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9worldstales · 3 years

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MCU What if Ep 1-2-3: My two cents

So, I’ve been watching the “What if” series. I won’t beat it around the bush, I’m enjoying it but at the same time I get the feeling this series is aimed at younger audience, younger audience which isn’t deeply familiar with the movies and needs to be feed a simpler storyline.

In fact from the way they present it in each episode 1 single change should be the one which gives life to a parallel universe in a sort of domino effect… only, from what I could see in those 3 episodes, there are actually multiple unconnected changes, 1 presented more markedly as if it were the one starting everything and the others… just there for unknown reasons but they aren’t remarked and might easily be missed by who doesn’t remember well the movies.

Characterizations are also simplified, with heroes more black and white than grey, and a general toning down of the drama. This isn’t necessarily tied to the short time, 30 minutes in the hand of a good storyteller are plenty of time to construct a complicate, adult, emotionally engaging story… but a complicate story requires an audience willing to put its mind to understand it, or capable to handle a more morally nuanced plot or that wouldn’t be too distressed by a more emotionally engaging one.

This kind of audience is clearly not what those stories are aiming at.

This isn’t meant to say they’re bad, they’re perfect for young audience, passing on a good message, being overall funny and giving them the chance to enjoy the heroes they love in a different setting.

Dialogues are nice, their voice actors so far delivered good performance, the art isn’t bad and the stories can feel still intriguing enough.

However, if you think too hard at them, especially in comparison to the original movie, the story tends to crumble or feel morally poor or mess up the characterization or some other thing.

Overall I think the “What if” so far are more enjoyable if you don’t really remember well the movies and, anyway, judge them as stand-alone more than “What if” based on how a single divergence from the plot could create a new timeline.

Some examples?

Pick “What If... Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?”

The divergence supposedly happens when Peggy decides to stay in the room.

Erskine: Agent Carter, wouldn't you be more comfortable in the booth? Peggy: No, I'd prefer to stay. Watcher: There. That's the moment that created a new universe. When asked to leave the room, Margaret "Peggy" Carter chose to stay. But soon it would be her venturing into the unknown and creating a new world.

Only, in truth, it’s not just Peggy who was meant to go to the booth and didn’t.

EVERYONE was meant to go to the booth… only they all stay and Kruger, the spy from Hydra, who was seated in the booth BEHIND Peggy in “Captain America”, in the “What if” episode attacks the lab during Erskine’s explanation and not, as he did in “Captain America”, after the experiment took place, using as a distraction a bomb he left in the booth, and not on the floor of near to where the experiment was taking place so that it can kill Erskine.

And, to be really accurate, Erskine, in “Captain America”, asked Peggy to move to the booth when Steve was already lying down for the experiment, while here we see him asking her so while the two are standing next to each other and he hadn’t started undressing yet.

And there’s a reason why in the movie things were done like that.

Of course in the movie everyone was in the booth, it was safer should something go wrong with the experiment.

Of course Kruger waited for the experiment to be carried on, if it didn’t work there was no point in stealing a vial of a serum that didn’t work.

Of course Kruger left the bomb in the booth and made it explode when he was outside of it, so that he was sure it would create distraction but not harm him.

Overall, it’s not just Peggy that acts differently, it’s Erskine, who asked her to move in advance, it’s all the people there, who didn’t move to the booth, it’s ESPECIALLY, Kruger, who originally aimed to see if the serum worked and, in this case, steal it and kill Erskine so he couldn’t produce more and instead he now doesn’t check if the serum works and kills, for unknown reasons Chester Phillips, who didn’t even have a weapon in his hand and so didn’t pose a threat.

Even the placing of the bomb is poor because, since there was plenty of mechanisms in the lab, it could have triggered a series of explosions that were to destroy the whole place, himself and all the serum included.

But how many young viewers noticed all this or worry for the risk of everything exploding or realize that causing an explosion outside of the room in which the serum was worked as a diversion so as to take people away from that place, while if the bomb were to explode there, everyone would converge in that place, with hydrants possibly as no one worries about fire spreading but they should… even if there’s magically not as much as there should be.

And tragic scenes get tamed down, we don’t see Erskine die, we might not even realize he died in the explosion, young viewers might not remember or not like Chester Phillips so when he’s shoot he doesn’t leave an impression and Kruger’s shape gets shoot down by Peggy so we don’t have him committing suicide.

It’s not a complain, it’s a logic choice to make the series more palatable to a younger target by toning down the violence and the drama in it.

And so we reach the big event of the episode.

John Flynn would want Stark to get the serum injected in himself (forgetting there were men of the MP around him who shouldn’t be all dead) but starts to complain when Peggy volunteers to take the serum herself. Peggy does anyway and again things are tamed down, as Steve ended up screaming so loud in “Captain America” Peggy feared they were killing him and they considered stopping the experiment but Peggy doesn’t scream at all.

Sure, in had been scientifically proved women are built to handle pain better, but very likely Peggy’s lack of scream isn’t because she’s tougher, it’s again to not upset young audience.

So, while Steve lies on the ground and no one comes to help him, Peggy comes out of the experiment enhanced. But here we’ve the real core of the episode, John Flynn decides the experiment is an absolute failure. Why?

Flynn: Sixty million dollars and all the hope in the world down the drain. I was promised an army. I was promised peace and salvation. Instead, I get a girl.

Basically the real core of the episode, the real theme is that Captain Carter will have to fight discrimination based on sexism.

Peggy: You have a Super Soldier. Flynn: Women aren't soldiers, and they sure as hell don't fight on the front lines. They might break a nail.

Undoubtedly this is an important matter, it’s a good topic to make an episode about, to give young girls an heroine, to show to them and to the boys what an absolute moron Flynn was in discriminating Peggy, also presenting boys being supportive of Peggy and trusting her. Howard Stark, Steve Rogers, and then Bucky and everyone else, all the men who see Peggy fighting are ultimately supportive and admiring of her. This is important. But Flynn’s sexism is better remarked if we don’t remember what happened in “Captain America”.

Steve Rogers: Sir, if you’re going after Schmidt, I want in. Col. Chester Phillips: You’re an experiment. You’re going to Alamogordo. Steve Rogers: The serum worked. Col. Chester Phillips: I asked for an army and all I got was you. You are not enough. Senator Brandt: [to Steve] With all due respect to the Colonel, I think we may be missing the point. I’ve seen you in action, Steve. More importantly, the country’s seen it. [to his aide] Paper.[the aide shows them the news paper (‘The New York Examiner’ Vol. XCVII No. 33.634, Wednesday, June 23, 1943), headlines: "Nazis in New York - mystery man saves child"] The enlistment lines have been around the block since your picture hit the newsstands. You don’t take a soldier, a symbol like that, and hide him in a lab. Son, do you want to serve your country on the most important battlefield of the war? Steve Rogers: Sir, that’s all I want. Senator Brandt: Then, congratulations. You just got promoted.

I mean, Rogers was a male and he too was judged ‘not enough’. Brandt has him tour the nation in a colorful costume as “Captain America” to promote war bonds, while scientists study him and attempt to reverse-engineer the formula.

Chester Phillips was likely killed because otherwise they would have no reason to deal with Peggy the same way he dealt with Steve ‘one is not enough’, only it wouldn’t have been a sexist problem, just math (though it could be argued Phillips never trusted Steve to begin with). This causes the message ‘sexism is dumb’ ends up feeling forced because it’s basically pasted over a previous narrative of ‘not being enough’. If you want, you can read it as always discrimination and discrimination it’s always bad, but it still cheapens the message.

All this not to say that the episode isn’t awesome if seen as a stand-alone… it’s just that when you compare it with “Captain America” it feels weaker.

And then there are the other discrepancies, like the Hydra bringing the Tesseract to Berlin and not to Azzano (a sign somehow Schmidt and Hitler didn’t have a fall out) with Stark using it to power up an “Hydra Stomper” suit that proves if he had had the right power sources and technologies he could have built “Iron Man” too.

They’re not bad points (actually I loved the “Hydra Stomper” suit and how Peggy rode it the way Tekkaman from “Uchu no Kishi Tekkaman” used to ride Pegas in my childhood memories) but again they’re divergences without a clear reason. Schmidt and Hitler shouldn’t get along better solely because Peggy got the serum.

And that’s the first episode.

“What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?” is also clearly aimed to a younger audience but with a goal different from “What If... Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?”

Watcher: What you call destiny is just an equation, a product of variables. Right place, right time, or in some instances, the wrong place at the wrong time. As fate would have it, at that very moment, a Ravager spacecraft was arriving on Earth to abduct the spawn of the Celestial, Ego. But in this universe, Yondu outsourced the assignment to his subordinates. Yondu: You morons grabbed the wrong kid!

For start this episode doesn’t try to rewrite a single movie, but by taking pieces of assorted movies “Thor: The Dark World” (for Tivan) “Guardians of the Galaxy” (for the idea of the setting), “Black Panther” (for T’Challa), “Avengers: Infinity War” (for the Black Order), “Captain America” (Tivan has his shielf), “Thor: Ragnarok” (TIvan has and uses Hela’s headpiece, talking of her as if he knew her and we can see he also has Thor’s hammer), “Thor: The Dark World” (Tivan has Malekith’s dagger) creates a completely different timeline by changing something that happened in 1988 and then jumping straight in… 2014, I presume, where a lot is different but we aren’t meant to see the process due to which things were changed, just to accept how T’Challa, kidnapped as a kid by the Ravagers, managed to make the difference.

In fact the whole theme of this episode is that T’Challa is a hero and a role model that gets success and admiration by TALKING TO PEOPLE AND PERSUADING THEM TO DO THE RIGHT THING. He’s meant not to have a character arc but to create a world that’s the best possible for people.

In fact we’re told just by talking with Thanos he persuaded him to stop his whole plan without using violence.

Korath: How exactly did you stop Thanos, the Mad Titan, from decimating half of the universe? Oh, no. Thanos: I'm a big enough man to admit when I'm wrong. T'Challa here showed me there was more than one way to reallocate the universe's resources. T’Challa: Sometimes the best weapon in your arsenal is just a good argument.

I mean, he doesn’t just turn the Ravagers into Robin Hood’s “merry men”, he talks with Thanos and Thanos decides to change his ways.

This is great, a wonderful message, a message against violence, a message about the power of the words and it makes T’Challa a real hero who, just by talking, saves the universe from Thanos but… but T’Challa from the movies was maybe not so good at persuading people from not doing wrong but he still had something amazing that made him very human and, at the same time a role model.

T’Challa wasn’t perfect, he made mistakes… but then he would admit them and correct them.

In “Captain America: Civil War” he wants to kill Bucky in retaliation for what happened to his father…

Natasha Romanoff: T'Challa. Task force will decide who brings in Barnes. T'Challa: [He clenches his fist.] Don't bother, Miss Romanoff. I'll kill him myself.

…but then he understands killing his father’s murder would be wrong and even stops Zemo from committing suicide.

T'Challa: Vengeance has consumed you. It's consuming them. [He blinks ruefully and retracts the claws in his gloves.] I am done letting it consume me. Justice will come soon enough. Helmut Zemo: [Holding a gun Zemo smiles thinly.] Tell that to the dead. [He tries to shoot himself but T'Challa grabs him just as he fires.] T'Challa: The living are not done with you yet.

And the same goes in “Black Panther”. At first he doesn’t want to ask Killmonger his name because he knows he is his uncle’s son and this would give him the right to compete for the throne as well as expose what his father did…

Killmonger: Oh, I ain't requesting nothing! Ask who I am? Shuri: You are Eric Steves. An American black operative. A mercenary nicknamed Killmonger. That's who you are. Killmonger: (LAUGHING) That's not my name, Princess. Ask me, King? T'Challa: No. Killmonger: Ask me. T'Challa: Take him away.

…but then he’ll acknowledges they had wronged him, will show him Wakanda’s beauty and will change things in Wakanda. T’Challa in the movies isn’t as perfect as T’Challa in the “What if” episode. He can’t solve everything and make the world perfect. He isn’t always right. He gets angry, vengeful, afraid of the truth. But then he rises above this and does the right thing.

“What if” T’Challa is a model of perfection that’s admirable… but that sits simply too high above the original T’Challa who also had to deal with Thanos but didn’t even think he could change his mind just by giving him a talk… and with good reason.

Younger kids might not realize because they might have not fully grasped how Thanos was a genocidal maniac, who massacred millions even prior to the snap, tortured his daughters and even removed body parts from Nebula. They might swallow it was just that easy to talk him into not doing the snap, and Thanos only needed someone to tell him it was wrong… and that in truth he loved Nebula… but for older viewers while beautiful, this is simply unbelievable.

And what about Yondu and the Ravagers? Just because they had T’Challa they became good and righteous. This is how Peter Quill described Yondu in “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” which still gives a sympathetic portrayal of Yondu:

Quill: He wasn't my father. Yondu was the guy who abducted me. He'd beat the crap out of me so I'd learn how to fight and he kept me in terror threatening to eat me.

But T’Challa doesn’t seem to have such complains against Yondu.

Now… In Quill’s case Yondu kept Quill so as to protect him from Ego…

Yondu: Once I figured out what happened to the other kids, I wasn't gonna just hand you over.

…yet he kidnap him and tells him his home was destroyed so as to manipulate him into staying… but this is so easily forgotten by T’Challa to the point children might not even realize it was there. Yondu was a good dad for him, he kidnapped him because T’Challa was basically wasted at home.

Yondu: Sometimes you need to hear a lie to see the truth. You're just like me, T'Challa. T’Challa: I am nothing like you. Yondu: You're an explorer, Star-Lord. And for people like you, like us, the past ain't nothing but a prison. You don't belong down there with them. You belong up here with us, with your family.

Although T’Challa doesn’t seem to agree at first… in the end all is forgotten.

Yondu: Look, T'Challa, I just wanted to say... T’Challa: There's no need. I was the one who told you I wanted to see the world. All you did was show me the universe.

and

T’Chaka: (Voice shaking) My son, my son. I knew you would find your way home to us. T’Challa: I'm sorry it took me so long. Let me introduce you to the family I made along the way.

All this is to basically excuse the premise, something horrible like kidnapping a child is passed as not really something terrible so that kids wouldn’t deal with its emotional implications and can even think that it was a pity that, in the normal universe, it was Peter Quill that was kidnapped… without realizing that kidnapping is bad and that in T’Challa’s case Yondu wasn’t even doing it because he wanted to protect him. Actually it’s unexplained why, all of sudden, Yondu felt the need to keep T’Challa and completely forgot about Quill, didn’t even care about making sure Ego wouldn’t find Quill despite, thanks to T’Challa, becoming a better person. It’s another change, one that people knowing the movies is bound to notice but not kids.

So again, for who knows the movie well, the story ends up being weak and this is also because, while T’Challa could persuade Thanos off screen not to commit genocide… all of sudden his persuasive power isn’t even really tested out with Tivan. Tivan is the big evil… yet he’s somehow less fearsome than Thanos because we clearly don’t want to scare the kids.

So again, wonderful for young audience who doesn’t remember well the movies… not so solid for who’s older.

And so we move to “What If... the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?” which is absolutely my favourite so far. This one at a first glance seems to be a “What if” of a comic named “The Avengers Prelude: Fury's Big Week”.

The awesome thing of this story is we don’t know what changed the universe, we only discover that someone is killing off the Avengers before they could become the Avengers, starting with Tony Stark.

The mystery is, at a first glance, cool, the idea original, Natasha gets a big role as she investigates and even fights things along with Fury and, again, children will likely not really realize how the “What if” is actually changing the settings even when they’re supposedly not related to the change that caused this parallel reality, the death of Hope van Dyne. I mean, we can start our list of changes with the random funny things that has no reason to happen because Hope’s death shouldn’t have made Coulson and Barton to be so appreciative of Thor’s hair, something they never bring up in the movie…

Coulson: Whoa. I got visual on the intruder. He's a Caucasian male, mid-twenties with... really great hair. Fury: Excuse me? Coulson: It's an accurate description. Sir, he's gorgeous. Fury: I need eyes in the sky. Barton. Barton: Already on it. He's making a move on the hammer. One shot, one kill, sir. Just say the word. Fury: Hold your fire. I wanna see this. Barton: Whoa. Coulson wasn't lying about the hair. That's nice.

…to continue with more plot related matters like how Betty should have known Banner had intruded in her lab dressed up as a delivery boy and was now hiding in a wardrobe… but if we want we can forgive them. Maybe Hope’s death really changed some things in weird ways we couldn’t predict… but the place with the biggest revolution seems to be Asgard… which actually shouldn’t have been affected by by Hope’s death AT ALL and instead the situation is completely different from how it were in “Thor” to the point I could write a 20 pages meta on the changes. But, if we assume this episode is aimed at children, it works because the “Thor” situation was complicate and here instead they show solely some random and confuse elements that children might have picked up from talks about the movies… but that weren’t like that in “Thor”.

And again we have messages that can be good for children, how a father will love his little girl, how Nick Fury will save the day even without the Avengers, how:

Fury: S.H.I.E.L.D. is people, people willing to give their lives for something greater than themselves to save the world from men like you.

…and how in the darkest time new heroes will always come to save Earth as when Loki take over because it seems there are no more Avengers, Fury can still count on Carol Danvers and Steve Rogers.

Coulson: The Avengers fell before they had a chance to rise. May they rest in peace. Fury: They can, but we won't. The Avengers were always meant to be more than a team. They were an idea, the affirmation of humanity's need to believe that in our darkest hour, we will find our heroes. Watcher: I believe that in this universe, as in every other, hope never dies. As long as someone keeps their good eye on the bigger picture.

It’s a good message about hope… but again, it’s something for children. We’re meant to believe Earth could be conquered in one day time without struggle whatsoever… and that only the heroes could save it. Children might not remember it but in “The Avengers” humans tried to nuke New York to stop Loki… the idea they would just sit and say ‘whatever’ to Loki’s domination makes it look as if they actually agree with him to an adult… but, of course, the battle of New York is something we might not want to show to a little child.

And now… something else that’s relevant.

I said the “What ifs” are good stories for children… but we’re talking of young children here because if the child is a little older they can end up passing a completely wrong message.

Remember "What If... Captain Carter Were the First Avenger?" and how it tackled sexism as an absurd behavior to keep? How Captain Carter overcomes it? By using her supersoldier powers to beat the Nazi. She shows as a supersoldier she works.

Does she turns over the concept that ‘Women aren't soldiers, and they sure as hell don't fight on the front lines. They might break a nail’?

At most she proves she can be a soldier. She doesn’t fight using the fact she’s a woman as her strongest point, she fights using her super strength as her strongest point… where Steve Roger’s strongest point wasn’t his enhanced strength but his moral values. Peggy proves as a super soldier she’s equal to Steve… but Steve as a super soldier proved he was better than Red Skull. Peggy’s actions in the story doesn’t cause people to revalue women in general, just her. People either aren’t sexist and accept her regardless of her genre (Howard, Steve) or they’re sexist but accept her because she is strong.

It’s meaningful that when she thinks Steve is dead Flynn goes back to his old mindset…

Flynn: She should never have been in the field in the first place.

… because the truth is he never changed it. Peggy had only yelled at them to stop calling Steve “Hydra Stomper” as his name was “Steve Roger” and Flynn decides she, not Steve who actually died, should have never been in the field.

They don’t show how Peggy got information from Zola, which seems to imply all she did to get them was to beat him up. Chester Phillips in “Captain America” manipulated him into talking with his intelligence only.

Do you know which were Peggy’s abilities in the universe in which she isn’t a super soldier? She’s a Master Martial Artist, an Expert Marksman, a Master Spy, an Expert Tactician, a Thief and can speak and read English, Russian and German fluently as well as use a convincing American accent.

This is hardly noticeable though in her own story.

Howard: Should we not have a plan? Peggy: Who needs a plan? I have a shield. Howard: A shield is not a plan. Oh, Carter...

She was a tactician!

Now… she has a shield. But whatever girl wants to be like her won’t have a shield, nor a super serum. To be a real role model for girls who aren’t anymore children Peggy needed to have qualities they too could have that would empower her. The only good moment is when she understands what Howard plans to do:

Howard: If I can get to the controls, I can transpose the ingress and do science stuff. Peggy: You mean transpose the polarity and reverse the suction? Howard: Being the genius is my thing.

But again, the irony here is that this is no genius plan, middle school students had probably seen him being done in movies and cartoons already. It might seem genius idea to kids, but when you’re older it hardly sounds like one… and when Howard complains all in the machine is written in German they don’t have Peggy show her knowledge of it, and translate the words as she fight, she just fight and he’s supposed to figure things out.

“Captain America” is a role model for what he has inside. I’m sure Peggy Carter has plenty of things inside her as well… but “What if” makes it more about the super strength she has gained.

Where Steve gains Phillips’ respect, Flynn’s respect is more a façade due to her successes thanks to her super strength, and that respect gets pulled back as soon as she gets upset by his behavior. Sure, Flynn is a worse person than Phillips in this black and white world but this too is part of the narrative. If Peggy can’t permanently win over sexism in one person, it’s not real victory at all. If what’s remarkable about her is how she fights (due to the serum) then who didn’t have it, will never have a hope. Peggy Carter was more of a female model when she wasn’t supersoldier, she felt more of a role model in “Captain America”, when she got to do this with her own strength:

Peggy Carter: Put your right foot forward. Gilmore Hodge: Mmm… We gonna wrassle? Cause I got a few moves I know you’ll like. [suddenly Peggy punches him hard in the face. Col.Phillips drives up] Col. Chester Phillips: Agent Carter. Peggy Carter: Colonel Phillips. Col. Chester Phillips: I see you’re breaking in the candidates. That’s good!

…than when she punched Nazis thanks to being a super soldier. Peggy has never been a fragile Fräulein, but this episode seems to remark she’s not one merely because she has taken the serum.

As a result… she sets an impossible role model for girls. If the key to be (partially) respected and accepted by males is to get the super soldier serum and/or the shiled… well, that serum doesn’t exist, not does the shield.

And a similar problem exists in “What If... T'Challa Became a Star-Lord?”

Teaching a small child he can solve problems by talking and not by hitting is important… but passing the message that you can stop bullies or worse just by talking to them is again setting an impossible role model. People like Thanos can’t be stopped with just words. People like Yondu and the Ravagers wouldn’t become Robin Hood and his merry men merely because they have with themselves a young boy who tells them the right things… and what Yondu does to T’Challa is worse than what he did to Quill and having been kidnapped as a child shouldn’t be waved off so easily. We’re not talking of Yondu finding an orphaned T’Challa and raising him, if he had picked up N’Jadaka after he lost his father it would have been different, but here, he just ripped a child from a loving family, a family he loved back. And it’s almost presented as a good thing because this causes the universe to be saved by Thanos, Yondu’s lie giving T’Challa the motivation to try to to make the universe a better place.

Nebula: You lost your home, and now you save everyone else's.

And problems continue with “What If... the World Lost Its Mightiest Heroes?” because there, the solution, the hope, is presented solely by the superheroes. No one opposes to Loki, the whole Earth is expected to be saved by Captain America and Carol Danvers. The one who refuses to kneel to Loki is Fury, who’s considered special. We don’t have in this story a lone old man who’s standing stubbornly despite the threat.

LOKI: Kneel before me. [The crowd ignores him. Three more Loki's appear, surrounding and blocking the crowd from escaping.] I said KNEEL! [While the crowd quietly kneels, Loki embraces out his arms with a wide smile] Is not this simpler? Is this not your natural state? It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel. ELDER GERMAN MAN: [As the words resonate to the kneeling crowd, an elder German man refuses to kneel and stands, heroic.] Not to men like you. LOKI: There are no men like me. ELDER GERMAN MAN: There are always men like you. LOKI: Look to your elder, people. Let him be an example. [As Loki is about to execute the man with his scepter as the light glows blue. Right as the energy beam shoots out, Captain America arrives, diving in just in time to block the blast with his shield, and knocking down Loki]

So basically in this series heroes set impossible standards… and are the only ones who can save the day. It can be fun for an adult, as he doesn’t need role models… but for a boy who’s no more a small child but not yet old enough to do without viewing heroes are role models, the heroes presents a standard that is something unattainable. And this is bad because he too might enjoy watching the show, but the show gives him no hope… where ironically, Marvel movies were about giving positive role models in which you could identify.

Overall I stay my case, the “What if” series is definitely enjoyable… but the bar for the target audience is set to a very young age, they don’t really follow the idea that one small change can realistically change everything because they actually intrude plenty of small changes for their setting to work, and might end up not giving the right message if you’re in between a age between a small child and an adult. Of course future “What if” episodes might change, and I will probably still love them because I adore what if… but I would love them even more if they had aimed to a target audience a little older… making their heroes, more realistic role models which can be emulated and if they had respected their own premise, that ONE SINGLE CHANGE can create a completely different new reality.

What changed in the Peggy episode wasn’t just Peggy not sitting on the booth. What changed in the T’Challa episode wasn’t just Yondu sending his subordinates to pick up a kid. What changed in the mightiest heroes episode wasn’t just Hope dying.

The fact you need more changes in order to make the difference makes the initial point that one change can make the difference void. You destroy your own premise… and this is not really a great idea.

But whatever, I guess if the idea is that the audience is really young, they didn’t expect the audience to pick this up but just to swallow their idea that ‘a moment created a new universe’.

MEDIA MENTIONED:

Movies: “Iron Man 2” (2010), “The Incredible Hulk" (2008), “Thor” (2011), “Captain America: The First Avenger” (2011), “The Avengers” (2012), “Thor: The Dark World” (2013), “Captain America: The Civil War” (2016), “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” (2017), “Thor – Ragnark” (2017), “Black Panther” (2018), "Avengers: Infinity War” (2018), “Captain Marvel” (2019)

Comics: “The Avengers Prelude Fury's Big Week” (2012)

#mcu what if #mcu iron man 2 #mcu the incredible hulk #mcu thor #mcu captain america the first avenger #mcu the avengers #mcu thor the dark world #mcu guardians of the galaxy vol. 2 #mcu thor ragnarok #mcu black panther #mcu avengers infinity war #mcu captain marvel #9 worlds study

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catnaples · 3 years

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TOXIC CRUSH, PART 2

This is not my best story. I’ve been working hard on it, but after a certain point I just get bored and frustrated, It’s why I don’t normally do 2 part stories. I hope you like though! Give me some feedback so I can improve!

TW: Spitting, slapping, attempted non-con, mentions of bullying, implied murder, implied kidnapping

PT 1

Moving to Seijoh for the first week was hard. Half of the students took it upon themselves to giggle at you for your thick thighs or your soft belly, while the other half was welcoming but kept their distance. You had come from Karasuno after all, and everyone knew how much the volleyball team hated the crows.

You stayed away from the gym all week, fighting your urge to ask to be their manager. Instead, you chose to work on forming friendships with your classmates and good impressions with your teachers.

You remembered Seijoh’s team very clearly from the last time you had seen them, which was after Karasuno’s loss to them. You had felt them watching you the entire time as you moved from teammate to teammate, giving out comforting hugs and cold bottles of water. Their eyes bore into you everywhere you went in the gym, and it made you incredibly self-conscious.

