#then i can be brave enough to fight back against my parents

[nobody-expects-the-inquisitorius]

I think Crosshair is rubbing off on me

#that sounds. so wrong #but fr #i’ve noticed i’m much quicker to defend myself now #when before i’d just back down and apologise for things that weren’t even my fault #and i feel like that has something to do with the amount of time i’ve spent writing him recently #like. if he’s brave enough to fight back against the kaminoans #then i can be brave enough to fight back against my parents #thank fuck i haven’t adopted any of his more awful traits let’s hope it stays that way #morgan speaketh

[kirbyskisses]

a thing i wrote in @14thcommander’s dms. no warnings; fem!reader + fluff. i’m in love with the emo boy/cutesy girl aesthetic.

i am once again thinking of childhood friends to lovers with megumi fushiguro

you’re a pudgy little thing at your kindergarten where everyone else is ignoring the spiky black haired boy sitting by himself on the bench with an uncaring expression.

your interest is piqued as he’s picked up by a lanky, white-haired man who carries a goofier, more youthful energy than any of the other parents.

you bravely trot up, little pastel boots splashing in the rain at the odd duo and call.

“hey wait! uhm… what was your name! fu…fushi-?” you try to remember his name from roll call and his dark eyes widen at your approach momentarily before drooping again.

“i’m fushiguro.”

“fu-shi-gu-ro, right!” you laugh, a bright gentle sound despite the gray day. “i like your doggy, fushiguro!”

that causes him and his guardian to pause, the white haired man crouching to you, incredibly blue eyes peering amicably over pitch black glasses.

“well now… you can see it huh? you’ve certainly got a lot of cursed energy for a kid so small. you know, you’re very special to see those?” he smiles and you grin back.

“yeah! i can see ‘im!” your bright eyes turn back to megumi, delighted. “can i pet him them?? pretty please!!”

megumi looks to gojo’s approving grin, then to you with a soft nod as your tiny form pats the white devil dog’s snout, a mess of giggles at its curious nose and teeth.

and then “fushiguro” becomes “megumin” and then “min-chan.”

min-chan who you have play dates with that evolve into study dates and training where he can never bring himself to actually lay a hit on you.

min-chan who frowns when you go home from school early with a cold, but blushes a subtle pink when he walks into his house and sees you getting your hair braided by his sister.

min-chan whose cheeks dust a light pink at the bright, ever-excited warmth of your smile as you explain - “your house was closer, so tsumiki-nee said to stay here rather than walk home sick!”

min-chan who’s a bit more of a hormonal tween now. his blush darkens when he sees you wearing his extra shirt to sleep in and hears you using his shower.

min-chan who finds out you’re being mocked or bullied for your interests in middle school and comes to you with bloodied knuckles as he walks you to the train station. he always walks you, every day.

“it’s not my blood.” he looks at the red staining his hands. “don’t look so worried. next time they bother you, just tell me…”

min-chan who is devoted to cheering you up.

min-chan who listens you talk about whatever manga boy it is your simping over or whatever new album you’ve torrented onto your ipod. he only gives soft nods and the occasional smile but you know he’s listening diligently.

and min-chan who bites his lips and mutters “it’s not a big deal” anytime you congratulate him on taming a new shadow curse.

min-chan who mumbles “hold on tight,” red in the face when you wrap around him to ride nue for the first time.

min-chan who hides that his new phone has you – cradling one of his smaller shadow frogs – as his wallpaper.

min-chan who frowns his gojo perpetually pokes his cheek - teasing that his “girlfriend” really is getting stronger and he needs to catch up if he wants to keep the “tough emo boyfie” act up.

min-chan whose eyes widen when you call him “megumi” - thanking him for everything and handing him a box of cookies for gojo-san, the day you move away. you’re strong enough to master your family’s technique back in their home country.

so now he’s megumi.

megumi who nods tersely as your cute voice chides “don’t get into too many fights okay? and hug the puppies twice as much for me!”

megumi who doesn’t stop thinking about how your lips feel against his cheek for days.

megumi who wants to text, but his head nags that he’d only be an annoyance to your training - maybe it’s better he just leaves you alone. besides, curses are getting stronger and tsumiki has fallen ill - he has enough to worry about.

megumi fushiguro, high school student, who bites the inside of his cheek in annoyance as gojo drags him, nobara and itadori along to pick up the last first year of the bunch.

fushiguro who rolls his eyes as the two question what the new addition will be like.

and his breath hitches, seeing a form in a familiar blue uniform. a form dripping in a controlled yet powerful cursed aura, down the street.

with cute cartoon dog pins and a handful of shojo manga, the teen rushes up and calls out. the voice is deeper given the passing years but no less exuberant and familiar.

“gojo-san!! over here!!”

megumi, who feels like a kid again, flushed cheeks and surprised eyes as gojo swings you around with a laugh and you attentively compliment nobara’s lipstick and listen to itadori’s ever-goofy introduction.

“i’m into girls like jennifer lawrence.” he says with not an ounce of shame, megumi still reeling at hearing you say your name with the same friendly laugh you did all those years ago.

“… and i’m into guys like — min-chan!!”

your eyes land on him and the rest of you soon follows, swallowing his taller form whole in a tight hug that knocks him to the sidewalk.

you don’t pay a single iota of attention to the onlookers or to the surprised expressions on each of your classmates instead just letting them watch as you cup his cheeks and squeal.

“it’s been sooooo long! you got bigger - did the puppies get bigger too?! got any new animals? gojo-san got a new blindfold isn’t it cool? hey, how come you didn’t call me or tell me tsumiki-nee is sick - i would have come sooner to help! did you hear i might become a first grade sorcerer this year? how come you never called or wrote?! you’re so rude… but i forgive because i missed you so much!! doesn’t my uniform look cute?!”

you spit out in rapid succession, pinching his cheeks.

megumi who doesn’t have time nor evidence to deny it this time when gojo calls you his “girlfriend” in front of an utterly shocked yuuji and nobara. who only takes a deep, shaky breath to regain his normal deadpan expression.

his other two classmates’ jaws drop farther when he replies without a hitch.

“i’m 175 centimeters now. yes the dogs are bigger. i have rabbits, a serpent and an elephant now. his new blindfold is fine but it makes him no less annoying. i didn’t want to bother you, i’m proud of you for you raise in grade…” he pauses and only then looks away with another deep breath, red on his cheeks.

“thank you for forgiving me…i missed you too…and you do look very cute in your uniform.”

because he’s megumi - the one who acts disinterested to everyone but as always hears every word you say.

megumi, your childhood friend, who doesn’t so much as blink, expression bored at yuuji and nobara’s horrified surprise or gojo’s teasing grin.

he just keeps holding you, sat there on the sidewalk as you nuzzle your cheeks to his like an overly-affectionate kitten happy to have your “min-chan” back. <3

#megumi fushiguro #megumi fushiguro x reader #jjk x reader #x black!reader #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen x reader #fluff #x reader #what you won’t queue for love❤️

[vickyvicarious]

"For your mother's sake."

It hits so hard, on multiple levels. First, what this might mean for her. It's her final effort, the most impactful thing she says after religion, superstition, outright pleading on her knees and crying all fail. She knows that she can't stop him from going, but at the very least she will try her best to protect him as much as she can. She places the crucifix around his neck herself, doesn't just hand it to him.

Did she lose a child to Dracula in the past? Is she seeing echoes of her own son in Jonathan's face? Or perhaps there have been brave young men who tried to fight back against him, who deliberately went to the castle and never returned. Maybe Jonathan is the first person she's met who is actually trying to go there, and while she knows it can only end in his death, the idea of letting anyone go willingly to that evil place is more than she can bear. She's giving up a piece of her own protection. The Count has been sending letters to her husband; he was the one who suggested Jonathan stay here. He knows of her. If she shows any resistance it could mean greater danger for herself, and giving Jonathan her crucifix means losing a powerful totem of self-protection. If he actually listened to her warning, she can probably expect a terrible fate of her own; maybe even just giving him the crucifix alone would be enough to ensure that. But again, whether he reminds her of her own lost son or just because he doesn't know what he's getting himself into, she can't bear to do nothing. She places herself in the role of his mother here. "For my sake," she's saying, "let me do what little I can to save you. Please."

Jonathan is an orphan. We don't know the circumstances of his childhood, but it's possible that he never even knew his mother. (It's my headcanon.) Even if he did, she has been gone for a long time now. And yet these are the words he can't argue with in the end. He was already taking her seriously, and trying to treat her with respect. Her warnings were obviously distressing to him, but there's no way he can actually turn back now. His livelihood depends on this trip, he has no actual evidence to justify leaving, and he also wants so badly to live up to Mr. Hawkins' trust in him. He is already "thinking of his father" (or the closest he has) when he says he has to go to the castle. And yet, the care and fear and love this woman is showing for him hits so hard. I wonder if he is thinking of his actual mother when he accepts the crucifix. Whether the concept of her or an actual memory... Or maybe he too is placing her in the role of his mother here. Maybe, in keeping the crucifix (and not just with him, but around his neck where she placed it, even as he rides away) he is saying yes to that implicit request as well. "I'll let you care for me. I'll accept it gratefully." It's the first motherly care he has probably felt in many long years.

In this book, children are placed in terrible danger again and again, and most of the time they can't be saved. Parents and parental figures are equally doomed, leaving our heroes all orphaned in a sense, unable to rely on any greater source of wisdom or comfort. They have to take things into their own hands and deal with the problem alone, despite still being caught up in grief for what they've lost - a kind of coming of age in that sense. There's even a literal version of this happening with both Arthur and Jonathan (and Mina) specifically, when their father figures die and leave them with sudden new responsibilities. And of course, the inheritances from these father figures help in distinct and immensely useful ways, even as they remain absent from the story throughout. They haunt the margins at best until death steals them away completely, and their illnesses tend to serve to divide our heroes from one another when they needed to be united sooner. I personally don't count van Helsing as a father figure really, but if you do then he is the only one who manages to be around and be directly helpful (and even then, he's unable to save Lucy), even though all the fathers we hear from are loved and loving. But we do actually meet a few mothers, and they are usually unable to alter the story despite being more present. Their efforts to save their children are misdirected and only bring about their own death as well, in the end. Lucy's mother seems to mean well but everything she does directly makes everything harder; the mother at the castle later tries to avenge her child possibly against the wrong person, and in any case is unable to succeed. But here, the innkeeper's wife with her crucifix manages what no other mother does. Even though she assumes this to be another wasted effort (in fact, she can't bear to remain in the room with him afterwards; re: Dracula did such a good job with the hopelessness in her voice when she says the 'mother's sake' line), her assistance helps Jonathan to survive. His 'inheritance' from this momentary mother-figure isn't just the physical crucifix, though that is useful (and also the only inheritance a mother leaves for a child throughout the book, even when it would be expected and easy and make complete sense to do so, ahem). It's also the first and the most knowledgeable and the most effective aid given to a 'child' throughout the entire book.

#dracula daily #re: dracula #dracula daily spoilers #crucifix lady #jonathan harker #dracula meta #my meta

[blackopals-world]

I Found Home

(part 1) (part 2) (part 3) (part 4)(part 5)(Part 7)(Part 8)

Part 6

Note: Time to feed my pet followers their serotonin

Lilia

"The Guardian"

When you become a parent you will finally learn that special ability to know what your baby needs from every sound they make.

Yuu however had trouble with with Grimm. When Grimm rarely cried but when he did it was always out of distress and only when he was afraid. It was more of a sharp yell that scared Yuu. Yuu knew it might be bad parenting but she would show him that crying is just another form of asking for help.

He was a self-soother as well and he'd put his thumb in his mouth and pull his hair when he needed to calm down.

Yuu encouraged his coping mechanisms and tried to learn all of Grimm's signs of distress. More and more he stopped panicking in favor of trying to talk once he calmed himself. It wasn't perfect of course because he went into hiding one night after wetting the bed and was too afraid to get help.

Mad crying and sad crying she knew the sound of. She knew when he was really in danger. But one night she heard something that set off every alarm in her head.

Grimm let out a loud striking scream and bolted from his bed and into Yuu's room. He frantically crawled over her and shook her awake.

"Monster! Monster!" He yelled.

Yuu was wide awake now as she pulled Grimm to her chest.

"It's okay. What did you see?" Yuu tried to ask calmly. If Grimm actually saw someone she had a hatchet under her bed and no remorse in using it.

"A monster! Outside!" Grimm pointed to the window.

Yuu knew that it probably wasn't a person considering they were on the second floor. Must have been a shadow. But she couldn't tell Grimm that. In a child's mind telling them that there was nothing to fear won't ease them. You have to think around them.

"Okay, mommy will check. Do you wanna stay here?" She asked rubbing his back.

Grimm had already curled himself against Yuu's body which meant putting him down now would be difficult.

"No."

Fair enough.

Yuu got up cradling Grimm in one arm as she walked back into his room.

Everything was in place. Yuu looked out the window to see a cloudy moonlight sky. It was probably the shadow of a cloud over the moon that spooked him.

When she bought the villa she really liked the floor-to-ceiling windows but now she could see some problems. But at least the windows didn't open and risk Grimm falling out.

"Hmm, I see the problem," Yuu said trying to get Grimm's attention "The clouds are in the way."

"The clouds?" Grimm asked.

"You see when the moon and stars are out they protect us from nighttime monsters. The stars make up these ancient guardians and heroes that watch over the world at night. They slay the monsters. But sometimes the monsters send out shadow clouds to block out the moon and stars." Yuu said gravely.

"Oh no!" Grimm held on tighter in fear.

"But don't worry. We can stop them."

"Really?" Grimm said with excitement.

