Fliss his hand. Pulling her up into his arms he held her steady for a moment whilst her laughing subsided. He watched her for a second, her face creasing up into those adorable dimples, eyes crinkled so much they were almost shut and her shoulders shook with the force of her giggles. "I fuckin' love you..." he grinned and she smiled at him. "Back at ya sailor" After another few laps Mary and Fliss had managed to get the hand of it which meant Frank could leave them a little bit as he went off for what he called a proper skate. The girls watched calling him a show off as he crossed his feet and turned, skating backwards a little. Both of them debated sabotaging him and tripping him up but they decided not to, instead they simply pretended they didn't know him, resulting in him grabbing Fliss from behind just beneath the large tree, and spinning her round to face him. "Can I help you?" She teased and he gave a snort. "Yeah, you can... Mary?" He called to her where she was trying to perfect a turn and failing as she almost stumbled again. She looked up and headed over. "Can you take our photo?" "Only if you're gonna kiss..." she replied, making smooching noises. "Well we can’t disappoint her..." Frank shrugged and Fliss grinned, her smile turning into a shriek as Frank quickly grabbed her hips before he took one hand, keeping the other round her back and dipped her so she was bending backwards, planting a sloppy kiss on her lips. She laughed against his mouth as he gave her a wink, before kissing her a little deeper and then setting her upright, his eyes boring into hers which were shining in the Christmas lights surrounding the rink. "Oh that was great!" Mary howled and he turned to face her as she handed his phone back. Frank checked the photo and had to smile, it was a dammed good shot. He showed it to Fliss and she beamed. "A framer?" She asked. "A framer." He agreed. It took them ages to get Mary to finally leave the rink. Even a bribe of hot chocolate, marshmallows and cookies wasn't doing it. Eventually Frank put his foot down and told her it was time to go as it was almost 9pm and they still had that tree to go see before they headed to Central Park for one last walk in the lights. After handing their skates back and retrieving their belongings from the lockers they followed the path to the tree. As they round the corner Mary gasped. "It's huge!" She turned to look at Frank and Fliss, her eyes wide "Oh my God!" Frank smiled kissed Fliss' cheek as Mary walked slightly ahead of them down the walkway that was flanked with smaller trees and the famous lit up trumpeting angels . As they caught her up he slipped his spare hand in his pocket, his fingers curling round the small, leather box inside. The damned thing had been burning a hole in his pocket since he had bought it in Boston just after Thanksgiving. Fliss, Verity and Bill had all stayed for a very pleasant week rounded off with a damned good proper Thanksgiving dinner and the three of them had flown home on the Friday, as Fliss was starting to stress about her business. He and Mary followed on the Sunday after she had been given the all clear to fly after a week’s check up at the Hospital. On his spare afternoon, he'd taken a trip into the city with one goal, and it had been surprisingly easy. The first jeweller he has walked into had a perfect ring, and despite the fact he had visited several others none of them caught his eye like that. So he had gone back and asked the assistant for a closer look. It wasn't a huge rock, white gold and emerald cut with in a pave setting, but everything about it had screamed Fliss. It was delicate and feminine but with a wonderful sparkle just like her. He knew that sounded so lame when he had told the assistant but she has just smiled and told him that if he had that much conviction, it must be right. He had been lost when she asked him what size, but in a sudden inspiration he had remembered the Pandora ring he had bought her when he had gotten his first new pay check as supervisor. He mentioned this to the assistant who beamed and said she could easily size it from that by using a simple conversion chart and told him to come back the following day. His sudden good spirit had fallen as he explained he couldn't do and asked her to see if here was anything she could do, even contemplating taking it and having it sizes back in Florida. But, after the shitty run of events over the last week, his luck was in after she returned 5 minutes later with a slip of paper, informing him it would be ready by the end of the day. When he had told Mary he was going to ask Fliss to marry him, she'd been so excited. She'd asked when, where and when he said he didn’t know she'd given him the most exasperated look on the planet. The only one of his friend who he had confided in, Greg, hadn’t been much help either, simply telling him to do it in a way that meant something to them both. Simply put he just hadn't a fucking clue. He had agonized over how to pop the question. On the boat? Or maybe a sunset on their favourite spot at St Pete's beach? Did he wait for New York? As such, Frank had taken to carrying the ring around with him, waiting for that moment when it felt right. So far it hadn't happened at home and as it stood New York wasn’t faring any better. He had thought about it at the top of the Empire state, but it had been too busy. Then there was a moment in Central Park after they had been snowman building that might have worked...until Fliss had nailed him in the face with a snowball. So they'd had a snowball fight instead. Then when walking over Brooklyn Bridge, the skyline behind them… then when they walked back to the Hotel after seeing the Lion King on Broadway, going the long way round to see the display in Macy's window all lit up...and then that moment before when Mary had taken a picture of them kissing under the tree on the ice rink... but none of it felt right. It didn't feel like the moment for them. But now something stirred in his gut. This could be it. It wasn't too busy, the place was gorgeous, right in front of the tree Fliss had been so desperate to see... Ok Adler, you can do this. Taking a deep breath he pulled the box from his pocket when he heard Mary give a squeal. "Oh...wow! Frankie look..." Fliss' voice was a whisper and she nudged him, pointing to the base of the tree. He followed her gaze to see a blonde haired man down on one knee, presenting a ring to a dark haired woman who had her hands clasped over her mouth. Frank slipped the box back into his pocket and stared at the man as he placed the ring onto his now fiancés finger and did his best to look like he cared when Fliss let out a soft "Awwww" The man looked around excitedly, his eyes falling on the three of them before he asked Frank if he or Fliss would mind taking a photo for them. "Course not buddy, congratulations." Frank smiled. Fucking prick... ***** "It was AMAZING!" Mary gushed to Verity as they walked to the car, Fliss' parents having come to pick them up from the airport. "we saw so much stuff but nowhere near all of it but Frank said we could go back next year in the summer maybe and do a bit more." "Looks like someone else had a good time too." Bill smiled, nodding to Fliss who let out a loud yawn. Frank chuckled "She was up all night, I told her not to have more food so close to bed time." "I wanted a hot dog and a pretzel." Fliss mumbled, "Besides, it's nothing to do with the food...we did a lot of walking." Bill gave a snort "You ride horses for a living, you should be fit enough to walk round New York" "I probably skated about 4 miles too..." Fliss said looking at Mary "Someone wouldn't come off the ice rink" "You been sleeping ok otherwise?" Verity looked at her "I'm fine mum." She smiled "No anxiety?" 'V, she said she's fine so leave it" Bill said gently and Fliss shot a grateful look at her dad. She knew her mum was only concerned but she was fed up of assuring people she was fine. After the attack from John she had suffered a bout of delayed shock which had manifested in a few panic attacks, nightmares, and restlessness at night and on one occasion nausea. Luckily Frank had been brilliant at keeping calm when she had an episode, helping her work through it and the last incident she had suffered had been over a week ago. Once they were all in the car, Frank took the passenger seat after Verity offered it to him, Mary continued to chat all the drive home about New York, Fliss and Frank butting in here and there. They arrived home little after 30 minutes later and Fliss headed up the steps with Mary, Thor almost sending the pair of them flying when they opened the door. "Oh puppy I missed you!" Fliss smiled as she gave him plenty of attention and he kept licking her face, whining and emitting quiet little barks. "Did you miss me? Did you?" "Yerress" Frank did his best Scooby Doo impression as he walked past and Fliss let out a laugh, as she stood up and headed into the living room behind Mary, bumping into the girl as she stopped dead, giving a squeal as she saw the Christmas Tree in the corner. "Mum, Dad?" Fliss called, smiling "I take it you did this?" Frank appeared behind them both, smiling as Fliss and Mary exchanged a glance before they all turned to Bill and Verity who were stood in the doorway. "Well we know how much you like to get your tree up as early as you can and, well we were picking one up for ourselves so we got you one. You don’t mind do you?" Verity, looked at Fliss then Frank. "No, of course not!" Fliss grinned. "Saved me a job." Frank nodded "Thanks guys." "Can we decorate it tonight?" Mary asked "Pleeeeeeeaaaasssseee Frank!" Frank glanced at his watch before giving a sigh, he knew she wouldn't go to bed if he said no anyway so what was the point? Plus she was at the University tomorrow which didn’t start until 10 so... "Ok, but if you so much as grumble tomorrow morning when I get you up you'll be in deep trouble." He looked at her sternly as she stooped to pick Fred up. "Cross my heart, hope to die, we all know Fred's got one eye..." she chanted off, nodding. "We brought your box of decorations from the annex." Verity smiled at Fliss, nodding to the box on the floor. "We thought you could pick what you want to keep now you're combining."

“Speaking of decorations…” Frank said, looking at Mary.

“Fliss said you wouldn’t mind the names Mary wanted on them.” Frank said, watching carefully.

“Of course we don’t mind!” Bill smiled, picking Mary up to give her a hug “We are Nanny V and Poppa B ain’t that right kiddo?” “Yep!” she grinned, hugging him.

“We’ll save it to hang tomorrow when you come over after school.” Verity said as Bill set Mary on the floor and she hugged her tightly.

He had just about managed it when Thor came over to inspect what he was doing, and dropped straight onto his back on top of the string.

“Frank got me this for my first Christmas.” Mary said, hanging a red bauble which had her name on it. “The glitter has all fallen off it now.”

“We can add more if you want.” Fliss looked at her and Mary shrugged.

“Best Tree ever.” she smiled.

“Yeah, and now it’s time for the best bed ever…” he looked at her.

“Seriously?” Mary complained

“No moaning, remember?” Frank instructed her. “That was in the morning.”

“I’ll be in in a second.” Frank shot after her, watching as she headed down to the hallway. He turned back to Fliss who was watching the tree, a smile on her face.

“Not exactly up to Macey’s standards…” Frank chuckled and she shook her head.

“I love it.” “It looks like an Elf threw up on it.”

“No beer.” “You want me to wait in bed.” “Yes I do.” he nodded “Go, I’ll let Thor out and lock up.”

“I like your ass.” he muttered. “I like yours too” she said back, “And your arms”

He laughed and pulled back to look down at her as her fingers trailed up his biceps. “My arms?”

“I know I keep saying it but I really do fuckin’ love you Cowgirl.” he said, voice muffled as his face pressed into her neck.

Fliss gave a chuckle “I’ll never tire of hearing it Sailor. “

And then, suddenly an idea came to him, out of nowhere.

Oh, it was perfect! "Greg..." he smiled, slapping the man on the back "you are a genius." "Glad I could be of service." Greg smirked "This means I get best man duty, right?"

“Frank said you enjoyed New York.” “Oh, it was fantastic.” she smiled “Every bit as magical as I thought it was going to be.”

“No, Greg…” Fliss started to protest but Greg cut her off.

“Yes Greg!” he smirked, turning to the bar tender, “Can I get a bottle of Tequila pal and 8 glasses.” Fliss groaned “I’m teaching at 9 am!”

“Dumbass…” Greg looked at her and Frank gave a snort.

“I told you to switch them out…”

“The table is set, food and everything is ready to go…” he chuckled, looking at her “Just relax…”

He reached round Mary, his hand gently rubbing at Fliss’ back and she smiled at him, turning her attention to the TV.

“She wants you to go and say goodnight.” he smiled,

Fliss nodded and stood up.

“You sure you’re ok?” Frank asked.

She came back about 10 minutes later and he smiled at her as she walked into the room.

“OK, now she’s out of the way…I got something for you...” Frank smiled.

Fliss looked at him before she shook her head, chuckling a little “I got something for you too…Frank, I have-” “Me first.” Frank cut her off.

She looked at him for a second, his bright blue eyes were shining as he grinned at her and she rolled her eyes.

“Fine…” she smiled, “Ok, you first.” He grinned and then folded his arms “You gotta find it.” “What?”

“Charmer.” she grinned, turning back to the tree.

Fliss looked at it, admiring the way the delicate band sat underneath her knuckle, the beautiful diamond twinkling in the lights of the tree.

"Oh Frankie...it’s gorgeous..." she whispered, before she looked at him, taking his face in both his hands and pulling him down for a deep kiss. "I love you so much."

"I love you too." He smiled, kissing her again before he pulled away, his hands linking behind her back.

Not that he had doubted she would, not really, but there had always been that little bit of fright she may have done. But that was all gone now. As he popped the cork on the bottle he found himself thinking about how he would be doing that soon enough on his wedding day. He poured 2 glassed and headed into the living room with them wondering if maybe a late Autumn wedding next year would be nice, October perhaps when it started to cool off slightly. They could do the beach wedding she always wanted, hire a marquee... Lost in his thoughts completely he jumped a little when Fliss spoke his name and turned to look at her as she stood in front of him, the back of his thighs brushing against the sofa slightly. He noticed her hand was in her pocket, clutching something. Playfully he nodded towards it “I assume that’s not a spanner." He chuckled, referencing the joke they often shared and Fliss shook her head, biting her lip. "No...it’s...a bit bigger than that" With a shaky hand she pulled out a small, white stick of plastic and held it towards him. It took Frank a moment to understand what it was and as soon as he did his eyes widened and he looked at her, then it, then back again.

"You're...we're...no...that's..." he stuttered, reaching out to take it from her. "I found out this morning." Fliss whispered, watching hair reaction carefully "I suspected last week but thought it might all be down to stress and stuff but..." "How, I mean..." "I should have started a new pill packet when we went to Boston but I forgot to take it with me. I thought I'd be ok if I started as soon as I got back but..." "There's a baby in there?" Frank cut her off as he stumbled over his words, nodding to her stomach "Yeah" Fliss nodded. "You put it there." Frank's legs grew shaky and he dropped onto the sofa, staring down at the test in his hands.

2 blue lines.

2 blue lines that had just changed his world forever. "I'm sorry, I know this is sudden and I should have been more careful..." Fliss took a tentative step towards him and he reached out, his hands on either side of her hips, gently pulling her t-shirt up. He leaned forward and placed a soft kiss to her belly, his forehead resting just above her navel. "I'm gonna be a dad..." he said, pulling back, his eyes watering. "Frankie, you already are..." Fliss said, her own tears once more springing forth. "I know you hate it when I say that about Mary but it's true." He looked at her, a dazed smile split his face into two as he pulled her onto his lap, where she straddled him, and he kissed her, hard, leaving her slightly breathless before he rest his forehead against hers. "Fuck, Lissy..." he whispered, his eyes closed "You're cooking a little person..." She spluttered a laugh, nodding, her forehead brushing his as she did. "Was it made in Boston...is that the right word?" He pulled back to look at her and she laughed, brushing her hand through his fluffy hair as his gently reached out to rest against her stomach. "Yeah and most likely." "It's a little Boston Bean" he grinned and she laughed again, pressing her lips to his. "You're ok with it then? I know it's probably not what you would have planned but..." "Ok? Of course I'm ok!" He smiled "I love you and the thought of us making a little person that's half me, half you...fuck, it's amazing." She smiled and nodded, her voice a whisper "I know..."

"There is one problem." Franks said, his arms wrapping tightly around her. "What?" "You just ruined Christmas forever...because nothing is ever gonna live up to this ever again."

#riding high #frank adler #frank adler x ofc #gifted #gifted fan fic

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rosaetae · 4 years

Text

golden present

☇ #2. "Yeah, uh, alcohol doesn't go in hot chocolate." + #25. "Wait, no one got you anything?"

➣ pairing: jungkook x reader

➣ genre: christmas themed, bfb!jungkook, fluff

➣ word count: 3.4k

➣ synopsis: being invited to your best friend’s annual christmas party would be oh so jolly if it weren’t for her older brother being the grinch of christmas.

It is every year that you always make an appearance at the Jeon's Special Christmas Party on Christmas Eve. It all started when in high school, the little idea sparking in Mina's— your best friend— head to bring you along to her family's annual Christmas party.

Long story short, they all began to love you due to the assumption that the whole time you were there, you were there as Mina's girlfriend. That was until it struck midnight on Christmas and Mina, in a daze, announces after a few glasses of wine that you both were not really together and that the only relationship she would be in, ever, would be with a glass of wine. She hiccuped the whole time.

And it was then her parents and relatives, after you had shown up to their following New Years Party, that began to wish Mina's older brother, Jungkook to take a certain liking into you.

It was one of those instances where relatives praise someone else to the point where that someone is held on a pedestal as they constantly told Jungkook to date someone like you— or preferably, you. You would laugh and awkwardly meet the eyes of Jungkook's whose mischievously glinted under the light, emphasizing his smug personality, but of course, he's your best friend's brother and he is nothing like the person you want to be with.

Admittedly, he is perfectly built with a beautiful face, and he would be someone you would consider— if it weren't for his huge ego. Mina even knew that you deserve someone better, but even you couldn't tear away from his awfully beautiful looks and dismissive demeanor— you always went for the wrong guys.

Then once upon an evening, after your third year of going to the same party, with you fresh in college, Jungkook took it upon himself to bring someone of greatness in his eyes, his own little girlfriend. Just when you thought their relatives would shut up about you guys, it made things awfully a lot worst when his girlfriend wasn't in the room and side comments and gossip galore would explode in the room.

It surely annoyed you and there was no shadow of a doubt in your head that it annoyed Jungkook; that's where you and Jungkook have ultimately come to a peak with things and when you talked that night, you were surely never to come to the next Jeon Special Christmas Party.

He stood you outside in the cold and yelled at you, wondering why on earth you would always come every year. He assumed that you stuck around just to continue 'embarrassing' him and to emphasize the idea that 'he is a disappointment' amongst his family. The constant, "Jungkook, look at ___, you should be with someone as deserving as her" as if being compared to his younger sister wasn't enough.

Though you don't feel like it's entirely your fault, he adds more on top of that before you can even interject or defend yourself by saying that you're the fault of the ruination of his happiness with his current girlfriend where she is unfairly being compared to you.

Shivering and red-faced from the cold, you were already taken aback by the fact that he had grudgingly asked you to step out to the cold, and when he was finished with his attacks, you agreed not to come again next year and you were the first to leave that night.

Angry wasn't the first word that you would describe how you felt that moment. It was more of a shock. You had never talked to him and even when you did, it was usually just little playful banter that didn't mean anything or simple eye contact when someone would say or do something that was the basis of your whole 'relationship' or 'friendship'— or whatever. So when the first time that he really even talked to you, you were used as a punching bag.

Perfect, ___ the punching bag. Exactly what you wanted for Christmas.

Before the next Jeon's Special Christmas Party that happened that next year, Mina was trying every bit of herself to convince you to go, and you were silently praying that the snow storm would stop so you could drive back home for Christmas.

"___, I know my older brother is a dipshit," Mina began again as you sat on your bed, watching the Inexplicable Universe with a cup of tea in your hands while she strolled over, taking a seat beside you. "But I have told you many times that he didn't mean it."

"Being told I ruined someone's relationship for just being present isn't really how I would like to spend my Christmas," you give Mina a look.

"He didn't mean it," she repeats, taking the mug from your hands with ease and taking a sip of it.

"If I go, I'm going to be reminded of someone who has ruined their happiness, which isn't really an ideal Christmas present."

Mina groans, looking at you with pouty eyes and all. "Stop. You know my family loves you. They fell in love with you the minute you walked in."

You ignore her, eyes focusing on the Inexplicable Universe ahead.

"I'm saying that you'd be ruining everyone's happiness by not showing up," she purses her lips as you attentively watch Neil deGrasse Tyson. "And you shouldn't care about what my dumbass brother said. He was mad and he didn't mean it."

