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icedragonlizard · 6 months

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Headcanons about Francisca's trophy situation after Star Allies

It's no secret that Francisca has a collection of frozen corpses that she prizes as trophies. She outright says it herself in her dialogue right before her boss battles in Star Allies. Literally, a collection of people that she has killed, and then encased them in ice cubes.

I have headcanons as to what's going on with her trophy collection after Star Allies. How do others in the cast react to her trophies?

Everything below this point is purely headcanon material, like usual.

Posting a 'Keep reading' tag, click below to read more.

After the events of Heroes in Another Dimension when Hyness and the mage sisters were rescued and became on Kirby's good side, Francisca has never given up her prized collection. In fact, she's made implications that she wants to make the collection even bigger.

This has consequences for her reputation amongst the dream friends, even after she and her sisters were accepted into the alliance. The other dream friends don't support her decision to keep her collection, and are largely freaked out by how she insists on it.

Francisca is the most infamous of the three mage sisters by far. Flamberge and Zan Partizanne are better received, as most of the other dream friends can get along with them just well enough. Francisca, however, makes a lot of the dream friends uncomfortable, due to her insistency in keeping her trophy collection, and the fact that she's generally the most twisted and psychotic of the three mages.

Her frozen corpse collection is very unnerving to a lot of the dream friends. They can't stomach it, really. They wish that she'd just get rid of it, but she has no intention to. While some of them are polite about disagreeing with her decision, others are pretty judgmental about it. Meta Knight and Bandana Waddle Dee are perhaps the two most judgmental ones on this matter.

This isn't helped by the fact that Francisca's family just supports her decision to keep it. Flamberge, Zan and Hyness tell the other dream friends that they don't get to boss Francisca around and that she has every right to keep her collection. They just enable her entirely. Especially Flamberge, who lets her get away with literally anything.

As a result, due to Francisca having the worst reputation of the mage sisters, she has the least amount of friends. Aside from her family, her only actual friends are Kirby, Marx, Magolor, Susie, Gooey and Kine. The reason why she's friends with Kine is because she quite likes the sunfish and is willing to let him drink water from her soda gun, lol. Kine takes well to that.

And even then, Magolor and Susie themselves still can't completely shake off the feeling of being unsettled by Francisca's collection, despite them both being able to consider her to be a friend.

Yes, even Susie. Even though she has roboticized people in the past, that's not quite the same as literally killing people and making a collection out of it, as even Susie couldn't imagine doing that. But ultimately, she can stomach the corpse collection a bit better than most others can, allowing her to get along with Francisca just fine.

But there's one particular dream friend that has an opinion on Francisca's trophies that is way different from the others' opinions.

That would be Marx.

Almost all the other dream friends disagree with Francisca's decision to keep her collection, whether it's being polite or judgmental in their disagreement. Marx, on the other hand, agrees with the decision.

Marx thinks Francisca's frozen corpse collection is badass. He thinks it's impressive. It nearly makes him jealous and wants a collection like this of his own. Francisca is flattered by what Marx thinks of it.

This helped Marx and Francisca become close friends. Marx gets along great with the mage sisters in general as he loves how wildly chaotic they can be, but he likes Francisca the most out of the three. That's certainly different from just about all the other dream friends, who definitely like Flamberge and Zan a lot more than Francisca.

As one could guess, Marx's opinion on Francisca's collection doesn't get him a lot of brownie points. Even Magolor had to be like "bruh" at him. But ultimately, it no longer becomes surprising to some people, since Marx is notorious for often having really absurd opinions.

Kirby himself politely disagrees with Francisca's decision to keep her corpse collection. But Kirby is also Kirby and is still more than willing to be Francisca's friend anyways. Gooey is on the same boat.

Overall, Francisca doesn't get many brownie points from most of the other dream friends with her decision to keep her frozen corpse collection. Obviously her fellow sisters have her back and let her keep it, and Marx eggs her on, but she's otherwise not very well-liked.

Kirby, Magolor, Taranza and Susie all sometimes visit the mage sisters at their home in the Jambastion fortress, but they deliberately avoid the room that has Francisca's trophies in it. Taranza is also too afraid of Francisca to really consider her a friend, unlike his fellow wave 3 pals who can consider her a friend. Taranza likes the other two mage sisters a lot, though.

It's not all bad, though. Even though she insists on keeping her collection, she does have some standards when it comes to it. For one, she'll definitely never try to turn Kirby or any of his friends into ice cubes for her collections. She'd be killed as punishment if she tried that.

She won't try to kill anything in Popstar to include in her collection, at least. Not that just, but she promised to Ribbon that she'll never go after anyone in Ripple Star to include in her trophy collection.

She also promised to Susie that she'll never try to mess with any HWC employee to make a frozen trophy out of, because she knows that would make Susie instantly turn on her and hunt her down. Besides, Francisca likes Susie, and wouldn't want to upset her anyways.

Francisca would only go after people in different planets that have no affiliation with Kirby or any of his friends whenever she decides to make her collection bigger. That should be fine enough by Kirby and co, even though many of them wish she'd just stop doing it altogether because they think it's disturbing in general. She, however, is simply too proud of her collection to give it all up.

But despite having this insane hobby, Francisca wishes well to all the other dream friends, even if she darn well knows that many of them don't like her. She's not going to mess with them.

It helps that she's the least interactive and outgoing of the three mage sisters. Sometimes, the three mages will split up to do separate things, as they can be in different places, and Francisca is the one to leave the Jambastion fortress the least often.

Thanks if you read this entire post! Francisca is my favorite out of the three mage sisters, as I personally think that she is the cutest of the three and I just find the whole deal with her trophy collection to be deviously amusing. Enough to make a lot of headcanons out of it.

See you more for later future Kirby series headcanons down the road!

#kirby #francisca kirby #kirby star allies #the mage sisters #the three mage sisters #jambastion #heroes in another dimension #flamberge kirby #zan partizanne #hyness

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team-pokefriends · 1 month

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[Zan and Denomi are waiting in line patiently at Greedent's Shack.]

[Denomi] "I got a letter from my sister saying she's coming over to Dewdrop again."

[Zan looks over and gives Denomi a curious glance.]

[Denomi] "I know, 'It can't be that bad', but the thing is… she's bringing her friends over."

[The two move up in line after someone leaves to sit down. They order what they want and go to a table together, with Zan sitting at a stool and Denomi standing on the table.]

[Denomi] "I've never met any of her friends, and she never told me about any of them. Well, she does go on about what they do, but she doesn't tell me exactly who they are. It's like 'this one friend did this' and 'this one friend did that' and… Honestly, I'm scared, man."

[Denomi shudders.]

[Denomi] "I don't know who's coming or how many there are, or how much she's told of me to them… All I know is that they apparently get up to crazy things together, but that's it. That's all I know."

[Zan] "Did you ask?"

[Denomi] "I… No? I… Well, I asked her about her friends a few times, but she usually said something like 'They're not bad or anything' or something like that."

[Zan closes his eyes and begins to think.]

[Zan, thoughts] "(Why wouldn't she specify who her friends are to her brother? Does she have something to hide? Is it malicious, or is she keeping them a surprise, considering they're coming over to meet him for the first time.)"

[Denomi] "I hope they're not bad… I also hope they don't see me and start making fun of me."

[Soon, their drinks arrive, given to them by the Skovet waitress.]

[Skovet] "Would you like help getting your straw in, sir?"

[Zan opens his eyes, looks over to the Skovet, and nods. He watches her take the straw out the paper and stick it into his drink for him.]

[Zan] "Thanks."

[After an expression of gratitude, the Skovet leaves them to their business. Denomi goes to put his own straw in his cup as he speaks.]

[Denomi] "You've dealt with having siblings, right?"

[Zan] "Only child."

[Zan carefully pulls his cup towards him with his scythe arms and closes his eyes before he sips from the straw.]

[Denomi] "What about that Scyther girl?"

[Zan] "Cousin."

[Denomi] "Oh. Well, have you ever met her friends?"

[Zan] "Once…"

[Zan keeps his eyes closed as he remembers his tale.]

[Zan, uncomfortable] "It was… humiliating."

[He remembers the giggles of many young girls, the feeling of fabric all around his body, the clinking impact of plastic, and the annoyed groans that came out of his young, child mouth.

His lack of explanation makes Denomi even more worried.]

[Denomi, worries] "I don't want to make a fool of myself. What should I do?"

[Zan shrugs.]

[Denomi, worried] "Come on, you got to have some advice."

[Zan] "I don't kno-"

[Zan pulls his arms in a little too hard and causes his cup to fall over and splash his drink all over himself. He tilts his head down, closes his eyes, hides his face with a scythe arm, inhales deeply, and lets out a groan of discomfort.]

[Denomi, worried] "I'll get the Plain Ribbon…"

#Team-Pokéfriends - Side Story #Team-Pokéfriends - Zan (Scyther)#Team-Pokéfriends - Denomi (Togepi)

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the-firebender-girl · 4 years

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The Dragon’s Mark (Zuko x Reader)

-> In which Y/N has no idea that she’s being courted.

Part II : The Dragon’s Bride

Zan (簪) is mainly used to fasten and tie hair up into a bun but it also has decorative and symbolic purposes. Wearing a zan is considered as a symbol of one’s dignity. The more rare the materials, the higher the social status of its wearer. The head of the hairpin is usually decorated with motifs of flowers or lucky animals. Dragon and phoenix motifs are reserved exclusively for the use of royal family.

A new world. One filled with peace, openness, and equality. That’s the reality that she lives in right now and she couldn’t be happier. Y/N was born and bred in Agna Qel’a, the capital of Northern Water Tribe. Although her and the rest of their people lived their lives peacefully in isolation behind high walls of ice that protects them from the ongoing war and making them untouchable to the horrors of destruction that has befallen soo many others including their sister tribe, she always wonders what she would find in the unknown world outside if she has the courage to do so. But all her life, she was forced to go by the ‘ignorance is bliss’ code. Especially since her father is a member of the chief’s Council of Elders.

The people of the Northern Water Tribe are traditionally conservative. Women can’t really hold prominent position of power nor can they participate in activities that is considered more of a man’s job such as fighting, thus why their women waterbenders are only taught to heal but never to defend. Women also become marriageable at the age of 16 and some of those marriages are arranged, with the bride in particular having no say in the matter. That’s the sombering reality of it, and Y/N had enough of these extremely sexist views and patriarchal ways of living.

But the arrival of the Avatar and the siblings from Southern Water Tribe changed it all, they’re like her salvation, a way out of this gilded cage of false sense of security. Too long has their people looked the other way while the rest of the world needs them. When the match between the girl called Katara and Master Pakku occurred, she was in audience. Bewitched by Katara’s strong-mindedness, how she kept on fighting despite having minimum experience against a master bender, still she gave it her all and that’s what matters. That’s when Y/N decided that this is the kind of person that she’ll proudly stand by, and thus why she decided to join the Gaang, thankfully they accepted her and welcomed her into the fold.

That felt like a lifetime ago, and now she serves as her tribe’s diplomatic representative in Fire Lord Zuko’s newly reformed court. Much has changed since the Hundred Year War came to an end, especially regarding the shift in societal’s view of women. Chief Arnook decided that she’s the best person for this job since she’s his best advisor’s daughter plus she’s already a close friend of the Gaang. After all the things that they’ve been through together, seeing eye to eye shouldn’t be that much of a problem right? Y/N is well versed in the customs of her tribe and will without a doubt put her people’s best interest at heart, but she has also seen enough of the world to have a clearer judgement on what is best for everyone. What must be done to heal the world and harmonizing the four nations.

But that is a story for another day.

As for today, Y/N has reached the age of 20, officially a full grown adult. Zuko insisted that a celebration should be in order since she’s one of his closest friends and has been a huge help to him ever since his ascendency. Everytime his hot temper almost got the best of him and ruin whatever agreement was about to form during council, she was there like cool soothing water that pacify his anger away. She has saved his face countless of time, building a fine rap that will define his ruling in history. And for this alone, she deserves all the best that he could offer her, but Y/N being Y/N declined.

“You sure the celebration thing is a no go?” Zuko asked again as he looked her way pointedly, meanwhile Y/N is brushing her hair softly in front of a mirror as it settles around her shoulder in waves.

Y/N let out a content sigh, “I just prefer a slow and easy day, you know? we rarely get to experience those...” She said, sparing him a quick glance. “And the Gaang is coming here anyway, it’s been soo long since we all gather in the same place. That’s more than good enough for me, Fire Lord”

Zuko hums which she took as a sign of agreement but his stare never stray away from her. “Alright if you’re sure, i’m sorry I can’t do anything about today’s council hearing though, it’s your birthday and you shouldn’t be bothered with work but they insist that it can’t be pushed back”

Now it’s her turn to stop concentrating on her hair and look at Zuko through the mirror’s reflection. “It’s fine, Zuko. You don’t have to apologize for anything you know, it’s just one hearing session and we’re done! after that we got the rest of the day to do as we please”

Y/N pointed the end of her hairbrush to him, making him raised an eyebrow, “You need to stop worrying or else you’ll start getting gray hair one of these days”

Zuko scoffed but then let out a rare smile that is reserved for those closest to him only, he let his eyes trail over the lengths of her hair which she’s currently pulling into an updo. A traditional Fire Nation updo nonetheless. Fingers moving expertly as if she has done this her whole life despite the significant difference on hair custom in their respective nations.

“You’re getting really good at that...” Zuko said as he silently gives her an appreciative once-over. “It’s like you’re a natural at this, it took me a long time to got the hang of it. Even Azula can’t do it, she made her handmaidens do all the work for her” His eyes darkening as the memory of his sister briefly flashed through his mind, but he reigned himself right back. Deciding instead to lean his body to one side of the wall, giving himself a better angle of Y/N.

“It’s only fair of me to at least try and learn, I know that hair holds a significant place to your people and disheveled hair is considered as impolite. We wouldn’t want that, would we?” She said as she finished her look with one last twist of hair, making sure it looks perfect.

Zuko is touched by her respond, Y/N owes the Fire Nation nothing, in fact it is them who owes her after all that they had done to the Water Tribes, but still she treats them with utter respect and upholds their value despite being an outsider. She really was made for diplomacy.

“Before we go to the War Room, I have a gift for you” He said as he brought the both of his hands to the front, turns out he was actually holding a box behind him this entire time.

He took a few steps so now he’s standing directly behind her sitting figure, he’s soo close that Y/N can smell the intoxicating scent of his perfume, spicy but earthy. Zuko carefully put the box atop of the desk in front of them and pull the lids open, revealing the content.

Y/N can’t help the gasp that escaped her mouth as her eyes roamed over Zuko’s gift for her. A matching pair of hairpins or as they called it here, a zan. Her eyes took in every detail, starting from the heads of the dragon form with each head being surmounted by a turquoise cabochon, it’s made of gold filigree detail over gilded silver substructures. The manes of the dragons are particularly impressive comprising multiple, overlapping gold wire strands. The pierced, almost honeycomb-like shafts, each of which are of long, tapering form, are of finely worked silver that has been gilded with gold plates.

“Zuko this is....” Y/N is at loss for words, but Zuko is panicking inwardly at the unreadable expression on her face, what with soo many emotions flittering through in short span of time.

“Do you not like it? I could always make another one, I knew I should have asked for your input first but I just want it to be a surprise” Zuko sputtered, words keep on falling out of his mouth in his state of panic, even his voice has turned high pitch.

Y/N resist the urge to laugh out loud at his distress, this is becoming far too entertaining and she’s enjoying it more than she should. Not everyday you get to see the Fire Lord acting this hysterical over something so trivial. It’s adorable, really.

She reaches out slowly so she doesn’t startle him, placing her hand gently on his forearm. This seems to do the trick as he is snapped out of his agitation. “Zuko stop... I love it, I truly do”

His mood did a 180 degree turn as bliss overtook him at the sight of her sincere smile, eyes looking at him fondly. Zuko is mentally doing a celebratory fist pump.

“This is too beautiful, I don’t think I deserve it, it must have cost you a lot”

Zuko frowns at her hesitant tone. “You deserve this more than anyone, Y/N. It’s the least that I could do”

Y/N looks to the side while biting her lips in contemplation. A motion that nearly drove Zuko wild. His not-so-little crush on her is now probably bigger than the size of Sokka’s inflated ego. And that really is huge, people.

When her eyes meets his again, gone was the doubt, now it’s just pure gratefulness. “Well if you insist, then who am I to say no?” She said, completing it with a grin.

Zuko let out a relief sigh and give a huge grin that matches hers. “Now that’s what I like to hear”

“Would you mind giving me a hand? I think it’ll compliment my updo perfectly” Y/N asked, taking Zuko by surprise.

Zuko gulped nervously. “I would love that” He murmured as he’s trying very hard to still his trembling hands.

He reached inside the box and carefully took out one of the hairpin, sliding it into one side of her bun. Y/N enjoys the feeling of his hands on her hair, the soft motion bringing her a sense of peace. After he secured the second hairpin in, Zuko look at her through the mirror, admiring his work.

“It suits you, you look lovely”

Y/N resists the blush that threatens to bloom on her cheeks, opting to tease him instead. “Is this just a compliment or are you trying to flirt with me, Fire Lord Zuko?”

Zuko groans, stammering over his own words. “Oh knock it off! why do you always feel the need to ruin the moment”

“Oh i’m sorry, are we sharing a moment right now? I wasn’t aware” She can’t help but let out a teasing smirk, he’s just too easy to mess with.

“I’m just digging myself a deeper hole, don’t I?”

———————————————————————

Something fishy is definitely going on. Y/N can feel it. Ever since she stepped out of the confines of her bedroom, all eyes were on her. It’s not even a quick stare, she receives a full on stare from every servants and guards that passed by, complete with a small bow or curtsy. Is Zuko playing some sort of prank on her and succesfully got the rest of the palace on board with him too? whatever it is, Y/N intends to find out.

It gets even more bizarre once they reached the War Room. The rest of the advisors and generals stood up as they welcome the Fire Lord’s arrival, that is a customary show of respect of course. But the wide-eyed stares that follow her after was anything but normal. Some of them have an astonished look on their faces, body going stiffer than the looming pillars above. After they have shake themselves out of whatever daze they were in, they gave her a small bow. Now that is definitely odd, why in the name of Tui and La would they ever bow to her? no one ever did. She thought that is something that they consider is below their station. Just wanting to go over things quickly, she gave them all a quick nod back.

Council then is in session, with one of the new general that has been stationed to oversee the Fire Nation Colonies in the Earth Kingdom taking the floor.

———————————————————————

The hearing ended in record time. It only took them about 3 and a half hours compared to the usual duration which could take them all day and well into the early morning hour just to agree on something. Guess there is a first for everything.

As Y/N is busy tidying up the documents and materials that has gone under review earlier, one of the old Fire Nation general approached her.

“Excuse me, My Lady. I would like to congratulate you, may Agni bless you and your union”

Y/N’s face morphed into one of utter confusion, what is this man talking about? is he on something?

She struggles to form a coherent reply, thinking hard on the appropriate response. “Thank you, General. Do you mean to congratulate me for my birthday?” She finally asked.

“Ahh of course, My Lady. And for that too”

Y/N never thought that it’s possible to be this confused, what does ‘and for that too’ means? does it means that that wasn’t what he’s congratulating her for in the first place?

“Ookaay” She said as she drawled out the word. “I’ll be taking my leave now have a good day, General” Which he responded to with a salute and surprise, surprise another bow.

———————————————————————

After she successfully made her escape from the War Room before she has to suffer another absurd confrontation, she made it her life mission to find Zuko and torture the answer out of him. Okay maybe that’s too dramatic, she wouldn’t say torture per se, but yeah you got the point because this is getting ridiculous.

Her quest came to an abrupt stop when a pile of human slammed into her, engulfing her in a massive group hug.

“Happy birthday you beautiful human being” Sokka said while making kissy faces at her to which she can’t help but shudder and scrunch her nose at.