"Yep, you must build up your army. " As she said this she picked up Grimm's favorite stuffed cat. "Your stuffed animals can help you. If you give them orders one of the star heroes can come down and use their bodies to fight off the monsters."

Grimm's eyes lit up as he scrambled out of his mom's arms and gathered his toys.

"Sir Batty, you are in charge. Nina will stay with me." Grimm said as he stood over his fluffy troops.

"Wish them luck." Yuu said as she picked up her son and tucked him right back in bed.

"Wait! Mama! Who's going to protect you?" Grimm asked.

"Oh, well maybe you can ask Sir Batty, to check on me tonight," Yuu said soothing Grimm back to sleep.

Grimm knew that if his Mama said he was safe he was safe. Even if she was being silly. But he was going to show her that he was brave this time. Even if the scary monster was here again, on the ceiling.

It had big red eyes and sharp teeth this time.

"Are you going to eat me?" Grimm asked watching the monster get closer.

"Why would I eat you? You're far too little." The monster responded.

"Are you going to eat my Mama? I'll let you eat me instead." Grimm held tighter to Nina. Maybe he toys will save him soon.

"I would never eat you or your Mama. She's my friend." The monster dropped down from the ceiling and sat at the edge of the bed "and I'm not a monster."

Grimm got a closer look and he saw that this person wasn't a monster, in fact he looked familiar. Like one of the heroes from Mama's storybook. She was telling the truth a hero did come, Sir Batty had come to life!

Almost immediately Grimm asked a million questions to the hero. Like how he slayed monsters or how he met Mama.

"I used to protect your Mom too." Sir Batty said proudly.

"So Mama knew you'd come," Grimm said in awe.

Suddenly a yowl came from outside and just as quickly Grimm took cover as he curled up against the bat(man?).

"Monster!" Grimm tugged at his hair as he grabbed at Batty's clothes.

"No, no. That's not a monster it's just a cat. You like cats don't you?" Batty comforted him by rubbing his back gently.

Batty picked Grimm up and opened the curtains.

"See, it's just a cute little kitty." He said softly as Grimm watched the black cat perch on the fence.

Grimm smiled as he waved at the cat. He loved cats.

Lilia was having a delightful time. He could hardly believe Yuu made something so cute. He missed holding a child in his arms. Babies are so soft and warm.

Yuu's child was so small, smaller than Silver was.

"Thirsty," Grimm mumbled drowsy.

Lilia continued to rub his back as he walked downstairs. Grimm's head rested on Lilia's shoulder as he started drifting off.

The fridge had bottles of enriched milk for toddlers. All Lilia needed to do was warm it up and put it in a sippy cup.

"Do not add anything"

Lilia could already hear her voice. He remembered getting kicked out of the kitchen constantly when she came over to cook. He missed her meat pies and pizzas.

Lilia waited for the milk to cool and poured it into a Halloween-themed bottle with bats and pumpkin print.

Gently he shook Grimm awake and sat down on the couch. Grimm weakly held the bottle and began to drink but his grip began to slip.

Lilia laughed as he helped hold one end of the cup up so Grimm could continue to drink. He made sure to be careful so Grimm didn't drink too much at once and kept upright enough that he could swallow easily.

It was like he had another baby.

Once the bottle was almost empty Grimm slumped over and went into a deep sleep. Lilia wiped milk off the mouth of the little one.

He could hardly believe Yuu brought something so wonderful into the world. No, he believed it. Every bit of it.

"The future?" She tiled her head to the side and hummed in thought for a moment. "Well I want a nice house. I want it to be in a place full of trees, old ones. I'm going to finish my book and officially become an author. I'm going to get married and have kids. 1 or 2 would be good. Hey! Why are you laughing? I don't care if it sounds childish, can't I dream?"

He wasn't laughing at her but she sounded so cute. She had stars in her eyes as she talked about her future life. Clearly, she had worked towards it.

There was a creak as footsteps came downstairs. Any words of alarm that Yuu had died in her throat as Lilia pressed a finger to his lips before pointing to Grimm who was snuggled up against him with his head in the crook of Lilia's neck.

Yuu quietly pulled back one of Grimm's stray curled locks before looking at Lilia with confusion. She wanted to ask him why he was there but realized that it didn't matter.

"I missed you." Was all she could say.

"I missed you too." Lilia kissed her forehead.

Grimm let out a soft whine.

"He's beautiful." Lilia was still mesmerized.

"Isn't he." Yuu joined in. "..oh, it's late."

"Never stopped you. We used to stay up all night together." Lilia purred pressing a kiss to Yuu's cheek.

"Not anymore. I'm on mommy time now. I'm up when he's up." Yuu teased.

"What about mommy and daddy time?" Lilia returned the favor.

Yuu smacked his arm.

"We need to put him to bed." Yuu sighed reaching to take Grimm from the fae.

"I don't wanna let go." Lilia backed away as he childishly pouted.

Yuu knew better than to push but an alternative needed to be found.

Grimm woke up in a strange place. Well not stang it was his Mama's room. He was sandwiched between Mommy and Sir Batty or the hero that took Sir Batty's body.

Grimm tugged on the human stuffed animal to see if he would turn back now in the daytime.

"No, no my child. We don't pull hair." The man said, "If you are awake how about you help Daddy make breakfast for Mommy."

Daddy? Grimm didn't know he had a Daddy.

"Okay, Daddy!" Grimm smiled as he reached out his arms to be picked up.

Tag List:

TagList:@kamisatoaiko@professionalreblogs@kai200x@lianreine@loivre @code-roevember @growingupnrealizing @ryxmix @blazestar0525 @botswanasvetlana @shrimpyfishyy @imasimpsowhat06 @nooneknows8976

@utaubara @springdrop-701 @ayachansan @otomyoli @savanaclaw1996 @who-mst @cloudy51 @siren-serenity @bontensbabygirl @queen-shiba @night-shadowblood-writes2 @colombia-chan @canubringmeacokepls @mikk-o @twistedcece @dreamlessnight @spritofthesea @angelicupiid@naroshinozaki

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twisted wonderland yuu #twst yuu #lilia vanrouge #lilia x reader #twst lilia #lilia twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland lilia

[farity]

Home to you

Pairing: Aemond Targaryen x you

Summary:  Aemond comes home from battle

Warning:  just fluff

.

“Where is my wife?  My daughter?”

“Your Highness,” his wife’s maid said, running to keep up with Prince Aemond’s long strides.  “They did not go with the rest of the family.”

Aemond stopped, turned.  “Why not?”

“My lady your wife told Queen Alicent that she knew that you, as Prince Regent and commander of the armies, would be a target, and so would your own family.”  She took a deep breath and continued, “my lady said no one should know where for our safety and theirs, but that you would know for it was where the most precious jewel shows all its colors.”

Aemond knew at once.  “Thank you.”

The maid watched as the prince turned on his heel and rushed back out.  She hoped he would find them and bring them home safe and sound.

* * * * * 

“I’m tired, muña.”

You peeked through the tiniest opening in the window coverings.  From the outside it would look like a normal tear in the rough fabric, but from the inside, it gave you the perfect angle to watch the path leading to the small cabin.

Turning to your daughter, you smiled, trying your best to keep the reality of the battle from your expression.  When you had heard the drums of the enemy troops get louder and louder, Queen Alicent had decided the family was to leave, the injured King Aegon smuggled out in a cart, Queen Helaena and her children dressed as servants, their silver hair fully covered.  At the last moment you had told Alicent of your plan, and despite her concern at seeing you leave, she agreed that it was paramount to keep you and your daughter’s whereabouts secret.

“We will see each other again,” you said before you led the horse out the side gate.  Just in case, you had gone out the opposite gate from your actual destination, and went around the great keep until you were on the right path.  

You took the little girl in your arms, “shall I sing you a song or tell you a story, my love?”

“Tell me the story of how you and kepa met!”

Ah, her favorite story.

You took her past the partition that separated the living area from the sleeping area, and sat with her on the large chair next to the stack of blankets.

“Once upon a time, there was a young girl who loved to sing.  One day, she was playing with her cousins and some relatives arrived.  She immediately decided that one of them was the most interesting, but the next day there was a fight between the children and he had a terrible injury.”

The little girl covered her left eye and shook her head.

“He was very brave but he was in so much pain, so the girl would sing to him until he could go to sleep.  Then her parents took her home, but she couldn’t stop thinking about that boy.  Soon after, she received a letter from him, saying thank you for all the times she had sung to him.  She wrote him back, and then he wrote back-”

The little girl giggled, moving her hands from one side to the other.”

“That’s right, the letters went back and forth and back and forth, until one day they realized they loved each other.  They each asked their parents to let them get married, and when they were old enough . . . “

“They did!”

“Yes, they did.  And a year later, they had a beautiful girl and their little family was the most precious treasure in the world.  And one time, when the baby girl was sleeping, they realized that there was a rainbow that landed right on her crib, and it made her silver hair look like all the colors you can imagine.”

Your daughter yawned.  “Maybe we can find a rainbow soon,” she said, rubbing her eyes.  You held her close, and kissed her forehead.

"We will try tomorrow, my darling, but for now it is time to sleep.”

She snuggled against you, and you looked down at her sweet little nose, her long silver lashes, and wondered when you would see your husband again.

* * * * * 

Aemond dismounted from Vhagar, having landed in the clearing closest to the cabin, and walked through the barely visible path until he caught sight of the familiar structure.  

He remembered that day so clearly because it was like the Seven were bestowing their blessings on his family.  His sleeping daughter in her crib, his wife walking toward him, and she’d stopped and smiled.  “Look, Aemond.”

He took the hand she extended to him and looked into the crib.  Their daughter was sleeping curled up on her side, her silver hair down to her shoulders, and through the window, a rainbow had landed on her hair.  

He’d smiled and his wife had kissed him and then pulled him to the large bed.

Reaching the cabin, he decided to walk around first, making sure everything was as it should be.  He heard a loud crunching noise by one of the windows and looked down to find he had stepped on a cluster of walnut shells.  Smiling, he went back to the door and opened it slowly.

He stepped in quietly, and a moment later she peeked out from the sleeping area, a large dagger in her hand.

She sighed at the sight of him, placed the dagger high up on a shelf and rushed into his arms. “My love,” she whispered, burying her face in his neck.  He held her tight, the relief coursing through him, and he kissed her temple, her cheek, her lips.

“Is she sleeping?” he whispered.

“Yes,” he felt her smile against him.  “After I told her the story of how we met.  Again.”

“It’s my favorite story, too,” he said, pulling back to look at her.  “Let me change and maybe you can tell it to me, too.”

* * * * * 

You watched casually as Aemond changed clothes, not only to admire your husband’s long, lean form but to check for any injuries.  Aside from a couple of bruises, he seemed to be fine, and after making sure your daughter was warm enough for the night, you stretched out on the large bed and waited.

“We will head back tomorrow, send word to the family,” he said as he approached the bed.  He wore only soft sleep pants and your hands itched to touch the broad lines of his shoulders, feel the strength in his arms.  He laid down next to you and caressed your cheek.  “Tell me a story.”

“You must be in my arms, then,” you replied, and he moved to wrap himself around you, his head right under your chin, as you started to stroke his hair.

“Once upon a time, there was a young girl who loved to sing.  One day, she was playing with her cousins and some relatives arrived.  She immediately decided that one of them was the most interesting and intriguing of all, but the next day-”

"-his twat of a cousin ended up taking out his eye.”

You smiled.  “his twat of a cousin ended up taking out his eye.   He was very brave but he was in so much pain, so the girl would sing to him until he could go to sleep.”

“And he thought her voice was the purest sound he’d ever heard.”

“Then her parents took her home, but she couldn’t stop thinking about that boy.”

Aemond wrapped his arms tighter around you.  “And he began to dream of her, and couldn’t stop thinking about her, either.”

“And she missed him so much.  Soon after, she received a letter from him, saying thank you for all the times she had sung to him.  She wrote him back, and then he wrote back-”

“And he wanted to tell her he knew he loved her, but he thought she would never love him back and only felt pity for him.”

“Aemond.”

He looked up, “it’s true.”

“But the boy was wrong, as boys often are, for she already loved him and wanted nothing more than to be with him-”

“in bed.”

You reached down and covered his mouth, and felt him laugh in response.  “But as they were both so young, they knew they had to wait.”

He kissed your palm.  “But he knew, she was the only one for him.”  He looked up again and kissed your lips.  

“Kepa!”

Aemond sat up just in time for his daughter to jump onto him.  “Muña was telling you the story again?”

“Yes, my jewel.  Have you been good for muña?”

The little girl nodded, then looked at you for confirmation.  

“She has been wonderful.  But she needs to be sleeping right now.”

“Muña, can I sleep with you and kepa?  Please?”

You looked at Aemond, smiling, and he nodded.  “Come here, little dragon, let’s tuck you in.”  He pulled up the covers over you and your daughter, then placed a protective arm over both of you.  Soon she was sleeping peacefully between you, and you thought there was no better feeling than knowing your family was with you, safe and sound.

* * * * * 

@  girlwith-thepearlearring    @greenowlfactif  @hydrationqueensworld    @megzdoodle   @melsunshine  @queenofshinigamis     @throughgoeshamilton   @travelingmypassion    @watercolorskyy

@hb8301   @kaemond-zafiro    @arcielee

#aemond targaryen #aemond prince regent #aemond targaryen x reader #aemond targaryen x you #Aemond x Reader #hotd fanfic #hotd aemond

[formosusiniquis]

“There's a goblin, crouched over a large stone table. He's got long greasy hair that probably hasn't ever been washed and his clothes are ripped and ugly. He smells like pipe smoke and mutters to himself as you approach.”

Steve sighs and bravely stops himself from beating his head repeatedly against the table, “Erica.”

