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snailor-bee · 2 years

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OC Modern AU: Caged Hearts

This idea has been bouncing around my head for a while and I wanted to get it down somewhere! This mostly follows my OCs Carys and Solomon, with a bunch of friends OC's thrown into the mix! Owners are: Umi @aifozu , Maren @mewiyev , Renge @childofblackmaria , Coco @secretvoidvoid

I'm still thinking about ideas for this AU but I'm more than happy to discuss with anyone about it! So feel free to ask any questions or just talk to me about it lol. Also any mutuals who wanna discuss about specific OCs that I did or didn't include hmu. >:3c

Abyss owns a place pretty far outside of town. It’s basically a homestead even though Abyss has taken to working more and more often at his company in the city as his kids have gotten older.

Solomon and Carys have been raised as siblings, although Solomon is adopted. No one would be able to tell they weren’t blood related though, Solomon and Carys both look so much like their father.

They were originally homeschooled by Abyss and other tutors until Solomon put his foot down and demanded to go to a ‘real’ school. Carys went with him but only lasted a few days before reverting to being homeschooled.

Solomon is skinny and tall like their father, they’re all a similar shade of tan (Carys and Abyss a bit darker as they spend more time outside than Solomon prefers too). He’s got short black hair, dark eyes like Abyss, and is tattooed down both arms. He’s working on his chest currently. He’s going to college as a business major even though he’d really rather not. However, Abyss wants him to take over the family business and both know Carys would never do that. So it falls on Solomon. He’s also a few years older than Carys in this AU. What he’d really like to be though is an artist or a tattoo artist. He draws constantly.

Carys is perfectly satisfied living on their farm. She takes care of their animals every day but after being told she had to take a degree in something she is Languages major, simply because she has an ear for that sort of thing and being fluent in other languages is easy for her. She takes the courses online since she doesn’t care to attend a college in person. She looks largely the same as her normal human form however she’s a little more bulky since she works on the farm. She still enjoys singing and sparring with Solomon or their father.

Both siblings like to do underground cage fighting. Solomon a little less, since he’s honestly not much into fighting even though he’s not bad at it (for some reason Abyss knows a lot of different types of fighting styles and taught them both). It’s more for something to do, the entertainment of it all is thrilling. The energy of the crowd and being apart of something is intoxicating, and the money isn’t bad either. He gets Carys involved who does like the fighting aspect of it and hardly cares about anything else.

Solomon doesn’t really understand it but Carys has always been a little… odd. Not the greatest with society interactions and you’d think she was born in another century with the way she reacts to technology. She can call and begrudgingly text (it takes her forever) and that’s about it. Online school was initially a challenge because while Carys understood everything and could take tests, anything required to be typed (which was… everything) irritated her as she hated using a computer. Solomon eventually hooked her up with a typer, Bee, who would take Carys’ written pages and type them out for her to send in. The two become friendly.

Bee has recently gotten out of the military and is attending college as an English major. She’s older than most of the college students because of her military experience. She and Solomon had taken a few classes together which is why he thinks to ask her to help his sister out. She lives off campus with a few friends in an apartment and is a full-time student.

Their only other close friend is Maren, who was the one who originally introduced them to the underground fights. He works on their farm as a farmhand sometimes and both siblings enjoy his laid-back company.

Maren is a frequent fighter in the cages and although he loses just about as often as he wins, he loves it. He’s a big fan of the Donut Destroyer, a tall man with a huge following and always fights with a black and white striped scarf around the bottom half of his face. (People think the name is lame but everyone is to scared to tell him that). Maren later finds out that Carys and Solomon know him, like actually know him, and that he works at Abyss’ company. He begs Carys to go along with her on a random trip to Abyss’ work and he meets Katakuri there.

Solomon is on a dating app when he sees a drop-dead gorgeous woman on there. She’s got short white hair and is completely covered in blue lines of tattoos. Her name is Umi. She’s way above his league but he shots her a message anyway. They get to chatting and hit it off. They arrange a date, but it happens to be on a day that he’s supposed to be with Carys and he can’t pawn her off on Maren or Bee. In a panic because he doesn’t want to reschedule afraid that Umi will think he’s blowing her off he finds out about a Martial Arts tournament. Thinking Carys will at least find it a little interesting, he gets them tickets to that, tells her he’s going to be late, and takes off for his date.

(It goes super well and Solomon is basically in love at first sight. Umi is the coolest person he’s every met and they get along so well, it was hard to say goodbye. Solomon is EXTREMELY late when he finally manages to tear himself away and book it to the tournament.)

It’s most definitely ended by the time he shows up and he’s just in time to see Carys challenging a man to a fight. Luckily the man looks only mildly confused but that could just be his face (he looks high as fuck, what is wrong with people?? With the way he’s dressed, Solomon assumes he was in the tournament itself, how is he high). Forcibly dragging Carys away from the weirdo with the pineapple hair, he demands to know what happened.

Nothing happened, just Marco was a fantastic fighter and Carys wants to fight him, badly. Solomon gets them out of there but the next few days are torture listening to Carys drone on and on about the pineapple head. It’s clear to Solomon that she has a crush that she’s misplacing into an urge to fight the man but to Solomon’s knowledge, Carys has never really had a crush on anyone before and isn’t quite sure how to bring it up.

Life goes on except that Carys’ fights have been bringing in slightly less money. Solomon knows it’s because the crowd is becoming bored of her fights, she’s won almost all of her matches. So he goes to her, trying to beg her to intentionally lose a match. He knows she’ll never go for it and is shocked to see her think it over. There’s a gleam in her eye when she says “Yes, but only if you’ll tell me where I can find Marco.”

There’s nothing else to do. He does and she loses. Marco works at a gym named the Whitebeard Gym. Which happens to be the gym Maren attends (and is the one who gives Solomon this information). Maren ends up taking Carys and signing her up for the gym. After he explains how to use all the equipment, she goes by herself frequently and signs up for all of Marco’s classes. After being told her behavior of just… demanding he fight her was unacceptable (and would end up making him never fight her if she kept asking) she doesn’t ask but does make it a point to try to talk with him every time before or after one of his classes. At first it’s mostly fight related but slowly it becomes easier and more natural. Marco finds that he comes to enjoy their chats.

At some point, Solomon mentions that Carys must like Marco and when she asks him “how you can tell if you like someone?” Solomon tells her to ask Bee.

They discuss it together but Carys decides to show Bee Marco personally so she brings her to the gym. (Bee complaining the entire time because she does not want to go) However the class they have signed up to do isn’t being run by Marco (he’s away at another tournament) and Carys, annoyed, says they can go. But Bee has caught sight of their instructor, a tall handsome man with his long blond hair pulled back in a messy bun and the weirdest mustache she’s ever seen but hey, she’s already here. They stay to do the class and Bee about dies. After her near death experience they go to the front counter so Carys can ask when Marco should be back. Thatch, jokingly, asks Bee if she’s joining the gym and she snorts. “Not on your life.” “Not even for some eye candy?” he snaps back with a wide grin. Bee rolls her eyes. They can all see where Edward Newgate is surrounded by women from the class. When Bee finds out he’s the owner of the gym she’s impressed. Bee tells Carys to just take a picture of Marco to show her later, which Thatch teasingly says they don’t allow photos of instructors unknowingly. Knowing Carys will take that literally, Bee sighs aggressively before seeing Edward walking up to the counter. “Just do it like this,” she tells Carys before smiling at Edward and asking for a selfie with her instructor for her first and last workout. Edward of course is more than happy to oblige and she gets a selfie and drags Carys out of the gym before Thatch can make another remark.

When Marco gets back from his trip, he says he wants to watch one of Carys’ matches, which she’s thrilled about. Except it ends up against Sasaki, a powerhouse. Carys loses that fight but afterward, Marco asks her to dinner. (Unfortunately, he asks her in the backroom while she was talking with Coco, Sasaki’s girlfriend so Carys, not recognizing the offer for a date, invites them along.) The four of them go to a place nearby where Marco knows the people there.

It's just a food truck but it has tables set up outside of it and it’s still a nice atmosphere and the food is amazing. It’s owned by Renge with her partners Roger and Rayleigh. Renge is the chef and her and Roger both have highly successful Instagram accounts. (Roger with his ‘Vanlife’ that he shows off his travels, Renge when she’s not working and is traveling with him reviews food. Rayleigh is a photographer and takes nicer shots if either need more than a quick ‘aesthetic’ picture that they can take themselves.)

Marco, not super thrilled with the way Carys is bruised and battered from the fight with Sasaki, makes a few ill-placed remarks that after a while Sasaki reacts to and both women have to talk them both down from erupting into an all-out fight. Carys likes both Sasaki and Coco though and wants to have another fight with Sasaki (or just spar together) which with some encouragement from Coco, the man agrees to. And that’s all I have right now! I’m still thinking things through. :0

Notes that I have which I’m unsure where to put: Marco has a blue parrot named Moby that only gets along with his brothers and hates females. So when Carys first meets him, Marco is assuming Moby will get possessive. However, Carys handles Moby extremely well (she’s very good with animals) and Marco is amazed.

I wasn’t sure what to do for Umi job so she doesn’t have as much information as I’d like, but just know Solomon is down BAD and they are extremely cute together.

The age ranges for Solomon and Carys are in their early twenties. Whitebeard, Abyss and Katakuri are in their 40s, while everyone else is generally below that somewhere. (Thinking Roger/Rayleigh are in their late 30s though). Marco in his mid-twenties along with most of his brothers, barring Ace.

#modern AU caged hearts #one piece oc #bee writes #bee writing

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ragingbookdragon · 3 years

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A Christmas Dinner To Warm Cold Hearts

A Connor Kenway x Reader One-Shot

Word Count: 2.3K Warnings: None

Author’s Note: And we have reached the final one! 25 straight days of Christmas fics! I hope you have enjoyed it everyone! Thank you for following along! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! -Thorne

New York in the middle of winter wasn’t necessarily her favorite place to be, but to set her plans in motion, sacrifices had to be made—even if it meant freezing off her fingers and toes. With a violent shiver, she tugged at the heavy winter coat, digging her hands underneath her arms in an effort to gain some warmth. Though it did little, she felt a bit of relief as she hurried to the street corner, watching as the group of men filed out.

They seemed to still be in a discussion and to avoid their sights, she crept into a conversation between a group of people, eyes directed on the silver haired man. After a few minutes, they dispersed and she smiled as the man started his way down the other side of the street—she waited a moment then followed, hoping she could catch up to him.

She trailed him for what seemed like hours until he turned down an alley. Doing the same, she was met with an empty backstreet, and when she came out at the end, he was nowhere in sight. Her head tipped both ways as she looked for him.

“I swear I just saw him,” she whispered. “Where on earth did he go?”

A frigid bite of metal against her throat answered her question, and as she sucked in a breath, she heard in her ear, “Make any sudden movements and I will slit your throat.”

Recognizing the voice, she swallowed thickly, and knowing the stories of his ruthlessness from Connor, she understood that he would without a single hesitation, slit her throat.

Her lips suddenly felt dry and she licked them, ignoring how they seemed to freeze after. “I’m not here to cause trouble, Mister Kenway.” She murmured, hoping a soft voice would ease his tension.

His free hand dug into her waist. “Oh ho? And trailing me isn’t trouble on your part?”

A chuckle passed her lips and when she tried to turn her neck a bit to see him, he pressed the blade harder to dissuade her.

“I am looking for you, Haytham, but I’m not going to try anything.” Before he could say anything, she said, “My name is (Y/N). Your son and I are in a relationship,” she tipped her head to catch his eye and smiled, “I just want to talk.”