“Yeah Y/N! happy birthday, I can’t believe you are 20 now, you’re officially a part of the old people” Aang said, peering up at her from his awkward position of being mushed between Ty Lee and Katara.

“Uhh thank you... but you guys.. can I have some space now” Y/N said, struggling to maintain her balance.

“Oh yeah sorry about that, Missy. We’re just SOO excited to see you!” Toph said as she abruptly pulled back, accidently knocking the rest of them to the ground with her sheer force.

Y/N grinned widely as she chuckle, “You did that on purpose, didn’t you Toph?” Sokka grumbled from his splayed out position on the floor.

“Ehh guess you’ll never know” Toph said as she stuck her tongue out to him and then give Y/N a wink, to which she reaches out a hand to high five her.

“You guys are the worst” Suki’s voice mumbled out from somewhere underneath the piles of tangled limbs and body.

“Sokka, can you please just get up right now? your butt is right in front of my face, it’s really disturbing” Aang groaned, clearly distressed.

———————————————————————

After the incident they immediately went to the Dining Room because Sokka won’t stop complaining about how he’s on the verge of dying if he’s not fed in the next hour. Suki was so annoyed she nearly knock him out herself with her bare hands.

As the 6 of them sat around the long dining table, the door that leads into the room opened as Zuko comes in with Uncle Iroh in tow.

“Oh now he decided to show his face after pulling a disappearing act” Y/N grumbled mentally, shooting daggers in Zuko’s way.

Zuko head straight for his seat meanwhile Iroh took a turn around the table, greeting everyone, making his way towards Y/N last.

“Happy birthday, dear one” Uncle Iroh said warmly as he put his hands on her shoulder in a comforting manner. This brings a smile on Y/N’s face, Iroh is definitely one of her favorite person, you could never tell he was a former battle harden war general due to his welcoming and gentle nature.

“Thank you very much, Iroh” She replied, looking at him gratefully.

He was just about to head towards his seat when something about her appearance caught his eyes. There it is again, that same shocked look that she has received plenty all day long. Iroh threw a knowing smile her way, making her stare back at him dumbly.

Iroh then leaned down so that his face is align with her ear and said in a low voice, “So my nephew has finally grown a pair and pop the question, huh?” He asked excitedly, well it sounds more like a rhetoric question anyway.

Y/N can feel her eyes widening, Zuko didn’t ask her anything, what is he implying?

She glanced to where Zuko is sitting just to find him already looking her way, he looks uneasy watching the exchange between her and his uncle. Eyes flittering back and forth between their forms.

Before she could get any reply out, Zuko gave a signal to the waiter standing nearby and then the Dining Room door opened for the second time. This time bringing in the presence of several servants who are carrying various plates with all kind of dishes imaginable. To her delight, some of it are even Water Tribes cuisine such as sea prune stew and seaweed noodles to name a few. Y/N can feel her own mouth watering at both the sight and the smell.

Y/N tried to catch Zuko’s eye and when it did flicker to hers, she mouthed a “Thank you” at him. Eyes glimmering with a child-like excitement, ironic since this is supposed to be her first ‘adult’ birthday.

This view certainly makes warmth blossomed in Zuko’s chest. What would he give to make her smile that bright everyday...

Or I guess the more appropriate sentiment is what WOULDN’t he give.... he is certain that when it comes to her, Zuko has no limit at all.

———————————————————————

“Man, I feel so full i’m almost nauseous” Sokka moaned, holding his bloated stomach. Mouth making several vomiting motions although thankfully nothing comes out. Yep, he certainly doesn’t look well.

Katara made a sheesh noise at Sokka’s terrible table manner, “If you keep on doing that, you’re gonna make the rest of us nauseous too, idiot”

“I think it’s best to retire to our rooms then...” Uncle Iroh said, “-before something unsightly happens” He added as he too can’t help himself from avoiding looking Sokka’s way.

The rest voiced their agreement and they all stood one by one. Mumbles of good night’s and see you tomorrow’s can be heard around the room as everyone make themselves scarce.

Before exiting, Ty Lee, ever the sweet person, approached Y/N to give her one last hug for the night.

As she pulled away from the hug, she let out a happy gasp and flails her arms wildly, not able to contain her elation.

“WHAT IS THAT?!?! why didn’t you say anything earlier! how silly of me not to notice it at all!!!” She started talking animatedly without pause, leaving Y/N in another state of bewilderment.

“Ty Lee, what are you referring to?” Y/N tried to ask her.

“Don’t play coy with me now, young lady!” Ty Lee shoot back at her, putting her hands on both of her hips.

Suddenly, Zuko swoop in to the rescue. Putting himself between Y/N and Ty Lee, almost as if he’s trying to shield her away.

“I think that’s enough excitement for one night, Ty Lee” He started saying before he put one hand on her back and guiding her out the door as Ty Lee continues to protest against him, clearly still have a lot more to say.

“Oh I see what you’re trying to do, Zuko. Have fun you two!!! don’t do anything I wouldn’t do” Was the last thing Ty Lee managed to shout out before the door was closed in front of her face.

Well that certainly leaves a lot of wiggle room, Spirits knows that Ty Lee is always up for anything. And by anything, I really do mean absolutely anything.

As the both of them are the only ones remain in the room, Zuko turns his full attention to her.

“Would you take a walk with me to the garden? it’s a full moon tonight, no doubt the view will be enchanting” He said in a hopeful tone.

Y/N gives him a small smile as she just looped their arms together for an answer. Then they walk side by side in a comfortable silence.

———————————————————————

True to his words, as the garden came into view, Y/N can feel the sight took her breath away. The moonlight shone softly against the grass, its light reflecting like glimmering crystals in the turtle duck pond. She can certainly see why this is Zuko’s go-to place, his very own safe haven inside the palace.

He guided her to a spot beneath a big tree, right beside the pond where they both took a seat beside each other.

“Mind explaining to me what is going on?” Y/N asked as she trace circles on the palm of Zuko’s hand, a gesture that relaxes him completely.

He cleared his throat, clearly trying to pick his words carefully.

“You know how each nation has different customs right? especially regarding relationships”

Y/N cocks her head to the side so she could look at him better, then she hums to let him know that she’s following his train of thought.

“And by relationship, I specifically mean courting rituals” He continued. “Like in your tribe for example, the man has to make a hand-crafted choker that serves as a betrothal necklace to show how serious he is, right?”

“Yeah... that’s correct” She answers, now her undivided focus is on him as she’s trying to decipher where he is going with this conversation.

“In Fire Nation, gifting zan has the same meaning as choker is to the Water Tribe....” As he said this, his voice turns soft, almost lowering into a whisper as he scans her face for reaction.

Y/N is quiet for a while, the realization of the meaning sinks deep into her, but she tries to keep her face as neutral as possible although inside she’s over the moon.

“Ahh so that explains why i’ve been receiving weird looks all day”

“Y-yeah... wearing that dragon zan is just the same as screaming to the entirety of Fire Nation that you belong to me” Zuko said sheepishly, clearly embarrassed. “Not that I mean to offend by objectifying you, of course”

Frankly speaking Zuko is feeling very frustrated because the girl he has been pining over for the longest time is showing him no emotion at all, it’s nerve-wrecking.

“I’m sorry... I clearly don’t know what I was thinking” He said defeatedly. “You’re free to just leave it in the box and never wear it again now that you know what it signifies”

“And why would I do that?” Her reply got Zuko turning his head back up to face her so fast he nearly broke his own neck. “B-b-but” He stammered, but Y/N quickly shush him by putting her finger in front of his mouth.

“Now that I know... I think I may even want to wear it to sleep every night, perhaps I should never remove it at all, don’t you think?

To say that Zuko is shocked is not big enough of a word to describe what he is currently feeling. Did she just actually accepted his courting proposal?!

“Do you really mean that? and you’re not mad at all?” He asked timidly, eyes searching hers, finding nothing but genuineness.

“Why would I be mad?” Y/N said, as she put one of her hand on his chest, rubbing it softly from side to side. Trying to calm down his jumpy heartbeat but it seems like she only succeded in making it beat even faster.

“So does that mean that you like me back?”

“Yes, Zuko. It means that I like you a lot” She said, erasing his worries away.

He cups her cheek gently, to which she can’t help but close her eyes, sighing in contentment. She leans even further into his touch, loving the feeling completely.

Zuko leaned down to whisper directly into her ear, the feeling of his breath against her skin sending goosebumps all over her body as she could feel her own breath hitch. “May I kiss you?”

“Well you might as well do since we got a lifetime of kissing ahead of us” Y/N said teasingly to which Zuko can’t help but chuckle deeply.

And so he did. He look straight into her eyes, moving his hand to cup her chin instead and slowly leaned in, savoring the euphoric feeling. She can’t help the breathy moan that escaped her lips, Spirits, it’s like he’s drinking her in.

He pulled away for a second to say, “Careful there, i’m never letting you go now”

She just grabbed the back of his neck, pulling him in again “Never said I want you to” and Zuko can’t help but smile into the kiss.

———————————————————————

A loud crash from above interrupted their heartfelt moonlight tryst as they pulled away, startled from the sudden noise.

Zuko and Y/N squinted their eyes upwards, trying to point out the source when they see one of the bedroom’s window pane that overlook the garden is opened with 6 faces peeking out, clearly have not yet realized that whatever sleuthing they were up to has failed.

“Stop stepping on my toes, Sokka” Toph half-shout angrily, followed by a smacking noise and Sokka yell of pain.

“You’re one to talk huh, Toph? you are literally sitting on my lap right now” Suki voice raised above the commotion around her.

“Guys, would you please stop talking, they’re gonna notice if you keep this up” Aang pleaded.

“Clearly too late for you to worry about that” Zuko said from beside her, making the six of them stop and look down. Giving the Fire Lord and the future Fire Lady a guilty smile.

“Nice view from up there?” Y/N said, not wanting to miss out on all the fun. She and Zuko shares a look, one of pure mischief.

The peace didn’t last long for all six of them began fighting again about whose fault was it that they got caught. Meanwhile Y/N just shakes her head at another one of their shenanigans.

Then she laid her head against Zuko’s chest again, craving to be as close as possible to his warmth. Letting his scent engulfs her every senses. How she loves her very own human heating pad.

———————————————————————

A/N : Thank you so much for reading my fourth Zuko fic!!! I hope you all enjoy it because I certainly did🥰

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guqin-and-flute · 3 years

Text

And A-Fu Makes 4 --Chapter 2

[Ao3 Link]

Grown ups were so weird. They spent so much of their time talking and doing boring things--even at Cultivation Conferences when they all were together, which A-Fu thought was hardly fair.

All his fathers were usually busy during the day with Important Clan Matters with the other grown ups and he got stuck with the kids that had been dragged along, too. It wasn’t all bad--there were some fun kids that came, sometimes, like Ouyang Kui, who was the son of Old Clan Leader Ouyang and thought that A-Fu was hilarious. (Blue-Father had told him before that Old Clan Leader Ouyang wasn’t actually old for a Clan Leader, he just thought so because both Gray-Father and Blue-Father were younger than him. A-Fu had told him that he thought that they were actually pretty old, too, and Blue-Father had almost managed to hold back the laughing from his voice as he said, “A-Fu, you cannot just call people old; there are those that would take offense and it’s not polite.” But he hadn’t made him write lines or scrub the floor so it probably wasn’t a lesson that was all that important, anyway.)

It wasn’t that Cultivation Conferences were horrible, they just tended to be boring, because all the babysitters got brought along and they would watch everyone very closely and there was hardly any chance to do anything interesting at all. Most of the time, he would just hang out with any kids that came, Jin Ling, and whatever baby Aunt Yanli and Uncle Zixuan had decided to have that year. This Conference, it was twins--and no A-Yuan or A-Kui or anyone else his age. Just A-Ling and all the babies.

Jin Ling complained all the time about having 3 younger siblings-- “Why did she have 2? That’s too many at once!” A-Fu had demanded when Jin Ling had told him about the twins. Jin Ling had just rolled his eyes like he was stupid--but if A-Fu ever complained about them crying, Jin Ling would get very offended.

“They can’t help it! They’re babies!”

A-Fu had kicked idly at a lilypad from where they were sitting, soaking their feet on one of the docks of Lotus Pier with their pants all rolled up. The sun was making him itchy and sweaty, but the lotus seeds they were tossing back and forth into each other's mouths were refreshing and crunchy, which made up for it. “Then babies are dumb. Why do they act like it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to them?”

“Niang says it’s because it probably is the worst thing that’s ever happened to them, ever. They haven’t been alive very long,” Jin Ling added wisely, like he knew anything at all about babies.

Well…he might. More than A-Fu, anyway. He did live with 3 of them. Except his little brother A-Qiang could walk now, though, so maybe he wasn’t a baby anymore. He still smelled enough to be one. When A-Fu said that he still thought they should get over it and stop crying, Jin Ling had rolled his eyes at him again, so A-Fu had raised one wet foot and shoved him off the dock into the shallows, getting his pretty gold and white outfit all muddy. A-Ling had shouted a bad word and they both had got in trouble with the Jin nanny. A-Fu split his ginger candy with him afterward, though, so Jin Ling forgave him pretty quick.

Babies weren’t all that interesting to A-Fu--they were squishy and loud and heavier than they looked and you couldn’t play anything fun with them. Aunt Yanli had let him hold new little baby A-Mei, while Jin Ling held her twin brother, A-Zan. He had felt a little guilty, because Aunt Yanli had looked so happy when she looked down at the baby in A-Fu’s arms, but A-Fu just kind of wanted to give her back. She smelled weird and she sort of looked like a bald, red little animal with tiny, tiny fingers he was afraid of touching in case something bad happened. He had looked over at Jin Ling, who had a lot of practice with such things, and how he sort of bounced around and looked fondly down at his baby brother like he actually liked being near him. A-Fu tried that bouncing thing a little, but A-Mei had squinched up her face and made honking noises, so he handed her back really quick.

He had asked Blue-Father and Gray-Father later that day in the room they were staying in if he was going to get a baby brother or sister--really kind of hoping they would tell him ‘of course not’--but Blue-Father had gotten very quiet and Gray-Father had looked over at him. Blue-Father was watching his own hands. “It’s hard to say, little one,” Blue-Father had finally said in a weirdly even voice that was like when you were trying to step around a creaky floorboard all careful.

Gray-Father had made a loud huffing sound through his nose, scowling. “Again?” He demanded, but not at A-Fu. “You’ve already--” he seemed to remember A-Fu was there when he looked at him and pressed his lips together really tight and continued, “And you're not wanting for cousins. And there's still Wangji. I thought he had left it alone.”

“Da-ge, please. This isn’t the time.” His blue father just sounded tired, now.

“That he keeps hounding you on this--”

“You know that it’s not that simple.”

“It is!” Gray-Father’s voice was rising, but not like he was going to yell, just like he really really wanted Blue-Father to listen. “In this case, it is! Xichen, he’s just doing this because--”

“When you talk about the duty of a--”

“Bullshit.”

“Da-ge--” A-Fu saw Blue-Father’s eyes zip to him and away quickly but Gray-Father didn’t stop.

“You know that's not why he's doing this. Why shouldn’t this be enough for him? There’s A-Fu and there’s Wangji and there’s A-Yuan and at least 7 other near-cousins. It’s about image and control, A-Huan, he’s been like this since we were young; no matter what you do, it’s never going to--”

Blue-Father closed his eyes and that shut his gray father up faster than any of his words had. Gray-Father had growled in his chest all frustrated. Then, he had leaned over and kissed Blue-Father right on the lips.

They didn’t do that a lot, never in public, and not a whole bunch around A-Fu--it probably wasn’t allowed for you to kiss on people in public, though it wasn’t a rule that was written anywhere that he had heard of. But they were in a private room of Lotus Pier while everyone else was going to sleep, so it was probably okay here. Gray-Father had looked into Blue-Father’s eyes really close and said, “You are enough as you are.”

A-Fu’s blue father’s mouth had gotten thin and shaky and he nodded and nodded without saying anything.

“We are enough as we are,” Gray-Father had said with the same quiet, important voice and Blue-Father had swallowed really hard and he kept nodding and nodding, looking down at his lap.

A-Fu’s stomach had squirmed with worry until Gray-Father turned and smiled at him and beckoned him over and A-Fu jumped to his feet, running over to crash into their laps. Blue-Father had wrapped his arms around him tightly, his hands petting over A-Fu’s hair as Gray-Father pulled them both into a hug that squished A-Fu between them in the best way, even if his head was just a little crushed.

"So no babies, right?" He had smeared into Blue-Father's chest and Gray-Father had laughed.

"No, child, no babies here except you."

His blue father didn't say anything, just kept petting his head.

The whole conversation didn’t really make sense to A-Fu. He was still thinking about it the next day as he was swimming around in the lake with Jin Ling, his brain not letting go of the memory of his blue father trying not to cry the night before. It made him think of the last time he had seen him upset, just a few days ago at the Cloud Recesses. It didn’t happen a lot, so when it did, it really stuck in his head as a prickle.

A-Fu swooshed his hands around underwater, making his floating hair swirl like the clouds he had seen Blue-Father paint on wall hangings. “A-Ling, what’s a succession?”

Jin Ling, blinked water out of his eyes and spit out pond gunk. “Like when you win?”

A-Fu heaved a huge sigh because A-Ling so did not understand a single thing and paddled over to the dock where the nannies sat. He tilted his head back to squawk, “Jin-qianbei, what’s a succession?”

One of the Jin nannies leaned over to see him better, the sun glinting off her gold hair pin and her earrings like sparks. “Succession, xiao-gongzi? It’s the order of inheritance.” When he scrunched up his face, she tried again. “It’s who takes over when someone in charge passes away or is unable to fulfill their duties any longer. Sons and daughters and the order of birth.”

“Huh,” A-Fu said and thought about this hard, trying to make it fit like puzzle pieces. Taking in a deep breath, he floated on his back and closed his eyes against the sun that turned his eyelids bright red, listening to the ‘plink’ and ‘gloop’ of the water in his ears. He hadn’t wanted to ask Gray-Father or Blue-Father about what a succession was, because when he had heard the word, he had been breaking all kinds of rules.

It had been the last time Blue-Father was so upset, a few days before coming to the conference, back when he had been putting away the wash bin he had used to clean the library floor as punishment for talking during meals. (Again. It was just so boring to sit there! Every other clan got to talk while they ate!) He was just going past Great-Uncle Qiren’s house when he had heard his blue father’s voice inside.

It wasn’t weird to hear him talking to Great-Uncle Qiren, and it probably wasn’t something very interesting, but then, he heard Uncle Wangji’s voice and that made him slow down. Everyone knew that Uncle Wangji didn’t talk much to begin with, and even less to Great-Uncle Qiren. As far as A-Fu knew, he wasn’t ever rude about it, but he sure didn’t say more than he needed to. His curiosity felt like a little minnow nibbling at his brain and, before he knew it, he was pouring out the gross water and shoving everything under a fancy bush by the path. Then, he snuck around the back of the house where there was a window that looked out at only trees, where no one on the paths could see him.

He was pretty sure sneaking and eavesdropping weren’t ‘filial’ or ‘virtuous’ but he was curious--and Uncle Wangji had told A-Yuan and him that being curious was good. So A-Fu figured that believing that was pretty filial of him.

When he peeked over the sill, he saw all 3 grown ups sitting sideways to him at the table that was over by the far window. Great-Uncle Qiren had his scowly face on where his beard twitched around like it was alive. Uncle Wangji looked...like Uncle Wangji, which meant he didn’t really look like he was feeling anything at all, just staring past Great-Uncle Qiren’s head. Blue-Father was pale.

He might not have looked very upset to someone who didn’t live with him, but A-Fu could tell right away, because he wasn’t even bothering to try to smile.