“What?” she’s even less affected by his chiding when she’s behind her DM screen, and she wasn’t that affected to begin with. “I'm just describing the character.”

“I'm sorry I said it was adorable, okay! Is that what you want to hear?”

Robin abandons her dice tower to glare at him, “Dingus, what'd you do?”

“Opened his big mouth when he shouldn't have.” A true if mostly inaccurate description of what happened, but he should have known better than to try to speak when Erica actually opened up a little.

“Dude, you know when you annoy Erica the rest of us suffer.” Now Dustin is whining, as if Steve weren’t being punished enough.

“I don't see how anyone is suffering,” but him. Steve definitely feels like he is suffering .

Robin leans in close and whispers, “You'll tell me later?” It’s a Robin whisper though, and it doesn’t go unheard by their temperamental pre-teen DM.

“The goblin is oblivious to the party too busy fooling around with poorly painted figurines-”

“That's out of line.” He’s got his dad voice out now, this was supposed to be a fun session and now he’s parenting.

“That's where you're gonna draw it?” She actually seems surprised by that, eyebrow arched at the idea that she found Steve’s line in the sand.

“Nobody has insulted the things you've worked on.”

“Fine, he's fooling around with his perfectly fine figurines, but he won't shut up about changed princes.”

He can feel it click for Robin, she shoves him almost off of the Sinclair’s overstuffed couch. He won’t look at her, he doesn’t want to look at her stupid I’m gonna mock you face. “Stephan!”

“I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings,” he apologizes, “I really do think it's cute.” But he’s not ready to grovel yet.

“Can dish it out but you can't take it, Harrington.” he rubs a hand down his face, pushing the impending headache this whole thing is causing back into his brain as best he can, and when he looks back up he sees an eleven year old.

“I wasn't dishing anything,” he says, remembering how awful and uncomfortable it was to be eleven. To have crushes and feelings that you didn’t know what to do about, and how much worse it was to not have anyone to help you figure them all out.

“Promise,” her lip doesn’t wobble and her tone doesn’t shake because she’s Erica Sinclair future president of the world, but the youth and the nerves are there all the same.

“Promise.”

“Fine, don't ever try to talk to me about this again.”

“Again, I was agreeing with you.” Because he’s still him and she’s still her and if he let it go too easily there would be just as much hell to pay. “I was saying you have good taste.”

“Stop, I have seen where your current tastes are. Don't align me with you.”

“Fine, fine. Are you going to be nicer?”

“I guess. As you walk into the cave you pass through a powerful illusion, you see that the goblin is really an average looking human man who probably washes his hair at least sometimes.” It’s really the best he could hope for, he figures.

“Wait, is this Eddie?” Dustin’s shrieking as he finally catches up with the interpersonal drama happening at the table is liable to send them back to the start.

“No, and he's not average looking.” He’s not sure who that comment is meant for. Erica for suggesting it or Dustin for finally catching up because of it.

“Mind your business,” Erica shoots back, just as done with the conversation as Steve is, “or your spell components are gonna get harder to find. And he’s not exactly anything to write home about.”

“Can we get back to it,” Robin interrupts, the true love of his life and the jealous hoarder of all opportunities to bully him about his love life, “I was promised a fight for my new dagger and I will use it on this gremlin man who seems like he needs to expand his music tastes if I have to.”

“Robin!” She deserves to get her punches in, he guesses, and if it’s his turn to get mocked by the Scoops Troop at least it’s not happening on a bathroom floor.

#steddie #steddie fic #steve and erica #scoops troop #first of all i subscribe to a scoops troop dnd game #second my new favorite thing is the steve and erica sibling like friendship #someone has made a post about how erica would bully steve when she finds out he likes eddie and this is my take #its also my deeply held personal headcanon that erica had a little crush on robin in s3 #so that is the thing that steve thought was cute and erica is now out for blood about #she needs an older sibling she can mock about taste cause lucas is dating max and you know erica thinks max is the coolest #anyway enjoy this little lunch break ficlet

[sunnyside-sunset]

qsmp egg assigned songs:

tallulah: Goodbye My Danish Sweetheart by Mitski

“and i don’t blame you

if you want to bury me in your memory

i’m not the girl i ought to be, but

maybe when you tell your friends

you can tell them what you saw in me

and not the way i am”

bobby: Mi Último Deseo by Banda Los Recoditos / Just Take My Wallet by Jack Stauber

“me la paso alegre y disfruto la vida

y así seguiré hasta mi último día

me gusta el desmadre, el ambiente me prende

yo así soy feliz, no le temo a la muerte

yo no pienso en eso, es tiempo perdido”

“your mama’s crying

your mama’s crying for you

your mama’s lying

oh, what’s she trying to do

to you?”

sunny: Sunny by Boney M.

“the dark days are gone

and the bright days are here

my sunny one shines so sincere

sunny, one so true, i love you

sunny (yeah), thank you for the sunshine bouquet (that sweet bouquet)

sunny, thank you for the love you brought my way

you gave to me your all and all

now i feel ten feet tall

sunny, one so true, i love you”

ramón: Talk to You by Ricky Montgomery

“been a pretty long time

been a really long time

sincе you saw me last

since i saw you last

wonder if wе met today

would you turn and walk away?

would you take me for a ride?

would you toss me to the side?”

dapper: you are my sunshine but specifically sung by badboyhalo

“you are my sunshine

my only sunshine

you make me happy

when skies are gray

you’ll never know, dear

how much i love you

please don’t take

my sunshine away”

leo: IT GIRL by Aliyah’s Interlude

“don't be mad at me, 'cause I'm cunt, bitch (what?)

don't be mad at me 'cause I run shit (what?)

be mad at yourself, 'cause you ain't done shit (what? what?)

talkin' all that shit is redundant

I-T G-I-R-L

you know I am that girl

shh, bitch, don't kiss and tell

it girl from ATL”

chayanne: When I Grow Up from Matilda the Musical

“when I grow up, when I grow up (when i grow up)

i will be strong enough to carry all

the heavy things you have to haul

around with you when you're a grown-up

and when i grow up, when i grow up (when i grow up)

i will be brave enough to fight the creatures

that you have to fight beneath the bed

each night to be a grown-up”

juanaflippa: What if they’re right from Bob’s Burgers

“feels like

something's wrong with me

and they know it

they took one look my way and exposed it

i'm ready to give up the fight

and just admit that they are right”

pepito: スマイリーを探して by Seranji Poji / Dubidubidu(Chipi Chipi Chapa Chapa) by Christell (pepito is this 🤏🤏 small to me)

“(Where is my friend Smiley?)

（｀Δ´）！

君の名前はきっとスマイリー

(♡˙︶˙♡)

(Mm～ Have you seen Smiley?)

(∩˃o˂∩)♡

僕が勝手につけました

♡´･ᴗ･`♡

(Where is my friend Smiley?)

♡＼(￣▽￣)／♡

探してる友達のスマイリー

。.:☆*:･'(*⌒―⌒*)))

(He-hey! Where is Smiley? His name is Smiley!)

☆*:.｡.o(≧▽≦)o.｡.:*☆”

“si tú quieres bailar, jugar, pintar, cantar

tú puedes venir a mi casa

la idea es compartir

te vas a divertir

si quieres venir a mi casa

quiero invitar a jugar a mi casa

a todas mis amigas, y amigos

quiero saltar y bailar

y lo que tengo compartir contigo”

empanada: Escapism from Steven Universe

“i guess i have to face

that in this awful place

i shouldn't show a trace of doubt

but pulled against the grain

i feel a little pain

that i would rather do without

i’d rather be

free, free, free

i'd rather be

free, free, free

free, free, free

from here”

pomme: Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien by Édith Piaf

“non, rien de rien

non, je ne regrette rien

ni le bien qu'on m'a fait

ni le mal

tout ça m'est bien égal”

tilín: Mama’s Boy by Dominic Fike

“how do my plans fit in with yours? (oh)

you're such a doll and i'm a boy

where did my parents go? (oh, oh)

i’m not in italy

they like vacation homes much more than they love me”

trump: I Wait for You by Alex G

“i wanna tell my baby to pretend

that every word i say is what i really meant

and when i get my head back on all right

then we can be together for another night

and we can have those dreams like no one else

it’s just one more reason to control myself

it’s just one more reason to control yourself

it's just one more reason to control myself

it’s what i do

i wait for you

i wait for you

i wait for you

i wait for you

i wait for you”

richarlyson: Velha Infância by Tribalistas

“você é assim

um sonho prá mim

e quando eu não te vejo

eu penso em você

desde o amanhecer

até quando eu me deito...

eu gosto de você

e gosto de ficar com você

meu riso é tão feliz contigo

o meu melhor amigo

é o meu amor...”

hope/a1: Any Day Now by Bo Burnham

“it'll stop any day now (any day now, any day now) it'll stop any day now (any day now, any day now) it'll stop any day now (any day now, any day now) it'll stop any day now (any day now, any day now) it'll stop any day now (any day now, any day now) it'll stop any day now (any day now, any day now)”

gegg: Things To Do by Alex G

“hold on tight to this time, this place

'cause everything you know will be erased

you were born inside your head

and that is where you'll be when you are dead

you are just a boy you are no man and

nobody you know will understand

you are just a boy you are no man and

nobody you know will understand”

somebody please give me suggestions for what to change i do not know what i’m doing, especially with empanada, pomme, richas, leo, and hope :(

#qsmp #qsmp eggs #song lyrics #qsmp egg songs #lyrics #lyric quotes #i dont know what im doing #somebody please help me pick better songs im dying out here #qsmp tallulah #qsmp bobby #qsmp sunny #qsmp ramon #qsmp ramón #qsmp dapper #qsmp leonarda #qsmp leo #qsmp chayanne #qsmp juanaflippa #qsmp pepito #qsmp empanada #qsmp pomme #qsmp tilín #qsmp tilin #qsmp richarlyson #qsmp hope #qsmp gegg

[deepestuniversallove]

Hey I literally logged in just to give you support. Don't listen to these idiots telling you that you're gross for loving Mewtwo.

Because if loving Mewtwo is gross then the entire monster-fucking community should also be shamed but they aren't hmmmmmm I wonder why.

The degenerates in this fandom are perfectly fine with Ash fucking Latias, and men fucking Gardevoir, Vaporeon, or whatever slutty monster girl bitch of the week, but nooo you self shipping with Mewtwo is apparently cONcERnING or whatever.

(I love how no one calls the Hatsune Miku guy names lol, do I smell double standards? )

But this doesn't surprise me because the Pokemon community is full of hypocrites and these are the same no - life losers who shit their pants because Ash isn't in the anime anymore, their parents truly failed in raising them.

Lord knows I faced enough trouble for loving Steven and that too, from an Eevee fucker.

Monika, sweetie you are doing nothing wrong, your love for Mewtwo is so innocent, sweet and pure. I think it's beautiful how helped you with depression and escape your narcissistic mother.

People on this site love to preach mental health support but the very minute you do something different yet harmless suddenly it's

"OH NO YOU DARE TO LOVE A "FICTIONAL CHARACTER"

Keep on giving them rectal bleeding and draw more of you and Mewtwo ;) I love to see it.

AHH thank you so much for this message!! 🥹 That is so sweet of you!

Yeah, I dunno why it has always been like this. Even 10 or even 20 years ago, I often got messages chastising me for selfshipping with Mewtwo, calling it "nasty" and "degenerate", when really, i am not doing it to specifically be a degenerate, but because I honestly love Mewtwo. In his story, he too had to fight against a narcissistic "parent" (Giovanni), just like I had to against my own. How can it be seen as a crime to want to believe? Or has it been wrong to say "Mewtwo, please teach me to be brave like you" in my mind during the hard times, especially back when I was a lonely child?

Haha, I doubt anyone could ever shame the monster fucker community out of what they are doing. Or the furry community for that matter. 🤣

There always seems to be some sort of underlying misogyny happening. Women are expected to get an IRL husband/boyfriend to serve as soon as possible, so seeing a woman openly rather selfship with a fictional character is threatening to them, because how dare a woman not be in the kitchen and make sandwiches for a man? How dare a woman prefer to be single when there is a "male crisis of loneliness" happening?

Then again, I don't think I owe society anything. Where was society when I was abused? Where was the help or the community when I needed them most? I was left to my own devices. When a fictional character like Mewtwo brings someone like me more hope than any IRL human, that's how I know we failed as a society. Even sicker is that other more destructive forms of coping mechanisms are more encouraged. Somehow selfshipping is seen as more evil by the "moral police" than dying from a drug overdose on the streets or having alcoholism.

Anyone who ever complains to me about "ruining Mewtwo" or whatever - no, you aren't "concerned", you are just using that word to camouflage that what you really want is control over me and what I put out there. And i can tell you it is futile. I haven't survived so far just for some snotty brats to tell me what i can or cannot do in MY online space. Don't like what I post? Tough titties, use the block button. No one is forcing you to look at my "cringe". My cringy stuff brings me joy and makes me happy, and I feel I deserve some happiness in this shitty world of ours. You do too, so just..go and have some fun yourself. Don't waste your only life on policing others.

So yeah, you are right, dagdasgoddess. I will keep giving people "rectal bleeding". 🤣 No one can stop me from loving Mewtwo, my guardian angel that even visits me in my dreams at night, and loves me even when I absolutely despise myself. He will always be a bastion of love for me, a symbol that life is worth living regardless of hardships.

#mewtwo #selfshipping #answered asks

[queer-cartoons]

It's so impossible to ignore the meaningfulness of Eda giving Luz her palistrom wood to start carving her palisman, when just a little while before she had recalled Owlbert to her in her fight against Luz, and Owlbert had immediately and unflinchingly (of course) returned to Eda mid-flight, because he's Eda's palisman, not Luz'.