Haytham’s grip slipped as his steel eyes went wide. He searched her gaze for a lie, and seeming to not find one, he retracted the hidden blade and let her go. (Y/N) felt along her neck for a wound but didn’t find one. She turned around and glanced at the man.

“If you don’t mind, could we go somewhere where it isn’t snowing?” she asked and he simply turned on his heel, telling her to follow; she rolled her eyes at how commanding and pompous he looked from behind, but decided to not voice her concerns.

***

About ten minutes they walked, and he held the door to a tavern, gesturing her inside. (Y/N) walked in and instantly sighed as the warm air wrapped her in a hug that resembled Connor’s.

“Go sit in the corner,” Haytham instructed, and it took everything in her to not turn on him and tell him off for giving her orders.

Silently, she conceded and a few moments after she took her seat, he came over and sat across from her, setting two wine glasses on the table. (Y/N) picked hers up by the stem and swirled it before meeting his eyes.

“Surprising for a man who drinks ale in taverns to drink wine right now,” she remarked and took a small sip before smiling. “Mmm, sweet with honey. A good choice.”

Haytham took a sip of his wine before remembering, “You said you and my son were in a relationship?”

(Y/N) cleared her throat and nodded. “We have been for quite some time.” She had to think on it. “Three years, if I’m not mistaken. Though friends for a longer time.”

His eyes narrowed, and she wasn’t sure if it was from suspicion or thought. “How did you two meet?”

Laughing, she scratched at the old wooden table and let her eyes drift towards the doors. “Oh, he saved me from getting torn a new one by regulars some time back.”

A silver brow arched on his forehead as he surmised, “So my son’s lover is a troublemaker?”

(Y/N) felt a rather unladylike snort come from her and she countered, “Oh, not in so many words, and not like you and he do.” She winked at him. “I merely dabble in the pond while you two are sunk to your necks.”

A bark of laughter escaped him, and she felt pride at how she managed to make the almost stoic man grin. He nodded. “Touché, (Y/N).”

They fell into a silence, enjoying their wines, and when they were almost gone, he questioned, “You wished to speak with me about something?”

(Y/N) nodded and sat up straight. “Are you going to busy on Christmas Day?” she asked, and evidently, he hadn’t been expecting that because his eyes went wide.

“I beg your pardon?”

She huffed a laugh. “Christmas Day. Will you be busy?”

Haytham’s eyes narrowed, and this time she knew it was in suspicion. “And you are asking why?” he challenged, and she rolled her eyes.

“Well, I was going to ask you if you’d like to have dinner with the two of us.” (Y/N) reasoned.

As if she’d slapped him across the face, his jaw went slack from shock and he fell into a stillness, her simply staring and waiting for an answer.

When he finally found himself again, a look of pure confusion came over him. “You…are inviting me…to dinner?” he repeated.

“I am,” she answered with a smile.

“…Why?”

(Y/N) inhaled deeply and reclined in her seat, gazing at the back of her hands. “Ratonhnhaké:ton and Achilles aren’t exactly seeing eye to eye now that the two of you are working together,” she explained and with a sad look, she added, “I figured that maybe if the two of you shared a holiday dinner that…well that…” she trailed off and shook her head. “Neverm—”

“No,” Haytham interjected. “Tell me.”

She met his eyes and with a sudden rush of confidence, she said, “I want the two of you to spend at least one night acting like a family.”

His eyes went wide, but (Y/N) didn’t stop. “You both are so rude and disrespectful to each other, and I understand it’s because neither of you know how to act as you’ve both grown without knowing one another, but still,” she stressed, “You are father and son, and even if you are on different sides, it’s the Christmas season and you should be a family.”

Rising from her seat, she yanked out her coin purse and pulled out a single pound and a scrap of paper. “Here,” she pointed out. “For the drink.”

He took them both but raised the paper. “What’s this?”

(Y/N) glanced at him. “Directions to my cottage at the Davenport Homestead.”

“Are you sure it’s wise to give this to me?” Haytham murmured, but she placed her palm flat on the table and got in his face.

“If you send someone after me, he’ll kill them and then you without a second thought,” (Y/N) warned before standing up and continuing, “You’re a bastard, sure, but not that much.” She nodded at the scrap. “Be there by seven…please.”

And she left him without another word.

***

It wasn’t a struggle to keep him away from the door, but it was certainly one to keep him from putting his fingers in the food. For what seemed like the millionth time, she whacked at his hand, but he was much too quick and dodged her, sticking out his tongue.

“Stay out of that, Ratonhnhaké:ton!” she hissed. “It’s not time to eat yet!”

He let his head loll back and sighed. “But Otsi’tsa, I am hungry.”

(Y/N) snorted and shoved at his stomach, nodding at the table before handing him a platter of venison. “Go,” she commanded. “And don’t sneak a piece!”

Connor groaned and did as she asked, but when he set down the plate, he noticed an extra plate. “(Y/N), are we having a guest for dinner?”

She turned around and faced the fireplace, gnawing at her lips as she searched for an answer. “Uh…sort of?” She could hear the confusion in his voice.

“What do you mean ‘sort of’?” he asked, and before she could respond, a knock was at the door.

They turned and she hurried to it before he could, cracking it open slightly. Connor saw the corner of her lip turn up and she opened the door fully, letting the person inside. His amber eyes went wide when his father removed his tricorn and hung it on the coat hanger, his cloak and jacket following.

(Y/N) tossed him a sheepish grin and hesitated, “…Merry Christmas?”

All her lover could manage was, “Why?”

She sighed. “Oh my god, it’s Christmas, you two.”

Haytham scoffed and glared at her. “I showed up, did I not?”

Connor cut her off with a hiss. “I can show you out if you would like.”

“Boys,” she scolded, and at that, they both turned on her with equal looks of disrespect; she rolled her eyes. “Please, let’s just sit at the table and eat dinner.”

Father and son stared one another down for a full minute before taking their seats, and (Y/N) hoped it would remain civil.

***

Surprisingly, dinner did remain fairly civil, only a few moments where she had to soothe Connor’s anger—and kick Haytham in the shin underneath the table, no doubt he’d have bruises in the morning.

They sat by the fireplace, her and Haytham with a mug of cider in their hands, Connor drinking hot chocolate—she had to elbow his father in the side before he could say something that would no doubt set her lover off.

It was a peaceful moment before Connor questioned, “Why did you come, father?”

Her eyes darted to Haytham who simply gazed into the fireplace, the golden glow making his steel eyes shimmer. “Because (Y/N) invited me,” he simply returned.

She let out an exaggerated cough. “Liar.”

Haytham glowered at her and she shifted her eyes between him and Connor. Finally, he sighed and revealed, “I thought…that you and I should spend the holidays together.”

Connor huffed a laugh, sarcastically countering, “What, because we are family?”

His father gazed at him with clear eyes. “Yes.”

It was the most honest she’d ever heard the man be, and even she was as surprised as Connor was, who simply turned meek and looked at the fireplace with a quiet, “Oh.”

(Y/N) watched Haytham stare at his feet as he murmured, “This is the first time in…decades…that I have spent a holiday with…family.” A rare smile came across his lips. “I have…enjoyed it.”

She glanced at Connor and nudged him gently in the side, giving him a smile when he looked at her; after a moment, he sighed and said, “As have I.”

Watching the two give each other truthful and heartful smiles, she stood and announced, “I have final gifts for you two.”

Their eyes followed her curiously as she walked to a shelf and came back with two boxes, one red, the other blue. She handed the red to Haytham and the blue to Connor.

“Here, open them,” she smiled.

Doing so, they ripped the paper and opened the boxes to see a simple ribbon in each box, Haytham’s ribbon red, and Connor’s ribbon blue.

(Y/N) tapped Connor’s and explained, “There’s an inscription on each ribbon. I had them made in Boston a while ago.”

Haytham picked it up and started examining it. “What does it say?”

“It says, ‘You need glasses’,” Connor quipped, and she snorted when his father glared at him, then looked to her and waited.

(Y/N) leaned on her lover’s shoulder and replied, “They both say, ‘True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.’” She glanced at them. “A testament to the fact that you both know so much about the world and it’s realities, yet you still understand so little.”

She almost laughed at how their faces pinched exactly the same, and she added, “And because I hope that when you wear them, you remember it and make better choices.”

“Who said I make bad choices?” Connor suddenly asked and (Y/N) cocked a brow.

“Uh, the Boston Tea Party?” she hinted, and he scowled.

“There was a purpose in that,” he countered.

“Yes, destroying good tea,” Haytham argued. He sighed and placed the top back on the box, and she stopped Connor before he could say something about his lack of thanks.

He stood to his feet and made his way to the door, starting to dress in his jacket and cloak. (Y/N) handed him his hat and he looked at the two of them.

“Thank you for inviting me,” he said, placing the tricorn atop his head. “I have enjoyed tonight.”

(Y/N) smiled. “Thank you for being here tonight.”

Haytham turned to the door, but as his hand gripped the doorknob, he glanced over his shoulder. “I will be having New Year’s dinner at my home in Virginia, if you two would like to come.”

She nodded. “I would love to.” His gaze shifted to his son.

Connor took a moment, obviously wrestling with himself before he nodded. “Yes…I would like to be there as well.”

His father gave them a rare and true smile before tipping his head. “I shall see you there.”

#connor kenway x reader #connor kenway x reader imagine #connor kenway x reader imagines #connor kenway imagine #connor kenway imagines #connor kenway #ratonhnhaké:ton #ac3 #ac3 imagine #ac3 imagines #assassins creed 3 #assassins creed 3 imagines #assassins creed 3 imagine #ac imagines #ac imagine #assassins creed imagine #assassins creed imagines #haytham kenway #achilles davenport

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panharmonium · 4 years

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I'm curious if you have any headcanon/any fic plans or just ideas about how Hunith learnt Will knew about Merlin's magic. Sorry if you already talked about it and has slipped out of my attention!

Oh my gosh, any message that asks me about Will or Hunith or Ealdor in any fashion makes me so happy; thank you!

I'll avoid drawing up an outline for an exact scenario, only because I am always writing more fic about Merlin’s pre-Camelot life and if I end up deciding to actually do this in a fic I’ll be mad at myself for already typing it all out in meta XD I will, however, talk about some general thoughts, because I do have solid opinions about certain aspects of this whole thing (all my own, obviously; folks are free to imagine this in different ways - these are just my own personal inferences from the canon we’re given).

Putting this under a cut because it got long - you always write me such detailed notes that I wanted to be thorough! <3

So! Here are some of my thoughts about how Hunith learnt that Will knew about Merlin’s magic.

i. it was not careless.

In my opinion, Will and Merlin, by the age where we meet them in canon, are not out there goofing around with Merlin’s magic in risky ways. It doesn’t make sense for Merlin, who is old enough to understand the dangers to his own life and who is also desperately committed to making sure his mother never finds out that Will is in the know (because Merlin knows it won’t go well), and it definitely doesn’t make sense for Will, who, despite his fanon reputation for mischief, is...not actually shown to be like that in canon.

I talked before in my big meta dump about Will that I very much do not read the “he’s always been a troublemaker” line to be indicative of the “pranks and shenanigans” theme that I tend to see in a lot of fic. The “troublemaker” line, in context, is not referring to Will causing mischief; it’s about Will’s inability to shut his mouth and stop stirring the pot, in the sense of him yelling about stuff that nobody else wants to think about; it’s about him not being able to put his head down and go with the flow. It’s immediately followed by the line “they’re used to ignoring him,” and what we’re being told here is that Will is the cousin who can’t stop himself from getting political at the holiday dinner table even when the rest of the family is begging him to let them have one single meal in peace. He cannot let things go, and the rest of his neighbors are completely sick of it (see: Hunith’s ZERO patience with Will when he challenges Arthur in front of the community).