Oikawa seemed like the kind of guy to bully someone for appearance only, and the last thing you wanted was to get on his bad side...well, anymore than you probably already were since you came from Karasuno. You could take a lot of things, but bullying you for your body type always hits home the hardest.

By the time summer came around, Seijoh had become more welcoming to you. You had a new group of friends, and you hadn’t really encountered the volleyball team. A Few words of encouragement from your best friend and a can of caffeine boosted your courage, and the day before vacation you finally faced your fears and entered Seijoh’s gym.

At first, no one seemed to notice you. You crept your way to the coach, and gave him a quick bow. After a brief introduction, you quietly asked about possibly managing for the team. Of course he didn’t pay attention to you. He barely recognized you from their rival school. He responded with a flick of the wrist. “Oikawa is the captain, you can ask him.”

As your courage drained from your body, he called Oikawa over, catching the attention of the third years who all stared at your shaking form. “This young lady wants to speak to you.” He said plainly before turning his attention back to the team.

Oikawa came sauntering over, the flirtatious grin on his lips melting off as he began to recognize who you were. “Well well, if it isn’t Karasuno’s prized manager...what are you doing here in my school’s uniform?” He sneered, irritation flashing in his eyes.

It took you a moment to find your voice as you fidgeted with the hem of your untucked shirt. “W-well...I’m no longer a part of Karasuno’s volleyball team. I left a little bit ago. I...I was just wondering if...maybe you needed a manager?” You asked, staring at him with hopeful eyes. “I’ve got the experience.” You tried to joke.

He stared at you with his burning brown eyes, and you looked away, the stare too intense. “And why did you leave?” He asked, hooking his finger under your chin so you would look at him again.

You could still feel the other third years eyes on you as they continued to practice, and your face burned with shame. He was going to say no, no matter what you said to convince him. You were sure of it. You simply came here to embarrass yourself.

You concentrated on the wall behind him as you spoke, willing yourself not to cry. “One of the team members asked me out, and I said no to maintain our friendship. I guess it hurt him a lot, because by the next week the entire school turned on me.” You said, your voice quiet.

Oikawa released your chin and stared down at you, a different look now placed on his face. “They...bullied you out? Because you turned someone down?” He asked, his voice low. You nodded, staring down at his shoes.

There was a long pause, and then he chuckled. “Fine then, you can manage our team. I’d like to see the looks on Karasuno’s faces when they see their cute little manager running around tending to us instead.” He smirked, before bending over to look you in the eyes.

“We practice during the summer too. Come to the gym tomorrow morning at eight. We’ll provide a manager's uniform for you.” He said, before cuffing you lightly on the shoulder. You stared, almost numb with shock, as he ran back to his waiting teammates.

Iwaizumi was looking from you to Oikawa and back, trying to figure out what the hell just happened. You stiffly walked from the gym, unsure whether or not you even wanted to manage anymore.

You didn’t bother texting your friend about it, instead choosing to block the thought of the entire situation out with music and other mundane activities. The next morning, you trudged back to the gym, making sure to arrive five minutes early to try and maintain a good impression.

You were in the gym for maybe two seconds before Matsukawa and Hanamaki were towering over you, lazy grins plastered on their faces. “Well, Oikawa was telling the truth. He caught a little mouse from Karasuno.” Hanamaki said, examining your face.

You felt your cheeks heat up at the intense stare, and looked away. “Uh, yes...my name is Y/N, I’ll be managing the team now.” You said quietly. “Aw, she’s shy too. Cute.” Matsukawa laughed lazily.

“Alright, leave her alone. It’s time to warm up.” You heard a gruff voice say. Hanamaki and Matsukawa parted to reveal Iwaizumi standing behind them, his arms crossed. The tall boys in front of you shrugged and moved away, beginning a conversation on something you couldn’t quite make out.

Iwaizumi handed you a square package. “This is your uniform. Go into the girls locker room and change, then meet us back here. Oikawa is going to go through everything he expects you to do for the team.” He said, before turning and beginning to move away.

You breathed a sigh of relief at the absence of his intense stare, before he turned again. “Oh, and by the way. We won’t treat you the way Karasuno did. With us...you’ll be fine.” He mumbled. Before you could respond, he was striding away, yelling commands out at the rest of the team.

Stunned, you slowly made your way back to the locker rooms to change. Although the entire situation was turning you into a nervous wreck, and you still weren’t sure if you trusted the team, that simple comment made you feel a little warm inside.

Karasuno’s treatment of you was cruel, especially from the volleyball team. They constantly painted Seijoh out as the villains, as if they were the main protagonists. Yet here you were, joining their volleyball team with their ace himself telling you not to feel scared.

You hurried to change into the white and blue tracksuit, internally admiring how well it fit you. Part of being a bigger girl was that not everything fit you just right. However, in this you felt semi-confident.

After changing you made your way back to the gym, praying for an easy day. You entered just in time to watch Oikawa set a ball to Iwaizumi, who spiked it, narrowly missing a first year's face. You couldn’t remember the name, but he looked very familiar.

You stood in the corner for a solid ten minutes, watching the sheer talent of the team in amazement. Their teamwork, along with the drive to win no matter what, was very apparent in the way they played. No wonder they beat Karasuno.

As they all took a quick breather, Oikawa’s brown eyes landed on you. You subconsciously shrank back as he began to make his way towards you. Then Iwaizumi’s words flashed in your head, filling you with a little bit of comfort.

Oikawa’s attitude had seemed to change completely as he approached you, the flirtatious smile back on his face. “Well, you really did decide to show up.” He said, grabbing his water bottle from the bench next to you. “Now, what exactly did you take care of while you were at Karasuno.” He asked.

He was closer than he needed to be, his tall frame towering over you. You fought the blush that rose to your cheeks as you tried to focus. You began to list everything that you had taken care of, from washing uniforms to cleaning the gym and locking up when the others were too lazy to do so.

Oikawa’s stare never left your face as you spoke. When you finished with your explanation, he nodded thoughtfully. “Right, so to start with, you won't have to wash our sweaty jerseys. Unlike Karasuno, we actually do know how to do our own laundry. We still expect you to help us clean up, but you’ll never be left alone in the gym to do it all by yourself. We still want you taking notes and what not.” He explained.

The more he spoke, the more comfortable you felt around him. You could tell in his mannerisms, excluding how unnecessarily close he was to you, that he was trying to help you feel more comfortable.

Throughout the rest of the summer you continued to get close to your new team. The protective attitude you developed for Karasuno’s first years transferred to Seijoh. Instead of Karasuno’s third years keeping an eye on you, you found Oikawa, Iwaizumi, Matsukawa and Hanamaki all around you at almost all points of the day.

You began to form a friendship with Yahaba, and a mutual understanding of boundaries with Kyotani. There were more touches to the small of your back, fingers lingering for a second longer than usual. There was more texting and possessive words being used.

Whenever someone from another sport came to practice at the school, they were pulling you away from whatever conversation you were having with them. All of these signs, you ignored. You were just grateful to the team for not bullying you for everything.

Besides, what was wrong with four attractive third years being so protective over you? You, who had always felt insecure in her body, who felt inferior to people like them? You were relishing in every drop of attention they were giving you, just as much as they loved doting on you.

By the time the spring preliminaries rolled around, you felt completely confident beside your new team. Walking into the gym standing in between Oikawa and Iwaizumi, you felt powerful. The way people parted for your new school when they wouldn’t do the same for Karasuno made you feel like a celebrity. And for once, you got to sit on the benches right in front of the court instead of up in the stands, like you used to have to do with Yachi. You were full of excitement...until Karasuno arrived.

All confidence drained from you when you saw the familiar black uniforms appear through the door. Matsukawa noticed the sudden rigidness of your body at the sight of your former team, and he came to stand beside you, his arm wrapped around your shoulder lazily. “They aren’t gonna say shit. We’re gonna kick their asses today.” He said, smiling lightly.

You allowed yourself a few seconds of comfort before pulling away and nodding. “Right. You got this!” You smiled back, throwing fists lightly up. “Beat them so that you can defeat Shiratorizawa next.”

Matsukawa’s grin grew, and he cuffed you lightly on the shoulder. Then he turned to Hanamaki, who gave you a thumbs up. “Alright, warm up guys.” Oikawa called, gesturing for the others to start moving. He shot you a quick wink and a smile before turning and staring Kageyama down.

You had caught Kageyama’s attention, and the look of rage on his face as he realized exactly where you had run off to finally sunk in. One by one, the other members saw you, their reactions varying.

Hinata’s was the most terrifying. Even from a distance you could see how deranged his eyes looked. His body was squared and shaking, and for the first time ever you actually felt fearful of him. You found yourself inching towards Iwaizumi for comfort.

He caught on fast and moved his body slightly in front of you, before Hanamaki called out, “You guys should probably start doing your warm-ups instead of looking at our cute manager.”

Hinata looked like he wanted to charge, but Daichi stood in front with his hand blocking him. You had never seen so much contempt in his eyes before. The way he was looking at you made you want to crawl into a hole and hide until he was long gone. You were thankful that you had Seijoh backing you up.

Karasuno gathered around Hinata, for what you assumed was a pep talk about ignoring the big evil Y/N, while Oikawa came up on the other side of Iwaizumi and looked down at you. “So, you never told us who it was that got you bullied out of Karasuno. By the looks of it, I’m assuming it was that little tangerine?” He asked, his eyes burning.

You felt yourself shrink back. “Y-yeah.” You stuttered out. “That’s good, you had us thinking he was big and mighty. He’ll be easy.” He grinned, before rubbing your arm. The gentleness of his hands greatly contrasted with the fierceness of his face. “Go to the bench with the coach. We’re about to start.”

You immediately nodded and briskly walked over to the sidelines, sitting down nervously as the referee took his place. Both teams shook hands and returned to their positions, the room falling deathly silent. Then, the game began. Watching them play against a different team instead of amongst themselves was intense, and you found yourself unable to look away for even a second.

Karasuno performed their quick attack a few times, managing to get a couple of points from Seijoh, but Seijoh returned with a couple of nasty jump serves and intense spikes. You were in awe at how both teams managed to play so well. But you knew Karasuno was in the dark about one thing; all of the moves and plans Hinata had told you about, you told Seijoh.

Karasuno had a few unknown tricks up their sleeves, but the main moves that Hinata and Kageyama tried to pull off were thwarted by Oikawa and the others. In the end, Karasuno lost by one set, and one point.

Karasuno was dramatic as ever by throwing themselves down on the ground, or by holding each other with tears in their eyes. Meanwhile, your team was jumping around the gym, whooping and hugging each other. Then, they were coming for you. They were picking you up and spinning you around, planting giant kisses on your plump cheeks as you laughed and congratulated them.

As they continued to celebrate, you excused yourself to grab fresh water for their bottles. You slipped from the gym, a giant smile stuck to your lips. The look of pure joy on their faces filled you with an insane amount of happiness. You knew how hard they worked, and you knew they deserved a reward. It was a good thing you were just recently paid, you wanted to buy them dinner tonight before going home.

Lost in your thoughts, you didn’t notice the orange haired boy creeping up behind you until it was too late. Even though Hinata was small, he was strong. Terror coursed through your veins as he shoved you to the ground and pinned your wrists about your head. Up close you could truly see just how deranged he looked.

His pupils were dilated, eyes wide, there was a sickening smile on his face that just screamed “ill-intent”. “H-Hinata, what-” You tried to ask. He cut you off by spitting on you. “Stupid. You’re so stupid! I tried to give you my love and what do you do?” He growled, his face an inch or so away from yours. “You run to the one team that we’re rivals with, and you let them win.” He spat.

He raised his hand and slapped you across the face, bringing a fresh wave of tears to your eyes. Panicked, you couldn’t find your voice to scream. “Let me guess, you told them everything that I had told you in secrecy.” He asked, gathering both of your wrists into one hand.

Frozen with shock, you didn’t bother struggling. Hinata had never been this aggressive before. He had never laid his hands on you in an aggressive manner. You could barely bring yourself to breathe properly with his face so close to yours.

Then, his free hand unzipped your jacket. “H-hinata, stop it!” You gasped. You wanted to scream, but a part of you still didn’t want Hinata to be hurt. You still cared for him, even though he was scaring you. Even though he hurt you.

“Shut up!” He spat, before roughly shoving his hand up your shirt. Finally your instincts kicked in, and you began to violently struggle. In the next second, he was ripped off of you and you were being pulled up. Oikawa was holding you, his thumb wiping away Hinata’s spit. He examined the red spot on your cheek from where you were struck, while Iwaizumi held Hinata against the wall by the jacket collar.

You tried to tune him out while he threatened Hinata with something worse than death, instead choosing to focus on Oikawa’s soothing voice. You let him push your head against his chest as he hummed to you. “It’s alright Y/n. Nothing bad is gonna happen to you when you’re with us.” He cooed.

You almost completely relaxed, but then he said something that truly alarmed you. “Hinata won't be here much longer, so you can focus on us from now on. He’ll never hurt you again.”

You ripped your head away and looked to where Iwaizumi and Hinata were a few seconds ago, but they were gone. Panic surged through your veins again, but Oikawa pushed you against the wall. He cupped your face in his hands, his eyes dark.

“We’d do just about anything for you, Y/N. Keep that in mind.” He whispered, before planting a soft kiss on your lips. “Now be a good girl, and keep this entire thing a secret for us, alright? We know you like your freedom but...we’ll store you away safely if we have to. Try not to worry about anything, it’ll make everything easier, yeah?” He smiled.

As you stared into his eyes, you could hear a faint scream from what seemed like outside. You shut your eyes, tears dripping down your cheeks as you realized what you had just gotten yourself into.

You thought back to all of the power they now had over you, and how they managed to obtain it by gaining your trust. They had your address, a strong relationship with your parents, access to your phone...you realized that you could never even really leave your house without them being there, waiting. You felt horrified. You would just have to find another way out...before you were locked away. Or worse.

#seijoh #seijoh fic #haikyuu #haikyuu fic #yandere #yandere haikyuu #yandere seijoh #yandere oikawa #yandere iwaizumi #yandere matsukawa #yandere hanamaki

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thewritingstar · 3 years

Text

Like Fallen Snow

ahhh im super excited because I was @empress-of-mischief secret Santa for the Powerpuff secret Santa! I hope that this fic fills you will joy my dear. I rarely write for the blues and wanted to give it my best. I hope you had a wonderful xmas too.

Pairing: Boomubbles

Fandom: PPG

---

Christmas was an exciting time of the year. Even Boomer who would rather be alone in his room blasting rock music in his headphones could be found sitting in the living room with his brothers early in the morning. It would start with them racing out of their bedrooms at an ungodly hour and putting on a pot of coffee for their monkey of a father before summoning their demon dad for gifts.

Having super villains for dads had some perks like giant lasers, rocket ships and enough weapons to destroy entire cities as if they forgot that the boys themselves were better than any military grade weapon. So when it came time to open gifts, even Boomer could give enough to smile as he unwrapped a taser gun that he automatically shot at Butch and blue fuzzy socks that matched the red and green ones.

Making sure the superpowered boys were happy on the holiday was something that Mojo and Him had decided was the best, not to keep them entertained but also to keep the running feud of who the best father was. Even though Boomer was happy to accept anything wrapped up with a bow, he had always felt something missing. He had to give Him and Mojo credit because as they got older, the gifts actually became personal.

They were now in their junior year of high school. The boys ‘bad-boy’ vibe wasn’t really cutting it with them and giant machinery wasn’t going to be the hot ticket for the year. Instead Brick ended up with a ton of books and gourment coffee, Butch calling him a big ass nerd of course, which was to prove his point that he was smarter than all of them and may or may not have been to either aggravate or impress a certain puff. For Butch his collection of vinyl recorders, skateboard parts and sport equipment was enough to keep him satisfied and have enough to spark envy with Buttercup. Boomer appreciated the brand new wall of guitars that he had been begging for, drums and a flute that he didn’t remember knowing how to play but hey, how hard could it be?

“Boomer, my dear boy, you keep looking at your phone. Is there somewhere else you’d rather be?” Him asked as he narrowed his eyes in a way that made Boomer snap his phone off.

Embarrassment crawled through him as all eyes were on him and even Mojo who was in the kitchen making pancakes but more or less listening in.

“Oh um, it was just I had a present for a couple friends and was wondering if I could give it to them before it gets dark.” Boomer responded.

“It's eight in the morning, dumbass. It's not close to being dark yet.” Butch said as he threw a football at the blondes head and let out a scream when the rubber turned to dust from the blue laser beams.

“You can say Bubbles.” Brick snorted and Boomer shot him a glare. That was a secret!

“Oh? She is quite the cutie.” Him smirked and Butch barked out a laugh as he smacked Boomers side with a wag of the eyebrows.

“Forget it, you all are weird. I’ll see you for breakfast, I’ll be quick.” Boomer huffed and went up to his room to change before flying out the window.

“Tell your little girlfriend hi for us!” He heard Butch shout and he knew damn well the whole neighbor hood could probably hear him.

“Not my girlfriend.” He mumbled to himself as he found his way to the park.

Since the beginning of his life it had always been the ruffs vs the puffs. Destined by his fathers orders and demands, Boomer always followed in that direction no matter what. He didn’t waver from the line drawn in the sand. Even though his brothers began to tip toe around it when they got older, stupid hormones, and yet he never strayed.

He could maybe understand their reasoning. It would make sense to be drawn to the enemy in a way he rarely understood, but still his blood flowed with destruction and determination to rule the world and some girl with pigtails wasn’t going to change that. Or so he thought.

He would consider himself an introvert to his counterpart’s over the top bubbly personality, her name truly suited her. Unlike their siblings, they seemed to rival the most in the sharing of traits.

And yet they had become friends first. It was a bonding experience over milkshakes and a painstaking talk about how they don’t live up to their siblings' powers, how they felt like they were the weak ones. He thought about how Brick and Butch had more muscle power but to hear Bubbles have her own doubts made his stomach turn and for some reason, their friendship bloomed.

Boomer could say that she was his best friend. Not too many people had gained the title of being his friend compared to her, who had most of the school fawning over her charm even if she didn’t notice. But that's what he liked about her. She was like him and while he was confined to her and shared his fears, she could do the same because at the end of the day, they were counterparts. One half of the same coin that would understand the other without any words.

So maybe that's why he was extremely nervous right now. They had been besties, as she called it, for a while and even though gift giving wasn’t out of the ordinary, he wondered what it would be like to be more.

Tell your little girlfriend hi for us!

Much more.

His thoughts were interrupted when the blue puff landed at the foot of the gazebo and sat on the bench next to him.

“Hey Boomie.” She smiled brightly and at first the nickname bothered him but now it was stuck like honey. It was weird when she didn’t say it.

“Hey Bubs.” He returned the smile. “How was your morning?”

“The usual. Blossom with her books and magazines, Buttercup and her weights and well I now have a new spring wardrobe. How about you?”

“Exactly that but I got a new guitar to tune.”

“Oooo you’ll have to play for me sometime.” She gushed and he felt the heat rise to his cheeks. It was the cold's fault, not the pretty blonde, he swears! “Now it's time for the present!” She clapped and put a tin that smelled that vanilla and cinnamon on his lap.

He already knew what they were as he had been bugging her to make her signature holiday cookies for months. Worth the wait.

“So I made you all some cookies, without my sister's help of course and then this is for you.” She handed him a box. The box was black with a navy blue bow. It was so perfect that it was almost comical. Opening the box, he removed the sparkly blue tissue paper.

“Oh wow, guitar picks.” He smiled as he took one out. It was wooden and had a small B with a heart engraved on it. “It's almost like you knew.”

“I had a feeling. You had been talking non stop about wanting one and whether I’d admit it or not, Him makes sure his dear baby boy gets a good present.” She giggled as she poked his cheek.

He rubbed his thumb over it, examining it and thinking about how nice it's going to feel while strumming. “These are really nice quality.”

“I made one from each adventure we went on. That’s made from a pine tree from our first camping trip with our friends. And this one is from the beach last summer.” She held up a slightly white one and at a closer look he realized that it was probably made from sea glass.

“You made these?” He asked in disbelief. “Is this made of bamboo?” He gasped. “When we raced to China?”

“Yep! I know it’s kinda lame but those places meant a lot for us, as friends.” She stumbled over the last part.

“I don’t think it’s lame at all. Pretty cool.” And he meant it. It was probably the most thoughtful gift he had ever received because it took him back to those happy days they had spent together.

“Cooler than a rocket?” She giggled.

“Even cooler than a rocket. Thank you.” He said and fished out her present from his pocket. “Mines not homemade but, ya know.” He scratched the back of his neck and handed her the small poorly wrapped box. “Don’t even comment on the wrapping.”

She held in a laugh. “I’m not.” Liar.

Carefully she tore off the paper and opened the box. “Boomer.”

“I hope it's the right one.”

She stared at the silver chain that had a silver pendant of the moon. When they walked through the mall, it had caught her eye and she spent the next hour talking about astrology and the phases of the moon. The minute that she went into another store, he ran back to purchase it. In the middle of August mind you.

“It's beautiful.” He could hear the sincerity in her voice as she turned her back to him and he helped her with the clasp. “Thank you, I love it so much.”

They sat in a comfortable silence for a couple minutes, taking a few bites of the cookies. The peaceful morning in the park with no one around was perfect, he wasn’t a fan of crowds and maybe that's why she chose this spot because she knew they would be the only ones here.

“Oh look, it's snowing.” Bubbles gasped as she held out her hand to catch the small flakes coming in. “Isn’t it beautiful?” She asked and when he said yes, his eyes hadn’t come off of her.

She stood and walked a few feet out to twirl in the new snow and he shoved his hands in his pocket to keep them warm as he watched her with a smile. If she would have asked him to join her a couple years ago, he would have probably said no and told her to shove off, and now, he would have gone anywhere if she just asked.

Staring at her made him realize that he wanted something more with her. There had been a few occasions where the air around them shifted and for a single second, it was like she thought the same thing, but they would get interrupted and that moment would die and he would sit there and remember that he is her best friend, nothing more, nothing less. But what if he was?

He got to his fit and joined her, kicking around some snow with his shoe as his mind kept racing about every single possibility. Does he just tell her? Just ask? What if he read the signs wrong? What if he messes everything up?

“Isn’t it romantic?” His thoughts were ripped away as he turned towards her. She was looking up at the sky. “Like a Christmas movie. The first snow of the season is said to bring promise to a new love, funny huh?”

Boomers eyes widened suddenly. Was...was she wanting this to turn romantic? This entire time had he been pining from a far when she was ready to take the leap? No. they had talked about relationships before, well hers at least. She was probably just saying it because she was a hopeless romantic.

But then again, Bubbles had always been the bold type. Always telling him that she had been dropping hints for some guy and now come to think of it...had she been talking about him?

“Yeah, romantic.” He decided to finally respond.

He watched as her smile turned down slightly as she looked at him with a gaze he didn't recognize. “Well, I should probably be heading back home now.” She said somewhat sadly.

“Oh yeah, before the snow sets. Thank you by the way.” He held up the boxes and she gave him a better smile.

“Of course. And thank you for this.” She tugged on her necklace. “I’ll see you soon.” She said as she turned around and began to walk.

Something within him was yelling. An eternal battle now raging in his mind. What if he? No, he shouldn’t. But, imagine the positives.

He was hoping for a Christmas miracle.

Boomer ran up behind her, matching her speed as he grabbed her hand and turned her towards him before dropping it and rubbing his arm.

“Hey Bubbles?” Boomer asked nervously. His cheeks had decided to betray him and turn a pretty pink shade as Bubbles tilted her head.

“Yes?”

He sent his boxes down as her eyes remained on him. His hand shook nervously at his sides while her baby blue eyes looked at him. Butterflies were doing cartwheels in his stomach now but he was already here so...

“I have one last present but-” He gulped. “Y-you have to close your eyes.” He said as he took a step forward.

“Close my eyes?” She said with a small smile as he came even closer to her. His hands took hers softly as his thumb rubbed a slight circle on her hand.

“Yeah but if you don’t like it, you can return it.”

“Is that so?” She giggled as she stared into his eyes almost knowingly. “Well, I shouldn’t keep waiting then.” She said as her eyes closed and he felt like the world had disappeared around them, leaving them in the snowy park.

Boomer calmed his breathing as he stared at her. The soft pink of her cheeks from the bitter cold and how the smallest bit of snow landed on her lashes. Never before had his heart pounded as heavily as it did now as he closed the gap and kissed her with the gentleness of the first fallen snow.

He felt the sudden push against his lips. It was a beautiful sensation that he never thought would happen as she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him further. It was an answer to a question he had been asking for months, hell, maybe even years. Wondering if he could step over this line in the sand and it would be okay. That their friendship, trust and loyalty wouldn’t be corrupted but instead, stronger. It was clear that the line had been stepped over, no, completely erased without a second thought.

Their lips pulled apart and he couldn’t tell if the redness up her neck was from the cold nipping at their skin or the intense blushing from what just happened. All he knew was that she was smiling at him, just like she always had before.

“Boomer?” Her voice was just loud enough for his ears.

“Yeah?” He said almost out of breath.

“I don’t need a gift receipt.”

That fluttering in his chest began again as his face broke out into the brightest smile she had ever seen.

“That's great news.” Boomer smirked as he spun her around and dipped her by the waist like he saw in all those cheesy romance movies. “Because the return date had just expired.” He said just as he kissed her again.

---

His hand was warm from the take out cup of hot chocolate while his other hand was laced with hers and it felt more natural than breathing. She took her own cup to her lips, tasting the sweet chocolate as it helped to heat up the rest of her body and he wasn’t sure if he was dreaming or not because he was still in disbelief that he was here with her.

Bubbles caught him staring and instead of a playful scold, she inched closer to him and placed a quick peck on his cheek.

“Merry Christmas Bubbles.”

“Merry Christmas.”

---

I hope you liked it <3

#powerpuffsecretsanta2020 #boombubbles #ppg x rrb #bubbles ppg #boomer ppg #bubbles x boomer #thewritingstar

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starsandmoonys · 4 years

Text

Uh oh, here's another shitty one shot.

Regulus Black, the happiest Ghost

"That's a bad colour on you"

Sirius spun, there shouldn't be anyone in this room. He reached for his wand, startled. He was picking what to wear because he was going to see Remus today and was really trying to look his best.

"You can't just show up out of nowhere and scare the shit out of me," Sirius said, aggravated but turning again to his wardrobe to search for a proper shirt, a better colour.

"Especially at these times, it's not safe. I could've-" He added, but stopped himself.

"Sure, give me all you got, I'm see-through." The voice behind him chuckled, getting nearer. "Also it's the whole point of my existence, I show up whenever; scare you. It's fun." Arrogant and annoying even after death, some things just don't change.

"Yeah, that's how you get your kicks, now."

"It's my power, and I love using it. I can't exactly scare anyone else. Stuck with you, my dearest brother."