I like to imagine that Eda took note of that too, in retrospect. She gave Luz Owlbert in this episode for her protection against the Emperor's Coven scouts, or other unnamed evils, and in any other fight it would have been enough. Owlbert loves and trusts Luz, and answers to her willingly. But Eda didn't foresee that there was a possibility of Luz ending up fighting the one person Owlbert wouldn't protect her from: Eda herself.

My point is, I think Eda possibly realised, after her conversation with Raine, that Luz is going to fight no matter what - so she needs a palisman, at this point, who is going to back her up no matter what. Even against Eda, because Eda can't guarantee that her interests will always align with Luz' ones. I think it's also a turning point for Eda and Luz' relationship, because up until now, Luz has been under Eda's protection via Owlbert, and Eda knows this - she knows it even when she tells Luz she has the power to stop her from fighting. Eda has been struggling this whole season with her fear of letting danger come to her family, but it's at least in part because she considers Luz to be under her protection, this whole time.

That's what this episode is about: the watershed moment where Eda and Luz confront each other about it, and you can see exactly where both of them are coming from! Of course Eda is terrified, and will brave hell and high water to make sure she keeps her family safe! But of course Luz doesn't want to be "kept safe" from helping the cause she cares about so much!

And I'm just going to say it, because it's so obvious - this is narratively beat-for-beat about parenting a teenager! About parents struggling to let go of the view that their children need their protection, and struggling to reconcile their children's agency and power with their incredible vulnerability! Because Luz IS vulnerable, but Luz is also going to fight like hell in this battle, because she wants to help, and she knows she can! And this episode is Eda confronting it, acknowledging what it means and the fear that comes with it, fighting against it at first, but eventually, finally, accepting it.

In encouraging Luz to make her own palisman, supplying her with what she needs and assisting her the whole way, Eda is giving Luz the agency to be more than just her ward, but her own fighter in exactly the way she wants. Luz' use of Owlbert is what represents Eda's protection of her, always making sure she was safe. Luz having her own palisman soon represents Eda's conclusion that Luz not only can, but wants to protect herself, and would be much better off with the power to do so. And so, with trepidation and faith, she gives it to her.

Idk. It's a huge moment in my eyes. I was late to watching the episode for real world reasons, so I blacklisted the tags until now, but I hope we've been talking about this a LOT.

#the owl house #toh spoilers #toh #the owl house spoilers #toh oh titan where art thou #oh titan where art thou spoilers #eda clawthorne #luz noceda #toh meta #toh analysis #my posts #oh titan where art thou

[meshlasolus]

supporting palestine ≠ being antisemitic. israel has been occupying palestine for decades and palestine has a right to resist. educate yourself.

you don't want to go here. For the past six years, I have dedicated hundreds of hours of my time to researching and studying BOTH sides of this historical dilemma. You can even scroll back far enough on my blog to see that in earlier times, I stood with Palestine when I felt things were being done unfair.

I only now have a problem when Hamas, who is a terrorism group, is kidnapping and raping/murdering the people of Israel. These people were celebrating peace at the end of the Jewish holiday week of Sukkot.

One of my friends was at the peace concert, dedicated to celebrating and enjoying this occasion. She had to run for her life because of a surprise Hamas attack that ended with both her Parents and cousin being abducted and shoved into vehicles at gunpoint. Palestinians were not under attack by Israel when this was happening, and it was unprompted. My friend is in an unsafe location, less than 50 miles from Gaza, and has had to run away from her home several times due to missile alarms.

These attacks were brought on so suddenly, that even the Iron Dome was caught off guard. Now that Israel has responded to these vicious attacks, people claim they are murdering Palestinians, and going on an unwarranted attack themselves. They ignore the deaths and harm done to Israel because it fits their narrative of Palestine being the victim.

Ignoring the deaths of Jewish people and flipping the script that those who committed those murders were the innocent victims are by definition: Nazis.

I really hope that you take a moment to understand how insane it is to be closed-minded and then tell others to educate themselves. It really shows that you yourself haven't probably been widely educated, and are probably just on the bandwagon of support because it's trending. So please, oh brave anon, educate yourself, and as I stated in my last post, fuck you.

.

To anyone coming on my blog to spread hate against Jews, please know that I will not stand for it. I have so many people I know who are direct victims of antisemitic hate crimes, and it is sickening. I have seen literal evidence of Nazis still being in existence, and using different political issues to hide behind so that they don't get persecuted for it. My friend was held down in a parking lot last year and had a swastika carved into his shoulder by a group of men who had the symbol also painted onto their truck. This shit is REAL. there are still people who want to harm and murder Jews simply because they exist. Palestine, though given the right to peacefully coexist with Israelites for decades, has risen up a terrorist group to fight their battles.

In response with Anon's statement of 'Israel has been occupying palestine' I'd like everyone to remember that the very earliest historical records (excluding the bible/torah, because many deem it as a faulty source) show that the land was called Israel, and Palestine did not even exist. If you'd like to make the argument that anyone was forced out of their land, why don't you do a little research on the Israelites and the Ottoman Empire. I am a learned bitch, and I did my homework. I suggest everyone else do theirs before they make their opinions that can be easily swayed by media.

#nazis #i stand with israel #fuck hamas #palestine #free israel #israel

[rosie-b]

Centuries Overdue

Chapter 3

Excerpt from the ninth journal of Adrien Agreste, written in Ravlunda, Sweden on the twelfth of April, 1810.

It is done. At last, the Battle against the Darkness is over, and the Victory is ours! The Struggle was long, the Losses were great, but we are, at long last, Safe.

My Parents’ mission is now completed. May they rest in Peace and Light, and may no others live to see a Time as dark as this one has been.

Perhaps I should go over the Battle, describe the threefold days we spent wrapped in the shroud of the Blue Maiden and the Elation we felt when the Darkness finally lost. I could spend pages lingering over each brave Sacrifice from the Talents, only one of whom survived, and talk for hours about the Strength each Mage showed.

There were many Fighters who joined me; every Mage able to fight seemed to be there, and most of the Talents, too. I am grateful for every one of them.

But I cannot dwell in the Past any longer, not now that I am finally Free to wander out of its tight Grasp.

I am going to Paris, to live in the country I should call my Home. There is a doubly strong group of Mages there, who meet in a tavern each Wednesday, or so I am told. They are the Mages of Trixx and Fluff, who call their group Home the Clockwise Fox and mark it theirs with a strange symbol, which I will attempt to draw below. I am not much of an artist, despite my Father’s many Attempts to teach me his Skills.

There, I hope it is clear enough. Had I any colored Ink, the top chevron would be a deep Orange, and the bottom one a light Blue.

The Mages of Fluff and Trixx have always been strange. I prefer the Mages of Mullo and Tikki, and my fellow Mages of Plagg, though I do not see them as often as I wish.

I am somewhat ashamed to say that this is because I often avoid the Cave and go on Paths around it instead, but I have a good Reason for this!

The Cave always reeks of Cheese, the stinkiest Plagg can find. He always keeps it in stock despite my many complaints and attempts to turn his interest to a new Cheese. Plagg only scolds me and says I should appreciate Camembert more, since like Me, it comes from France.

Well, now that I am going back to my estranged, native Country, I rather hope Plagg steals all the Camembert out of Paris before I arrive. That will give me at least one Thing I can thank Him for!

Oh, all right, I suppose I must thank Plagg for his help, however indirect, in defeating the Darkness. His Training proved very useful in the Battle; in fact, I must confess that it is what kept me Alive.

And now, I am going to Paris, the city where my Parents lived, the Land I was never allowed to know — I am going Home for the very first time. I hope my Travels will be swift and devoid of Trouble.

I hope I will find Peace in Paris. I hope I am right to call it my Home.

I hope I am not making a Mistake.

__*__*__*__*__

Paris was a little spookier at night. It was colder, too.

Marinette found herself wishing for the mocha she’d been so indifferent to yesterday afternoon. She would find its warmth soothing instead of annoying this time!

Maybe the ‘mages’ will have drinks at their meeting, she thought hopefully as she wrapped her light jacket a little tighter around herself. The street lights illuminating the path from the parking lot to the little café she’d visited yesterday flickered dimly, and even with the ever-present throngs of tourists lining the road, Paris felt colder, emptier than Marinette was used to.

It was probably just nerves. After all, this marked the first occasion on which Marinette busted into a secret society’s meeting, and who knew how they’d react to her presence?

When she reached the café’s door, Marinette stopped and peered through the windows. It looked empty inside, and the open sign wasn’t lit up like it had been yesterday. 

Is this it? A dead end, after everything?

Marinette grimaced, trying to decide what to do before her loitering drew unwanted attention. Should she knock? Look for a hidden key? Turn around and head home, since obviously she had been wrong to ever believe Adrien’s fictional adventures could be real?

A little white bunny floated through the door and hovered in front of Marinette’s face.

“Ahhh!”

Marinette fell backwards, arms pinwheeling as she braced herself for a rough landing. Hitting the hard sidewalk with an oomph, she scrambled back, away from the creature that was zipping around. It circled her head once before phasing through the door again.

In seconds, the bunny came back out, accompanied by a little fox which was similarly ignoring the rules of gravity, flight, and everything.

“You’re Marinette, right?” the fox asked.

Marinette sat up before a tourist’s heel could trip over her and puncture her skull. “How do you know that?” she hissed at the creatures, darting her eyes back and forth between the two.

The creatures exchanged a glance.

“Yeah, I’ll go tell Alya,” the fox said to the bunny.

“So it didn’t happen already? Then it’s about time!” the bunny cheered, and went soaring after the fox as they phased through the door and left Marinette alone to stand up and regain her bearings as best she could.

Bunnies aren’t supposed to fly. Foxes aren’t supposed to talk. Are they kwamis? I thought kwamis were super tall and monstrous! Where are the six arms? The glowing eyes? Adrien lied to me, Marinette fumed. But at least now she had proof, however confusing, that magic was real. 

Unless this was a hallucination. After all, hadn’t the fox said it was going to tell Alya? Marinette knew  Alya; she wasn’t part of a magic community! Not that she’d told Marinette! And it would be really rude to not tell your best friend about secret magic societies hiding in Paris!

The café door opened, and Alya stepped out. When she saw Marinette, a grin slowly spread across her face, and she squealed as she rushed over to her and threw her arms around her in a suffocating hug. 

“Marinette!! Girl, this is the best day of my life! You’re a Mage, too? Why haven’t you come to any meetings before? Oh, man, wait until I tell Nino about this!”

While she was talking, Alya released Marinette from the hug and pulled her back into the building, closing the door behind them. Inside, the café was full of eighteen to twenty people, all lounging in the chairs and on the cushioned window seat and watching Marinette’s entrance.

Marinette stared right back at them, confused as to how the place could look so empty from outside and be so full on the inside.

“Alya, what… What is this? This is magic, right?” she asked, unable to pretend that she was paying attention any longer to the words that were still spilling from Alya’s lips.

They suddenly stopped as Alya took a step back and looked at Marinette, adjusting her glasses as she considered the question.

“Well, of course, Marinette, do you… not know that?” She squinted at Marinette’s embarrassed, guilty face and then smacked her forehead with a long, drawn-out groan. “Oh kwamis, did I just let an outsider into the group? Girl, you have to answer me, now: Are you a Mage? Do you at least know what that is?” 

Looking around the café at all the guarded and threatening faces staring at her, Marinette gulped and slowly raised her eyes to meet Alya’s.

“I kind of know what a Mage is,” she said, pulling the journal she’d accidentally snuck from the library out of her purse and showing Alya the fading, cracked cover. “Um, I’ve been reading about them. Until just now, I wasn’t sure if they were real or not, but Alya, you’re a Mage?”

“Have been my whole life,” Alya nodded, crossing her arms and drumming her fingers against them.

“Hey!” One of the other Mages stood up, which didn’t add much to her short height. She popped her gum, which was as pink as her hair, and looked Marinette up and down. “You’re that girl who ordered a hot mocha in the afternoon yesterday, aren’t you?”

Marinette, freshly endowed with the knowledge of magic, wondered what spell would let her sink under the café floor to die of shame in peace.

“Alix! Wait, did she really?” Alya asked, quickly switching between sounding vexed and confused. 

“Oh, yeah, it’s all coming back now,” Alix replied gleefully. “Was that your little scouting mission? I’ve seen better. Although, maybe I should go back and see it again. It’s always funnier the second time around.”

Marinette died a little as she thought of someone seeing her embarrassing mistake again just for fun. But wait, how would that even happen? What kind of magic did Alix even have?

“Don’t do that,” Alya snapped. “We have a real problem here. Now, I know Marinette, and I swear on Trixx, she’s not a threat we need to worry about. But,” she said, frowning sharply at Marinette, “We Mages are not supposed to let anyone in the café or let them know about the community itself unless they’re family. And despite a decade of friendship, I don’t think we can legally count as that.”

Well, Marinette thought, it’s always good to know that your best friend can’t protect you from the large group of angry Mages and their two tiny-but-powerful mascots which can fly through doors and chase you all over Paris and maybe even kill you!

Alix wandered over to the kitchen, brushing past Alya and Marinette without a word. Oh, shit, was she mad at them? Was she going to use her magic to go back and record Marinette’s misbegotten mocha order and stream it to all of Paris, solidifying her shame forever??

Marinette wished she’d kept her glance through the deceptive café windows much shorter and left before the scary bunny had had the chance to jumpscare her.

Alix came back out of the kitchen, holding a steaming mug of something that smelled vaguely like an energy drink crossed with mulled cider. The steam wafted under Marinette’s nose, snapping her back to reality with its strong odor.