"You keep saying that he didn't mean it, but he did. He pulled me outside and told me how he felt— how he felt is valid," you reason. "And it's your family. I think you guys should spend it as— you know— family."

"Psh, you make it sound like you're not family."

"I think it's just better if I left you guys to spend the holidays together."

Mina lets out a groan, flopping back onto your pillow with exasperation. "___, just come! I'm miserable with you. It's supposed to be a Merry Christmas, not a Miserable Christmas."

"Mina—"

She sits up immediately, looking you dead in the eyes, her glasses tilted downwards on her nose bridge. "Give me another good reason why you won't go— anything Jungkook-related is unacceptable."

"Well," you pause, pondering on good reasons. "It's the Jeon's Special Christmas Party. I'm not a Jeon."

"Neither was my mom until she married my dad," Mina rose her eyebrow. "Next."

"I—" Your words disappeared midair. "I don't have any presents to give to your family."

"They don't care," Mina makes a sour face. "These excuses aren't even good excuses."

Taking a sip of your herbal tea, you shrug, looking at her. "I don't want to be a punching bag. I don't want your brother's girlfriend to be compared to me by your relatives and I don't want your brother even more than he already does."

"He doesn't hate you," she sighs. "He gets mad, yes, I know, but he doesn't mean anything horrible that comes out of his stupid mouth. He's my dumb bitch brother. D.B.B., remember?"

Your eyes continue to fixate on your TV, even when Mina was poking your arm continuously.

"Please don't let his inner Scrooge ruin our Christmas," she whines. "I need my best friend there and if it helps, he's no longer with his girlfriend anymore—"

"Why, because of me?"

"Because she cheated on him," she explains, shaking your head. "If anything, my aunts are right to be pushing him to be with you."

You give her a certain look.

"I'll make sure we are not in the same room with him either, okay?"

"Fine."

When you arrived that Christmas even, it is the same feeling. Mina's mom asking in the kitchen if it was Mina and you, and after hearing the answer she wanted to hear, she would come squealing towards you guys in her very fashionable Christmas outfit, sometimes covered in flour, and come hugging you both in a grand group embrace.

Mina's aunts would compliment of how you two have grown so much and how pretty you both gotten, and Mina would take that time to grab a bottle of wine before anyone notices and leave you in the middle of the spotlight.

Entering the living room, you notice Mina sitting next to Jungkook on the couch with her signature glass of wine and your eyes immediately dart to the person across from them, who was one of his aunts that encouraged him to take a liking into you and when she lays her eyes on you, she's standing up at her feet, you gleaming at her, pulling her into a hug where she rocks you both side to side.

"Oh, look at you," she smiles, her hands at your arms. "You've matured so much over the year."

Smiling, you thank her as then she looks to the side.

"Jungkook, look at her, she's glowing, don't you think?"

And that's the first time Jungkook and you share a split second of eye contact before Mina is pushing you towards her uncle that always talked to you about your college experiences with Mina.

It's 11 and it's almost Christmas, and while you're staring at Mina's tomato-face in the living room, you're jealous on how her inhibitions were lowered to the point where you sneak into the kitchen, rummaging for ingredients to make hot chocolate from scratch.

As you're in the midst of making the hot chocolate, with the drink being set to simmer, you search for a strong liquor, something that will get redder than Mina's face quickly.

"What are you doing?"

A voice makes you pause, having you turn around as you just spotted bourbon on top of the fridge. Realizing that Jungkook was standing there with curiosity, you roll your eyes, turning your head back to your focus.

"None of your business," you tell him as you grab the bourbon from the top. You ignore the fact that his eyes are on you as you grab the bourbon and walk over to your simmering hot chocolate.

"You sure you want to do that?" He asks challengingly.

"What?"

"It's just," Jungkook begins, watching as you remove the cap with ease. "Yeah, uh, alcohol doesn't go in hot chocolate."

"Jungkook, look at me," you look at him with narrowed eyes as he meets yours questionably. As he meets your eyes, you forge him a smile, continuing to pour the bourbon into the hot chocolate mixture without tearing your eyes away from his. Seeing that, he gives a single nod as you flash him one more smile, taking the whisk and mixing the hot chocolate mixture in the saucepan.

"Don't think it's going to taste pleasing."

"Why do you care?" You question as you begin to pour it into your cup.

"I don't," he responds with no hesitation. "Just saying that if you really wanted to get drunk put some bourbon in eggnog not hot chocolate."

"Looks like there's no eggnog nearby now, is there?" You question. "Is that why you came into the kitchen? To patronize me?"

"No, actually," he trails off, not knowing how to form words. "Can we talk?"

You give him a glance before you take your mug into your hands, letting the warmth into your hands.

"Talk about what? We're talking right now."

"About last Christmas."

"Jungkook, if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not get shit thrown at my face for showing up as a Christmas present again."

"No," Jungkook crinkles his nose. "That's not it."

"Then what is it?" You demand. "Spit it out so I can leave and watch over your drunk sister."

He lets out a heavy sigh, his eyes losing your for a split second. "Aggressive," he observes, but really you were not all merry and jolly as you wanted to be with him standing in front of you wasting your time. "I wanted to apologize."

The word apologize sounded foreign on his tongue. "Apologize for what?"

"I didn't mean what I said last Christmas."

"Really?"

"What I said was rude. And I was just mad and annoyed," he states. "Every Christmas, you're here and you're held to a pedestal and everyone expects me to be with you.

"It's not that I didn't want to be with you, I would—" Hearing that you raise your eyebrows. "It's just— you don't seem like one to be with someone like me. Then I brought Yebin, a girl I really, really liked and she liked me too. Then I brought her here and she only got compared to you, and—"

"I get it," you interrupt him. "You don't have to explain yourself—"

"I don't think you understand that it was never your fault to begin with, and I'm sorry for yelling at you. You didn't deserve that—"

You offer him one more smile before you let yourself hug him, setting the mug beforehand before your arms snake around his waist, pressing your cheek against his torso. You don't miss his surprise as he nearly stumbles back, but with ease he catches you and himself perfectly, giving you a hug.

"Thanks, Jungkook," you tell him against his chest. Being too intimate would mean looking up at him in his eyes while you're in this intimate-enough embrace, but you don't dare to do that, knowing that your cheeks would instantly flame.

Removing yourself from a hug a second too long, you give him one more smile, one where he returns but it was more questionable— as if the hug was out of character for you. Before he could question it, you run into the living room where Mina spots you with her eyes.

"Hey," Mina says, a permanent smile on her face. "You guys weren't doing anything nasty in the kitchen, right?"

"Mina," you breathe out. "Why would I—"

"Kidding," she squeals, reaching over your lap to grab her glass of wine from the table. "You came just in time, we're doing the gift exchange!"

You feel yourself letting out a breath of relief as Mina continues to suspect nothing— which in reality, it was. The hug was nothing out of the ordinary— it was just a simple gesture as to thank Jungkook for having the guts to apologize to you for acting that way last Christmas.

You tell yourself that him hugging back was nothing either. Just a simple apology where you forgave him— nothing.... Even though the apology meant almost everything.

Snapping out of your thoughts, you notice that the gift exchanging has commenced when Mrs. Jeon opened a large present to demonstrate a vacuum. It made you laugh because most of the floors in the house were wood. Continuing, you dwell under the joy in the air as presents from a vacuum to kitchen towels to sentimental gifts to ones that made some cry were given and you couldn't help but admire them as there was excitement being shown, knowing that the alcohol in the hot chocolate has made you very red.

Jungkook manages to sit down just on the sofa across from you in the midst of it, and you didn't realize it until your eyes met his, but you were staring at him. The minute he caught your eyes, he was quick to plaster on this shit-eating grin on his face, probably at the fact that you were paying close attention to him or because you're about as red as Mina— either way, you averted your eyesight as you take another sip of your hot chocolate.

Once the last present was given, everyone thanked each other, giving one another hugs and kisses, you managing to escape into the kitchen once you looked down and realized your spiked hot chocolate was empty in your mug.

Pouring the still seemingly warm hot chocolate from the stove into your mug, you hear footsteps coming inside the empty kitchen. You don't need to look up to know that it was Jungkook.

"It seems like you can only talk to me in the kitchen," you muse, putting the pot back onto the stove and taking your mug into your hands. Jungkook walks up to you, a smirk on his face.

"Well, I like talking to you better when you're alone," he says and you narrow your eyes at him. He's examining your face and you don't miss it when his eyes roam your cheeks and your forehead— it makes your heart beat faster. "You're red."

"Alcohol does that to a person," you tell him, letting out a nervous chuckle.

"Did no one get you anything?" He immediately asks. Your eyes meet his, your chuckle fading before you answer his question with a shrug. You didn't really notice that no one got you anything, but at the same time you weren't expecting anything.

"Wait, no one got you anything?" He repeats, almost flabbergasted by the fact that not one person got you anything. It could be because the first time you went over for Christmas, you got at least one present from someone— but this year was different.

"It's alright," you laugh. No one knew you were coming for sure this Christmas. "I wasn't expecting anything anyways."

"No, it's not alright. I—"

"Well, unless you having something up your sleeve, Jungkook— which I see you don't, then I'm fine. I didn't come here for presents," you tell him honestly.

"Still—"

"It's fine," you interrupt, a genuine smile on your face. "No one knew I was coming this year, it's alright. Christmas isn't always about presents, you know."

Then he sucks in a deep breath before he grabs your wrist gently, by surprise, leading you to a certain area. You're questioning it with looks when he meets your eyes, confused as to why he led you to the hallway just outside the bathroom. "Don't say I didn't get you anything," he utters, making you scrunch your eyebrows.

Seeing your confusion, he points upwards. And just like a romantic movie, there was mistletoe, hung above in all its glory just in the middle of the hallway. "Only if you'll let me."

You look back at him, a smile on your red, warm face before you're nodding, allowing to bring his hand to your cheek, leaning downwards to meet your lips.

And in an instant, you feel him kiss your lips gently and carefully— as if he was scared to break you, but you reassure him it's alright when you press deeper, letting him know that it's alright.

The minute you pull apart, you couldn't help but smile at him.

"Sorry it's not much," he apologizes before you're shaking your head, taking your hands to bring his face closer to yours, kissing him once more.

Admittedly, you've always wanted to kiss him the minute you met him, but because of certain circumstances, you were glad this moment happened now instead of back then.

"You taste like bourbon," he amusedly breathes out. You let out a laugh at him, allowing your arms to tangle around his neck, feeling comfortable in that certain position. He presses one more kiss to your cheek, letting his lips linger next to your ear. "And chocolate."

Letting out a giggle that is released from your lowered inhibitions, you let him kiss you from your cheek to down you neck, spending that moment with him not worrying about getting caught by the other relatives.

But when you hear your name being called nearby, you immediately push Jungkook away— a struggle in itself when he wouldn't let go of you. Giving him a look you tuck your hair behind your ears, slapping his hands away to give you the ability to actually leave the hallway.

"Wait," he pulls you back to him once more, silencing you before you protest to leave. "Do you want to go on a date with me?"

You blink. "What?"

"A date," he nods, repeating himself. "Whenever you're free. I don't want to make this a one time thing."

When you hear him say that, you couldn't help but smirk, leaning in to press a kiss to his cheek. "If I say yes, will you let me go?"

"Yes."

"Then yes," you say, but your answer makes him grin like the happiest boy in the world that he couldn't help but pull you in once more, pressing one last kiss.

"Merry Christmas," he mutters, eyes meeting yours.

Thinking about how much nicer and cuter he is when he's all warm and jolly, you couldn't help but think if this was a facade of some sort— but seeing by the way he was staring at your eyes, expecting you to tell him Merry Christmas back, you think of how good of an actor he is.

"Merry Christmas, Jungkook.”

This drabble is from this list of prompts

#hi merry christmas #i know im sorry i forgot to post this yesterday and then i literally took a wholeass nap today and i just woke up so haha #HAHA sorry #jungkook au #jungkook scenarios #jungkook fanfiction #jungkook #bts jungkook #jungkookie #jungkook ff #jungkook fluff #bts scenarios #bts fanfic #jungkook christmas #BTS Christmas

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likelytowritesomestuff · 4 years

Text

DUCKTALES CHARACTERS ACCORDING TO CRAZY EX GIRLFRIEND’S SONGS

Scrooge:

This is my movement Can't stop this movement It's coming out fast in a powerful blast from deep inside of me Like an explosion of built up emotion, o-oh I wanna scream and shout I gotta let it out 'Cause this movement is bigger than me

(This is my movement, 3x07)

Donald:

With a diagnosis! I'm ready to blow this Joint, and by "joint," I mean my inner sense of confusion (You said that confusingly) Shhh!

(Diagnosis, 3x06)

Della:

It's instinctual, I'm a natural I'm tireless, multitasktical My mom gave the flame And it'll burn eternal Damn, I'm so maternal So maternal So maternal So maternal

(So maternal, 2x08)

Huey:

You step out the door Then back through the door Sit on the floor and stare at the floor Rock yourself until you feel okay

(Time to seize the day, 4x02)

Dewey:

Childhood is overrated I'm ready for mine to end I want to have agents and assistants Instead of actual friendsI'll be abusive and emotionally stunted But everyone will tolerate me They'll have no choice Because my face and my voice Will make them so much money

(Child star, 4x04)

Louie:

I'd rather die, which I will, eventually, of course But in the meantime, I could make millions Sellin' stocks and bonds and ties if I tried But I don't But I could, but I don't But I could if I wanted to, yeah Yeah, I could if I wanted to Who cares?

(I could if I wanted to, 1x16)

Webby:

I have friends I definitely have friends No one can say that I do not have friends!

(I have friends, 1x03)

Lena:

I used to be afraid of so much in this world I’d tiptoe through each day like some frightened little girl Then one day I realized I can’t just run and hide from life Now if someone pulls a gun on me, I pull out my knife

(Face your fears, 1x03)

Gyro:

What does the future hold? What will tomorrow bring me? (Ugh!) What story will be told? What song is gonna sing me? (Jeez!) This is my time to shine Step outta the line Throw open all the windows Might be an uphill climb But I just gotta find What's at the end (please don't make me say this) of this rainbow?

(The moment is me, 3x03)

Fenton:

Maybe this dream won’t lead to disgrace Maybe this dream is in reach Maybe this dream won’t poop on my face Like a seagull at the beach

(Maybe this dream, 2x02)

Launchpad:

I've got my head in the clouds 'Cause that's where heaven is No longer stuck in the muck on the ground I figured out how to live It's with my head in the clouds

(Heads in the clouds, 3x02)

Goldie:

Is there an IUD That can stop the image of you and me Getting married on a hillside, surrounded by ducks And then we get into a rowboat? Oh my god! I think I like you

(Oh my god I think I like you, 1x17)

Every Duck’s cousin during isolation:

No one else is singing my song No one knows the rhythm enough to sing along

(No one else is singing my song, 4x01)

Magica:

Scary scary sexy lady Angry scary sexy lady Angry like a witch But sexy like a sexy witch

(Scary scary sexy lady, 3x04)

Glomgold:

Crazy is when I go off the rails This is what you've done to me!

(You do/You don’t wanna be crazy, Season three theme)

Mark:

Research me obsessively Uh-huh! Find out everything you can about me You know you want to dig for me relentlessly Uh-huh! Using every available search tool and all forms of social media

(Research me obsessively, 2x07)

Panchito and Josè:

'Cause fit hot - and succesful - guys have problems, too Don't look at us, we're not dancing for you This is our quiet personal time to reflect

(Fit hot guys, 3x09)

Bonus... Scroldie:

This is our horny angry tango! I want to fight! I want to bang! This is our horny angry tango! We’re truly furious but... Dang! We’re also horny too!

(Horny angry tango, 3x10)

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nodesiretogrowup · 4 years

Text

LET’S GET READY TO RE-CAAAAAAAAP

“I have numerous science-based questions” I mean, same. It also sets up that Huey is gonna be out of his element this episode

SCROOGE HAS NO TIME FOR SCIENCE

“I AM THAT CHAMPION.” A bit full of yourself there. I couldn’t hear this line without saying “I’M. THAT. HERO.” Oh VeggieTales, you’ll always be with me

THEY ALL LOOK SO ADORABLE!!

I like that Louie does a finger gun when Scrooge gets to him

Like I said earlier, I DO NOT care Scrooge already putting pressure on these kids

Poor Dewey seems like he’s the unfavorite, which is probably how Donald felt as well

Huey makes a good point and I do NOT like how dismissive Scrooge is of the twins

That being said...they totally killed someone in battle

SOMEDAY WE’LL FIND IT, THE RAINBOW CONNECTION!

Why didn’t Launchpad crash? I know he can land w/o crashing but it’s usually when he lands in water. THIS FEELS IMPORTANT SOMEHOW though it probably isn’t

“THEY FOUND A WAY TO MAKE RAINBOWS BETTER!” God, I love Webby

“This is the best day.” WEBBY, YOU ARE REACHING CRITICAL LEVELS OF ADORABLE

Birds with beards look odd

“Yeah, sure. Of course.” Poor Huey, magic and mythology aren’t his strong point

I love that it says Odin’s Closet over the shirts. It’s the little details

“Guess Louie knows what Louie’s doing today.” And then he disappears into the shirts. I can appreciate someone who knows what they’re about

I want ALL the shirts from this episode!

“WHOA, IT’S WRESTLING!” He looks so dang happy, it’s ADORABLE

“THIS IS AWESOME!” Chanting is fun

“So these guys just copied professional wrestling?” Huey, you’re form of logic is not welcome here

Does that mean Scrooge told someone about his battles and inspired them to create pro wrestling? I’m gonna go with that

“And they will love me for it!” Dewey, sweetie, that’s only how it works half the time

I loved all the man-snake stuff. Made me giggle

Man snake be THICC. HOT DAMN

I love the little pig ref. HE’S SO CUTE

Jormungandr knows how to pump up a crowd

So, like, is everyone in the audience technically DEAD?! That makes this episode slightly darker. I dig it

I wonder if Jormungandr sees Earth’s destruction as a good thing for Earth. Like if he genuinely thinks they’d be better off in Valhalla. Or if he’s just a bastard who wants to watch the world burn

Scrooge is a bit too into playing the heel

The way Scrooge moves and the faces he makes as the Millionaire Miser remind me of Glomgold

“I watch a lot of wrestling while I fly.” “Wait, while?” This exchange always cracks me up

“Uncle Scrooge is the greatest hero of all time.” “Huh, I guess not everyone thinks so.” I feel like this is foreshadowing later events

RIP Announcer Puffin

“DIBS ON ANNOUNCING!” A dude just got KO’d bro! Have a bit of respect

And the return of the dynamic sports announcer duo. Glad Huey got his badge

I NEED MORE WRESTLING ANNOUNCER LP

Strongbeard is DOPE

“How did you know that?” “Just calling it like I see it. WRESTLING!” The real reason Launchpad knows is because he’s actually Thor but doesn’t remember. I WILL DIE ON THIS HILL

FEAR THE BEARD

“What matters is I’m doing the right thing.” I don’t know, you really seem to enjoy being a heel

This whole match is great

Dewey, there ARE NO RULES IN WRESTLING. Plus you aren’t the ref, so you can’t make that call

I have very inappropriate jokes go through my head when only one arm absorbs the beard energy

“I am so confused.” CONSTANT MOOD

DID SCROOGE NARUTO RUN AT STRONGBEARD?!