"You can leave now, I'm busy." Sirius was buried in his pile of clothes, getting more annoyed and finding he has absolutely nothing to wear or nothing that would fit appropriate to where he's going. Sirius normally never cared what he wore, he thought he always looked good in whatever and anyone else's opinion never mattered, but it was Remus and he needed to please and impress.

"I can help, Blacks have always had style." He was now beside him. He could feel the coldness spreading out. Sirius looked up, he saw Regulus, his little brother. He was cold, pale, transparent, but he was smiling. It wasn't the first time Sirius would see him after he died. He would always show up to Sirius. He would talk to him, keep him company when the days would just be unbearable.

Regulus would always be beside him even during missions and duels with death eaters. Helping with lines like "Watch it.", "Lookout.", " on your left.". He'd been there when he cried over Remus. Sirius would talk his ears off but he never leaves, no matter how repetitive the conversation gets. He listens, and funnily enough to use the new information to tease the hell out of his brother in important situations. Like the last meeting of the order when he kept walking around making kissing faces at Remus just to irritate Sirius and get him to lose his focus and stare at the wrong person. Regulus's ghost was far happier and playful than when he was actually alive. Sirius thought of all the reasons why that made perfect sense.

Regulus had no Walburga, no missions, no pressure or responsibilities, not even the dark lord could hurt him. He only existed for his brother, and that was enough. He was always in a great manner. Only got sad when Sirius would cry or finish a mission looking miserable.

Sirius had a really hard time accepting Regulus's death. He always blamed himself for it. He was the one that left him. He abandoned him to those wretched humans they call parents. He let his brother be fooled by them, he let him sink into the darkness until it swallowed him whole. Until he died, and that was always on Sirius. Maybe if he hadn't left, his brother would still be alive. Maybe they would get through this war together. Regulus would move on with his life, be happy. Instead, he got his brother as a ghost, a voice and a shape, only Sirius could see or hear.

The first time Regulus appeared in front of Sirius, he thought he had finally slipped into madness. He knew he wasn't wired up right in the head, but to actually be able to see his own dead brother, a few days after his death, was his final straw. Especially when no one else could see him, he wasn't a normal spirit. His existence broke Sirius, it was always a reminder of what he did. Sirius would crash, breakdown, cry, sob, and scream at the pale figure. He couldn't be real. It was his mind playing sick tricks on him, maybe it was his parents doing something to him. It had to be anything but the fact that Regulus was actually there.

That was a year ago. After many sleepless nights, experiments and research, Sirius came to the realization that Regulus was a legitimate ghost, he was there for staying. He wasn't a part of Sirius's mind, and it made everything so much worse for him. His brother didn't choose afterlife, he chose to stay. When Sirius asked him, he would tell him that he wanted to be by his side, just like Sirius stayed and took all the spells and hits for him at the Grimuald place. It's torture to Sirius but he got used to it. Regulus wasn't going anywhere and Sirius was enjoying the company, maybe it's selfish but he has his brother.

"Shut up, turtle neck." Sirius eventually responded. Starting to give up on the colourful floor he sat on; piles of shirts and trousers, spread everywhere.

"They're cool, and you know it."

"Sure they are, Reggie."

"Coming from the bloke who owns half the stock of silk shirts in Britain. You buy them in every colour, it's disastrous."

"Why are you here, again?" Sirius turned his head to face his brother, who was now crouching examining the clothes, making disapproving noises and frowning.

"Fine, I'm leaving. You're on your own. Good luck." Regulus said, getting up and going towards the end of the bedroom, walking rather slowly.

"You're just going to roam around the house then come back again because you're a lonely bitch."

"You're a lonely bitch, Sirius." The Spirit responded, monotonously.

"We're both lonely, now can you please come and help, and stop being a pain in the ass, Reg." His brother just smirked at him. He knew what was coming. So he added and beat him to it. "Do not say the joke you're thinking about."

"Oh, you mean the joke about the pain in the ass? Yeah, you just stole it." Regulus was now beside him again, grinning. "Sure, I'll help. You wouldn't really want to miss tonight's pain in the ass, would you? Big bro." His grin got wider. Sirius could only facepalm as his brother was now laughing and doubling over on the floor with laughter at his very lame joke.

"I'm losing my mind here, in a crisis, and you're laughing," Sirius growled. He wanted to grab Regulus, smack him. His hand would just go through him, it makes him sad.

"So, the usual. Except, I'm the one laughing this time." Regulus said, finding his composure again.

"I'll just cancel with moony, and miss out on the opportunity to see him for the next three months," Sirius mumbled, getting up, shoulders slouched. He felt like crying.

"Or, you could wear those and have the greatest evening for the next three months." He turned around and saw Regulus trying to pick a shirt and a pair of trousers out of the pile, he failed obviously and ended up pointing at them while looking at Sirius. He walked back and picked up what his brother chose.

They were dark Jeans, a white shirt and a black leather jacket, except that it's not the one he normally wears. It's much more modest, without all the chains, pockets and excessive accessories. "Simple, yet charming," Regulus commented as Sirius was examining the clothes.

"Thank you, you're a lifesaver." Sirius looked up to meet his brother's eyes. It's insane how they're just more alive now than ever before. "Aren't I always?" Regulus beamed back at him.

"Yeah, I'd hug you." Sirius smiled, looking down at his clothes. "Don't worry, I hug me every day." Regulus was wrapping his arms around himself, "Like that, self-love. It does wonders. You should try it."

"One day, Reg. One day, I just might. I'll go change now." Sirius said, smiling sadly.

"I have all the time in the world," Regulus spoke confidently, hands on his waist. "By the way, you really needn't stress that much about what you wear. I don't think Remus gives a shit, Sirius." Sirius cracked up, hummed in response and turned around for the second time to leave the bedroom. "and I mean it in every good way, brother." Regulus shouted from inside the bedroom as Sirius was shutting the bathroom door.

It's funny how things turned out with Sirius, he grew up in a hell house, with abusive parents. Ran away to his new family, the Potters. Left his actual brother in the hands of Voldemort. Fell in love with his male, half-blood, werewolf best friend. How he's currently fighting in a war against his former family, against everything he was raised to believe in. How he has his brother with him at any given time, comforting him when neither James nor Remus could be there. It's funny how everything in Sirius's life seems shit yet the best it could ever get at the same time. He didn't want it to end.

The Au I was talking about. I tried not to make it sad. Probably failed. Idk. Anyways, if you like it. Tell me. Maybe I can think of part two. I'm a Regulus stan, I have so much Regulus content and would write essays and essays about him. :)))))).

His relationship with Sirius is just so precious. :')

This is not in anyway edited sorry for the mistakes.

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dark-strangeson-virgil · 4 years

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Title: He Shines (Bright Like a Diamond)

Pairings: Moceit (Pre-Relationship), Backround Prinxiety (Pre-Relationship), Backround Intrulogical (Pre-Relationship), Backround Remile (Established)

Words: 4.4k

Janus totally wasn’t nervous. Not at all.

Okay, so maybe he was slightly nervous. It’s really not that big of a deal. It’s a simple school winter formal, and it’s only his sophomore year. Maybe dances will seem more important in his senior year, but for now they seem like nothing more than a few hours of fun, not to be taken too seriously. At least according to Janus.

So why could he feel his chest tightening?

He was going with his friends, so he didn’t have any date he needed to worry about impressing. He was a pretty good dancer, and high school dances barely involve any actual dancing anyways.

If he were being 100% honest, he was probably slightly nervous about his outfit choice. With Roman’s help (the two had spent a solid hour and a half on video call the night before choosing out outfits together, since they were easily the most extravagant of the group), he had chosen a yellow dress shirt, a black tie, black dress pants, and a glittery black vest. He knew it would draw attention to him, and he could see clear as day in his mirror that he looked absolutely fabulous in it. A year ago he would’ve had no doubts at all, sauntering into the dance with his friends confidently. However, a year ago he had not yet realized his absolute infatuation for one Patton Myron.

Rationally, Janus knew Patton would never judge him. Patton was an incredibly loving and accepting individual who loved to experiment with his own style, but this thought still couldn’t help Janus shake his nerves. Even Roman had tried to settle his mind while on their video call. He hadn’t truly known why Janus was as worried as he was but his attempts were at least a welcome distraction. He had elected to simply ignore the worried part of his brain, opting to channel his natural confidence and use it for all it was worth. He adjusted his hair one last time and swiped his keys off of his desk, running down to his car and clearing off his back seats.

They had decided on carpooling in smaller groups to the dance rather than all together, knowing that all of them packed into a small car would likely be too chaotic for the driver to handle. Janus was taking Roman, Remus and Virgil, while Logan had been tasked with transporting Emile, Patton and Remy. Sighing, Janus jammed his key into the ignition and began the short drive to the twins’ house.

He quickly turned on “The Playlist”, knowing it was the only way to prevent a fight over the music once everyone was in the car. While humming along to Fall Out Boy’s “Immortals” he allowed his mind to wander (while still watching the road of course), yet still carefully avoiding the topic of Patton. He could already imagine the stares he would receive once he arrives at the dance. People tend to stare at him often anyways, seing as the freckle concentration on the left side of his face tends to intrigue his peers. However, tonight his vest would hopefully grab attention in a positive way, and Janus truly did love attention.

He had never been to a school dance before so he honestly didn’t know what to expect. He had opted out of freshman year homecoming and winter formal, claiming to find dances “meaningless”, and prom was only for juniors and seniors at his school. His friends had begged him to go this year though, and their descriptions made the idea sound interesting enough for him to agree. If nothing else, he would have an enjoyable night with his friends.

As he pulled up to the twins’ house he messaged both of them, telling them oh-so-elegantly to “Hurry the hell up, we still have to grab Virgil.” As the minutes ticked by he began to get more irritated. Just as he was considering leaving them to find another ride he saw Roman emerge from the front door, Remus quickly following behind his brother. He glared at the two as they entered his car, Remus sitting in the passenger's seat and Roman opting for the back seat.

“And why, pray tell, did you take over twelve minutes to get out of your house after I explicitly told you to hurry?” Janus honestly wasn’t mad. If anything he was slightly annoyed, but he enjoyed messing with Remus and Roman just a bit.

“I was trying to drag Roman out the door, but he kept insisting he needed, ‘Just another minute to fix my hair!’” Remus offered, mocking his twin. Roman grumbled in the backseat, but made no move to argue.

“It’s probably for our resident emo. We all know Roman has a huge crush on him!” Remus practically shrieked, earning a chuckle from Janus.

“Shut up!” Roman shouted, voice slightly cracking as he reached to punch his brother in the shoulder.

“Oh, you’re absolutely right Remus. That’s obviously why he chose the backseat as well. More time to spend talking to his “Dark Prince” as he says.” Janus continued to tease the poor boy, leaving his face a lovely shade of crimson. Roman elected to stay quiet after that, instead going to text Virgil and let him know that they were on their way to pick him up.

The three settled into easy conversation during the drive to Virgil’s house, discussing their plans for the upcoming holiday break. With only one week of school left everyone had begun making plans for the holiday season and they were all eager to plan gatherings so they could stay in touch over the break.

Soon enough the group had arrived at Virgil’s house, Janus shooting him a quick text to let him know they were outside waiting. Unlike the twins, Virgil was walking out the door within 30 seconds or receiving Janus’s text. His anxiety always forced him to get ready for things extremely early, as he didn’t want to inconvenience his friends by being late. He swiftly opened the backseat door and planted himself in the seat across from Roman, muttering a simple “Hey.” as he did so. Roman almost immediately began talking the boy’s ear off, his eagerness for the dance becoming very clear. As Roman talked Remus noticed a small, fond smile work it’s way across Virgil’s face, watching Roman intently. He shot Janus a “How are they so oblivious?” look, which the driver returned as he shifted the car into drive and began the trip to the school.

The conversation eventually shifted to include all 4 boys, discussing the dance as “Doubt” by Twenty-One Pilots played softly in the background.

“I just hope they play some actual fun music this time! Most of the music they played at homecoming was so boring.” Remus whined.

“Your idea of ‘fun’ is just music you can twerk to, Remus.” Virgil retorted, earning a chuckle from Roman that caused a faint blush to tinge his face.

“Exactly! We’re high schoolers, what else does the principal expect?” Remus made a fair point.

“I suppose you’re right.” Janus allowed his mind to float once again, this time choosing to focus on how little he actually knew about dances. ‘Do they serve food, or are we going to have to stop somewhere on the way home? Is the music going to be a bunch of overplayed Christmas songs, since it was the winter formal? How many slow songs were they going to play?’ That last thought caused Janus to halt his train of thought. He hoped they didn’t play many slow songs. Emile and Remy were the only ones in their group who were in an actual relationships (despite gay pining being blatantly obvious from multiple members of their group). Slow songs would likely just leave the rest of them to sit on the bleachers, sulking about their loneliness.

No, he decided with finality. This night is about spending time with friends, and it will not be ruined due to a few sappy love songs. If slow songs are played they could use that time to take a break outside the dance, not mope. He was determined to make this a fun night out with his closest companions.

He took a deliberate, calming deep breath as he pulled into a spot in the free student parking lot. Sure, they would have a slight walk to get up to the school, but it was better than paying $5 to park in the other lot for a mere few hours. He turned the car ignition off, turning to face his friends in the back seat.

“Are we ready boys?” He asked, his signature smirk taking it’s reserved place across his face. Roman quickly hopped out of the car, bouncing on his feet giddily as he waited for the others to join him. Virgil stepped out next, followed quickly by Remus. Janus took one last look at himself in the rear-view mirror, nodding to himself reassuringly before stepping outside the car to join his friends.

Roman immediately shrieked upon seeing his outfit in its entirety. “Oh my god! I told you it would look absolutely fabulous! Doesn’t he look amazing?” Remus and Virgil nodded approvingly, and Janus felt his face heat up just the slightest bit. It felt good to know that his friends approved of the outfit. He took this opportunity to examine both Remus and Roman’s outfits. They were wearing simple, matching suits, with contrasting color schemes. Remus’s was a deep black with a pale green undershirt and a simple black tie, while Roman’s was white (Roman had to be one of the only people who could manage to pull off a white suit and not look absolutely ridiculous), paired with a rich red undershirt that had flecks of gold sprinkled on it. Their outfits matched them well, Janus decided.

Virgil had gone for a less extravagant look, sporting a lilac dress shirt with black dress pants and an obsidian tie. His shoulder-length hair paired quite well with the outfit, the pink at the ends helping to break apart the black and purple from higher up in his hair and in his outfit. Roman seemed to think the simple look suited Virgil, sneaking glances at him when he though nobody would notice.

The four quickly walked up to the front doors of the school, where they presented their pre-bought tickets to the students running the ticket stand. (Roman had insisted on buying their tickets in advance, worrying that if they waited until the night of tickets might have sold out.) As they entered the school Janus could feel his nerves return, no longer able to ignore the thought of how Patton would judge his outfit. Virgil could sense the worry from the other boy and nudged him gently by the shoulder, offering a soft and genuine smile as a source of comfort.

Janus smiled back, glad that his friend wasn’t drawing attention to his nerves. He took one last grounding breath and stepped into the gym, immediately being blasted by Lady Gaga’s voice bursting through the speakers up by the booth at the front of the gym. The dimmed lights coated all of the boys in a slight blue hue as they made their way through clusters of teenagers already dancing, attempting to find their other friends.

Roman spotted Remy first, his sleek all-black suit making him stand out amongst the crowd. Knowing Logan, Emile and Patton would be close by, he led his small group over. Janus opted to stand behind Virgil, still able to be seen but being mostly concealed.

“Salutations, I am glad we have finally managed to locate you four. Emile and Patton were beginning to worry that you had gotten lost on the way here.” Logan’s rather formal greeting was contrasted by his genuine smile, always glad to be in the presence of his friends. Remus immediately began eyeing him up and down, observing his black vest and matching dress pants with a royal blue dress shirt. Suddenly Patton popped out from behind Logan, his positive energy immediately brightening the atmosphere.

“Oh goodness, you all look so wonderful! Vee, you look beautiful with that makeup!” Virgil beamed at the compliment as Janus peeked over Virgil’s shoulder, seeing Patton in a grey suit and baby-blue button down and his classic circular glasses, looking like an absolutely radiant burst of sunshine in Janus’s opinion. Emile came into view, with his coral-pink dress shirt and light grey dress pants. As Emile and Remy began to join in on the conversation Janus stepped out from behind Virgil to contribute, not noticing as Patton’s jaw practically fell to the floor.

Oh god, Patton was going to faint. That was all he could think about as he got the chance to observe Janus’s outfit. His slacks and suit were perfectly tailored and fitted to Janus’s body, showing how marching band had helped increase his athleticism. The tie was also a lovely touch, but what Patton was truly fixated on was the vest.

The glitter reflected beautifully off the lights in the school gymnasium, drawing attention to Janus from anyone who looked. In Patton’s opinion he absolutely shined, and this caused Patton to go into a temporary state of gay panic. He checked to make sure Janus wasn’t watching his reaction, then briskly walked over to stand by Logan. He could tell his face closely resembled a firetruck, he couldn’t shake the lovestruck smile off his face and he found himself babbling incoherently, the only understandable words being “pretty,” and “wow”. If only poor Patton had seen Logan recording his moment of panic from his phone, but luckily Logan would never show anybody with the video. He would just tease Patton with it. Relentlessly. But that was a matter for another time.

After a moment Patton managed to compose himself, and walked back over to properly greet Janus. Smiling his usual bright smile (if not a little wider than usual), he tapped the dark-haired boy on the shoulder.

Janus felt a gentle tap on his shoulder and turned around, only to be met with Patton’s twinkling face, feeling his heart skip several beats as a soft smile formed across his own face.

“Hey Jan! I’m so glad you decided to come tonight! And that’s a super neato vest!” Patton’s tone was as cheery as ever, but Janus couldn’t quite tell what Patton’s intentions were with the vest comment. His insecurities immediately took over, offering a reply in what he hoped was a perfectly casual tone.

“Roman insisted I wear it, but I wondered if it would be too much.” He avoided Patton’s gaze and instead let his eyes fall to the space past the curly-haired boy’s shoulders.

“Oh nonono! That’s not what I meant!” Patton replied a little too enthusiastically, causing Janus to jump slightly in surprise. “Sorry. But I meant it looks really good, er, nice on you! It was a good choice!” He added, this time more calmly. Janus felt the small knot in his stomach come undone at those words, being immediately replaced with a swarm of butterflies. ‘Patton thinks I look good!’

“Oh, well in that case thank you. You look quite nice as well.” Janus was able to look in Patton’s eyes this time as he spoke.

“Thanks! Oh, before we start dancing we should go take pictures at the photo stand!” He suggested to the group, everybody quickly agreeing and exiting the gym to claim a place in line for the photos.

Luckily the line wasn’t very long since the dance had essentially just begun. After around 5 minutes of waiting the eight friends found themselves at the front of the line. They decided to give the teacher running the photo area (their choir teacher, a very sweet man who many of them were familiar with) Remy and Emile’s phones, trusting the two eldest of the group to send the photos to everyone else via group chat later in the evening. The teacher quickly told them that they were allowed to take two photos, one more genuine, well-behaved photo and then a more silly photo before moving to allow them to take their places in front of the snowy backdrop.

The boys lined themselves up with Remy and Emile holding hands in the center. Roman, Virgil and Remus were spread out to Remy’s right, and Patton, Logan and Janus matched them to Emile’s left. They each plastered a simple smile across their face as the first photo was taken, looking poised and elegant. After the teacher gave them the go-ahead to get into position for the second photo Roman decided to make a bold snap-decision. He hastily wrapped his arms around Virgil and hoisted him up princess-style, Virgil letting out a surprised squeak and causing Roman to slightly bump into Remus. Remus nearly toppled over at this but was caught by someone, looking up to see Logan holding him up in a dip position. Not willing to sacrifice this opportunity, Remus simply said “Oh well,” and smiled brighter than he had all night into the camera, with Logan following suit. Emile opted to hop onto Remy’s back, Remy easily supporting the added weight.

Noticing everybody else pairing up, Patton turned to Janus. “Looks like everybody else is posing! Wouldn’t want to be left out!” He swung his arm around Janus’s shoulder, pulling them into a side-hug and leaning in so their heads were bumping each other. As their heads touched he let out a giggle so adorable Janus thought he might just die. Both of them smiling genuinely at the camera allowed the choir teacher to snap the second photo, finding it sweet how close this group was. He handed Emile and Remy their phones as everyone began to untangle themselves. Virgil could be heard grumbling a “Warn a dude next time, Princey.” But judging by the way he was glowing he wasn’t upset in the slightest. Roman began ushering them all back into the gym, eager to get onto the dance floor.

Janus’ head was spinning as they began looking for an open spot on the dance floor, the butterflies in his stomach increasing tenfold. They finally found an area decently close to the center just as Taylor Swift’s “22” began streaming through the speakers. Roman, Remus and Remy were almost immediately able to get into “the groove” as they called it, with Roman being very thankful he was only surrounded by his closest friends. Everybody else felt slightly awkward at first and it took a moment to warm up to dancing among so many people, but eventually they realized everybody else at the dance was focused on their own friend groups. This realization slowly helped each of the boys loosen up, and by the end of the song they were all dancing their hearts out in the small circle they had created.

The next song to play was ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” to which Roman squealed. As they reached the line “Dancing queen, young and sweet, only 17!” Patton, Emile and the twins were thrust into the center of the circle, being the 17 year olds among the group. Feeling the energy among his friends was exhilarating, and Janus was left wondering why he had opted out of dances in the past. This felt so freeing, and he was so genuinely happy. Looking around at all of his frieds’ smiling faces, he knew he wouldn’t need to be convinced to come to another dance from now on.

The songs continued to change, ranging from Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” to the classic Lady Gaga “Just Dance”. At one point “Timber” by Ke$ha and Pitbull was played, giving Remus the exact type of “fun” song he had been looking for. He jumped around wildly, pulling Logan in with him a few times throughout the song “jokingly flirting” and having the time of his life. Everybody else danced along to the song as well, but none of them came even close to matching Remus’ enthusiasm.

Once that song ended a slow song began to play, one Janus couldn’t recognize but Roman immediately announced was Ed Sheeran’s “perfect”. Remy and Emile took to the dance floor, while the six remaining boys opted to step outside for a breath of fresh air.

The group collectively decided to use this as time to take a breather. Standing in a line against the wall, they sat on the concrete, leaning on the wall behind them for support. It was nice for Janus to take a breather, not realizing just how crowded the dance floor had been. The air had started to feel stuffy and hot, though the environment was just too electric to ignore in the heart of the dance floor. He could hear his friend around him breathing deeply, taking in as much of the cool night air as possible. He decided to follow in their footsteps. After around five minutes Roman suggested they should head back inside, always eager to be in the thick of the dancing.

They felt more collected as the bunch re-entered the gym for the third time that night, working their way back into the crowd where Remy and Emile had secured their spot. Everybody quickly fell back into the dancing, no longer feeling any of the awkwardness from earlier in the evening. The song that had been playing eventually faded out into Rihanna’s “Diamonds”, a tune everybody quickly recognized. Janus was so caught up in his own dancing that he didn’t notice Patton slowly working his way through their friends and directly over to him. It was only when he felt a hand brush his that he turned, looking over at the precious boy next to him.

As the song neared it’s chorus Patton linked their hands together, continuing to bounce along to the song. He sang along with Rihanna as she sang through the chorus, looking directly at Janus as he did. He gently swayed and bounced their arms between them, trying to keep the mood light and fun. Once the chorus ended and the song switched back into the second verse Janus quietly asked, “What was that about?”

“Well, your vest is so sparkly and it makes you shine bright like a diamond, so I igured it would be appropriate if I danced with you for this song!” Patton had to be the sweetest human alive. There was no other explanation for the way his words made Janus feel absolutely weak in the knees, opting to no longer hide the goofy grin on his face. Janus felt no need to reply to the statement, letting his smile be enough of a response and moving to continue their lighthearted bouncing. The two continued to dance happily together throughout the song and settled easily back into casual dancing on their own once it ended.

As the event began to near it’s end, Janus could feel the fatigue begin to set in. He had been dancing for a good amount of time, with only three slow songs playing throughout the entire evening. He was sweaty and beginning to feel tired, but the bubbly feeling in his chest remained, his joy still being present within him. He looked around and could see his friends in a similar state. The DJ announced that the last song of the night was about to play, and the students’ ears were suddenly flooded with the voice of Katy Perry with her song “Firework”.

The teens gave their all to this last song, happily jumping along with their classmates and singing their hearts out at the chorus. ‘What a positive note to end the evening on’, Janus thought as the final chorus of the song rang through the school. At this point a good amount of people had left, but every student that was still at the school was singing along to the song’s final notes, letting out a collective breath once it ended.

The boys took a moment to catch their breath before walking over to collect the jackets, cell phones and other personal items that they had set down throughout the evening. Once everything was collected they slowly made their way back to the free parking lot, the cool nighttime air feeling like heaven against their skin.

“So, did you have fun?” Patton stood in front of Janus once again, looking at him hopefully. If Janus weren’t practically buzzing with energy he’s sure he would have melted into the floor at Patton’s tender tone.

“I… yes, I had an amazing time, Patton.” This only resulted in Patton grinning wider, jumping up and wrapping Janus in one last hug for the night. Janus held him there for a moment, squeezing him back tightly before letting go and waving goodbye to Patton, Logan, Remy and Emile for the evening. The group he had arrived with all climbed into his car after saying their goodbyes, beginning to feel the effects of their exhaustion.

The drive home was practically silent compared to the ones earlier on in the evening, allowing Janus to reflect on his amazing evening and feeling very lucky that he was a good driver even in the darkness. He could feel everyone’s fatigue, deciding they were too tired to stop for food. As he pulled up to Virgil’s house he found the emo boy asleep on Roman’s shoulder in the backseat, with Roman being equally passed out and Remus clearly dozing. He gently shook Virgil awake, saying a quick goodbye and letting the boy head inside to get some well-deserved rest. He arrived at the twins’ houses shortly after, nudging each of them awake. Roman didn’t seem to want to fully wake up, leaning on his brother for support as they walked into their own home.

As soon as Janus was parked in his own driveway we worked his way into his home and up to his bedroom, his feet feeling like lead due to his exhaustion at this point. As he opened the door to his room he felt his phone vibrate within his pocket, with the pictures from earlier being sent from Emile. Without looking he immediately knew what the text would be, smirking to himself as he changed into some basketball shorts and a t-shirt. The sleepy boy crawled into bed, plugging his phone in and falling asleep almost as soon as his head hit the pillow. He knew he would remember this night forever, the pure unfiltered glee he felt being hard to forget.

The next day the silly picture was printed out and hung in a spare frame above Janus’ computer, right where it belonged. ‘Yeah, I could get used to this.’

(A/N: Once again, thanks so much for reading! I’m so thankful that I finally got this done. I worked really hard on it the past couple days and it’s my first fully completed fic! I am new to this, so comments and constructive criticism is much appreciated! Have an amazing day! I love you!)