She was in the middle of a secret Mage meeting. Alya was still frowning at her. That wasn’t good. She had to say something!

“How do the windows work?” Marinette asked, because her brain had apparently disconnected from the rest of her body.

Alya blinked. “Huh?”

“The windows. They make the café look empty from outside, but it’s not.”

“It’s a simple illusion spell,” Alix called as she flopped back down on the window seat. “Alya’s really great at those.”

“I see,” Marinette said. “I will remember that for next time.”

What ‘next time?’ Why couldn’t she shut up?

Alya sighed. “We’re just going with this, then?”

“It makes sense! I thought it happened already,” the scary little bunny piped up.

“You always think that,” the fox responded, flying closer to Marinette. The bunny followed suit.

Marinette stepped behind Alya to get away from the kwamis, which made Alya laugh and pull her out again. Marinette half-raised Adrien’s journal as a shield, but slowly lowered it when Alix raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, fine. Marinette, meet Fluff and Trixx,” Alya said, pointing to each of them in turn. “They’re the kwamis of Evolution and Illusion, respectively.”

“Nice to meet you! You’re not one of my Mages, right?” Trixx asked.

Marinette swallowed. “I don’t think so?” she responded in an unsure voice.

“She won’t be, or she hasn’t been, so she isn’t,” Fluff said as she zipped around the room, turning somersaults in midair.

“Fluff just likes to talk like that,” Alya whispered to Marinette, who nodded as if this was a perfectly normal quirk to have.

For tiny, scary kwamis, maybe it was.

“Are you… Fluff’s Mage?” Marinette pointed hesitantly at Alya, squinting one of her eyes as she tried to figure out how this kind of thing worked.

Alya shook her head as she grabbed Marinette by the hand and led her over to two free chairs side by side. “I’m a Mage of Trixx. That’s how I was able to cast the illusion spell, because Mages can only cast spells that belong to the kwami who gave them their Gift.”

Marinette dimly remembered Adrien writing something about that.

“And… What about universal spells?” she asked, patting herself on the back for remembering about them from Adrien’s journals.

Alya made a pooh-poohing motion with her hand. “Oh, we don’t use them anymore. They were mostly just to fight off the Darkness, but we did that whole thing centuries ago. Nobody needs them anymore so no one learns them anymore, and I don’t know if there’s anyone left who still remembers what the spells said, anyway.”

Marinette blinked. “So, there are no more leather journal preservation spells?”

Alya crossed her legs. Another Mage, one with brown hair and dark, inky eyes, asked, “Why would we need those?”

Dusting off the flaky cover, Marinette pointed to Adrien’s journal, sitting it upright on her lap. “Well, this book could definitely use them! Without some way to restore it, like a spell, it’s almost impossible to read sometimes. I’ve had to skip entire sections because the pages were just too brittle for me to touch them without them crumbling into nothing!”

Alya pushed up her glasses as she took a second look at the book, giving it more consideration this time. At the other end of the room, Mages turned their attention back to each other, resuming quiet conversations and enjoying the hot beverages Marinette had longed for on her walk inside. Her face burned as she realized that now it sounded like she’d broken into their meeting just to ask them to fix an old book for her.

But Alya was still looking at its cover, bending closer to it with wide eyes like it was drawing her to it.

“Where did you get this?” Alya asked in a hushed voice, reaching out for the journal but suddenly bringing her fingers back close to her chest in a fist.

Weird.

“From the library I work at. Remember that book series I told you I was reading?”

Alya nodded. “The one you turned down three friend dates for, yes, I remember. You’re telling me this is it?” she asked, jabbing her pointer finger at it once before retreating to safety again.

Marinette gave a hesitant nod. “Yes. Hey, what’s that face for?”

Alya leaned over, grabbing Marinette’s shoulders and looking at her with a look that made her understand the term ‘deadly serious’ (and fear just a bit for her life).

“That book, plus about twenty other ones like it, has been missing for two centuries because the Bourgeois family, may magic never bless their graves, told the head Mage they’d preserve them for us. Instead, they took the books from us and promptly fell off the face of the magic earth; it was the last time we heard from them. Huge family of Talents gone, just like that, and the books were as good as lost because they never told us where they were taking them.”

“What?!”

“Yeah. And we’ve tried to contact them since, but the high and mighty Bourgeoises would never willingly speak to us commoners. I mean, the head of their family at the time died right when they got the books, but that shouldn’t have changed anything. It was like they all suddenly forgot about magic, or at least decided they didn’t want anything to do with it. But now that we know where it is, I’m going to need to take the book back from you. We take magic ambassadors’ journals very seriously, Marinette. The Agrestes’ journals belong with us, not up in some stuffy library!”

“Hey! It’s not stuffy!” Marinette cried, hugging the book tightly to herself. “I mean, it’s old, but it’s cool, you know?”

Around the café, several Mages discreetly turned their attention back to the two girls, trying to listen in on their whispering. Alya stopped them in their tracks with a glare.

“Girl, that is the last thing you should be worrying about right now. How much money do we have to pay to get them back? Could we rent the books permanently?”

“You can’t, they’re not in the library system,” Marinette responded, her heart racing. “You can’t check them out. Even I’m not supposed to have this one; I only took it with me by accident. And since the Bourgeois family donated them, I think you’d need to ask them if you wanted to get them back.”

Alya’s face darkened, and Marinette found herself shrinking back into her seat. What had she gotten herself into? Was there some old feud magic she’d accidentally triggered by taking the book? Did she have to be afraid of Alya now?

She decided to keep explaining in hopes that Alya would understand, stop being scary and start being normal Alya again. 

“The books are delicate, and they aren’t supposed to leave the library. I’m not even supposed to have this journal with me right now! Alya, I want to help you, but I honestly don’t know how,” she said with a nervous chuckle. “I can’t think of any easy way to give the books back to you.”

Alya sank back in her seat, leaning her head back and letting the café lights reflect off her glasses. “Ugh! Fine, I’ll get a message to Mayor Bourgeois somehow. Maybe I’ll disguise myself as Chloe and sneak into the hotel,” she said, raising her head to flash Marinette an evil grin.

“Ooh, can I come?” Alix asked. A few other Mages looked up hopefully, still obviously interested in the unusual happening.

Alya gave them all an unimpressed look. “If you have to,” she said. “But that would mean we’d need a pretty complicated cloaking spell, since you can’t all use your own.”

Wait. Was Marinette accidentally helping to plan a break-in? 

“Or we could just email Mayor Bourgeois!” she offered with a desperate smile. “That sounds way more legal to me!”

“Psh, if we stuck to being ‘legal’ we’d never have any fun,” Alix said.

“You do have a point,” Alya mused. “Marinette, of course, not you, Alix. I’ll try things the boring way first and if that doesn’t work out, we can try the shady way.”

“Or we could skip the middlemen and go straight to grand theft literature!”

“No,” Alya said firmly. Then she turned back to Marinette. “So, did you have any goals other than figuring out if magic was real when you busted into our meeting tonight?”

“You dragged me into it,” Marinette pointed out, although her cheeks flamed red in embarrassment. “I would have stayed out; seeing the kwamis was more than enough for me. I’m glad they’re not as big as Adrien described Plagg as being or I think I would’ve had a heart attack!”

“We can still fix that for you,” Trixx offered, popping up over Marinette’s shoulder. “My true form is at least as big as Plagg’s true form!”

“No, thank you,” Marinette said weakly. “And… no, that was about it, Alya. Adrien’s really good at writing, and I just wanted to know if I was crazy for wanting to believe the things he wrote. I guess I’m not,” she said with a limp smile. It had been a crazy, unbelievable evening, and she kind of wanted to cut it short and go home.

Alya hummed thoughtfully, sitting forward in her chair as she looked at Marinette. The café lights were still reflected in her glasses, but as she moved closer, they slid away, letting Marinette see her friend’s eyes clearly. They were full of concern and a bit of pity as she stared at Marinette like she was seeing deep into her soul. Then she blinked once and leaned back in her chair.

“All right,” she said with a shrug. “If you want to go home now, you can. You’ve already broken the only rule you can tonight, but Trixx and Fluff trust you, so we’re making an exception for you. You get to join the group from now on, as long as you promise not to tell anyone about us. Keep this more secret than you kept the books from me, okay? We meet every Wednesday, 6 to 11. Anyone have anything else to say?” she asked, looking around the group.

Alix lazily raised her hand. “Don’t order any more hot mochas if you visit during my shift,” she said. “Seriously, that was painful.”

Marinette grimaced. “I won’t.”

A tall man with a grey, well-kept beard who’d been sitting in the corner near the door stood up and walked over to Marinette, who tried not to cower as he silently stepped closer.

“You are an abnormal girl,” he said in a thick Russian accent. “Most would not have believed the books. I think she should be tested,” he declared, looking at Alya. “She may not know it, but she may have magic inside her. She may be a Mage.”

“I’ve been thinking that, too,” Alya said softly. “Thank you, Pyotr. We can test her next time, if she’s comfortable with it.”

A test for magic abilities? That didn’t sound too bad to Marinette.

Then Trixx’s grinning face popped over the arm of her chair, scaring her up and out of it.

“Can we do the tests without the kwamis there?” she asked Alya as her heart beat quickly.

Alya stifled a laugh. Across the room, Alix did not.

“Sure, Marinette. All we’ll do is have you read some spells aloud. If they work, we’ll know you’re a Mage; if not, you’re just an outlier and the first Ungifted person to ever join a Mage group. There’s nothing wrong with that; the Mages of Trixx and Fluff like a little chaos now and then.”

“Well, then I’m lucky I crashed your meeting and not someone else’s,” Marinette said. “Thank you so much for the offer! I’ll think about it,” she said as Fluff phased up and down through the floor like a dolphin leaping out of the ocean. Or a bunny with weird powers who could also talk. “And let me know if you can’t get through to the mayor. I can try to talk to my boss; maybe she’d know some way to help.”

Alya’s face softened with a smile. “Thanks, girl,” she said as she stood up to give Marinette a hug. “Be careful going home — oh! You didn’t walk here, right?”

“No, I drove. I’m not that crazy,” Marinette laughed.

“Good. Try not to be seen on your way out. Text me when you get home!”

Marinette nodded and waved as she backed towards the door. She nearly bumped into the wall, but Pyotr grabbed her shoulder and turned her around at the last second.

She whispered her thanks and hurried out of the door during a break in the tourists.

What a night. 

Written for @mlbigbang 2023

The Clockwise Fox symbol is by me, the marvelous art of Marinette and the kwamis is by @acise!

#ao3 links are at the top #ml fanfic #rosie-b writing #centuries overdue #ml au #miraculous ladybug

[twothpaste]

Ok so we know about Claus and Porky...but what about Ness and Porky in your AU? How did that fall apart and where are they standing now? I havent' read too much into the fic...

Intermission Ness & Porky are the same old story, minus the divine intervention. The fallout between these two has always been one of my favorite parts of EarthBound. There's something so raw and relatable about it - I think most folks've can recall experiences with childhood friends that, in retrospect, weren't so nice. Friendships between kids often drift apart over time, or rupture cataclysmically, or crumble under the pressure of something petty. Ness n' Porky were besties from a young age, but come adolescence, there's this sad realization that they're growing into totally incompatible people. Porky started mirroring his parents' behavior, lashing out, taking on all these manipulative tendencies ('cause his needs simply weren't being met). Taking advantage of Ness' naivete & unconditional kindness. Treating him like a plaything instead of a friend. But around 12/13, Ness was finally getting old enough to grasp the difference between lighthearted teasing & outright maliciousness. He came to understand, the hard way, that no amount of goodwill or forgiveness on his part would get his friend to stop hurting his feelings. The downhill from there's not explosive fights with baseball bats, time machines, and alien spider mechs. It's just the ordinary bitter, jealous, festering sort of fallout that real teenagers go through all the time. More under the cut.

I like to imagine they had a really sweet & genuine bond as little kids. Couple of dorky chubby nextdoor neighbors who probably got bullied at school, but found endless fun & solidarity together. From perhaps too young an age, Ness got the jist that Porky's home life wasn't so great, and wanted to provide his best bud with all the fun and safety he could. And ended up bein' kind of glued to him at the hip. Porky felt that Ness was the only person he was allowed be himself around. He could be confident with Ness by his side, and use that confidence to uplift them both. Because they were so close, a little dependent even, the wound is really raw for years to come. Ness feels a weird sense of responsibility for Porky. Like it's somehow his fault he turned out this way, or like it's his job to protect others from him going forward. Porky feels totally abandoned - essentially betrayed - by his dearest friend. Ness used to always put up with his antics, and then suddenly stopped, and poor little ol' Patrick Minch doesn't understand what went wrong (he does) (he just won't admit it was his fault).

There were a bunch of breaking points. Ness befriended Paula in middle school, which drove Porky absolutely feral with jealousy. He still maintains that she "stole" Ness from him, that Ness is an impressionable little ball of dough who got molded against him by his smartass new "girlfriend." There's also, uh. A nonzero amount of transphobia trickling down from Porky's conservative parents. My Ness spent his early childhood a quote-unquote "tomboy," but he proudly declared he was Actually Just A Boy at age twelve. And Patrick had so much internalized nonsense caked into his brain, he couldn't make heads or tails of it without barfing up Aloysius & Lardna's influence. (Which really hurt Ness, coming from his longtime closest confidant.) Porky's folks were breaking out into divorce and mayhem around the same time, while Ness' family seemed perfect as ever. I think some degree of envy was going on there. Porky's growing consciousness of the stability afforded by Ness' happy home life, versus Ness' growing consciousness of Porky's outrageous wealth. Some nasty tweenaged arguments might've flown in both directions, back then.