I like that Scrooge dives onto him the same way he dives into his bin

LP is so excited he pushes Huey out of the way for NO REASON

HOLY FUCK THAT DUDE THREW A CHAIR AT A CHILD!

All the bone cracking in this episode made me uncomfortable, as in my bones hurt during it

“He is such a good guy.” I’d say he’s a fair guy, not necessarily a good guy

“Which two of you will fight for me?” Webby has been waiting for this moment her WHOLE LIFE

Louie, always taking time to make that money

Who gave him a shirt cannon?!

I love that the dude comes up wearing the shirt

Dewey just slaps Scrooge in the face

Champ POPular! Too cute! I love his hair and outfit. Though I don’t think Champ POPular’s “too popular to hate.” If anything he might annoy people due to his popularity

I thought he was gonna pull out yo-yos as his “finishing touch” and I was sad when it was lollipops even though that makes more sense. BRING BACK THE YO-YOS!

“Do all the fighting and make sure he doesn’t die.” That is a valid concern

WE WILL WE WILL ROCK YOU! I’D KNOW IT ANYWHERE

Huey taking notes is adorable

“Just in time for the tag-team round.” “Wait, they’re playing tag now?! MAN!” I love how Danny says MAN

How does Huey not know what a tag-team is? It’s a pretty common term

I love Launchpad’s reading face

Dewey has red, blue, and green lollipops. Cute

“HE’S THROWING LOLLIPOPS BECAUSE HE THINKS WE’RE SUCKERS!” That took me off guard and I laughed so hard

“I’ve known you my whole life, I kinda knew how this would play out.” Louie is genre savvy. Perhaps too savvy. He’s gonna figure out he’s in a tv show

“More like Champ POP..ulation zero because he has no friends...in Friendtown.” I fail to see how that was any worse than LP’s “more like Champ UN-POPular.”

“WE HATE YOU NOW!” Tough crowd

Huey’s face after that. I just want to pinch his lil cheeks

WEBBY DON’T NEED NO WRESTLER NAME

It TOTALLY went over my head that they censored Hela with Hecka (at least they used her better than the MCU did. WE COULD HAVE HAD SO MUCH BETTER)

I would let her pin me to the mat and crush my skull in

“Oh, COME ON, THIS is what you like?! A creepy goth and her pet dog!” SHUT UP, DEWEY, THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT I WANT! I’m surprised Webby didn’t slap him for the “creepy goth” comment seeing as Lena is goth and misunderstood

“HECKA YEAH! HECKA YEAH!” SHE’S SO COOL AND SEXY AND SHE HAS A DOG

Poor Huey, he’s doing his best. Hope he takes a shower later because he got pretty sweaty

HECKA COULD STEP ON ME AND I’D SAY THANK YOU

Why did Huey have all those corn puns?

“YOU’RE THE WORST! YOU’RE THE WORST!” It’s just not Huey’s day

“You don’t have to try to make it sound great, it already is.” Did this remind anyone else of Dewey’s “don’t overthink it” advice to Launchpad from Double-O Duck? He’s doing his best to help Huey

I WANT HECKA TO DESTROY ME

“EMBRACE THE BOOZE BOOS.”

Poor Dewey

WEBBY IS A BEAST! SHE WAS BORN FOR THIS!

“EMBRACE YOUR INNER HEEL!” Cuz being a heel is fun!

DUDE, WEBBY TOOK DOWN THE GODDESS OF DEATH WITH NOTHING BUT HER LEGS AND THIGHS! WE STAN!

I like that Fenny has knee pads on

“AW, YOU’RE SO DANGEROUS AND CUTE! I JUST WANT TO PET YOUR LITTLE BELLY!” WEBBY IS ME

“A classic ‘who’s a good boy?’ gambit!” AND I’D FALL FOR IT TOO! SUCH A GOOD BOI

“Wait, am I the Launchpad here?” Bitch, you WISH

“YOU CAN’T GIVE CANDY TO A DOG!” This is why you don’t have a pet, Dewey

“WHOA, back from THE DEAD for the QUEEN of the DEAD!”

Kind of a dick move, Louie

AIR GUITAR!

Jormungandr looks like a Masters of the Universe knock-off toy

WHO’S A GOOD BOI? YOU ARE!

“With a toxic personality” I think you’re projecting a bit, Jormungandr

How does Huey not know what a battle royale is? That is a very common term! Hell, there is a well known book and movie with that title!

“I’m just a humble, noble snake man of the people.” Why does the term snake man make me laugh so much?

WOY REFERENCE FTW

Dewey needs a hug! And some therapy would probably be a good idea

Scrooge’s speech started on a good note then went downhill FAST

“And lastly, I’ll use the dust of your bones as sweetener in my tea.” DAMN

“TOO FAR!” I DON’T THINK IT’S FAR ENOUGH! TELL HIM HOW YOU WILL BATHE IN HIS BLOOD

FUCK YEAH BEAKLEY!

SHE GAVE HIM THE CHAIR! I think this CONFIRMS Beakley as a wrestling fan

“I know we’re supposed to take over for Scrooge one day, but do you ever wonder if maybe we’re not cut out for it?” YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE TO WONDER THOSE THINGS AT ALL!

Louie’s like WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS SHIT!

“Be LP” My new mantra

Aw, Louie sees Dewey as a hero. Like how LP saw Drake as a hero. I think @drakepad is onto something, this scene and the fight scene seem WAAAAY too much like Drake’s intro to be just a coincidence

I keep saying this, but Louie should consider a career in motivational speaking. He knows what people need to hear

“Let’s do this!” “I don’t know.” “Let’s Dewey this?” “I’m in.”

“I’LL SHED YOUR SKIN FOR YOU!” If he hadn’t of had an old man back moment that would have been a BRUTAL CUT

OMG WAS LAUNCHPAD WEARING THAT THE WHOLE TIME? You see his clothes fly off when he jumps in the ring

“Whoa. In a COMPLETELY UNEXPECTED TWIST, the announcer was Captain Crash THIS WHOLE TIME!” LP does underground wrestling matches in his spare time, TELL ME I’M WRONG

“YOUR CATCHPHRASES ARE FORCED!” I agree, Dewey could have done WAY BETTER

I like Louie just GLARING at the dude who insulted Dewey’s catchphrase

LP looks so proud of Huey

“I don’t care at all, why should I?” Methinks the snake man doth protest too much

I like how Jormungandr’s pupils are thinner during the climax. It shows off his true nature

Dewey should have been the one to do a spin attack, ya know, cuz he’s Sonic? I’ll go now

“The Pop never Stops.” That was better

WHERE ARE ALL THESE CHAIRS COMING FROM?!

I LEGIT thought Strongbeard was gonna throw Dewey his axe and I was like Dewey wouldn’t be able to lift that

SUPER SAIYAN DEWEY! Also was that a TIGER SNARL?

I like the ice pack on Launchpad’s head. Just because he can take a lot of damage doesn’t mean that LP is immune to pain

I like that the crowd CHANGED THEIR BANNERS! Nice

LOUIE AND WEBBY LOOKED SO CUTE!

LP tearing up

“A true people’s hero” I feel like that phrase will come back in relation to other characters (cough DW cough)

Scrooge is such a little shit, it’s kind of adorable

THAT END SHOT! THAT SONG!

This was a SUPER FUN EPISODE! I couldn’t really tell where they were going and I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT! I wish we had gotten Huey in some wrestling gear but maybe next time. I like the message that doing the right thing isn’t always popular but I kind of feel like Dewey getting the crowd on his side muddled the message somewhat. Poor Dewey needs therapy or something so he doesn’t feel like he needs CONSTANT approval. Again, he’s 11 YEARS OLD and shouldn’t be put into such a serious position. LP was VIP this episode. I’m bummed we’re on hiatus again, but WHAT an episode to end on!

#ducktales #dt spoilers

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waveypedia · 4 years

Note

Have anything else for that Team Spyience au you made ages ago? Some writng or a bullet list? I crave angst.

The AU in question

Yes!! Aaaaahh i was so excited when I saw this ask because i’m so happy people still like it!! I’m definitely still thinking about it, don’t worry. The old AU hinges on the fact that FOWL doesn’t have a way into Scrooge’s company and family but uhhhh that’s not how it is now lmao. So I’ve been thinking about revamping it for a couple months now. I don’t want to do anything concrete until we know a little more about FOWL and how it works. We know who its agents are and a little bit about its goals but we really don’t know anything about its inner workings, what the Board’s dynamic is with their agents, what their dynamic is with modern SHUSH (if it even exists), etc etc. all of which are things that would probably be addressed in the Team Spyience AU! It is an AU but I’d like to build on canon as much as possible (unless there’s something that I really don’t vibe with) since it’ll be cleaner and less confusing that way. Like if I threw 2019 Team Spyience AU at you guys rn it would 1) be confusing since the FOWL structure and motives are completely different from canon and 2) be less interesting since there’s SO much potential for angst and drama with the Board, Rockerduck/Jeeves, and Gandra as part of FOWL. (and oh boy I’m so excited to work with that!!!)

(sorry for that long block of text sdfgfds i wasn’t sure how to break it up)

that being said I have built a bit of a shaky foundation for a redone Team Spyience AU for when we learn more!! and ahhh i’m so excited to share. For bullet points, here are some ideas swimming around in my head. these all could change with new information from the show or just if i think of something better tbh

so this might change when we learn more about the Board in general and the nitty-gritty of FOWL’s plans, but right now I’m thinking that the Board realizes that 1) Gyro and his ragtag band of science nerds are powerful and stubborn, and will most definitely get in the way of their plans 2) Gyro already hates the Board, and if anyone in McDuck Enterprises were to pick up on their treason, it would be him 3) They have a strong foothold for control in the company, second only to Scrooge (and even that’s debatable), but they have minimal control over Gyro and the science department. So this time around it’s less about needing to spy on Scrooge and more about wanting to control Gyro and Team Science. how that translates to “capturing them and forcing them to spy on their boss and his family” is still up in the air, but i’ll let you guys know when i figure it out! (and if you all have any ideas lmk)

we all know Gyro dislikes the Board but it’s mostly just annoyance/spite since they always shut down his inventions. Here, though, he would hate them. He would probably start like smack-talking them to everyone he can, especially Scrooge, which is his own way of trying to get them to realize the Board is evil without tipping the Board off to his treachery. Scrooge would be confused and it would be like the first crack in the Board’s carefully built facade, but it wouldn’t work for him. He probably just thinks Gyro’s being his mean self.

Huey, though... I’m pretty sure Huey’s gonna end up researching FOWL since it’s his season, and he spends enough time around Team Science to notice how off they’re all acting, without being too busy to pay it much mind (like Scrooge). so one of Gyro’s snarky remarks will tip him off, and he’ll start to view the Board with a little more suspicion each time. Until he comes to the conclusion through his research, and SHUSH resources like Beakley and Webby, that oh god that was an allusion to FOWL the Board is FOWL-

and then- wait is Gyro FOWL?? is Team Science okay?? this goes deeper than I thought-

so essentially the B-plot of this AU is Huey (with the help of the rest of the kids, but especially Webby, Boyd, and Violet) researching FOWL in the background and trying to figure out why Team Science is acting so weird lately, and there’s a lot of dramatic irony

FOWL definitely threatens Boyd to get to Gyro because I love me some quality Boyd & Gyro family content 😌

I originally thought about working a “Gyro is a former FOWL agent that got away by the skin of his teeth” aspect into the AU since I was really fond of that concept when it was a theory, but now it’s been disproven. It does make for a lot of extra drama and angst, but I don’t think it quite fits, so I might just make that an entirely separate AU. I might add some non-canon bonus content with this concept though!

The majority of Team Science’s dynamic throughout the AU stays the same - they’re all incredibly stressed and on edge and just in a really sticky situation, so they snap at each other and have a lot of petty arguments. But at the same time, they’re all in the really sticky situation together, and so they come out of this mess a whole lot closer. It’s sort of a “You’re the only ones I can be honest with without dire consequences” situation.

also re: that last point - CUDDLE PUDDLES. i’m so soft for them. i’m thinking maybe on a night when FOWL makes them all stay in the cells overnight as a punishment or smth, but they’re all in one cell, they just fall asleep all on top of each other and it’s just a really sweet moment made bittersweet by the circumstances. it’s also a testament to how far their relationship has come under pressure and how much they trust each other now.

Gyro is the only target originally (I’m thinking maybe Fenton, Manny, and Lil’ Bulb catch the Board in the act and it’s very dramatic and terrifying. i think they’re originally gonna kill Team Science, since FOWL has a very take-no-prisoners leave-no-loose-ends sort of mindset, but Gyro convinces the Board that the majority of Scrooge McDuck’s research team mysteriously dying in one fell swoop would be extremely suspicious, especially since Scrooge has an in-house former SHUSH agent. so they live, miraculously, but the Board lets all of them know in no uncertain terms that if it happens again, the other person dies. No ifs, ands, or buts. So Team Science is all very, very nervous and careful about what they let slip. They want to tell everyone, especially Scrooge, but they can’t because they care too much. (Hence Gyro making passive-aggressive comments about the Board to Scrooge.) and of course everyone else gets suspicious and resentful since they know Team Science is hiding stuff from them. so that leads to a lot of drama and arguments.

speaking of the drama and arguments from the outside, the kids are doing their own investigation, but I headcanon Della as friends with Gyro from before the Spear of Selene, and she has a budding friendship with Fenton too. So she’d notice they’re all acting really weird and bailing on all her plans, so she storms down to the lab and tries an aggressive tactic to get them to fess up. They don’t, obviously, so she goes on a little investigation of her own. I’m thinking she might drag Launchpad and Donald into it - Launchpad since he’s good friends with Team Science, and Donald because I love him and I want him involved they’re the Duck Twins and they work best together.

I have this scene floating around in my head where, in the very beginning, FOWL agents/Eggheads capture Gyro and drag him to FOWL HQ underneath Funzo’s to be briefed on his new situation. He’s stuck in one of those glass cells Launchpad and Dewey were in when Steelbeak brought them back in the Double-O-Duck episode. The Board knows he’s there, but Gyro has no clue they’re villains. So they come to the cell to brief and belittle him (let’s be honest here, they’ve never liked Gyro) and he just. He’s pissed. Spitting mad. He’s always resented the Board but never like this; never pictured them as actual powerful villains. He may be spiteful of them because they shut down his projects, but at the end of the day, they’re good guys. They’re on his side, and more importantly, Scrooge’s side. Right?

So Gyro is like, up against the glass, trying to punch them through the airholes. He’s just so fucking furious. He’s not really thinking straight and he doesn’t care about any dignity, he’s just angry. The Board is just overly smug and pleased with themselves. It’s a very stereotypical “You’ll never get away with this, you villain!!” picture, and very dramatic. And then the Board just walks away after giving him a bare-bones explanation of the situation that he doesn’t really process because he’s so mad and terrified. And they turn off all the lights and let him stew in there overnight.

Once Huey and the kids have finally put the pieces together, Webby comes to the Bin one day with Scrooge, and she goes to the meeting room to look for him. Only he’s not in there - The Board is, and they’re berating Gyro for sassing off about them to Scrooge or smth. Webby, with all her trained spy skills, hears their conversation and is able to avoid detection (although the Board is suspicious, and they start investigating to tie off any loose ends). Their conversation, though, would be suspicious to any oblivious passerby, but from all the research the kids have done, they know what’s going on.

That’s not the actual reveal - I think thematically that should go to Huey, since he’s the closest to Team Science and it’s his season. This would just chase away any last doubts the kids may have. And maybe Webby gets a voice recording as evidence? I just love those; they’re so dramatic.

this is one part that might not end up aligning with canon but I’m REALLY fond of the Akita FOWL theory. So in this AU, I’m thinking Akita was a really casual member of FOWL all along that recently got an updated agent commission. So there’s even more potential drama there, since Gyro utterly despises Akita now. And a bigger incentive to keep Boyd safe, since Gyro knows FOWL would be more than happy to program Boyd into a mindless attack robot.

in the old AU I was toying with the idea that FOWL didn’t know Fenton’s Gizmoduck until a big reveal, and it was a secret weapon of Team Science’s (but also a point for a lot of arguments, since Fenton desprately wanted to be out there protecting people at the cost of his own safety) but uhh... they definitely know now. In a bid to stop FOWL from taking control of Gizmoduck, Fenton claims the armor is out of commission and sabotages it. So Fenton’s heroics are temporarily halted while Team Science frantically tries to figure out how to keep FOWL from hacking/taking control of a new and improved Gizmosuit.

As for writing... I don’t have anything done, least of all anything for the revamped version of the AU, but I do have this wonderful writing prompt from @advisortotheadvisor that I started back in January 2019, when I was working on the old version of the AU, that I really want to do with the revamped AU. (it just fits so well ahhhh!!!)

["If you won’t do it, I’m sure your friend wouldn’t mind being in your place." + your FOWL team spyience au?]

Gyro crossed his arms across his chest, scowling to hide his fear. He’d gotten pretty good at it over these past few months.

Watching the halls was basically useless. Fowl was careful to keep Gyro and his team within the same halls, as to not be able to find their way out on their own. And Gyro knew the way to Steelbeak’s office well. He’d lost count of how many times he’d been marched here.

At least he wasn’t cuffed anymore, though he suspected it was only because the agents and their minions knew there was too much at stake for an escape attempt. It had been too long, anyway. That was an amaetur move. Even though he loathed to admit it, Gyro cared too much about the consequences - the people at stake - to even try.

It was just a well-aimed mockery. Like everything short of punishment seemed to be these days under FOWL’s watchful eye and careful thumb. Gyro scowled deeper and crossed his arms tighter and pretended in vain it didn’t bother him.

That was all he could do, really.

Okay that kind of got away from me haha. thank you so much for the ask!! It means a lot to me that people are still interested in this AU. definitely motivation to work on both the AU and that fic haha!! I’ll talk more abt this soon when I have more info/content

#*screams* I LOVE THIS AU #this ask got me thinking more deeply about it... and that one fic...#my asks #anons #ducktales #team spyience au #ducktales 2017 #dt17 #gyro gearloose #fenton crackshell-cabrera #manny the headless manhorse #lil bulb #huey duck #webby vanderquack #scrooge mcduck #boyd gearloose #wavey writes

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twilighteve-writes · 4 years

Text

Summon the Wind, Fly

Summary: She took a deep breath, let it out, and jumped over the gate, summoning the winds to push her up. Almost without even realizing it, she had used the wind to push her up to the door of the manor.

Della could call to the winds and have it carry her to the clouds. It was almost as great as having her family back.

(Also available in AO3)

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Della knew she had long since lost control of the ship.

Which was both hilarious and ironic. Della Duck, best aerial pilot of her age, had finally bitten off more than she could chew when she jumped into the Spear of Selene and honest to god uttered the words, “It’s just a rocket ship. I’m just taking it for a test drive. What’s the worst that could happen?”

Let it be known that she had learned her lesson about tempting fate.

She hissed as she pulled at the controller, trying to steer it back into Earth’s orbit, hoping the field of gravity would pull her back. But the cosmic storm was messing with everything, including Uncle Scrooge’s frantic transmission as he tried to guide her back home. The transmission was cut short, and Della cursed loudly, still trying to bring the ship back to her control.

(She saw white mist at the edges of her vision and resolutely ignored it. She had far more pressing matters to attend to.)

“Come on, come on, come on,” Della hissed. “Please, I need to get back to my kids, please.” She begged for anyone, anything, with all her heart, to bring her back home safe and sound.