Canon Will, in contrast to some fanon interpretations, is actually a very intense, guarded person? He’s suspicious and pragmatic and risk-averse. And I just think it’s important to remember that Will, in his current situation, does not have a lot of time to be messing around. He was orphaned and left to run a whole homestead as a child. That’s like...he’s doing the work of an entire family. Life in Ealdor already leaves little room to slack off, and Will is completely overburdened - somebody in his situation would be desperately busy, almost all of the time, and always on the verge of a potential disaster, if he fell behind on anything.

So I just don’t read him as someone who is out doing silly things with Merlin in a way that got them discovered by Hunith. Like - Merlin isn’t careless enough to be goofing off in his own house, for example, and Will isn’t a character who’s daring Merlin to do foolish things for the fun of it. Merlin is comfortable using his magic around Will, definitely, and we know he’s had at least one mishap in the past (the tree), but at this point in their lives, I don’t see either of them as frivolous or clueless enough to use magic in a way that could get them caught by anyone, or for the purpose of risky/trivial games.

ii. merlin was the one who let it slip

I personally think the lead-up to Hunith discovering Will’s involvement was preceded by two things:

an increase in external stressors (related to the political situation between Camelot and Cenred’s kingdom), making Merlin’s position in Ealdor progressively more precarious/dangerous

Merlin becoming increasingly frustrated, rebellious, and unwilling to hide himself the way his mother wanted him to

The first point is something that I've incorporated into fic, so I think @blueclaw7 is already familiar with it :) But essentially, when I was collecting info on Ealdor and Cenred's kingdom prior to a previous fic-writing endeavour, there were a few things that led me to wonder just what sort of trouble was brewing in that corner of the world, prior to Merlin's departure:

We know that Cenred makes agreements with slave traders, allowing them to work certain areas of his land without interference (see: Cenred's discussion with Morgause about Jarl in 3.12 - “He's been working our western border for months...We have an understanding.”) Cenred likely would not allow this unless it benefited him in some way, so I think we can safely assume that he is receiving some sort of kickback from allowing slavers to operate in his kingdom, either in the form of financial compensation or perhaps by having people like Jarl on-call in case Cenred himself needs specific targets rounded up.

We also know that sometime prior to 1.10, Cenred's kingdom and Camelot signed some sort of peace treaty, which according to Uther was “years in the making.” We're not told how long the two kingdoms had been enemies before that, but my personal interpretation is that they have been at odds for a long time, because the peace treaty doesn’t appear to be very successful - by 2.12, Uther says, “Our treaty with Cenred no longer holds. We are at war,” despite the fact that we actually haven't even met Cenred in the show yet and he hasn't attacked Camelot or anything (he doesn't agree to do that until Season 3, when Uther is incapacitated and the kingdom is weak). Uther also later refers to Cenred as Camelot’s “sworn enemy.” So the treaty just appears to have been a temporary, shaky peace between kingdoms that are frequently in conflict, the terms of which we are not privy to.

We know that Uther “offers a handsome reward for anyone with magic” (2.09, when the bounty hunter shows up with Freya), and we know that normal people will turn others over to bounty hunters for their own benefit (“How did he find you?” / “You can't always trust people.”)

We know that Aredian (the witchfinder) has been operating “in foreign lands” (aka, not Camelot).

So, the question I asked myself was this: why would Cenred and Uther even agree to a peace treaty in the first place, when their kingdoms are clearly constantly at odds with one another? And looking at the other tidbits of information above, the framework I constructed for myself was that I personally think part of the aforementioned treaty involves Cenred turning people with magic over to Uther - and perhaps allowing Uther's agents over the border to do their own hunting - in exchange for some kind of compensation (probably financial). We know Cenred is greedy (he's aiming to conquer Camelot even though he is, per his own words, “rich and powerful already”), and we know he canonically has the means to give Uther what he wants (agreements with slave traders working within his borders). And given that the treaty appears to have been a fairly recent development in 1.10, my personal read is that this treaty was signed sometime before Merlin left Ealdor, and that it prompted an uptick in dangerous activity that frightened Merlin's mother and made her more willing to send him away. Bounty hunters nabbing people on the road, slave traders being given the freedom to operate without interference, rumors of single agents like the Witchfinder roaming the countryside - all of this would lead to the far more immediate concern of “what happens if somebody in Ealdor thinks Merlin might be magic and decides to make a quick shilling by turning him in????”

I think that is Hunith's biggest concern. Ealdor is poor. And Merlin himself says his departure was prompted by not being able to trust the people around him. When Freya tells him, “you can't always trust people,” he replies, “I know. That's why I left home.” And if there were suddenly a higher demand for people with magic, due to Cenred and Uther's arrangement, then there would be more incentive for regular people to look for a way they could turn it to their advantage, especially if they've already been conditioned to see magic as an evil/dangerous thing.

I think this leads to Hunith being even more cautious, and putting even tighter restrictions on Merlin re: where he can go and when he can be out and who he can go wandering around with, and even on using magic for little things at home where no one can see. And the problem with this is that Merlin won't tolerate it anymore, not the way he did when he was younger. Not because he doesn't want to listen to her or because he doesn't understand that she's trying to help him, but because he just can't. He can't. It's killing him. He tells Gaius in 1.01, “if I can't use magic, I might as well die,” and that’s not just him being dramatic; he really feels that way. He doesn’t just have magic, he is magic. He can't suppress it that way, without feeling like he's killing himself.

So, to bring us back around to the point of this segment - I think what ends up happening is that Merlin starts pushing back on Hunith’s restrictions, not so he can goof around and do stupid things, but so he can live his life in a way that doesn't make him feel like he's suffocating, so he can just be, without feeling like his entire existence is a crime. I think the increased pressure drives him more and more frequently to Will, the only person around whom Merlin can exist as a complete person, and I think he becomes increasingly resistant to his mother's directives, and I think his mother gets more and more frustrated with him, because she sees it as him needlessly risking his life, but Merlin is tired of hearing that he can't trust anybody, because he CAN trust somebody; he has somebody to trust right now and he’s had them for ages, and he doesn't think things have to be so dire all the time, if his mother would just see that, but she won't -

And then, when his frustration reaches a boiling point, Merlin accidentally spills the beans.

I don't think Hunith walks in on Merlin doing magic in front of Will, personally. I think Merlin slips up and tells her, in the course of their increasingly frequent, tense conflicts between “you can't trust ANYBODY/things are too dangerous” and “i CAN trust somebody/i can’t live like this anymore.”

I think he lets it slip in an argument, as a frustrated justification for “it doesn't have to be like this all the time; things could be better; will's known about it for X years and nothing bad has ever happened to me.”

And then, of course, it goes very, very badly.

Which brings us to Point #3 -

iii. it was a Disaster.

What I mean by this is that Hunith discovering that Will knew about Merlin’s magic was not a chill situation. It did not go over well, and it created an interpersonal crisis between the three of them that persists all the way into 1.10.

We’ve already heard canon confirmation of this - “when she found out you knew, she was SO angry” - and it’s obvious that this conflict was never resolved. I’ve already talked in another post about Hunith’s weird disinterest in/disapproval of Will in favor of Arthur (even after Will’s death!), and Will clearly isn’t feeling very generous with her in 1.10, either - they only interact once, when Hunith snaps at Will to “keep quiet” after he challenges Arthur in front of the village, and after that, they never talk again. They never go anywhere near each other, in fact.

I know fandom likes to headcanon Hunith as the ultimate mom who is super generous with everyone and would instantly adopt all of Merlin’s friends out of an overabundance of motherly love, but 1.10 tells a very different story about her relationship with Will, and it’s clearly not a completely new issue. Merlin knew his mother wouldn’t react well to finding out that he’d shared his secret with Will. It’s why he lied in the first place. Whatever the relationship between the three of them was before the reveal, Merlin knew that a history of positive interactions wouldn’t make a difference if the truth came out. His mother would never be okay with Will knowing.

And he was right! Because Hunith finding out the truth fractures that relationship. It’s what finally prompts Hunith to send Merlin away. And that, of course, makes things worse, because a) Will never did anything to deserve that reaction, and b) as I’ve talked about in another post, Merlin disappears without even telling Will he’s leaving. He just vanishes. And Will, blindsided, is left in Ealdor with Hunith, who was party to that decision, and he is so...I don’t even know how to describe how full of grief and rage I would be, if I were in his situation. Merlin was the only good thing in Will’s life.

I don’t think Will wants to be anywhere near Hunith, after that. I think he avoids her like the plague. I think the only reason Will even knows anything about where Merlin is or what he’s doing is because Hunith is careful to chat about it with other people in casual conversation, while Will is within earshot (hence why Will later says, “I hear you’re skivvying for some prince”). And I think Hunith is probably making a misguided attempt to be kind, by doing that - giving Will a way to stay sort of updated even though they’re not speaking to each other - but I also don’t think her efforts are effective, at all, because the only thing her secondhand updates do for Will is hammer home the fact that Merlin is writing to Hunith instead of him, that Merlin hasn’t directed Hunith to relay Will any message, that Merlin really did just leave without saying goodbye and apparently has no intention of contacting Will again. And Will doesn’t know why Merlin did that, or what he did to make Merlin not want him anymore, but because Will is who he is, he ends up feeling like Merlin must have never cared about him that much in the first place, and it was just that Will misread the whole relationship; he got his hopes up and let his guard down and believed that somebody cared for him, and he should have known better, because everybody ALWAYS leaves him, and he was stupid to think this time would be different. And he is so angry at himself, but he is also devastated, and impossibly lonely, because he has nobody in his life, and he has to just sit and simmer in his own pain, because Merlin is gone, and Will would rather crawl over a bed of hot coals than go anywhere near Hunith right now.

And I honestly don’t blame Will for avoiding her. It’s like...I hate to put this on Hunith, because I do appreciate her in other areas, but there’s just no getting around this: the way she views and deals with Will is markedly different from the way she treats Merlin’s Camelot friends, even though she barely knows them, and despite the fact that she’s perfectly aware that Arthur hates sorcery. She’s happy to ignore Merlin’s friendship with Will all throughout 1.10, even though that’s the relationship that is in the most desperate need of attention, and instead she chooses to focus on/encourage/praise Merlin’s relationships with people who hate the thing that makes him who he is. And that is just so...bizarre to me, and I think...I really believe there is a part of Hunith that blames Will for everything that happened, even if it’s subconscious. Like - I think there’s a part of her that believes that if Will hadn’t found out about the magic, Merlin wouldn’t have been “in danger,” and she wouldn’t have been put in the difficult position of sending Merlin away. I’m not sure if she truly believed Will was going to sell Merlin to a bounty hunter when he got desperate enough for money (see above re: Will’s situation being a precarious one, survival-wise), or if it was more her fear that Merlin would be too trusting now that one person had accepted him (what if Merlin went and told someone else, because it worked out the first time??? What if he let this thing with Will lull him into a false sense of security?) But whatever her reasons, she still ends up pushing Will away. She never treats him with the same kind of solicitous interest that she extends to Merlin’s new companions, and I do think it all comes back to that moment when she found out that he knew.

It’s hardly rational, given what we know about how dedicated Will actually is to protecting Merlin’s secret. And I don’t think Hunith is like...actively taking it out on him. But the attitude is still present, as an undercurrent, and I have to be honest about this: the feeling I get from Hunith in 1.10 (and the vibe that I imagine Will was getting from her while Merlin was gone) is that she thinks Merlin is much better off now that he’s moved on from Ealdor, and that leaving Will behind was ultimately best for everyone, and that Will needs to just get over it and understand that he’s not a part of Merlin’s life anymore, so everyone can be happy that Merlin has met such fantastic, fascinating new friends.