Great-Uncle Qiren’s voice was sharp and angry. “--least he is a Lan, but that boy--”

“Has the headband. Has the name. In all respects,” Uncle Wangji interrupted Great-Uncle Qiren and turned his head just a little and stared at Great-Uncle Qiren, right in the eyes. “As you agreed.”

A-Fu suddenly wondered if grown ups could get punished just like little kids did when Great-Uncle’s eyebrows came down and his beard and moustache twitched again and he snapped, “Wangji.”

Uncle Wangji’s eyes flickered, just a little.

“Wangji,” Blue-Father said all quiet, in a very different voice. He didn’t look at Uncle Wangji, but instead at the edge of the shiny table.

Uncle Wangji said nothing, but his mouth got a little smaller and he went back to looking at the wall.

Great-Uncle Qiren was glaring at him. “Don’t think that I don’t know where he came from. You may refuse to say, but anyone with any unfortunate knowledge of your inclinations could guess that he is connected to...that man. That I let you keep him so near to you is a kindness. And you,” he turned back to A-Fu’s blue father. “This is supposed to be it, then? You would be pleased to leave our line of succession the way it is?” He shook his head, like he couldn’t believe it.

A-Fu’s face was starting to heat up and he balled up his fists. He wanted to burst out and yell at him to shut up--but bursting got you chores and lines and then he wouldn’t be able to listen, anymore. Bursting was like Gray-Father, who wasn’t a very sneaky person. Right now, he had to be like Yellow-Father, who could sit very quiet and smile at people who got angry right in his face.

For a second, he felt really guilty when he thought of Blue-Father, who wouldn’t have been sneaking at all. Who was being sneaked on right now.

But no, A-Fu reasoned, he was actually sneaking on Great-Uncle Qiren. Who was actually still talking; “I don’t understand how this keeps happening. Where have I gone so wrong that you both repeat and repeat your father’s mistakes? Have you not seen where that leads? Have you not both seen what that does to your Clan? Your family? Choosing--”

He stopped all of a sudden, just as A-Fu was starting to notice that this sounded a lot like talking behind people’s backs, which was definitely against the rules. Standing up, his great-uncle stuck his hands behind his back and turned with a scowl toward A-Fu’s window. A-Fu managed to hold back his squeak as he ducked down, heart pounding hard in his throat.

When he heard footsteps, he almost ran--which would have been really dumb, because there were loose rocks all over the ground that clattered and crunched--but the footsteps turned around, going back and forth as Great-Uncle Qiren paced, then stopped. “Your duty is to your Clan, not to your own feelings, Lan-zongzhu,” he said the title like a reminder. “I cannot force you to do what’s right, but I would hope that I wouldn’t have to. I would hope that you, of all people, would realize how quickly these things can change and people die. No one wants to consider it, but you must. It is your place. Even your father managed this--absent though he was from all other duties. This is not something I can do for you simply because you do not like it.”

It was almost like what his blue father had said to him a bunch of times before--except it didn’t sound kind and patient and wise coming from Great-Uncle Qiren. In fact, A-Fu thought that he sounded pretty mean--if Great-Uncle Qiren had scolded him like that, he would be wishing he was anywhere else in the world and he might have even cried, a bit. A-Fu wanted to poke his head up again to see Blue-Father’s expression, but he didn’t know which way Great-Uncle Qiren was looking and definitely didn’t want to risk getting caught listening to what sounded like a Serious Adult Conversation.

A-Fu doubted Blue-Father looked very happy at all.

“...I understand, shufu,” came his voice, still quiet.

“But you will do nothing? You would put this to someone else? Wangji? And how would that go, do you think?” Great-Uncle Qiren shot back.

There was a silence, long enough that the birds in the trees nearby filled it up with tweets and tweedles. A-Fu’s stomach was tied up in complicated knots and suddenly, the sneaking wasn’t so much fun, anymore. It hadn’t actually been all that fun to begin with; all it was was Great-Uncle Qiren yelling at people he loved. As quietly as he could, he snuck back to his wash bin and hurried off.

When he got back to the Hanshi after cleaning up, Blue-Father was already there sitting on his bed, staring at the backs of his hands on his knees.

All he had said was, “A-Fu, I need some quiet, please,” in a low voice. For a second, A-Fu thought about pretending he had lost his voice and going on a silly search for it, as a funny joke to cheer him up. But it was weird to see his father so serious and pale and he didn’t think that he would want any goofing. So, instead, he had just bit his cheek and said, “Okay, die," and went to go find A-Yuan. He maybe even cried a little bit, but A-Yuan was really good about not asking him what was wrong twice when he didn’t want to talk.

Sneaking was something that A-Fu got pretty good at--seeing how long he could wait in a tree without anyone noticing he was there, padding around in his socks to jump up on people's backs when they least expected it. He had almost made A-Ling pee himself when he jumped out of his toy chest after hiding there for a million hours. It was like a game he was playing with the world.

Sometimes, it got him in trouble when people found him sneaking where he shouldn’t--once, he had sneaked into Uncle Huaisang’s room and climbed up on top of a big cabinet but had accidentally pushed off a bunch of stuff that made a huge mess, spilling all over his bed and when he got found out, he had been made to stand in a corner for, like, a year. He felt bad that he ruined the sheets Uncle Huaisang had kept complaining about, but he just made sure not to do that, next time. It made A-Yuan nervous and he would never, never come with him because he didn’t want to get in trouble, but he would listen to the stories A-Fu told him about it like he was hearing legends and he would gasp at all the right parts. Sometimes A-Ling would come on sneaking missions, but he clomped like a horse and breathed too loud, so A-Fu usually just left him behind on the hard ones.

There were people that were super easy to sneak on--like A-Qiang and the Jin nannies and Uncle Huaisang--and there were some people who were tougher--like Gray-Father and Blue-Father and Great-Uncle Qiren. The hardest level he still couldn’t beat was Yellow-Father, who always seemed to know when someone was watching him or when something was moved out of place. So many times, A-Fu had escaped the nannies and hid under his desk to surprise him when he sat down, only to have his father pause just as soon as he came in the room and say, amused, “Fufu, you’re not supposed to be in here.” He couldn’t even see him! And he had been so quiet!

The only time he could ever surprise Yellow-Father was in the middle of the night when he was sleeping, and he wasn’t ever, ever allowed to do that. (It was a Very Important Rule all 3 of his fathers had told him for as long as he could remember; no sneaking in the rooms at night and if he needed them to get up, he had to call from the door to let them wake up, first. This made sense and A-Fu always followed this rule because, while his blue and gray father’s sometimes woke up confused for a couple seconds, Yellow-Father always woke up with a big gasp and sat up really quick and it always made A-Fu flinch. He usually just tried not to wake him up or he would just crawl in on Blue-Father’s side instead, if he was there.)

Sneaking wasn’t really about hearing what people were talking about, most of the time, since they usually talked about confusing and boring adult stuff. It was more that sneaking was fun and it made him feel super proud to have something he was good at, finally.

Because he was last in his class at pretty much everything--reading and recitation, writing, music reading, numbers.

Classes were long and boring and his legs hurt to sit on for that whole, whole time and he wasn’t allowed to slouch or get comfortable or take breaks or anything. He would sit next to A-Yuan and stare out the window at the zipping bugs over the stream in the woods, or the seniors passing by on the walkways and the teacher’s voice would just slosh over him. He tried. He really, really did. The teachers said he didn’t and even A-Yuan said that if he stopped drawing on his paper, he could maybe learn more.

It was easy for him to say. A-Yuan was good at everything--sitting still, handwriting, listening, remembering, adding numbers. He was so smart, A-Fu thought that he should probably be the teacher when he grew up. It wasn’t that A-Fu was grumpy at A-Yuan for being better than him at everything. It was just hard when people thought A-Fu was just goofing off on purpose and A-Yuan just didn’t even have to try and was amazing. It wasn’t fair.

So many times he had thrown himself onto Blue-Father’s lap and just sobbed because he was so, so frustrated he wanted to just chuck every book into the river and never try to read again. The characters were just blobby patches of sticks that didn’t mean anything and he could never remember the sounds they were supposed to make.

“Just talk to me forever! Never write me a note! Just send me Jin butterflies until I die!” he had yelled into Blue-Father’s knees one time. “Reading is stupid! I’m stupid!”

“No, no, no,” Blue-Father had said and picked him up and held him close underneath his chin. “Never say that. Your cleverness--”

“I don’t have any, A-Yuan took them all,” he choked, yanking at his father’s lapel to try to burrow into his outer robes, where it was dark and warm and pressy and quiet. “Everyone is better than me. I’m probably not even good enough to be a succession!”

“...What?” His arms had loosened around A-Fu long enough to escape halfway into the robe pocket he had made, so A-Fu kicked his way in and hung there with his legs sticking out, curled around his father’s side, listening to the quiet gurgle of his tummy through his back. “A-Fu, a what?”

“Nothing,” he mumbled. He didn’t want to talk about it, because he might accidentally let him know he had sneaked on that weird grownup conversation--Blue-Father was really good at figuring things like that out. “I’m just not good at anything good. I hate learning.”

“...Are you worried about being Clan Leader someday?”

No, not really because Blue-Father was never going to die like his birth parents, so he really wasn’t worried. Him and Gray-Father were going to be the Clan Leaders forever because they were strong and good at fighting and so he would never have to worry about himself being a succession or any of his fathers dying, ever, but he knew it was important to Great-Uncle Qiren. And he already thought A-Fu was a slacker and a troublemaker. And probably stupid. It made him feel like a small, lumpy toad that accidentally got into the library that everyone wanted to get out right away.

“Little love, talk to me.”

A-Fu stayed stubbornly quiet. He didn’t have a plan, but he didn’t want to talk about this. Because what if Blue-Father decided that he was disappointed and that A-Fu really was stupid at school? What if he really just was going to be terrible at everything forever?

Gentle hands wrapped around his ankle and he squawked with a kick when something tickled against his foot like a sniffing bunny. Blue-Father held his feet still as he continued to lightly scratch the bottom, right in the middle where it tickled the most. “ACK! Stoppit!”

“Come out, then.”

“No!”

“I don’t talk to behinds.” He could hear the smile in Blue-Father’s voice. “I need a face.”

“No!!”

“Then I guess I’ll just--” the tickling went from one finger to a lot and it yanked a shriek-laugh that A-Fu didn’t mean and was mad about.

Kicking and worming around as hard as he could to show that he was still angry, he flipped over so he was on his back, head still hidden. Halfway what he asked. That tickle came back on his foot, so he yelped and reached up to yank the loosened robe down Blue-Father’s shoulder a bit, so he was still tucked inside, but he could look down and see A-Fu’s scowling face. “What,” A-Fu demanded in his absolute grumpiest voice because his father was forcing him.

“Rude,” Blue-Father chuckled and poked his nose. “Tell me what you’re good at.”

“Nothing.”

He tilted his head, and his smile got all soft and sorry. “Lie. Lies will get you chores.”

A-Fu made a huge scowly face and hid his face in his own sleeves, curling up his knees until he was an angry ball tucked into Blue-Father’s messed up outer robe and yelled, “I can’t think of anything!”

“Hmmm. What if I share what I know you’re good at?”

A-Fu was quiet, still hidden. But a grumpy quiet. Grown-ups always tried to get their way and make you feel better when you were so mad and it just made him madder.

“You’re a very funny boy. You’re adventurous, you’re compassionate, you’re brave, you’re kind--”

He couldn’t take it any longer. “Those aren’t even things!” A-Fu burst out, pulling his arms away from his face to glare up at him. “Like, actual real things!”

“Oh? You don’t know when a person is being unkind?”

“It’s not a thing like writing or board games or fighting good! It’s not important!”

Blue-Father just looked down at him for a minute, face calm, eyes thinking. The air A-Fu was breathing inside the robe was warm and Blue-Father scented--incense and something dark-sweet, like fancy wood. Every once in a while, a chilly little wisp of air would come in from the outside and burn the inside of his nose with its fresh cold. He wanted to stay tucked in here forever and never go back to school or do anything hard ever again. His father was strong enough to carry him in his robes like a weird lady-boob all the time. They could just tell everyone A-Fu ran away and that Blue-Father decided to grow a gourd from his chest meridians or something.

Then, Blue-Father said, “What are the things that your Gray-Father is good at?”

“Ughh, that’s so easy,” A-Fu complained and rolled his eyes, which got him an eyebrow raise and an ‘oh really?’ look, which meant that he was probably getting pretty close to being told to stop being rude for real. He let The Attitude go with another pout, poking out his chin, but he said, “Fine. He’s good at fighting. And cooking. And riding horses. And playing.” He thought a second, then added, grudgingly. “Bread.”

Blue-Father nodded encouragingly, smiling. “Alright. What do you like about Gray-Father? Do you like that he’s good at fighting?”

A-Fu squinted at him. “He just is.”

“Alright, then what do you like about Gray-Father?”

He thought about it a second--not because it was hard, but because he was trying to see if this was another trick to make him feel better. After he couldn’t figure it out, he just answered. “I like when he throws me and swims with me and plays Monster. I like when he gives me shoulder rides.”

Still smiling, Blue-Father held out his hand over him and spread his fingers and, automatically, A-Fu grabbed onto his thumb and ring finger and grumpily stretched them around. “Alright. What is Yellow-Father good at?”

“Talking to grownups and writing and knowing when I’m sneaking up on him and making A-Ling shut up.”

Blue-Father’s raised eyebrows gave his words back and A-Fu pouted but said, “Sorry,” and set about curling those long fingers one at a time into a fist.

“And what do you like about spending time with him?”

“I like when he braids my hair. And when he sings to me. And when he plays pretend.”

When his Blue-Father tried to stretch his hand out again to touch A-Fu’s cheek, A-Fu scowled and clamped down on it, making his father chuckle and curl it back up obediently. “So, do you see? There is more to a person than just what they can do. It’s how they make us feel and how they treat people. That is what’s important to me, little love. That you are fair. That you are kind. I will love you even--” he leaned in like he had a secret, glancing over at the door like someone might hear and, despite himself, A-Fu leaned up out of his pocket to hear his sneaky whisper, “--if you’re last in your class...forever.”

A-Fu’s eyes widened. “For really?”

His blue father nodded. “For really. It’s important that you try your best. But I will love you no matter what that is.”

“Hmmm.” A-Fu mulled this over and decided he felt a little better, but still didn’t want to leave his robe-cave. Blue-Father had taken his own hand back when A-Fu kept pretending to punch himself in the forehead with it (with sound effects) but had let him stay where he was while he wrote some letters. A-Fu had fallen asleep there, wrapped up in warmth and the smell of Blue-Father. Being mad always took a lot of energy.

The whole conversation got him thinking later about what sort of things everyone was best at. A-Yuan was good at class and making A-Fu calm down and folding little paper butterflies they could paint. A-Ling was good at being really annoying--but also racing and telling stories and lying. A-Qiang was pretty good at walking, now, and following A-Ling around and wanting to be a part of everything. The baby twins were good at...drooling and pooping, probably. Uncle Huaisang was good at painting and birds and telling jokes. Great-Uncle Qiren was good at remembering the rules and growing a beard and telling when you were lying.

Uncle Wangji was good at being quiet and playing the qin and, actually, pretty good at advice. After A-Fu’s Hard Time with reading, Blue-Father took him to talk to Uncle Wangji--though he really didn’t get why, at first. He just sat there all awkward and quiet, stabbing his rice with his chopsticks while Blue-Father explained it across the table from next to him. Uncle Wangji nodded slowly and looked over at him. “What is difficult about class?”

“All of it. The whole thing,” A-Fu mixed one chopstick around, peeking up at him from under one of his hair wispy’s. Uncle Wangji looked like he always did, face smooth like a wall. But his eyes looked kinda soft, like Blue-Father’s did when he was smiling inside, a little.

“Sitting?”

“Yeah, shushu.”

“Listening?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Mn,” he nodded. “You try?”

That question crunched up in him and he blinked a lot against his eyes getting all hot and fuzzy when he nodded. “Really, really hard.”

There had been one time where he was trying--he was, he was!--and he had seen something move out the window and when he looked, it had been Blue-Father walking with Gray-Father and he had been so excited, he forgot he was in class and he had jumped up and hung out the window, waving and yelling, “Die! Hi, die!”

They had both looked around surprised before they grinned at him and waved back, but made the ‘shoo shoo’ motion and he got yanked back inside by the teacher and yelled at in front of every single person in the classroom for being bad and ‘disruptive’ and ‘unruly’. He got a whack on his butt with the classroom stick, had got made to recite all the rules he had broken, and had to stand at the front of the class for the rest of the time. He had felt so humiliated that he couldn’t even tell Blue-Father why he was crying when he got home, and he eventually had to go ask the teacher to find out.

A-Fu had never got whacked on the butt again, after that day, but he still got in trouble so much that sometimes, it was easier to stand at the front of the class and listen because at least he got to shift on his feet (though, he also got yelled at for that).

“Focus takes practice. Practice takes time.” When Uncle Wangji stood up, Blue-Father had smiled and looked down at A-Fu.

“Go with him, A-Fu. I’ll wait for you here.”

It was a little weird walking next to Uncle Wangji because he was so quiet and usually when grownups were really quiet around you, it was because you were in trouble, but A-Fu couldn’t think of anything he had done today to be punished for. So he just followed him out the door, down the white path and into the forest a little ways, to a small stream coming down the mountain through all the bushes and trees. It sounded nice and friendly, burbling all over the smooth, dark rocks. “Pick one. Or a few,” Uncle Wangji said, one hand tucked behind his back.

“One what?”

“A stone. Small enough to fit in your hand. It can be smooth or not, it’s your choice. Not too sharp.”

A-Fu squinted at him, then at the rocks. “Why?”

“When you pick, I will tell you.”

Maybe he was going to make him throw them? That sounded fun, so probably not, because this sounded like a weird, grown up lesson they were teaching him. He wasn’t going to make him carry a bucket of heavy rocks, was he? That sounded--and he was stealing a word from Aunt Yanli--dreadful. Just in case, when he hunted around, he picked just one, a small rock that was a little lumpy, but smooth, black with a little sparkly pocket in it and held it in his hand, warily. His hand hurt from how cold the water had been, like his bones were aching. “Okay….”

“Do you feel it?”

Duh. A-Fu almost, almost got sassy, but remembered the look that Gray-Father gave him when he did and just said. “Uh...yeah.”

“When you run your fingers over it, do you like it?”

Puzzled, A-Fu rubbed his thumb on it like an experiment. It felt like a rock. “It’s...a rock.”

“Choose one that you like to touch.”

Uncle Wangji, A-Fu thought, all annoyed, who likes touching rocks? But he didn’t say so because he didn’t know exactly how patient he was, so he just threw the first rock down the slope, into the bushes and started touching them all. Some were slimy and super gross, some were just...uh...rocks, and some of them were actually just mudballs, but after a little bit, where his fingers really really hurt and started to go numb from the cold, he found 2 that were kinda nice to run his fingers over because they were so smooth. One even had a little dip where he could hold it in his palm and fit his thumb right in it like it was supposed to go there. He had a little whine and cry that he couldn’t help because his hands hurt so bad, but Uncle Wangji had knelt down and cupped his own long hands around them and had slowly rubbed and blown on them until the feeling came back without even looking annoyed once, which A-Fu had been worried about.

Uncle Wangji took a cloth from his sleeve and rubbed the stones until they were dry and clean, saying, “If you are quiet and careful, you can hold these stones while you learn. You can rub them, scratch them, turn them in your hand. It may help.” Then, he had tucked them back into A-Fu’s hands.

Curiously, A-Fu rubbed the rocks together and heard the nice ‘shhk-shhk’ sound they made. Too loud for class time, probably, but nice for now. “That’s not against the rules?”

With the smallest smile A-Fu had ever seen, Uncle Wangji tilted his head. “Fidgeting is prohibited. Then do not fidget--hold them carefully and hidden. It hurts no one and helps you. Busy hands can help your mind stay sharp. Perhaps it will become easier for you once you begin sword and qin training.”