For a moment, it felt like she ship was finally following her order, dipping down for a split second, and Della’s hope soared. Then the cosmic storm hit mercilessly and she was swept away.

Bright white exploded in her eyes. Her ears caught the sound of a distant explosion, and she felt something rocking her down to her bones.

Everything went dark.

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Okay, so. The ship was pretty much wrecked, her leg was a goner and she had to cut it off herself, and she was stranded on the moon. On the bright side, her new metal leg was cool as hell, she was all for being a cool mom.

On the other side, well… everything.

But not all hope was lost. She would just keep sending transmissions to Earth; Uncle Scrooge was resourceful and she had high hopes the transmissions would reach him. There were manuals, too, and she was a Junior Woodchuck, between the manual and her training there had to be something she could do about rebuilding the ship eventually.

She chewed on the OxyChew, took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.

(If white mist rose around her, she wasn’t aware of it.)

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Her sense of time was pretty much shot because she didn’t have the same day-night cycle anymore, but she estimated it happened around the third month.

She was making her way through the wreckage, and she was suddenly hit by the realization that she felt much more alive than she had been. The bright alertness of the adrenaline shot when she was caught in cosmic storm felt like it never truly left, with how aware she was of herself right now, but it felt wrong to call it adrenaline. More like her eyes was opened, like her senses broadened.

She made use of Moon’s gravity to jump up, and was surprised to see how much higher she jumped compared to usual. She looked down and paused when she noticed a trail of white mist she left in her wake, nearly impossible to see with Moon’s bright, silvery shine in the background.

How she floated, suspended by nothing in mid air, was a lot harder to miss.

Della lost control of it the moment she became aware of it. She fell to the ground, and only Moon’s forgiving gravity let her escape another injury.

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She learned about her ability, slowly but surely. Between rests and rebuilding, she willed herself to float, to jump higher, to flutter like leaf in the wind. In time, she managed to create wind of her own, and she used it to twist around herself and let her fly with a lot more speed, finesse, agility than she ever could with a plane.

She felt invincible. She felt alive.

And how ironic was it, that when she was most alone in a place where she shouldn’t even be able to live, that she felt most alive?

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“You shouldn’t have taken the Spear,” her inner voice, one that sounded suspiciously like Donald, hissed into her mind when she closed her eyes to sleep.

“Shut the fuck up, Inner Don,” she hissed back. She didn’t need to hear it; she knew it already.

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“Get the fuck away!” Della screamed when the Moon Mite attacked again. Plumes of white rose around her, and she shot like an arrow loosed from a bow, punching the mite in one of its oversized eyes.

It screeched in pain and ran off. Della stared at her hands, surprised that the flight she had managed to learn was even capable of being used this way.

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She never used her ability in front of the Moonlanders, not really. If they noticed her hanging in the air a little longer than what they consider normal, they didn’t say anything.

She mingled with the Moonlanders, telling them bits and pieces of Earth cultures when they showed her theirs, rebuilding the Spear little by little until everything was right, functional, swallowing her longing to go home all the while.

When the rocket was built fully, she swallowed another wave of longing. Not yet, not yet. It was untested, she was still helping the Moonlanders – she needed a little more time to make sure she would leave without regrets and get home safe and sound.

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She woke to the rocket readying itself for a launch and panicked immediately. Penumbra told her to go home, and Lunaris assured her the Moonlanders would build more Spears, and they would meet Della on Earth. With the countdown hunting her and her planet calling her home, Della shoved the Spear’s manual to Lunaris and let the rocket lock her in.

The moment she entered Earth’s orbit, she could feel the changes in herself. The gravity pulled on her, harsher than she was used to – Moon’s gravity was much lesser than Earth’s and she would need time adjusting to it – but at the same time, she felt lighter. Like the air was hugging her and pushing her up, like the clouds infused themselves into her bones and let her float, like the sky itself was pulling her up to fly forever. Her vision exploded in sunny, bright white with speckles of sky blue for a split second, and then she blinked the colors out her eyes, looking down to search for Duckburg among the ocean blue – and then, searching for Killmotor Hill.

The ship landed roughly at the base of the hill, not too far away from the main road and the bus stop. Della scrambled out, desperate to get back to the manor, and fought the gravity that was so intent in bringing her down. She couldn’t remember the last time she felt her limbs so heavy. With a grunt, and breathed out and let the power she had come to master envelope her, and her steps became lighter and she climbed up the hill, jumping and shooting forward with each gust of wind, leaving a trail of white cloudlike plumes behind her.

The gates of the manor stood as tall as imposing as ever. She stared at it, breathing deeply, letting the white that she summoned fade away.

“I’m home,” she whispered.

She didn’t see the Spear taking off again. She didn’t hear the hum of its engine, roaring through the atmosphere – the wind didn’t bring the sound to her. Her mind was solely focused on her kids, her family, and in her mind, the Spear might as well not exist anymore.

She took a deep breath, let it out, and jumped over the gate – or, at least, she tried to. Earth’s gravity clung to her mercilessly, and she growled and summoned the winds to push her up. With that, she jumped over the gate easily, and almost without even realizing it, she had used the wind to push her up to the door of the manor.

(She botched her first impression, because of course. But the point was that she was home, the kids were with her, she was back with Uncle Scrooge, she was back with her family, she was home.

The names were wrong, but that wasn’t important. They were her kids, and she loved them, whether their names were Jet, Turbo, and Rebel or Huey, Dewey, and Louie.)

The girl approached her, introducing herself as Webby, looking as touched as one could be at the family reunion, looking like she wanted to ask a million questions but unable to speak clearly. Scrooge coughed to hide his laugh.

“She’s Mrs. Beakley’s granddaughter. Donald called her his bonus kid,” Scrooge explained.

“Of course he would,” Della snorted, and she looked around. “Where is he?” She didn’t say about how much she missed him, how she longed for her twin, the person she revolved around just as he revolved around her, like planets caught in each other’s orbit. It must have shown anyway, because Webby immediately reassured her.

“He’s off on a relaxing, remote vacation,” she said. “He’s stress molting, and we thought it was best to get him to relax somehow.”

“Aaah, instead of welcoming back her sister. Must be nice,” Della said. Donald was a worrywart, though, a vacation would do him good. “Well, I guess I’ll have to wait until he gets back, then.” She jumped to her feet, excited to finally bond with her kids, and accidentally summoned the white plumes around her again. She bit back a curse and landed down on the floor again. She had kids now, she had to self-censor.

Dewey gasped loudly. “You can fly?!”

“Umm, yes,” Della answered reluctantly. “I still don’t know the full extent of what I can do.”

“You couldn’t fly before, what happened?” Scrooge asked.

“Well, one day on the Moon I kind of just realized I could float in the air,” Della explained. “And then I pushed that further and further, and now I can fly, sort of. It’s different here than on the Moon, though. I feel like my whole being is itching for a flight and it’s all so much more powerful than in space.” She held up her hand and twisted her hand, and a gust of wind blew Louie’s hood up. “Whoops. Sorry.”

“It’s no problem,” Louie answered, pulling his hood back down.

“Maybe we got it from her, after all,” Dewey said excitedly. “So it’s not a thing that just appeared out of nowhere, but it’s like, um…”

“Hereditary,” Huey finished for him. “We got it from Mom. But it’s different.”

“Boys, I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about here,” Della interjected.

“Oh, um.” Huey fumbled around for a moment, then he looked down at his hands. Heat rose around him in alarming speed, then his hands caught fire. Della bit back on a surprise squawk, but it was clear that the fire wasn’t hurting Huey. If anything, he carried it like it was a small pet he was eager to show Della.

“Yeah, we each have something!” Dewey said, eyes twinkling. The air around him buzzed, and when he held up his hands, she could see blue-white light jumping from one finger to another – electricity. “See? Isn’t it cool? Come on, Louie, show her what you’ve got!”

Louie looked around the room as if in search of something. When he seemed to have found it, he stretched out his hand, and Della got the sudden impression that he was pulling something. A flash of gold flew and shot through the room, landing perfectly in Louie’s hand. He swung the golden khopesh with ease that spoke of experience. “I guess this one needs an explanation. I can control gold. Magica called me a gold-touched.”

“Who called you a what?” Della asked. This was getting a little absurd, honestly.

“Magica,” Louie repeated. “He called me a gold-touched. I guess it’s a term for someone with magic to control gold?”

“She also called Huey a flame-born and me a lightning-kissed,” Dewey said. “I think she also said something about you?”

“She said borne from a sky-called.” Huey tilted his head in thought. “I think she also mentioned something like a sea-called… it might refer to Uncle Donald?”

“Huh,” Della blinked, leaning back. She hadn’t thought of the possibility of her kids having powers. Granted, maybe she should have, with her being able to fly and all, but it just occurred to her that maybe her journey to motherhood wasn’t as typical as she thought it would be.

(But of course it wouldn’t be. She was a mother of a set of triplet, and she was born of the Duck and McDuck family. They were anything but typical.)

“Mom?” Dewey called, soft and hesitant. “This… this is okay, right?”

Her breath hitched for a moment, and she gathered all three of her kids into her arms. Huey’s flames dissipated the moment she reached out and Louie was quick to angle the khopesh to keep it from hurting anyone, but Dewey was a little late and she felt a jolt of electricity buzzing through the four of them for a split second. She ignored it and hugged them close. “Of course it’s okay! It’s more than okay. This is us, and I will never trade it for anything in the world.” She let go and grinned. “If anything, this makes us even cooler! Look at us here, having superpowers!”

“Yeah!” Dewey grinned back, instantly mollified. Della knew things were going to be hard, but maybe it wouldn’t be as bad as she thought it would be.

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Oh, yes. It was worse.

Her own recklessness had woken the Gilded Man and now it was hell-bent on destroying her family. Well, okay, she fucked up, and she was all for un-fucking her fuck ups, so she had to save her family and stop the Gilded Man somehow.

Her pride soared when she saw her kids bravely running about, catching the giant ape’s attention and slowly weakening it (and subsequently angering it, oh boy) with the horn Della had given them. Louie, the bright boy, had Huey fetch some tape and put together the three horns and threw it to Dewey, who easily threw them to Della, who was able to slip them inside and step on them and sound the horns at once. The Gilded Man began to crumble, and Della swiftly took off her metal leg and summoned wind to her air, flying up to the sky. Her eyes caught Louie, trying to push the gold away with his powers, but the Gilded Man was too big, too heavy. Its hand fell straight to him, and Della found herself screaming his name, shooting to him faster than she had ever flown.

She slammed to him bodily just as the gold hand fell on them, with Louie glowing brightly like the golden sun, speckled with emerald green. The hand stopped its trajectory and fell sideways instead of straight down, and Della peeked out when she heard it thump heavily to the ground. She blinked out the light in her eyes and realized Louie was still glowing gold.

“Louie,” she called softly. “Louie, can you hear me? It’s okay, we’re safe now.”

Louie looked up, and Della realized for the first time that his eyes looked like flat discs. The effect faded little by little as the golden glow dissipated, the glittering green disappearing, and Louie slumped forward a little, tears in his eyes. Della held his face in her hands and smiled.

He rushed forward and hugged her midsection. “Thank you, Mom.”

“No, thank you, Louie,” Della breathed into his ear. “You saved us both.”

Yes, her journey to motherhood sure was shaping to be a rocky one, but nothing could stop Della Duck. She was prepared for anything that was thrown to her.

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Okay, so her kids’ magic was apparently something she wasn’t exactly equipped to deal with, but that’s okay. She could learn.

Louie seemed to have his magic easily controlled, at least. He had sensing gold down pat and summoning his khopesh was child’s play to him, but controlling a large amount of gold at once seemed to drain him. Della tried to tell him to slow down, don’t burn himself out, and she was thankful that he was at least willing to listen to reason.

Huey, as well, had his own magic controlled to an extent, but when he was lost in thought or too emotional, heat haze would rise around him, and something would inevitably catch fire. On good days, it would be himself. He was pretty much fire-proof, and his clothing was never singed or anything, which was a good thing. But sometimes he would be holding to something – a map, a book, a pen – and the object instead would catch fire. But as long as he was aware of it, he was also quick to extinguish the flames.

Dewey proved to be the one most careless with his magic. He zapped basically everyone with his electricity, apologized and said to be more careful, and zapped the very same person in the very same breath. He was absentminded at best, and Della racked her brain trying to find a way for him to reign the magic in.

“Uncle Donald usually talks to me and hug me until the zapping passed,” Dewey said. He was frowning. “I thought the zapping’s not that bad. He can take it.”

Not for the first time, Della felt gutted. She was busy playing catch up to be able to care for her kids, and Donald had been doing it for a decade and he wasn’t here to teach her the ropes. He knew the kids so much better than she was, and that was so painfully obvious even to her.

It was weird, though. Dewey’s zaps were enough to make even Scrooge scream, sometimes, and Donald was able to take it? Was he even okay? Another thing she needed to ask him. Later, though, after he was back from his cruise.

“Maybe we should find someway else to help you deal with it,” Della said. “I don’t know about Donald, but I know I can’t take your electricity. Do you know how powerful it can get?”

“I don’t know,” Dewey admitted. He winced. “We, um, can find out?” he offered, but he didn’t seem too thrilled about it.

“No, no, we don’t have to,” Della assured. “It’s okay if you don’t want to find out. Now, let’s see… have you ever tried discharging your electricity somewhere safe?”

Dewey blinked. “Where?”

In the end, it turned out the best way they could deal with Dewey’s zaps was to bring him to an empty field and have him discharge his electricity into the ground. As it turned out, the buildup was what made him zap people, and having him exhaust the buildup helped tremendously.

It helped Dewey, but it made Della feel less, still, how she was still trying to give the boys all she could give and it still wasn’t enough.

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The sky felt like it was beckoning her, sometimes, calling her up to stay with the clouds and bask in unfiltered sunlight. She wondered, sometimes, if should float and never come back down if she didn’t have her kids – usually Dewey – calling her down for something. An adventure, a meal, a simple question.

They asked, once, how it felt like to fly. Her answer to that was to hug Huey in one arm, Louie in the other, have Dewey clinging to her back, and bring them up to the sky. Later, after they landed, Webby asked shyly if Della could bring her up to the clouds, too, and Della was more than happy to let her feel the wind up in the sky.

Mrs. Beakley yelled at them when they got down, but relented when Webby promised to bring parachutes if she ever went again. Mrs. Beakley then proceeded to shove more child-sized parachutes to Della’s arms, and Webby was soon teaching the boys how to use it. The next time Della brought them all on a flight on her back, they jumped off and used the parachute.

Della instructed them how to steer the parachutes as she floated on wind of her own making, and Dewey stared at her with stars in his eyes. “How do you know all this?!” he yelled, more because they were riding the wind and the noise made it hard to have their voices carry over.

“I wasn’t always able to fly like this, but I’m great at anything that requires a vessel to fly!” Della answered. “I’m boss when it comes to paragliding!”

“Teach us sometime so I can get a paragliding badge!” Huey requested.

“Sure! But let’s land first, okay?” She blew gentle breeze them down, and they concentrated on landing.

They landed safely at the backyard, and this time Scrooge was the one yelling at them. Della somehow managed to placate him by promising to fly him up, though, so that wasn’t really a problem.

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This was getting out of hand. Everything was.

The hurricane outside was getting worse, the flow of space-time was getting tangled, Beakley was missing, and Louie Duck was absolutely grounded. How did he even get the idea that stealing from time was a good thing? It sounded worse than her and Donald’s worst ideas combined, and that wasn’t even counting how Donald’s luck would put everything through a blender.

Pirates of all things were attacking her family, for god’s sake. Huey had long since abandoned his careful demeanor and had started throwing fire around just to keep their attackers off their backs, and Dewey was basically just punching lightning everywhere at this point. She should really have listened more to Beakley. Her feelings were in the proverbial blender right now, she was thrown back in time and she had to witness her kids disappearing in front of her eyes. Louie needed to learn that his actions had consequences and he could’ve hurt so many people.

It felt like he had stabbed a knife through her heart when he muttered venomously, “I wonder who I got that from.”

She sent him to his room after banning schemes and having him stop Louie Incorporated. She knew it was the right thing to do, but the knife in her heart felt like it was being twisted when she saw his retreating back.

(“You’re not doing this right,” her Inner Donald said to her quietly.

“Then how do I do it right?” she asked him back.

He didn’t answer.)

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It got sorted out, somehow, between Louie somehow managing to usurp both Glomgold and Scrooge’s riches and finally giving Scrooge his company back.

And then the Moonlanders attacked, because of course. Nothing ever went smoothly, with her family. It made her wonder if Donald’s luck was just something that was uniquely his or if it was actually a family curse that somehow ended up manifesting more clearly in him. Neither of them sounded like a good option, honestly.

“We can take them,” Dewey yelled, when they were discussing what they should do with Gyro, after seeing Lunaris had landed one of his ships above the manor. “They don’t know we have superpowers. And Uncle Donald mentioned magic not mixing well with technology, so that’s another thing in our corner!”

“Yeah, I doubt they would be prepared for three kids being able to use fire, lightning, and gold magic coming to them. Plus Louie could probably damage the ships, right? They’re gold,” Huey said, looking at Louie for confirmation.

Louie nodded and made some sort of smooshing motion with his hands. “It’ll take a while, but I can probably total the ships if I want to. Do they know you can fly, Mom?”

“I – I don’t think so,” Della said, mind reeling. Her boys wanted to fight? Right there, in the thickest of the danger, letting themselves walk right in the middle of the line of fire? She glanced in panic at Scrooge, and he seemed to be concerned, at least. That’s good, Scrooge’s Concern was usually Della’s Panic and Donald’s Absolutely Losing His Marbles In Fear. That meant her fear wasn’t irrational.

“Great, so we can go to town and just start burning, zapping, and crushing stuff,” Huey said. He opened his Junior Woodchuck book. “We should plan more, though. Hang on, let me check on battle strategy for a bit.”

“No!” Della yelped before she could stop herself, and she froze in place when the kids stared at her. “We, uhh… we should go find… find more reinforcement! Yes! There are a lot of Moonlanders and there are only so many of us. If we can get help, surely our chance of success will be better too!”

To her relief, Scrooge caught on quickly. “Ah, yes! Yes, that’s a good point, lass. I should be able to round up some more help here. Della, you and the kids go scour the globe for reinforcement. Perhaps Selene and Storkules would be willing to help.”

“Oh, yes! Ithaquack! Perfect place,” Della smiled. She exchanged meaningful gazes with Scrooge, and soon, they departed.

She would do anything to keep the kids safe – including Webby, because Donald was right, she was their bonus kid, as precious as the triplets were. She needed someplace she could keep them safe, and she didn’t care that they would think her a coward for it. Anything was better than letting them come to harm’s way.

“At least Don’s safe in a cruise,” Della muttered bitterly under her breath.

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Okay, so, Ithaquack’s fucked too. Fine. Okay. Fine. They could find someplace else safe. There had to be some uninhabited island somewhere that the Moonlanders overlooked. The Earth’s littered with it, anyway.

And also they’re being chased. Fuck.

And the kids found out they were there to run away. And they got shot. And the plane was downed.

Fucking hell. Was Donald’s bad luck contagious? It felt like it was.

It took Della’s all to channel her magic to summon enough wind to counter Earth’s gravity so she could keep them safe. The downside of it was that the brilliant white and sky blue was too bright, blinding her and taking away her vision, but it was fine – somehow, the wind enveloping the Cloudslayer gave her enough sense of where they were, and they managed to land relatively safely. It didn’t stop the plane from getting totaled, but they were alive, and that was what was important.