That’s what I hear her saying, when I see the way she completely ignores him while simultaneously loving on the Camelot crew. That’s what Will hears, too, even if she doesn’t say it out loud.

And honestly, my heart breaks for him. He deserved more than that.

(tangentially, but - I think it bears mentioning, given certain fic trends I have seen, that Merlin himself does not share this viewpoint. Merlin has never and will never consider his new friends to be a “step up” from Will, and he has never and will never consider Will to be a “past” or less immediate part of his life. Even after Will is dead, Merlin refuses to tolerate even the barest suggestion of this from anybody - when Arthur tries to say that Will “was a close friend,” Merlin corrects him, saying “He still is.” Will is just as relevant and meaningful to Merlin in Camelot as he was when Merlin was still at home, and the fact that Hunith doesn’t assign Will as much importance anymore does not in any way correspond to Merlin’s own feelings on the subject.)

So - the point of all this is just to say that Hunith finding out about Will isn’t an event that ends with all of them coming together and collectively deciding to send Merlin to Camelot while Will and Hunith promise to look after each other while Merlin is away. Whatever relationship the three of them had before this happened, it’s broken after Hunith learns the truth. Hunith and Will are completely done with each other, after Merlin leaves. Merlin and Will are obviously plunged into an incredibly messy situation, thanks to Merlin vanishing without a word. And even Merlin and his mother have tension - Merlin references the big blow-up to Will in 1.10, but there’s also a moment in episode 1.01, too, that is VERY subtle but also very telling, when Gaius says “your mother asked me to look after you.” Merlin’s response is just, “Yes,” but the way he delivers it - he looks away, and his mouth tenses up, and there’s this little hesitation and then the tone is almost - rueful, like there’s more he’d like to say but he refrains. It’s like a “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” vibe. And the reason for that is because the circumstances under which his mother asked Gaius to look after him were a mess. Merlin tells us straight-up in 1.10 that he didn’t want to leave home. The entire thing was a disaster.

iv. the reason hunith was “so angry” is because will did not find out about merlin's magic by accident

I think I've talked about this briefly before, but here it is in more detail: I am firmly convinced that Merlin told Will about his magic, as opposed to Will finding out accidentally.

It's not something we can actually know in a canon sense, obviously. And I know the “Will almost has an accident and Merlin uses magic to help him” motif is more common in fic. But the reason I’m so set on this is because of how Merlin describes Hunith's reaction to finding out that Will knew.

“When she found out you knew - she was so angry.” The way Merlin says that - he shakes his head, almost in awe, like it was something almost frightening to behold - the way he puts an emphasis on “so angry” - to me, this has always been an indication that Merlin voluntarily disclosed his magic to Will. We know enough about Hunith to be familiar with how gentle and calm she is, and how much she loves Merlin, and how kind and understanding she is with him. I think if she learned that Will had found out about Merlin's magic in an accidental way - ie, in a way Merlin could not have reasonably prevented - then even though she would still have wished that Merlin had told her sooner, she wouldn't have reacted in a way that made Merlin reflect on it like she was scary-angry. I think she would have understood, if he explained that he'd been forced into a situation to use his magic to help someone or prevent a bad accident from happening.

However - if Merlin had TOLD Will about his magic, voluntarily, when he didn't have to, just because he felt like it, despite all of Hunith's warnings and all of her efforts to keep Merlin safe - that, I think, is something that would have prompted the kind of anger Merlin references.

To Hunith, that would be unconscionably reckless. After all she's done to keep Merlin alive, after spending every day of her life sick and sleepless with worry - to have Merlin so easily throw her work away like that, in blatant defiance of every cautionary thing she's ever told him - it's a slap in the face. Plus, Merlin is now in more danger (she thinks) which just amplifies her fear, and thus her fury.

But what she doesn’t understand is that Merlin didn't do it to hurt her. He didn't do it because he doesn't appreciate how hard she works to keep him safe. He did it because he had to. There came a moment, at some point in the past, where he became so lonely and so desperate to be seen that he made a choice, took a risk, and put his life in someone else's hands.

And he was rewarded for that choice! Merlin never, ever would have made it in Ealdor without Will’s honest companionship. A Merlin who did not have a single friend to know and love him for those first two decades would have been utterly unrecognizable by the time he arrived in Camelot - if he even survived long enough to get there.

But Hunith doesn't understand the depth of Merlin's desperation. She thinks that him telling Will was a foolish, uncalled-for risk, when for Merlin it was a lifesaving necessity.

So, I think that this is part of what makes Hunith react so badly. And I also think the severity of her reaction (and the ultimate tragic outcome that follows in 1.10) is something that lingers in Merlin’s mind for a long time, because he never willingly discloses his secret to anyone again. Gaius and Lancelot find out by accident. Freya, Gilli, and Daegal find out by necessity, because Merlin needs to leverage his magic in one way or another in order to save their lives. Even Arthur is a forced confession, demanded by desperate circumstances.

Merlin doesn't choose to reveal himself to those people. It's something that's pushed onto him. Will is a singular instance. Merlin has only voluntarily shared his secret with one person - just because he wanted to, not because he was forced to, just because he trusted them, just because he wanted that connection so badly.

And it leads to such painful consequences, in the end, that he never does it again.

in conclusion:

So, to summarize, my foundational thoughts on how this went down can basically be boiled down to those four things: it wasn't the result of carelessness, Merlin was the one who let it slip, it was a huge disaster with long-lasting consequences, and part of the reason why it went so badly is because Hunith found out that Merlin had voluntarily told Will about his magic, as opposed to Will finding out accidentally.

But, as always, those are just my own personal thoughts about it, and I am still 100% happy to read about all sorts of differing envisionings of this scenario - nothing is confirmed in canon, obviously, so for people who imagine this event differently, have at it! The world can always use a little more of Merlin’s pre-canon life, if you ask me. :D

#the once and future slowburn #meta #bbc merlin gen #no kings no masters #replies #@blueclaw7 - thank you for asking!#i really loved writing this up!#<333

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intoanothermind · 4 years

Text

The Glue - Part Four

T H E G L U E

Word Count: 2.1k words

Synopsis: Glue or Variable? This is the big question about Frankie’s existence. Assigned to the same role as Newt in WCKD’s Lethal Experiments, Frankie suddenly realizes that she will become just a variable to activate brain reactions in her former Group A friends. Without memories and being the only girl among several boys, she has the feeling of already knowing some of them. The new question that matters to WCKD is: will Frankie play her role as a variable correctly?

- Newt x OC (Frankie)

Masterlist

(This will be a miniseries of Newt from Maze Runner. It will consist of 7 parts and a spin-off. I won’t do a reader insert as usual, but you will soon understand why.)

—

P A R T F O U R

The girl shifted in her bed unable to sleep. At the age of fifteen, she was about to have hormones on her skin, and her recent thoughts were bothering her to the point of dropping her sleep. She had grown there inside the CRUEL, not just mentally. Not only the girl, but her friends also developed and she found herself thinking of one of them more and more often. The skinny little boy had become a handsome teenager, still thin, but with more apparent and defined muscles.

Her blond hair darkened to almost brown, and although she still had a few childish features, Newt had become a handsome young man. Cuter than the girl had imagined before. And thinking so much about her friend made the girl restless under her own skin. The girl looked around at the girls she had known for years: Teresa, Rachel, Alice, Skylynn, Hayley, and several others she had not had as much friendship with as the first. He lifted his chin to read the inscriptions on the metal sign hanging a few months ago on his headboard.

Franklin

Group B

Subject 5

The glue

The words, so similar to Newt's inscriptions, gave the girl a certainty: She couldn't sleep until she saw him.

The girl got rid of the covers as if they were a straitjacket. Feeling slightly more relieved, she checked to see if the other girls slept and crept out of the room when she realized yes. He only bothered to silence his steps, knowing that no one else would be awake at this hour. For a second she stopped, thinking Newt would be asleep too , but then she remembered that he didn't mind being woken up by her. Smiling, she continued her way down hallways she knew as the back of her hand. He opened the door to bedroom GA1-10 , silently counting five beds, and headed for it. The boy in bed 2 shifted, and the girl stopped, mentally praying that Thomas would n't wake up and see her there.

Your request has not been fulfilled.

- Frankie? He asked, his voice slurred and sleepy. - Why are you here?

The girl swore silently before answering.

"I can't sleep, and I came to see Newt." She confided. Although not as friendly with Thomas as she was with Newt and Minho, she saw no problem talking to him.

“Al right!” She could have sworn Thomas rolled his eyes, but it was too dark to know. “Just don't wake up everybody.”

The girl smiled, even though she knew he couldn't see it. “Thank you, Tommy!” She whispered.

Thomas waved at her and lay back down. The girl continued on her way, not really caring if the others were already awake. Thomas was part of the new Creators, so if he allowed it, anyone else's opinion was disposable. She saw Newt in his bed, lying almost on the edge of the bed and leaving much of it free, as if already anticipating her arrival. She smiled, approaching the boy with soft blonde hair and angelic serene features. She sighed, lying on the bed and settling beside him. Newt shifted, as if recognizing her physical and mental presence there, and his foggy brown eyes widened, understanding his predicament.

“Frankie?”

“Hi blondie.” She whispered, smiling slightly.

“What are you doing here?” Newt asked, closing his eyes momentarily with sleep, but pulled the girl's lean body to tuck her against him.

She shuddered at his touch, but tried not to show too much.

“I can’t sleep.” She whispered, her face buried in the boy's broad chest. "My thoughts won't let me relax."

“What thoughts?” Newt asked , still with his eyes closed, as he reached a hand to her friend's hair and stroked the brown strands.

The girl cringed. “Better not to know.”

“You know I won't give up until I can't anymore, don't you?” He asked, and the girl realized that this could be her chance. Her chance for a first love or losing her best friend.

But she realized she wanted to risk it. For Newt she would risk her life.

“Newt.” She called, her tone lower. “Do you really want to know what bothers me so much lately?" She asked before she lost her nerve.

“Of course I want.” he replied, feeling the anxiety almost waking completely.

He wanted to know. Newt had realized that the girl had been lost in thought and always blushed when he drew her out of her mind, and became increasingly curious about it. She shifted in his arms carefully, and Newt pulled back a little, waiting for her to adjust. But he felt his heart explode in a swirl of sensation as he felt her lips on his. Newt opened his eyes in surprise, but when he realized that his dreams really did come true, he closed them again, enjoying the cherry and chocolate taste of his girl's lips. He wrapped her around the waist and she seemed to relax in his arms, parting her lips to receive his tongue.

The girl was ecstatic. Finally had taken the courage to do what her body and heart have long asked, and one felt the happiness when Newt responded. She had been unsure at first, as she had never kissed anyone before, but when the blonde squeezed her around the waist and as he explored her mouth further, she relaxed and stopped caring about it. Nothing else mattered but her along with him and the happiness that took her completely. When the air was needed between them, the girl broke away from Newt, breathing hard, but with her eyes closed to avoid seeing his reaction. Although Newt responded to her kiss, she didn't know what to expect from now on.

"Frankie..." Newt began, choking on the words, and the girl opened her eyes. “That was...”

"Sorry, Newt, I shouldn't have come." She whispered, still worried that the others would wake up.

She was about to get rid of Newt's arms and get out of there never to look back in his face in shame when he stopped her. The girl looked up, finding his brown eyes shining to her. Her small hands were flat against the boy's chest, which held one hand around her waist like a cage and the other caressing her cheek fondly. Newt leaned down and touched his lips to hers in a simple peck full of affection and desire.

"You have no idea how long I waited for this." She heard him murmur against her lips, and smiled, her heart bursting with even better sensations than before.