“Huh. Was it hard for you to listen, too?”

“In the beginning. Practice, meditation, and focus help as you grow older.”

Uncle Wangji was pretty smart to come up with something like this, if it had helped him as a kid. Then, A-Fu thought about how A-Yuan sat so perfect in class, just watching and listening with no problem at all. He frowned, staring at Uncle Wangji’s white boots poking out from underneath his white robes when he stood back up. “You taught A-Yuan the right way to do it,” he muttered under his breath, feeling jealous and small and grumpy. “Why won’t you teach me?”

“You’re not like A-Yuan.” A-Fu looked up at him, expecting him to look mad that he had talked back, but instead, he just looked like Uncle Wangji. Like nothing, really, face calm and cold as the stream. But his eyes were still soft. “You are like Lan Fu. And that is good. You will learn like Lan Fu, just as I learned like Lan Wangji. Just like xiongzhang learned like xiongzhang.”

A-Fu looked back down at the rocks in his hand. “Okay.”

“Mn.”

“Mn,” A-Fu echoed back, without really thinking about it.

A hand reached down and gently patted his head, then turned him back down the path. “Let’s return. Xiongzhang is waiting.”

#THIS IS LONG AS HECK BUT I HOPE YOU ENJOY IT AHSODIFJ #Finally the child is wrangled and doing plot things #YEESH #3zun raise jingyi au #3zun raise jingyi au content #my stuff #my fic

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lollytea · 4 years

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(Webby and Lena get the LOOOONG descriptions cuz they are the backbone of this au. Really, this was originally a weblena tangled au that went off the rails. again, all art done by @ask-artsy-oncie :D!!)

(PART ONE HERE)

Lady Webbigail Vanderquack

Webby was born special. Specifically she was born with healing abilities in her hair. Which is why until the age of ten, it had never been cut and had been trailing down past her ankles. Her powers were valuable and her grandmother, fearing for her safety, kept her hidden away in Scrooge’s palace for her entire life.

But she had left once. It had been an emergency and she was only four years old but she remembered Granny taking her to that cottage. A little boy had been sick and she healed him, then he and his brothers played with her for a long while until she had to return home. It was the only memory she had of life outside the castle so she treasured and swore to return to those boys one day.

With the help of a mysterious and very pretty girl named Lena, Webby ventured out into the world to find her boys and their cute little cottage and she has a lot of missteps along the way, saved Lena’s life a bunch, Lena saved her life. Oh, did she mention Lena was pretty? Oh and her hair might’ve got cut off at some point.

Currently Webby is enjoying the new life that comes with King Donald’s coronation. She has a big family now! She has friends! They don’t get scared when she playfully threatens them with her axe! Well, they do kinda but only a little!

Though her instantaneous powers have gone with her chopped off hair, she still retains a slight aura. Being in close proximity to her for long periods of time can very slowly heal injuries and improve illnesses.

She spends her free time sparring with Ty and Dewey or chatting with Violet or having much wanted alone time with Lena.

Lena De Spell Sabrewing

It’s not like Lena wanted to infiltrate Scrooge’s stupid castle but she knew she didn’t have any choice in the matter. It’s not like she was a real person anyway, just a shadow creature created solely to do Magica’s dirty work. And honestly, she was getting real sick of it.

That being said, it had never been her intention to switch sides. It was just a little rebellion. Hey, let’s get some information on Scrooge out of this princess looking chick. Sure, let’s take her halfway across the kingdom to find her long lost brothers or whatever.....(Lena kinda zoned out while Webby was explaining it) It might take a while but that’s Magica’s problem, not hers.

What Lena hadn’t expected was that Webby may have been one of the kindest, most genuine people to ever exist. As least as far as Lena was concerned. She started off their adventure with betrayal in mind but by the end of it, she’d take a sword to the chest for Pink.

Breaking away from Magica wasn’t easy and she struggled with her lingering presence for years afterwards but she continues to fight it. With Webby’s help of course. And Violet’s. Her sister....

Lena is seen as a bright spot of hope for the entire Duck family. If she, one of Magica’s very creations, managed to break free of her grasp, then maybe it’s possible to undo this curse. With Lena’s own experience with magic, she does her best to help out. It’s her that tells them that love is usually what breaks any extreme curse but she doesn’t know the specifics.

Violet Sabrewing

Webby’s Lady-in-Waiting and Lena’s adopted sister. Violet was originally sought out by Beakley as she was the most intelligent and mature student in the village schoolhouse and it was assumed that her influence would balance out Webby’s intense nature and perhaps keep her out of trouble. However this plan backfired horribly as though she is stoic and rational, Violet can be just as much of a thrill seeker as Webby and they have gotten into twice the amount of trouble since she showed up. And now the two girls are best friends and cannot be separated so what can be done about it?

Violet isn’t as skilled with a weapon as Webby nor is she as talented at magic as Lena. But she’s steadily training herself to do both these things. She’s gotten pretty good with throwing knives and has spent enough time around the archery range with Huey to be decent with a bow and arrow too. But mostly her interests lie in the magical department. She’s a practicing witch and her spells are coming along nicely.

Tiberius Cloudkicker

Ty is a half-born gummi bear, raised in a clan of the most revered warriors among gummi kind. So as expected, he’s had a sword in his hand since he could hold one. Was that safe? Probably not. He tries not to think about it. Anyways, he leaves home at age ten and travels to Scrooge’s kingdom with the aim of becoming a squire to the legendary knight and dragon trainer, Kit Cloudkicker. The two become very close and within a year, Ty is thinking of this hero as a father figure.

Word has traveled round of young Ty being a prodigy with a sword and at the age of twelve, he is assigned a duty as a retainer to the king’s nephew, Prince Louie. Apparently, said prince already had a retainer (Zan Owlsen? The Zan Owlsen? She’s the best knight this kingdom’s ever seen!) but he managed to drive her away by being that much of a brat. Suffice to say, Ty is not looking forward to babysitting this guy.

Louie does not like him much either. They bicker constantly and for somebody who tries to avoid danger, Louie is constantly attracting it. The lengths Ty goes to to keep this duck alive. It’s insane!

Oh, well. He’s alright sometimes. He’s fun to tease. But Ty’s accepted at this point that the two of them are probably never gonna get along.

#ducktales #ducktales 2017 #dt 2017 #weblena #ty cloudkicker #fairytale au

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carolyncaves · 4 years

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And here we are: the 5th and final installment of WWX Goes to Gusu, aka What Actually Changes As A Result? This AU went a lot farther than I ever expected it to, and I’m so glad it did, I had a lot of fun writing it - thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to join me in it, now or in the future! 4812 words + postscript, the gang’s all here in this one, vague mental illness Wei Wuxian and now-married Wangxian, minor background pairings, some angst and sadness (I couldn’t completely save Wen Ning from his canon fate), a terrible party (that CQL staple) but in a potentially better way this time

part one | part two | part three | part four | also on ao3

“I thought I told you not to overdo it,” Jiang Cheng said to him lowly, as he and Wei Wuxian made their way together back down the mountain toward Jinlintai.

“Didn’t you hear that Jin-gongzi at the opening ceremony, though? He practically begged me. I wasn’t blindfolded, but I think I lived up to his invitation.”

“So it was on purpose, then? You set out to catch half the mountain in our nets? It wasn’t because you didn’t know your own power?”

Wei Wuxian didn’t know how to respond to that, so he didn’t at all. There would be time for that later, when they weren’t sharing a hillside with a hundred cultivators – or never, if he really had his preference.

“It’s fine,” Jiang Cheng said, before the question or its answer could agitate him. “We’ll work with it. It certainly made a statement, and if the point is to remind the Jin sect they don’t rule the world, a ridiculous display of power from the Jiang sect head disciple isn’t the worst thing that could have happened.”

Wei Wuxian thought ‘not the worst thing that could have happened’ was a low bar to set, but wasn’t about to argue with him about it.

At that point left Jiang Cheng left Wei Wuxian’s side and made his way over to confer with Shijie. That was for the best. She would probably be clearer in the retelling of the previous tense confrontation than Wei Wuxian would be. Somewhere in the middle the Jin cousin had said something too far, something about Lan Zhan and a demonic cultivator like him, and Wei Wuxian’s brain had gone white and his core had gone black, black, black with smoke. He didn’t know why he hadn’t torn that blowhard to pieces. Lan Zhan and Shijie must have stopped him.

And then Shijie, Shijie, stood in the center of a bunch of loud, arrogant men and cut every one of them down.

A part of Wei Wuxian was itching to abandon this banquet – to get away from the Jins and particularly that one, with his lousy attitude and even lousier manners, and from Yao-zongzhu and his ilk. He imagined forgoing a stuffy room full of fake, stuffy people and walking the public boulevards with a bottle of baijiu, agreeably alone in that crowd instead of under a thousand eyes in the customary one. He hadn’t forgotten the welcome ceremony, the archery range with its human targets. He’d been furious since then, in a way he’d started to think maybe he’d grown too cold to be anymore. Furious at the treatment of the Wen prisoners, furious at his impotence under the shake of his brother’s head.

Lan Zhan had taken his headband from his forehead and given it to him. Right in front of the entire world. He and Wei Wuxian were married, so he was allowed to do that. And he wanted to.

Wei Wuxian had stepped up to the targets – innocent people in front of him, guilty ones behind. Lan Zhan watching him, Jin Guangshan watching him, Shijie and Jiang Cheng and the peacock and Jin Guangyao. He had no golden core, just euphoria and fury swirling in his blood. He had to nock his bow and do this right. There were innocent people in front of him. There was no other option.

It was enough. He was enough. He just had to keep being enough.

He’d felt like too much on the mountain, when everyone was arguing with him. He felt like too much now. To make himself feel better, he looked over at Lan Zhan.

Lan Zhan, who today wore blue, a darker color than Wei Wuxian had ever seen him in. Darker than the baby blue of his forehead ribbon. Light for a Jiang, but unmistakably something that placed him with them – though the white wasn’t gone, showing in his inner layers and the embroidery down the sides of his collar. Wei Wuxian liked it. He looked … Wei Wuxian’s and himself at once. It was exactly how Wei Wuxian wanted him to look for all their days.

Lan Zhan, who despite not knowing about the flute playing advance, had immediately jumped to Wei Wuxian's defense when Jin Whoever accused him over it. Who’d said things like, “You stand before us and think we should know your name. How can you say Wei Ying is too proud?” “Wei Ying doesn’t need to carry his sword. I carry mine.” “If you think you have more capability than Wei Ying or myself, show me.”

Lan Zhan, who’d stood next to him, right next to him, and maintained a steady grip on his arm even as tears leaked out of Wei Wuxian’s eyes and he didn’t know how he was going to bear standing there and continuing to exist from one second to the next. That feeling had receded fast, fortunately, and Lan Zhan hadn’t let go of him until it was gone.

Lan Zhan, who was now looking at him.

Wei Wuxian made his heart settle, banished any remaining errant thought of leaving the group. He couldn’t be anywhere else when his husband was here. He smiled back at him.

Lan Zhan moved toward him like a river moved downhill.

As soon as he reached his side, he put a hand under his elbow, so they were walking as one.

“If you’re not careful, Lan Zhan, people will think something scandalous.” Nothing could be scandalous between them, really, but Wei Wuxian felt compelled to tease.

Lan Zhan did not rise to the bait, nor did he remove his hand. It was amazing how a few lifelong vows had emboldened him. “You did not need to play,” he said. “To use your cultivation today.”

Ah, that. “It was for the hunt, Lan Zhan.”

“The crowd hunt is a game.”

“Yes, and I did it for show, for helping Jiang Cheng secure power. He asked me to do it, we worked it all out in advance.”

“Jiang Wanyin has no call to ask that of you.”

“Lan Zhan, are you jealous? You are! You both really are two pieces of work. Jiang Cheng is my shidi and sect leader. You are my beloved husband and partner – in cultivation and all other things. I know I am not quite a whole man, but still, surely there is enough of me to spread between you." This routine was meant entirely in jest, but as was sometimes the case with jests, Wei Wuxian felt like he'd struck himself somewhere vital saying it.

Lan Zhan still seemed dismayed as well. “You are your whole self. But what of you? How much of you do you retain?”

“The whole part you have, I have,” Wei Wuxian promised, leaning closer into Lan Zhan, letting him carry his weight. “This modest, simple Wei likes how much you have of him.”

Lan Zhan hmphed. “You are not modest.” Then, with no humor: “You chose not to tell me.”

“I’m sorry, Lan Zhan. I didn't want you to worry about it the whole time. You can play Cleansing for me three times this evening to make up for it.”

Lan Zhan’s face took on a look of despair, and Wei Wuxian realized that was probably not a kind thing to have said. This wasn't banter.

“I’m sorry, Lan Zhan,” he said again, and this time he tried to say it seriously. “I needed to do this for Jiang Cheng. I’m going to have to use it sometimes. But I’m sorry I didn't tell you beforehand. I shouldn't, we ..." He stopped and grabbed Lan Zhan's hand, turning it palm-up and putting his hand overtop of it. The others would get ahead of them, but they could catch up. "I should have told you. I know. I just don’t like to make you sad."

"You are harming yourself."

"It's my way of doing good in the world, Zan Zhan." It's the only one I have left, he didn't say where someone might be around to overhear them, but he knew Lan Zhan understood it. "Would you really begrudge me of it?"

Lan Zhan's hand tightened around Wei Wuxian's own, like he was fighting a violent internal war and Wei Wuxian was his lifeline. That wasn't quite true – Wei Wuxian himself was the one putting Lan Zhan through this in the first place. There was nothing to be done about it, though. The other person's battles were unavoidable now that they occupied shared territory.

Wei Wuxian wouldn’t terribly mind letting Lan Zhan eviscerate all his enemies for him. He certainly wouldn’t mind lying down somewhere small and private and listening to Lan Zhan play sweet healing music for him. Then he would beckon him over and take his husband in his arms. He shook those thoughts out of his head. They still had work left to do here today.

"Never mind it now, Lan Zhan. We have a banquet to attend. Afterward, we can talk all night.”

“You must sleep.”

“And so must you, but if my Lan Zhan needs his husband to soothe him, that will of course take precedence." He caressed his free hand down Lan Zhan's shoulder, a gloriously intimate gesture for a public space, one he could make because they were married.

“I am always soothed, simply being with you," Lan Zhan replied – though he wasn't arguing. He said it softly, like an embrace.

"Ah, Lan Zhan, I think if you look back to our younger days, you will find that is fundamentally not the case!"

Jiang Cheng, who’d apparently hung back, called over his shoulder that they were being sickening, and Wei Wuxian hastened down the slope so he could shove him. Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan glowered at each other. Shijie smiled and scolded them.

She scolded Lan Zhan sometimes, now – not quite the way she scolded Jiang Cheng, the free and easy way of people who'd been doing this all their life (scolding and being scolded respectively) and knew exactly what it meant between them. Lan Zhan was too new for that, they were too much strangers, so when she chastised her Difu it was gently, politely, obviously affectionate. She was inoculating him to the play-biting that went back and forth between the three of them, indoctrinating him into having a elder sister who knew better. Lan Zhan, for his part, seemed baffled by both the behavior and his own unquestionable yearning for it. The first time it happened, he was very disoriented, wounded and remorseful and bewildered. She had sat with him and touched his hand and cooked some traditional Lan food for him afterward, in apology. But now he was easing further and further into it with each exposure. He never argued back – perhaps never would, since it wasn't really like him, at least with anyone who wasn't Wei Wuxian – but he was absorbing the lesson that affection could sound like chastisement when it was meant right.

Coming from the Lan sect, where affection took the form of 3000 severe and limiting and unfun rules, Wei Wuxian would have thought he would have grasped it more quickly.

When they reached Jinlintai, the peacock was waiting at the top of the steps for them. Well, for Shijie, but he bowed to the rest of them to be cordial.

Jin-furen had asked Shijie to accompany her privately back to Jinlintai, saying she would convince Jin Zixuan to come see her and apologize, and Shijie had said, “I must go with my family to the banquet, as a representative of the Jiang sect, but I would be quite pleased to speak with Jin-gongzi there.” And apparently Jin-furen had made it happen. The peacock escorted Shijie inside with sure, careful honor, even after making a complete fool of himself over her in front of everyone on the mountain.

That was the first time Wei Wuxian was willing to consider that – perhaps – the peacock might love Shijie enough to be worthy of marrying her.

The rest of them filed in and found their seats – Wei Wuxian’s with Lan Zhan on one side and Jiang Cheng on the other. Jin Guangshan toasted Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Cheng gave all their prey to the other sects. This was probably necessary, after the way people had reacted, and Wei Wuxian made himself stand up and say a few empty pleasant words. He probably came across a little stiff over having to act like what he’d done and what he’d learned were nothing. It was fine, though, would be fine for Jiang Cheng. Anyway, let them think it was nothing. Let them underestimate him – or let them know he could do far more if he wanted.

Then, Wei Wuxian turned his back for one moment – to share a quiet snicker with Nie Huaisang over something unrelated and entirely too lewd for this formal setting – and when he turned around, Jin Zixun was deeply overcommitted in harassing Lan Zhan.

He started out ostensibly harassing Lan Xichen, but Lan Zhan had gone over to speak with his brother, and Jin Zixun was targeting both of them. Wei Wuxian restrained himself for the count of three, the count of five. Maybe Lan Xichen would dissuade him. The rest of room was quiet, but Wei Wuxian’s blood was loud. What was the matter with this man? Everyone knew the Lans didn't drink by doctrine. Was this revenge for Lan Zhan's words on the mountain, an attempt to humiliate the Lan sect in retaliation? Jin Guangyao tried to talk him down, but he was toothless, had no bite. Why in the world was Jin Guangshan just sitting there watching the First Jade of Lan consume alcohol against his will instead of calling his uncouth nephew to heel?

Jin Guangshan's eyes flickered to Wei Wuxian, just long enough they couldn't avoid meeting.

He'd been making sure Wei Wuxian was watching. This was retaliation, but not against Lan Zhan. Maybe Jin Zixun was truly an idiot, a petty, small man bullying polite people thinking it would win him face – but Jin Guangshan was letting him, the same way Jiang Cheng had excused him catching thirty percent of the prey on the mountain.

If it would hurt Wei Wuxian to see his husband suffer out of Jin Zixun's rudeness, if it would weaken him to embarrass the Lans, Jin Guangshan wanted it.

Wei Wuxian was taking the cup out of Jin Zixun's hand before he was even conscious of crossing the hall. The black rising energy must have gotten him there.

Wei Wuxian drank for Lan Zhan. Wei Wuxian spoke smooth and briefly to Jin Zixun. There was fear in the man’s eyes when he looked back at him, and he stepped away. Good. Jin Guangshan was the only other person he could see, and he looked much less relaxed and haughty than he had a moment ago. Very good. A servant came up beside them.

Except it wasn't a servant. But the moment he spent sorting that out, the half second it took his humming brain to identify dust-covered red from burnt orange, was all the time she needed.

Wei Wuxian would have recognized her in short order anyway – he’d spent a desperate week in her compound and two terrible days under her hand on a mountain, so he knew her carriage, her breath, and a simple disguise wouldn't have fooled him for long. But the hood of Wen Qing’s cloak fell back when she swung Jin Zixun around and pressed her knife to his throat, saving him even momentary confusion.

///

Lan Wangji would later have to recognize he did not notice Wen Qing's approach because Wei Ying had been the center of every thread of his attention.

Lan Wangji had wanted to disappear when Jin Zixun extended him the cup of wine. It put him in a position where he had no good path. Refuse, and coldly insult the host sect. Drink, and make a mockery of himself. Both would reflect poorly on his family, of birth and marriage. Both would diminish him, which would endanger Wei Ying. He had never been good with words or people, had few informal relationships. What he had was his reputation, and he was going to damage it here, one way or another.