“We made it! We’re safe!” Della exclaimed when they set foot on the sand.

“And stuck,” Hewey pointed out. “You’d have to be pretty unlucky to be stranded here.”

So of course Donald of all people was stranded there.

(Oh man, he wasn’t safe in a cruise. He’d been stranded this whole time. How did they not know about this.)

They fought almost immediately after they set eyes upon each other – typical – but the overlaying deception of anger melted immediately to reveal the longing underneath, and they exchanged teary-eyed hug that seemed to last forever. The moment was ruined when his sculpted melon companion made appearance, and hoo boy was that weird.

“Has the melon been a thing the whole time I’ve been gone, or…?”

“No, that’s new,” Huey answered, and good, the kids were as concerned as she was. How long had Donald been stuck here, for him to get a melon that looked like Mickey of all people and start treating it like the actual Mickey? What were the chances of him actually finding a Mickey-shaped melon in the first place? Melon shaped like that shouldn’t even be able to grow in the wild, what in the world, Don.

And he was all for going back in the fray and danger and laser shots to bring the Moonlanders down. What the fuck, Don. And this was the Moon all over again! What even was going on! She was Della Duck and nothing stops Della Duck, but this – all this – the possibility of losing her family again, the Moonlanders attacking, Lunaris betraying her – she didn’t know if she wanted to be mad or scared or what and she just landed in bunk up in a deserted island and pray no one finds them. She hated this.

Louie pulled her out of her funk, and Fethry and Gladstone appeared, riding a giant purple krill. Somehow, the fact that they were riding a giant krill was a lot less painful to bear than the fact that Gladstone was eating Donald’s Mickey-placeholder. Fethry was always good with animals, after all, but this was their cousin eating Donald’s only companion while he was stuck in an island.

They all rode on Mitzy and braved the sea to get back to Scrooge. The sea was rough, but their course was true, and Della couldn’t help but notice how Donald kept glancing at the ocean every now and then, an unreadable look in his eyes. Maybe he was worried about slipping and falling into the sea, it wouldn’t be that weird for that to happen to him.

They reached Duckburg and saw it a frozen wasteland, a giant golden ship pushing Earth to orbit the Moon. They saw Lunaris holding their uncle hostage, and Della saw red.

“Lunaris, let go of my uncle,” Della demanded.

“And lose any potential advantage I might have?” Lunaris shot back as he tightened his grip on Scrooge’s collar. “I don’t think so.”

Della growled. “What is wrong with you?” she barked. “You helped me when I was in the moon. I thought we were friends! And then you turn around and do this?”

“Friends?” Lunaris asked back. His laugh was derisive. “Do you even hear yourself? Are you so foolish that you don’t even realize people can lie?” He levelled a cold gaze at her. “We are not friends,” he spat. “You are but a lowly Earthling. I am General Lunaris of the Moon. For you to even consider the possibility of us being friends is an insult to my name.”

Della recoiled feeling like she had been slapped. All this while she had thought she had been making friends but it was all just a lie. The very air stirred around her, white plumes materializing as it always did when she called to the very sky to her aid, thin but undoubtedly present. She narrowed her eyes at the Moonlander. “You lied to me. All this time, all you wanted to do was just to get here.”

“Oh, so you finally realized after all,” Lunaris said with a mocking smile. “I honestly thought it would take you longer to understand.”

Della took a deep breath. The air was cold, but she felt hot with raw anger. “I had high opinions about you,” she said. “You helped me in the Moon. Was that all a lie? All of it?”

Lunaris didn’t even hesitate. “All of it.”

Della felt something in her snap. The white plumes surrounding her strengthened as a sudden gust of strong wind blasted Lunaris in the face, making him flinch back while his cape was blown. He squinted at Della but made no move otherwise.

“I will give you to a count of three,” Della began, “and if by then you have not released my uncle, I will make you sorry for being born.” She narrowed her eyes at Lunaris. “One.”

“Do you honestly think that meager threat is enough to scare me?” Lunaris asked.

“Two!”

“I do not care for your countings, Della Duck.”

“Three!” Della paused, eyeing Lunaris closely. When he made no move to release Scrooge, she rushed ahead and jumped off Mitzy’s head. The wind carried her and she glided effortlessly like a feather riding on a breeze, for all intents and purposes weightless. Then she shot like an arrow to Lunaris, leaving a trail of white while her metal leg aimed at his head as she spun a kick. Lunaris dropped Scrooge to block her kick, and chaos reigned.

It didn’t take long for her to convince her kids to mess up the ship. While she summoned the wind to bring her to dance in mid air, she saw how Louie was able to crumple the ship like it was paper. Penumbra, of all people landed on ice on a smaller ship, immediately rushing ahead to throw a punch at Lunaris.

“Hi, roomie!” she cheerfully greeted Della.

“Penny! You came here!” Della greeted back, delighted that she was around, and that she wasn’t attacking her. At least someone wasn’t lying.

So of course Lunaris would declare her a traitor.

They fought side by side, and it was so much easier bringing Lunaris down like this. Penny seemed intrigued at her being able to fly, but she knew it wasn’t time to ask questions.

Mitzy’s massive legs fell from above, destroying the docks and smashing ice. Della could hear Donald reprimanding Fethry, but her attention was taken by her kids, who she could see were losing their balance in the ship while Louie clung to one of the ship’s legs to keep himself from falling. His khopesh had fallen and skidded away.

Lunaris took him prisoner, and Della’s blood ran cold.

“Stand back or I will stab him,” Lunaris threatened.

“This is rich coming from the guy who yelled I will not fall!” Louie yelled. He looked miffed that he was taken hostage at all, and Della had to suppress a laugh at that. Somehow, it was typical of their family’s trend, to be insulted that someone was keeping them hostage instead of feeling scared. Louie was so alike to Donald that way.

Lunaris frowned, clearly confused. “I have you at bladepoint. Don’t you realize what position you’re in?”

“Oh, sure, go ahead, get the guy who seems like he can’t defend himself and take him as hostage, why don’t you?” Louie grumbled. “If you’re so high and mighty I would’ve thought you’d think or a nobler plan.”

Lunaris’ frown deepened into a scowl. “I hope you realize I am perfectly capable of slitting your throat right now, if I so choose.”

This time, it was Huey who answered. “No you won’t,” he said, matter-of-fact, and his tone was dry enough to turn this frozen ocean into barren desert, and Della had to feel proud at that.

“You see, about that,” Louie spoke up again, “I’m sure you’ve seen my brother conjure fire and my other brother conjure electricity. You’ve seen my mom fly, too. Haven’t you considered I might have something up my sleeve, too?” With that, he lifted a hand and jabbed up, brightly shining gold with glittering green, eyes flat discs of gold, and the fallen khopesh lifted up on its own and slashed through the air to Lunaris.

The Moonlander moved to block the attack with his dagger, and Louie took advantage of the distraction by biting Lunaris’ hand so he’d be released. As Lunaris did in surprise, Louie shimmered brighter and made a pulling gesture. The dagger in Lunaris’ hand was ripped away and clanged to the ice.

“You filthy Earthling!” Lunaris spat. He slapped Louie backhanded, hard enough to send him reeling and falling to ice and landing on his face, the gold glow disappearing abruptly as the boy cried in pain. He grazed his cheek on a rough patch and came out with red welts. Della gasped, stomach lurching, and she felt the white plumes around her freezing its motions.

Lunaris wasn’t done. He marched with purpose, eyes locked at Louie. Louie, for his part, extended his hand and called to the dagger, once again shining gold as he motioned so the dagger moved according to his will. The dagger shot to Lunaris, but he simply slapped it away. He lifted his hand, a murderous glint in his eyes

Della yelled at Lunaris to stop, feeling desperate to save her kid, and her magic rose to the forefront. White mist escaped her beak as she breathed, and she could feel herself glowing, glowing, and her vision was starting to get overtaken by brilliant white and specks of sky blue, wind whipping around her and pulling at her hair, slapping at her cheeks.

Someone beat her to the punch. Seawater burst from cracked ice and rushed ahead like tsunami, effectively sweeping Lunaris off his feet and leaving Louie safe and dry. It rolled Lunaris over in its waves and pinned him down on ice, effectively drowning him mercilessly.

“Stop hurting my family!” Donald yelled at Lunaris, feral in every way Della could think of, looking even wilder than when they found him on that island. His whole being was glowing sea blue, and even so far away, Della could see his eyes had turned blue with specks of white, like rising wave, like the sea and its seafoam. She could feel his magic rolling off like waves, the sea singing its song and magic through Donald’s hands, and suddenly it all made sense, how Donald was less clumsy at sea, how Donald was the best person you could have to get you safely through naval voyage, how Donald was so at home among the deep blue like she was with the clouds. The power receded, and Lunaris sputtered on cold ice. Penny went ahead to put cuffs on him.

There was an alarming creak, and Della saw the golden ship careening down to hit Donald. Judging by the trajectory, it would hit Louie, too, and the kids were still inside.

“Look out!” Della yelled, releasing her magic as her sight whited out, but she couldn’t do much – Donald was only pushed back a little. She gritted her teeth, suddenly realizing that her power wasn’t much at all when she wasn’t really using it for flight, but her yell had done the job well. The people in the ship’s way scattered, and while Louie tried in vain to keep it upright, the whole ship was too heavy for him to bear. Dewey and Webby snagged him, and his golden glow dissipated, and the ship fell into the sea.

When the sea and the ice settled, Della rounded on Donald. “You can control water?!” she asked, almost insulted that he hadn’t told her about this. He’d seen her fly, in the island! The least he could do was tell her about what he could do!

“You can fly,” he protested, but he scooted back all the same.

“You never told me you can control water!”

“It never came up! And I can only do the sea! What am I supposed to say, anyway? Hi, Dell, remember how I always loved to be by the sea since we were little? That’s cause I can make some waterworks a little, no biggie!”

“That would have been better than radio silence!”

The argument was broken when Glomgold voiced his disbelief on what was happening – and really, that was rich coming from a guy who came up with the plan to attack a golden ship with sharks wearing parka, having Scrooge dress up and Santa (that was honestly cruel, that was absolutely crossing the line), getting Scrooge to gift him back his company, and having Beakley dress up as a boy to sling shot Launchpad dressed up as a rock into the ship.

Really, how were they the weird one when Glomgold was the one who came up with that?

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“Why didn’t you come home when you were in that island? You can control the sea,” Della asked after the whole thing started to quiet down.

“It wouldn’t let me,” Donald said. He let her lean into him and used his shoulder as a pillow as he leaned into her, propping his chin on her head. “The sea’s kind of possessive.”

“It’s sentient?”

“Not really? …kind of.”

“Huh.”

Donald nuzzled his cheek into Della’s hair. “I thought you were dead for ten years.”

“I sent transmissions.”

“We never received any.”

Her stomach churned with guilt. She didn’t know. “I’m sorry.”

She snaked her arms around his torso and hugged him tight. He hugged back, just as tightly, and they stayed like that for a while in their old room back in the manor, and she could feel things slowly settling back down into their family’s wacky sense of normal.

She was back, and she had all of her boys with her, and their family can do magic.

And she would fight Lunaris all over again to keep them safe and sound with her.

#ducktales #ducktales 17 #della duck #donald duck #scrooge mcduck #huey duck #dewey duck #louie duck #webby vanderquack #bentina beakley #magic au #basically everyone in this au have magic #ao3 #dt17 magic au

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

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Ducktales Della Arc Finale and Shadow Into Light Combo: The Shadow War! or The Last Stand of Lena DeSpell (For at least a year)

Hello all you happy people! And today the two arcs of Ducktales i’ve been covering unite for the season 1 finale! It’s been a hell of a ride: We’ve had a family reborn, gay subtext, a warriors homage, an underground adventure, a vacation with the gods, gay subtext, a giant shark made of money, a trip to old Scotland for some family fun shouting, gay subtext, a trip into Lena’s innermost nightmares that also involved a sasquatch for some reason, a heart stopping reveal, a heartbreaking argument due to said reveal and gay subtext. It’s been a hell of a ride and while the Lena train will go on, I feel both acomplished and happy to have finished up the Della arc in such a short time. Never doing that again mind, as it took up my entire schedule and pushed any other ongoing projects out, but i’m still proud to have pulled it off.

When we last left off.. yesterday, The truth came out, the boys lashed out at Scrooge, Scrooge lashed out at everyone, and we all cried. Now Magica looms, our family is broken again and it’s up to two unlikely people to bring them together again. So join me under the cut for some parent trapping, some adventure and even more Weblena subtext than usual, as we enter the Shadow War.

Part One: Night of De Spell!

I”ve come around on the episodes being treated as two parts in reuruns and on Disney +. They were BUILT to be chunked up later as there are clear breaks between episodes, said chunking is to make reruns on tv easier.. and it makes my job easier as it gives me clear act breaks. I’ll still cover them all in one article, but it makes it easier to recap it when I have two clearly defined acts, something that’s been a struggle when reviewing episodes that just aired like Let’s Get Dangerous! and the Last Adventure!, hence why I switched to breaking down the episode instead for the latter. So I really can’t gripe about something that dosen’t really affect anything negatively, at most it just adds credits to both episodes, and HELPS me a lot.

And it really helps with this one as like most of the episodes for the Della arc... the first half of the finale is two plots that don’t really intersect that much aside from Magica mimicking Scrooge on the phone to keep him from going to the dinner. Other than that they don’t really impact each other until the end of the first part. So i’ll be covering both plots separately, and then just the episode as a whole for part two.

Good. Let’s get quackin.

Everyone But Scrooge and Lena in Parent Trapped:

It’s three days after the end of the last episode and everything still sucks: Webby is desperate to try and get her family back but none of them are hearing it and Dewey and Huey are taking it an extra mile and throwing their mementos from their adventures in the bay. Louie however dosen’t want to and it’s the one bit of an otherwise great episode that does not work for me as he’s not keeping it for sentiment: it’s a solid gold Kopesh. As someone who makes about 30 bucks a month and gladly sells stuff he doesn’t need, this annoys me on a fundamental level. Sell the damn thing and buy yourselves some food or some ninja turtles dvds like me.

So Webby is worried they might leave soon and she’ll be back to almost no one but Launchpad assures her they aren’t going anywhere.. right as Donald, desperate to help the boys cheer up and relating to what their feeling, offers to take them where they always wanted to go: Cape Suzette! Spin it!

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The Sea Ducks’ even on the flier. Baloo was a legend.. I hope he enjoys his retirment on Cocaine Island as Secretary of Goodtimes under President Snowflame. So our dynamic duo spiral into panic at the thought of loosing their family and best friend respectively.

Webby: Someone’s gotta remain calm here Launchpad: So you? Even Launchpad knows he isn’t the adult in the situation between him and an 11 year old girl. So they come up with a plan. It’s time to parent trap those sons of bitches. They’ll host a heartwarming dinner reminding them of all the good times, invite Scrooge as the suprise guest and then spring the parent trap. Probably also sing Let’s Get Together given the two people we’re dealing with and given Beakley’s age she likely showed Webby both. Sidenote... I really wish we’d seen more of these two. It’s a team up we only got this once but both Webby and Launchpad being friendly weirdos with a lot of heart but not a lot of common sense made them the dream team and make this part of the plot hilarious and help lighten the mood given the heavy stakes.

So later that day, we cut to Huey and Lewey who are looking into Cape Suzette.. and find themselves not as excited anymore. They wanted to go all their lives.. but it’s clear that traveling the world.. it’s just another port town, not much more or less adventuerous than Duckburg, and was likely only appealing because it wasn’t here. They’ve flown higher now, seen more and while they won’t admit it... they probably really DON’T want to leave Scrooge forever. it sounded good a few hours ago, it sounded great 6 months ago but now.. it’s just not the same. Dewey is all for it.. but that’s because Dewey was the one who took everything the worst. He put all this effort into finding his mom, into this whole big hunt... and also put all his faith and love and future into scrooge, so having that all puleld out from under him without the maturity to get that he lost a lot too, combined with his natural stubborness, has lead him to dig in. But before hec an convince the other Webby and Launchpad slip them the invitation. The boys accept, probably because with a child’s handwriting it could only be either Webby or Launchpad.. Donald set out traps for Doofus after the last time.

So they take over the kitchen with Donald confused and upset and then just grumpy after.. they explain their making a farewell dinner. And one of them is his friend. And the other one is his boys surrogate sister. And their offering to make him free dinner and brought all the fixings when he’s out of a job

So naturally their attempt at a parent trap is about as subtle as a Killdozer through your living room, with Webby having made replicas of all their adventures out of food. Launchpad provided drinks.. that are melted popscilces (”There’s a riddle on the stick”). God bless you thoughtly dumb thoroughly beautiful man. So naturally this really isn’t working at all, not helped by Scrooge not showing up thanks to Magica, and Beakley showing up because Webby made the crucial mistake of thinking Launchpad could think bout anything but Darkwing Duck, Planes or a Darkwing Duck Shaped planes clearly so he gave her an invitation telling her NOT to come.

Webby’s attempt to get them to remember Scrooge fondly gets no-sold, though in a very touching way as Dewey, clearly sensing what she’s trying to do instead picks Uncle Donald, with Huey, Louie and Launchpad all joining in saying he’s Loyal (Dewey, who also uses it as a jab at scrooge because he’s being a little shit this episode, and not in his usual fun way or Louie’s usual fun way), Thoughtful (Huey), Passionate (Louie) and that he likes his sailor suit (Launchpad). It brings the duck to tears and as a big fan of Donald, I love this a lot and it shows that, even if Dewey is doing it to take a jab at his uncle, they really do love and apricate their uncle and all he did despite perferring scrooge for the last 6 months. They may love their rich uncle.. but Donald’s there Dad and nothing can take that away from him.. not that a lack of an emphasis on his role as their adopted dad in season 3 didn’t try. They love him and wether they realized that because of what happened with Scrooge or always felt this way and just never expressed it, i’ts sweet. For the record I feel while they loved him it took till this for Dewey and Louie to appricate him while Huey, being a sweetheart and the most like him out of the three, always did. Launchpad attempts to use a bouncy castle to fix things for some reason.. the inner machinations of his mind are an enigma.... or just this on a loop.

You make the call. Beakley naturally, being a spy with decades of experince and someone with half a brainn, figured out their parent trapping them.. but to the suprise of both and the audience she agrees. The family’s been apart too long and she’s fully on board with keeping it together. It makes sense both just in the context of season one and with the reveal of the finale. For the former, she’s watched Scrooge be miserable and withdraw for a decade, and was the one who acitvely encouraged him to spend time with the boys. Sure she wasn’t happy about them moving in, but that settled quickly and last episode she was every bit as worried about the boys as she was her own daughter. She WANTS her best friend to be happy and knows he and his family are stubborn as hell, and knows that our dream team’s heart is in the right place.. but they have about a third of a brain cell between them when it comes to social situations. The finale just adds to it by not wanting Webby to loose her dad or the rest of her family because her dad’s being an idiot. And as a third I just thought of, now we know Beakley’s only ever had one family member before joining the McDuck family, she likely wishes she’d had one and dosen’t want Scrooge to loose that. It’s also a VERY touching moment: Webby forgave Scrooge easily out of desperation, Launchpad did because he’s nice.. but Beakley while justifably pissed at the time and pulling Webby out of there til lhe stopped being a shithead, given the “your not family” comment, despite having EVERY reason to shun him too.. she gets that right now her best friend needs her to keep his family from running off.