“Good to know.” She whispered, her fresh breath hitting the boy's lips, which shuddered.

"You know I won't let you get away, don't you?" He whispered.

The girl smiled and kissed him again, promising she didn't intend to run away from him.

Never.

Not from him.

~ * ~

I woke up from my dream with my body being rocked. I opened my eyes slowly, trying to drive drowsiness out of my body. I blinked several times, trying to wake up. It wasn't enough to wake me up, but I could see that it was Minho who was rocking me. He grinned, making his eyes even smaller as soon as he saw me awake.

“Minho?” I asked, looking around and noticing that no one else was near the edge of Deadheads, where I slept.

Ben was in the distance, waving at us as he waited for the Doors to open on a new morning.

“I came to say goodbye.” Minho answered, capturing my attention again. I raised an eyebrow in question and he shrugged. "I missed you and decided I could say goodbye to you every day."

I smiled, nodding. “Of course! And I'll be waiting for you every day on the way back.”

Minho smiled back, leaning over me to kiss me on the cheek before running toward the already opening doors. As soon as he was out of my sight, even before reaching the Doors, I turned aside, trying to sleep again, but couldn't. Rough thoughts disturbed my mind, and I felt some sort of struggle or anguish in my chest. As if I was predicting something bad that could happen. I simply shook my head, dispelling the melancholy thoughts, and stood up. I didn't do much different from the day before - I just tucked my sleeping bag between two roots and fixed my hair with my fingers. The difference is that I could go to Homestead to brush my teeth. Which was a blessing when Newt provided me with a brush the day before.

I scratched my right eye to ward off sleep, and headed for headquarters. I was about to enter the bathroom when I was barred.

“Good morning, Frankie!” Exclaimed Newt excitedly.

I giggled. “Good morning, Newt.”

“I'll let you use the bathroom, but I wanted to warn you that today you're going to work with the Builders, all right?” he said.

“Sure.” I nodded in agreement.

~ * ~

“Frankie, I already said you better go work with Frypan.” Said Gally, possibly for the tenth time.

“Greg challenged me.” I said, shooting a hard stare to Greg, who worked not far from us. “And besides, it's my bathroom you're building.”

I kept carrying a few logs that had come with me to the Box until I tripped over my own feet and almost fell to the ground if it wasn't for Gally's quick reflexes.

“All right, Greenie?” Asked Gally, and I nodded back.

“That's what you get letting a little girl do men's work." I heard Greg mutter and I had to take a deep breath to control my anger.

“Stupid slinthead.” I muttered under my breath, but Gally could hear it and giggled.

"Why won't you help Frypan or Chuck in the kitchen?" Suggested Gally again.

I snorted mentally. “Why do you want to get rid of me so much?!”

"It's not to get rid of you." Said Gally, a little uncomfortably. "But if you get hurt, Newt eats me alive."

I frowned. "And why would he do that?"

Gally bit her lip, seeming to hold back the laugh and as if he knew something I didn't know.

"You have no idea, do you?" He asked with an enigmatic smile.

“Of what?” I asked, increasingly confused.

Gally shook her head but kept silent.

“Go before you get hurt.” He insisted again, and I got annoyed.

I threw the logs on the floor and marched furiously into the kitchen. Frypan was busy with dinner, and I preferred not to get my hands dirty. What if my food wasn’t good enough, and the boys hated it? I would rather not be screwed the rest of my life.

"Something for me to do, Frypan?" I asked him, propping my hip on the sink beside him. "Preferably not involve me cooking anything at all."

Frypan laughed and waved to the back of the kitchen.

“Chuck is back there cleaning the tank. What do you think about helping the boy?”

I made a face but nodded. “Better than spoiling the food here.”

~ * ~

“Tired already?” asked Minho, and I just mumbled an answer.

With my head down between my arms crossed on the table, all I could think about was sleep. My day was tiring, and not just working with the Builders or in the kitchen - or even going to wait for Minho in front of the West Door - but it was my mind that was exhausted too. I was just on my third day there in the Glade, and I was as confused and stressed as someone who had spent years there, like some of those boys.

"Wouldn't you rather go to sleep, Frankie?" Newt asked right next to me.

I raised my head slightly from the dining table where we were sitting, seeing Newt, Alby, Minho, Chuck, and some of the Keepers looking concerned at my decaying appearance that was calling for a good, wonderful night's sleep.

“All right, I'm going.” I muttered, rising from the table. “Good night.”

I got a lot of good night murmurs back, and for a second I considered inviting Chuck to sleep with me, but dismissed the idea when I saw him having a good time talking to Jeff, one of the Med-jacks. When I reached the edge of Deadheads, I didn't think much before grabbing my sleeping bag and crossing the skeletal, gray trees that hid the beautiful, living forest behind them. All I wanted now was a good place to sleep and hide from what tomorrow awaited

#newt #newt tmr #the maze runner #thomas tmr #thomas #newt x reader #newt imagine #minho tmr #minho #minho x reader #thomas x reader #the maze runner imagine #maze runner #thomas sangster

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arthurmorgen · 4 years

Text

To Be Hunted

Prompt: Arthur teaching the reader (his girlfriend) to hunt? - laurenskiee

A/N: This was really supposed to be short and sweet...but yeah. A big thanks to everyone who recommended songs. They really helped me write (recommendations are ALWAYS welcome). Also requests are still open, but I do have a little list, so it may take time. Basically I won't close it until I get overwhelmed. :)

Angst

Words: 5,217

It was late July, and hot as the fire Uncle just crudely pissed beside. Everyone sat miserably waiting for the scouting party to return. Dutch decided it was best to move camps, needing to be closer to some sort of wealth, so the ‘men of the camp’ were out searching for greener pastures. Or really just some place the gang had yet to tap dry.

You had been riding with said gang for the past eight months.

After your life didn’t quite end up as you planned, you kinda stuck with the mindset of: this world is rough so you gotta be tough.

Which really had already built you up too much. In truth you were found walking aimlessly in the Heartlands, after your horse had collapsed, dead.

If it hadn't been for Arthur being kind enough to take you to the gang, who knows where you’d be by now.

The fact was nobody gave damn about you, until he found you.

And you’ve enjoyed your stay for the most part. You had food, a place to sleep, and probably the most beneficial you had constant protection. However, you didn’t want to sound ungrateful or spoiled or anything, but Dutch was very protective of the ladies, and did not want them involved with much of anything. A little pickpocketing here, a little playing a damsel in distress there. But that was really it.

As a general rule he wanted all of you doing the domestic work, while the men got their hands dirty.

He meant it nobly you supposed, but for a woman like yourself, it didn’t sit right. You missed doing things, and going places. Even if it were risky or out of your comfort zone. You just felt like you could do, and perhaps be more.

That was all until you started going steady with Arthur. Then little, by little, you had picked up more responsibilities. Small, unimportant things if you looked at the big picture, but better than cleaning Bill’s soiled union suit.

You mainly helped steal livestock. Always late into the night, and always with Arthur by your side. And on the very rarest of occasions you’ve helped with some homestead robberies. They were a little more intense, and you could tell that they made Arthur a nervous wreck.

He had given you one of his revolvers and had shown you all the basics, but you still weren't great. If practice makes perfect, then how the hell were supposed to learn?

Your thoughts were interrupted as you heard horses and laid your eyes on Arthur leading the group. His freshly cleaned blue shirt was brown with mud and his coat was missing.

They hitched their horses, all looking very irritated, and seemed to be avoiding Arthur’s gaze.

“What the hell happened?” You called out while making your way to them, eyes worriedly searching Arthur for injuries.

“Damn O’driscoll’s.” Arthur stormed past you infuriated. He made his way to his tent and threw his hat onto his bed. Then he kicked the side of his trunk while muttering all kinds of things, then sat down with his hands in his hair, and his elbows resting on his legs.

You were frozen to the spot, not sure what you should or shouldn't do. This was, for sure, uncharted territory. Arthur didn't lose his cool.

Hosea walked up and stood beside you. “We were ambushed. Those damn Irish bastards somehow knew...If it hadn’t been for his quick thinkin’ I reckon we’d all be dead right about now.” He gently patted your shoulder and left you alone.

Your relationship was still pretty new. You’ve known that you’ve liked him since meeting him but it didn’t get serious until a few weeks ago.

And boy did it get serious, fast.

At first he seemed reluctant. He liked you, but you had to keep convincing him that you wanted the relationship. And then, after some questioning, and maybe even an ultimatum, he had told you about Mary and the damage that she’d done...and then, then he told you about Isaac.

You're not saying that you fully understood. You couldn’t, you had never had nor lost a child. But it helped you recognize and understand certain behaviors and tendencies of his. When he’d pull away from you, or why it took him so long to kiss you. Or, sometimes why he needed space. He was, at times, the most self loathing person that you'd ever met. It didn't necessarily hurt your relationship but it did make it, at times very challenging.

It happened the first time, a couple of days after he told you about his son. In a way, the confession freed him. He touched you more, albeit in private, but that was fine by you.

Then he asked if you wanted to take a trip to Strawberry.

You were excited, not having left camp in what felt like months. He bought you dinner, and offered to buy you a new outfit, but you declined. You hoped to soon earn your own money and buy your own clothes. He worked too hard for the gang to waste his money on a dress, when people in the camp were hungry.

He was anxious about something, and you weren't sure what it was until he nervously rubbed the back of his neck and stated that it was getting late, and that he could buy a room if you wanted.

You blushed and nodded ‘yes’ that you wanted to stay. He moved so quickly to pay that he almost tripped over his chair.

He grabbed your hand, his palm was uncharacteristically sweaty, and the other couldn’t stop fidgeting with his collar. As he led you up the stairs into the small yet cozy room.

It was your first time sharing a bed and you were worried it would be awkward. Especially because of how different he was acting.

You both stripped down to your underclothes. He complimented you and told you how beautiful you were. You both got under the covers, you were too worried that you were somehow pressuring him into this.

But in reality he was just waiting for you to make the next move.

The room was cold and Arthur was warm, and before either of you knew it you were snuggled closely, drifting off to sleep.

You woke to the sun creeping in from around the dark drapes. Disoriented at first until you felt his strong arms holding you firm against his body. You turned slightly, just enough to look at his face.

He looked so peaceful, something you weren't used to seeing. Dutch was gonna work him to death. And that was the thought that urged you forward. You softly kissed his brow, and then placed one on either side of his slightly parted mouth.

His eyes opened slowly and when they locked with yours, he could no longer hold himself back. His mouth explored, and his full concentration was solely on you.

The only way to describe that morning was, you, for the first time in your life felt complete.

Ever since your trip to Strawberry your relationship was different. He had developed an appetite that only you could satisfy. He still wasn't keen on public affection, he just wasn't comfortable with all the wondering eyes.

So you were the one that insisted on letting the camp know he was yours. It made you proud, and you knew that deep down Arthur was thankful for your boldness. So you’d grab his hand or reach up to kiss him anytime you felt that he needed it, or whenever you did, it didn't matter who it was in front of.

Though, you were still not sharing a tent. You wanted to, but didn’t want to push him into anything he wasn’t ready for.

That was the imbalance of your relationship. He sometimes wouldn’t talk, and sometimes neither would you.

As you watched him sitting on his cot, you realized that for as long as you've known him, you couldn’t recall ever seeing him like this. You didn’t know what he needed, and you didn’t want to make the wrong move. He truly was fragile. More so than anyone knew, anyone but you.

You slowly walked over to him, his head still hung low. “Arthur, you ok?”

He looked up hesitantly, the untrained eye wouldn't have noticed, but you saw the extra moisture in his eyes.

He plastered on a fake half smile and said “Would you want to go hunting with me tomorrow?”