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homesweetsewer · 5 years

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Consolation Prize: Part 2 (Donatello x Fem Reader)

Hello! Finally got around to posting Part 2 (yay!). I’m thinking this is going to have 2 more parts to it...my muse willing. I also wanted to say that I’m horrible about checking my inbox so if you’ve sent me a message, I promise I’m not ignoring you. I’m slowly sorting through what’s in there and you are not forgotten. Gonna go ahead and link the rest of this little series since quit a few people told me it helps them navigate and I’m all about being user friendly!

Harmless: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

Radiant: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Consolation Prize: Part 1

“I think that should do it for tonight.” Donatello pushed away from the workbench and stood from his chair to stretch his long legs. “We’ll need to test the final compound and work on creating an efficient delivery system, of course, but it should neutralize both the acid and base properties rendering the chemicals useless.”

“And prevent the contamination of the city’s water supply.” A smile stretched April’s lips as she beamed up at him. “Don, you’re a genius.”

“That’s the rumor,” the ninja joked as he rolled his shoulders, relieving the kink in his neck from being bent over for so long.

April laughed and stood as well, stretching her slender body in an attempt to relieve her own aches and pains. She looked up at the turtle from beneath long eyelashes. “Seriously, Donnie, I really appreciate you taking the time to help me with this. I know you probably have a million other things you could be doing instead.”

“I’m happy to help. Besides,” Donatello shrugged, “that’s what friends are for, right?”

“Right,” April’s smile took on a sad edge. “I’m glad we’re able to do this,” she softly stated. “You know...after everything.”

“Yeah,” the bespectacled turtle quietly answered, a soft smile of his own gracing his lips. “Me, too.”

April didn’t need to elaborate. They hadn’t really talked about it, but Don knew exactly what she was referring to. He wouldn’t lie. He’d been hurt badly when he’d learned months ago of the woman’s relationship with Casey. At the time, he’d believed himself to be in love with her, hanging on her every word and action as if her very presence gave him life. The crush he’d had on the woman felt so silly now...embarrassing, really. Looking back, he could see that what had transpired between them, despite being a painful lesson, had actually been a blessing in disguise. If it weren’t for his heartbreak, he would have never found the amazing gift that had been staring him right in the face the entire time.

You.

He had a girlfriend...an incredible, beautiful, funny, intelligent girlfriend that he loved more than anything else in the world. Sometimes he felt like kicking himself for not realizing what you meant to him sooner, but then you’d smile at him or take his hand in your own and his heart would feel like it would want to explode right out of his chest and he’d forget about everything else except for you in that moment. The two of you just seemed to click so perfectly together, moving from friends to something more with surprising ease. You were able to see beyond the green skin and shell, down deep to who he really was and you loved him regardless. Him! How on Earth had he ever gotten so fortunate? His smile grew at the thought.

“You seem really happy,” the woman observed. “Things must be going well?”

“Things are great. I am really happy,” Donnie quickly confirmed. He gushed, a giggle escaping from his throat, “She’s...she’s amazing. Sometimes it’s still hard for me to believe it. She could have literally anyone she wants, but she still chose me for some reason.”

April made an amused sound. “She’s a smart girl. She knows a good man when she sees him.”

“Heh...” Donnie shook his head and looked away, embarrassed. “Uh...what about you and Casey?”

“You know.” April smirked and gave a half shrug. “Casey is Casey.”

“Ah,” Donatello wasn’t sure exactly how to respond and so merely nodded. To be honest, it was still a bit of a sore spot where his pride was concerned and he was glad she hadn’t gone into detail.

April sighed and stepped toward the turtle. Without warning, she wrapped her arms around him, ensconcing him in an embrace to the best of her ability with her cheek pressed against his plastron. “You’re a great guy, Donatello, I mean that. I’m happy for you...both of you. You deserve it. You all do.”

“Um,” the ninja stiffened slightly and patted her on the back awkwardly. Now that his feelings towards her had changed, it felt weird being so close to her. “Thanks, April. That means a lot coming from you.”

April lingered for a moment longer before pulling away and looking up at him with an almost melancholy expression. “Well...I guess I should probably get out of your way. Thanks again, Donnie. Enjoy the rest of your night.”

“You’re welcome,” Donatello replied softly as he watched the woman turn and slowly make her way out of the lab. “You, too.”

He stood there for a long moment after she left, a low hum emanating from deep in his chest as he turned the interaction over in his mind. He was glad that he and April were still able to work and spend time together as friends after all that had transpired. He’d been hurt and angry at her for a while, yes, but those feelings had faded once he’d had a real opportunity to sit down with himself and examine them. He still cared for her, but the giddy feeling of butterflies he’d once had whenever she was around had been replaced with a warm feeling of friendship, which he was thankful for. He could think clearly in her presence now and truly appreciate all she’d done to help his family. April was good people. She had a place in his heart, but it wasn’t exactly what he thought it would be. That space had been perfectly filled by another and he couldn’t have been more at peace with it.

He was a logical turtle. He put more stock in science than he did fate or destiny, but he couldn’t help feeling that everything had worked out as it was meant to. He’d been entirely truthful when he’d said he was really happy. He couldn’t imagine anything more satisfying or fulfilling than being in a romantic relationship with his best friend. You’d both decided to take things slow and he was perfectly okay with that. He’d never been in a relationship before, he was a turtle after all, and he appreciated the time to feel things out and get them just right. This was previously uncharted territory for him, for the both or you, really, but he couldn’t think of anyone he’d rather explore it with. He had plans, so many things that he wanted to do and experience, and he wanted to do those things with you, if you’d allow it.

Speaking of which...

Donnie’s eyes drifted toward the clock mounted on the wall and his eyes immediately widened behind his tortoise shell frames. An undignified squeak escaped from his throat as he bolted for the door. “Oh, no…no, no, no…”

The ninja burst out of his lab to find the lair more or less deserted. The lights were dim and the television silent. Muffled snores emanating from the couch reached his ears. He crept forward to peek over the back to see Mikey shell up, sleeping peacefully with his face buried in the cushions. Moving silently so as not to disturb his youngest brother, he crept toward the kitchen to find his older brother carefully rearranging the fridge in order to accommodate the evening’s leftovers.

Don cleared his throat, “Raph?”

“He lives,” Raph responded gruffly as he rose to his full height and turned to look at his brother. He inclined his head to the cardboard box he still held in his hands. “We saved ya some pizza.”

“I’m not…” Donnie shook his head. “I’m not hungry.”

“Suit yourself,” Raph shrugged and shoved the box into the space he’d cleared in the refrigerator. “Its there if ya change your mind.”

“Where, uh,” Donnie stuttered. “Where is everyone?”

“Where do ya think they are?” Raphael scoffed and slammed the refrigerator door and moved to shoulder his way passed his brother and out of the kitchen. “Its after 2 AM, genius.”

Donnie hurried after him. “I know, but…”

“If you’re askin’ about your girl,” Raph guessed, “she left over an hour ago. Leo was feelin’ all chivalrous and walked her home for ya. Ya know, since ya stood her up and all.”

“What?” Donatello squawked in indignation. “I didn’t stand her up!”

“Yeah?” Raph turned to look at his brother, one brow raised. “What do ya call it then? This ain’t the first time you’ve flaked out on her. You didn’t see her face after she sat here all night waitin’ on your sorry shell to remember she was here.”

“I-I was working,” the purple masked ninja defended. “I lost track of time!” Then, he added forlornly, “she didn’t even say goodbye…”

Raph looked pointedly at the other turtle. “Said she didn’t think you and April wanted to be bothered.”

“Bothered?” Donatello looked helplessly at his older brother. “Why would she even think that? She’s never a bother!”

“That’s not the impression she got. Look,” Raph shook his head and turned to continue his trek through the lair, “ya got a good thing goin’ here, Don. Ya don’t think any one of us would give our right arm to be in your shell? Ya got a great girl and she thinks the world of ya. I hate to see ya screw that up.”

“Wait,” a look of alarm settled over Donnie’s features. “You think I’m screwing things up?”

Instead of answering his brother’s panicked question, he stopped at the couch and balled his fist, knocking on Michelangelo’s shell. “Get up, Mikey,” he ordered. “Go get in bed.”

“Mmmkay…” the youngest turtle roused slowly, allowing his much larger brother to practically lift him from his reclined position by the rim of his shell and set him on his feet. Bleary eyed, he moved almost zombie like in the direction Raph propelled him in with a careful shove. “G’night, bros…”

“Raph!” Donatello demanded, “what do you mean I’m screwing things up?”

Raphael sighed and held his hands up in a defensive manner. “All I’m sayin’, is that it ain’t a good look.”

Exasperated, Donnie demanded, “What does that even mean?”

“It means,” Raph started, “that all the movies and books I’ve ever seen have taught me that girls don’t like it when ya repeatedly blow ‘em off to go hang out with your ex.”

“My ex?” Donatello looked confused for a moment before what his brother was getting at dawned on him. “You mean April? April isn’t my ex anything,” the tall terrapin insisted. “We were never together! Nothing ever happened! She knows that!”

“Not for lack of tryin’,” Raph pointed out. “Do ya remember how twisted up ya got when ya thought she was ghostin’ ya?”

Donnie swallowed hard, nodding. “Yeah…”

“Now imagine,” Raph painted the picture, “that instead of sittin’ at home alone, worrin’ about ya, she was holed up somewhere with some guy she never stopped talkin’ about and fawnin’ over to your face. How would that make ya feel?”

Donatello felt like someone had punched him in the gut as what his brother was getting at hit him full force. “But,” the purple banded ninja shook his head, “she knows April and I are just friends. I’d never do anything to betray her trust like that. She’s not just my girlfriend…she’s my best friend. I love her. She knows that.”

Raph eyed the other turtle skeptically. “Does she?”

“Yeah…” Donnie answered hesitantly, now feeling unsure under his brother’s heavy gaze. “I-I think so…”

“Ya think so?” Raphael shook his head. “Ya better make damn sure that ya know so. A girl like that…she’s got options and they ain’t limited to mutant freaks. She doesn’t have to be slummin’ it down here in the sewers with your scaly ass.”

“Seriously?” If Donatello wasn’t panicked before, he was now. He could feel the color drain from his face and his heart begin a furious gallop in his chest at the thought of losing you. “You think she’ll leave me?”

Raph shrugged, obviously done with the entire conversation.

Fear gripping him, Donnie asked, “what do you think I should do?”

“I’m a turtle, not an advice columnist,” Raphael deadpanned as he moved off toward the room he and Mikey shared. He called back over his shoulder, “you’re the brainiac, you figure it out. I’m goin’ to bed.”

Donatello was left standing alone in the middle of the darkened lair, his eyes glassy with unshed tears and his heart breaking over the thought of losing you. His brilliant mind whirred at a million thoughts a minute, all swirling around how foolish he’d been lately when it came to you. Now that he thought about it, all the signs were there. He’d done it again. He’d taken you for granted. He’d let himself get sucked into another project, with April of all people, and hadn’t really considered how you’d feel about it. Relationships were so new to him that, honestly, it hadn’t even crossed his mind that you’d be upset.

He berated himself. How stupid was he? Of course you’d be upset! He knew he would be if the roles were reversed. He couldn’t lose you. He wouldn’t let that happen. You meant everything to him. You had to know how much he loved you. He’d make sure of it.

He checked the time and sighed. It was late. Too late to call you now or slip out and go to your apartment. He didn’t want to disturb you should you be sleeping. He’d already done enough damage for one evening and didn’t want to make things worse.

“I’ll call her first thing in the morning,” he promised himself. “I can fix this. I know I can. It’ll be fine.”

At least, he hoped it would be.

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dragon-kazansky · 4 years

Text

A rose in London - Sherlock Holmes

Chapter 3 - A last request

The next morning John had invited you to breakfast to apologise for the dinner the night before. Though you told him it was of not fault of his, he insisted and explained that that was the reason he never wanted you to meet Sherlock. Holmes was completely strange and quite possibly not human. He doesn't think like others do and it's a problem. You insisted that was it fine and you were more concerned about Mary than yourself. John assured you she was fine, but there would be no more dinner parties with Sherlock. You agreed.

When that was over, John excused himself. He had to find Sherlock and talk to him. An important request had been made and it was vital John find Sherlock. You offered to help, but he refused. You asked to tag along and not see Sherlock, you mentioned what happened after John had left last night. John agreed and apologised once again. he felt truly awful for what had happened, and felt like a rather bad friend. You told him you could wait outside for him and then asked him what this important thing was. He was rather reluctant to tell you, so you didn't badger him about it.

You had taken a guess that it was about Blackwood, however. You wanted to go for the sake of having something to do, you had no plans for the day, but with the assumption it was about that case they did, you wanted to go with him to hear more.

John checked the flat, but he was defiantly not there. John led you to the boxing ring. Sometimes Sherlock came here to fight. You waited outside in the carriage, still not wanting to deal with Sherlock despite knowing he would have to come down and join you to get to wherever they were going. you would choose to ignore him for a while.

John went upstairs, after leaving you outside with a promise he would be quick, and found Sherlock plucking his violin at a jar of trapped flies. This still wasn't the weirdest thing he had ever walked in on when it came to his dear friend.

"Watson."

"Right, let's go."

"What started as merely an experiment, as brought me on the threshold of monumental of discovery." Sherlock rambled on about how playing different scales and notes, the flies behaved differently. John went on to look around the shabby room. He wasn't sure what was worse, this place or his actual flat. it appeared that no matter where Sherlock went, a mess was sure to follow.

John picked up a small bottle and read the label, he turned his friend with frown.

"You do know what you're drinking is for eye surgery."

Sherlock chose to ignore that statement and continued on discussing his discovery. John was not impressed in the slightest and put the bottle down, there was concern for his friend. John decided to get closer to the focus of Sherlock's attention and began to question things.

"I, using musical theory, have created order out of chaos." Sherlock said proudly.

"How did you lure them in?" John asked, more curious about that than anything else.

"Excellent question, individually. I've been at it for six hours."

John stared at Sherlock with a blank look. He wondered often how this man survived in the world. He was once again convinced the detective wasn't human. He just couldn't be.

"What happens if I do this?" John reached for the top of the vile and removed the magnifying glass that was keeping the flies in. He tapped the side with his cane and watched the flies find their escape, rendering the experiment useless now. "Clean yourself up. You are Blackwood's last request."

Sherlock let that sink in. He turned on his heel slowly and grabbed his coat. "Is she with you?" He asked, making sure it was on properly.

"No, Mary is at home. She wasn't too eager to see you again so soon." John was waiting by the door.

"I wasn't talking about Mary."

John glanced over at Sherlock who was gathering the few things he had with him here.

"Y/N is outside. She was bored and needed something to do." John sighed. "She also isn't too eager to see you, but she needed something to do."

"You should have brought her up with you." Sherlock walked past John and began to descend the stairs. John followed him quietly, not wanting to argue with Sherlock about his behaviour.

When Sherlock saw you sitting in the carriage, he became more excited to go and deal with request. For whatever reason, you made Sherlock want to do things just by being in those places he needed to be. John had noticed this.

"Lovely as always, Y/N."

You, not wanting to be rude, gave a small quick smile and a thank you, hoping this wouldn't turn into a conversation. You wouldn't know what to say to him, though you had to admit it was kind of nice to see him again, even in his rough state.

John climbed in and sat beside Sherlock. You turned your gaze to outside the window.

"Shall I have you dropped off at home?" John asked you kindly.

"No it's OK. I'll only grow further bored there. I'll take a walk when we get there." You gave John a comforting smile.

"If you're sure."

"You could come with us." Sherlock offered, his deep gaze piercing you.

Your lips parted slightly as you hesitated, staring right back at him. That was a strange offer considering you had nothing to do with Blackwood. After all, today he would hang for his crimes. You didn't really want to see that.

"Sherlock." John scolded him.

"You don't have to do anything, but if you want to, you can accompany us." Sherlock ignored the other man beside him and kept his attention focused on you.

"I don't think so." You muttered. "I don't like the idea of watching a man face his death sentence. I also have no reason to be there, this was your case after all."

Sherlock didn't turn his gaze away when you did. John could see him staring at you into the corner of his eye and gave him a nudge with his elbow. Sherlock was unfazed by that. The detective was very much interested in you. He knew everything about you, but at the same knew nothing. If only you would talk to him.

There was time for that later.

Along the way Sherlock had tried to make conversation, just to talk to you at least a little bit. He brought up to construction of what would become Tower Bridge. The carriage passed right past it, so you got a good view of it's progress. You couldn't help but wonder it would look when it was finally complete. Sherlock was hoping he was impressing you with the information he knew of the construction, but your face gave away no sign of being impressed. Though he could tell you were interested by the look in your eyes. He felt like he had at least learnt something else about you within that moment.

He teased John about collecting his winnings from the match that night, despite him not being there. Sherlock had put a bet on, knowing he would win using his skills to beat the opponent. That defiantly wasn't impressing you, but you were mildly amused that Sherlock put a bet on for John. knowing John was trying to get over his gambling faze.

Sherlock then brought up the opera. He said he could get tickets, but John wasn't interested. You, however, perked up a little bit. Very rarely you got to go and see the opera, so if Sherlock was at all able, you would have liked to go.

Sherlock noticed your interest.

"You have a gran gift of silence, Watson. Y/N, however, looks rather interested." His deep gaze met yours.

"Oh, well... I can't lie. The opera does sound interesting, but I wouldn't have anyone to go with." You gave a small smile.

Sherlock was going to say something, but John put and end to it.

The ride wasn't long and soon the carriage had reached it's destination. John was the one to help you out, pushing Sherlock to the side slightly as to keep distance between the pair of you. Sherlock side glanced John, unimpressed with that attitude, but he kept his mouth shut, smiling at you when his eyes met yours once more.

"Will you be alright?" John asked, concern evident on his face. There was crowds of people outside the prison, all yelling things you couldn't quite make out.

"Yes. I don't really want to see it. Will you be alright?"

"I'll be fine. I'm a doctor." He gave a chuckle.

You smiled, "just because you're a doctor doesn't mean you're OK with watching people die. Even evil people."

Sherlock found that amusing and chuckled from beside Watson. John ignored him and put on a smile, a brave face.

"I would feel much better if you came with us." Sherlock spoke up. "I fear I won't be able to concentrate knowing we left you out here on your own."

"Are you worried about my safety, Mr. Holmes?"

"Preciously." The expression on his face was gentle, but there was no sign of a smile. He looked, as far as you could tell, actually concerned about you. It appeared the thought of leaving you on your own worried him.

"I don't have to watch the hanging, do I?"

"Not if you don't want to, but I'll be happier knowing you're inside with us." Sherlock offered you his arm.

"You can come with me." John offered. "I have no purpose with him alive, I'll only be examining his body."

"Alright. That sounds better." You ignored the arm Sherlock had offered you and went with John. Sherlock was escorted inside. He did glance over his shoulder as you went in the opposite direction with Watson.

"Is Sherlock always like that?"

"Yes. I'm sorry you ever had to meet him."

"Don't apologise. I find him intriguing, but I find him so odd. He's so strange and seems so interested in me." You sighed softly. "I can't see why. I'm not very interesting at all."

"I wouldn't say that. I think you're interesting. Sherlock has known about for quite some time, but I refused him the chance to ever meet you in person. He was always interested in your few visits to the flat, or when I mentioned meeting up with you every so often. I think he rather fancies you, if I'm being honest."

"Fancies me?" You looked at John shocked. "What have you told him about me?"

"Only the truth." John smiled. "Don't worry, if he says anything just let me know. I can deal with him." He chuckled rather fondly.

You weren't sure what to do with the information of the detective seeing in such a light. You didn't know him very well, only what you read about him or what John told you. You decided right then that you would at least make an effort to talk to him. You had a feeling that you were going to be seeing him a lot now you've met him.

When the time came for the hanging, John had requested you wait in an office nearby. You had an officer for company, who you talked to until the event was over. The policeman understood you not wanting to be there to witness such an act, even if the criminal in question deserved it. John promised to come and collect you once he had officiated the death.

As promised, he came with Sherlock.

"Were you alright?" John asked.

"Yes, this gentleman kept me company. Is it over?"

"It is. He's dead."

You were glad.

Sherlock offered you his arm again, this time you took it. He said nothing as the three of you left the building. Sherlock didn't talk about what Blackwood wanted him for, and you didn't ask either. He was being oddly quiet, much like last night after Mary had left. It felt strange to see him so silent.

You didn't question him.

They took you home. Sherlock made sure to see you to the door, telling John he could do it without issue and insisting John remain inside the carriage. He was being a gentleman to you.

"Enough excitement for one day, don't you think?" He asked, smiling.

"Yes, very much so. Are... are you alright, Mr. Holmes?"

"Call me Sherlock, please." He insisted.

"Sherlock." You smiled.

"Nothing sleep won't fix." He put on a smile, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. "You must come over for tea sometime soon."

"I would like that very much." You smiled, yours making your whole face light up.

"Until then." He lifted your hand and placed a kiss to it, leaving you at your door and returning back to John, who had been watching everything.

You waved them off and went inside.

Tags:

@awyr @fandombeehive @charmed-asylum @sigynbandraoi-blog @procrastinatingmurder @madshelily @phantomofhogwarts

#sherlock holmes x reader #sherlock holmes #a rose in london #chapter 3 #robert downey jr

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mdelpin · 5 years

Text

To Kill A Dragon - Chapter 6

Previous: Ch 5 | Ch 6 | Next: Ch 7

Warning: There will be disturbing content in this chapter, including torture and the rape of a major character.

Chapter 6: The Red Dragon Pt 2

Tiamat stepped out of her Magic Sealing Stone and into the dimly lit hallway of the abandoned building the Penta Dragons used as their headquarters. She didn't bother looking around, her enhanced senses already informing her there was no one about.

She walked into the second Magic Sealing Stone and found Natsu still unconscious. She removed his clothing, including the scarf that seemed to be made of dragon scales, Igneel's if she wasn't mistaken.

How sweet, She thought mockingly, but it reinforced the impression she'd had that this human meant something to the Fire Dragon King. And that thought excited her.

She took a moment to admire the muscular body of the boy in front of her before binding his hands and feet with additional restraints. When she was satisfied Natsu wouldn't be able to move on his own, she stepped back.

It was time.

"Hello, Igneel, remember me?" Tiamat purred mockingly to the dragon dwelling inside of Natsu Dragneel. She ran her fingers through the boy's pink locks hoping to get a rise out of her old friend.

"I thought we should have a little chat before your boy wakes up."

"Can you reply?" Tiamat remained quiet for a few minutes, trying to determine if she could hear any kind of answer from the red dragon, but there was nothing.

Tiamat pouted, disappointed she wouldn't be able to hear him beg her for mercy on the boy's behalf, but she supposed that gave her even more freedom to do what she wanted.

She smirked in anticipation at the frustration Igneel would experience as he watched his precious human being tortured. It made her giddy with anticipation.

"No matter, I know you can hear me," Tiamat touched Natsu's cheeks, caressing the softness of his smooth skin with her fingers.

"Such a pretty human you chose, it really is too bad. Had the circumstances been different, I would have given him nothing but pleasure."

"But what you did, Igneel, I can't let it go unpunished," Tiamat stepped back from Natsu. "You took away everything I loved, and now you're hiding in this boy like the coward I always knew you to be."

"So I will punish him in your stead. In every way I can think of," Tiamat announced matter-of-factly, "By the time I'm done, he's going to wish he were dead, that I can promise you."

"But don't worry, I won't kill him," Tiamat crowed, "I have a much better purpose for him."

She left the magic sealing stone and returned to her own to rest. Tomorrow, she would begin.

xxx

Day 1

Natsu jolted awake. He looked around, not recognizing his surroundings. Where was he and how had he gotten here?

Erza

The name pierced through his still muddled thoughts urging him to give it attention. And then he remembered what had happened.

It didn't matter how he'd gotten here, he needed to figure a way out and fast. Had to help Erza get away from whoever had made her act so strangely! If she'd been behaving that way with him, he thought with concern, she might also do so with others.

Natsu examined the small room he found himself in, desperately searching for his friend in every corner, but he soon admitted defeat. He was alone.

It wasn't until he tried to move that he realized the position he was in. Not only was he completely naked, but he was immobilized by magic sealing cuffs. He looked in the room, desperately trying to locate his scarf but, like Erza, it was nowhere to be found. The immediate sense of loss was tremendous.

The room itself was empty except for some torches on the wall, a clip hanging from the ceiling and two built into the floor. Natsu examined his cuffs and noticed there were chains attached to them.

He heard someone approaching. He tensed up but then relaxed as a familiar scent reached his nose. It smelled like Erza! She strode into the room, stopping to look at Natsu appraisingly.

"Erza! Don't just stand there, get me out of these!" Natsu implored urgently.

Erza approached him, slowly running her hands over his bare chest, feeling the powerful muscles underneath. Natsu tried to move away, uncomfortable with the way Erza was touching him, but there was something about the cuffs that seemed to prevent him from moving.

"Why would I want to do that?" Erza peered at him, "I'm the one who put them on you."

Natsu gaped at her, he couldn't understand what was happening, all he knew was the way Erza was behaving was making him feel very uncomfortable. She'd seen him naked plenty of times, why was she acting like this?

Erza used the chains from his handcuffs to pull him up to a standing position, snapping them into the ceiling clip. She then attached his ankle cuffs to the clips on the floor. Natsu tried to struggle but couldn't move his body well enough.

Erza pulled on the chains making sure they held in place and stood back to admire her handiwork. Natsu stood on display, arms pulled taut above his head, legs spread apart.

"Erza, you need to snap out of this," Natsu pleaded, "We need to get outta here."

"You're not going anywhere," Erza replied, her eyes devoid of her usual warmth, making them appear dull and Natsu finally had to accept the Erza he knew wasn't home.

Natsu was unable to fight, something he was definitely not used to. For the first time in his life, he actually felt frightened by Erza. She wasn't acting like herself, whatever drug she'd been given had taken control of her, and that was a problem. Natsu knew what Erza was capable of and how many weapons she had at her disposal. If he couldn't get through to her, he was in serious trouble.

"I want you to answer something for me before we get started," Erza scowled, her eyes piercing into him, demanding an answer. "I'm the strongest one on our team, you should have been trying to take me. Why didn't you?"

She seemed puzzled by his actions, and Natsu had no idea what she meant. Take her? Take her where? He decided to ignore the question and stall for time. "What do you mean by get started?"

"I asked you a question," Erza snapped, her voice shrill as she pulled a long double-edged dagger out from her belt and trailed its flat blade on his chest. "You have one last chance to answer me."

"You're not Erza, are you?" Natsu cursed himself for believing this could ever be her. Of course it wasn't, Erza would never act like this, drug or no drug.

"I am so much more," Tiamat threw her head back cackling in amusement.

"Answer my question, I don't like being ignored," Tiamat demanded, and when Natsu remained silent, she made a shallow cut on Natsu's arm, testing the weapon on his flesh. She relished the hiss that escaped him, her control loosening as the smell of the blood seeping out of him invaded her nostrils.