Shufu had asked him if he was willing to have it dragged through the mud for Wei Ying. He was. But he had intended on preserving it long enough to be able to spend it on his behalf. This humiliation would be pointless.

Then Wei Ying stood above him.

The dark, bold lines of his form stood out against the colorful backdrop of Glamour Hall. His bold actions did likewise. The decisive movement of his hand. The contraction of his throat. His possessive words. Even the cold voice he spoke them in – those soulless tones sent a shiver down Lan Zhan’s spine like they always did, but he would at some future point grapple with the truth that this time, directed as they were at the detestable Jin Zixun in Lan Wangji’s open defense, that shiver was touched by something magnetic.

Lan Wangji was watching Wei Ying, as he always was, when it happened, with a contradictory mixture of alarm and awe.

He returned to himself immediately once he understood there was an intruder. He moved to draw Bichen. Wei Ying’s hand wrapped around Lan Wangji’s wrist, staying it.

“Wen Qing,” Wei Ying said.

Wen Qing.

She looked hollowed and worn, was covered in dirt and mud like a vagabond. She did not carry her sword. Lan Wangji tried to decide if he was personally moved by her hardship. She was the one who agreed to maim Wei Ying, tore that golden light out of him with her own skill. On the one hand, Wei Ying begged her to do it, and Lan Wangji faced the same struggle every day – between what Wei Ying wished to do and what would be good and safe and well for him. On the other, if he could not forgive himself for his failures there, why should he forgive her?

Her grip was ferocious on her knife and on Jin Zixun’s collar, but the blade never brushed his neck. “Tell me where the Dafan Wens are, or I'll kill you.”

Jin Guangyao had lurched far back when Wen Qing struck. His hand had flown to his waist and frozen there. Several Jin disciples who had been standing guard had hurried in, and every guest had risen and exposed the steel of their swords, but no one had made the decision to approach yet. Wen Qing had no escape, but a confrontation would surely end Jin Zixun’s life along with her own. Lan Wangji almost wished someone would be bold enough to take the initiative – but Wei Ying spoke of Wen Qing like a friend. And if she had some argument against Jin Zixun, Lan Wangji had to consider the possibility he would agree with her.

Wen Qing did not jerk Jin Zixun or twist his clothing. She just repeated her demand. “Tell me where they are. The old women and young children, the people who have never known how to fight. The disciples you attached lure flags to so they could serve as live bait in Ganquan. My brother, Wen Ning, Wen Qionglin. Where is he?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jin Zixun pled.

“Then you’re no good to me alive,” Wen Qing said, and Jin Zixun flinched.

“Do you think I know your brother by name? Do you think I have time to remember every disciple from the Wen sect?” He tried to sneer despite his obvious pathetic terror. “Besides, I thought your breed of Wen didn't kill people.”

“Who told you that?" The fear and fury rang through in her clear voice. "Who said to you that my family doesn't kill people?"

He said nothing, but the answer was plain enough.

“You’re right, Wen Qing doesn't kill people,” Wei Ying said. “But I do.”

“Wei Wuxian,” Jiang Wanyin interjected, alarmed.

“I don't mean anything by it. Only that we of course need to see this out. Wen Qing and Wen Ning did not fight against the allied sects during Sunshot – in fact, they sheltered Jiang-zongzhu and I from their own family. They saved our lives. In that respect, the cultivation owes the defeat of Wen Ruohan’s puppets to them.” And to Wei Ying himself, he was subtly reminding them. “We all know a great many Wens have been detained, but if they are being mistreated and used as live bait, if Wen Qionglin is in danger, I know Lanling Jin will be just as eager to get to the bottom of it as the rest of us." Wei Ying looked past Wen Qing, past Jin Zixun, and stared Jin Guangshan dead in the eye. Daring him to argue.

Dangerous. That was dangerous. Jin Guangshan was a man accustomed to being in power. Still, Lan Wangji admired it.

“You really brag about your use of Yin Iron?” Yao-zongzhu asked him from one side. “About hurting so many cultivators in the process on the battlefield?”

“She’s still a Wen, isn’t she?” Nie Mingjue said from the other. “Dafan Wen, Qishan Wen – it makes no difference. She did not act to stop Wen Ruohan. She is complicit.”

“She did shelter us,” Jiang Wanyin interjected, setting his shoulders nervously against his fellow sect leader. “She and Wen Ning took that risk.”

“The Dafan Wens have a long history as doctors who eschew violence,” Lan Xichen added, meeting Nie Mingjue’s gaze. “Both their skill and strong code of ethics are well-attested in the cultivation world’s histories.”

“Then you all see her hypocrisy,” Yao-zongzhu cried. “Is she threatening to perform a surgery on this Jin-gongzi?”

Luo Qingyang spoke out in reply. “If he takes her brother and treats those people like they aren’t people, why shouldn't she do the same?”

“Jin-gongzi,” Wei Ying said, sounding chillingly bored. “Why don’t you tell Wen-guniang where her brother is, before anyone in this room gets more agitated.”

Jin Zixun looked to Lan Xichen, to Jin Guangyao, to Jin Guangshan at the head of the room. No one came to his rescue. “Who are you to tell me what to do?” he snapped at Wei Wuxian. “Who are you to side with her in front of all these people?”

“I am Wei Wuxian. If I want to side with someone, who could stop me?”

Jin Zixun revealed that the relevant Wens were being held in a place called Qiongqi Path, and Wen Qing then made it clear she intended to take Jin Zixun with her as a hostage when she went there. Jin Guangshan looked like he’d eaten an unexpectedly sour plum, but seemed prepared to cut Jin Zixun loose. Wen Qing would likely be apprehended and stopped at some point in the unfolding of things – she would have few options even if she managed to get to Qiongqi Path with Jin Zixun, and nowhere to go with her brother if she secured him – but the odds were similarly poor for any hostage that went with her. Jin Zixun seemed aware of all these things and his behavior was growing increasingly distressed in response.

“Don’t worry, Jin-gongzi,” Wei Ying said, in a voice that would have deeply worried anyone. “I will escort you every step of the way.”

“As will I,” Lan Wangji intoned. He would hardly let Wei Ying go alone.

“And I,” Luo Qingyang asserted.

“And I,” Xichen said.

Lan Wangji’s head turned with the majority of the heads in the hall, including a bewildered Wen Qing’s.

“There are Lan sect disciples guarding the camp at Qiongqi Path,” Xichen explained. “I will go to ensure their safety, and to see with my own eyes what’s transpired there.”

Nie Mingue was staring at Xichen, his brow slightly furrowed. “I as well,” he said. “To ensure justice.”

“I will also come, with a group of disciples,” Jiang Wanyin declared.

“Then there is no need to drag me along on this wild hunt,” Jin Zixun wheedled. “This Wen bitch has her pick of hostages.”

“I will have a Jin,” Wen Qing said to Jin Guangshan, ignoring his waste of a nephew entirely. Jin Guangshan stared calculatingly back at her.

“I have better things to do with my time,” Jin Zixun argued back. “I won’t go along with this farce. You’ll have Luo-guniang if you want so badly to kill a member of the Jin sect.”

“Jin Zixun,” Wei Ying barked, hand straying dangerously toward Chenqing, which made Lan Wangji’s heart rise in his throat.

“I will go,” Jin Zixuan said, which stilled both of them.

“Wait,” Jin Guangshan said. He looked worried, now, for the first time. “Everyone, calm down, and we will take our time to discuss this.”

“There’s no need to be hasty,” Jin-furen simpered from beside him.

“I will discuss nothing until Wen Ning is safe in front of me,” Wen Qing replied icily.

“It makes sense. An elder sister will of course feel protective of her brother.” Jin Zixuan stepped forward, glancing over at Luo Qingyang and then at Jiang Yanli as he did so. “We will go without delay, and I will offer myself as a hostage, because I am sure Wen-guniang’s account is not wholly accurate. The truth of the situation will resolve it.”

The looks on Jin Guangyao’s and Jin Guangshan’s faces did not encourage Lan Wangji to agree with him.

Jiang Yanli had made her way silently over to Jiang Wanyin, and her hand curled around her brother’s arm. It seemed she intended to come as well.

It was this eclectic group that left the stunned remainder of the assembly at Glamour Hall and set off for Qiongqi Path. Wen Qing had no sword, so she instructed Jin Zixuan carry her on his. She vowed to kill him if someone tried to move against her, but it was obvious no one would. Despite all manner of vague political excuses, Wei Ying was going to help her recover Wen Qionglin, and the majority of the people in the band were going along to support – or at worst, keep a protective eye on – Wei Ying.

It turned out to be a very good thing they had all made the journey.

The camp was a disgrace. The guards were liars and cowards. Lan Xichen stayed back at the main encampment with the Jiang disciples, holding the Jin sect guards there at the point of Shuoyue. The rest of them proceeded down the slope and found the Wen dead – out in the open and unburied, tangled wherever they lay, half-submerged in water churned muddy by the torrential rain.

Wen Qionglin was among them. The lure flag still protruded from his corpse.

The crimes of the Jin sect were laid bare before them. Jin Zixuan looked as stunned as if someone had snatched his heart from his chest. Lan Wangji believed it was authentic. Jin Zixuan had often seemed to him self-absorbed, but not cruel. He remembered his brother’s words. The uninformed are not guilty. He wondered if he agreed with them. He wondered how anyone could be innocent after this. Luo Qingyang was speechless with fury. She threw her sect robes on the ground and stepped on them, grinding them into the muck. Nie Mingjue had left, gone back to the main encampment, trembling in unstable rage. Lan Wangji wondered what they would find there when they returned. Jiang Yanli wept silently. She had stayed out of the cesspool, but she did not look away. Jiang Wanyin’s face was drawn and pallid. He stared at the dead form of Wen Qionglin with a dull, slow horror. Wen Qing howled.

Lan Wangji was glad. He was glad for the mud. He was glad he was here in the driving rain. He was glad he could stand beside Wei Ying when he tore people apart for this. Because he would, surely. Wei Ying was going to cross many lines tonight, and Lan Wangji was glad he could go with him, without reservation or any regret.

///

Wei Wuxian looked for Lan Zhan through a blinding haze. There would be no healing music today. It was time for another kind, the kind Wei Wuxian played. This wasn’t showing off. This wasn’t a game. This was what he was here for. He found him, finally, and Lan Zhan nodded his infinitesimal agreement.

Wei Wuxian reached for that seething pool within him. It was overeager and insistent on a good day – now it surged over its borders and coursed through him. That would hurt later, as it had before, but he would deal with it then. When this was over, Lan Zhan would take care of him.

He put Chenqing to his lips and began to play.

/////

[So technically that’s the end, and this AU can go wherever you like from there. But if you’re interested in my opinion:

Wen Ning still gets zombified. Wei Wuxian probably doesn’t kill anyone he doesn’t want to kill while he’s doing it. Nie Mingjue doesn’t have a qi deviation.

With the exception of Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue, who have to go back and be Sect Leaders and sworn brothers and play reasonable with the cultivation world, everyone else flees to Lotus Pier with the Wen remnants, and it’s like a third iteration of the increasingly messed up inter-sect summer camps.

Things are a little tense – technically they’re in rebellion against the Chief Cultivator, Jin Guangshan. But he’s not just gonna … march into Lotus Pier and burn it down. What, is he Wen Ruohan? Terrible optics, Jin Guangyao keeps reminding him, especially after this whole torturing-prisoners thing.

(Plus he’s not actually sure he’d be able to, against Wei Wuxian and his amulet. He’s heard some pretty fantastic things out of the generally reasonable mouths of the Lan and Nie sect leaders. He’s not sure what would happen to him or his sect if he went up against that force and failed, and he’d rather not find out.)

Wei Wuxian is still going a little crazy from going all in with the demonic cultivation and working night and day to bring Wen Ning back, but instead of aloneish starving in a cave, he's at Lotus Pier and everyone’s around. He's taken over a pavilion and plastered it with nets and talismans. Lan Wangji doesn't make him stop or sleep if he says he really can't. He does make him listen to Cleansing a lot.

Auntie Wen gets a nice guest room. Fourth Uncle helps refine the lotus wine. A-Yuan is absolutely still a miracle, and he also gets to eat good wholesome food whenever he wants it. Maybe Jiang Cheng is rich-gege this time. Or maybe that’s Jin Zixuan. Lan Wangji can be quiet-gege. He has several amazing jiejies. This new place with all the water is delightful.

Jin Zixuan is there as a ‘hostage’. "Yes, I'm definitely here against my will," he says, making puppy eyes at Jiang Yanli. It does offer Jin Guangshan additional motivation to not attack them.

Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng probably never have to stab each other.

Jiang Cheng spends an awkward amount of time watching Wen Ning be dead-ish. He keeps spending time with him once he’s undead. He’s always liked Wen Ning, some kind of baby sibling solidarity. In the long term, it turns out he did want a gentle admiring Wen sibling to go on dates with, he just started with the wrong one. The ghost general thing does not phase him.

Meanwhile, Wen Qing and Luo Qingyang are getting along like a lakehouse on fire: swimmingly.

Maybe Nie Huaisang saunters up to Lotus Pier about a month in and says ‘I’m here to negotiate, and perhaps to spy, yes, certainly’ when really he’s there to join the others! How could they leave him out! He was at the last two summer camps, and he knows he’s not the most obviously valuable player on their sorts of teams, but he thinks his wit and jovial spirit merit him a return invitation! (“You didn’t even invite me to your wedding, Wei-xiong, Lan-er-xiong.” “Jiang Cheng said I couldn’t because it would make the Jins mad – looks like that was a waste, huh, Jiang Cheng? We should have had a rude and extravagant affair after all.”)

I couldn’t really get any of this into the fic itself because I’m not trying to write a 100k epic, it had to end, but I’m attempting to eat my cake too by putting it all here.

I’m not sure how it might unfold after that, but my preferred interpretation is that everything generally turns out better. In canon, Wei Wuxian’s disruption of the banquet at Jinlintai is extremely scorched-earth, but in this scenario where Wei Wuxian doesn’t have to be the one throwing fighting words at the Jin sect and Jin Guangshan doesn’t have an opportunity to really demand the Yin Tiger Amulet, it might at least leave the door open for an eventual resumption of friendly relations between Wei Wuxian/the Jiangs and the Jins. Jin Guangshan can throw Jin Zixun under the bus and come out clean in the prisoner debacle, and if he’s frustrated the Jiangs now have ‘custody’ of the Wens and his sect has lost its elite status and his window for removing the Yin Tiger Amulet from a weakly-positioned Wei Wuxian is closing … there’s not much he can do about it.

And if he starts to take those frustrations out on the only son left in his house and/or he gets a little (self)destructive in his attempts to recoup power, and Jin Guangyao becomes his best self by committing patricide before he gets set up to marry his sister and then quitting while he’s ahead … I don’t think anyone’s going to complain. Jin Zixuan might be a little sad. Jiang Yanli can comfort him.]

#mdzs #cql #the untamed #fanfiction #wangxian #my fic #so early on as I was brainstorming how to end this au #specifically wrt the wens #I was grappling with the part where wwx comes across wq in canon #bc they run into each other totally by accident #she actually tries to avoid him #she just gets knocked over and revealed and they have the highly fateful encounter that sets off everything that follows #so I was trying to figure out what her plan was if that didn’t happen #was she going to see jc and give him the comb?#grasp at the last flimsy straw available to her and see if new-uncertain-sect-leader jc might actually help her?#that felt weak and unlikely #so was she going to do nothing? just keep refugeeing?#no bc a) this is wq and b) this is wq #her brother’s on the line #so what is she doing? why is she even near jinlintai? that’s an objectively terrible place for her to be #and then of course I realized #something so obvious and so delightful I couldn’t believe I’d never thought of it before #it was always going to be a terrible party #jgy never stood a chance #and then I had to wait WEEKS and write like 20000 words to even get to it #and that’s why writing is both the best and worst thing ever

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rachelbethhines · 4 years

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Tangled Salt Marathon - Under Raps

My feelings on this episode are pretty neutral. It’s not anything amazing, but it’s not the worst thing ever either. It’s just there, I guess.

Summary: During a love festival, Corona displays a book full of signatures of lovers in honor of an old ruler's falling in love with the leader of a rival kingdom. Cassandra suddenly turns very secretive; Rapunzel learns it's because she's been seeing a guy named Andrew. Cassandra doesn't want Rapunzel's meddling, but the princess suggests a double date and they all go off in a hot air balloon. However, Andrew turns out to be part of an old faction that didn't like the unification of Corona and wants to steal the book.

This Backstory Doesn’t Add Up

So we open up with Big Nose narrating about the history of a war between Corona and a group of people called the Saporians. This is important for two reasons. First, because the Saporians are reoccurring villains in the show, and secondly, because it reveals where the underground tunnels running between Old Corona and the Island Capital come from. These tunnels are a reoccurring plot device in the show, along with the book that maps them.

The problem is that what the story tells us doesn’t match the other information we are given. If it was only the Saporians who invaded then why does an Old Corona, with its own castle, exist to begin with? Why do the tunnels extend from both if King Herz Der Sonne made them? What purpose did they serve if he was only defending the island? Why are the Saporians led by a general and not a ruler? Why would marrying only a general unite the two kings and where was the Saporian kingdom to begin with? Why did they invade? Why are there still Saporians who haven’t accepted the merger centuries later and why do they live on the go outside the kingdom? If Herz Der Sonne is such a good guy then why did he curse his grave with a zombie apocalypse? Ect.

We keep getting hints throughout the show that Herz Der Sonne isn’t all he was cracked up to be, and you keep expecting a reveal that it was the Coronaians who started the war and oppressed the Saporians and then rewrote history, but it never comes. The show wants us to accept this very black and white conflict at face value even as it constantly undermines itself and muddies the waters.

Pointing Out That Something is Stupid in the Show Itself Doesn’t Make it Any Less Stupid

As I stated back during Rapunzel’s Enemy, the show has a real problem with tone. Constantly showing us festival and holiday after festival and holiday only undermines the more serious elements in the ongoing story and creates mood whiplash. Also anything that reminds me of Cinderella 2 is not a good thing.

Ahh Friedborg, You’re Such a Wasted Opportunity

So she actually first appeared in Cassandra V. Eugene but I forgot to bring her up there. My bad. Friedborg is something of a fan favorite in the TTS fandom, and I like her too, but she adds nothing. She’s a joke character in a tv show already oversaturated by joke characters. More over the joke is actually offensive on some level since it all hinges on her being less conventionally attractive then the other female characters and the mains finding her weird because she never talks.

The show tries to justify her existence by making her Big Nose’s girlfriend, but she’s not who he ended up with in the movie. And once again it’s kind of offensive to imply that only people who don’t match society’s contrived beauty standards can only find love with those that look like them. Thereby completely missing the point of Big Nose’s character arc.

I’ll say it right now, Friedborg should have been Zan Tiri, or Demantius. Take your pick. I think ZT makes more sense, but etheir way she should have been a setup for something more important to the plot rather then just be being a vauge oddity that just pops up from time to time.

I Miss This Version of Eugene

Throughout the first two seasons, Eugene and Cassandra were willing to point out Rapunzel’s BS. Forcing her to confront her flaws and re-examine her positions.I would argue that the show could have pushed this even further but at least it was there. By the final season no one was doing this. Rapunzel is allowed to be as awful as she wants to be without consequence. Meaning she never learns anything and stops growing as a character and the show acts like this a positive thing. It is not. In fact, it is the biggest flaw of the whole show as it fails to achieve the one thing it originally set out to do; which is to tell a coming of age story with Rapunzel.

It also has the added effect of making Eugene a doormat to Rapunzel’s bulling, thereby regressing his character as well and presenting an unhealthy relationship as a goal to be achieved to younger viewers. I can not stress enough to young girls and young men in particular, that Rapunzel and Eugene are not ‘relationship goals’ in this show. Not after season 3.