You were taken aback and felt your eyebrows pinch together. “Arthur?...”

You gasped as he suddenly reached forward and grabbed both of your hands. “I just really think we should go hunting.”

“O..ok. Whatever you want to do tomorrow sounds good to me.” You tried to smile, but you felt it fall flat. Something wasn't right, and you were more than worried about him.

He stood abruptly “Good, we’ll leave first thing in the morning.” He kissed you on the top of your head and pulled you into a fierce hug that almost winded you. Then as quick as it happened, he let go, and walked across the camp to Charles.

You couldn’t sleep. Anxiety found its place in your chest, your breath was short, and your heartbeat felt a few beats quicker.

The hours ticked by slowly until the moon disappeared and the sun lit the sky a soft pink.

You sensed his presence and heard his footsteps, before you heard him gently calling your name. You turned over slowly pretending you had just had a good night's sleep.

He looked fully prepared for the day. Hat and coat were already on, and you looked over to your horses only to see that they both were saddled and ready.

“You about ready to go?”

You stood slowly, feeling probably how you looked, tired. When you studied his features from under the brim of his hat, you noticed that he didn’t look much better.

“Let me change and eat something.”

“Here.” He passed you a can of biscuits.

You looked at him a little angry at his impatience.

“Stew ain’t done yet, and I want to get out of here before Miss Grimshaw gets mad at me for takin’ ya.”

You nodded accepting both the biscuits and the explanation.

You wore your favorite outfit. It was a black buttoned up top with dark jeans that you liked to tuck into your black boots. It matched perfectly with your black hat that had a green ribbon around the base. You liked to call it your ‘outlaw’ uniform, because you always wore it when you were ‘outlawing’ (plus it made you feel badass), but Arthur hated that.

He hated what he felt that he made you into one. He hadn’t though, you would have become one, one way or another, either that or died. It was truly inevitable.

When you met him at your horses, he looked you up and down, a not so subtle frown on his face. He had grown to hate the outfit. It wasn’t that you didn't look great, it was the implications of it.

“I don’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to ruin any of my other clothes.”

He exhaled out of his nose and moved his horse forward, not even waiting for you to mount.

You stroked your horse lovingly, stuck one foot into the stirrups and then swung the other leg over until you were sitting high on his back.

You didn’t rush to catch up to Arthur. If he wanted to ride with you he’d have to slow down to your pace. You were gonna savor every second away from those annoying people you called your family. You weren't going to let his strange mood ruin your fun.

After a few minutes he seemed annoyed that you weren't beside him, so he turned around making a big circle and until you were riding alongside him.

It was then you noticed that he had two bows and what seemed like an excessive amount of arrows. You felt a thrill, more than a little excited to learn something new.

He led you to a spot not too far away from camp, maybe forty five minutes. And if you considered your slow pace, not far at all.

He offered to help you off of your horse, the first sign of your Arthur that you've seen in what felt like a long time. You accepted his hand as he helped you down.

He smiled at you as his hands naturally found your hips. He looked like he wanted to say something but instead he reached behind him and handed you the bow. “Charles made this for ya.”

“For me?” You looked at the dark wood with little vine-like carvings. “Wow, it's so beautiful.”

He swallowed thickly, and his eyes wandered not being able to look at you for too long. “You can thank him when we get back”.

“Oh I definitely will. I’ve always wanted my own bow.”

He looked back to you, the same strange expression on his handsome face.

“We’ll follow the sun a bit.” He pulled out his binoculars and looked ahead. “There’s always deer around these parts.”

“Should I be taking notes?” You were trying to poke fun to lighten the dark mood, but either he didn’t hear the humor in your voice, or maybe he didn't think it was funny.

“Nah, you've got a good memory.”

He then taught you how to hide your horses, but to never hitch them. That way they'd be able to come when you whistled. Which was very important when you had a large animal carcass.

Then he led you, on foot, through some trees, until you came upon an area of dense brush. He crouched and you copied him.

“Alright. Now I’m gonna teach you about tracking.”

You nodded like the diligent student you were. You liked ‘instructor’ Arthur. He was demanding and intense. It turned you on…

“You even listenin’ to me?”

You blushed and ducked your head. “Of course I am.”

“Then what did I just finish sayin’?” He stood, cocked his hips to the side, and then placed both hands on his gun belt.

You stood and tilted your head in an attempt of defiance.. “You were talkin’ about tracking.”

“What about it?”

After your long pause, he grew slightly frustrated. He took off his hat and pulled out his handkerchief to wipe his face and back of his neck. Then he messed with the fold of his hat before placing it back on his head.

He did the action to calm himself down. You suspected that it stopped him from fussing at you.

“Look, if you ain’t gonna take this seriously…”

“I want to learn.”

“Ok then.” He went on to explain how to track, and all the things you could find that animals left behind. Fur, droppings, and all kinds of fun stuff like that.

After tracking for a few minutes, he found a trail. He expertly followed it, speaking lowly, but still giving you plenty of pointers along the way.

Then he looked back at you and brought one finger to his lips. You quietly caught up. There were five deer, spread far enough apart to see individually, peacefully grazing on grass.

He whispered so softly you could barely hear him. He explained how to pick the right one to kill. You wanted to make sure it wasn’t sick, or had a fawn nearby.

He grabbed his bow, briefly showing you how to hold it, grabbed an arrow, and stood. Then he pulled the arrow back with his strong arm, gave a quick whistle, and when the deer looked up he let go. Killing the animal instantly.

The whole process was a bit sad to you. But the way that Arthur handled it, was the most humane way to do it. You needed to eat, the deer was food, and Arthur didn’t let it suffer.

You had never killed anything so seeing the animal laying there was a different experience. You ate animal every time you ate stew, and to eat stew someone had to do the exact thing you had just witnessed.

It was something that you’d get better at, you’d already felt less squeamish the more you looked at the dead animal.

“If we come across some more before it gets too late, I’ll teach you how to skin it, and the cleanest way to get its meat.”

Before you could protest the morbid idea, not quite trusting your adjusting stomach to go that far, he whistled loudly and after a few seconds you heard his horse galloping.

He took the arrow out, wiped the blood off, and placed the deer on the back of his horse. You went ahead and whistled for your horse as well, for some reason you wanted them to stay together. Then you both lead them to a secluded area, so you could continue your hunt.

“Ok, this next one is all you.” He gestured for you to take the lead.

You gulped. You had paid attention, you truly did. But having to remember things on the spot made you slightly nervous. That and the fact that Arthur wasn't himself. He was more intimidating and serious and that made you more than a little anxious. You didn't want to disappoint him.

At first you were doing great. After a few minutes of looking for droppings, you had found some, and that made the trail pretty clear. So you followed and followed, until you lost it completely.

He was positive and encouraged you. Afterall, this was your first time doing so. Frankly, he just seemed happy that you’d remembered some of his lessons.

Then a couple of hours later, you had lost count on how many animal turds you had inspected, you had finally found a small herd.

You smiled back at him, and as he caught up looking at what you'd found, he briefly let a smile escape through whatever was going through his head.

“Now what?” You stood close to him and whispered.

He nodded to your bow, which you pulled out, and went a step ahead and retrieved an arrow as well.

He stood behind you, so close that you could feel his breath on the back of your neck. He gently placed your arms where they needed to go pressed his body firmly against yours, pulling the bow back.

You held your breath as you felt his strong arms guide you, and when you felt his warm-calloused hands grip your hand and then your hip, you couldn’t help it, a little moan escaped as you looked up at him.

Unfortunately for you, this was at the same time he chose to release your arrow. It flew and fell a good ways away from the deer, causing the herd to disperse.

“Goddamnit!” He yelled.

You jumped at the unexpected outburst.

“Why can’t you just pay attention!?” He threw your bow down and started walking the opposite way, back towards the horses.

You stood frozen for a moment, and tried to understand what had just happened. Then when you were over the initial shock you picked up your bow and followed.

When you caught up you walked backwards so that you were facing him. “What the hell was that Arthur?” You were angry and your voice let it show.

His brows were pinched tightly and the brim of his hat was pushed down lower than usual.

He ignored you, and continued walking with long strides.

“Hey.” He didn’t stop.

“Hey!” You stopped in front of him, causing him to run into you before he looked up and stopped.

“What?” He had the nerve to grumble at you.

You took a deep breath and calmed down before speaking. “Look, I don’t know what's going on with you…”

“It’s nothin’.” He cut you off sharply.

“Well it's obviously something.” You took off your hat so he could see your expressions more clearly. “I know that I ain’t a natural or nothin’ but you don’t have to treat me like an idiot. This was my first time, and you know that.”

“You were distracted. You weren’t even paying any attention.” His voice was harsh and absolute. His eyes avoided yours.

“Yeah that's cause this guy who i've been courting had his big strong arms on me.” You said in a southerbell voice, while fanning yourself with your hat dramatically. You regretted it immediately when he didn't even smirk.

“Look I’m not going to apologize that I'm attracted to you.” You took a step forward getting just in his space. “And when you put your hands on me, I think of all the things those hands have done and can do.”

“A lot of killing.” He murmured

“Yeah...that’s true. But that ain’t quite what I was thinkin’.” You stood on your toes and kissed him.

It was the first time he hadn’t eagerly responded to one of your kisses, and an icey fear shot through your veins.

You took a giant step back. It all made sense now. “Are you trying to break up with me?” Your voice sounded dead to your own ears.

That got his attention. His whole face crumbled, and your Arthur came back. He took off his hat so that you could see him as he could you. “God no. How could you even ask that?”

“Well you seemed to be pretty annoyed with me.”

“I...I ain’t annoyed.” He sighed and shook his head.

You placed your hands on your hips, and raised an eyebrow.

“I’m really not.”

“You could have fooled me.”

“It’s not an easy thing for me to explain.”

Your face cooled down and your hands dropped by your side. “It’s ok we got time.” You looked up at him pleadingly. “Talk to me, please.”

He took a deep breath and nodded his head. He knew that he had to come clean, but he wasn’t sure he could do it. He looked around for a comfortable spot. “Fine. Let's go sit under that tree.”

He walked you over to a smooth boulder, under a big tree. You sat down side by side, thighs barely touching.

He placed his hands in his lap, as his fingers played with a tear in his pants.

You wanted him to speak first, no you needed him to speak first. Even though he said he wasn't ending things with you, it still felt like it. So you waited and waited, until he finally cleared his throat a few times and started to speak.

“Yesterday, when we was out lookin’ for a new camp.” He paused and worked his jaw a few times. “Everything was fine one minute. Bill was saying all these ignorant things and Hosea was schoolin’ him…” His eyes squinted at the memory. “And then out of nowhere, we were surrounded by O’driscoll’s.”

You laid your hand on his thigh, and without a second thought he grabbed a hold of it tightly. You felt a little less scared at the reassurance. His hand in your hand made the world feel right again.

“Dutch froze. He looked so shocked and angry. Like he couldn’t believe this was happenin’ to him.” His gaze was on the horizon, it looked as though he was reliving every detail.

“And then what happened?” You asked as your thumb rubbed circles on the back of his hand.

“He, he pulled out his guns and just started shootin’ em’.”

Your eyes widened. “Without trying to talk to them first?”

He shook his head. “He didn’t even try.”

“That doesn't sound like Dutch.”

“No it doesn't.” He sighed heavily. “Everyone but Dutch ran for cover. He just stood there in the middle of the field. Guns blazing. He looked insane, I don’t think he even blinked. I told everyone to cover him, while Charles and I went around them and flanked the bastards.”

“I’m glad at least you had a plan.” You said proudly. You knew that it wasn't important to him, but you always felt that he would make a good leader. He had something most leaders didn't, he actually cared about people.