"Erza is like a sister. I could never see her the way you want me to," Natsu held her gaze defiantly and never one to cower demanded, "Now could you stop wearing her face?"

"I see," Tiamat pretended to ignore his outburst. "A small miscalculation on my part, I guess it must be one of the others then. Interesting."

Tiamat calmly plunged the dagger into Natsu's stomach, using almost surgical precision to ensure she missed all his organs as she turned the blade slowly before pulling it out in one swift motion.

Natsu's body tried to double over as the pain exploded inside him, but he lacked the mobility to do so. He could feel the blood gushing out of the wound, but he managed to withhold his scream.

Natsu didn't know what this was about or what this person wanted from him, but he was stubborn, and pain was something he was definitely used to.

"So who is it then? Who is it that holds your fancy?" Tiamat tapped her temple casually as she considered her other choices.

Could it be the perky blonde or was it perhaps the handsome ice mage? Tiamat mulled about which one would get her what she wanted. She studied Natsu and began to piece a plan together, applying everything she knew about him.

Natsu watched the woman in front of him warily. He had no idea why she was so interested in finding out that information but his instincts screamed that he should keep it to himself, as he'd always done.

Why couldn't he just have stayed at the guild and waited for Gray? How long had he been gone? Was anyone looking for him?

He hadn't told anyone where he was going so it would take his friends time to realize he was missing. He'd just have to hold out until they came for him. He had no doubt they would.

"What did I tell you about ignoring me?" She screamed viciously. The scent of his blood was placing her into a frenzy, and she let it consume her.

Tiamat wanted to cover herself in it, it had been a long time since she'd bathed in a dragon's blood. Her blood lust took over, and she continued to slash at him, covering his arms and legs in cuts, mostly shallow but some deep.

Natsu screamed in agony, no longer able to hold it in. Blood pooled at his feet as it dripped down his body. Erza moved on to his chest, the dagger seeming to dance in the air as it cut and slashed at his flesh.

Natsu was horrified at what was happening, and he was getting weaker, his body growing cold as he lost more and more blood. He welcomed the cold, willing it to lend him strength as it reminded him of Gray and all his other friends.

Once he started to lose consciousness, he didn't fight it. The last thing he saw was Erza covering herself in his blood, her expression one of joy as she danced around him.

'Natsu... Natsu...'

Natsu looked around for the source of the voice. It sounded familiar, filling him with a longing that he'd never gotten over. Everything around him was dark, but he felt very light.

'Igneel?' he asked slowly.

'Natsu, you must listen to me...', the voice spoke urgently.

Day 2

Natsu opened his eyes, slowly blinking back into consciousness. He didn't know how much time had passed. The room didn't have any windows, the only light coming from the torches on the wall. He thought someone had been trying to talk to him. It had seemed important, but he couldn't remember it.

He was back on the floor, which he saw had been cleaned of his blood. Even though it seemed like someone had tended to his wounds while he'd been unconscious, he still felt a constant, throbbing pain everywhere he'd been cut.

Once he'd taken stock of his situation, Natsu finally noticed he wasn't alone. There was an arm draped over his side, and he could feel soft puffs of warm air on his shoulders as he registered soft snores originating from a body behind him. A familiar scent bewildered him. Gray? He couldn't turn around to check, but he allowed himself to feel comforted and drifted off to sleep.

When he awoke again, Natsu found himself alone. He must have imagined Gray's presence, he had been the last thing Natsu had thought of before losing consciousness.

His body still hurt where Erza had stabbed him, his regeneration not able to accelerate his healing while he was wearing the magic sealing cuffs.

No, not Erza, he reminded himself. What the hell had he gotten himself into? He stubbornly tried to move his limbs but couldn't.

He wasn't used to being helpless, and he didn't like it. His frustration deepened as he tried to think of a way out of this nightmare. He needed to get out of here before that psycho came back.

He stared at the flames of the torches with longing. The rumbling in his stomach reminding him that he hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast at the guild. Whenever that was.

An intense blast of light came from outside the room and hit him square in the chest, knocking him out. When he came to, he was once again chained. He heard a snap followed by a sharp pain across his back.

Natsu felt a sticky wetness on his back, and the smell of iron once again wafted into his nose. He couldn't see who was attacking him as they were behind him, but they chose that moment to do it again. He yelled and tried to arch his back away from his attacker. It hurt like hell.

"Oh, you're up!", Lucy chirped, "I was getting tired of waiting, so I was practicing with my whip."

She snapped her wrist and aimed her whip at his chest, leaving an angry looking welt that soon started to bleed. Natsu hissed as the sting intensified his already considerable pain.

"What do you think of my outfit, isn't it super cute?" Lucy twirled in front of him like she hadn't just used her whip on him, "I think the whip makes me look sexy, don't you?"

Natsu gazed at her uncomprehendingly. She cracked her whip again, and he shrieked.

"What did I say about ignoring me? I asked you a question."

Natsu narrowed his eyes, as those words tried to get through his confusion, but he couldn't make the connection.

Lucy walked up to him and pressed her lips against his. The kiss brought him back to the present.

This wasn't Lucy. He bit down on her lip hard enough to draw blood. She slapped him and wipe the blood off her mouth with the back of her hand while grinning at him admiringly.

"It's nice to see you still have some spirit left in you," She responded to his defiance by lashing at his chest with three successive slaps from her whip. "We'll have to work on that."

"Damn it! " Natsu screamed at Lucy in misery and frustration, "What do you want with me?"

"I really like this, whip!" She ignored his outburst, swishing the whip in the air a couple of times, trying to get the wrist snap just right. "It's fun!"

"Want to play some more, Natsu?"

Natsu was getting angry, and that made him reckless, "You can't even imitate Lucy right, she's much better with that whip than you!"

"We'll just have to see about that!" Lucy's eyes gleamed, accepting his challenge.

She moved behind him again this time lashing at his butt cheeks and legs. Once again, there was a lot of blood, and she could feel her control slipping. It was time for her to leave for a while. It wouldn't do to kill him, not for what she had in mind.

Natsu sighed in relief as she left. His eyes had been starting to tear up, but he hadn't wanted to give her the satisfaction. The burning pain from the welts was so intense, and he was still hurting from the day before. Natsu tried to keep his breathing shallow, but it was too much, and he went under again.

Natsu smelled Gray's scent, and he opened his eyes warily, not wanting to risk being fooled again. Gray was cleaning his injuries gently with a wet cloth. He had a worried expression on his face as he looked at the condition of Natsu's body. Natsu saw Gray had some bruises as well, and his chest was bandaged.

"Gray?" Natsu asked weakly.

"Shh. Don't talk, idiot. You look like shit." Gray stopped what he was doing and ran his fingers through Natsu's hair, petting him until the dragon slayer calmed down. He continued tending to Natsu's injuries.

"Are you really here?"

Gray stopped his ministrations and gave Natsu a weak smile, but Natsu recognized the pity in it and felt humiliated. He wanted to protest, to shove Gray away and tell him he didn't need his help, but he was too happy to see him.

"I saw them take you and followed, but I wasn't able to take them all out," Gray looked down and away from Natsu, trying to hide his embarrassment at being bested, a gesture Natsu recognized all too well. "There were too many."

"Is anybody else coming?"

"I don't know, but they're bound to notice we're missing soon," Gray shrugged, "What do they want with you anyway?"

"I don't know, she just keeps asking who I fancy."

"Why would she care about that?"

Natsu shrugged helplessly.

"So just tell her, maybe they'll let us go."

"I have this feeling that something bad will happen if I do."

"Baka, look at yourself. How much longer do you think you can keep this up?"

He glared at Gray fiercely, "As long as I have to."

"I see your stubbornness is still intact," Gray rolled his eyes at him, and Natsu managed to chuckle at the familiar display.

"I'm gonna clean up your back, it looks pretty bad," He whistled as he got a good look at the damage, "I wish I had some salve to put on those welts."

"Can you get me down? My arms really hurt."

"Yeah, let me finish cleaning you up first."

Gray finished tending to Natsu's backside, gently unhooking the chains from the clips and laying him carefully on the ground. He lay down behind the dragon slayer and put his arm around him like he'd done the previous night.

Natsu was too exhausted to complain. Besides, considering how hellish his day had been, he couldn't be blamed for accepting the small comfort Gray was offering him. He fell asleep, surrounded by the soothing scent of his best friend.

'Natsu...Listen to me...you're in danger!...NATSU!'

Natsu was back in the darkness.

'Igneel?' Natsu wondered dreamily.

'Natsu, that woman is trying to steal your magic. You mustn't give her what she wants.'

'Where you? ...searched ...years...Igneel...'

'Nevermind that now. You must find a way to escape. Tiamat is the Dragon Queen of all the chromatic dragons. You're a red dragon, we're the strongest.'

'I'm a red dragon,' Natsu repeated.

'You have to stop her. If she gets your magic, she'll be able to defeat the others.'

'Igneel..help...hurts.'

'I'm so sorry, my son.'

'..don't...go'

xxx

Day 3

"Natsu, wake up."

Someone was shaking him gently, but Natsu refused to open his eyes. His entire body was riddled with pain, and he didn't want to wake up. The gentle shaking continued. He grumbled and opened his eyes reluctantly.

Gray, maybe Gray, was looking down at him with concern.

"Here, drink this."

Natsu was so thirsty. He hadn't been given anything to eat or drink since he'd been imprisoned. He drank the liquid Gray was offering him greedily. It tasted awful, but it felt good going down his throat.

"Thank you."

Gray nodded, watching Natsu intently, his head tilted to the side like he was considering something before embracing him and kissing his forehead.

Natsu peered at Gray, surprised by the gesture. It wasn't like the ice mage to show him any kind of physical affection. Natsu was struggling to make sense of what was happening. His mind was so foggy, and his body was starting to feel like it was burning up. He worried his wounds were becoming infected.

"We're going to get out of this, together," Gray held his gaze as he told him firmly, "I promise."

Natsu nodded slowly, willing himself to believe there was a way out of this nightmare he'd been thrust into. Gray leaned in and captured Natsu's lips with his own.

Natsu tried to protest, but he was too far gone in body and spirit to fight something part of him wanted anyway. He responded weakly, and Gray soon pulled away, a wide smirk on his face.

"Gray?"

But Gray was gone, and Natsu lay on the floor of his cell wondering what was going to happen next. Despite his brave words the previous day, he didn't know how much more punishment his body could take if his regeneration were blocked.

Natsu was hungry, tired, and confused. The burning heat was muddling his thoughts. At this point, he wasn't sure if Gray was even real or if he'd made him up as a source of comfort.

Like Igneel's voice, that he kept hearing when he was out of it. Natsu was glad that at least Igneel wasn't around to witness his weakness.

A woman he didn't recognize came into the room. She had long black hair and black eyes. Her scent was strong and intimidating, filling him with instinctual deference.

She wore a dark robe, and when she turned, Natsu noticed it had a familiar symbol on it. Five dragon heads joined by the neck to form a circle, each dragon a different color.

Natsu saw the red dragon head on the cloak and found himself muttering uncertainly, "I'm a red dragon."

"I see our friend came out to play after all," Tiamat marveled,

"Did he tell you why this is happening to you?" She asked curiously, grabbing Natsu's chains and pulling him up forcefully, once again placing them in the different clips.

"Well then, let me tell you a story," As she talked she tested the chains, "A long time ago, there was a beautiful Dragon Queen named Tiamat, and she ruled over all of the chromatic dragons. In her dragon form, she had five heads, each capable of a different type of magic -- fire, light, shadow, lightning, and poison."

Natsu listened to the woman as she told her story, doing his best to pay attention, but his thoughts were still disjointed.

"Tiamat was a strong warrior, and she demanded strength in all of her subjects. They loved her and did whatever she asked of them without question."

Tiamat glanced at Natsu, making sure she had his attention. When she was satisfied, she continued her tale.

"One day she met a fierce red dragon who was different from the others, and she fell in love with him. He didn't always do what she asked, and to her surprise, she found that rousing. He spoke his mind to her even when he knew she wouldn't agree.

Their most significant disagreement had to do with humans.

Tiamat thought of humans as violent creatures, only useful as a food source or to enrich her hoard, but the red dragon saw something more in them. He felt humans were resourceful and noble, and his fondest wish was for dragons and humans to coexist peacefully.

Even knowing this, Tiamat's love for the red dragon was so strong that she attempted to make him her mate, but he rejected her. She loved him so much though that she was willing to forgive him the slight, but then he did the worst thing that a dragon can do.

He taught humans dragon magic to help them destroy us and encouraged other dragons who shared his beliefs to do the same. He betrayed her and became a traitor to all of dragon kind.

As more and more of her beloved dragons were killed by humans, she grew to hate the red dragon as much as she had once loved him. In the end, the humans were able to use their magic to banish her, and she disappeared from this world, until now.

I am Tiamat, and that red dragon was none other than your father, Igneel."

"Where's Igneel? Did you do something to him? I'll kill you!" Natsu was furious, his father's name had penetrated through his muddled senses as nothing else could.

"Were you not listening, you simpleton? I did nothing to him," Tiamat glanced at him with growing amusement, curious as to what exactly he thought he could do to her in his current position.

"Tell me, son of Igneel, have you experienced your first heat yet?"

"What?" Natsu had no idea what she was talking about.

"Don't tell me Igneel didn't teach you about mating," Tiamat feigned surprise, "Well, no matter you're about to find out."

"It's incredible the things that humans have in books. They are indeed resourceful creatures, Igneel was right about that.

To save dragons from dying out, they attempted to create a solution that could induce a heat. You drank that very solution a few hours ago," Tiamat leered at the young dragonslayer triumphantly, "Can you feel the heat coursing through your body?"

Natsu could only stare at her, he certainly could feel the heat, and it was very uncomfortable. He could sense other changes going on in his body as well, making him feel sensations he wasn't accustomed to.

"Yes, I see you can," Tiamat noticed the flush in his skin, smelled the other telltale signs of arousal as the pheromones needed to attract a mate altered his scent and wafted towards her. She laughed out loud.

"It seems you're a submissive dragon, I suppose that explains your choice of mate," Tiamat continued to talk, taking advantage of his innocence and doing her best to confuse him, "I can't judge you, he is rather attractive."

"I wonder, does he return your love?" Tiamat mused, "Not that it'll make any difference as I intend to make you my mate."

"You and I are going to be bound together," Tiamat peered at the boy standing before her battered and bruised and so very young, and for a moment she was filled with pity. He was but a pawn in a conflict that had begun long before he was born.

She disregarded the feeling, it had no place here. Not when she was so close to getting her revenge. It had been her weakness for Igneel that had gotten her into this mess in the first place.

She instantly recognized that the appearance of pity, however, could help move things along. Might make the boy submit willingly, which was something she needed to get what she wanted from him.

"However, in consideration of the love I once held for your father, this one time, I will let you have your love," Tiamat offered magnanimously.

"W-what?" Natsu was still very confused, not entirely sure what was happening. His body was acting strangely, and his head was swimming with all the things Tiamat had said about Igneel and the dragons.

The Dragon Queen transformed herself into Gray Fullbuster.

"Hey, Flame Brain," Gray smirked at Natsu.

"Do you prefer this form?" Tiamat asked conversationally.

Natsu looked at Gray in horror. He was such a fool, he'd been so distraught he'd fallen into her trap.

"Change back," Natsu pleaded, every other thought in his mind forgotten as panic exploded within him.

Gray chuckled. "What's the matter, lover, aren't you happy to see me?"

He moved closer to Natsu, "Just relax, I'll do all the work this time."

Gray unbuttoned his pants, lowering his zipper and letting them fall to the floor. His boxers soon followed. Natsu had seen Gray naked enough times to know that this was a perfect replica of his friend down to the scars.

Except he'd never seen Gray aroused. He had an impressive length, and Natsu tensed as he finally understood what was happening. Gray meant to put that inside of him. No dammit, not Gray this was Tiamat. This was not Gray. Gray would never do this to him.

"If you cooperate, I promise I will make this as pleasant for you as possible. It's your first time after all," Tiamat said in Gray's voice.

"If you fight me, Gray will go away, and you'll be forced to mate with one of my avatars," Tiamat briefly turned into a male like being with five dragon heads before turning back into Gray.

"Your choice, dragon slayer."

Gray moved closer to him and put his arms around Natsu's waist, kissing him gently. Natsu was ashamed to feel his body betraying him and responding to the ice mage's closeness.

He didn't want this, he just wanted to wake up from this nightmare.

Gray felt Natsu's cock harden from just his kiss, and he smirked. He grabbed Natsu roughly and started jerking his hand up and down his length in confident strokes.

Gray kissed him again, nibbling on Natsu's bottom lip until the dragon slayer parted his lips for him. Gray's tongue entered Natsu's mouth exploring all the crevices in the warm space, coaxing him to respond. Tears fell silently from Natsu's eyes amidst the small moans of pleasure that were escaping his throat.

Gray released the chains from the clips and lay Natsu's limp body down on the ground. He immediately straddled him and started running his fingers gently over Natsu's body, trailing some of his wounds and kissing them. Natsu's defenses continued to fall as the solution burned through his body, blurring his sense of reality and increasing his need for physical release.

"Please, I don't want this," Natsu begged Gray, willing him to listen.

"I'll make you feel so good," Gray whispered into his ear, "I love you, Natsu."

He rubbed their erections together, reveling in the relief that the friction brought and the noises coming from his lover. Both of them were leaking at this point, and he covered his fingers in it. He moved his mouth to Natsu's nipples, licking and gently biting the hardened nubs.

Gray began to prepare the fire mage's entrance, while Natsu was distracted by the new sensation. He slipped a finger in, and Natsu immediately tensed and cried out.

"Shh, you have to relax, or it's going to hurt. Trust me."

Natsu glared at him incredulously. Trust me? You've got to be kidding. Why was this happening to him? He wanted to fight but remembered the five-headed dragon and shuddered. He tried to make himself relax but remembered what was about to happen and couldn't.

Gray continued pushing a finger in and out of him, adding another and moving them both around, stretching the space to better accommodate himself. He added a third finger.

When Gray felt Natsu was as ready as possible, he removed his fingers and kissed him deeply. He positioned himself in front of the fire mage's entrance, and after giving his cock a few jerks, he lined himself up and pushed himself inside.

Gray stopped briefly, letting Natsu adjust to what was happening. He continued to push himself inside, taking his time until he was all the way in. Pausing for a minute, Gray grabbed Natsu's hands in his own. He moved in and out, slowly at first.

"I love you, Natsu," Gray whispered softly, "Don't you love me?"

Natsu didn't answer. How could he accept the words when he knew they weren't real?

Suddenly, Gray spoke in Tiamat's voice, "I suggest you let yourself enjoy the fantasy because I can assure you, this will never happen again."

Natsu closed his eyes tightly and came to a sudden decision. If this were the only time he'd ever be with the man he'd secretly loved for years, he'd let himself enjoy it.

Even if he wasn't the real one. It's not like Natsu had much choice, he was now very much into his heat.

"I love you, Gray," Natsu confessed, if only to himself, "I have for a long time now."

Gray started moving more quickly at the words, and Natsu's moans became louder. Gray smiled and started jerking him off, keeping the same rhythm between his hand and his hips. They were both close now. Their mating taking on a sense of urgency.

Now that Natsu knew that Gray would go away after they were done, he didn't want it to be over. He tried to cling to Gray for as long as possible before his real nightmare began.

For his part, Gray did his best to make the experience as pleasant for Natsu as possible. They came within seconds of each other, and Gray collapsed on top of him. At his climax, Natsu's whole body covered itself in flames and Gray absorbed all of them.

Natsu passed out, and Gray gave him one last kiss before getting up and transforming back into Tiamat's cloaked figure.

Tiamat felt the new power coursing through her body. The amount of magic she'd absorbed from the Fire Dragon Slayer was tremendous. She grinned triumphantly in the knowledge that she now possessed Igneel's power. She left the room quickly.

She had a fire to start, a cult to terminate, and a fire mage to finish breaking.

xxx

Natsu wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he could now add his ass to his growing list of aches and pains. He hadn't encountered Igneel in the darkness this time, so either the dragon was disgusted with him, or he'd imagined him all along. He remembered Gray absorbing his fire, and he guessed that meant that Tiamat had taken his magic.

Natsu felt completely useless. At no point in any of this had he had a chance to fight. No one ever came to help him, and he had no idea where he was.

He was pretty sure the other dragon slayers were in danger, and there was not a damn thing he could do about it. He'd never been more frustrated in his life. He'd heard screams outside of his prison for a while now but didn't know what was happening.

Gray came into the room, fully dressed.

"What's going on outside?" Natsu asked, trying to ignore the flutter in his heart that still hoped this was the real one.

Gray stared down at Natsu coldly, all traces of his earlier tenderness gone. He grabbed his chains and attached them to the clips on the ceiling and floor.

He started kicking Natsu in the chest and stomach. Over and over until he was retching. He felt his ribs crack, and he thought one might have pierced his lung. He was having trouble breathing, and his stab wound started bleeding again. His body felt numb, and he was shivering from the loss of blood.

"Stop," Natsu called out weakly.

"You're so pathetic and weak," Gray snarled. His face contorted in rage. He punched Natsu's head, and jaw until the fire mage's vision began to blur.

"You're an embarrassment to Fairy Tail," Gray continued to beat Natsu within an inch of his life, kicking and punching mercilessly any part of his body he could get a hold of.

"I could never love someone like you. You disgust me," Those were the last words Natsu heard before the world faded to black around him, while Gray continued to abuse his battered body.

A/N: This was chapter was really hard to write and even harder to edit. I added about 1300 and I could honestly keep at it but it’s an uncomfortable chapter and I really wanted to finish. Revised and edited on May 16, 2019 - I added more depth to Tiamat's conversation with Igneel, and tried to give her more depth overall. I also added a little more to Natsu's thoughts and to his interactions.

#fairy tail #gratsu #ftlgbtales #fanfiction #update #tkad #tiamat #igneel #natsu dragneel #erza scarlet #gray fullbuster #lucy heartfilia #chapter 6 #torture #rape #triggers

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broken-clover · 6 years

Text

Goretober Day 11- Live Surgery

Ohohohoho, now we’re onto something fun. Here’s one of the main reasons I chose @bowlll‘s Goretober in specific! I’m happy with how this one came out. Today’s victim is Zappa, one of my personal favorites! This was actually partially adapted from an old fanfiction of mine, and I took the opportunity to modify and improve it! (Also, the intro is more-or-less directly taken from one of his Accent Core routes. Consider this a ‘bad ending’)

Additional Warnings: Medical Horror, Vivisection, Torture

“By the way…”

“Yes?”

“I’m very interested in that body of yours.”

“W-wait, my body? What about it?”

“Oh, it’s nothing, really...I just wanted to take a closer look at it. I’ve heard quite a lot about your abilities as a medium.

Spiritual weaponry...Oh, the sound of that...it’s exhilarating! It sounds so cool!”

“O-ohhh….s-spiritual?”

“Oh, I can’t hold it anymore. I’m so excited. I need to examine you. Right this moment. NOW!”

Vrr…

“Wh-what is that thing?!”

“Don’t worry about it. It won’t hurt. I’m just going to numb you.

...well, I guess I might need to dissect you later…”

“I-I...T-TRY IT, IF YOU CAN!”

“Ohoho! That’s it...that’s perfect! It’s time for us to go all out, too!”

“Target confirmed. Mode Switched. Begin Capture.”

++++++

Even with his eyes closed, the sun was too bright. Zappa felt a little groan of dismay float through his thoughts. Didn’t he know better than to leave the window open at night? This always happened when he stayed up too late.

With a dry groan, he reached out to try and find the window without opening his eyes. If he was lucky, maybe he could close the blinds and try to get another half-hour of rest.

As soon as he tried to move his hand, he felt it stuck in place.

“N-nhh...huh?”

Zappa tried to cover his face with a hand, to block out the blinding light. He tugged again, but still felt both arms snagged on something. An experimental tug of the leg yielded a similar result, only a fruitless movement that was restrained in place.

“Ahh, you’re awake! Very good.”

The unfamiliar voice put an uncomfortable feeling in his chest. He very slowly opened his eyes, blinking to try and adjust to the harsh light overhead with nothing to guard him. He found that his head could turn at least a little, and he tried to find the source of the voice.

“W-where...where...am I?”

He could make out the vague traces of a sharp jaw, a wide smile standing prominent on ashy skin.

“Don’t remember? I suppose I don’t blame you. You have taken a few hits. This is the P.W.A.B. laboratory.”

“W-wha…?” P.W.A.B.? That didn’t sound even remotely familiar.

Zappa tried to think. He was...supposed to be looking for doctor Faust, right? Yes, that was correct. He was going to see if Faust could figure out why he kept blacking out all the time. Was that what happened? Did he black out again and forget?

The smile thinned out for a moment, before growing sharper. Zappa could make out the little crescents of eyeglass lenses, shining as the light struck them.

“Hmm.” The stranger murmured, tapping his chin with a gloved finger. “Perhaps I’ll need to run some cognition tests later…I didn’t think that my Justice had hurt you that badly...”

...Justice?

Oh no. No no no no no no no-

The nervous feeling turned to pure ice as the memories flooded back. Zappa felt his eyes widen in terror.

“Y-YOU!” He shouted, voice shrill in fear. “You’re the one with that giant robot! T-the one you attacked me with, I-”

He could feel his heart thudding, breathing staggered and rapid. He turned his head back to the sky. With his vision clear, he realized that the blindingly-bright circle of light hanging over him wasn’t the sun at all.

It was a surgical lamp.

An amused little chuckle slipped into his ears. “I’m very glad you decided to wake up, mister...Zappa, was it? I wasn’t sure how I was going to do some of these analyses without you.”

“A-analyses?!” Already panicking, he tugged on the restraints around his wrists, swiftly realizing that the thick leather was more than a match for his lack of strength.

“Please try to relax. I’d like to try and reduce as many variables as possible.” The pale-skinned man steepled his fingers together, looking at his restrained subject almost affectionately.

“Who are you?! Why are you d-doing this?!”

“Ah, I suppose I have yet to introduce myself.” He gave a little bow. “I am professor Crow Kuruwaba. And to answer your second question, it’s because you’ve been blessed with a rare ability. One that I have a very deep interest in getting to know and understand. I assure you it’s nothing personal. However…” He reached out to softly caress the side of Zappa’s face. “I certainly don’t mind that my test subject is someone as pretty as you.”

Zappa pulled away from the doctor’s touch, trying to control his frantic and staggered breathing. “P-p-please...d-don’t do this- !”

Crow offered a calm shrug. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t turn back now. I’ve already gotten started.”

“...What do you…?”

“I was hoping on getting some feedback on my knife-work, anyway…Tell me what you think of what I’ve done so far.”

Curves and crescents of glossy red muscles folded out of a split-open torso. Even from his vantage point, Zappa could see a twitching heart, lungs rapidly inflating and deflating around it, nestled behind the protective cage of ribs. Smooth tissue spasmed and wriggled and pulsed rhythmically, some partly-displaced and hanging out of the open cavity limply. Several long forceps sparkled under the lamplight, hooking around the flaps of skin and holding them open on the operating table.