Xavier Doesn’t Get a Proper Introduction

So Xavier is actually pretty important to the ongoing plot. He’s more or less the exposition fairy for the show, but he’s not really established. He just suddenly appears here with no prior meeting and he just so happens to know what the main characters need to know with no explanation as to how he knows.

His part here is so forgettable that I legit forgot who he was when he reappeared in the mid-season finale. I had thought that the writers just threw in a random character for plot purposes. And to be fair they did. Just they did it here instead of in Queen for a Day.

If the showrunners wanted Xavier to be historian who knows everything and tells stories, then he should have been introduced as the narrator of the history of Hearts Day instead of Big Nose.

Another Lesson Not Learned

We get this big heart to heart moment of Raps and Cass coming to an understanding, with Rapunzel promising not to intrude and Cass promising to being more honest about her feelings. This is walked back on several times and made part of the core conflict of the last two seasons.

Once again, any problem that can be solved in less then five minutes of talking isn’t a strong enough conflict to drive multiple seasons. If this had been a show without an ongoing narrative, like say The Rescue Rangers or even Batman the Animated Series, then the repeated lessons wouldn’t be a problem. We expect characters to be static and to reset after each episode since they’re not shows that you watch in order.

But if you do go the overarching arc route for a story, then people expect lasting character development. Even in shows like Gravity Falls or Steven Universe, where the change is more gradual and the characters do repeat mistakes occasionally, there’s still a marketed change by the end. One that indicates improvement by the characters, and the inter conflicts are never exactly the same each time with exactly the same lesson over and over again.

Oh Look, Cassandra Once Again Achieving her Goal of Validation

Cass is awarded a medal by her father for stopping Andrew. Don’t expect her or the show to remember this.

Also more Cass and Cap interaction that we don’t get to see.

Can We Not Imply That Cassandra Still has a Crush on the Guy Who Lied to Her and Then Almost Killed Her, and Can We Not Act Like This is a Good Thing?

So this flower was given to Cassandra by Andrew and her keeping it makes zero sense.

First off lets not have one of our few strong independent female characters crushing on the show’s stereotypical ‘nice guy’, okay? That’s all kinds of gross. Secondly, if the intention was to show that Cass was now more willing to open up about her feelings, then wouldn’t her keeping one of the gifts Raps made her earlier in the episode make more sense? After all, that’s the relationship that actually matters to Cassandra and is the basis of the whole show.

But this all boils down to the fact that the creator sees Cassandra as straight, always has, and thinks her crushing on the guy who manipulated her is somehow better than ‘no-homo’. Now you can headcanon Cass as whatever you want and ship her with whomever you want, as canon doesn’t matter. But I find it hilarious that most of the head showrunner’s biggest supporters are mainly Casspunzel fans and yet he’s the one who made them ‘sisters’ and sees them as such.

Like I hate to break it to you guys, but a Cass led spin-off headed by Chris won't be the lesbian rep that you’ve always dreamed of. You’re better off just watching the She-Ra reboot.

But things gets even worse when Rapunzel approves of this stupid ‘crush’ ...

Don’t Ever Tell Someone That You’re Proud of Them For Going On a Date

Dating is just something some people choose to do together and some people choose not to engage in that. It’s not an accomplishment and it shouldn’t be treated as such. This is insulting to both people who don’t date, for whatever reason, and to women who hate being being defined by their relationships, which is most of us.

Even if you’re being charitable and try to make this about Cassandra self esteem and her learning she’s worth ‘loving’, which is the reason some people have offered up for this scene, it still falls apart when it’s not established that Cassandra ever had such self esteem issues to begin with and was not looking for romance anyways. And if that is what the show is going for then it’s still problematic to suggest that being found as attractive by someone else is need for self esteem. In fact, that’s kind of the opposite of what self esteem is.

Conclusion

Overall this episode was ‘meh’. Like most season one episodes the problems stem from the ongoing narrative and lack of follow though in later seasons. However there’s enough stuff in here on it’s own to rub me just the wrong way that I can’t actually call it good either.

It doesn’t help that I don’t see the appeal of Andrew at all. Watching the character is just a cringefest for me. He’s too similar to real life men I’ve unfortunately met and therefore sends alarm bells ringing in my head. And I agree with Eugene; he’s not all that handsome.

#tangled #tangled the series #rapunzel's tangled adventure #anti-rapunzel #anti-tangled #rapunzel #cassandra #andrew #anti-andrew #eugene

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czec-hoslo-vak-ians · 3 years

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Michael and Maria 👽

Scene goes 💜

I like that this to be continued picks up right where we left off I've never seen a Max freaking out like this before. It seems like Tess is pushing Max to remember that he's the king of a different world. She definitely leaving breadcrumbs. I'm with Rath ho puts Mayo on pastrami? However I wouldn't take it to the extent that he did by yelling at the waiter. WT?? Nichols is back? House is possible when he was destroyed a few episodes back.

Nicholas seems like he's growing up a little bit doesn't seem like the punk little kid anymore. Nicholas is so correct Max Isabel Tess Michael are definitely not the rejects because they have granilith. You can tell the wheels in Rath head is spinning to understand that logic. Who knew that the Dupre were working with Nicholas. Max and Tess are so out of there element right now. I don't blame Tess for asking all these questions. I wonder how long they took to shoot that scene where Max catches the ball when Rath hits his way. Awkward Max and Tess just in there awhile Lonnie and Rath make out.

I don't blame Isabelle for not wanting to be around the humans right now. It totally sucks that with his lying to Maria about her sleeping with Kyle it sucks that she doesn't believe in her friend she can handle the truth and keep it a secret I don't blame Maria for being upset with Liz for not telling her she slept with Kyle. It's sad that Ava has no place to go that she has to sleep in the alley like that.

that look like what's a simple test that Max just passed the guy just needed to see if he was truly the King which means Zan would of maybe not of passed.

Maria is such a good friend to meet up with Liz at 3 in the morning. I'm glad that Liz finally told Maria the truth about everything I'm glad told somebody that it was really eating her up inside.

Maria being the perky self that she is with Brody lunch. Hopefully she remembers what Brody told her about being abducted if she doesn't see him for a few days. Yep Brody has been abducted cuz he's New York and he looks lost and confused. Tess looks so uncomfortable hearing them talk about Kivar just her demeanor and face expression looks like she's hiding something. I'm glad that Max is standing up for Michael and Isabel that he won't leave them behind. I'm so glad Max lied about knowing about the granilith. He's recalling to what Liz said about it getting into the wrong hands. Poor Ava living with this guilt of the murder of Zan. Eva knows something when Liz says Max brought her back to life.

I'm glad Max called is about to ask her if she wanted to go home however the conversation is not going so well he's getting annoyed for no reason. You see the wheels turning in his head he knows that Lonnie imprisoned her. I love it when Michael gets mad he just goes off the rails with his powers. I'm glad that Ava finally told the truth what happened to Zan.

Finally Max taking the lead and putting Rath in his place, however not a good idea to piss him off though because you don't need Max standing up like Zan. Lonnie is laying it on thick plane the long-lost sister card. It makes sense why Nicholas is back because technically that is Kivar. It's so loving up Isabel to put our anger for Max decide to see his life and warn him. It's a crappy deal that Max getting I'm surprised he's even considering any of this. He shoukd of said no the granilith isn't with him.

I don't even know why Max is contemplating this the answer should automatically just be no. I just can't handle the lies and deceit that's coming out of Tess mouth right now she's putting on too much of an act right now to be believable me to trying to oversell it. Lonnie and Nicholas deserve each other they're both sleeves balls. They are willing to throw anybody and everyone under the bus and get what they want.

I feel bad that Maria is left out of a little Pow to help to help warn Max. I knew Ava knew something was up when Liz told her that Max brought her back from the dead. Again laying it on thick Lonnie is to get Max to do what she wants him to. Isabel is so right Max would hear Liz's voice no matter what or where he is.

Max made the right choice by saying no. I really wish all this talk about history repeating itself we get to see it. I'm so glad that he saw Liz and took two steps towards. I don't believe that she doesn't remember how she fought that but I do believe that they did try to get her head or maybe the whole thing is just a lie. Something tells me not to believe her right now.

I'm so glad that they can become Max and Isabel again brother and sister as they were in season 1. I think this is going to make them stronger now. I can't believe that back was so close to taking the deal with Nicholas but his love for his sister and Michael one out in the end. I'm going to miss Ava she's cool. Maybe she's the only one left of the Dupre. Because we don't know what happened to Lonnie and Rath. Something is definitely Brewing between Brody and Maria. I'm glad that Max is willing to work on his friendship with Liz. Maxi tell that Liz wants to tell him the truth but he knows that she can't.

Quote of the episode" oh I hate this stupid rat-infested urine smoked butt ugly town"

Coming up next a Roswell Christmas Carol

Pic NOT mine

#roswell #michael #maria #season 2 #max in the city

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mehenxe · 4 years

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◈ ◈ ◈ ◈ & ღ & ♫ bc ur a slut for music ; & ✮ (i want explanaTIONS ...gET META W THIS SHIT )

◈ — share some head-canons you have for a muse of your choosing, but x4.

[ elijah kane ] ◈ — all efforts to get him into studying how to make robotics like hyacinth have resulted in a lot of miniature woodland creatures able to sprint across desks. it’s not exactly what anybody had in mind, but hey, you never know if ilya might not want to send in an actual animal for something he has going on. they can call up sugar kane industries ( big face-palm here ) to take care of the job. ( wyatt voice: seriously, you couldn’t think of anything better than sugar kane. ) / hyacinth kane has a nice ring to it. elijah has tested out several different nicknames: sugar kane also for them, mistah k, ( missus k? ), cinthy ... cindy ... ( sean: yeah! cindy k! like cindy crawford! / who the fuck is cindy crawford? / wyatt — / how old are you. ) / he’s had a life-long dream to be able to go scuba-diving off the coast of — some exotic island he can’t remember the name of. beforehand, it was one of those things that he was too afraid to do, but full-out war changes your perspective. in truth, he’s always been a water baby, growing up going swimming in the local rivers and running pellmell down the dirt lanes. he grew out of it, and then grew back into it. whether or not he’s going to be able to do that without monroe tagging along ( and then by default, ilya, and then probably hojin will want to come, and then ravi will have to, and then oliver will want to watch over them and then jinho will buy a whole yacht with his dumb vampire money — ) — ah, well, there’s worse people to spend an extended holiday with. his father will come along too: sit on the deck in a lawn chair and drink a virgin margarita as he deserves after putting up with this whole extended family. and with his son being a you-know-what.

[ alice bedi ] ◈ — there was a time where she was interested in wigs. she had percival sit down on her shack’s bed and watch as she perused through at least fifteen different styles of wigs. each one got a firm head-shake: too rough on your complexion; lilac looks good as a colour, but the style is horrid; why did they think it was a good idea to make a bob that length? a tough customer. she returned back to wearing veils, her preferred style being that of mantilla, or the veil that’s worn to chapel over a jade comb. due to the volume and length of her natural curls, she rarely wears the combs at all, but will if it’s a particularly formal occasion, like that time she accompanied percival to a ‘high-society event.’ ( translation: they crashed a party because he was bored, and she had a bad feeling about him going alone. ) / as the local librarian’s assistant, she’s the first to get in the way when someone is overtly curious: why are you asking so many questions? hmm? the irony is that she herself asks just as many questions — she insists that the difference is: she reads the room and knows when it’s inappropriate to ask them. ( and if she knows it’s inappropriate to ask them, and instead chooses to risk asking them regardless, it’s because she knows it’ll smooth out in the end. / despite what she wears daily, one of her most favourite colours is moss green. there are a multitude of reasons. moss is her favourite foliage. it’s similar to algae, another favourite foliage. and it reminds her of someone who she says is her sister; however, anybody who knows her, knows that she has no blood-siblings. one or the other might be a lie, or both might be the truth. when she’s in a mood, she’ll smear the moss at the base of her neck like a perfume, a splotch of green beneath white.

[ huang shen ] ◈ — he designed an irrigation system to work, specific to his farm, to be able to make rice paddies despite the surrounding environment. it’s a southern crop in the united states, but there was no way he was going to move to the south just to expand the business. his entire family was so relieved about it that they danced through the sprinklers and set off fireworks — and none of them are really into that kind of thing. it’s particularly incredible due to the area they’re in, being very prone to sometimes too much drought and too much rain, and both are responsible for driving out selling numbers of crops. his plan is to switch into an agricultural degree, and perhaps even expand it into engineering, so that he can continue helping this way. / one of his surprises for algernon was learning sign language. for the longest time, months even, shen made it out like he had no idea what was being said, and let damien, as surly as ever, be the translator when algernon was unwilling or unable to speak. in the background, however, he was working with a tutor and seeking to understand better what it meant to be both HoH and mute. then, when algernon’s birthday came around, everyone went silent ( holy god he was so nervous ) and he gave an entire romantic, long speech entirely in sign language. he’s sure that some of it got lost in translation due to how hard his hands were shaking, but the way that algernon kissed him afterwards, it didn’t seem to affect much. now, they communicate constantly on this even ground. / he’s started up horseback riding again — and has roped tobias into doing it alongside him. tobias might have grace on the stage floor, but certainly not on the back of a horse; he somehow ended up upside-down beneath the horse’s belly, and then fell down in a tangle of limbs. shen has taken to the western side of things, re-learning how to barrel race and rope cattle; but he and tobias have had to separate their lessons due to these antics. lucas isn’t allowed to come to any of them; his stupid remarks send them into fits of laughing. ( bold of us to assume he doesn’t just sit in the truck and shout anyways. )

[ deok bae ] ◈ — due to the empire no longer supporting his upgrades, nor looking in his general direction, he has had to find other ways to obtain new modifications. this is including, but not limited to, going and pulling them out of other people’s bodies as catharsis — but usually, he defects to yuri and silas to fix him up. to his chagrin, the LED-light in his forehead has absolutely no use whatsoever, only displaying his brain’s processing as a symptom of installation. he pulled it out himself via the tip of a knife’s blade. the next time that he’s seen by those who haven’t seen him in quite some time, he might be unrecognisable. i am not deok bae — perhaps deok bae is no longer himself either. if there was no connection to eli in his head, he would forget that; perhaps he would merely succumb to the machinery, perhaps he would succumb to the wolf-dom. there are several pairs of teeth in his mouth awaiting for their moment to bite. / when he was a teen, his version of ‘sneaking out’ would be to wheel his chair to the gardens at the back of the temple, where he would sit and think for hours and hours. his father would come and find him there; sometimes, master jhcor would instead. his father would return him back to where he needed to be, but master jhcor would sit beside him and gaze serenely until bae felt the need to speak what was on his mind: his angers, his fevers, his rages. one time, he was surprised to see that it was not master jhcor, nor master deok, but zan coming to sit with him. his heart had sat in his throat the whole time, half-expecting zan to laugh at him or say something particularly piteous. instead, the conversation was — well, looking back, absurdly normal, all things considering. when bae blinked tiredly, zan rose and took the handles of his chair and took him back. he hadn’t intended to ask him to do so, but it was done anyway. / bae drinks a lot of soda. it’s somewhat fitting, if you believe all that talk about how coca-cola can double as a cleaner due to the high carbonation and way it’s made. he does seem to get shiny after several cans — it’s also convenient that he can’t experience sugar-highs nor malfunctions of the liver or stomach due to too much consumption. he considers himself to be a soda connoisseur as a result. he offers a lot of hmm, that’ll taste disgusting comments that annoy the shit out of the others — but then kisung takes a drink and bae ends up being right, so there’s no regrets.

ღ ━ favourite canon ships for your muse(s). are there any you dislike?

there’s ... none that i dislike. there’s moments of come on, but that’s bound to happen. i think the favourite ships are the ... guardian / princess vibes ( whether it’s literal or not: akane / the samurai, quinn / sehrin, jian / elaine ). i also love the growing from previous immaturities towards each other ( grey / tobias, jihoon / wyatt, playboy / jordan ) — and himbos of course ( hojin / ravi!! ) there’s also the whole ... tsh, vampiric aesthetic that we get ( minzhe / yongha ) ... the ones like jisoo / mingfei, cyrian / ulysses, cadoc / pestilence ( exploring violence against but without the stickiness ). of course, if i keep going, i’ll end up listing all of them and then where would we be.

♫ ━ a small playlist for a muse of your choice

for nam jungsoo, because i actually once did make a playlist for him:

1. brand new — sic transit gloria ... glory fades 2. within temptation — what have you done 3. iamx feat. imogen heap — my secret friend 4. florence + the machine — shipwreck (the odyssey) 5. crown the empire — hologram

i mean, the songs are still kinda relevant considering his current character ...

✮ ━ top three favourite muses that you’ve played

but is it possible to pick three favourites ... that’s the real question. maybe. jianguo, because of catharsis, because of cultural exploration and similarities. grendel, because of the depth, the personal torment, the surrounding family. jinho & julius, because of exploring that darkness. and famine — man, now that’s something. there’s a lot more than three though. like blood and jisoo and tobias and arthur. but. the questions INSIST THAT I CHOOSE.

#mr: mine #moonbeam tag #v: we are engraved in our hearts

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kurowrites · 4 years

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The Sweetest Admission (Part I)

Ok, have 3k of Wangxian University AU, only they’re both girls, live in the same dorm, and Wei Ying might or might not have a crush.

Also, this is very definitely NSFW.

---

Wei Ying knew that she wasn’t exactly what people would describe as the ideal of femininity, but it had never really bothered her before. Sure, she had long black hair that she was rather proud of, and she liked wearing nice skirts and heels from time to time, but in general, she couldn’t really give a damn about what she looked like, or if anyone found her attractive at all. At a time when her female classmates discovered dating and boyfriends, she discovered that she definitely had no interest in that, thankyouverymuch. Flirting was fun, but she didn’t care about the part that came after.

It was fine, she thought. She had her family that she loved, and she had received a full scholarship for the university she had been wanting to go to. She had good friends and would make new friends at university. Who had time for anything else when your life was already so busy? She didn’t care that she had never been confessed to, or that her stepmother sometimes criticized her for not caring about her appearance enough. She had places to go and things to do, and she could do all of that in a t-shirt.

Her thinking changed shortly after she had moved into the on-campus dorm of her university. There were many other girls like her, with similar stances on fashion and dating, but one fateful day, she met an elusive unicorn that happened to live on the same floor as her. Lan Zan was her undoing.

Wei Ying wasn’t joking when she said that she had never met such a beautiful woman in her life. She had long, glossy, perfectly straight hair that nearly reached her buttocks when she wore it open. She had a regal countenance that would a marble statue cry in envy. She had long, slender limbs that moved with incredible poise and elegance. She was always dressed in shades of white and ice blue, the cut of the clothes never revealing, never tight, but suiting her figure so well, that in all honesty, she looked hotter fully dressed than had she strutted around the dorm half-naked.

Wei Ying was insanely jealous on first sight. This was a level of beauty and perfection that she couldn’t possibly hope to achieve, and while a comparison with other girls had never pained her before, it pained her now. God, she was so jealous of Lan Zhan. Lan Zhan was too beautiful for her heart.

It didn’t help that Wei Ying realized quite early in her acquaintance that while Lan Zhan might seem rather cool and distant at first glance, she was actually a very nice person that would go out of her way to help her dormmates. She was strict about the rules, which put her and Wei Ying on opposing sides more than once, but she was interesting. She was incredibly interesting and fun once Wei Ying got to know her, and sometimes had an amazing sense of humour, when Wei Ying managed to tickle her just in the right spot. She was also a talented musician and an excellent student. Wei Ying had thought perfection didn’t exist, but here she lived, three doors down from her.

It was easy, almost irresistible, to keep badgering Lan Zhan into spending time with Wei Ying, since they both lived on the same floor of the same dorm. Wei Ying could hardly ever convince her to come to a party or some other “fun” kind of event, but Lan Zhan would always let Wei Ying into her room if she wanted to study together (even when they were studying different subjects). She would go to art exhibits or concerts with Wei YIng, provided that the concerts weren’t too loud and rowdy. They would go on walks together, and eat in the dining hall together. Whenever Wei Ying came to Lan Zhan’s room, she had some delicious snacks ready to share with Wei Ying.