He gave a humorless chuckle. “I suppose.”

“Why did you show up so dirty?”

“I came up on a group of them. I started shooting and then this sonofabitch tackled me from behind. We fell off of a small cliff and landed in mud.”

You panicked slightly. “You said you were ok.”

He turned, his piercing eyes stared straight into yours. “I’m fine...I know that we only fell for a few seconds but, but for the first time in my life...I was scared I was gonna die.”

“Cause he…”

“Cause I was afraid I couldn’t get back to you.” His eyes welled with tears and he quickly looked away in frustration. “Damnit, I’ve just never felt this way before, and I don't really know what i'm saying or how to say it.”

You sat quietly trying to take the confession in. Did you make him weak?

“...and if all of us would have died. What would have happened to y'all back at camp?”

“We would have figured something out.”

“None of you can even hunt.”

Then all the pieces fell into place, and the picture was clear. “Arthur I’m a grown woman..”

“And you're mine to look out for.” He squinted like he didn’t like how that sounded. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“No you are right. I am yours. Always. But you don't have to always look out for me.”

“I do though.” He turned fully towards you taking both your hands, reminding you of yesterday. “Look if I die out there, doing god knows what.”

You violently shook your head as tears welled up in your eyes.

“It, it could happen. And we both need to face them facts. If I were to not come back...I, I can’t die thinkin’ that you was left alone, not knowing how to defend yourself, or how to find food.” He leaned into your palm as you wiped a tear. “I ain’t strong enough for that. It scares the living shit out of me.”

He returned the favor and wiped some of your falling tears. “Don’t worry about me like that. I’d figure it out, you know I would.”

“I can’t help it. Leaving you would be the most difficult thing I’ve ever done, and knowing that I made you an outlaw. Knowin’ that you couldn’t find honest work, or an honest husband because of me...”

“It ain’t your fault. You saved me.”

He pulled you to him. Unable to continue. He just wanted to forget everything.

The hug was fierce and you held on for dear life, and you heard him whisper, mostly to himself “and you saved me.” He was anchoring you at this very moment, without it you don’t think you would have been strong enough to stay upright.

“And I couldn’t help but think that I never would have gotten the chance.”

“What chance?”

He pulled back so he could look at you. “To tell ya how much you mean to me.”

You smiled. “I would have known.”

“I love you.”

You smiled wide. Your whole body felt warm and your heartbeat quickened. “I love you too Arthur. So very much.”

He kissed you. It wasn’t gentle but it also wasn’t rough. A perfect balance.

He kissed you until you felt his ridgid shoulders soften, and all the stress of yesterday disappear.

He looked in your eyes and spoke softly. “I’m so lucky.”

“Make me a promise then, please.”

“Anything.” He responded resolutely.

“If you ever have something like that going on in your mind you talk to me. Ok?”

His eyes hardened a little.

“I’ve spent the last twenty four hours worried about you. I couldn’t sleep, I couldn't eat. I even left the biscuits you gave me back at camp. And if you would have just told me how serious this was to you I would have been a better student.”

He smiled. “You were a fine student. I was just a little impatient is all.”

“No I most certainly wasn't. I was far too distracted by the teacher. Even if he was a little impatient.” You winked playfully.

He smirked.

You turned serious again. “Promise me. Please?”

“Alright I promise. But you have to know by now I ain’t an easy man to live with. Sometimes I bottle up and I’m not exactly sure why. And I'm definitely not used to being loved...It feels amazin’ don't get me wrong, I just ain’t used to.”

“Then I guess I got to work on you then.”

Grinning at your playful tone, he started kissing you again.

It was much, much later before you both returned to camp. The sky was purple and stars were becoming visible. The campfire was blazing, and, thankfully, the night air was much cooler.

You brought back two deer carcasses. Mr. Pearson was very happy and began prepping them right away.

After dropping off the deer, Arthur grabbed a beer, while you walked over to your bedroll. You packed all of your stuff and just as you stood, Karen walked up with a knowing look about her.

“And where do you think you're going?”

You stood proudly. “Arthur and I are sharing a cot.”

“About damn time.” She laughed while sashaying away, looking for trouble.

On your way to his wagon you passed by Charles, who was carrying a load of firewood.

“Oh Charles, thank you so much for the bow. It is the most beautiful one i've ever seen.”

He smiled. “I’m glad you liked it. Arthur made me build it so fast I was worried I wouldn’t have time to add the details.”

“It’s perfect, honest. Thank you.”

“You are very welcome. Anytime you need something like that let me know. All I ask is to give me some time in advance.”

You chuckled. “Ok no problem.”

You made your way over to his wagon and paused while looking at all of his stuff. It wasn’t the first time you studied his pictures, but it was the first time you noticed Mary's was missing.

At the start of a vulgar campfire song you looked over to your strange family. Arthur was probably on his second beer by now, and judging by the way he was enjoying himself it would be far from his last.

You sat a few of your beloved trinkets down on the table next to his flower in a jar. Set a picture of your parents next to the one of his mother, and placed your bow next to his in the corner. Then you shoved the rest of your things, and your clothes under his cot. You’d have to get some storage of your own soon.

You stood back admiring your work. Everything of yours looked somehow better mingled with his.

Satisfied with how everything looked, you made your way over to the campfire. He saved you a seat, greeted you with a big slightly drunken smile, and offered you a fresh beer.

After a few bars and a few beers, you found yourself happily singing along.

#arthur morgan x reader #one shot

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imagineclaireandjamie · 5 years

Note

I would love to see a sweet scene or two of William at Fraser's Ridge (circa book 9) bonding with Mandy and/or Jem. What do the kids think of their Uncle Willie?

Homecoming - Part Ten

Book 9 speculation; William arrives at the Ridge with his cousin Dottie the same day that the MacKenzie family has made their unexpected return.

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven, Part Eight, Part Nine

*****************************************************

With so many people about the big house—and with so many of them watching him—William felt the need to get away. He couldn’t retreat to the room he’d been given upstairs. It was too close and would feel too much like hiding. They’d be waiting for him to come down and then he’d have to watch them restrain themselves as the impulse to bombard him with questions seized them all. Well… maybe not Mother Claire. But her gentle kindness and understanding would leave him feeling coddled and he didn’t need that either.

He just needed some space and some time to adjust to… everything.

He slipped out the back, picked a direction, and began walking. The children were having something to eat and with so many of them about, it took a large number of the adults to get them sorted. He also thought he heard Jamie and Brianna discussing plans for some sort of building they hoped to start work on soon.

William soon felt the tension in his head and limbs loosen. The air was crisp and had that clean feeling that can only be found when you remove yourself far enough from a habited space. The forest wasn’t too dense but there was plenty of shade keeping the area cool. He could find no discernable path and paused to take in and mark his surroundings. The last thing he needed was to get himself too lost to find his way back and require a search party. He would never manage to escape being watched if that were to happen.

There appeared to be a clearing to his right, so William headed in that direction. He knew he wasn’t close to the big house, but he could — perhaps — pretend he’d been sent on an errand to one of the other houses on the Ridge and get a sense of just how far off he’d gotten.

But there was no cabin or farm when he reached the edge of the clearing. Instead, the trees opened as they approached a steep dropoff. William kept to the treeline and safely away from the edge. When he looked up and out, a quiet and calming sense of awe overtook him.

A corner of the valley lay before him. He’d seen more stunning views in his travels through the colonies. He was momentarily thrust back into a memory of visiting the Ridge as a boy and Jamie taking him on a hunting trip. There had been a remarkable view along a cliff like this — though, that one had been steeper, the view stretching further. It must have been at a higher point on one of these mountains.

It wasn’t the vast wilderness that William found incredible here. It was the columns of rising smoke. It was the empty spots among the trees along the mountainside. There had to be more than two dozen of them. The homesteads of settlers who had followed Jamie, trusted him with their lives and their families. Settlers who had built something for themselves in the wilderness — who were still building and would build long after Jamie was gone.

William felt a stab of admiration for the man who’d fathered him. He had heard enough of Jamie Fraser’s history to know he hadn’t had an easy life — especially after the Jacobites were defeated — so to see how much he’d accomplished…

It was difficult to make out but William was pretty sure he could tell which of the cleared spaces belonged to the Frasers. Marking it in his memory, he headed back into the forest and oriented himself in the right direction once more.

As he walked, William’s thoughts traveled to his sister, Brianna, and all that she’d said about her own upbringing, how she hadn’t known Fraser was her father until she was grown. She’d certainly come to embrace Jamie Fraser. Hearing her talk, she’d clearly adored the man who raised her — and who’d lied to her. Somehow she’d managed to make peace with the two men and their roles in her life.

He’d asked her about that too. What had she done to find that peace within her or had she just woken up one day and felt different. She’d said it wasn’t until she became a mother herself that she had really been able to come to terms with it all, as much as she ever would.

“I looked at my baby and knew I’d do anything for him. I would never do anything to purposely hurt him. And I knew that all of my parents must’ve felt the same way,” she’d said. “I never would have imagined how many lies I’ve told my children — to keep them safe, to keep them innocent… Mostly small lies that won’t mean much in the long run, but little betrayals of their trust that they would be horrified by if they learned the truth now. And then there are larger lies, though they’re fewer and mostly lies of omission. Those are the ones I worry about,” she confessed. “I guess… because those are the ones that hurt me the most. But that’s why I give my parents a great deal of slack now, for what they kept from me.”

William had let the subject drop, preferring to mull it over on his own. Where was the line between outright lies and lies of omission in his case? And how much did it matter? It didn’t change the love he’d received from his mother, his grandparents, or Papa. How much had they done it to protect him and how much had they done it to protect the memory and reputation of the mother who’d borne him? Again, did it matter? What would he have done in their situation?

What might things have been like if he’d been raised by Jamie Fraser? That had to be a question that Brianna had asked herself too. Of course, she was Jamie Fraser’s daughter by Mother Claire, and anyone who saw the two of them together… Whereas, he…

Jamie had told him several times that whatever regrets he had about William’s mother, he didn’t regret William’s existence. But that could mean… too many things.

Laughter. Not just any laughter, but the laughter of children. It was so light and happy it distracted William from his thoughts.

Brianna’s children were playing in the woods. At least, those were the two he could see. William suspected the other children weren’t too far away. Fanny or, perhaps she was too old to bother with children’s games. But the older boy with the French name; he would be involved. He didn’t seem the type to miss out on mischief and fun. Right now Mandy was following a few steps on Jem’s heels as he crept through the underbrush to peek behind a tree. Mandy jumped and squealed but Jem shook his head.

William turned his path to approach them slowly, continuing to watch them.

There was a great commotion that involved Mandy shrieking with terror and Jem and another child laughing.

Mandy didn’t seem amused. She turned on her heel to stomp away but stopped dead when she spotted William watching. The boys stifled their laughter and smiled benignly at William.

“What have you three been playing at?” William asked. “It looked like you were enjoying yourselves.”

“We were just playin’ hide and seek,” Jem answered. “But I think Mandy’s had enough.”

Mandy turned back around to glare at her brother. “Wha’ I’ve had enough of is you and Germain playin’ against me. I wanna be seeker.”

“And we dinna want ye gettin’ tired part way through and goin’ off to pick flowers and leavin’ us hidin’ till dark,” Jem threw back at her.

Mandy’s face grew red at the accusation.

“Perhaps you can explain the game to me,” William intervened.

All three children looked at him with the same puzzled expression.

“Have you never played it then?” Germain asked.

“I didn’t have anyone to play with,” William explained. “No one my own age. I had tutors until I was old enough to go to university and then I went into the army.”

Mandy’s mouth gaped open. “Ye’ve never played before? At all?”