It was his body, on display like a middle-school science experiment.

“Y-you...you…” His throat felt tight. A thick tube had been shoved into the crook of his arm, tinged bright red from the blood that was replacing what was already smeared across the tabletop. Just looking at it made him feel lightheaded.

He was interrupted by the clinking of plastic and metal. Crow had disappeared from his view, but it was clear that he was not truly gone.

“You have a very hardy form, Zappa. I know some subjects that wouldn’t even be able to get past this. You must take very good care of yourself. Frankly, I’m impressed.” The professor’s voice sounded somewhere behind him. “Of course, I still have precautions to take. Such a waste to have a rare specimen die on test one, no?”

Zappa caught a glint of something translucent as it descended over him. He flinched and held his breath, but only felt a bit of pressure over the lower half of his face.

“Can you breathe alright?”

He was shocked by the gentleness in Crow’s voice. He realized that the object must have been some sort of oxygen mask. He managed to stammer out a noise of affirmation.

“Oh, excellent! How about now?”

With a nasty wet squelch, Crow thrust his hand into the open chest cavity and clamped down on the left lung. He stroked it gently for a moment before roughly squeezing the spongy tissue, which easily gave under the pressure. Zappa felt himself gasping, but he wasn’t sure if it was because of the constriction, fear, or some amount of both.

Crow pulled his hand out, and wiped the glove off on a rag. “I’ve already injected a local anaesthetic, enough to keep you from fainting on me. Today’s tests will be majorly focused on the abdominal and pleural cavities. I expect that they will be for quite some time. It’s entirely possible that the component causing your abilities is located somewhere within your brain, but I’m not quite ready to cut your skull open just yet. In any case, I’m very intrigued by the sorts of changes your body goes through during activation. Based on the combat data I gathered from your fight with Justice, you seem remarkably...flexible.”

Zappa felt dizzy. This wasn’t happening. This couldn’t be happening. It all had to be some bad prank, right? Or some awful nightmare? It couldn’t be real.

A small cart was dragged over, with tools carefully arranged on it. Crow selected a thin, narrow scalpel, looking it over in the artificial light. Nodding in approval, he pulled on the surgical mask that had been pushed down over his throat.

“I do hope you choose to be cooperative. I have no trouble severing your Achilles’ tendon so you can’t run away, but that’s always so much messier than it should be. You’re helping the P.W.A.B. make leaps and bounds in the fields of science, isn’t that something you should be proud of?

He couldn’t move. He couldn’t scream. Zappa couldn’t even bring himself to cry. He was too paralyzed in terror, only capable of watching as the scalpel’s tip descended over his torn-open body.

“Now, mister Zappa, it’s time to find out what makes you tick.”

#Goretober #tw blood #tw gore #medical #surgery #vivisection #guilty gear #Zappa #writing #body horror

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ahopefuldoubt · 6 years

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An Analysis of a Post-“Truth Revealed” Parallel

This post (from 2016 originally [x]) was, at various points during the writing process, going to be either a stand-alone piece or a section in my film-wide essay about Aaron and Moses’ relationship. Though I decided to go with the former, ideas and extrapolations from this analysis will very likely appear in the future reunion essay, not only because there are always new angles to discuss, but because a few points here have been shifted in favor of others.

I chose this part because it follows a similar pattern as the one I examined here. The number of parallels between Aaron and Moses is remarkable and important, and I love them all.

At this time in the movie, Moses has encountered his biological siblings, two Hebrew slaves, and learned that he was adopted. He’s spoken to his adoptive father and mother, receiving confirmations that both deeply disturb and further throw him into crisis. Early in this scene, Moses’ expression and body language show the impact of these recent revelations: As he staggers through lines of toiling bodies, he sees their humanity, and himself in them, for the first time.

There isn’t much dialogue, but soon an Egyptian guard can be heard shouting at an old man. The view pans to Miriam, who places a hand on Aaron’s shoulder, calling his attention to what is happening.

Aaron glances over, and quickly looks away.

The moment then immediately cuts to Moses, who mimics the action.

This is where the parallel begins...

(1) Aaron and Moses turn away. The mirroring is perfect here, and the screencaps really don’t do it justice.

Although the motions in (1) bear superficial similarities, the differences between the two brothers are stark. Moses is only beginning to confront and shed his narrow worldview: that these are not slaves or nonentities, but people (no matter his personal connection to them). Shame and guilt over his own ignorance are reflected in his downcast eyes. There is an additional layer of existential confusion and pain, for his own sense of self has been turned on its head. His identity has been ripped from him, erased, not once but twice, through the loss of his biological family and the betrayal by his adoptive family. I think it’s important to acknowledge all of these dimensions, because Moses himself is also recognizing them for the first time.

Aaron, on the other hand, has been a slave all his life and is too intimately aware of all this cruelty. He already identifies and empathizes with his people. Thus, there is no shame or guilt, but a rather personal level of pain to how he shuts his eyes and turns towards the stone wall, the desperate way he returns to his work.

Over in seconds, this echo demonstrates Aaron’s and Moses’ drastically divergent life experiences. Moses’ insensitivity and recklessness, his privileged behavior and actions, clash with Aaron’s wary familiarity of the world and its shortcomings, his values and what he strives to protect. Indeed, these differences carry over to the reunion and shape the way the brothers are able to relate to one another.

(2) Miriam acts, and (3) Aaron and Moses (re)act. Throughout the movie, Miriam is often the first to act; moreover, she incites action in others, notably in her brothers. She takes a stand when people are being hurt; she does not hesitate to do something. This is, of course, one of her many strengths. And in this scene, her fierce demands for the guard to stop prompt both Aaron and Moses to move, and the way they do so is also telling.

Aaron’s vigilance often makes him slow to act, unless there is a possibility for Miriam to get hurt. This is a consistency within his character. In the well scene, he’s initially frozen with fear, unsure what to do with the prince who has suddenly appeared in front of them. Then Moses begins to threaten Miriam, and Aaron’s response is instinctive. By the time the mud pit scene comes around, Aaron has grown into someone who stands a little more on the frontline, and who is still defending his sister against what Moses did to her by the well. During the first plague sequence, Aaron even attempts to stop Tzipporah, a person he’s just met, as she darts forward to protect her husband. Without hesitation, Aaron lunges for her. Though watchful, Aaron, I feel, can’t be characterized by inaction, but by what he does for his only family, and for others.

His dialogue in this instance is interesting to me because he does not say, “[Miriam, no!] You can’t do anything,” or even, “There’s nothing you can do.” Instead, he says:

[Miriam, no!] There’s nothing we can do.

This subtle distinction feels significant. One might expect the line to be some variation of “you can’t [do this].” However, Aaron isn’t talking down or directly to Miriam; he’s not doubting her ability. (To be honest, I believe he understands, and respects, quite well what she is capable of.) The actual sentence is constructed in a way that emphasizes the lack of any course of action: There’s nothing we can do. It reveals a collective — first-person plural — sense of powerlessness. This narrative of hopelessness is Aaron’s to intone, especially at this point in the film. His line illustrates exactly the confines of their situation. What is left for them to do? To not intervene reads as complicity with what is taking place, while to intervene would likely (certainly) get one, or both, of them killed. Regarding the latter, neither Aaron nor Miriam can allow this to happen: They need each other to live.

In such an emotional and dynamic moment, Aaron comes off poorly compared to his siblings. His reaction and dialogue work as a narrative tool, a springboard for plot and character growth. Still, I can’t help but think about the different ways to affect change and how they’re measured against one another. What Aaron does — or what he’s perceived to have failed to do — in this scene seems reprehensible in comparison to the “guns-ablaze” justice assumed to be the only type that shakes the world. But self-preservation is also a vital practice, especially in oppressed and traumatized communities. Hopeless and powerless are what oppressors and abusers want their victims to feel — to believe “there’s nothing we can do.” So, survival itself becomes an act of defiance, and care (to remain “in action” by existing and being available for others). At the very least, I think there’s a need to move beyond a binary of action/inaction in order to understand efforts like Aaron’s, and certainly to consider them alongside what Miriam and Moses do in the film.

Meanwhile, Moses reacts to Miriam’s voice, no doubt recognizing it from the well. He has probably been playing her words in his head since that evening, since it was she who sang their mother’s lullaby and later featured so prominently in his dream. Moses essentially completes Miriam’s action, and words, something he does not only here, but later in the story. As I’ve written, Miriam is a catalyst for change, small and large. That “guns-ablaze” style of justice is more descriptive of Miriam; but, like Aaron, she is unconventional in many ways. Maintaining compassion and having faith are not only difficult to do but are similar to practicing self-preservation/survival: These are all acts of resistance that tend to be undervalued (and they are not mutually exclusive).* Therefore, this scene is a testament to her will and resilience as well.

The sequence here is transformative for all of the characters, propelling them towards a place of unknowns. The parallel in (1) calls attention to Aaron’s and Moses’ differences. Their reunion relationship is in early stages of development: They’re still passing by one another, relying on first impressions rather than seeing eye-to-eye. Aaron’s dialogue, and even Miriam’s (“Somebody’s got to stop this!”), further emphasize the disparity in power that exists. However, the scene also portends significant plot and character developments. Moses, for instance, is in a better position to do something, and he does. Something inside him stirs in this moment, and he is spurred into action, automatically — echoing, in fact, the way Aaron is roused when someone is in danger.

And, despite committing murder, Moses is largely immune to the repercussions: His privilege and connections via his adoptive family, as well as his hitherto willful ignorance, are an asset to him, but here he pointedly chooses to reject Rameses’ promise to protect him. He cannot easily shrug off the weight of having killed someone, and even the story does not play this as a moment of heroism. By the end of this part in the movie, it’s clear that no one can view Moses as merely an Egyptian prince. The outcome is a strange new reality for the adoptee and for all of his siblings.

Last edited: 9/5/17, minor edits; also, a correction that Aaron and Tzipporah meet prior to the mud pit scene (when Miriam gives her water from the well). They’re basically still strangers, but I wanted to make note of their brief meeting.

Another thing I wanted to say in this analysis (somewhere at the midpoint, or around where the asterisk is): Further, judging/weighing the acts of survival and resistance made by the oppressed seems strange/wrong when it’s the oppressors who ought to be held fully responsible and condemned for their actions/oppression.

Miriam and Aaron are both so valid (it goes without saying), and I love them.

#the prince of egypt #miriam #aaron #moses #parallels #my stuff #my writing #poe analysis #yeah me queue #long post #*exhales*#as with all my old (and new) writing i'm asking myself: how can i improve this?#what ideas have changed or stayed the same?#are there simpler ways of saying the same thing?#am i being too perfectionistic?

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consmcchill · 5 years

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Avatar the Last Airbender movie FIXED

I did it. TLDR: I fixed the movie The Last Airbender. Feel free to skip this rambling intro and scroll down to the good stuff.

For the rest of you, my name is Conor McCahill, I’m an actor and wannabee screenwriter living in Chicago.

I wanted to post this on the internet for three reasons:

One: Avatar the Last Airbender means a lot to me. My high school friends would meet every week at my house to watch each premier live. Those memories are among my happiest. I was beyond excited for the movie, but, everything I found out about it pushed me further from it and when it finally came out I resolved never to see it. And I didn’t, until I was in a show with Francis Guinan, who played Master Pakku, and when he told me he was in it, I thought, “Hey, why not?” Watching this movie was one of the most disappointing experiences of my life. Fast forward to now and I’m reading Save The Cat, which is a book about screenwriting and one of the homework pieces is to fix a bad movie and make it a good movie. Obviously, the worst movie I can think of is The Last Airbender, so I chose it to fix it.

Two: Fans scare me. True deeply loving fans are like tiger mothers. You have high standards, and good for you! I can’t think of anyone who would enjoy this project more than a diehard fan and my goal is to impress you.

Three: Though I started this before the Netflix announcement of the Avatar the Last Airbender live action series, I’d still like to think that this could help get the movie remade. However, even if it doesn’t, maybe this can help you find closure that in some universe, a better movie exists.

I wrote this as if it was a wikipedia article describing the movie. I tried to avoid dialogue as much as possible, but sometimes, it’s just clearer. I used screenshots from the show to aid the reader though sometimes the pictures aren’t perfect, and other times I used real pictures or art. I linked to the websites where I did that.

The process:

I watched all of season one again, with an eye for character and story development. It was a real treat and I graphed each character’s development over the season, who was the main character of each episode, and how they grew in each episode. I painted a picture of tracking information about the characters, which characters know it, and when it is revealed to a character or the audience. I also tracked tokens, my word for props of importance like Aang’s staff and the water scroll. Adapting this cartoon to a movie was a huge challenge that I was not fully prepared for. The biggest challenge faced is reduction of the source material into roughly an hour and a half to two hours. Season one is very filler heavy, we get to meet our characters and watch them interact, and the first season takes its time and lets the characters be kids in a really nice way. Each episode is roughly twenty-two minutes long, making the season about seven and a half hours long which means inevitably something is going to be lost in translation because we’re losing six hours of content. Episodically is a great way to tell a story with lots of characters with multiple plot lines and over longer periods of time. Movies are better equipped to tell stories as an immediate chronological sequence of events with few characters. This just comes down to time and how much we have to tell the story and how the audience processes a story in “real time.” If you want the movie to be exactly the same story, well, that’s impossible and you should just watch the cartoon. It’s gonna change, there’s no way around it. After finishing the cartoon, I decided it would be a good idea to at least watch the movie again.

Overall and if you squint, Shyamalan got the story of the first season in the movie pretty accurately. His movie goes, southern water tribe, southern air temple, earth kingdom, northern air temple, and northern water tribe. The problem is that we don’t really get to enjoy any one thing for too long because we’re being whisked off to the next one. I didn’t want to make the same mistake, so I chose to limit my main settings to the number of my acts, for simplicity. I picked the southern water tribe, the southern air temple, and the northern water tribe capital.

Shyamalan decided to write each movie one at a time and I really think that doomed the project. I think he decided to do it that way, Nickelodeon went along with it, and by the time he realized his mistake, production has already started, and he couldn’t hold it up because it’s millions of dollars and our young actors are rapidly aging. Any kind of delay will hurt a project starring kids more than other movies. If you want to do it right, you need to be ready to pump out each movie so the kids can age naturally and not suddenly be adults, (see: Harry Potter.) Keeping his decision in mind, I decided to approach this project as if it were a trilogy. That helped me eliminate characters and plotlines for movie one, because they can appear later. I whittled my main characters down to seven, which is more than plenty; Aang, Katara, Sokka, Zhao, Zuko, Iroh, and Yue.

Let’s talk about Yue. Her sacrifice is the emotional apex of the first season of ATLA and is therefore the most important part of the movie. We need to care about Yue because the more we care, the more effective her sacrifice is and the more satisfying the emotional catharsis. In visual media, the way we make you care is we give you screen time. In the show, she gets three full episodes, but the development of her relationship with Sokka feels rushed. It still feels better than the Shyamalan movie, where she comes in at the last thirty minutes, and by all accounts gets half as much time as the cartoon. Considering her sacrifice, Yue needs to come into the movie early. Save the Cat talks about act two as the love act. Often in movies, it is when our protagonists meet a new character(s) who will nurture them through the end. It does not have to be true love or romantic love, it is often friend love. That seems like a perfect place for Yue.

I didn’t want to change the canon, but I had to get Yue into contact with Katara, Sokka, and Aang. I decided that the most important thing, at least in adapting, is not necessarily what happens to our characters, but that they grow in the same way. That freed me up to consider other, more exciting possibilities. Like, what if we bring Yue to the south, on a quest? Aside from Yue, the most necessary element of the north is the spirit oasis, so Zhao can kill the moon. So, I thought to place the spirit oasis in the ruins of the southern tribe capital, so we’re not suddenly robbed of a whole world crossing adventure where lots of stuff must happen. We can grow with our characters (Aang, Katara, and Sokka) in the illusion of real time, and not cut to weeks later at the northern tribe. That evolved into a portal to the northern water tribe, something heavily plot relevant, canon from The Legend of Korra, and it gives something new to longtime fans.

The Yue I came up with differs from the show Yue in very exciting ways. I develop her relationships with Aang and Katara and give Sokka a stronger interest, a love that could actually be returned and is hopeful. The best part is, I make her more active instead of passive. Since this will be her only movie, she should be there more, not to mention there are five main males and only one main female without her. All my own changes made me sympathetic to the way Shyamalan had to alter the plot and characters and it was the choice to boost Yue’s role that really lead to this entire piece.

Thanks to Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino for their work that continues to inspire me to this day. Thank you to all the long-time fans who run the Avatar the Last Airbender wiki. Your work was essential. I lifted some passages directly from the episode descriptions that match what I see as the movie, but where I did, I tried to mark with a *. Also, I used some art and photos and I provided a link to those artists. And, I dunno, thanks to Jim Henson who thought it was important and healthy for children to feel fear.

How I would open the movie:

Open on the fire nation palace: an imposing tower of red crowned with gold spires slices a sunny blue sky in two and looms over a vast courtyard. The front doors are open and we zoom into the darkness. Inside the palace, the air is thick and stuffy and ornate tapestries line every wall lit by braziers that fume and pop and crackle.

In a gallery filled with portraits of proud and angry men and women cloaked in red and holding fire in their bare hands, a teenage boy sits at a table, playing a tile game with an older man.

The boy squirms, agonizing over his next move. The older man is toying with him, but plants seeds of wisdom on how defeat a superior opponent. The boy tentatively places a tile, lingering his finger on the it before whipping it away. The old man examines the board.

With one decisive move, he places a lotus tile in the center of the field, winning the game leaving the young man in disbelief. The older man laughs as the younger man passionately demands a rematch, but they are interrupted by the sound of footsteps and they stiffen. A messenger comes. He bows low, and begs forgiveness from Prince Zuko for interrupting him, but he has come to escort General Iroh to a war meeting. The older man smirks and asks the younger man if he forgives the messenger. Zuko rolls his eyes and says he does but asks his uncle if he can join him in the war meeting. His uncle denies him, but the young prince pleads. He wants to be a good king someday, why not learn as soon as possible? Iroh relents and warns Zuko not to speak out of turn.

Iroh leads Zuko into the hall before the throne room. As the firebending generals go in, each makes a flame in their hand and adds it to a fiery bowl on a pedestal in the center of the hall. Iroh explains to Zuko, as he follows suit, that the ritual serves to show that no firebender will use fire bending in the throne room or face extreme consequences. Even the fire lord is honor bound to uphold his promise, he just never has to symbolically prove himself. Iroh puts his fire in the bowl. Zuko steps up after him and does the same, his face lit up by the flames.

The inside of the throne room is darker than the rest of the palace. Zuko is both frightened and exhilarated. As a particularly old and decrepit general drones on, Zuko admires the long war table, painted to display the entire world and littered with pieces that make war seem like a big game. This will all be his someday. His eyes draw him down past the far end of the table, to the wall of fire beyond which a dark figure, the fire lord, sits on an ornate throne obscured by the dancing smoke.

Zuko stares at the man beyond the flames and their crackle fills his ears. He feels the eyes of his father staring back. Zuko snaps to attention, just as the old infirm general outlines a plan to send fresh recruits into combat against a heavily garrisoned earth kingdom fort. The prince asks the general how he expects the recruits to survive, his interruption sending a wave of murmurs down the table. The general clarifies, he doesn’t. Their sacrifice will be enough to weaken the earth kingdom army, so they can be wiped out by a second wave of more seasoned elite fire nation soldiers. The mutters of agreement wash over the room. The prince is horrified. He cannot believe what he is hearing and stands and speaks, in defense of the new recruits and their lives. To send loyal soldiers to their doom is nothing short of treasonous. The color drains from Iroh’s face as the wall of flames flares up. He clutches Zuko’s robes and advises Zuko to apologize or be honor bound to settle the matter in an Agni Kai.

Zuko sizes up the old general. What could this old man, so near to death, possibly do to him? His uncle hisses at him to be quick, but Zuko is not afraid and accepts the fire duel. The wall of fire burns high beyond him.

High above the Agni Kai arena, the crowd that lines the stands chant ceremoniously. Zuko kneels, his back to his opponent and the chanting ends. He breathes deep, spins and rises, and throws off his cloak to face… his father, the fire lord.

Zuko doesn’t understand, the general he spoke against is in the audience, smirking, next to a teenage girl and his uncle.

The Firelord fumes at him, it was his plan Zuko spoke against and it was he, the fire lord, Zuko disrespected. His booming voice echoes in the vast chamber. Zuko falls to his knees, he won’t fight his father. The fire lord demands that he stand and fight, but Zuko refuses. The fire lord will give him one more chance but Zuko bows further, touching his forehead to the hard stone floor. The Firelord calls upon the crowd to witness his son’s cowardly refusal to fight. Only a permanent lesson is appropriate for such shameful weakness, he growls as he approaches his grovelling son.

Slowly, Zuko lifts his head and begs his father for mercy, but there is none.

In the reflection of his left eye, a fireball heads towards Zuko’s tear-stricken face. A girl’s voiceover begins. “Long ago the four nations lived together in harmony, then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked.” The fireball grows larger and larger in his eye until the whole frame is filled with fire.

https://www.dreamstime.com/stock-illustration-yurt-vector-drawing-portable-round-tent-covered-skins-felt-isolated-white-backdrop-freehand-outline-black-ink-hand-image80545151

The fire in Zuko’s eyes becomes a campfire in a yurt. “Only the Avatar, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished.”

Reveal, a pretty and bright water tribe girl, Katara, telling the story of the Avatar to the young children she babysits.

The kids beg Katara to waterbend for them. She’s not supposed to, and they moan and whine. To appease them, she waterbends the soup in the pot in a swirl. They beg for more and, though it is difficult for her, she manages to suspend an undulating ball of steaming water in the air. It is a magical moment, even for Katara, and they all watch in awe until she lowers it back down. The kids go nuts and all take turns trying to waterbend the soup, but it soon becomes clear that she’s the only one who can. As she watches them all around her, there is a sense of how lonely and isolated she really is.

The flaps fly open and a teenage boy on the brink of manhood barges in and asks what the ruckus is about. Katara blurts out Sokka’s name in surprise and passes the commotion off as just childish playing. She turns the conversation to his hunt. He pretends to be downcast, then reveals three small fish triumphantly. Katara squeals with joy and embraces him.

https://itadakimasuanime.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/seafood-shellfish-hitsugi-no-chaika-avenging-battle-06.png

Later, as the sun sets, the fish roast over the fire. Katara, Sokka, and an older woman, their grandmother, eat with appreciation as if a feast as meager as this is rare. Sokka finishes first and as he gets up, he rips his pants, again. He criticizes Katara, her stitching is still terrible, and since Grangran can’t do it anymore, it’s up to her. He reaches for his other pair of pants but stops when Katara admits that she hasn’t mended them yet. Sokka gets cross with her for not finishing her chores. Katara retorts that if he wasn’t so clumsy, he wouldn’t tear his pants. Sokka scolds Katara for just playing around and waterbending. Their grandmother drops her bowl. Quickly, Katara denies waterbending, but Sokka saw her. Grangran comes down on Katara: It is forbidden, but Katara can’t forbid who she is! Grangran snaps that waterbending will get them all killed. There is silence. Sokka brings the pants over to Katara. He puts food on the table, the least she could do is contribute. Defeated, Katara fetches her needle and thread but hesitates before she begins to work. She’s about to speak when Sokka pushes that his pants aren’t going to mend themselves.

Katara pops off that he can repair his own stupid pants and throws them in Sokka’s face and storms out into the night. Sokka sticks his head out and calls after her but Katara breaks into a sprint. She runs past her neighbors, out of the village and runs and runs and runs until she can run no more, collapsing at the top of a snow-white cliff, overlooking a frozen bay.

The cold light of the nearly full moon beams down upon her. She looks up, with tears in her eyes and screams out her frustration. She pounds her fists to the ground. The ice cracks inches from her fists and shatter the side of the icy cliff down down down into the middle of the bay. The ground shakes and Katara is avalanched over with the side of the cliff and is buried in the ice and snow.

She pushes a mound of snow off her with her waterbending. As she cleans herself off, she notices a soft glow emanating from the fissure in the ice. As she investigates, the light intensifies, rising, until the source, a glowing ice sphere, bursts through the floe before her.

Cracks splinter throughout the sphere causing the light inside to escape. The light is too much and Katara shields her eyes. The sphere goes dark for a second then a pillar of light erupts out the top.

Back in the village, Sokka mutters to himself as he struggles with a needle and thread. The light rips through the night sky and through the flap of the tent. His eyes widen. He whispers Katara’s name and grabs his spear.

A dazzling aurora fills the sky. The broken bay has frozen again by some mysterious power, leaving the landscape jagged and strange. A cloud of snow and swirling mists ebb and flow about the remains of the sphere. Katara approaches and sees in the remains a boy tattooed with arrows and a white six-legged bison, both fast asleep. She kneels beside the tattooed boy and touches his face. He dreamily opens his eyes and then closes them again as he mutters about how beautiful she is.

Katara is amused. The boy snaps awake, he’s not dreaming. He jumps out of Katara’s arms and admires his surroundings. With his hands on his hips, he announces that he has made it to the south pole as planned and immediately requests a snowball fight and before Katara can protest she’s pelted as he laughs. She pulls the snow off as the boy exclaims that she’s a waterbender, and that it is officially on! Katara puts on her game face and snowballs begin to fly back and forth. Katara hides behind a snowbank. She peeks out and sees the boy scooping snow into a ball, she turns back and uses her bending to mold her own. She peeks out again, but he has disappeared. Out of nowhere he lands behind her and unleashes an impossible number of snowballs. Katara screams as she’s hit. Sokka hears her scream and breaks into a sprint. He yells her name and runs towards the boy with his spear who dodges the thrust and the following swing. Katara, covered in snow, tries in vain to stop Sokka. Sokka thrusts again. The boy lands on the spearhead, faceplanting Sokka into the snow and bringing him to his knees. Katara, wipes the snow from her eyes and gets a full view of Sokka’s undercarriage. She shrieks, “Where are your pants!?” The boy helps him up. Sokka didn’t have time to put on pants, he thought she was in trouble. Katara is touched.

https://www.deviantart.com/akreon/art/Appa-132703919

A low grumble escapes the large, furry, six-legged creature lying motionless nearby. The boy climbs onto it and enthusiastically rouses it. Sokka asks, unsure, what the thing is, and the boy replies that it is Appa, his flying bison. Sokka expresses disbelief over the purported ability of the large bison to fly. The boy, looking around at his surroundings, asks if they live nearby, which triggers Sokka to tell Katara not to answer, as he is convinced that the mystery boy is a Fire Nation spy, a notion that Katara rejects sarcastically. The boy introduces himself as Aang, an airbender. Sokka tells him no one has seen an airbender in a hundred years. Aang laughs, they are very good at hiding. *

Aang offers to fly them back to their village if he can get shelter for the night. Katara happily agrees and climbs on with Aang, while Sokka refuses, convinced that Aang and Katara are crazy. Aang says, "Yip-yip!", and Appa leaps into the air, though immediately comes crashing down, while Sokka crows sarcastically about Appa's inability to fly, Aang decides Appa is still too tired to fly just yet. He looks over his shoulder and leans out to stare at Katara with a huge smile on his face, causing her, after a few long, awkward seconds, to ask, "Why are you smiling at me like that?" He replies, "Oh, I was smiling?" Sokka lifts his head back, groaning, while Katara, at first smiling at Aang's response, frowns back at Sokka. *

In the moonlight, they walk back to the village. A curious Katara asks Aang if he knows the fate of the Avatar; being an airbender, she knows that the Avatar was supposed to be an Air Nomad. Aang awkwardly states that he knew people that knew the Avatar but did not know the actual Avatar himself. A disappointed Katara drops the subject, leaving Aang looking guilty. *

Underneath the setting sun, a scout blows a horn atop a fire nation fort located at the foot of the southern air temple mount. The commander of the base, a fierce looking full-grown man, greets Iroh and Zuko in the courtyard, he makes sure to highlight Zuko’s scar to confirm that it’s him. Iroh shows his respect to Admiral Zhao, who asks what brings the exiled prince and his uncle before him.