It broke Ness' heart to forsake Porky, but he bravely did it and stood by it. By the time they hit high school, the two of 'em were thoroughly cut off. Though Porky still made frequent efforts to fuck with Ness, hoping to snag his attention back… Stealing his stuff, threatening him, leaving cryptic notes begging Ness to come find him in isolated locations. It, uh. Never worked. At least never as intended.

The big thing about Intermission Porky is like… in EarthBound, he Phase Distorts away, becomes an immortal thirteen-forever manchild, and artfully dodges all consequences forever. Here, though, he's granted no such luxury. He's literally just some guy. He's forced to grow up, kicking and screaming. Expected to act his age, just like everybody else. And all the while, he's bitterly comparing himself to Ness. Watching his old bestie grow into a happy, likeable, well-adjusted young adult. Ness maintains jobs & internships. Makes new friends everywhere he goes. While Porky drives away everyone he knows, skirts by on his parents' wealth, runs ill-fated crypto schemes 'cause he's too good for (read: genuinely terrified of) any sort of employment. The bitterness is eating him alive from the inside out, and corroding his sense of self worth, but he'd rather die than apologize or ask for help. So he just sits in his rut, secretly mortified by the progression of time & the lonely mundanity of his plight, taking it out on the version of Ness that lives on in his head. The more I think about it, whatever the hell Intermission Porky is going through might just be canon Porky's worst nightmare. Huh.

Ness, on the other hand, has this huge sad sore spot in his psyche where Porky used to be. Because he's such a hopelessly sappy little dude, he still feels all kinds of pity & nostalgia & loss about it. But he's also grown a spine since his youth. Learned his lesson, for sure. He treats Porky with an excessive degree of caution. Avoids interactions at all costs, and encourages others to do the same. He's got this funny thing where he's normally the most laidback guy you'll ever meet - but if Porky comes up, he instantly becomes uncharacteristically jittery and irritable. There's a bit in Intermission (the fic) (the first one) where he stands up for Claus by confronting Porky - it's the only time I've ever written Ness shouting or swearing. All in all, though, he's recovering mostly peacefully. Learning how to move on & let it go. There will probably come a day when Ness is in his thirties and he thinks back on Porky and he realizes, with a contented sigh, that he's more or less over it. (Which is also, probably, one of Porky's worst nightmares.)

Bonus: Here's a snippet from Hatchback. Ness reflecting on his friendship with Porky (they're like 9 or 10 here).

#ask tag #long #thank youuu #intermission au

[training4theapocalypse]

A Nest of Vipers Ch5. (Cormac McLaggen x Original Female Character - Slytherin)

Rating: Explicit 18+

Word Count: 4.6K

Warnings / Tags: ANGST, Tragic romance

Summary: If her brother is brave enough to ask one of the Gryffindors to Slughorn's Christmas party, surely Una can work up the courage to do the same? Or has Sabine been right all along?

A/N: No smut in this chapter just some angst and everyone being cagey with their feelings lol. Also this diverges from the canon timeline just a little - Katie Bell isn’t cursed by the necklace until after Christmas.

Join my tag list: @countlambula, @ratsys, @aweidlich, @navs-bhat, @stainedpomegranatelips, @chiaraanatra, @xxvelvetxxxx, @ohnoitsrosie, @dracosisteer, @daisydark, @intense-sneezing, @lipstickandloveletters, @ichorai, @marmie-noir (let me know if you want removed at any point - if you're only interested in specific stories or even if you are finding this tag annoying 🖤)

Chapter 5: Suffocate

A winter chill was in the air as Una and Graham Montague walked up the steps to the owlery, their shoes crunching on frosty fallen leaves on the stone staircase. Una wrinkled her nose when Graham opened the door at the top of the tower and they were greeted with the stench of owl droppings and hay.

“I’ve been laying the groundwork and dropping some serious hints that I need a new broom for Christmas,” said Graham as he tied their letters to one of the school tawny owls who was sticking its leg out in a serious, professional sort of way.

“I can’t believe this is the first time you’ve written to them all term,” said Una. This was typical of Graham. He was their golden boy - what did it matter to their parents if he didn’t write for months? Their beloved Quidditch Captain son who could do no wrong. Una, on the other hand, had to constantly fight for their approval. 

She knew she should probably resent him for it, and yet…

“What am I going to write about? I’m not brilliant like you. I’ve not done anything worth writing about.”

There it was. Even if her parents didn’t give a damn, her little brother was always so proud of her. And he let her know it. She loved him more than anything. Although Sabine and Meredith were a close second. And, if she was being honest, third respectively.

“They’d love to hear from you, Graham. They’d want to know that your panic attacks have gotten much better lately.” Graham frowned and pretended to busy himself with the fastenings on the letters. “And Father would be really pleased that Slughorn invited you to his Christmas party after doing so well in Potions.”

“Oh, so you just send them a list of achievements every other week? Sure - that’s nothing to do with trying to get a good Christmas present.”

“Well,” smirked Una leaning against the window sill. “I’m not saying it doesn’t help.”

“Right, off you go then,” Graham told the owl who ruffled its feathers against the icy breeze, spread its wings and took flight across the Hogwarts grounds, carrying the siblings’ letters. They stood for a moment watching the silhouette of the owl disappearing into the sky across the lake.

“So, who are you going to the party with?” asked Una, looking up at him and thinking of his fellow Slytherin sixth years. As much as she didn’t like to think about her brother’s dating life, she would rather he wasn’t going out with someone who was a simpering pushover like Pansy Parkinson or a knucklehead like Millicent Bullstrode.

“Eh, I dunno…” He said, pushing a gloved hand back through his auburn hair. “I was thinking maybe Katie Bell?”

“What?” She knew that name from her lessons.

“She’s in the year above me.” He cleared his throat. 

Una blinked a few times as his hazel eyes, so similar to her own, refused to meet hers.

“Yeah, I know she is because that’s my year, you dolt. But she’s in Gryffindor.”

“Oh, don’t you start too. It’s a different house, not another planet.”

“Your friends giving you a hard time then?”

He snorted. “Like you wouldn’t believe.”

“And it doesn’t… bother you?”

“What? That she’s a Gryffindor?”

“No, that Draco and the others are giving you a hard time.”

“Yeah, well, what are they gonna do about it?” He drew himself up to his full height. He was tall - even taller than his friends Crabbe and Goyle - she supposed they were probably too intimidated by him to try and put a stop to it.

“Well… good for you,” said Una. 

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I like that you don’t care what they think.”

“What about you?” he asked, pulling his scarf tighter against the cold air coming through the giant open windows.

“It’s fine by me, I don’t care who you go out with.” That wasn’t strictly true but it was better than him dating one of the Slytherin sixth years who were always sucking up to her, Sabine and Meredith.

“I meant who are you going with?”

“Oh.” Una and Blaise had already arranged to go with each other as friends. That way she could sneak off with McLaggen and he could attempt to get to know Ginny Weasley better, despite Una’s contempt for the latter. “Blaise.”

“What?!” His exclamation startled her slightly. “Una, you can’t go with Blaise.”

“Who are you to tell me who I can’t -”

“Not like that. Una, please. I’m begging you. Don’t go with Blaise.”

She was taken aback by this. Blaise was in Slytherin. By all accounts, he was a perfectly suitable match for her. “Why not?”

“Because he’s my mate. I mean, I can put up with them slagging me off for who I go out with but I don’t want to hear about Blaise with his hands all over my -” He pretended to retch. “I can’t have my sister going out with -” He retched again. “one of my friends.”

She frowned.

“Don’t give me that look. I mean…” He looked out the window again with a pained expression. “I suppose if you really like him, I could make peace with it. As long as y’know, you don’t start snogging each other in front of me.”

“It’s not that we like each other. It’s just that neither of us had anyone else to go with,” said Una carefully.

“Come off it.” Graham rolled his eyes and walked over to the owlery door. “I mean - they reign it in in front of me because they know I’d kill them - but I know from my mates that you’re not that ugly. I’m sure you’d have your choice of poor, unwitting souls. Like a dementor.”

“Oh ha-ha. It’s more of a quality problem than a quantity one - have you seen the trolls in our common room?”

“Well, maybe you should broaden your horizons. I’m not saying you have to go out with a Gryffindor but people in other houses exist, you know.”

Una sighed heavily as the owlery door shut behind her. She couldn’t believe she was taking dating advice from her brother - and what’s more, he was right. 

“What’s that sigh for?”

“I wish I could be like you. Sabine and Meredith would kill me if I went with someone from Gryffindor. The three of us have a reputation to protect.”

“What does a reputation mean, really? What other people think of you? Maybe they’re not good friends if they care more about what other people think than being happy.” They paused at the bottom of the stairs. “I’m serious, Una. Fuck them. Go out with who you like… As long as it’s not Blaise or Draco.” He paused for a moment and (as if to make sure he was covering all his bases) added. “Or Crabbe, Goyle or Theo.”

Una laughed but as they walked back to the castle she couldn’t help but think about how complicated this was becoming. Why couldn’t things just be simple? Surely she could just be honest with her friends and go with who she really liked.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Una, Sabine and Meredith sat in front of the fire in the Slytherin common room. The atmosphere was stiff like they were the only three mourners at a very poorly attended funeral. Una had to remind herself that they weren’t actually grieving, that she had simply broken the news she was going to Slughorn’s party with Cormac McLaggen. 

“I can’t believe you’d do this to my brother either,” Sabine sniped, breaking the silence. “Who’s he supposed to go with now?”

“The party is almost two weeks away. Blaise has plenty of time to find another date. Besides, Graham doesn’t want me to go with one of his friends.” 

“I think,” Sabine said coolly. “I think you should find somewhere else to sit.”

Una snorted in disbelief. “Sab, come on-” 

“Don’t ‘Sab’ me. I’m not having you cosying up with the Gryffindors all day and then coming crawling back to us. We stick together. The three of us. And only us.”

“You can’t be serious.” Sabine only raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow in response and continued to look into the fire, the light bouncing off her high, dark cheekbones as she stared stonily. “Doesn’t Meredith get a say?” Una scoffed and looked at Meredith who was attempting to make herself as small as she could in her leather armchair. “Well?”

“I agree with Sabine,” Meredith said quietly.

“Unbelievable.” Una stood up and her temper rose with it. “Are you really going to be that spineless, Meredith?” Meredith simply looked at her shoes. “And you,” she turned her glare to Sabine. “You only want me to go out with someone you can keep a close eye on.”

“I know what’s good for you.”

“What’s good for you, you mean. You’d rather the three of us were single than Meredith or I had a boyfriend before you.”

“You bitch,” hissed Sabine and Una knew she had touched a nerve. Sabine might have experience but Una knew her inside out. Sabine had never had a boyfriend for more than a few weeks. 

Cormac’s earlier teasing of Una swam to the forefront of her mind: ‘It was easy to pretend you didn’t exist since you have such a terrible personality’

If Una had a terrible personality, Sabine’s was diabolical.

Sabine pressed on. “It’s nothing to do with who I am or aren’t dating. You know for a fact that you going out with a Gryffindor ruins the whole dynamic.”

“The dynamic?” Una laughed so shrilly that Pansy Parkinson and her friends looked over from their seats at the window alcove. “What dynamic is that? The one where you’re in charge and Meredith and I go along with whatever you say?”

“No, the dynamic where we don’t have the same kind of power when one of us splits off from the group to chum up with those blundering idiots in Gryffindor.”

“Then don’t split us up. It’s you who’s making a big deal about me asking Cormac to some party!”

It was Sabine’s turn to laugh. “Wait, hold on a second. He hasn’t even asked you yet?”

“So? What does it matter if he hasn’t?”

“I saw him scowling at you in Snape’s lesson the other day when you asked about the Cruciatus Curse. He doesn’t even like you. Sure, maybe he’s trying to fuck you but there’s no way he actually wants to date you.”

It was a knife in Una’s stomach. Sabine knew Una just as well as Una knew her. She had an intimate knowledge of Una’s deepest insecurities and her attempt to wound her was working.

“Well, maybe I don’t care if that’s what he wants.”

Sabine laughed again and it stung like venom in the wound. “As if. You’re going to catch feelings.”

“You really think I’m that easily manipulated?”

“Actually I do, Una. Because without us, what are you? A goody-two-shoes virgin and a loser.”

Una knew arguing back was only giving Sabine more ammunition but she couldn’t help it. The smug smirk on Sabine’s face told her that Sabine knew just how deeply she’d cut her. “He doesn’t care who my friends are. He likes me.”

“He likes the idea of fucking you. Wait until he finds out you’ve got as much experience as a twelve-year-old.”

Una could feel tears welling in her eyes and she was furious with her own emotions for betraying her. She wanted to tell them that actually, she did have experience. And that Cormac didn’t even mind when she didn’t. “He’s not like that.”

“They’re all like that,” Sabine said seriously. She held out her pinky finger. Their special signal. “Last chance, Una.” When she looked at Una her expression softened. “I just worry about you.”

Una looked at the pinky finger extended in front of her but didn’t link it. “You’re wrong.”

“I don’t want you to prove me right. Don’t ask him.”

“Why not?”

Una gave Meredith one last pleading look but Meredith just shook her head.

“If you make a fool of yourself it looks bad for all of us.”

Sabine pressed her pinky right into Una’s breastbone. 

“I’m not a fool. And you’re a bad friend if you don’t want me to be happy.”

“You’d be happier without getting involved with him,” said Sabine. “I swear, Una. You’re setting yourself up to get hurt.”

Una thought hard. Thought about when Cormac told her he wanted to bend her over and fuck her like the mean little bully she was. Thought about the way he was as keen as she was to keep it a secret.

She barely knew him. He barely knew her. And maybe Sabine was right - what he did know he didn’t seem to like. Even if he did want to fuck her.