Lan Zhan was, all in all, an excellent friend.

Wei Ying wanted to do that newly gained friend justice. When she first came to uni, she was fine with existing mostly in black jeans and some kind of shirt, because honestly, who had time for more than that. But the more time she spent with Lan Zhan, the more she started to become conscious of her own appearance. She couldn’t walk around like a rat that crawled out of a sewage tunnel when Lan Zhan was next to her! He couldn’t hope to be on Lan Zhan’s level, ever, but she felt that she had to put a little more effort into her appearance.

So, she dug deeper into her wardrobe and pulled out all the cute clothes that she hadn’t worn for a while, the little gifts she had gotten from her sister Yanli she had never fully appreciated before. She wore short skirts with overknee socks that showed off the nice shape of her legs. She wore loose crop tops together with those high-waisted jeans that looked proper when she sat down but showed off just a little bit of her midriff when she moved around. She wore shorts paired with patterned stockings, and that very cute black fifties-style dress with the red heart-shaped buttons in the front that Yanli had gifted her last year.

Lan Zhan never commented on her looks, but sometimes Wei Ying was almost sure she caught Lan Zhan looking. She kind of liked that, getting Lan Zhan’s attention. Wei Ying could hardly ever take her eyes off Lan Zhan, beautiful and elegant as she was. To catch the attention of such a woman, it was flattering.

It was a Sunday, and Wei Ying and Lan Zhan had originally planned to take a nice walk in the nearby botanical garden, a small break from studying all week. But when morning came, instead of the expected sunshine, heavy rain had greeted Wei Ying when she looked out of her window. They would have to give up on the botanical garden.

When Wei Ying sent Lan Zhan a message that said as much (with a row of sad emojis), Lan Zhan sent her an immediate reply.

If you want to, you can come to my room. We can watch that movie you’ve been wanting to see.

Truly, Lan Zhan was the best! She always knew how to make Wei Ying happy.

Ecstatic, she danced over to her wardrobe and picked out her nicest overknee socks, a short, red pleated skirt with a high waist, and a black crop top that complimented the look. She checked herself in the mirror and declared the look very nice, before she tied her hair in her usual high ponytail and rushed off down the hallway to Lan Zhan’s door.

The door opened almost immediately when she knocked, and she darted into the room, throwing herself onto Lan Zhan’s bed with out hesitation, face first.

“Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, let’s watch!” she giggled into Lan Zhan’s pillow.

“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan said, and it was her warning tone.

Wei Ying looked up at Lan Zhan, trying to figure out what had made her use that particular tone. Lan Zhan had already moved close, reaching out to fix Wei Ying’s skirt that had slipped up and nearly exposed her underwear.

Wei Ying laughed. “Lan Zhan, always so proper! It’s fine, we’re in your room, it’s only you here! I don’t mind you seeing my underwear!”

Lan Zhan’s ears turned red at that, and Wei Ying laughed again. Lan Zhan was always perfectly put together, so it must bother her to see Wei Ying being her opposite in all aspects. But ever since he had been wearing more skirts again, she had also bought new underwear, cute slips and frilly bralettes that she didn’t mind Lan Zhan seeing. She might want Lan Zhan to see them. She might be a little bit of an exhibitionist, but after she had spent so much money that she didn’t really have on unnecessary things…

“Don’t worry,” she said, turning around until she was facing Lan Zhan looking down at her. “I wouldn’t do that with anyone else. But Lan Zhan is Lan Zhan, so it’s fine.”

Lan Zhan sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed, an impossibly elegant movement that made Wei Ying want to reach out and touch her, to assure herself that she was really real. She still didn’t know how she had managed to convince Lan Zhan to be her friend.

“Perhaps you should be worried,” Lan Zhan said in a quiet voice.

Wei Ying tilted her head in confusion.

“What? Why?”

Lan Zhan’s eyelashes fluttered for a moment before she closed her eyes. “Because I have always liked girls.”

The room seemed suddenly devoid of oxygen. Lan Zhan liked girls? Girls? Perfect, competent, controlled Lan Zhan had an interest in someone?

“Oh.”

Lan Zhan was quiet and still.

“Lan Zhan… am I a bother?”

With an expression of confusion on her face, Lan Zhan turned around to look at Wei Ying.

“I mean… I’m always hanging around you,” Wei Ying stuttered, her heart pounding painfully in her chest. She clutched the sheets underneath her hands. “And uh… if you want a girlfriend, then I must be… an annoyance, because, uh…”

“I understand, Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan said, her voice distant as she turned away and got up from the bed.

“What do you understand?” Wei Ying asked, sitting up. She felt upset, but she wasn’t quite sure what was happening right now. Lan Zhan liked girls. Lan Zhan might want a girlfriend. Lan Zhan might not want to spend time with Wei Ying anymore. It hurt. “If you don’t want to hang out with me because you’re interested in someone else, then just tell me that! I don’t know what you’re thinking if you don’t tell me, and as long as you don’t reject me, I will always want to spend time with Lan Zhan!”

Lan Zhan turned back to Wei Ying, a minute frown on her face. “Interested in someone else?”

“Yes, why else are you telling me all this?” Wei Ying shouted. “I mean, it couldn’t be– it could never be me, the person that Lan Zhan likes!”

Oh god, she thought to herself, panicking. What am I saying? What am I doing? I’m destroying the best friendship I’ve ever had.

Suddenly, Lan Zhan was in her space, back on the edge of the bed. A hand found its way under her skirt, clever fingertips wandering up her thigh, and suddenly, there was Lan Zhan’s voice, murmuring in her ear.

“You don’t even know,” she said with a voice that went straight down Wei Ying’s spine, making her entire body erupt into electric tingles, “the things I want to do to you.”

There was a sudden heat between Wei Ying’s legs that was so overpowering, she might have gasped. She couldn’t be sure, however, since she felt like she had just lost all control over her bodily functions.

God, she felt so hot. And Lan Zhan was so close. And she was looking at her like that. And her hand was up Wei Ying’s skirt.

“Lan Zhan,” she whined in her distress.

She didn’t know what she wanted, but she wanted Lan Zhan closer. Closer. She swayed closer to her, pressing herself to Lan Zhan’s body, delighted when Lan Zhan’s hands moved to close around her waist, pull her onto Lan Zhan’s lap.

“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan whispered. “It’s always been you.”

Long fingers found their way under her top, stroking her breasts and nipples over her bralette.

“Oh my god, Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying groaned. She thought she might be going out of her mind. “Please, kiss me.”

Lan Zhan did exactly that. Her first kisses were hesitant, small pecks peppered over her nose and cheeks. Then her lips found Wei Ying’s, and soft, gentle presses quickly escalated into deep, drawn out kisses that left both of them gasping. At some point, Wei Ying couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment, Lan Zhan had laid her down onto the bed, pressing her into the soft, silky sheets, one hand still exploring her sensitive breasts.

With a sudden bout of clarity, she realized that she had spread her legs, almost rubbing herself on one of Lan Zhan’s thighs, begging to be touched. She blushed with an intensity she hadn’t thought possible, and tried to get her body to stop embarrassing her.

Lan Zhan’s hand removed itself from under her shirt as she gently bit Wei Ying’s swollen lips. Her hand wandered lower, dipping under her skirt, feathering over the inner side of her thigh, making Wei Ying gasp and spread her thighs further almost against her will. The fingers halted just at the seam of her underwear.

“Do you want me to?” Lan Zhan asked.

“Oh god,” Wei Ying gasped, unable to control herself as Lan Zhan’s finger brushed along the seam of her panties. “Oh god, Lan Zhan, oh, I– I want it so bad, Lan Zhan, please, please, please touch me.”

Lan Zhan hummed in a way that sounded like approval, but Wei Ying couldn’t concentrate on that right now because Lan Zhan was slowly peeling off her underwear, and oh god, she felt so wet down there, she might have never been so wet in her entire life.

Was that normal?

She was going out of her mind.

With her usual infinite care, Lan Zan pulled Wei Ying’s panties down her legs, removing them carefully, taking care not to damage them, leaving her overknee socks exactly where they were. Wei Ying couldn’t stop looking, because it was so, so hot. Lan Zhan might be the most erotic person she had ever seen.

Then, with Lan Zhan’s hands still on her feet, Wei Ying lay exposed in front of Lan Zhan, her rucked up skirt only providing a modicum of modesty. Lan Zhan’s fingers travelled up her legs again, stroking her calves, her thighs, and Wei Ying thought her heart would beat out of her chest at any moment. Every movement of Lan Zhan added to the tension. She was more nervous than she had ever been in her life, but she couldn’t move. She could only lie there and wait for Lan Zhan’s next action.

This time, the fingers didn’t stop as they had before. They travelled over her labia, stroking her exposed skin gently, and the feeling was already too much. They hadn’t even started yet, and it was too much.

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying sobbed in desperation.

Lan Zhan’s fingers found the way into her soft flesh, light and seeking at first, and then pressing down with more intent, making a few experimental, circling strokes. Wei Ying shook so hard, he nearly fell off the bed.

With the same small frown with which she usually attacked a complicated problem in her homework, Lan Zhan repositioned herself, moved Wei Ying’s legs until Wei Ying was completely exposed to Lan Zhan’s intent gaze, and then, holding one of her legs to keep her in that position, touched her again. The small rubbing motions were pure torture and agony. Lan Zhan moved up and down, varying her pace and position, checking for Wei Ying’s reactions.

Wei Ying didn’t care what Lan Zhan did; she was already gone. Every stroke of Lan Zhan’s fingers shook her to the core, had her gasp and moan and beg in the lewdest manner, her body jerking as if it was possessed. If she had been of sound mind, she would have been mortified. Luckily, Lan Zhan’s fingers made it impossible to form a single rational thought.

With a litany of “Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan” on her lips, she came so hard that she whited out for several moments, a strange sound ringing in her ears.

When he came back to herself, she was breathing heavily, gasping for air. Lan Zhan was looking down at her, something not unlike satisfaction in her gaze.

When rational though finally set in again, Wei Ying covered her face in embarrassment.

“I will never be able to look you in the eye again,” he mumbled from behind the shield of her hands.

“Wei Ying is beautiful.”

He felt soft lips press a kiss onto her knee.

“Perfect.”

Another one, on her thigh.

“Shouldn’t be ashamed.”

The inside of her thigh.

Wei Ying struggled for breath. Lan Zhan wasn’t going to– she wasn’t going to–

Lan Zhan’s lips brushed her pubic mound.

“Lan Zhan,” Wei Ying gasped in desperation. “Lan Zhan, I’m going to die.”

“Mmh,” Lan Zhan replied, and licked her clitoris.

Wei Ying had no idea what was happening to her anymore. She could only hope that the other girls on the floor had gone out today, because whatever was happening in this room right now, it wasn’t happening quietly.

Her flesh was already oversensitive, and she had never had anyone go down on her before in her life. She saw stars, was sure that she saw the beginning of the universe. Lan Zhan’s tongue diving into her innermost parts had her sob and beg like she hadn’t been able to believe just a minute ago. When she came the second time, much faster this time, she collapsed onto the bed like a puppet with its strings cut.

She wouldn’t be able to move if she wanted to. She couldn’t feel her extremities, and her muscles were jittery and weak.

“’m sorry,” she eventually croaked, trying to get some feeling in her fingers again. “I don’t think I can return the favour right now.”

“No need,” Lan Zhan replied, and kissed her brow. Then she conjured forth a wet towel from somewhere and cleaned Wei Ying up. She carefully slipped Wei Ying’s panties on her again and fixed her skirt, moving it down until it covered her upper thighs properly.

Wei Ying’s heart felt full to bursting. Lan Zhan was so good to her. She couldn’t believe that Lan Zhan was… fuck.

Lan Zhan had just utterly destroyed her. She would have to quit university, because she was pretty sure that all her sense had fled the building. She would be stupid for the rest of her life.

Lan Zhan made a movement as if trying to get up from the bed, but Wei Ying grabbed the sleeve of her shirt before she could pull away.

“Lan Zhan,” she begged. “Stay with me.”

There was a moment of silence, and Wei Ying feared she had made a grave mistake. But then, Lan Zhan laid down next to her, wrapping an arm around her waist, pulling Wei Ying to her chest. She was so soft, and so good, and so beautiful. Wei Ying thought she might die.

“Mh,” Lan Zhan agreed softly, and Wei Ying could see the faintest smile lifting the corners of her mouth. “I will.”

#kuro writes #the untamed #mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #goodbye fellas #it was nice knowing you

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ridiculousyoungicarus · 4 years

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Self Para 001: If I Could Grant You Peace Of Mind

TWs: HIV, Self-Harm, Drugs (Heroin & Cocaine - not done but mentioned briefly), Eating Disorders (Balo’s intervention is mentioned), Abuse

Word Count: 2,716

Setting: Luxor’s Orleans, France Campus. Monday, September 21st, 2020. Early morning (about 1am - 4am-ish).

Everything going on with Balo was a mess, and no matter what anyone said, Zander still couldn’t fail to see how it wasn’t his fault. Wasn’t that supposed to be his job? Protecting her. It was the only thing he needed to be good at, and he failed at it. She’d be fine if Ivan was here; he’d always been better at taking care of her. It was a thought that grew more and more persistent as the days went by. He’d have never let her in a situation that resulted in something like this. If he’s been the biological son, Balo would be okay.

And right now, she was far from being okay. Her behavior had become concerning since movie night, and he wasn’t sure if he should ask Ivan for help. He’d been entirely unhelpful the last time he’d reached out concerned about their sister. Maybe if Zander could just-

“You’re actually starting to turn a little blue, holy shit.” Ches’s voice interrupts him from his thoughts. When did she get back? He doesn’t fight as she wraps a blanket around his shoulders and settles in next to him, glancing over to her as she rests her head on his shoulder. “Did you really miss me this much? Oh, my sweet baby boy, whatever will I do with you?”

While the nickname was always affectionate, the lack of teasing in her voice sends his thoughts for another loop. Usually, she used it to pick on him. Did she think he was overreacting?

“Welcome home, I didn’t realize you were back yet.” Although he supposed it made sense, she hadn’t taken time off of school for the funeral. She probably wouldn’t have gotten it excused given the situation.

“Well, it’d be kinda hard to attend classes from Virginia. But enough about me. How are you doing? Other than trying to get hypothermia, of course.” He wants to groan that he would not get hypothermia, that it wasn’t that cold, and her dramatics weren’t helpful. But he’d be lying if he said he didn’t appreciate just how normal it was.

He’d missed normalcy.

“Well, I’m stuck with Jack, my parents disowned Balo, and she’s really scaring me. Nothing’s changed over the span of a weekend. You know how I feel.” It wasn’t the same as the last several times she had poked her head in, though. He’d had a lot more time to think since he’d last saw her.

“Is it the HIV or her mental health?”

Zander quickly tries to sort through their conversations in their mind. Had he let Balo’s diagnosis slip? But he’s yanked from his thoughts as the redhead beside him lifts her head and steals the corner of his blanket to wrap around herself. “You’re cold?”

“I’m still daydreaming about the 17° weather in Virginia, I know 6° isn’t bad, but yeah, I’m cold.” It takes him a few seconds to realize she’s on about Celsius, and he just lifts his arm to let sneak right in under it. “You didn’t answer my question, Zan. Is it her HIV diagnosis or her mental health scaring you?”

“You should really lower your voice; someone is going to overhear you if you don’t start whispering. Balo doesn’t want the entire school to know...”

“The only people awake at 1 am in this school are the insomniacs who are holed up in their rooms and the coke addicts who are way too busy snorting it off of Axel’s dick to care about what you and I are doing outside. Nobody is eavesdropping, and if they were, the rumors would be bullshit like ‘Ches and Zander are entirely too close, I caught them cuddling - they must be fucking.’ We go to school with shallow people who only care about themselves, remember? Nobody cares what we’re doing.” Ches rolls her eyes, “But, seriously I’m gonna keep asking you to tell me what’s on your mind. I know that look, something’s wrong. Please talk to me.”

“Oh, come on, nobody would buy that shit.” Zander knew it wasn’t the point, that he was just grasping at the little outs she was accidentally leaving in her words. “Even Jack would know to laugh that one out of the room.”

“Alekzander, please.”

“Do you nag everyone who doesn’t want to talk, or am I just special? I’m fine. I can handle what’s going on with Balo. I don’t need you mothering me, Hailey.” Still, when the redhead pulls away from him, it takes everything in his power to keep himself from reaching out to pull her back in. Was she mad at him? She didn’t seem angry, although the sudden removal of her body heat wasn’t a good sign.

Before he can start thinking of the words to amend the situation, Ches is standing up. “You’re right, I’m sorry. If you need me, I’ve got to do some studying in the library. Try to get some sleep at some point, the bags under your eyes are really starting to reduce you down to a solid 8.”

She leaves him the blanket when she walks away, and as he tugs it around tighter himself, he’s not sure if it’s a good thing. It was going to continually remind him he needed to take care of himself, that he was sitting outside in the middle of the night alone because he managed to scare off the one person who always seemed to notice he wasn’t okay.

Ivan probably wouldn’t have run Ches off, and Balo wouldn’t be in nearly as bad shape as she was if he was here. For a brief second, Zander reaches for his phone to text the man, but he pauses, stopping himself. He had enough on his plate with Balo without Zander contributing to it. So instead, he settles himself in, allowing himself to get lost in his thoughts.

—

Chessie ☀️: I’m still in the library. Don’t wake the guy at the desk, though; the poor thing just fell asleep. 😕

Zander’s hands are shaking as he reads the text through tears, already heading in the direction of the library. He tries to be quiet as he enters the room, passing the snoring man at the desk as he tries to find Ches. She always chose the back right corner when they were in Lake George, and sure enough, she was quietly pouring over her textbooks with a flashlight when he rounded the corner.

“No wine? Who are you, and what did you do with my Ches?” He cringes at the effect his tears had on his voice. It was bad enough that he was crying without his body making it evident to everyone around him he was trembling even if they weren’t looking.

“I’m testing the waters, thinking about cutting the wine out. A bit more productive, don’t you think?” For a moment, he thinks she might make a comment about the state he’s in, but she just pats the seat next to her as she shuts her textbooks. He’s silent as he sits down; the only sounds filling the room is the chronic snoring from the library’s front and his chair as it grazes across the floor. “But you’re not here for the wine.”

“I’m not.” He confirms, taking a deep breath as he finally removes the blanket she’d left him two hours prior and sets it on the table. “I came to talk if that’s okay.” No matter how many times he’d found himself at her door when he didn’t want to be alone, he still couldn’t suppress the concern that maybe this was going to be the time she turned him away. But she just nods, setting her flashlight onto the table.

“The floor is yours.”

“My parents disowned Balo, and I’ve never seen her like this. She’s always been so bright and cheerful and right now... Chessie, she gave me her sewing kit because she doesn’t trust herself not to misuse her rotary blade. And these things aren’t sudden; how much has been building up that I’ve missed? She won’t really talk to me, and given everything going on with Jack again, I’m pretty sure she’s not talking to anyone. It’s not like she’ll tell our brother. She was upset with me when I talked to him about Jack because I could have worried him.” He explains, “and that’s only the start of it- okay, what’s with the face?”

There was something about Ches’s pensive expression in the lowlight that distracted him, the way she pursed her lips as she listened to him talk. “I was just thinking that I’ve never heard you call Ivan your brother before. Balo’s brother, asshole, my parents disowned him, Ches you’re not allowed to follow him on Instagram to thirst over him that’s weird. Please carry on, I’m listening.”