She also wins easily, making a pie that scrooge liked and taking it away saying they don’t want a reminder of that “awful man”.. before giving them Scrooge’s side of the story, if through double negatives Launchpad dosen’t get. She points out he spent nearly all his money, that their mother was her own woman who made the decision, and that Scrooge spent TEN YEARS looking for her, the entirety of her lives and only stopped because he was on the brink of loosing everything. That starts to turn the boys minus Dewey, but the killing stroke is her pointing out a very simple fact: he lost someone too and all their doing is cutting out their family and costing him more people for something that wasn’t ENTIRELY his fault and he spent a decade trying desperatly to fix.

This gets Donald, whose the first to say they should go home. “This family has been apart too long.” To me, while I wish the show had built it up more.. i’ts Donald realizing how WRONG he was. He shunned his uncle and while he was right to be mad.. Scrooge did everything he could to fix things, and not trying to reconcile cost him a decade with the only family he has left that he cared about. Cost the boys their uncle and is NEVER what his sister would’ve wanted. And now he’s enabling the boys to make the same mistake he did, his own anger in the past making them think their resitment and shunning is okay when it’s not helping anyone. All he’s done is hurt someone he loves, someone who is easily his second father and teach his boys to do the same. That has to stop. It’s a great bit of character.

Huey and Louie are natually easily convinced while Dewey refuses to at first and cries.. before joining in, letting go of his anger too forced to finally realize the truth, or at least what I feel it is: He attacked scrooge because he didn’t want to admit his mom wasn’t perfect, that after all this time he found out she DID do something bad, if not villiaonous, by leaving them and taking the rocket before it was ready, something reckless and selfish, and admitting Scrogoe wasn’t the only one responsible.. was admitting she left him. He finally lets go... just in time for a giant eruption of purple from the mansion. Wuh-oh.. as for why let’s go back a few hours. Boys?

Scrooge and Lena in Night of De Spell!

So a few hours ago Magica is still using Lena’s body, to the point that when Lena is able to force her out for a second she genuinely FORGOT she was there. That’s horrifying..nothing to add there that entire sentence was just really fucking terrifying.

So naturally she plans to use Lena’s body to get back to the mansion only to find out the kids left from Launchpad (this is before he entered the other plot), but gets in anyway by manipulating him by faking that webby said something about him being weak.

That being said.. he is in a VERY bad place, beginning the series running gag of characters eating nothing but Pizza and having pizza boxes everywhere as a sign of depression, as the mansion is littered with it despite, as mentioned before everyone only having been gone three days. He’s not even wearing his robe, instead wearing a dirty undershirt and rolling around. He’s so horribly depressed and miserable. Magica being kind of nuts can’t fathom why he’s miserable and keeps trying to make him Tea.. which leads to something like this for about 7 minutes.

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Granted i’ts more by accident he avoids Magica poisoning him but still. Also before we move on I have to give props for the animation here and Kimiko Glenn’s performance. She plays Magica perfectly (as Magica only uses her own voice when not around scrooge), and the animation shows off the diffrence between owners of the body incredibly well.

Eventually Magica realizes he’s not faking it and dosen’t want an easy win. She’s waited a decade and a half for this she wants at least some fight. So she manipulates him, talking about family (Not that sh’es a good family member but we’ll get tot hat), and how it weighs you down.. likely also beliving given what we know about her backstory, that he belivies that. That what he said to poe back then was accurate, not realizing.. he changed.

So he decides to go back to baiss and get rid of everything.. except the dime and Magica being too eager for it gives the game away, so she simply bites him and takes it and... frees herself with the power of the eclipse. After 15 years Magica is free, at full power and quickly imprisons our heroes.

Scrooge naturally tears into Lena before blaming his family for it.. before she shuts him up, pointing out that Magica got in here BECAUSE his family was gone. Had Webby been here she would’ve realized something was off and stopped her, as would the rest of the family. With no one left to watch his back and his insincts dulled by misery, he was an easy target. She WISHES she had his family. She realized too late that what she wanted wasn’t freedom.. it was somewhere to belong, somewhere where she’s loved and people care about her. Actual parents or parental figures, a warm bed, and a place where no matter how much you argue your welcome at the end of the day. To have a home. Scrooge takes both things in and thanks her for making him realize he was a moron, she was right.. and that if she helps him get out of this.. she has a place in said family. Naturallly though given this is only part one their beaten easily once they escape: Magica turns Lena back into her shadow, more on that in a minute and traps Scrooge in the dime, and so part 1 ends with Magica ascending at full power and Donald giving the natural response “Aw Phooey”. Time for an intermission...

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Part 2: Day of the Ducks!

So we pick up where we left off.. with Magica’s manical laughter and Dewey wondering.. who the hell is this? Webby fills him: Ancient sorceress, mortal enemy of scrooge usual stuff between them. Except in this version she’s leagues more powerful. She’s also voiced by Comedic Actress and Former Doctor Who Star Cathrine Tate who I haven’t complimented enough int he roll but will now. She easily rolls between comedic and thretaning in an instant and was perfect casting, able to be delightfully hammy.. and unspeakably vile and abusive.

Back to the plot Magica proceeds to make things worse by moving her base from the Mansion to the bin... and summoning ALL the shadows of the citizens of duckburg. We also get a few neat scenes as a result: Glomgold tries to force his to stay but gets dropped in the bay.. and suprisingly is not a throaway gag but a gag that leads to the setup of his plot next season and the introduction of Kev, who comissioned this episode,’s faviorite character. More on that someday. Fenton does some stargazing.. and naturally when his turns into an evil shadow ghost tries to summon his armor.. and instead his shadow steals it.

Finally Gladstone’s... gives him 20 dollars because of course it does. All nice littlle nods and in fentons’ case setup for later.

So while Magica begins her gloating, she had a long speech prepared, our heroes back at the boat try to come up with a plan. They do end up getting unexpected reinforcements: Gyro, Manny, and Little Bulb all show up as their shadows emerging destroyed the glass in the underwater lab. “That’s it no more underwater labs! it’s volcano’s and abandoned castles from now on!”. Well the last one worked for the Mads for a while. i’d of gone for it. Though fair play while they do keep Gyro’s cool underwater lab next time we see it and the windows break security shutters activate to prevent another flooding. Likely Scrooge wouldn’t pay to move the whole thing i’m betting. Fenton also shows up so with most of the supporting cast at this point in the show present, they can begin the raid.

Donald does try to squak out a plan.. but it’s here an intresting idea of the series pops up: No one can understand donald. Well some people can, but not everyone can and even the boys mostly take it from context.. or at least Dewey does. This causes Donald to angrily chase Dewey around

So Gyro, not having the time for any of this, shoves a thing in his mouth, phrasing. This is the Barksian Modulator, a nod to Carl Barks and how Donald could speak in the comics and thus gives him a Don Cheadle voice.. wait.. does this mean comics Donald is voiced by War Machine too? I’ll table that. The point is he can speak clearly and in the sliky tones of Don Cheadle. Not as sexy as Keith David but i’ll take it. I also appricate Cheadle being fully game for this, doing a silly promo video about his roll here, likely taking a bit of a pay cut to do voice acting, and even doing donald’s trademark untitllegble raises. I do WISH donald got to give his badass speach in his own voice as Anselmo would nail it, but he got plenty of good performances before and after this and the gag of having an academy a golden globe and sag award winning actor with tons of charsima as Donald’s intelligble voice was too good to pass up. He even gives out an ah phooey! Such a legend.

So he gives a big inspirisng speech and a new motto of “Ducks never back down” that Dewey uses afterwords to diminishing returns. Andddd has the kids stay on the dock for their saftey SEEMINGLY having leanred nothing. Seemingly being the key word. Just to jump ahead a bit his assault team of him and the other adults goes decently: They are overwhelmed, but Fenton is able to improvise a ray gun, and then uses little bulb to turbocharge it. It’s awesome and shows the guys got talent with or without the suit. Beakley keeps the boat safe as she can (and gets as frustrated as donald, which is great, showing i’ts not so easy is it?)< and Gyro gets captured and is disapointed when he tells magica he’s only an aquantince when asked instead of a friend, though let’s be fair here... Scrooge REALLY does value gyro and did not want him to die. Are they friends... eh I dunno, but I do think he’s more than aquantince. Gyro also deserved it after putting Manny and LIl Bulb up against each other for the job. That will teach you to try and unemploy keith david! Launchpad also gets the awesome task of crashing into the bin as a distraction, though Magica keeps tossing him back, which at least does the job... he also gets a TRULY magnificent moment where he leaps onto the plane, singing his own version of the darkwing duck theme song. Fucking amazing and a shame they never called back to this at any point once Darkwing was introduced. I’d pay money to see them both do that.

So meanwhile with the kids, they naturally say nerp to staying behind. But they need someone who could help them bring them in. In Webby’s actual words, which I am not paraphrasing nor manipulating “Like a noble teen ne'er-do-well who can break into anything, including your heart?” And just in case you think i’m reading too much into things this is her face after saying that.

That my friend is a face that just SCREAMS

There’s no straight explination for this face or this line, and for anyone whose going to bring up the sisters thing in the finale 1. Sisterhood is complicated and sometimes not literal and 2. she was trying to keep Webby from walking into what she thought, correctly, was a trap. I’m doing this NOW because I forgot to in the review, and want to make it painfully clear i’ts okay to ship them as long as you don’t do sex stuff. Their chlidren. It’s gross. Don’t. It is precious.

So they head to Lena’s and find the place deserted and kinda messed up.. and find her Journal which reveals her secret origin: 15 years ago, though her age is not exact and even frank’s said that and while we do see her fully formed as a teen, that might of been an artistic thing we don’t know. Point is 15 years ago Lena was born when Scrooge sealed Magica’s phsyical form away in a dime during their final battle on Mt. Vesuvius, her base in the comics and original series, so she constructed Lena out of her shadow to act as her minon.

Webby of course is heartbroken, feeling Lena used her and all that bad stuff, though the boys comfort her, saying she’s still got them.. not getting the diffrence between familial love and romantic love but point is they know how Magica got out and what she did with scrooge, but they still need to get inside.

Huey, I think, Gets an idea and they swim underwater to emerge from Gyro’s flooded lab. Louie also gets his Kopesh back.

Naturally though their own shadows go after them but Dewey cleverly disapates them: since their shadows they need light to exist, and a simple hit of the fuse box disapates them. Presumibly since Magica was forced to make Lena into a more indepdnent and unique being, she’s immune to this hence why this has only happened to magica’s shadow before.

So they continue making their way up, facing Louie’s old nemisis THE STAIRS in a whopper call back.. only to find the bulk of the shadows, inclduing ShadowdGizmoDuck, waiting.. only for Donald to show up just in the nick of time. Turns out het PLANNED for all of this: he knew they wouldn’t stay put if he told them to and would find their own way in, thus allowing his force to be the bait. Fucking brilliant.

So our heroes head inside while Donald takes on an army single handed.. if with his modulator bugging out.. and given he and Beakely enter the bin via the office entrance later, he BEAT THE GIZMODUCK ARMOR. If you needed proof donald is a legend, there you go. Goodnight.

Anyways our heroes head inside, and when asked what they do, Dewey manages to give his own badass line “Do what we do best make trouble”. What follows is an awesometastic final fight with every one of the kids using their own talents against Magica in one epic clash. Huey simply asks the questions he has while dodging Magica, throwing her off ballance, and nearly getting her weakness out of her. Louie uses his faster speed at burrowing in the gold to easily dodge her and to get her to break a mirror and claims it was a curse. While she dosen’t buy it he eventually uses his silver tounge to wear her down... and leave her open for a kick to the ribs. “Ow my ribs”. Magica drops the dime and it’s clear our first two boys were just the warmup. This is the headliner and she is pissed, coming at Magica with everything. While we’d seen how badass Webby was all season.. this is her crowning glory. The moment that shows she’s not just the best of the kids she EQUALS Donald and Della in martial combat, if not in experince and easily keeps the pace with Magica, railing at her for taking her family and her friend away. Magica tries gaslighting her by saying Lena wasn’t real.. only for lena to come back.

In one glorious moment, Lena shows off how far she’s come, defying Magica at FULL power to return and fight back, keeping her off webby and giving Dewey, who magica kept from getting the dime seconds earlier, heads for the dime. She’s gone from going with her aunt for her own selfish reasons.. to fighting her with everythig she has left knowing she won’t surivive.. and Webby gets proof that Lena really did love her. Wether she tricked her or not.. she loved her.. and sadly enough to die for her as Magica, after telling Lena “your not family” after Lena calls her aunt, seemingly destroys her and a furious webby attacks in grief and rage. The “your not family part” also gives horrifying context to magica’s abuse: she likely abused Lena.. because Lena wanted family.. and Magica just wanted a minion.. and now we know her backstory.. she already LOST the only family she thought she had and hardenred herself, refusing to loose anyone again and thus took it out on an innocent child like the heartless monster she is.

However while Lena’s temporary death didn’t stop Magica.. it gave Dewey a dewstraction and he got the dime back. He tearfully apologizes to Scrooge.. before having to run again, but both have genuinely and finallyr econclied, putting away their own anger and pride and hurt and restoring the family good. Dewey uses the dime to block as Magica corners him.. and that desepration move frees Scrooge. We then get another hell of a fight as Scrooge easily counters her, uses his cane as a sword.. and THANKS HER. As far as he knew without her he’d of lost his family..w ith her , and with Lena, he found the strength to welcome them back in and they came for him when he needed them. This , given the Poe thing, infuraties her MORE, though this time she deserves him making her feel bad and using his douchebaggery against her, and he disarms her of her staff, which breaks on Donald’s head. Magica is dewpowered without her staff and without her amulet which was absorbed into Lena. Laucnhpad also gets a moment by bodyslamming her from the plane. She escapes, why they don’t go after her I have no fucking clue seriously guys what, but the point is for today our heroes have won. The bin, mansion and most of the city may be damaged.. but the family is whole again, cemented by scrooge callign out his nephews names (Minus dewey.. but intetoinally this time) and saying “Curse me kilts i’ve missed you”. After years of pain, hurt and sorrow..the family is whole once more and as they enjoy a midnight swim together, the future is all ahead of them.

But there’s only one thing.. or rather one person missing. And as we close out the episode and the season we cut to the moon.. where Della is watching a newscast.. and sees her boys for the first time. And we hear her for the first time. SEQUEL HOOK BITCHES.

Final Thoughts on The Shadow War!:

Shadow War is an EXCELLENT capper to the season and both it’s arc, tying both together beautifully by having Scrooge’s misery over his family leaving him vunerable to Magica. Any complaints I can muster are minor nitpicks, it ties in everything that had happened up to this point into a neat bow while leaving two big sequel hooks for next season for each arc. Though it’d take their sweet time, and some weird rescheduling from Disney , to get to the Lena one. It’s heartfelt, satisfying and awesome in every measure and is only the weakest of the three finales because the other two had even more shit to work in after seasons of hard work building up this world, with larger stakes and what not. It also has great symmetry with Woo-ooo and had the series ended here, and taken out the stinger.. it would’ve been decently satisfying. Thankfully it didn’t and we got two more knockout seasons after this and a whole other arc to cover at some point. It’s still utterly fantastic and still worth your time. Now for something new as this is the first story arc for a series i’ve finished, and as such ...

Final Thoughts on The Della Arc: I”ll get to the Lena arc, both for this season and as a whole, once I finish this retrospective. But for now how does the Della Arc hold up after all this time? Decently. It does have i’ts problems: The pacing is pretty bad: the arc is staggered out fairly but the size of it’s mystery coupled with the lack of any real info about Della for the entire goddamn season when this is her first big roll in anything, is annoying and will never not be even though we now have all the answers.

So while i’ts not perfect.. it’s still pretty damn good. They took one of Disney’s greatest lingering questions that went purposfully unanswered.. and answered it.. turning it into a masterful series of character pieces and using it to drive Dewey as a character. This was his arc and it shows depth to him: in most episodes he’s mostly pluck and adhd, but the arc shows off the hole left by not knowing his mom, his determination.. but also his selfishness and stubborness. It really fleshes the kid out and makes you root for him even when he’s fucking up a lot. The character work with EVERYONE, from Dewey in general to Webby and Donald in Ithaquack, to the other boys on the sunchaser to Scrooge in the last two/three eps, to Beakly in the same.. ther’es just lots of great stuff in this arc and way too many great moments to dismiss it. The pacing may of been shot, we may not have learned mcuh about della.. btu sometimes adventure is about the journey not the destination, and the journey AND where it took us were both phenominal so yeah. It’s a good arc. Not the series best, but a good start.

As for the Lena Arc i’m saving my throughts on that till we finish it as unlike this arc, which leads into the next but isn’t 100% connected to it, her arc extends for the rest of the series character wise, story wise and weblena wise. So we’re not done with this retrospective and i’ll save my thoughts for when we get to season 3. But Covering the della arc was a lot of fun, exausting but fun, and again any future arcs that aren’t paid for will be staggered out and any interlocking arcs that are paid for will have both paid for. Now with that out of the way..

NEXT TIME ON SHADOW INTO LIGHT: Lena gets SO JEALOUS as Webby makes a new friend and everyone gets a new faviorite as Violet is introduced! Meanwhile Beakley is desperate to prove to her 11 year old grandaughter she has friends and decides to befriend launchpad. Shenanigans insue. See you next week!

Next Time on this blog: It’s back to Amphibia! It’s time for some Zelda action as our heroes go to the first temple. I’m expecting either a giant spider or a shadowy ghost version of andrias. Don’t let me down show!

Until then, stay safe, follow me on patreon and on this blog and i’ll see you at the next rainbow.

#ducktales #the shadow war #scrooge mcduck #dewey duck #webby vanderquack #lena sabrewing #weblena #magica de spell #huey duck #louie duck #donald duck #fenton crackshell cabrera #gyro gearloose #many the headless manhorse #little bulb #bentina beakley #gladstone gander #flintheart glomgold #della duck

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the-redhead-who-writes · 4 years

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The Nutcracker Prince and the Devil Mouse

A re-telling of the classic ballet has Mika Anderson receiving a set of exquisite soldiers and a handcrafted Nutcracker for Christmas from her Grandfather Drosselmeyer. But with her joy comes uncertainty when an unexpected announcement from her Father and the sudden appearance of a frightful villain threatens to shatter everything she knows. Amidst the darkness, Mika will find love and an inner strength she'd never before known. Along with the magic of Christmas and the help of her friends, both old and new, will it be enough to save the holidays and her future?

Happy Holidays dorks! This story has been in the works for nearly a year now when I woke up in a cold sweat one night in the middle of last January and thought: "What if Harold Anderson was more like Uncle Drosselmeyer from the Nutcracker?"

So, I present to you a fanfiction to spread a little festive cheer to both veteran and new Seduce Me fans alike. The plan is to have the whole story up before February, but you know me and my time management skills; I promise to do my best though!

This fanfic is also specially dedicated to my best friend and beta @the-sassy-sister. Thank you for being with me through thick and thin!

And now, without further ado, please enjoy my take on a holiday classic!

Links: AO3

Mika imagined that most girls her age would be excited about their family’s annual Christmas party. Her Mother certainly was; she’d been running around for days arranging the necessary preparations: polishing the silverware, scrubbing the floors. Ensuring everything would be just perfect.

Mika struggled to see the point.