And asking him to Slughorn’s Christmas party would probably end in rejection and hurt.

She looked down at the pinky pressed into her sternum and locked her own around it. Sabine squeezed it with satisfaction.

“You’re right. I - I don’t know what I was thinking.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As the Gryffindor Quidditch Team made their way back to the common room, Cormac McLaggen and Katie Bell lingered at the back of the group with their brooms slung over their shoulders.

“What a waste of time,” he groaned. 

“Cheer up. You’re still technically on the team,” said Katie.

“Technically, yes. But in actuality that means spending a perfectly good Saturday afternoon sitting on the sidelines watching Weasley make an arse of himself.” Cormac grumbled as he adjusted his broom. He was in a bad mood and what was worse was that he still hadn’t found a date for Slughorn’s Party.

He knew why he was putting it off and resented himself for it. He had sort of hoped that after spending the evening in the Prefects’ bathroom with Una a few weeks ago that maybe - just maybe - she’d have a change of heart about not wanting to be seen with him anywhere.

But that wasn’t looking likely.

For the past couple of weeks, their only contact had consisted of sitting too closely in Transfiguration when they could get away with it and discreet brushes of their fingers when they passed in the corridor. Just last week he had dared to squeeze a handful of her backside as he walked by her in the Great Hall which she had met with a scathing look and the tiniest jerk of her head towards Sabine and Meredith. 

Then, he hadn’t expected his heart to sink the way it did when she’d told him casually in Transfiguration that she was going to Slughorn’s with Blaise Zabini. Cormac thought they were well suited - both Slytherins, slight and statuesque. He felt like a lumbering giant when he walked past Blaise the next day.

He needed a date. And fast.

“Katie, you don’t fancy going to Slughorn’s Party with me, do you?”

Katie stopped in her tracks. “What?”

“Just as friends, I mean.”

“Thank God,” she laughed and they resumed their ascent of the moving staircase.

“Alright, don’t sound too relieved or anything.”

“You know what I mean.”

“No, I do. I just thought that since you’re not going you might -“

“I am too going,” said Katie defensively.

“What? You’re going to Slughorn’s?” asked Cormac. “You never told me that.”

“I don’t tell you everything,” Katie said. “But yeah, I’m going with the Slytherin Quidditch Captain. Graham.”

Cormac furrowed his brow. “Wait -”

“Una Montague’s brother,” she reminded him.

“What? Why’d you say it like that? I barely know her.”

It was easy to forget Graham and Una were siblings. They were different, that was for sure. Graham was taller, broader and with much hairier arms than Una - not that Cormac was complaining that they didn’t share those traits. 

Katie looked at him blankly. “Because you mentioned you sit next to her Transfiguration?”

“Oh. Yeah. Right.” 

“He’s kind of sweet, actually,” said Katie quickly. “Not as bad as the rest.”

His memory was jogged by this. “Hold on, didn’t he grab your head instead of the quaffle during a match once?”

To Cormac’s surprise, Katie gave him a girlish smile that he’d never seen before. “That’s what he said when he asked me to Slughorn’s Party. He said he wanted to make it up to me. ‘Baubles’,” she added, pushing through the portrait of the Fat Lady and stepping over the threshold of the common room.

“I dunno, Katie. Carmichael warned me about him,” he said.

“What’s going on?” said Katie. “First you’re getting defensive when I mentioned Una and now you’re telling me Carmichael is warning you about her brother. Why?”

“Nothing’s going on,” Cormac insisted, thinking about Una’s scalding look when he tried to touch her when she was near the other Vipers. She’d be furious if he told anyone about them. So furious, she probably wouldn’t want to have sex with him - and he was determined to at least do that again, even if they weren’t going to the party together.

“Are you into her?”

“No, Katie. I just sit next to her in one class.” He did trust Katie but he was becoming extremely conscious of the fact they were having this conversation in the busy common room where anyone could overhear.

“Is this why you haven’t asked anyone to Slughorn’s? Are you trying to work up the courage to ask her or something?”

“No. And she’s going with Zabini anyway.”

“Sabine?”

“Blaise.”

“Hmm… you seem to know an awful lot about who she’s going with for someone who isn’t interested.”

“It just came up in Transfiguration.”

“How did it come up?”

He dragged his hand down his face in exasperation. Katie could be so infuriatingly tenacious. “It just did. Let it go.”

“So you’re not going alone in the hopes she ditches Blaise for you?”

“No! I just asked you didn’t I?”

“As a friend.”

“Yeah, because Slughorn’s Christmas party is only two days away and I still don’t have anyone to go with.”

“Cormac?” said a voice from behind them. Katie and Cormac whipped around to see Hermione Granger standing with a book under her arm. “Sorry, I couldn’t help overhearing. Did you say you were looking for a date for Slughorn’s party?”

Now, this was interesting. Hermione was pretty, he supposed, even if she did look slightly stressed out and frazzled right now. But she had never shown the slightest interest in him before, in fact, it was quite the opposite when he had made eyes at her during Slug Club.

“Yes,” said Cormac with relief. He was proving Katie wrong before her eyes. “Are you? Do you want to go together?”

Hermione nodded. He wondered if this would make Una jealous. Hermione was, after all, a shoo-in to be Una’s successor as Head Girl. And she had gone to the Yule Ball with Viktor Krum - that had to mean something, right?

“You mean like, as a date though, right? Not as friends?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh, I would love to go with you as a date, Cormac,” she replied very loudly, looking over his shoulder at the rest of the Quidditch team heading to their dormitories and tucking her bushy hair behind her ear.

“Excellent,” said Cormac, clapping Hermione on the shoulder and walking backwards towards the boys’ dormitory. “You’ll wear something hot though, right?”

“Cormac!” said Katie, aghast.

“What?” asked Cormac. He was thinking about how Una would mock him if he turned up with a date who clearly didn’t look like she’d made any effort to be there with him. But judging from Katie’s horrified expression, he’d said the wrong thing. “I just meant, y’know, at the Yule Ball - you looked great. I’m looking forward to seeing you dressed up again.”

“Ignore him,” said Katie, rolling her eyes as Hermione looked offended. Cormac shrugged and turned to go upstairs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the last Transfiguration lesson before the end of term, Professor McGonagall seemed to have let her hair down slightly and had allowed the seventh-years to spend their lesson practising whatever they wanted. And so, Cormac continued his attempts to silently master the Avis spell while Una sat in front of a mirror, transfiguring her eyebrows into different colours.

“You know, I might keep them like this for Slughorn’s party tomorrow night,” said Una, admiring her emerald green eyebrows in the mirror. “They match my dress.” 

Cormac turned in his seat to face her as she smirked at him expectantly.

“Blaise would love that, I’m sure.” 

“He won’t care.”

“Nice to know he’s not superficial. That’s a good quality to have in a boyfriend.”

Una snorted. “What are you on about?”

“Well… you’ve barely spoken to me since you told me you were going to Slughorn’s with Blaise.”

“That’s not -” Una hesitated before continuing. “That’s not why I haven’t been speaking to you. Sabine and Meredith are sort of… on my case.”

“They’ve always been on your case.”

“More than usual.” Una held up her mirror to her face and pointed her wand at her eyebrows. Cormac had a feeling she was hiding her face so she wouldn’t need to look at him. “I told them I was thinking about asking you.”

“You - you did? What did they say?”

“Oh they were really supportive,” said Una sarcastically, as they both watched her eyebrows resume their usual colour. “Asked if you had any friends for them too - do you think Carmichael would be interested?”

Cormac put down his wand. “What did they really say?”

“It didn’t go down well. But -” Una pursed her lips thoughtfully. “- does it matter what they think?”

“To me? No.”

“Should we, then? Go together, I mean? I know it’s only tomorrow but Blaise won’t care. We’re just going as friends.”

Friends? Shit. 

“Una, I can’t. I’ve said I’d go with someone else - I can’t ditch her the day before.”

“Who?”

“Hermione Granger,” he said and Una scoffed. “What’s wrong with that?”

“Well, you were trying to hit on her at the dinner party a couple of weeks ago, so, what, you’re dating her?”

“How was I supposed to know you were going with Blaise as friends?”

She looked at him incredulously. “I thought that was the plan? We’d find someone else to go with and we’d sneak off somewhere together later?”

“We can still do that,” he said, feeling a little desperate now his plan was backfiring.

“Cormac, I’m not…” She sighed. “I’m not gonna be some bit on the side for you while you’re actively dating. You can’t have it both ways.”

That was exceptionally unfair. “Me? Una, I’m doing this at your request. You want to keep it a secret. You want to go to the party with someone else. It’s you who can’t have it both ways.”

He was expecting a venomous argument but she just looked disappointed. Which was worse.

“You’re right. I’m sorry.”

He certainly hadn’t expected her to apologise. He felt his defences drop.

“Come on, Unes. I’m not dating her. I was scrambling for a last-second date and she overheard. That’s all it is.”

“And what’s this?” asked Una. “Like… between us?”

“What do you want it to be?” He tilted his head. “Una, I like you a lot but if you’re that worried about Sabine and Meredith, we can keep it a secret. I don’t care.”

“You like me? You never told me that.”

“Didn’t I?”

“No. You said you didn’t dislike me.”

“That’s the same thing.”

“Even though Carmichael says I’m evil?”

Cormac grinned. “Well, you are evil. I’m just into it.” He didn't really think Una was evil. A little mean with a twisted sense of humour, sure, but she had a soft side that most people didn't realise existed. He couldn't ever imagine her purposefully harming someone.

She laughed at this for a second then her expression shifted slightly. “And you don’t care that I’ve got about as much experience as a twelve-year-old?”

“Well, that’s not true anymore, is it?” He shrugged his shoulders. “And it’s great, actually. It’s the one thing I’m better at than you.”

“Shut up,” she said, although she looked relieved. It was oddly adorable. Usually so quick-witted and sneering, it was nice when she let him peer behind the curtain and see that she had real, human emotions.

“You’re gonna need a lot of practice to catch up,” he said with a cocky grin, and he was glad when she hit his shoulder because he knew it meant she wasn’t upset with him anymore.

The bell rang and Cormac and Una filed out of the class behind the others. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow then?” he asked and she nodded. Then Una did something she’d never done before. She stood on her tiptoes in the busy corridor and kissed his cheek.

“See you later,” Una said and off she went, giving him a quick smile over her shoulder before disappearing through a hidden passageway behind a tapestry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After Arithmancy, Una went along the second-floor corridor to the nearest bathroom. It was cold and dank in here - she knew why Filch avoided cleaning this one. She looked at her reflection in the streaky mirror as she dried her hands. She too usually steered clear of this bathroom if she could because - 

“I know something you don’t know,” sang Moaning Myrtle, rising from the air above the stall behind her. Una glanced her out of the corner of her eye in the mirror as she pulled out her lipgloss.

“Oh, I’m sure there are plenty of things I don’t know, Myrtle. How to scare away every boy in school, for instance?”

“Funny you should say that… Did you know that boy you’re seeing is taking someone else to the Christmas party?”

“Oh, no,” said Una mockingly applying her lipgloss. “What a terrible shock.”

“I heard Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley talking all about it in here.”

“Did you now?” said Una, feigning disinterest as she pouted at herself and fixed her hair.

“Yes, although she’s not looking forward to it. He sounds awful. I can see why you’re both interested in each other.”

Una smirked at her own reflection. Good. She was glad Hermione wasn’t particularly keen on their date.

Myrtle continued. “I overheard them talking about what a chauvinist he is. Apparently, he told her to wear something sexy to the party. Can you believe it?”

Una’s smirk faltered as the pit of her stomach dropped. She tried to recover quickly by pressing her lips together but from the gleeful expression on Myrtle’s face, she’d seen it. Myrtle floated over to sit on the sink next to her but Una kept her eyes firmly on her own reflection.

“Said he was really looking forward to seeing her all dressed up. Gosh, he must really like her.”

Una carefully put her lipgloss back in her bag. So much for ‘only asking Hermione because she overheard’. So Cormac McLaggen was a liar - plain and simple. And Sabine was right. By putting herself out there and telling him how she felt, she had only set herself up to get hurt.

“Is that why you told me not to tell anyone? Are you sleeping with someone else’s boyfriend?” asked Myrtle in a would-be innocent voice.

Una pulled out her wand and pointed it at Myrtle’s throat. “Langlock!” she spat and watched Myrle’s eyes bulge as her tongue rolled back down her throat. “Engorgio!”

Myrtle clutched her throat as her tongue swelled up.

“Now, if you were alive, you’d suffocate,” whispered Una, watching Myrtle’s ghostly face turn less and less opaque. Her neck bulged as her tongue continued to grow. “But what happens if a dead person chokes on their own tongue, I wonder?”

Una didn’t bother to find out. She turned around and strode out of the bathroom, her heels clicking across the wet stone floor as Myrle gagged behind her. 

Chapter 6: Slughorn's Party

#freddie stroma #cormac mclaggen #slytherin #slytherin fanfiction #harry potter fanfic #harry potter fanfiction #cormac mclaggen x original female character #cormac mclaggen fanfic

[frostfairysteve]

so i cannot turn off my brain and i'm gonna ride this thought out—

Marilyn Harrington is 14 years old and a freshman. She knows Tommy and Carol from middle school; the three of them are a tight-knit group.

Tommy turns 15 the week after Halloween. He invites as many people as possible; his parents let him have the house to himself, and he has a cousin willing to buy them liquor. It's the biggest party Marilyn has been to; she opted out of going to the Halloween party a sophomore had invited her to so that she could go trick-or-treating. Tommy and Carol had made fun of her for it, and they think she has to make up for it now.