Zuko demands access south, to the Antarctic seas, Zhao’s domain. This amuses Zhao and arouses his interest. Even if he had seen or heard any sign of the Avatar, he wouldn’t tell Zuko. Iroh reasons with him, then, that there would be no harm in letting them search. Zhao deflects and muses if Zuko’s quest to restore his honor will ever truly end. He continues that when he marries Zuko’s sister, Princess Azula, they will let him come live in the palace dungeon. Zuko retorts that Zhao is a fool if he thinks he can ask the fire lord for Azula’s hand in marriage. Zhao is confident, that when his mission is complete, the fire lord will offer his daughter’s hand. He denies Zuko’s request, his mission is too important, and sends Zuko back to his ship.

Later that night, Iroh finds Zuko glowering over the vast southern sea. He presses the prince to sleep, telling him that if he doesn't rest, he will, like his ancestors, fail to capture the Avatar even if they do find him. The prince refuses to his uncle’s wisdom, he will succeed because he seeks to regain his honor through the endeavor, a trait none of his ancestors shared with him. Iroh casts doubt on Zuko’s assumption that the avatar is in the southern water tribe. Zuko reveals his logic, that the old airbender has likely died, and a young waterbender would be next in line to be the avatar. If it was a northern child, the proud northerners would have announced it, like they did their runaway princess. Iroh still doubts, Zuko snaps at him if he has a better idea. The night sky lights up, the same pillar of light from when Aang was released, and the aurora casts a green glow all on the southern hemisphere. *

Zuko observes it through the end of his telescope, his eyes narrow.

From high above the fire nation fort, on a cliff side, a mysterious figure in leather armor watches Zuko’s ship leave and turn south in the dead of night. The figure stands, a beautiful young woman who’s white hair shimmers in the moonlight.

Back in the village, Katara leads Aang into a stable. They don’t have much room, so he’ll have to sleep in here with Appa. She gets him a blanket. As she hands it to him, there is a moment where they share eye contact. Katara breaks it off and leaves, but not before stealing one last glance at Aang.

That night, Aang has a dream that he and Appa fly through a terrible storm. They are buffeted by the full fury of the gale, struggle in vain to escape and eventually are forced under the waves. *

In his dream, Aang’s eyes and tattoos began to glow and he creates a giant bubble around himself and Appa. The bubble freezes over, encasing their figures in light which grows brighter and brighter.

In his sleep, Aang stirs and his tattoos dance luminously. The lights wax and wane in the slit of the stable door casting a strange light on the sleeping village.

The sun rises over an icy expanse the next morning. Aang throws open the flap to the yurt, but it is empty. Sokka and Katara and Grangran are already doing their duties. As he explores, the elderly villagers look upon him with suspicion. Aang bows to the villagers respectfully, eliciting a response of fear from them, and they hurriedly take a few steps away from the airbender. *

He hears Katara calling his name. Eager to impress her, he jumps high in the air and lands in front of her and her wards. The kids go nuts. They goad him into showing off, which he obliges.

Aang attracts quite a crowd, almost the entire village. He finishes his trick. Everyone is stunned. One villager erupts in applause, the others glare her into silence. The kids tackle Aang and climb all over him. His airbending is even cooler than Katara’s waterbending.

A stir in the crowd. Katara is a waterbender? Katara feels the eyes of the villagers on her. Grangran assures the other villagers that Katara is not a waterbender, as the crowd whisper amongst themselves and go about their business. She gives the younger children the evil eye and they scamper off screaming and grabs Katara and Aang to throw them both into the tent. She looks Aang square in the face and tells him that it would be uncustomary to kick him out without breakfast but that the airbender is no longer welcome here. She goes to find Sokka. There is quiet. Aang timidly asks Katara why she refuses to waterbend. She tells him it is forbidden. Aang doesn’t understand why. The waterbenders get taken away, by firebenders. There’s a war. Aang didn’t know of any war.

Just then, Grangran and Sokka return. Sokka has checked the morning traps and has brought oysters. He passes them out, they each pry them open and slurp theirs down, except Aang, who holds it awkwardly. Sokka apologizes and opens it for him. Aang makes a face, “Do you have anything vegetarian?” he asks. Sokka aghast, scoots away from him. Aang realizes he’s made a faux pas. He corrects himself. “Can I please have something vegetarian?” Grangran and Katara share a glance. Sokka doesn’t have any vegetarian options except for sea prunes for Grangran and they are nasty.

Grangran throws a shell at Sokka and thrusts a bowl of sea prunes into Aang’s hands. His stomach growls, and he eats one. He likes them!

Sokka does not get Aang. He and Katara share a look of disgust as Aang gorges himself. Katara leans over to Sokka and whispers in his ear that Aang doesn’t know about the war. Sokka asks how that is possible: the war has been going on for a hundred years.

Meanwhile, Zuko spies the village through a telescope. Everything is going according to plan. Just then, from around an iceberg, an armada of three of Zhao’s fastest destroyers cut Zuko’s Battleship off and he is forced to change course to avoid them.

Zhao boards Zuko’s ship. Zuko greets him, amazed he found the time to chase him and hopes his all-important mission wasn't jeopardized by this detour. Zhao admits it was easy to catch up with them, the battleship was built like a tank to hold a fully realized Avatar, which makes it slow, but necessary for his capture, which is why Zhao is commandeering Zuko’s ship. Zuko protests, the Avatar is his. Zhao reminds Zuko that he ignored a direct order and is trespassing in his domain. Zuko spits out that he doesn't take orders from anyone, especially a low born upstart rat like Zhao. Zhao's smile fades as he orders his men to take the prince into custody. Two guards grab Zuko arms, but he throws them off easily. He points at Zhao and challenges him to an Agni Kai, winner gets the ship. Zhao laughs, and asks how Zuko plans to survive stranded on an iceberg without a ship, doesn't he remember the last time he did an Agni Kai? Zuko will never forget.

Outside their village, Grangran leads Appa with a rope as Aang, Katara, and Sokka head out with her. Aang tells them that it was very nice to meet them, and he’ll come visit the South Pole again soon. Sokka explains to Aang they aren’t actually in the south pole, they are much further north, less than a day to the southern air temple. Katara extrapolates: There’s nothing left at the south pole.

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https://www.masterfile.com/image/en/679-07608205/moon-rising-over-trees-and-buildings-at-night

The tribes used to be connected by the moon gate.

Under the light of the full moon, the portal would open and northerners and southerners could walk between the poles via the spirit world to mingle and trade and visit family and make the pilgrimage to the spirit oasis. The moon gate connected the north and south cultures. Until the fire nation destroyed everything in south and the portal was destroyed.

Flashback: Fiery projectiles rain down on the southern capital and reduce it to rubble.

Everybody who was trapped in the south had no choice but to move away from the ruins because there was no food. The north pole is floating ice, and the waterbenders can fish beneath the ice year-round, but south pole is above frozen ground and there you can’t grow food in frozen ground. Grangran interrupts and tells the airbender that it’s time for him to go. As he turns to leave, Aang asks if they are sure the south pole is really destroyed. Sokka assures him sarcastically, that yeah, they're sure, and glares at Aang. Aang posits that the monks at the southern air temple would have told him, they tell him a lot of things, after all, they told him that he was the- he doesn’t finish his sentence. He climbs on Appa and they trot off. Katara calls for him to wait. As she approaches, she tells him the only thing they have at the southern air temple anymore is a fire nation fort. Aang looks at her with a twinkle in his eye and assures her, there are air nomad monks.

He extends his hand to her. Grangran yells that she’s taking too long and though Katara takes a breath, she doesn’t look back as she takes Aang’s hand and climbs aboard. Grangran pushes Sokka to stop her. Katara wraps her arms around Aang as he tells her to hang on. “Appa, Yip yip!” Appa grumbles and begins to move just as Sokka reaches them. He grabs Appa’s fur and tries to pull them back but ends up getting pulled himself and has to run to keep up. Aang leads them straight towards the edge of the cliff and Sokka screams that they are all going to die! He shuts his eyes and holds tight as Appa leaps and they disappear over the edge. Grangran cries out for them and falls to her knees. Appa and the gang reappear, flying. Sokka freaks as he clutches Appa's fur. Aang tells Sokka that when he says let go, to let go. Sokka protests but Aang leads Appa into a barrel roll and yells at Sokka to let go which he does out of instinct. The momentum flips Sokka up and over and plomp, directly seated behind Katara on Appa’s back. The daring move has made Katara cling to Aang close and she blushes.

Aang cheers and Grangran watches as they fly towards the sun.

The sun is directly overhead as the Agni Kai begins.

Admiral Zhao and Prince Zuko crouch, back to back on the deck of the battleship. Shedding their capes, they turn to face each other. Iroh counsels Zuko to remember his basics, as they are his greatest assets, but Zuko seems not to heed his uncle's wisdom, instead stating, simply and forcefully, that he will not allow himself to lose. As he assumes his stance, Zhao, doing the same, taunts Zuko, saying: "This will be over quickly." *

The two opponents stare fiercely into each other's unblinking eyes for a brief moment, waiting for the other to strike; it is Zuko who begins the duel with a series of fire blasts from his hands and feet. *

Zhao seems more than a match for Zuko, effortlessly avoiding and nullifying all of his fire blasts. As the prince catches his breath, Iroh continues to advise Zuko to remember his basics. Zhao throws his own volley of fire blasts; Zuko is able to block each attack, but he is slowly forced back with every parry he makes. For the final blast, Zhao, using both fists, sends a ball of fire that connects solidly with Zuko, knocking him to the ground. Pressing his advantage, Zhao leaps into the air, covers the distance separating him and Zuko, and prepares a finishing blast aimed directly for the prince's exposed face. An instant before contact, Zuko rolls out of the way, rises with a kicking flourish, and knocks Zhao out of his stance. *

With new-found vigor, Zuko releases a series of low attacks that cause Zhao to retreat, finishing him with a jet of fire from a full body kick. Prone, Zhao tells Zuko to do it, to give him a scar like his own, but Zuko aims beside his face instead. As the victorious prince walks away, a beaten and furious Zhao sends a jet of fire at Zuko's back. Iroh intervenes, however, stopping the attack with his bare hand and throwing the admiral to the ground. As Iroh stands over Zhao, Zuko tries to attack Zhao once more, but his uncle tells him not to taint his victory by retaliating. Iroh lectures Zhao about the dishonor he has brought upon himself through his actions and states that his nephew, even in exile, has proven himself to be more honorable. *

From the crow's nest, a scout shouts. They all crane their necks to see a flying bison with a water tribe girl and boy and air nomad fly far above them.

Up on Appa, Sokka refuses to open his eyes as he clutches Katara's garments. Katara lets him know that he's missing the sights. Aang spies the fire navy ships below. The fear deep inside him grows. He’s never seen fire navy ships this far south.

Both Zhao and Zuko blink in their telescopes. Iroh suggests they try working together as the bison disappears into the clouds.

Aang and Sokka and Katara fly through clouds and above mists and fog. Sokka asks if they are they yet. Aang spots the temple at the top of a mountain and they fly closer. Katara remarks on how beautiful it is.

From a window, the white-haired girl watches them all land in a sky bison pen and jump off. She disappears into the shadows. Appa grazes happily.

Sokka wishes he could eat, that ride took longer than he thought. Katara shushes him. Aang calls out to his people, but nobody answers. The temple appears to be abandoned. They walk up the temple steps. Sokka asks Aang if the airbenders have any food and is berated by Katara for being one of the first outsiders to see an airbender temple and he can only think with his stomach. She apologizes for Sokka. Aang insists the airbenders are simply hiding. There are lots of hiding places. They walk through a large archway into a great hall beyond. In the rafters above, the white-haired girl shifts into position. As Aang, Katara, and Sokka pass beneath her, she drops a net down upon them. The girl lands and knocks them off their feet and they fall to the ground in a pile.

She brandishes a staff at the subdued trio. “Are you firebenders?” She barks. They tell her they are not. “That’s just what a firebender would say!” They assure her they are not firebenders. They are water tribe, and Aang is an airbender. She releases them and introduces herself as Princess Yue of the northern water tribe. Sokka is impressed and bows, “your majesty,” Katara does a stiff movement she would call a curtsey. Aang recognizes the staff and grabs it but Yue holds fast. It’s a sacred air nomad staff, it’s not to be touched by outsiders. Yue is nonplussed. Sokka tells Aang that he can’t speak to a princess like that. Aang takes a deep breath and bellows, “LET IT GO!” His voice echoes in the halls. Yue lets go of the staff. Aang apologizes for yelling and inspects the staff. Yue never got the names of the other two, Sokka and Katara. Yue is incredulous, “You are Sokka and Katara!? Your father saved my life! Hakoda’s ship arrived at our capital a year ago and he was granted audience before me and my father. My father refused to help, and, I had to make a choice. I ran away and boarded your father’s ship in secret with the moon scroll.”

“We’re going to reopen the moon portal!”

But where is their father now? “He was taken prisoner by the fire nation. The last thing he said was he’d be a boomerang, but, I never got to ask him what that means.” “Means he’ll be back,” Sokka explains. He shows her the boomerang his father gave him when he left. Aang asks her how she got here. Yue continues, “I was found by a fisherman and made my way south. I got marooned here about a month ago after my ship sank. Been looking for a way off ever since, but there’s so many fire nation... We could fly to the south pole on a sky bison, though.” Someone’s stomach growls. Katara admonishes Sokka. It wasn’t him, it was Aang! Yue calculates that there is enough time to eat.

https://www.mostphotos.com/fi-fi/2720912/plum-orchard

The air temple orchard is overgrown, though a thousand years of tending have given a sense of order to the older trees. Aang hopes they like mountain peaches as he hops high in the air and grabs one. He lands and hands a peach to Katara and jumps back into the air. Sokka, asks her for it, salivating, and Katara licks it all over, much to Sokka’s chagrin. Aang lands with an armful of peaches and one in his mouth. He hands them out. They sit and enjoy a moment of peace.

Yue asks how the boomerang works. Sokka hands it to her and instructs her how to throw it. She does her best, but it is a terrible throw. She puts her hands up to her mouth and yells “Come back!” Sokka offers to go get it, but she should, she threw it, and they both end up going together. When they find it, Sokka throws it to demonstrate. Yue commends him on the throw. Sokka smiles goofily and gets lost in her eyes. They smile at each other and the boomerang runs smack into the side of Sokka’s head and he yelps in pain. Aang and Katara come running. Though he’s bleeding and wincing, Yue laughs and says it’s nothing a waterbender couldn’t heal. Katara isn’t sure what she means. Yue furthers, waterbenders can heal, she thought everybody knew that, especially waterbenders.

Yue pours some water into Katara’s hands. Katara is unsure what to do so she waterbends the water onto Sokka’s cut. Nothing happens. She closes her eyes and concentrates. The water releases a soft glow. Katara gasps and her eyes pop open. The wound has closed and there is no scar. Yue tells Katara that she just did some high-level bending. Aang lights up, he knows where the airbenders are.

Aang leads them to an intricately carved door. If the airbenders are hiding, it will be here. They have storerooms and water reserves deep in the temple. It’s his last hope. Only high level airbending can open this door, he reveals, and he bends two focused currents of air into the large doors' ornate locking mechanism, and a strange hauntingly beautiful tone resonates. The locks disengage, and the doors open slowly. Aang walks into the darkened room as Katara, Sokka, and Yue follow him.

Aang calls out to the airbenders. The room is pitch black and his footsteps echo. Katap. Katap. Katap. Skrit. He steps on something. It is a wooden medallion. He picks it up and flashes back to a happy looking older airbender monk: Gyatso, wearing medallion on a necklace.

Monk Gyatso is Aang’s sensei. Aang in the flashback has no tattoos yet and runs up to him calling his name and they embrace. Gyatso leads Aang out of the wind lock doors and onto the terrace before it.

Flying bison of all sizes fill the sky above. Gyatso tells Aang to call to him. “Appa!” Aang yells. Appa roars and dives down to Aang leaving his siblings and his much larger mother behind. Appa nuzzles and licks Aang as he laughs and laughs and laughs.

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The memory fades as Aang’s eyes adjust to the shadows. He sees a sky bison skull among bones and piles of soot and ashes, all over the room. Firebenders were here. Katara gasps. “Oh no.”

Aang falls to his knees. He is not alright. His eyes and tattoos light up. Wind begins to circle around him. Sokka freaks, “Is he glowing? How is he glowing?!” Katara calls for Aang. The winds get faster and faster, lifting Aang into the air. Yue makes them take cover. The soot and bones in the room get caught up in the whirlwind, disintegrating into brown and black dust and debris. Aang’s eyes, emanating white light, widen. The swirling blackness closes in on him. He shuts his eyes and pushes the darkness away, forcing all the ashes out the temple. Aang stops glowing and he drifts to the ground.

Outside, the ash cloud drifts away.

Yue, Katara, and Sokka cough around the corner. Katara runs to Aang and takes him into her lap. He stirs. It really has been one hundred years. She cradles his head and opens up to him that she and Sokka lost their mother to the fire nation. Even though his people are gone, he has found a new family: herself and Sokka. He looks Katara in the eyes and tells her with conviction that he will never firebend. Never ever. He sits up and hugs Katara as she mulls his statement.

From their ships, the firebenders notice the ash cloud drifting down from the temple as they pull into the harbor of the fort. Something must be going on. They form a squad of male and female fire nation soldiers fresh from the base. Zhao tells Iroh that he is too old and slow for this mission and Zuko is free to stay behind as well, if he doesn’t think he can make the climb. Zuko is ready. Iroh warns Zuko that Zhao is not to be trusted. Zuko assures his uncle, he can handle Zhao. From the battlements, Iroh watches the troops begin the hike. He puts on a cloak and sneaks out after them.

Later, the sun sets over the mountain peaks. Aang and the others bring flowers to a stone alter. The medallion sits in the middle of it. They pile the flowers around it. Aang sets a peach down with the flowers and steps back. Peaches were Gyatso’s favorite, he tells them. He closes his eyes. They all do. Aang gives the airbender prayer of mourning. The sound of wings. They open their eyes and a winged lemur eats the peach on the altar.

Aang laughs, a long clear laugh as he takes the lemur, lazily eating the peach, into his hands and names him Momo. The wind blows through the flowers.

Night falls. In a clearing in the orchard, Aang strokes the sleeping lemur as Sokka builds a fire and Yue puts peaches on the ends of sticks. She pokes fun at his fire building technique. Sokka has been building fires his whole life. Yue retorts that she’s only been doing it for the last year and she’s already better then him. They race to light the fire and Yue wins, but just barely. “Best two out of three?” Yue asks Sokka with a cheeky smile. Katara returns with a bucket filled with well water.

The peaches roast on the sticks as the fire casts an amber yellow on the kids’ faces. “So, are we going to talk about what happened?” Sokka asks. Yue and Katara avoid his line of questioning. Sokka extrapolates, “Aang was glowing. I haven’t heard of a glowing person before.” Aang is silent. Yue speaks up, “I have.”

“When I was born I was very sick and very weak. Most babies cry when they're born, but I was born as if I was asleep, my eyes closed. They told my mother and father I was going to die. That night, beneath the full moon, he brought me to the spirit oasis and placed me in the pond and pleaded with the spirits to save me. I began to glow and my hair turned white. I opened my eyes and began to cry, and they knew I would live. That's why my mother named me Yue. For the moon.”

Yue explains that Aang must be filled with immense spiritual power. Aang is silent. Sokka pipes up that it was the same light from when Aang came out of the iceberg. Still Aang is silent. Katara scoots closer to him and prods him why he told her he would never firebend. She asks him if he is the avatar. Aang stands, surprising the lemur and it scurries away. He never wanted to be the Avatar. He only ever wanted to be normal and play airball with the other kids. He didn't ask to be the avatar! They were going to send him away, to the eastern temple where he would be safer. Which means he was in danger. Avatars aren't supposed to know they are the avatar until they are 16 because: what if they told you, you were supposed to save the world at twelve years old? That’s why he ran away. He was going to come back but ran into a storm and somehow he lost 100 years.

Sokka is confused, if he's the avatar, how come he can’t bend the other elements? Aang doesn't know how yet.

Yue smiles. Out of her pack she produces the moon scroll.

In it is more than just how to open the moon gate, but also advanced waterbender techniques as well. She gives it to Aang and suggests Katara give him his first lesson. Sheepishly, Katara unravels the scroll. There’s writing, but she doesn't know how to read. Aang and Yue are taken aback by this, but Sokka doesn’t know how to read either. They have chores all day, there wouldn't be any time for reading, even if they had books. Yue sadly remarks that everyone in the Northern tribe knows how to read and apologizes that life in the south has gotten so hard. Aang comes closer and reads the scroll to Katara. Water is the element of versatility. It is a liquid, a solid, a gas. Gifted waterbenders can even be healers. He smiles and Katara blushes and Sokka touches his head where the wound would have been. Water is Tui and La, Push and Pull, and the earliest waterbenders learned how to push and pull the ocean like the moon with its tides. The moon is the source of power for all waterbenders and they are strongest when the moon is full.

They look up at the moon above. Aang remarks that they will be really strong tonight. Yue informs Aang, it's almost full. It's waxing, it will be full tomorrow. Katara admits that from studying the drawings, she doesn't know any of these moves. Aang asks her what she does know. She smiles. She takes him by the hand down to the well. Katara thrusts her hand out over the edge of the well and instructs Aang to do the same. She moves her hand up and down. Aang isn't sure but she tells him to feel the water, even though it’s not attached to his body. Splashes echo out of the deep. Katara says “Ok, I'll pull it and you push it.” Splash. “Ok, now you pull it and I push it.” Splishy splash. He feels it! Katara asks Aang to pull the water up with her. Aang is surprised on how it's almost like air, but heavy.

Together, they lift a large ball of water high into the air. Aang chuckles and starts pushing it over Katara's head, he lets go. Katara closes her eyes and shrieks but opens them when she realizes she's holding up the water by herself.

She celebrates and loses her concentration and drops the water and gets soaked. Aang laughs and she douses him with the puddle around her. Aang laughs again and dries himself off with a whirlwind. Katara, drenched, asks if he could dry her off too. He tries. Her hair is swept back and poofs out. They both laugh. They gaze into each other’s eyes. Between their faces, the light of the campfire sparkles in the distance.

The campfire suddenly flares up a pillar of fire 10 feet high. Sokka yelps. Aang and Katara turn to face the flames. A rustle behind them. Fire nation soldiers! They throw their spears. Aang whisks Katara down behind the well with him. Katara begins to panic. Aang tells her to use the water.

They lift a spout out of the well and repel the foot soldiers. They run towards the campsite. Yue and Sokka are held captive by elite firebenders while Zhao taunts her. He’s been looking for the princess’s hiding place. Zuko concludes she’s the reason he’s locked down the southern sea. Zhao nods.

Katara and Aang come running to a stop. Zhao is immediately taken by the air nomad boy. Where did he come from? Where are the other air nomads? Zuko wastes no time in taking Katara prisoner. He advises her not to struggle. Zhao stares at Aang while confirming with Zuko that the girl is indeed the Avatar. She's the one from the village, the one waterbender in all the south, therefore, she must be the avatar. Aang shouts that she's not the avatar. Zuko sizes up the air nomad boy. Then who is? Katara tries to stop him but Aang tells them that he is. Zuko retorts that he couldn't possibly be the avatar, he’s just a child! Zhao isn't so sure. The avatar would be over a hundred years old, Zuko reminds Zhao, they have the princess, they have the avatar, but if he wants to waste his time with an air nomad liar, he is welcome to. Zhao willing to be convinced, leaves Aang.

Soldiers take Katara, Yue and Sokka and form ranks.

Aang drops out of the sky in front of the squadron. He declares himself the avatar and points his staff at the firebenders. They laugh at him. He calls for Appa. From above, Appa roars, then dives and the solders duck and cower. Aang makes an air scooter and zips through all the solders like a pinball. Appa lands where Aang was standing and charges the soldiers with his horns, they scramble to their feet to fend off Appa. Some run. The distraction gives Yue the chance to escape. She knocks her captor in the gut and off of her and throws him into Sokka's guard. Aang takes out the bender holding Katara, and they struggle to get the chains off.

Zhao calls for the men to form rank. Someone yells, “the prisoners are escaping!” Zuko and Zhao leap into the chaos. They arrive to hear Aang give up on getting the chains off of Katara and that they need get to Appa to escape. Zhao is a clever man, he turns and runs to Appa, manifesting a fiery whip in each hand. Zuko fire charges into the group and separates Katara from the rest. Aang spins in and spins Katara out into Yue and Sokka’s arms. Aang and Zuko duel. Katara won’t leave Aang so Sokka picks her up and puts her over his shoulder. Katara begs Sokka to stop, but then changes her mind and tells Sokka to take her to the well. Yue tells them she will get the key to the shackles and joins Aang against Zuko. Appa runs about the courtyard chasing a hapless soldier in circles until Zhao faces off against the beast.

Aang dodges Zuko’s fireball as Appa wails in fear from afar. In his distracted moment Zuko gets past Aang but runs right into Yue. Aang is torn, does he run to help Appa or Yue? Yue tells him that she’s got this, and he goes to rescue Appa from Zhao’s torment. Yue gets in close, Zuko is on the defensive. He dodges past her, and she doesn’t follow. She has pickpocketed the key.

Sokka and Katara are at the well and Katara is bringing up all the water she can with her hands behind her back. Zuko comes racing towards them. Sokka screams and Katara throws the water at Zuko, and completely misses him. Katara asks if she got him. Zuko didn’t even get wet. Sokka throws the boomerang and Zuko has to duck. Zuko rises to his feet and the boomerang comes back knocking Zuko’s helmet. The water pools by Zuko’s feet as he fixes his helmet and with menacing rage makes fire daggers in his hands. Katara closes her eyes. She spreads her fingers then clenches her fists with a quick breath out and the water freezes and Zuko feet are frozen to the ground. Yue slides by Zuko on the ice twirling the key on her finger.