Not that she considered herself a Scrooge by any means. She really did love the holidays and everything that came with them: the house smelling of delicious food being prepared; the beautiful decorations that glittered over every inch of the house; and, of course, the time spent with friends and loved ones.

But when the ‘friends and loved ones’ were powerful execs and stuffy, influential board members, it was hard to feel merry.

The party was dragging by at a snail’s pace, and Mika’s cheeks ached from the smile she’d kept plastered on her face for the last three hours. She supposed she should be used to it by now; her father held the same lavish affair every year. And every year, she was expected to stand around, look pretty and repeat the usual lines.

Thank you for coming. We’re so glad to have you here. Why yes, I am doing well in my studies. Please, try the fruitcake.

She sighed, rolling her neck to ease the tense muscles in her shoulders. Her position as a greeter at the front door had long since finished, as the party was well underway and all of the A-list guests had arrived. But Mika wasn’t waiting on any of them.

Anticipation had her fingers drumming on the staircase railing, keeping in time with the ticking antique grandfather clock in the adjacent living room. Slipping away during speeches would probably earn her a lecture from her Father at the end of the night, but right now, she couldn’t bring herself to care.

“Any sign of him?”

Mika turned her head from the door to see Naomi exiting the kitchen, holding a glass of punch. Suzu followed after her, grinning toothily behind her plate of precariously stacked baked goods.

Mika smiled wearily, accepting the drink from Naomi. “No, not yet. He should be here soon, though.”

The soft-spoken girl nodded, while Suzu snorted, moving to sit next to Mika on the bottom step. “Your Granddad sure does like to make an entrance.”

Mika followed suit, sitting down with a chuckle.

Harold Anderson, the eccentric toymaker and famed CEO of Anderson Toys.

He’d amassed quite the legacy over the years; travelling to every corner of the globe and creating the most exquisite toys the world had ever seen. His products were a household name around birthdays and Christmas, and he was regarded as one of the highest-ranking businessmen in North America.

Multi-national corporation aside, he was also known for his kind heart and regular charity donations; he had more than a handful of schools and playgrounds named after him. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that thousands of lives had been changed thanks to his generosity.

But to Mika, he was simply Grandfather Drosselmeyer.

She couldn’t recall where the moniker had come from, most likely stemming from his many travels - travels which he would spin for her in hundreds of elaborate stories. As a child, she’d sit and listen to him for hours as he described the magic behind his latest adventure while he tinkered on one of his brilliant contraptions. And when she discovered her love of ballet, he’d bought Mika her first pair of dancing slippers and never missed a concert.

Nowadays, she was just grateful to hear from him.

Her Father wasn’t shy about his distaste for the unconventional methods in which the patriarch of Anderson Toys ran his company, along with his “childish” views on business. So as the years went by, Mika saw less and less of her Grandfather. He still held the reins on the company, of course, but chose to handle most of his work abroad to appease his son. That left Mika relying on word of mouth or social media to keep track of him.

The exceptions were the holidays, where he would arrive with exquisite gifts and handmade toys for his employees. How she treasured those moments: they made her Father’s parties bearable.

“Whaddya think he’ll have this time?” Suzu asked, words muffled by the cookie she’d stuffed in her mouth.

Mika shrugged, gaze back on the door as she took a sip of her punch. “Who knows? He’s been really quiet this year. Last I heard he was visiting Moscow.”

Naomi excitedly clapped her hands together, cooing. “Ooh, maybe he’ll bring you a set of cute little Russian nesting dolls!”

Suzu rolled her eyes. “Those things are creepy as hell, Naomi. What about one of the model airplanes he said he was working on-?” She paused, taking a massive bite of a brownie. “Nah tha wud be cul.”

Naomi made a sound of disgust as Suzu smirked, teeth smeared with chocolate, and Mika grinned behind her glass.

“Mika!”

The sharp, cold voice had the young woman in question nearly choking on her drink. She lurched to her feet, turning around to see her Father straightening his already pristine tie as he approached from down the hall.

“Yes, Father?” she quickly replied, placing her cup down on the step and folding her hands timidly.

“You’re needed in the dining room,” the man said curtly, eyeing her friends. Naomi twisted a piece of her hair, looking at the floor; Suzu hastily swallowed her mouthful of brownie.

Mika blanched. “R-right now?” she stammered, “But, I-I’m waiting for-”

“Yes, I’m well aware of what you’re doing,” he sneered, casting a dismissive glance at the door. “But as usual, my Father is late. And this is vitally important. My speech is about to begin.”

Her Father glared down at her, arms folded tightly across his chest. His lips were pulled into a thin, impatient frown, and Mika swallowed, squeezing her hands.

“I understand Father, but could I have just another few minutes? It would be impolite to leave Grandfather Dross-“ Mika backpedalled, watching her Father’s eyes narrow at the nickname. “...To leave Grandfather to let himself in.”

A scoff. “My Father can’t be bothered with etiquette, so why should we pay him the same kindness?”

Hearing the word 'kindness' out of her Father’s mouth was as foreign as “I love you.” Mika’s lips almost twitched.

Almost.

“Now, hurry up. Our guests are waiting.”

His tone left no room for argument, and with the very real threat of an open shouting match in front of her friends hanging in the air, Mika faltered.

Resigned, she nodded complacently. “Yes, Father. Of course,” Mika murmured.

She then turned to Naomi and Suzu, who were watching her with small, sympathetic smiles.

“Let me know when he arrives?”she asked.

Suzu grinned, shooting her a thumbs-up. “You got it, Chika.”

It was at that moment the front doors blew open, sending a gust of winter air spilling into the foyer. The snow that carried in sparkled as it swirled around them, glittering under the chandelier light.

Mika winced against the bite of the cold, shielding her eyes as her hair whipped her face.

“When who arrives, sweetie?”

Mika’s heart lurched at the familiar, jolly voice, and she hurried to blink the spots from her vision as the heavy doors thudded closed.

His cheeks and nose were bitten red with the cold, but warmth shone in the forest green eyes that were a shade darker than her own; their only resemblance.

He reached up to tip his top hat politely. “I’m sorry, my dear. Did I keep you waiting?”

Standing under the light of the winter moon, he beamed at Mika from under the brim with such love that her eyes pricked with tears.

Her Grandfather Drosselmeyer.

Mika’s face split into the first genuine smile of the night. Forgetting all proprieties, she ran to embrace him, burying her face in the heavy, woollen material of his worn travelling cloak.

His arms came up to return the hug, squeezing her tightly and resting his chin on the top of her head.

“Even taller this year, I see,” the old man chuckled, and Mika grinned.

“You’re just shrinking,” she shot back playfully, looking up to see her Grandfather’s eye - the one not concealed under his eyepatch - crinkle with mirth at her usual retort.

He’d never told her what had happened.

Years ago, Harold Anderson returned home from one of his long trips with the right side of his face bandaged painfully tight. He’d soothed Mika’s frantic tears, taking her small form up onto his knee with a mischievous smile.

“Mice,” he’d whispered. “Such tricky little devils.”

With his sharp wit and seemingly boundless energy, her Grandfather Drosselmeyer had the disposition of a man half his age. His laugh lines were what gave him away, etching his face with the echoes of every joke he’d ever told.

Combined with his neatly styled silver hair - which he sported as a proud badge of his years - Harold Anderson gave off the impression of a kindly, dignified artisan rather than a shrewd business mogul.

Unlike her Father, whose glare burned into Mika’s back with unabashed contempt.

Mr. Anderson pointedly cleared his throat, and Mika winced. Her Grandfather didn’t seem the slightest bit perturbed, though. He turned them both to face his son with a broad smile.

“Merry Christmas, my boy! It’s so good to see you.”

The greeting he got in return was clipped.

“Father. Clearly, you believe attending these parties aren’t worth your precious time. Why even bother showing up?”

“Oh, come now, son, you know how I hate small talk. Why drag myself through such stuffy formalities when I can simply arrive at the climax?” Grandfather Drosselmeyer exclaimed cheerfully, unphased by the sour look on his son’s face.

Mika giggled, but the laughter died in her throat at her Father’s glower.

Mr. Anderson hummed, unimpressed. “Honestly, with all the money being thrown away on these ‘research expeditions’, you’re lucky I can keep the company afloat.”

“Ah, is that an invitation to join back in on day-to-day affairs? You know how I’ve missed our little chats. The burnt coffee in the boardroom was just a bonus, after all.”

Her Grandfather’s easygoing attitude only seemed to irritate her Father further.

“You are a figurehead, and nothing more,” he snapped. “Anderson Toys is finally moving towards becoming one of the top grossing corporations on the continent, and if footing the bill for your ridiculous trips keeps you out of the way, then so be it.”

Fury and indignation for her Grandfather boiled like acid in Mika’s stomach, and her hug tightened defensively around him.

Her Grandfather, as she had expected, didn’t rise to the taunt. He simply patted her hand soothingly and continued to smile.

“Even the figurehead still gets to attend his own company’s party, yes?” he inquired politely, and her Father sneered.

“You’d still ask despite turning up late? Clearly your nerve hasn’t softened with age like your mind. Well, seeing as how I was just in the middle of addressing my guests, you can wait here until I’ve-“

“Oh, is that Harold?”

“Harold, you sly dog! We thought you’d never show!”

The voices that floated in expressed surprise and delight as Harold’s arrival reached the dining room. Slowly, guests carried into the lobby, eager to greet their beloved CEO with a flurry of questions.

Drosselmeyer met with each of them, shaking hands left and right jovially before inviting the group to follow him to the main parlour.

“Oh, you don’t mind, do you, David?” Harold chimed, seemingly unaware of the way in which he was stepping on his son’s proverbial toes.

Mika knew better. A twinge of satisfaction curled her lips as her Father’s spotlight was stolen away, leaving the corner of his eye twitching.

“...We’ll get back to the speech’s afterwards,” Mr. Anderson ground out as delicately as possible.

Harold clapped his hands together. “Wonderful! Now, shall we?”

-❄-

Soon, the parlour was packed, and a roaring fire crackled merrily in the brick fireplace. With the room full of laughter, warmth, and happily chattering people, Mika felt like Christmas had finally arrived in the cold estate.

And in the middle of it all was her Grandfather Drosselmeyer.

Sat in a large armchair by the fireplace, he beamed like a modern-day Saint Nick. The overstuffed velvet sack he’d conjured from seemingly thin air sat open on the floor, and with every dip into its endless depths, a new and wonderful creation appeared.

Button-eyed teddy bears with hand-stitched smiles; rollerblades whose wheels gleamed with fresh polish; pop guns that fired corks with a bang.

Even the company’s oldest employees were transported back to their earliest Christmas mornings, eyes sparkling with childlike wonder at the beautiful toys her Grandfather produced.

As the last of the gifts were handed out, Mika and her friends sat around the front of Grandfather Drosselmeyer’s chair.

“You’ve really topped yourself this year, Mr. D!” Suzu exclaimed, fiddling with a stray paddle ball while she lay sprawled across the carpet.

Naomi coughed daintily into her fist, sitting cross-legged. “She means ‘thank you,’ Mr. Anderson.”

Her Grandfather laughed heartily. “You’re most welcome, girls. And I’ve told you to call me Drosselmeyer, Naomi. ‘Mr. Anderson-’,” he said, donning an exaggeratedly droll tone and puffing out his chest, “-is my son.”

Mika giggled, smoothing the glossy curls on the china doll in her lap.

Her Father was busy skulking around the outskirts of the party, so she could allow herself to relax for the time being. It was hard not to when she was with her Grandfather; his presence was like being enveloped in a ray of warm sunshine.

“I’m glad to see you ladies are having fun,” Grandfather continued, “But we aren’t through just yet! There’s still the grand finale!”

Grandfather Drosselmeyer gestured for the three girls to come closer on the carpet, and so they did, crowding nearer as he once again delved into his bag.

“For Suzu,” he began with a twinkle in his eye, “the latest in my line of model airplanes.”

He revealed a beautifully painted metal bi-plane with gold stripes up the wings and matching propellers on the nose and fins. The landing gear even had miniature rubber tires.

Suzu was starry-eyed. “No way! It’s so cool!”

Grandfather Drosselmeyer chuckled, handing it to the eager girl. “I thought you’d like the fastest prototype we had available. I trust you’ll give our engineers a run for their money.”

“Hell yeah! Thanks, Mr. D!” Suzu whooped, jumping to her feet and dipping the plane through the air, watching the propeller blades spin.

Naomi's lips pinched, clearly torn between reprimanding Suzu for her language and letting her enjoy herself.

Her struggle was immediately forgotten, however, when Drosselmeyer announced her gift.

“For Naomi, a hand-painted matryoshka doll that’s travelled with me all the way from Belarus.”

Naomi squealed, the excited noise a stark contrast to her usually reserved nature.

“It’s beautiful, Mr. A- Um, Drosselmeyer!” she corrected quickly, gratefully accepting the wooden figurine.

It was of a woman with ruby lips in a green-patterned apron, her eyes closed demurely. The paint glistened in the firelight, and Naomi traced along the intricate carvings before twisting the top half gently. It popped open with ease to reveal a smaller figurine, this one in a blue dress.

She gave the old man a quick hug before beginning the task of opening each compartmented doll.

Mika smiled at the twin expressions of joy on her friends’ faces.

How her Grandfather always knew just the right gifts to bring was beyond her, but it wasn’t surprising. He’d always had a knack for reading people, and she’d seen him do and create so many extraordinary things.

Mika doubted she’d ever stop being amazed by her Grandfather Drosselmeyer.

A small, fearful part of her heart prayed that she wouldn’t.

Her sudden anxiety calmed when a knuckle curled beneath her chin, tilting her face upwards to meet loving eyes.

“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” Grandfather Drosselmeyer asked softly, and Mika’s throat tightened with a swell of emotion.

It was Christmas, and she was with the people she adored; it was everything Mika could possibly want. To spend such a special night worrying would be a waste.

“Nothing Grandfather. Everything is perfect,” she reassured, shaking off her momentary nerves with a watery smile.

Her Grandfather’s eyes shimmered with a depth far beyond his years as he studied her face carefully.

Mika’s heart turned over in her chest. At that moment, it felt as if he could see right through her practiced facade, knowing every one of the hopes and fears she had long grown accustomed to keeping hidden away.

But then, his smile brightened.

“Well if that’s the case, I don’t suppose you’ll be needing your gift then, hmm?”

Mika’s relieved giggle was dwarfed by her Grandfather’s hearty laughter as he pulled back to once again reach into his bag.

“I must confess that I actually have three presents for you this year, my dear. Is that alright?”

Mika bit her lip and attempted to school her features into a mask of nonchalance.

“Well, if you’ve already brought them, then I guess it's fine.”

Suzu snorted, tucking her plane under her arm and plopping back down next Mika.

Grandfather Drosselmeyer chuckled, waiting for Naomi to close up the last of her dolls so she could watch too.

“Now, for my beloved Granddaughter,” he announced, “this first gift is best suited for someone with your open-mindedness.”

Curious, the girls leaned closer. Grandfather paused for a moment before showing a stuffed animal.

Or at least, what resembled a stuffed animal.

It was white, with a long bushy tail and small feet. It sat on its hind legs, its stubby paws folded in front of it.

But in one of its paws, it had… a knife?!

Combined with its eerie red eyes and a jagged smile, Mika was shocked this design had ever cleared management.

“I know, he’s a little off-putting at first,” Grandfather admitted. “He was meant to be a cooking squirrel, complete with a chef hat. But somewhere along the way, he got a little…”

“Creepy?” Suzu offered, and Grandfather Drosselmeyer shrugged helplessly.

“...Yes, I suppose that’s fitting. He’s the only one of his kind, you see, and rather than have him destroyed, I thought Mika might be able to find his potential.”

Mika listened to this, all the while observing the unusual looking toy.

Yes, it had a few quirks, but there was undoubtedly a charm to him that Mika couldn’t quite put her finger on. So, she happily took the squirrel from her Grandfather, setting aside the doll from earlier to place it in her lap.

“I think I’ll call him… Simon. Simon Tabby.”

Her Grandfather nodded his approval while Naomi and Suzu gawked at her like she’d grown a second head.

“What?” Mika smirked at her friends, holding Simon up and wiggling his paws. “You’re not really scared of such a cute little guy, are you?”

Suzu scoffed, though Naomi looked noticeably paler.

“The next is something to read in bed during a stormy night,” Grandfather Drosselmeyer continued.

He dug around the bag again and Mika held back a gasp when a beautifully decorated leather book was revealed.

It was about the size and thickness of a phone book, with gold and bronze metal detailings along the spine and cover corners.

“Grandfather, it’s lovely!” Mika breathed.

“Ah, but I think you’ll like what’s inside even more,” he said with an arched brow.

Opening the book gently, Mika watched as he flipped through the parchment pages to reveal dozens of hand-painted illustrations and cursive script.

“A collection of as many tall tales and legends as I could find throughout my travels. I know how much you love a good story; when you were little, you wouldn’t settle down until I’d read you every book I had on my shelves.”

Mika wrinkled her nose playfully. “Every book? Knowing your library, I never would’ve slept.”

Grandfather groaned dramatically, head sagging to his chest. “Oh, you didn’t. Just thinking about those long nights chasing you up and down the hallways is enough to make me feel my age tenfold.”

Mika’s giggles were bubbly as she leaned forward to take the book, being mindful of Simon Tabby in her lap.

It was shockingly light for its size, only a third of the weight Mika had been expecting. Opening to the index, she read dozens of titles, some she recognized and others she didn’t.

Just picturing the hours of work that must’ve been needed to create it had a tingling warmth fill her chest.

Closing the tome gently, she offered it to Naomi, who began skimming the chapters curiously. Suzu scooted over to sneak a peek.

“And last, but certainly not least…” Grandfather Drosselmeyer trailed off quietly, reaching in with both hands and a small wistful smile.

Slowly, he pulled out a wooden box with a dark spiral pattern burned into the lid.

“A set of loyal protectors.”

He opened the case, hinges creaking, and this time, Mika’s breath did rush out in a soft gasp.

Four tin soldiers laid in the box’s velvet lining, adorned in matching military uniforms. Each one had a different colour lapel and hat brim. They were incredibly well made, with distinguishing features such as hair and eye colour.

And in the centre of the Soldiers was the most handsome Nutcracker Mika had ever seen.

Brilliant emerald eyes seemed to shine from behind the brim of his hat and brown bangs. A sword was tucked carefully into his left holster.

Mika didn’t even realize she was crying until her vision blurred, hot tears fluttering on her bottom lashes.

“You like them?” Grandfather asked tenderly, and in response, Mika held out her hands.

“Can I hold them, please?” she whispered with a choked voice.

Grandfather smiled. “Of course you can, dear. They’re yours.”

Mika received the chest with the utmost care, gingerly running her fingers over the five figurines.

“Did you make them, Grandfather Drosselmeyer?” Mika murmured, still enraptured with her gift.

Grandfather shook his head. “I can’t say that I did, though they’ve been through a great deal with me over the years. Now, I give them to you: to protect my most precious Granddaughter.”

Mika was in two minds. She so desperately wanted to throw her arms around her Grandfather and give him the tightest hug she could. But instead, she found herself strangely fixated with the soldiers that lay before her.

They radiated with life, just shy of breathing. It felt as if she took her eyes off them for even a second, they’d simply stand up and run off with a will of their own.

Drosselmeyer broke her trance by reaching down and carefully removing the Nutcracker, reassuring his suddenly panicked Granddaughter with an amused smile.

“Don’t worry, sweetie, I just want to make sure he’s still working properly after our long journey.”