Marilyn doesn't know what she has to drink or how much, but she's with Tommy and Carol, and they're dancing, and it's fun. But then they lose Carol in the crowd and Tommy is bringing her to his bedroom.

She's had too much to fully understand what's going on, but Tommy is on top of her, telling her that he likes her more than Carol. It hurts. Marilyn is crying, would scream if he wasn't keeping a hand over her mouth, would fight him off if she was stronger.

Marilyn stumbles out of Tommy's bedroom ten minutes later; it had been quick, but her clothes aren't on her properly, and everything's spinning, and she feels sick.

A sophomore ends up guiding her to the kitchen and getting her water. It takes Marilyn a moment to recognise Eddie Munson; she doubts he was invited, based on what Tommy has to say about him. Or maybe he was invited to sell. Or by someone else. She doesn't recognise most people at the party.

Eddie's kind; waits for consent before helping her correct her clothes, and holds her hair back when she throws up in the sink. Serves Tommy right to have to clean that up.

In the end, Eddie gives her a ride home.

Marilyn shows up at school that Monday, unable to look at Tommy. She flinches away when he tries to wrap an arm around her shoulders. She doesn't know if she should tell Carol what had happened at the party; Carol's in love with Tommy, and even if they're friends, she has a tendency to be mean. She decides not to, for now. Instead, she tries to find Eddie to thank him, and to have a reason to avoid Tommy. But she's not brave enough to do more than give Eddie a nod and a smile when she finds him; he's with friends, and she doesn't want to interrupt. It doesn't help that it feels like everyone are staring at her, as if they know what happened.

Marilyn tries to move on. To forget. She had a lot to drink, maybe her memories are unreliable. But when two months pass without her period, she does tell Carol. (Marilyn has been regular since she got her period at 12½ years old. Something has to be wrong for her to miss it.)

Carol doesn't want to believe that Tommy would have done something like that, but she does believe her, and comes with as emotional support when Marilyn tells her mum.

Shirley Harrington believes her immediately, and is horrified. (Shirley was not many years older when she got pregnant; she doesn't want Marilyn to have to go through that.)

Abortion comes up, but Marilyn doesn't want that. She's always wanted to grow up and have a family; she's not going to get rid of her child just because she's too young. So instead, her mum pulls her out of school. They agree to not tell her dad the true reason she's going to get homeschooled; he should be away on business for most of the pregnancy.

Marilyn is five months pregnant on her 15th birthday. She celebrate with her mum and Carol; hasn't seen Tommy since she stopped going to school. Hasn't told him about having a kid. She gives birth to a boy mid-July; he's born too early, and oh so small.

Shirley stays home with Edmund so that she can go back to school. Marilyn can admit that when she tried to think of a good name for a boy, only the name of the one that helped her that night came to mind. She decided against Edward to not be too obvious, although calling her son Eddie still makes Carol raise an eyebrow at her.

Marilyn Harrington is 15 years old and a sophomore. She has a baby named Edmund and her only friend is Carol.

There are two freshman girls that they end up befriending; Nancy and Barb. But neither Marilyn or Carol ever mention Eddie around them. Well, not Eddie Harrington. They do talk about Eddie Munson; Marilyn can admit that she has a crush. But nothing will come of it; she needs to focus on her studies.

But by so often studying with Nancy and Barb, Marilyn feels herself falling for Nancy. And by the time she starts junior year, she feels bad about being so close to the girls but keeping her son from them.

John Harrington had thrown a fit when he found out about his grandson, but since Marilyn's pregnancy had been kept under wraps, everyone assumes it was Shirley that had been pregnant. With no scandal, he can simply pretend that he has a son. But it doesn't make him any more interested in staying home. He does get a few days at home in every month, or a week every other month, but he does need to be travelling a lot. And usually its okay for his wife to stay behind; especially with her having a new child as an excuse. Only thing is, Shirley hasn't been seen with him in almost two years now, so he convinces his wife to come with him on his next business trip.

Edmund is 15 months old, so they hire a nanny for the days, and Marilyn can take care of him in the evenings. She's the one who chose to risk bringing shame on the Harringtons by having a child so she can take care of him, according to John.

Marilyn doesn't want to be home alone as a 16 year old single mum, especially not with Will Byers just having gone missing, and she wants Nancy and Barb to meet Edmund. Especially since she and Nancy have been getting close.

The small party is awkward; Marilyn has been keeping a secret their whole friendship. But they cook dinner together, and sit outside by the pool since it's a nice night. Edmund has been put to bed a bit ago, but he wakes up crying. Barb drops her glass at the sudden sound, and cuts her hand when she goes to pick up the pieces. Marilyn gives directions to the bathroom as she goes inside to her son, Nancy following her since she has experience with Holly. Carol takes over getting rid of the glass.

Marilyn and Nancy end up staying in her bedroom once Edmund has gone back to sleep; first talking, then kissing. Then a bit more than kissing but Marilyn puts a stop to it; it didn't feel right for her, not with her son right there.

They go back down to find that Carol has gone to bed in Shirley's room, but Barb isn't there. They're both worried, but maybe she just went home.

November 9. Barb doesn't show up to school but Marilyn can't help looking since she has a son to get home to. Carol hasn't dropped Tommy and so is hanging with him. She's the one who destroys Jonathan's camera; he got a picture of Marilyn holding Edmund, and one of Marilyn and Nancy kissing. She can't have anyone see that, especially not Tommy.

Except Tommy saves the torn up picture of Marilyn and Nancy. He's still angry that Marilyn started avoiding him.

November 10. Marilyn is also worried about Barb, so she encourages Nancy to go to the police. Her dad is unhappy that she let more people know the truth, but that's all.

November 11. Marilyn has gotten Carol to agree to babysit, so she goes to Nancy's just to check up on her, suggests they go see a movie to take their mind off Barb. Accepts that's not what Nancy needs right now and leaves.

Shirley comes back home that evening, so Marilyn is gonna treat Carol to milkshakes as thanks for looking after Edmund, but they stop by Nancy's first since Marilyn wants to check in on her. She does draw conclusions when she sees Jonathan, but maybe Nancy isn't actually into girls. It's fine.

It's not fine; Carol mentions Jonathan to Tommy the next day and he paints the marquee. Marilyn isn't there; Tommy gets into a fight but by calling Nancy a queer, having the picture as evidence. Jonathan is the one to hit Tommy. Carol calls Marilyn later, and Marilyn tells Carol to choose between her and Tommy. Carol choses Tommy, Marilyn decides to make things right so she still drives into town to clean the marquee and then goes looking for Jonathan and Nancy to apologise for her former friends.

Which is how Marilyn faces down a demogorgon and in the life and death situation realises that she's not a she, and never has been, and what felt wrong with Nancy was that they were both girls.

He uses the government hush money to look into transitioning; obviously he needs to talk about this with someone first. But it's always been there, it's just that he became a parent very young and didn't have time to think about his life until he was close to death.

Steve Harrington is 17 years old and a senior. He has a two year old son, and a shaky relationship with Nancy Wheeler. And all he wants is to get back to normal so that he can graduate and find a job; it's a wonder that his dad hasn't thrown him out considering. Steve has his mum to thank for that; Shirley Harrington has been his biggest support throughout everything. And Edmund, but his Eddie is too young to really know what's going on.

#steve harrington #ftm steve harrington #my thoughts collection #hi i don't know! #this could be something maybe #steve in season 4 being so flustered around eddie munson. dustin knowing the truth about edmund and teasing the shit out if steve. #dustin learnt the truth about edmund and never tried getting steve and robin together #instead he started high school already planning to get steve and eddie together like the meddling brother he is #steve's eddies #oc: shirley harrington

[twsted-idiot]

GIGGLES IM PUTTING ALL MY BSD OCS THROUGH THE HORRORS :3

NOT a ship. They’re like siblings to me. Ermm angst(??)/platonic hurt comfort.

“I should be dead..I really should be..” Yūrei’s voice cracked, tears welling in her eyes. Her breathing shook, trembling, sniffling softly.

At first, Atsushi didn’t speak..he wasn’t sure what to say…what did you say to someone who was so distraught..? Instead, he wrapped his arms around the younger girl, cradling her head against his chest.

“I mean, everyone here’s good at protecting and saving people.. Kenji’s strong, Ranpo’s..a genius..Dazai and Kunikida too, Yosano literally keeps us all alive…, you and Tanizaki are so kind and brave. A–and I’m not. I can’t..” her voice broke, trailing off. Yūrei’s voice was so soft but obviously extremely distraught, tears filling her ruby eyes.

“But you can..” Atsushi’s voice was soft, attempting to reassure the white haired girl.

He’d never seen her in such a state, sure, she wasn’t as social as everyone else..but he’d never seen her break down like this. She was usually pretty resilient and though not confident in her ability, she was never this insecure before, not aloud at least.

“I can’t. I’m not good at anything. I’m not a genius, I’m not strong, I’m not brave, or kind, or any of those things.”

Atsushi’s eyebrows furrowed in worry..what had even set her off like that..? Had someone said something to her? If so, he was more than willing to confront them about it.

Yes, she disappeared in social situations..but she’d never once backed down from a mission, job, or fight with another organization, no matter what. If anything, that made her just as strong as everyone else..maybe she didn’t have superhuman strength, maybe she wasn’t as smart as Ranpo, Dazai, or Kunikida, maybe she couldn’t literally save people on the brink of death with just her ability..but she was strong, smart, kind, and brave, just like everyone else, and she was only fourteen…

“If that were true..I doubt you’d be part of the Agency. Just because you can’t do all the things we can doesn’t make you any lesser than us..” his voice was sweet, like a parent comforting their child..she was insecure, like him, so naturally Atsushi wanted to help her.

After a few moments, Yūrei’s breathing seemed to calm down, wiping the tears from her cheeks, sniffling softly, but kept her face buried against the other, still trembling a bit. Though she didn’t verbally thank him for the reassurance..it was obvious enough she was grateful.

#Oc: Yūrei Shio

[cherryberry-sugarandspice]

A/N: writing something cause I'm sad and I vent my sadness through my writing. Usually Miguel, but in this case, it'll be my spider OC, Paloma.

You're tired, aren't you?

Paloma stares down at her wrists. The veins have grown a ugly shade a purple-sad, considering Paloma's favorite color is purple. The world spins and she sinks to the ground, hacking out bile. Her chest and throat lights on fire as the mixture of stomach acid and bread pours out of her into a nasty pile of goop. She wraps her arms around herself, heaving out a wail.

Tired of the pain?

She aimlessly searches for the pump and slips her fangs in, body spasming erratically once the sucking motion starts, draining her of her toxic venom. As if molten lava is forced out of her. She slams her fists into the ground, kicking her feet, tears trickling down her heated face.

Your life hangs on by a thin thread.

Once a good portion of venom is gone, she falls backwards, gasping for air. She shakily holds her arm up in the air and twists it to stare at her veins. The purple melts away into a blue and she sighs in relief, draping her arm over her forehead.

Knowing one day, you shall die and not a single person will understand why.

The pain replaces itself with seething rage. She grinds her teeth together, tips of her fangs pressed into the fatness of her bottom lip. Not enough to break the skin, no, as she could accidentally poison herself as she's done so nearly a thousand times.

This isn't the life you wanted.

Spending years as a hero. Swinging throughout the night and stopping the bad guys. Helping those in need. She puts her feelings aside and allows her life to go on the line, when it's already at risk every day of every second. The clock ticks slowly, years, hours, minutes, seconds away until her time of death is called.

Who do you turn to for help?

Paloma didn't ask for this. She never once asked to be given these powers forced upon her. A accidental lab incident. The escape of a deadly spider. A scientist who decided for her that she'll bare these powers for not only did it save her life, but cursed her.

It's so easy to give up now.

She's one person. One person against the world who loves and hates her. Paloma stands as a strong, confident woman who refuses to take on the weight of hatred. She stands for the weak and vulnerable-when inside, she's the weak and vulnerable one. Filled with doubt and pain. Stuck with the responsibility of seeing the true evil nature of those who are cruel.

Give up.

A hero is supposed to be proud and jovial, wearing a brave smile whilst holding the lives of the innocent and shielding them. Yet no one is shielding her from the pain and suffering of her tormented soul. She can handle a punch. A bullet. A brick building falling on top of her. The one thing she can't handle is the whirlwind of ugly emotions building up inside of her and threatening to explode.

I said give up.

Paloma screams in agony of the psychology torture of her mind. She grabs a handful of hair and rips it out of her scalp, howling. Her screams come out ragged and tortured, as if this wasn't her screaming.

But the person inside who ached for a normal life. The person who wishes to wake up in the morning and get ready without checking her venom levels. Who received a blissful sleep, not worrying about whether or not a innocent civilian is in jeopardy. A person pleading to be boring and uninteresting. A faceless stranger in the crowd. Never to be remembered or looked at.

You can't be that lucky, now can you?

Paloma stares to the future of her taking off her mask and discarding it, forever looking ahead and never back at the hero she used to be. She craves to live as the ordinary person with a boring, dreadful life. Instead, she's stuck saving people. Stuck fighting the bad guys. Stuck at having the knowledge that one day, her body will betray her and cut the string that kept her up.

God, she wishes she died that afternoon in the lab. Who cares if her parents mourned her death? Who cares what happened after? Who cares if there's people out there that look up to her? Who cares that people seek comfort in her?

Who cares who cares who fucking cares?

Paloma never asked to be Spider-Dahlia, and she regrets being her every single day.

Because she's forever trapped within the web of laughable destiny.

If only she could burn it and release her of this tragic life.

#spider oc #spider persona #cherry makes her ocs feel pain 24/7 #spiderverse #across the spiderverse #across the spider verse #miguel o'hara #miguel ohara #tagging miguel since I pair them and they have a lovers to enemies trope