“Don’t get used to it, I’m not making it a habit.” Still, Zander’s tears slow as a small chuckle briefly escapes from his body. “I can’t stop thinking that if he was here, Balo would be fine. Whatever caused this wouldn’t have happened. I just wish she’d tell me how this happened...”

“She doesn’t know, Zan. I know Jack’s clean, we were fucking - he’d have mentioned it if he wasn’t. Barton would have told her, she hasn’t been anywhere near the Keller boy in a year, and we’d know if she was doing heroin. I thought maybe that night when we took her to the ER, there were hours we can’t account for, but... if your parents disowned her.”

“I wouldn’t write off my father yet.” Zander hadn’t even considered him as a suspect, but he wouldn’t put it past the man to cover his track for the sake of appearances. Maybe there’d been blood on blood contact during the struggle? Balo had a pretty nasty gash on her forehead, and he had avoided his father afterward. “Or medical malpractice, for that matter. It’s happened with healthcare workers before, right? Fuck, Ivan really would have been able to stop this.”

“Zander, this isn’t your fault. You didn’t give Balo HIV, and your brother couldn’t have done more than you did. I know it’s hard, but this isn’t because of anything you did. You couldn’t have stopped this, just like I couldn’t have stopped my maman’s murder, and Fane couldn’t have prevented his parents’ car accident.” Ches’s nose doesn’t crinkle as she speaks; the telltale signs of her being dishonest were nowhere to be seen. Which likely meant she thought she was telling the truth, and while he didn’t believe her, his guilt could wait.

It was the least important thing going on; he knew that.

“I was a dick to Elliot.” He knows the words are sudden. That may be at the moment telling her he’d been mean to her boyfriend would rapidly make the situation worse.

Her green eyes blink, her head tilts to the slide slightly, almost like a puppy’s as she processes his words. Had Elliot not told her anything? “Why would you be a dick to Elli? Fuck. Que vais-je faire de vous?”

“Yell at me? Look, I know I shouldn’t have been so hard on your boyfriend. But he breathed near me and-”

“He breathed near you?” The concern in her voice makes Zander feel even worse than he would have if she’d just yelled at him. “That’s not like you. When did this happen?”

“Before movie night, after we got here.”

“After you learned about Balo.” For a brief moment, the snoring stops, and the panic on Ches’s expression leaves him questioning if they’re allowed to be in the corner they were occupying as they wait. Soon enough, the snoring resumes, and she speaks again, “I’m not mad at you. I want you to get along with him, and I expect you to apologize, but you’re not scaring me off that easily. We left off at you feeling inferior to your brother, please continue.”

“I don’t feel like I’m inferior to Ivan.” He protests, although as he tries to think of examples of how she was entirely off base, he realizes she might have a point. “But I can’t stop running through what if’s. What if he’d be able to stop it? What if he’d know how to help Balo right now? I didn’t ask him for help with her intervention and look at how well that went. She resents me for it now. What if I fuck this up, and she gets hurt because of it?”

“That’s not going to happen because you have me, you have Lucy and Avery, and as much as you hate it - we have Jack and Cait. They’d never let anything happen to her; if she tries something, one of us will grab her. She went to you about her sewing kit. Do you have it?” He nods yes in response to her question, and the girl in front of him relaxes, “from experience, people don’t ask for help unless they want to be stopped. Her coming to you was a good sign.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I was right about your inferiority complex and that you were stressing Balo’s mental health.”

“I hate you so much sometimes, you know that.” And yet he can’t help the fond smile as he says the words, the way the tension in his shoulders eases when she smiles back at him.

“I know. I’m just the worst sometimes, aren’t I?” She winks at him, “so what’s next on the list? If it’s money, you know she’s got two sugar mommies already, and I’m pretty sure we could convince Jack to be a sugar daddy if we can’t pull enough funds together to take care of her.”

“Two?”

“Barton? Carnifex families are loaded, I have no doubt in my mind if there’re issues affording her medication abroad if I can’t cover it completely, she’d lend me the money temporarily for B.” Ches shrugs, “so that should also ease the healthcare concerns. Correct? There’s no way in hell we’re not going to be able to manage this. She’s been taking her meds, and as long as they’re working medications have gotten to the point she’ll probably outlive you by a couple decades still.”

And as much as Zander hated the thought of asking anyone for money, the thought that maybe people would be willing to help if it became an issue was reassuring. “And here I thought you said you weren’t taking mind reading classes.”

“You’re just predictable. The day you aren’t stressing about money, we’re going to see pigs fly, and lotus storms consume the earth.” Ches jokes, “did we happen to cover everything? Wait, we haven’t discussed Jack being in your classes yet. Shit, maybe we needed the wine...”

“We don’t need wine. There’s not that much to say, he’s annoying, we’re getting stuck together, and I’m just going to have to deal with it.” He shrugs, “probably the most normal thing going on in our lives, come to think of it.”

“You ever realize it’s a bit fucked up Jackaboy acting up is considered normal at this school. I’m not complaining but...”

“If you ever tell him I actually appreciate him being Balo’s pet demon right now, I’ll never talk to you again.” He warns her. Jack would never let him live it down, and he was well aware it was fucked up. But Ches just smiles, shaking her head.

“Your secret’s safe with me. So, what else do you want to discuss?”

He thinks about it for a minute. Was there anything else he felt like he needed to get off his chest? There were the things he couldn’t find the words to say and the things that weren’t worth the effort left, but he couldn’t think of anything he needed to talk to her about. “What were you working on before I interrupted?”

“Well, you see...” Ches starts to open her textbook again as she starts to ramble about what she was working on, and he listens as she gushes eagerly. He doesn’t even realize just how tired he was until his eyes become too heavy to keep open. The last thing he notices before he falls asleep is a blanket being tucked around him as she continues to explain her literature homework.

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firefliiedarch · 3 years

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Of your muses, which one do you think has the strongest drive? Whose willing to do everything to achieve their goals, if they have any? How do they react to obstacles in their paths?

☆ ; @lifespringcafe │ ask questions about the muses ! ( always accepting ! )

── ✧ ; DRIVE & MOTIVATION

** this is a really loaded question because all of their drives are completely different from one another, which makes it extremely hard to compare with one another as some of their drives & motivations cannot be compared . it’s like comparing apples to oranges . however , after long consideration and thought , there are a three muses that really fit the bill for this . the last one , however , is not for what you think .**

✧ ; pythia

thea’s drive differs from the other two because she is a genuine person who finds that she has only the desire to do good without another thought of it . this isn’t to say that the other two are like that , but thea is genuinely selfless , forgiving , & sacrificial . what’s unique about her is that she does have doubt & fear , but it isn’t because she is afraid of doing it . rather she is afraid that she will not be able to be strong enough to do so . unlike many of the other muses , thea’s biggest hurdle is HERSELF . nobody else is holding her down . nobody else is what motivates her the most . granted , she will do anything for other’s & her significant other , but keep in mind that her drive is her passion in helping others . she is the epitome of a ray of sunshine !

she is willing to put herself in uncomfortable situations . she is willing to face her fears . she choses to NOT run away when others have . keep in mind that she foresaw her own death . she knew how she could avoid it because she knows that people have changed it - she knows because she’s seen it before . but instead of running away from the plague , she took it head on . despite her shy & quiet nature , she really is not a coward at all . in fact , i feel like she may be one of the bravest muses i have . a soft - spoken & kind soul really does end up challenging even the devil arcana themselves . is she scared ? of course ! she is absolutely terrified . at times , she is petrified . but she tends to overcome her fears . maybe not always on her own , but her drive is the happiness of those she cares about the most . & the happiness that she will have at the end . the journey could be the most terrifying thing but it isn’t that what she cares about . it’s the end result .

in regards to obstacles ? i know i touched on it a bit , but i will say it again . the only obstacle for her is herself . quite literally . this is a muse that looked at death in the eye and said no . granted she REALLY did die the first time . a plague wasn’t going to stop her from helping others . when she’s brought back ? and had to face the devil ? it isn’t death that she fears , its the thought of letting those around her down .

oh but she is not really as self - destructive as you think . like really it’s not like she jumps headfirst into things . she is just not as scared as you would assume her to be despite her personality .

✧ ; zander

okay but for as tired as he is for a death god & reaper , zander does actually have a great amount of drive compared to the other ‘ death gods ’ i have . rather , it’s more like he understands his position as a god & doesn’t give a carefree attitude of it . he really does genuinely put all the thought and effort into it . rather ... its not the ‘ oh look i am just doing my job , idk ’ . zan puts so much effort into everything he does because he doesn’t want anything to be meaningless . he’s just really tired(tm) . & with good reason .

what i really love about zander is that , yes , he is willing to to do anything & everything to achieve what he wants but it isn’t like .... i will kill anything to get what i want . in fact , in the book that i have written that have both him and his sister in , he’s terrified to let go of the one thing he has left of his sister . & he really didn’t want to wipe out everybody he knew & met . rather , he didn’t want to destroy the very thing his creators & his sister made . even if it meant that it would prevent the world from dying , he was scared . but he knew that if he didn’t , then he would have no purpose in anything . not to mention that yes , he has a duty , & intends to uphold that duty . he is geniune & soft but in ways different than thea .

in regards to obstacles ? at first it was a bit of .... trying to figure out how to beat around the bush , so to speak . but after he achieved divinity & immortality , he realised that it’s simply easier to take things head on . because of this , there are not really many obstacles for him to face ? or rather , he simply just calmly takes them on without question or frustration . he’s a bit of a problem solver , he’s tired , sure , but he doesn’t mind taking problems head on anymore .

✧ ; mirielle

so what is unique about mirielle is that she is the only mortal living ‘ life ’ god of her world . and despite this , she takes life as a gentle & peaceful journey . she is forever the stil ness of the sea & very much the opposite of her brother . she may come off as somewhat lazy and unmotivated , but she really has a lot of drive & potential that most people do not see .

unlike her brother , she really is willing to do anything for the greater good . her goal , is not something really definite or exact , but she really is willing to do what she must to do her job . which is to keep a balance in order . she cannot willy nilly grant the wishes of anybody nor is she somebody who steps in the way of what it is . as much as she supports fate , she does prefer free will over fate . but that won’t get in the way of her job .

it’s probably a bit due to the fact that i am very distracto so this is shorter but ... mirielle .... when it comes to obstacles .... doesn’t really see them ? rather she just sees them as parts of the journey more than anything else . things that are there to help her learn & grow . but this also probably comes from the fact that she is colourblind as well . so like for what some people see as an obsticle , she jus see’s as .... something different .

#answer tbt.#hc tbt.#lifespringcafe #// thank you so much for the ask !!#i love this so so much i cri

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haledamage · 4 years

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Bless Me With Your OTP

Rules: answer as many of the following questions as you want, and add art/screenshots to show off your OTP!

Tagged by @queen-scribbles :D tagging… @allisondraste @risualto @serenbach86 @shimmer-like-agirl @ariela-of-aedyr

I’m gonna do Vesiya/Jorgan because that’s who I’m writing right now :)

I feel like I’ve already answered most of these, in some variation, with Kai and both her boys as well as Cait/Nate, and this way I don’t have to choose a Bravo Boy for Kira :P

Do they fight often? If so, what is their dynamic like?

They butt heads a lot when they first met. They’re both headstrong and natural leaders, but it wasn’t so much fighting as it was posturing.

Now that they’ve settled down around each other, they don’t fight, but they do have Disagreements that mostly involve them both using their Commanding Officer voice and referring to each other entirely by their rank rather than by name. It doesn’t happen often, they agree with each other most of the time, and when it does happen it’s almost always about work things not about personal things. Ves will only pull rank to stop an argument if they’re in public, and she hates doing it.

They will, however, fight anyone and everyone on each others’ behalf. They will pick a fight with the Supreme Chancellor himself if they think he’s insulting their spouse. That part started all the way back at Ord Mantell, long before they’d even considered a romantic relationship - really, even before they were friends. Ves almost lost command of Havoc as soon as she got it because she argued so strongly against Jorgan’s demotion.

Who is the most skeptical of the two?

Definitely Jorgan, which I’m sure surprises no one. The man’s never believed a single word that comes out of a politician’s mouth, and only half that come out of Republic Command. And don’t even get him started on what he thinks of the SIS. While Ves is certainly not a push-over by any means, she’s a lot more likely to give someone the benefit of the doubt than he is.

Who would be most likely to suggest a night of dancing?

Ves. She loves dancing and is very good at it, though her experience with it is mostly either by herself at a cantina or out with a group of friends. Jorgan surprises her when she asks him to dance by saying yes, and surprises her again by being skilled at it. She even lets him lead… for a little while. I’m actually in the middle of writing this scene as we speak

What would they do if the other was injured in battle?

If Jorgan is injured, Ves’s first priority is getting him away from the fighting and out of harm’s way. As long as he’s conscious, Jorgan’s going to keep fighting, and she can’t help him if he’s still fighting. She’s not above ordering him to stand down. Her second priority is healing him. She’s a trained medic, though not as skilled as Elara she’s definitely good enough to deal with an injury in the field until they can get to a medcenter to take care of it properly. Even at the medcenter, she prefers to treat his wounds herself if she can, rather than let Elara or the medical droid do it; if it’s not something she has the power to treat, she hovers, needing to be useful or have something to do to help.

If Hallis is injured, I feel really sorry for whoever hurt her. The first thing Aric does is make sure it’s not life threatening, and if it is, to patch it up enough to stabilize her. He’s no medic, but he’s been in the field for a long time and knows how to patch a wound enough that it won’t kill you anymore, even if he can’t do much more than that. The second thing he does is kill whatever is responsible for hurting Ves and anyone that might be working with them. Then he gets her to Elara or a medcenter as fast as he can. He refuses to leave the room while she’s being treated, and won’t leave her side until she’s recovered.

How do their fighting styles complement each other?

If Ves had had any say in who the first member of Havoc Squad could have been, she’d have still picked Aric. She’s an assault cannon specialist, he’s a sniper, so generally she goes in loud to draw the enemy out and he takes them out as soon as they pop their heads out of cover. Quick, clean, surgical, with barely a word spoken between them. Honestly, by the time she’s promoted to Captain, the two of them can clear an entire battleship without a word, they understand each other on such a fundamental level that they don’t need to call out corners or targets anymore. There’s a reason Havoc ends up with the reputation it does, and it sure as hell ain’t because of Tavus and his squad.

Do they want children? Does it frighten them? How many do they want?

Vesiya would love to have kids. Her brother’s kids are the light of her life and she’d love to have some of her own someday. Jorgan I don’t think had ever really considered it before, he’s a career man through and through, but things change after he meets Ves. And after she was missing for those five years… when he gets her back, I think family is a much higher priority to him then than his career ever was.

I don’t think Cathar and Mirialan are reproductively compatible, but adoption is an option, and one I think they’d both be happy with. I could see them with a whole litter of kids from various races.

As parents, they’d both be a little on the strict side, but fair. Ves is great with kids, and very patient, and Jorgan would be a fantastic dad once he warmed up to it. Can you imagine, a little army of younglings following him around?

What happened when they took them home to their families? If their families aren’t in the picture anymore, how do they feel about it?

I maaaaaay already have some fic ideas floating around for this.

I don’t know if Jorgan has any family? I can’t remember if he mentions it, he hasn’t so far in my playthrough, and the last one was years ago, so I’m gonna skip that. If he does, I’ll edit this and come back to it :)

But Ves’s family adores Aric. She comes from a very Republic-centered family - her mother is a senator, her father a retired admiral, her twin brother and his wife are both SIS, and she has a younger brother who’s a Jedi (though she hasn’t seen him in like 15 years since he first showed Force sensitivity because Jedi can’t have attachments and all that) - so chances are good that he’d met some of them before he met her, or that they’d already heard of him at least. He makes a better first impression with them than he did with Ves XD

Vitrin, her twin, is probably the slowest to come around, but only because he’s very protective of his sister, and Vit’s wife Lena is the fastest to accept him because she’s got really good instincts about people. Ves’s nieces, Scout and Zan (Scout is a nickname, her name is actually Kesiya (after her aunt, sort of), but no one calls her that anymore), are already calling him Uncle Aric before they’ve finished that first dinner.

After Ves is declared MIA, Jorgan still keeps in touch with her family - though at first, mostly at their insistence. Vit and Lena have a 3rd kid while Ves is “missing” and they name him Aric, and if that doesn’t tell you how much they love him, I don’t know what will.

How does each person show affection towards the other?

Both of their main love language is Acts of Service, so the biggest way they show affection is by doing things for each other. Jorgan does weapon checks and makes sure Ves’s armor is in good working order, that she’s as safe as he can make her. Hallis makes sure he isn’t hurt, checking for injuries after every combat situation even when he claims he’s fine (he is not always fine. He doesn’t like to worry her about the small stuff. She worries anyway); she does most of the talking, especially to politicians, so he doesn’t have to. Whichever of them wakes up first makes sure the other has a cup of caf waiting for them. They watch each other’s backs.

Besides that, Aric likes to give gifts. Not big ones, necessarily, though he does some of those, too, but a lot of little things. Like a beer at a cantina after the end of a long mission, or an upgrade for her cannon that he knows she had her eye on. Little things that say “I was thinking about you” or prove how well he knows her and what she likes.

Ves likes physical affection. A hand on Jorgan’s shoulder or his arm, a quick kiss before a mission, she’s especially fond of the forehead lean. She won’t do much more than that in public, they’re both very professional, but it’s still her way to silently say “I’m here with you, I love you”. In private, there will never be such a thing as too many hugs. She could wrap herself around him and just stay there all day and be happy.

Who cries the most? Who is better at comforting?

Oh boy, neither of them are big criers. I won’t say they’re repressed, because they aren’t, they both are fairly good at expressing emotion, especially for career soldiers, but any strong enough negative emotion that would elicit tears mostly just turns to anger for both of them. There are a few major exceptions, but they all revolve around that pesky time Ves was pronounced dead for a few years. That was obviously a very hard time for Aric, and when Ves got free she had to make peace with the idea that she’d missed five years. She definitely had at least one very large breakdown.

If I had to pick one, I’d probably say Ves cries more, if only just and only very rarely. And only in absolute privacy where no one can see it at all.

Ves is probably better at comforting, by merit of having a lot of family, especially young children. Or rather, she’s very good at verbal comfort, but Jorgan is probably better at physical comfort. Just look at him. Clearly the man gives good hugs, just look at those arms. Plus, don’t Cathar purr? :)

Who is the bigger flirt?

Jorgan, believe it or not. He’s the one that initiates, most of the time, and Hallis just plays off of what he says. Neither of them are very good at blatantly stating their feelings for each other for a really long time, but admitting attraction is easier. They’re very playful flirts, much more playful than they are in absolutely any other aspect of their lives. It’s a dance, a push and pull, a subtle competition between them. They flirt for a long time before they ever make a step toward an actual relationship.

They very, very rarely ever flirt in public, and when they do it’s always just a quiet aside, not meant to be heard by anyone else, and it’s never anything incriminating. Poor Elara, though, for having to put up with these two. Patience of a saint, that woman. Anyone else would have thrown them out the airlock ages ago.

Of course, it takes them months to get to the point where they’re comfortable enough with each other to start flirting. And outside of each other, they don’t flirt. Like, at all. Ves didn’t even flirt with Balkar.

#vesiya hallis #ves/jorgan #picture if you will: aric jorgan sitting on a sofa with two young half-mirialan half-twi'lek children asleep in his lap #scout is 7 and zan is 4 and they are both adorable #that was the moment ves decided beyond a shadow of a doubt 'I am going to marry this man'#that fic will be coming once I'm done with the one I'm already working on and the ones that I'm supposed to be working on #I'll just put it in the queue :)#I really need some good screenshots of them together #but I haven't gotten to the good screenshots together part of their relationship #maybe I should commission some art #though I feel like even outside of the limitations of the game engine #most of their time together is spent with her talking to whoever they need to talk to #while he stands slightly behind her right shoulder and glares threateningly and whoever she's talking to

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