Yue unlocks Katara’s shackles as, in the distance, a blast of fire. Appa roars and flees into the air. Aang screams his name as he runs after him, but Appa won’t come back.

Zhao turns to Aang with a sadistic look in his eyes and a fiery whip in each hand. Katara, Sokka, and Yue come running. They try to convince Aang he has no other choice, he has to run. If he’s captured, who will save them? Fire nation soldiers begin to compose themselves surrounding the group. Zuko, fuming melts his feet. Aang pops the wings out of the staff. It’s also is a glider. He runs and takes flight on the orchard path. Zhao barks a command and all the firebending infantry call out and punch the sky sending fireballs into the air above and beyond and all around Aang. The fireballs arc in the sky and land all over the temple. The peach trees left and right burn and Aang lands among them. The sight of temple burning sends him into a rage. Aang glows. The wind picks up and blows all the fires out. Zhao and Zuko see. He is the avatar. With the fires out, the avatar spirit leaves Aang and the light of his tattoos fade and he lands. Zhao and Zuko race towards him; the chase is on.

http://kidskunst.info/linked/history-of-stairs-ancient-stairs-686973746f7279.htm

Aang runs through a large archway and into a great stone rotunda with a corkscrew staircase in the center. He runs at the speed of wind up the staircase to the top. Zuko and Zhao are hot on his heels. At the top of the stairs there’s a hallway and at the end of the hallway Aang finds the door to the jump room locked. Zhao leisurely jogs, beast like, up the stairs. Zuko fire leaps up the sides to just beneath the top. Zuko grabs the edge of the top with the tips of his fingers. He pulls himself up. Desperate, Aang hits the lock with the staff and it breaks open. The door swings off the hinges to a launch pad at the top of the mountain just above the tree line. With freedom before him, he turns around and faces Zuko as the prince rises to his feet.

Zuko promises Aang that if he comes with Zuko now, he and his friends will be unharmed. Aang asks how he can trust Zuko. The fire nation invaded and killed his people. Zuko retorts it was the airbenders’ aggression and illegal settlements on Fire nation land that brought this upon them. Aang claims the airbenders are pacifist. Zuko clarifies then, that Aang won’t just windblast him off and takes a step forward. Aang also takes a step forward. The people who lived here were mostly children. He accuses the fire nation of genocide. Zuko doesn’t want to believe it, but Aang’s conviction has awoken what he knows to be true, and he falters. Aang is still very vulnerable and emotional. His tattoos light up, his eyes glow, the wind rustles around his clothing: the avatar state emerges.

Zhao comes around the corner, not even out of breath. He sees Aang’s glow and smiles his crazy smile and charges Aang. Under the state of the Avatar, Aang is stiffer, more confident. He sends a blast of air with his staff down the hallway at Zhao, knocking him off the stairs. Zuko jumps after him and catches Zhao’s hand and saves him from falling. Zhao glares menacingly at Zuko as he pulls him up. The Avatar spirit fades as Aang realizes he just attempted murder. His actions horrify and confuse him. Tears stream down his face.

Zhao kneels, winded from the air blast. Aang turns to flee. Zuko takes off after him. Aang activates his glider and throws it out the window and leaps out after it, catching it and the wind. For a second, it seems like he’ll get away but then Zuko jumps after him at full speed and grabs hold of his legs, causing them to spiral and crash in the clearing below. Zhao approaches the edge and looks down. He jumps off. Aang and Zuko lie in a crumple before him. Aang tries to get up, but he can’t. Zuko is also injured. Zhao gags Aang and shackles his hands and feet. He goes to Zuko and helps him up. Zhao compliments him on his willingness to sacrifice everything, maybe they aren’t so different. Zhao throws Zuko towards the edge of the cliff and fireballs him off.

Aang watches, in a daze, as Zuko disappears into the forest below. From afar, Iroh is lit up by the light of the fireball. Zhao lumbers back from the edge and picks Aang up and over his shoulder as Aang passes out. Darkness.

A knock on a heavy iron battleship door. Iroh opens it and stands in the doorway. A messenger tells Iroh to hurry, there’s been an accident with the Prince. Iroh pushes through the crowd to the deck of the boat where Zhao meets him. Zhao proclaims to Iroh that the avatar threw the prince off a cliff. A search party is to be sent immediately to find his body for proper burial. Iroh spits and claims he never liked the sullen prince who had no respect for his elders and they can leave the body on the mountain for all he cares. He asks if the Avatar is in custody. Aang, gagged and bound, is carried by two large soldiers. Iroh leads them into the bowels of the ship. The battleship is a marvel of engineering and the prison for the avatar is state of the art. Even so, Zhao expected more. Iroh states that it’s mobile, self-sufficient, heavily guarded, and the safest place for the avatar to be.

In the avatar’s cell, Zhao has Aang’s arms chained up and his legs chained down. Iroh gets into Aang’s face, “So this is the great Avatar. Master of all the elements. I don't know how you've managed to elude the Fire Nation for a hundred years, but your little game of hide and seek is over.”

Zhao ungags Aang and asks him how it feels to be the only airbender left. “Do you miss your people? Don't worry, you won't be killed like they were.” Zhao turns to leave. Aang takes a deep inhale and breath blasts Zhao, knocking him to the floor. Zhao is triggered, and fiery. Iroh helps bring him under control. Zhao tells Aang, “Blow all the wind you want, but your situation is futile. See, if you die you will just be reborn and the Fire Nation would have to start searching all over again. So, I'll keep you alive, but just barely.” Zhao leaves in a huff. Uncle Iroh glares at the remaining guards and asks for a minute alone with the thing that killed his nephew. They oblige.

Iroh approaches Aang. Aang shies away, but Iroh lays a gentle hand on his shoulder and assures him he is not like the others. He reveals that he knows Aang didn't kill Zuko but that it doesn't matter because no one will believe Aang anyway. Aang asks what's going to happen to him. Iroh assures Aang that when the time comes, he will help Aang escape, but first, he needs Aang's help. He needs to know about the waterbending girl.

In the prison hold, Katara sits comforting Grangran. Grangran is babbling on about how the fire nation came not long after they left and rounded up the villagers onto their ships but Katara's eyes fix on Sokka. He’s worried about Yue. Katara thinks they should be worried about all of them. A guard rattles the door and tells them to shut up. Iroh enters, carrying a bucket of water. The guard tries to stop him from entering the cell but Iroh tells him the orders are from Zhao. The prisoners haven’t been watered all day. Besides, Iroh asks the guard if he thinks the dragon of the west can’t handle one young waterbending girl. The guard apologizes and opens the door. Iroh enters the cell, kneels, and takes out a ladle and invites the villagers to drink. They do not move. He drinks some water himself. Sokka takes the bucket and gently helps Katara quench their grandmother’s thirst. The bucket is passed around and Katara brings the empty bucket and the ladle to Iroh. He tells her, “Katara, I have spoken with Aang. He needs you to come with me.”

Iroh takes Katara into his cabin. On the bed, Zuko lies suffering, his stomach wrapped in bandages from Zhao’s fireball. Iroh asks Katara to heal him. Katara doesn’t want to, Zuko put shackles on her and he is after Aang. Iroh understands why she wouldn’t want to. Zuko attacked her, he’s an angry young man, he’s fire nation, but he’s the only good thing in Iroh’s life. Maybe she can see past the anger and the pain and see that he has suffered at the hands of the fire nation, too. Katara eyes the scar on Zuko’s face.

Reluctantly, Katara dips her hand in a bucket by the bedside. Water clings to her hands and she brings them to Zuko’s bandages. The water glows for a few moments and Zuko is soothed. Katara asks to be taken back to the cell. Iroh sneaks Katara through the ship. He takes her back into the prison hold and in with the rest of the villagers. As he locks them in, Sokka asks him about Yue. Iroh tells him, she is with Zhao.

In Zuko’s former quarters, Zhao sits beneath a rack of twin swords, eating a feast alone. Yue is escorted in. She has been bathed and dressed in her gown from the night she left the north. She is seated in front of Zhao. He invites her to eat. He tells her about the captain who found the dress of the northern water tribe princess on a water tribe boat headed for the south pole. Yue asks what Zhao wants. Zhao wants peace, a permanent peace with the water nation. The southerners have wasted their land, like the earthbending savages and the airbenders before them. The north will be safe, it’s water, the fire nation doesn’t want water. The southerners can move to the north. Yue doesn’t understand. Zhao tells her, he’s going to help her open the moon gate. Isn’t that what she wants? Yue asks about the avatar. Zhao tells her she can either leave here and return home with her people or join him in prison. Yue wants to know where her people are. Zhao will take her there.

The prison hold door is flung open. Zhao leads Yue to the southern people. She sees them locked in a crowded cell. She announces that they will all be taken to the North Pole as her new subjects. Zhao will allow them to open the moon gate to let the water tribe members through to their sister tribe. However, the southerners will never return to the south. This news is upsetting, the south is their home. Yue assures them, this is their only option. Zhao tells the Princess its time for her to return, Yue asks to stay. Zhao locks her up in with the rest of the tribe. A soldier enters the hold and tells Zhao they have the beast.

On the deck of the ship, fire nation soldiers struggle to restrain Appa with ropes. Zhao appears. Appa wails and struggles harder. Zhao delights in his fear and what a fine present Appa will be for his bride to be. They take Appa below deck and set sail. Momo watches from the walls of the fort. He glides down and reaches the battleship and crawls through a vent in the side of the ship. He hears familiar voices, Sokka and Yue huddled close. Sokka asks her what the north is like. Yue tells him that it’s different. She has responsibilities, she’s betrothed. Sokka doesn’t understand she’s to be married.

Yue asks if she can do something she’s wanted to do since she first saw Sokka. He nods and she kisses him. She curls into his little spoon as he holds her. Momo gags and continues through the vents.

Momo passes by Iroh and Zuko in his cabin. Zuko is feeling much better after being healed. Iroh tells Zuko that Zhao captured the bison and maybe they can use him to gain the Avatar’s trust. Zuko bets that if the Avatar escapes under Zhao’s command, it will be a huge blow to his plans. There is a knock at the door. Zuko hides in the closet. Iroh answers, it is Zhao. Zhao wants Iroh to know that he grieves for the prince and they will want to get word to the fire lord, but first, Iroh is invited to the north pole, as Zhao’s advisor. Iroh asks if Zhao meant the south pole and Zhao smiles and leaves. Zuko peeks out of the closet as Iroh shuts the door.

Momo continues on through the vents. Finally, he finds Aang’s cell. Aang is delighted to see Momo. Momo gnaws at the shackles at Aang’s feet, to no avail. He curls up around Aang’s neck, giving him comfort deep in the bowels of the battleship.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/a19228/ice-breakers-coast-guard-great-lakes/

Late day, over the icy seas, icebreaker ships take the battleship as far south as they can. The firebenders load sleds and snowmobiles with their prisoners for the south pole. Katara is lead out, the only prisoner in full shackles and even a muzzle. Iroh walks down the gangplank after the last of the prisoners. He passes a soldier, there is a familiar scar beneath the helm. The two nod to each other and Iroh joins Zhao on his sled. The fire nation troops take off, roaring into the distance.

On the ship, a soldier stands guard outside of Zuko’s former room. There is a clanging at the end of the hallway. The soldier investigates and is incapacitated by a masked man. The man enters Zuko’s old quarters and stares at the twin swords on the mantle. The door is left ajar and the swords above the mantle are gone.

Down in the prison hold, four guards play a game in front of Appa’s cell. One of them asks why they need so many men to guard this beast. Another guard tells him, that he’s a gift for Princess Azula from Zhao just as Aang will be a gift to the fire lord. There is a bang down the hall. The guards all jump at the noise.

The helmet of a Fire Nation soldier rolls down the hallway toward them. When one guard investigates alone, the other three suddenly see a flame erupt from the hallway and hear the muffled sounds of combat and of chains being strung up. When two more guards follow after him, they find their companion strung up with his hands to the ceiling. The masked man, clinging to the ceiling, wraps a chain around a hand of each guard and drops down, simultaneously pulling the guards up. The last guard standing in front of Appa’s cell, having heard the scuffle, takes his horn to sound the alarm, though before he could blow the instrument, it is knocked out of his hands by a well-aimed knife. Noticing a figure running toward him, he firebends, though the masked man extinguishes the fire by throwing water and proceeds to sweep the legs from underneath the guard with the bucket. *

Appa groans in interest as the masked man offers him some hay.

Inside his cell, Aang hears a commotion and eyes the door with apprehension. Momo hisses at the door as the lock is being turned. Aang gasps as a masked figure enters with dual broadswords. Momo attacks the figure and is easily subdued when the figure reveals Appa in the hallway. The man unlocks Aang’s chains and retreats to Appa without saying a word. Aang asks him who he is, what is going on, and wonders if the man is there to rescue him. The figure does not respond, and they are interrupted by the sound of the alarm. He signals for the Avatar to follow him. *

Aang, Momo, and the masked figure ride Appa through the halls of the ship. They burst through the door to the deck and are surrounded by soldiers. The masked man draws his swords but Aang yells, “yip-yip,” and they take to the sky. Firebenders all around them shoot projectiles the sky bison dodges or are deflected by the swords. The soldiers’ last hope is artillery that they point at the escapees. FIRE! A rocket heads directly towards the bison. The masked figure taps Aang on the shoulder, but Aang is concentrating. The figure shakes him. Aang sees the rocket but doesn’t know what it is. The figure unsheathes his swords and throws them at the rocket causing it to explode and sending the riders tumbling through the sky in the resulting shockwave. The firebenders below argue about who’s idea it was to shoot the rocket. Gaining his senses after the blast, Aang whirlwinds himself onto Appa’s back. They dive and catch the masked man in Aang’s arms. Momo lands on Aang’s shoulders as the mask falls off the man, revealing him to be an unconscious prince Zuko.

At the south pole, the ruins of the former southern capital are jagged and jut harshly from the surrounding icy waste. Zhao investigates the moon scroll as firebenders race to cut blocks of ice. They stack ice block onto ice block to rebuild the portal according to the scroll. When it is finished, it looks like a tunnel that leads into the side of a wall.

Aang lands Appa on the icy terrain. The tracks of snowmobiles run deep and are easy to follow, but that’s not his issue. Zuko lies motionless on the ground. Aang’s gaze follows the tracks into the distance, then returns to the unconscious Zuko. He can’t just leave him here.

At the south pole, Zhao watches the sun set. He orders Princess Yue to open the moon gate. She can’t. Only a waterbender can. All eyes turn towards Katara. They unshackle and unmuzzle her.

Katara approaches the rebuilt portal. It looks rough and raw in the twilight. She waves her hands over the ice. No change. She does again, but nothing happens. Zhao’s face darkens. He barks an order. The water tribe villagers are pushed to their knees as firebender soldiers brandish flames at them. She tries again and again to use her powers on the portal, but still, it does not respond.

Katara cowers. Zhao approaches her, his fury palpable. He suggests she try again. She doesn’t know if she can open the portal. He sneers that he hopes, for her family’s sake, that she is wrong. He snaps his fingers twice and Grangran is dragged forward. Zhao commands her to open the gate, and though Katara tries, she still can’t do it. Zhao scowls. He looks over at the villagers and spies Sokka. He orders Grangran returned to the others and Sokka to be dragged forward next. Katara begs Zhao. He orders her to open the gate. Sokka tells her that it’s okay, and that he loves her. Grangran yells that she believes in Katara. Yue joins them. The whole village shouts encouragements. The sun disappears over the horizon. The light of the moon is the only light in the sky. Katara closes her eyes and waves her hands once again. Nothing happens. Zhao makes a fireball in his fist and approaches Sokka.

A villager shouts and Zhao turns. A soft light creeps over each ice block until the entire arch is shining. The shining abruptly stops and the blocks have fused together. Zhao investigates.

In the darkness of the tunnel, one can see the moon, hanging in blackness, illuminating a path to a distant archway. Zhao laughs, an evil laugh. Yue stands and bids the southerners to follow her to the north, but Zhao stops them. Elite firebenders take hold of Yue, while others put Katara back into shackles and muzzle and lump her in with the villagers. Yue spits at Zhao for turning against his word. Zhao takes her personally into custody and leaves the rest of the water tribe with the elite guard as he and a small team, including Iroh, lead Yue through the portal.

As they walk the moon’s path, Admiral Zhao sinisterly tells General Iroh that they are in the process of writing history, as they will be destroying the last of the Water Tribe civilization. Yue is aghast at Zhao’s machinations, and Zhao has her gagged. Iroh warns Zhao that history is not always kind to its subjects, Zhao condescendingly assures him that this will not be like Iroh's legendary failure at Ba Sing Se; Iroh ominously tells Zhao he hopes not, for Zhao's sake. The firebenders and Yue reach the end of the path and find themselves in the throne room of the northern water tribe. *

Iroh confirms their location and inquires if it is wise to attack during the full moon, as waterbenders draw strength from the moon. Zhao states that he is aware of the problem, and that he is working on a solution. As he reveals a secret door behind the throne, Zhao explains that years earlier, while serving as a young officer in the Earth Kingdom, he stumbled on the secret of the Moon and Ocean Spirit's mortal forms in an underground library. When he declares it is his destiny to kill the moon spirit, Iroh angrily informs him that the spirits are not to be trifled with. Condescendingly, Zhao tells Iroh he has heard tales of his journey into the Spirit World and assures him that the Moon and Ocean Spirits, having made the decision to give up their immortality to be part of the human world, will face the consequences of that decision. *

They descend down the passageway behind the throne to the spirit oasis: a small bamboo forested pool in a glacial atrium. A low voice is heard up ahead. Zhao puts his fingers to his lips and the firebenders sneak in the shadows. Chief Arnook, Yue’s father, prays to the moon for his daughter and his people. The light of the full moon shines brightly above. When he finishes, he asks an older man, Master Pakku, to escort him back. Zhao reveals himself and his prisoner, Princess Yue. Pakku squares up but Arnook orders him to stand down.

Zhao commends the chief for his wisdom and releases Yue to him. Arnook ungags her and Yue tells him that Zhao means to destroy the water tribe by killing the moon spirit. Arnook and Pakku share a look.

Arnook is incredulous that Zhao could kill the moon, whose bed is the sky and the horizon, but Zhao assures him confidently, that the spirits are close, closer than he thinks. He gestures to the pool, two koi fish swim around each other. Yue is in disbelief that Zhao thinks the fish are the spirits, but Arnook and Pakku are silent with secret knowledge.

Meanwhile, at the south pole, Katara breaths through her muzzle, now hoary with frost. A firebender yelps and points at the sky, it’s Aang riding Appa. The firebenders form a defensive perimeter. Katara takes her chance, she ices the locks to the point that they break and she frees herself from her bonds. She begins taking out firebenders as Aang does the same. The firebenders run to their snowmobiles and sleds and retreat. Katara throws off the muzzle and hugs Aang as Sokka inspects the gate. He runs through it, after Yue. The rest of the southerners follow with trepidation. In the palace, Sokka begins to call out. He sees the door ajar behind the throne. Sokka finds it out of place and passes through it. Katara and Aang ensure all the remaining southerners go through the portal. Aang shows her Zuko on Appa and they decide to leave him in the south.

Suddenly, as if he had been conscious for a while, Zuko makes his move and attacks. Katara trounces him. She freezes him in a block of ice and she and Aang and Momo try to pull Appa through the moon portal. Appa resists; after being cooped up in the ship, he is not interested in going through a small door again.

Sokka sneaks down the path to the spirit oasis. Zhao arrogantly applauds his own efforts to fulfill his "destiny", speculating as to which names by which future generations will call him. From the shadows, Sokka makes eye contact with Yue. He retreats to get help.

A water tribe scout on an ice tower watches the fire navy ship’s blockade. It’s nothing unusual.

Katara and Aang desperately pull Appa with a rope onto the moon path. Zuko the ice block begins to steam.

Zhao takes a burlap sack and charges into the water. After a moment, he rises with the fish in the bag. As he hoists it over his head in triumph, the full moon above transforms, turning from white to blood-red. *

The scout sees the red moon. His waterbender comrade in arms reacts: he can no longer waterbend.

On the moon path, the moon and path are red in the blackness. Katara feels weak. She collapses. Aang releases Appa’s rope and helps her up. Appa pulls back into the open air on the south side. Aang hobbles Katara over to the north side and lays her down in the throne room. He tells Momo to watch over her, he has to go back for Appa. The path beneath him cracks and Katara tells him to hurry. Aang runs through the gate to the other side. Before he can make it to the south, a shadow appears in the doorway and fireblasts him back. Prince Zuko who corners Aang in the disintegrating moon path.

Yue begs Zhao to release the moon spirit. The chief holds her and comforts her. Iroh pleads with Zhao to consider his actions: they will bring harm to all, not just those in the Water Tribe. Reinforcing the point, Iroh promises Zhao, "Whatever you do to that spirit, I'll unleash on you ten-fold." Zhao confirms what he knew all along, that Iroh is a traitor. To save the moon spirit, Arnook offers Zhao the unconditional surrender of the northern water tribe.

Water tribe warriors swarm into the throne room and surround the villagers coming through the portal. Sokka appears in the door behind the throne and bids them to follow him. The arch of the moon gate begins to crack and Katara yells for Aang. Zuko’s firebending keeps Aang on the pathway guarding the south door as it splinters here and there.

Zhao confirms with Arnook, that he has his unconditional surrender and releases the fish back into the water. The moon turns white. Everyone, the water tribe scouts, fire navy sailors, Sokka, Katara, Aang, Iroh, and even Zuko is relieved. The floor beneath Aang and Zuko solidifies again and Zuko takes a defensive stance.

Zhao watches the fish swim. Something dark and unsatisfied crosses his mind. Without a hesitation, he fire blasts the white fish.

Iroh watches the fire bolt hit the moon spirit in horror.

On the moon path, the full moon above Aang goes out like a light. The path beneath Aang and Zuko disappears and Aang falls into darkness. Zuko jumps to the southern portal and pulls himself through as the pathway vanishes behind him leaving an empty black tunnel.

Katara yells for Aang, and approaches the portal, but the portal in the north now ends in an icy wall. Momo scratches desperately at the wall.

The scout blinks in the darkness. He is at a loss. One by one, on the horizon, the fire navy blockade lights their trebuchets. They fling fiery projectiles in waves. The scout blows his horn.

Appa huffs at the gate. Zuko tries again and again to jump through the threshold, but without the moon, the gate is shut. Zuko lights the sky up with his fire blasts.

Iroh bellows and lunges on Zhao. The elite squad do their best to protect Zhao but are subdued by Iroh’s fury. Zhao realizes he might be in trouble and flees up the ice wall, his fingers sinking like molten rods into the ice to climb his way out through the opening above. Iroh falls to his knees and mourns the spirit with the chief and Pakku and Yue. Sokka returns with warriors and villagers. The first round of trebuchet projectiles hit the palace and bits of icy debris fall from the ceiling. Grangran pulls Katara wailing for Aang to the safety of the path to the spirit oasis and down to join the others. The northern water tribe capital is in chaos. The dead white fish is prodded by the living black fish.

Aang floats in darkness thick as water. A giant black koi fish finds him and swallows him.

Katara clutches Momo as a ripple in the water breaks the stillness of the spirit oasis. Aang rises out of the water in the avatar state.

Katara is filled with joy, but Aang does not respond. He rises into the sky. Ice and snow from the land and sky begin to swirl around him and envelope him the form of a giant snow-white koi fish. The fish swims through the air out over the bay and dives into the water between fire navy ships. They are hit with a minor wave, but the sailors braced themselves. The snow fish becomes slush and the fish shape decompresses, filling the seas. Then the shape recollects and rises pulling all the water with it. The ships try to flee but are caught up in the gargantuan shape. The rocky bay beneath is revealed as some ships are beached on the seafloor. The water pillar takes a vaguely humanoid fish shape.

It collapses, and the navy ships are tsunamied away.

Back at the spirit oasis, Iroh notices, with astonishment, that Yue has been touched by the Moon Spirit, and that as a result, some of its life force is within her; Yue affirms the conjecture, then decides that she should try to restore the spirit to life by giving hers to it. Her father, upset by this idea, protests, but she is unmoved by him. Sokka takes her hands into his own and assures her there has to be another way. She calmly replies, "I have to try," and places her hands on the dead fish. *

The fish glows as Yue’s spirit leaves her body, she closes her eyes, exhales one last time, and collapses into Sokka's arms, dead. *

Moments later, Yue's body evaporates, and the fish, suddenly filled with life, swims into the oasis, looking for its partner. Floating, Yue appears above the water as a spirit, clothed in a flowing white dress. She tells Sokka that she will always be with him, kissing him one last time before disappearing; as she vanishes, the moon reappears in the sky, restoring the waterbenders' abilities. *

On the walls of the palace, Zhao sees the moon’s return and screams his frustration.

Aang fused with the Ocean spirit, in the meantime, has laid waste to the Fire Nation's navy but ceases as the moon reappears. The Ocean Spirit acknowledges the moon's restoration and, ending its violent vendetta, places Aang atop the outer wall of the city as it melts into the ocean water. *

Zhao finds a hole in the ceiling of the palace as jumps down. He has no choice but to escape through the moon portal. Except a figure blocks his way, Prince Zuko. They begin to fight. Iroh returns to the throne room and catches their duel. As Zhao and Zuko weave in and out of moonbeams let in by breaks in the ceiling. The beams seem to bend and sway as if attracted to Zhao. They wrap around him like a web of fine hair and he is stuck. Tentacles of light pull him into the air. Zuko, forgetting the duel, tries to help Zhao, reaching out a hand to him, but Zhao stubbornly refuses to take it, and he is pulled through the hole in the roof, where he vanishes in the light of the moon. Iroh puts his arm around Zuko and leads the teen back through the moon portal to the south.

Zuko is already planning, they will camp in the south and wait for the Avatar to return for his bison. Iroh looks at him sadly as Zuko begins to make camp with Appa tied up nearby. With a decisive move, Iroh unleashes a fireball that destroys the moon portal in the south. Zuko is speechless as Iroh retrieves Appa and mounts him and pulls Zuko aboard. Zuko says “uh… yip-yip” and the three lift off.

Back in the north, a drained Aang makes his way to the throne room as the rest return as well. Aang looks distraught at the closed portal’s dead end and whispers Appa’s name. The water tribe surrounds and embraces him as a group, with Katara, Sokka, Grangran, Arnook and Pakku in the center. The fire navy ships retreat out of the north and the moon glows high in the sky.

Post credit scene

In the Fire Nation, Fire Lord Ozai imparts the knowledge of Iroh's treasonous behavior and Zuko's failure to his daughter, Azula, and entrusts her with a special task as she looks up at him, a smile on her face. *

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