Mika released the breath she’d inadvertently been holding, rightfully embarrassed at her covetousness. As her cheeks bloomed red, Grandfather Drosselmeyer waved off her stammered apology as he reached into his coat pocket.

“It warms this old man’s heart to see just how much you still enjoy his tricks, my dear. And speaking of tricks…”

He revealed a single walnut. Placing it inside the Nutcracker’s mouth, it only took a quick pull on the lever in his back to crush the nut into pieces.

“Whoa!” Suzu exclaimed, leaning up on her knees as Drosselmeyer brushed away a bit of stray dust from his pant leg. “That’s awesome!”

“Yes, he’s certainly a handy fellow, isn’t he? But at my age, soups and a nice soft muffin are more fitting. So I hope you’ll find some use for him, Mika.”

Mika rolled her eyes at her Grandfather’s joke but quickly focused her attention back on the Nutcracker. “I promise I’ll take the best care of him, Grandfather. You have my word.”

Grandfather Drosselmeyer’s eyes glimmered with intrigue as he raised a brow. “And there is power in our words, hmm?”

Suzu and Naomi might’ve thought the sudden gravity behind her next sentence was out of place. But to Mika, having her Grandfather’s trust meant more to her than anything.

When you grow up around people who view lying as natural as breathing, you either learn the importance of fidelity and honesty, or you become them.

And Gods did that terrify her.

“Every single one,” Mika swore earnestly and was rewarded with a proud smile from Grandfather Drosselmeyer. He handed back the Nutcracker, and Mika held him carefully under one arm as she stood to meet her Grandfather’s hug.

“Thank you, Grandfather Drosselmeyer,” Mika whispered fervently.

“You’re most welcome, sweetie,” her Grandfather whispered back.

If he noticed how desperately she clung to him, he didn’t mention it. He simply returned the embrace for as long as Mika needed it, only moving back when she loosened her grip slightly a few moments later.

She looked up to see the adoration shining in his eyes, and Mika’s heart felt lighter than it had in weeks.

Finally, after every silent meal, cold glance and forced smile, finally... the house was her home again.

-❄-

There you have it, the first chapter! I really hope it was as fun to read as it was to write and plan out.

The story will follow the classic ballet along with a few twist and turns of my own design, and since I'm still polishing a few bits and pieces for the later chapters, any and all feedback is much appreciated!

Oh, and by the way, I won't be revealing which boy Mika ends up with until a little later into the story. Feel free to take your guesses as to who the lucky fella will be!

#my writing #seduce me otome #seduce me the otome #seducemeotome #fanfiction #the nutcracker #christmas #fluff #mika anderson #visual novel #suzu #naomi #enjoy this first chapter!

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piecebypiece-writing · 5 years

Text

Child’s Play

Fandom: Ducktales

Word Count: 3568

Trigger Warnings: None

Quick Note: Hello! This is my first official publish on this account, and this site in general. I hope you enjoy, and feel free to leave comments and questions. This is my first Ducktales piece, too, so I apologize for any OOC.

There was a lot Webbigail didn’t know.

Sure, she was smart. She was quick on her feet, fast thinking, and had quite an impressive catalogue of interesting facts about people and things-but mostly people.

She had everything it takes to be an adventurer. She wasn’t so sure about being a regular kid, though.

Well, okay. She understands the basics. The shows, the books, the games-even if the rules might be, well, a little off-she can still wrap her head around what it means to a a social little butterfly.

Or, at least, she thought she did. Even if the shows she watched were a little too violent or outdated sometimes, or the books were more about real people than popular fictional characters, or…

Even if her games could be a little too dangerous.

It started as a normal, safe, ‘No tackling allowed!’ game of boring old tag. (Except, really, it wasn’t that boring, not at first.)

Besides, it’s not like they had anything else to do. There were four of them, and the manor was huge, and the adults were too busy to entertain them anyway. Donald wasn’t even home, stuck at another new job, and Scrooge had been locked in his office since early in the day for some “Very important business.” Webby was pretty sure that was code for something, but oh well. Beakley had only been seen in passing, laden with laundry and dust pans and all those other things the kids wanted nothing to do with on such a rainy day.

“We’ve already seen this movie, like, a hundred times!” Dewey groaned from his spot on the couch, legs flung over the back as the blood rushed to his head held just inches above the ground. He was too restless to sit normally, now, and Disney’s ‘Snow White’ could only be enjoyed so many times.

Dewey wanted to move. That was where it started.

“We aren’t supposed to cause trouble while Scrooge is working. Better to sit and binge movies than end up breaking something important,” Huey said. His own position in the middle of the couch looked far more comfortable than Dewey’s did, Webby noted.

“Who said anything about breaking stuff?”

“Anything that you’re involved in ends up with something broken.”

“I’m trying to watch the movie,” Louie cut in, legs draped across his oldest triplets lap. The couch arm pillowed his head.

“You aren’t even looking at the tv!”

It was true, Webby noted, looking away from Dewey’s exasperated face-she thinks, at least. It’s hard to tell when it’s already the same vibrant color as Huey’s shirt. Maybe she should say something about that. Does it always do that? Will it keep getting more red, or will it start turning some other color if he stays where he is? How long would it take her face to do the same thing?

A little off topic, but she likes to think they’re good questions. Regardless, her eyes flit towards Louie, who manages to look away from his phone screen long enough to give Dewey a look she’s dubbed the ‘does it really look like I care what you’re trying to say here?’ look. It’s usually very effective.

“All I’m trying to say here is there’s so many better things we can be doing than watching our sixth Disney Classic of the day.” He rolls himself over and forward so he can land on his feet, wobbling for a second. Webby wonders if he might go toppling back onto the couch from lack of balance, before he rights himself and the red color starts to fade.

It’s a shame, too. She almost thought she was starting to see some purple in there.

Huey clearly looks unamused with the turn this day is taking, and Louie really doesn’t seem all too interested either way, but Webby can’t help the question that slips out.

“What kinds of things?”

Those were definitely the words he was looking for. His eyes spark with a triumph, and he stands himself up straighter with a sense of subtlety only he really believes. Huey rolls his eyes. Dewey pretends not to notice. “I’m so glad you asked, my dear Webbigail.”

He’s playing it up for the effect, and they all know it. They listen anyway.

“I was thinking something basic.”

Webby’s eyes light up. “Like death darts?”

The boys grimace, and Dewey pats her on the head. “Um, no, I was thinking we could do something even simpler than that. And maybe less, y’know, painful?” She deflates for a moment, before shrugging.

“So you wanna play the cowards game.”

It’s cryptic, and the look in her eye tells Dewey that he really, really doesn’t want to know. Better to avoid that road altogether.

“I mean, the manor is big enough for hide and seek, right?”

He expects Huey to protest first, but Louie beats him to the punchline. “Yeah, no. I don’t want to spend three hours cramped in the top shelf of a closet somewhere because Huey sucks at finding people. Plus, Webby would win.” She always wins is left unspoken. It doesn’t need to be said out loud.

Huey sputters out the beginnings of a protest, but Dewey’s mind is already moving on to the next hundred options. “Well, we could always play tag? It’s a big house, and we can elect a safe zone and everything. Plus we don’t have to worry about darts raining down on us.”

Webby doesn’t consider it for more than a moment before she’s on board, although she was on board for hide and seek, too. “It’ll give me a chance to practice my close quarters tracking!”

The boys grimace again, and Dewey steps in. “Again, I was thinking less… painful. The basic rules, ya know?”

She shakes her head.

“The first one is no tackling. Tag-backs aren’t allowed unless it’s been at least two minutes, either, and the safe zone needs to be respected. No hiding in horrifically obscure places or using bathrooms for anything other than their intended purpose, no tagging people if they’re using or leaving bathrooms, and whoever’s it can only tag using their hands, not their feet or other body parts of choice,” Huey recites with ease (and if he glares at Dewey at the last part, well, she chooses not to notice), and Webby takes a moment to process them.

“So you’ll play?” Dewey addresses the group in general, although it’s clear Webby is prepared to do anything that isn’t sit still any longer. She looks at the other two, tilting her head curiously, and waits.

Louie breaks first. “Yeah, whatever. My phone is almost dead anyway.” He swings his legs off Huey’s lap and onto the floor, standing with a stretch and a yawn. He casts and longing look at the tv as he pockets his phone.

Huey sighs, outnumbered now, even though he was only opposed for the sake of not getting in trouble. “As long as we don’t break anything, we should be fine.” He stands next, readjusting his hat, and webby leaps to her feet from where she was comfortably sitting in a nest of blankets on the floor.

“Yes!” Dewey cheers, throwing his hand up victoriously. The room falls silent, and Webby feels like an outsider for a moment.

It happens slowly, the way dewey’s hand falls back to his side, grin still plastered on his face. He meets Huey’s eyes, holds the stare, and then they both flicker to Louie. His hands are tucked safely in his pockets, and he seems to be waiting, and then nobody is moving and Webby feels like she’s watching another movie with some dramatic action scene.

“Not it!” comes tumbling out of all three of them collectively, eyes flicking between each other to see who was too late. Dewey looks smug, ready to speak, when she sees green move.

“Webby lost,” is all the youngest says, pointing at the girl in question.

The other two start, glancing at her with wide eyes, and she gets the impression they forgot she was there too.

“Oh, shoot, Webby, sorry! That was kinda unfair, I can be it if you w-”

“Should I start in here?” She cuts off, and Huey looks apologetic. She doesn’t mind starting, after all. It’s not like she’ll be it for long anyway.

The three look between each other again, and Louie shrugs.

“Yeah, start in here. We need a safe zone, though,” Dewey says, glancing at Huey.

He looks thoughtful for a second. “...Our room could work. It’s out of the way enough to not be so easy to get too. The foyer is too open, and the kitchen is too obvious,” they all nod, and Huey looks set. “Okay, Webby, just stay here and count to fifty so we can get a head start, alright?” She nods, and the boys are off immediately, pushing at each other as they squeeze through the door.

Webby watches them for a moment, trying to settle on a good target. She has to think like her prey in order to catch them, and fifty seconds is all the time she needs. Louie is lazy, but he doesn’t like to lose. He’ll hide, probably. Run if he has too. She wouldn’t doubt he’ll move his spot on occasion, granted she doesn’t find him first.

Dewey’s a runner. He’ll get as far away room this starter room as he can, she suspects. Plan from there. Slip through rooms in a straight line. She doubts he’ll go near the safe zone so early on.

Huey will try and stay anywhere the other two aren’t. Let her find one of the others, first. Someone less threatening to run from.

She settles on heading towards the safe room first, and working her way from there. Her inner clock its fifty and she’s off, a casual smile on her face. She loves these games, and she loves getting to play them with her favorite people.

She finds Dewey first on the second floor, trying to make his way back towards the starting room now that she’s left. He takes one look at her and he’s off, panic in his eyes whenever he glances over his shoulder at her. She catches him, of course, and brushes her skirt off as he huffs, starting off to find his brothers. Webby has two minutes to catch her breath now, and get as far away as possible.

Huey gets tagged next, and he doesn’t manage to catch anyone for the next ten minutes or so, because Webby keeps running in a circle around the same room, and Dewey manages to slam doors shut before Huey can get close enough.

The game continues like that for awhile, a back and forth between the three of them until Louie makes his presence known trying to slip past quietly.

It becomes a free for all, then, because no hiding spot is safe and everyone runs out of energy at different intervals.

It’s fun. It’s more fun than Webby could have imagined running aimlessly could be. She didn’t have anyone to play these games with when she was little, and it’s a joy she can’t explain. It’s so… free, and childish, and silly, and she loves it.

The screech, and shout, and sometimes pillows are thrown and doors are slammed. They run past Beakley a few times, who looks startled at first to see them flying through the halls like madmen before deciding it isn’t worth her effort to stop.

It lasts longer than any other game of tag the boys have ever played. Huey is panting and wheezing more often than not, and Louie keeps trying to disappear long enough to actually catch his breath. Dewey keeps rolling, and tumbling, trying to be as much of a ninja as he can manage in a game of tag, and they’re all grinning like fools.

“Dewey, no, that’s not fair, Louie is closer, wait!” Huey screeches, only a room away from where Webby had just been running. She comes to a sliding ahlt, wide eyed, and turns tail immediately. Louie bursts through the same door she was about to go in, hands held out in front of himself as he runs in a panic away. She takes a moment to laugh about it later, when she’s safe.

Sometimes they duck into the safe room. The third time Webby enters, in a fit of giggles while Louie shouts disheartened from down the hall, she notes that someone has been dumping water bottles on the green sheets of the bottom bunk. She can guess who, of course, but she’s too busy drinking the whole thing in one go to actually laugh about it.

It’s innocent and out of the way, and Webby decides that she loves tag-even if it could use a few more darts.

Nothing can ever go so well, though, because these are Donald’s boys, and not even an innocent game of tag is safe from whatever the universe decides is a good time.

Webby knows, if she had the chance, she’d politely tell the universe that it’s being a little mean.

Dewey had tagged her and split, and Huey was the first one she saw. He squealed in a sudden panic, because he had been following her when Dewey came flying around the corner with a murderous intent on tagging the first person to get close.

He spun around in a perfect half circle and took off back down the hall towards the stairs with renewed energy.

“Get him, Webby!” Dewey cheered from behind her, where he had fallen in his successful attempt at an ambush. She could practically picture the excited fist in the air. Louie came around the opposite corner only a minute later, bent over with his hands on his knees, too exhausted to go away again before Webby inevitably caught his oldest brother and the round started anew.

Huey dashed forward, bringing his hand up to hold his hat as he slid to go and turn towards the stairs. He was aiming for the banister, an easy slide down and away if Webby didn’t get to him first, but his feet slipped out from under him.

He started to topple backwards, and maybe he would have landed safely on the floor behind him if Webby had been able to actually slow down soon enough. She tried, of course, because anyone could see where this was going, but she toppled into him all the same.

They both lost balance, and toppled down the stairs together. She hit her hand somewhere on the way down, and she was almost certain it would bruise. Huey twisted, a mix of his lost balance and Webby hitting less center and more left, and she could hear Dewey and Louie’s startled shouts over the horrible crack as they hit the bottom.

She held her hand, terrified that it was over, when she realized that it wasn’t her bone that cracked.

She sat up slowly, gingerly, already feeling a few bruises start to form. “Ugh…”

Dewey reaches them first, hopping off the same railing she was almost sure Huey had been aiming for in his panic. Louie wasn’t far behind, hand gripping the railing as he flew down the stairs two at a time.

Huey is laying on his back to her left, (which is weird, right? She thought he had fallen facing forward, so how was he on his back now?) and his eyes were screwed shut. He was clutching his arm to his chest, breathing shallower than normal.

Dewey and Louie only spare her a glance to see if she’s okay- she doesn’t blame them, though. She isn’t their triplet, and it definitely wasn’t her bone that made that noise.

“Huey, are you okay?” The red triplet only gasps in pain.

“I’m gonna call uncle Donald,” Louie manages, pulling out his nearly dead phone. Dewey panics, shaking his head violently.

“No, wait! He has a meeting today, we can’t tell him until it’s over,” He presses, and Huey’s eyes snap open in a panic. He pulls himself into a sitting position before anyone can protest, cradling his hurt arm against his chest as he attempts to bite down on any sounds of pain.

“Don’t call Uncle Donald. I’m fine, see?” Nobody is convinced.

“You’re arm is swelling!”

“You kinda look like you’re gonna cry, actually,” Webby points out, almost unheard over Louie’s rising tone of distress. He looks a little queasy, and he’s clutching the hem of Dewey’s shirt.

“I am not going to cry, because it’s not that bad,” he defends, instinctively moving his arm to gesture. It results in a hiss of pain. “Okay, maybe it’s kind of bad, but it’s not worth worrying Uncle Donald.”

“What do we do, then?!”

Dewey snaps his fingers, grinning. “We get Scrooge, duh.” He’s off towards the stairs before anyone can find issue with his logic.

It takes all of two minutes before the two are rushing down the stairs to where the kids had yet to move, Webby trying to look at the injury while Louie finds every excuse not to.

They’re relieved when Scrooge seems to share the sentiment of not telling Donald until after his meeting is over, choosing instead to scoop the injured triplet up. (Nobody points out that it’s his arm that’s hurt, not his leg. Of course, prior to this day they hadn’t exactly broken anything, although they’d had close calls. None of the boys like seeing each other hurt and dealing with the situation isn’t something they want to be in charge of.)

Donald is informed before he even steps into the manor, alerted by the call in doctor that had been in the process of leaving.

He storms through the house with a blind panic that borders on rage at the fact that he wasn’t told-the anger is outweighed, of course, but that doesn’t stop the pinching nerves in his face from coming together, eyebrows drawn down as he runs faster than he can remember because one of his boys were hurt and he wasn’t there for it.

Huey is rested on the bottom bunk, in Louie’s green blankets. Changing the colors was decided as not the important thing to focus on. His arm was in a cast already, and Donald’s face softened as soon as he could take in the sight.

His boys, his terribly loyal boys, scattered around the room. Dewey was in a chair haphazardly pulled up next to the bed, chatting away with his oldest brother, while Louie was curled up at Huey’s side in a way that the green triplet probably thought looked relaxed. Donald knew better. He also knew that pointing it out would be a waste of time, so he sighs instead.

Webby is at the foot of the bed, legs crossed like he remembers his boys sitting when they were younger, the criss-cross-applesauce that they had used all the time after that first day at daycare.

She isn’t talking, though, watching rather. She’s the one that sees the stress leaves Donald’s shoulders when he finally lays eyes on his boys, all of which are fine. She sees Louie’s desperate attempts to stay close without being too obvious, and how Dewey had slipped into the responsible role for now.

She watches the dynamics, and how Huey-despite being the one with a broken arm- can’t stop laughing, fully amused with Dewey’s story, and far content with Louie’s warmth.

She feels like an outsider. It doesn’t help that she was, technically, the one who pushed him. Accidentally or not.

The younger triplets had already proudly printed their names on the bright red cast, in their designated colors. Webby hadn’t been there when they signed, busy being grilled for details by Beakley.

It was almost funny, actually, how surprised she was when she found out that it wasn’t in fact some horrible moment of ruin, but a simple child's’ game. Almost.

She’s so busy studying the dynamic, and thinking about how little she really understood it, that she didn’t realize Donald had already looked him over and slipped out of the room.

She didn’t even notice the three sets of eyes on her, until Dewey is poking her foot to gain her attention.

She startles, smacking his hand away before she grins sheepishly. “Sorry, ha.”

He draws his hand back slowly. “Yeah, it’s cool.”

“I was trying to ask if you wanted to sign it?” Huey asks, looking at her pointedly.

She looks surprised. “But… I knocked you down the stairs?” “I mean, yeah,” he sighs. “But you didn’t really mean to make my arm, like, shatter. Besides, I want all my friends to write their names.”

“Yeah, you couldn’t have known. Besides, we’ve all fallen from worse, so the last thing we expected was careful old Woodchuck Huey to break his arm,” Dewey adds.

“On the bright side, we didn’t break anything important,” Louie mocks, and Huey glares at him. There’s no heat behind it, but it gets Dewey howling with laughter that raises Webby’s mood. Louie’s snickering, too.

It’s nice, she thinks, as she takes the sharpie Dewey waves at her with an eyebrow wiggle.

There are a lot of things Webbigail doesn’t understand. She gets the basics, usually. She’s a little lost when it comes to friends, though.

Still. She’s learning. And that’s enough for her.