William chuckled, a little self-conscious under the gaze of the older boys. “I didn’t have the opportunity to play games very often, but I did play… And I rode horses a lot. It was uh… it was your grandfather who taught me to ride when I was about your age,” he told Mandy.

“Grandda’s great wi’ horses,” Jem agreed.

But Mandy was still focused on the fact William had never played hide and seek before.

“You can be seeker wi’ me,” she declared, turning to Jem and Germain to see if they would challenge her or let her have her way.

*************************************************

“They should have been back to the house by now,” Brianna remarked, anxiety overflowing.

Claire tried to soothe her but knew it was pointless given all Brianna had been through the last few months.

“They’re children, Bree. If they’re having fun, they won’t be thinking about how worried you might be or how late they are. Remember Germain is with them and he knows these mountains as well as your father does.”

Brianna’s arm suddenly shot out across Claire’s chest, forcing her to stop in her tracks.

“I hear someone,” she whispered.

Claire rolled her eyes and gently maneuvered around Brianna’s arm.

“It’s William,” Claire said, keeping her voice quiet so their presence might remain unnoticed. “He’s got Mandy with him. I think… I think he’s playing with them.”

“Playing what?”

Mandy was on William’s shoulders, her hands in his hair guiding him. He had a grip on each of her legs and was leading her around from tree to tree so she could peer up into the branches from a higher vantage point.

“Found you!” Mandy hollered, pointing up at Jem whose leg was just visible on a branch.

Claire felt Brianna breathe a sigh of relief beside her, and then giggle as they watched William fighting to keep Mandy properly balanced amidst her excited flailing. At one point, she leaned forward over William’s head to peer at him upside down. The smile that broke out on his face at whatever she said caused Claire’s chest to tighten.

“Shall we leave them to continue playing?” she suggested to Brianna. “I think they’ll find their way back on their own and I’d hate to disrupt them.”

Brianna agreed and they slipped away unnoticed.

#;mod lenny #homecoming au #featuring: william #featuring: mandy #featuring: jem #featuring: germain #featuring: bree #book 9?

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stormwaterwitch · 4 years

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Homesteading with Storm

This got really long winded so I’m putting it below a cut to prevent clutter~

We’re moved in!!! SIL gifted us Movers as a housewarming present (and since i’m like 2 weeks from due date and can’t lift anything for shit haha) so they were able to help us get all of our stuff moved and it was so incredibly easy.

Protip: ALWAYS HIRE MOVERS.

They got everything of ours out of the storage unit and got it mostly set up in spaces we wanted. Our time limit was running short so they just began to funnel things into the garage where SO and I are taking a few boxes at a time to go through and get sorted out/put away.

Went out and bought a new bed (Hot damn memory foam with cooling gel is nice AF guys ;A; ) got sheets washed and put on. Went to do a load of Towels for the house and the Dryer the previous owners left us went kaput. Disappointing but okay since we’d gotten the sheets done first and we had our old Dryer/Washer set from our apartment that we could swap out for. So we had to hang dry all the towels but that wasn’t too bad.

Got the Fuse Box replaced as it was not a good up to date box/ had a bad manufacturing history of not being reliable. So we got a new one installed so that way it will be up to date and current (pun intended) The guy who installed the fuse box was super nice and helped SO take out the broken dryer and get the new one up and into the house where SO then hooked it back up so we’d have a dryer again! Yay!

So the fuse box guy leaves and we have power back on in the house again so I go to do some laundry and there’s a strange Pop sound from the washer. It sounds like its still running so i think nothing of it, come to find out a few minutes after that apparently the waterline for the washer can back up into our master shower drain, so now we’ve got to get a plumber out to come take a look at it and see whats going on with that.

I just wanna do laundry dang it -sob-

Other than that things are going relatively well. Glad to be getting them out before kiddo gets here. We are very fortunate that the previous owners bought us some Home Warranty Insurance for the next year so that way it won’t cost us too much to get house stuff looked at.

Now the “hard part” is figuring out where to put stuff and how I want things organized in the kitchen :P

Actual fun things include: I have a front porch swing, There’s a Cat that loves to come by my house whom I’ve named Duke Silver but we call him “The Duke” He’s a sweet and very talkative boy that lives around the neighborhood. We were concerned that since he was hanging around our house so much that he might have belonged to the previous owners but we got to talking to the neighbors and they said no he was just a street cat. So that made me feel better. He’s very well fed so there’s no fear there, just a sweet boy who likes our house and Garage.

We have a lovely Fish Pond in our back yard in the shape/form of a Canoe that houses some rather large Goldfish! It’s been fun taking care of them even if they continue to hide from us most of the time.

There are SO MANY PLANTS to keep up with around the house. I’ve never owned so many plants before so it’s going to be a challenge for me to keep up with them all!

But anyways that’s the news for now and why I’ve been so quiet lately! I hope to be able to get my computer set up and going so that way at least i can be a little bit more active instead of so sporadic haha~

#sww personal #Homesteading with Storm #HwS #Probably going to keep that Tag for any home related updates

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lefiyito-blog · 4 years

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What You Should Know About Papua New Guinea Evisa and Why

https://es.ivisa.com/papua-new-guinea-e-visa

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What's more, it's very unsafe to permit the pig sleep beside you in your bed. You could be washing the ground and turn to answer the telephone. The vehicle ride was a bit scary.

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forestwater87 · 5 years

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Are you still doing the ship meme? Well, I have a challenge for you: (evil grin) DAVID, DANIEL AND GWEN IN A POLY RELATIONSHIP! :D

Oh, sweet Moses. I normally do these from oldest received to newest out of fairness, but … Christ.

Let’s do it, then:

So here’s the thing: if it includes dan//vid, I tend to be in the “hell no” category. If it has any Gwen whatsoever, the lowest I can possibly give it is “eh” because I love her beyond all reason. So I’m splitting the difference on this one.

and i’ll also tell you who:

proposes

Fucking … how would any of this even happen, though? There is no universe where I can get these three together that makes literally any sense. Fuck. Fucking. Goddamn it.

I mean, obviously it’s David, right? Who else would it be? Gwen isn’t gonna propose to Daniel and risk being humiliated – seriously, the closest I can see between them is some sort of kismeses kinda thing, where they both can’t stand each other but keep falling into bed (at least in part for that very reason). David is the glue that holds them together, if anything could. His heart is very full of love and it can sorta spackle over some of the rougher patches (maybe. Maaaaybe).

shops for groceries

Daniel’s presumably at least in part wanted by the cops, and not even Davey can be trusting enough to let Dan anywhere near food. And Gwen … she probably actually ends up doing it the most, even though I initially assumed it’d be David because he’s such a go-getter. But the thing is, David’s a real go-getter when it comes to things he’s actually interested in, but a lot of the times he leaves the grown-up stuff to Gwen to take care of, and I imagine this would be one of them.

kills the spiders

Daniel, hands-down. Gwen would, absolutely, but Dan gets there first and honestly … he probably wanted it more … Gwen just sorta retreats and thinks for a long, long time about why she’s in this goddamn nightmare of a relationship again.

And then David comes to her room and asks if she’ll say a few words about the dead spider, not really because he has any strong feelings about a dead bug but because it gives him a chance to compliment her talents with words and get her mind off their weird boyfriend-roommate-thing, and she remembers.

comes home drunk at 3am

That’s all of them, undoubtedly. Gwen, because she insists she has to be drunk to make Daniel’s presence bearable; Daniel, because he won’t be outdrunk by Gwen of all people (and if you think they’re gonna have sloppy blackout sex in the bar’s bathroom you’re wrong, but only because David will find them and herd them back to decency); and David, because he’s convinced he has a better tolerance than he does, and always gets distracted by the fruitiness of the drinks he favors and forgets how much alcohol they actually have.

makes breakfast

David. Gwen is still asleep, and while Daniel is awake, he’s probably off skulking around doing something cult-y and doesn’t remember to eat most of the time, anyway, so David has to cajole them both into getting some food in them before they stagger out to do their bullshit camp bullshit. (Dan and Gwen’s words, not David’s. Obviously.)

remembers to feed the fish

David is meticulous about feeding the fish – in theory. He does keep getting swept away by other things, so while he made a very careful and colorful feeding chart, he also usually doesn’t remember until late in the evening, at which point he panics and rushes back to the cabin. Where he finds out that Gwen’s already fed the fish, because she’s the goddamn grownup in this relationship and at the camp and just deserves the world (okay, got off track there, sorry).

I could actually kinda see Daniel picking up the slack with the fish, if Gwen was busy and David was off doing his David things. Very reluctantly, and only because he doesn’t want to have to deal with the guilt-grief David would collapse into if he let the fish die, but I also think Dan’s strict adherence to rules could lend a kinda OCD compulsion to it; like once he starts doing something, he keeps doing it because … well, that’s now a Thing he Does. (Gwen//vid could probably get him into a decent number of good – or at least less-bad – habits in that way, come to think of it.)

decorates the apartment

Oh, David. Gwen has a few items she will not part with, so they become part of the decor (if you think the Werewolf of the Month calendar is going anywhere you got another think coming), and Daniel probably would as well, but those things are cult things and are under no circumstances being displayed anywhere in the homestead. He probably has, like, a shed where he keeps his weird cult shit and David and Gwen try not to think about it.

Their place would be adorable and woodsy and absolutely only suit David’s tastes, but somehow the other two don’t mind. It’s … nice, being surrounded by David-ness all the time. It’s cozy.

initiates duets

Oh god, David and Daniel sing all the time. I refuse to think of it as anything too mushy because that makes me a tiny bit ill, but I feel like any duets would either start out or end up as lowkey competitions, because neither of them has any chill and both want to be the best at everything, ever, all the time.

As much as I love the idea of Daniel and Gwen having some sort of “Better Than You”-style song rivalry, I can’t see Gwen ever being up to singing in public and that makes me sadder than anything in the entire world. Because it’d be so fucking great and I want it so bad.

falls asleep first

Do David or Daniel sleep? Probably not, let’s be real. So Gwen falls asleep first by default, even though she often stays up til like 1am, because she’s the only one who really sleeps. David is too much of an insomniac, and Daniel is powered by cult juices that no longer require him to sleep or something.

(Or he’s a crazy fuck. Also a possibility.)

sends the most selfies

Oh, that’s a close call. Gwen takes selfies when she feels cute, David takes them when he remembers to actually be in the frame of whatever he’s taking a picture of/with, and Daniel avoids the camera at all costs because the last picture taken of him was a mug shot and he doesn’t need any updated documentation of his appearance, thank you.

So basically Gwen//vid are a normal couple and also Daniel’s there, Gollum-ing around in the background.

Kinda a good summary of how I see this poly ship working out, actually.

makes the first move

There are a couple interesting ways this could go – because I’m still stuck on the “how the fuck did we get here?” side of things. Gonna toss out some ideas as they occur to me, in no particular order. Pick your favorite:

David and Gwen were already a couple when Dan showed up, and David was having some Complicated Feelings™ about being attracted to their coworker (and some panic; I don’t feel like David would normally feel conflicted about his sexuality, but if he was already in a relationship it’d absolutely feel like cheating). He finally talks to Gwen – especially if Daniel’s flirting with him, which Daniel would because Daniel’s a dick – and she’s okay with letting him explore that side of himself (though she kinda wishes he’d picked someone who’s less the Absolute Fucking Worst; is he a cult serial killer in this version of events? I don’t know; I’m deliberately not thinking very hard about it because no Daniel-centric ship really works if you think about it). So it becomes something of a V with David in the middle, until at some point I imagine Gwen and Daniel get hammered, into a screaming argument, or both, and then do something they both regret and suddenly they’re kinda all a thing and neither Dan or Gwen are quite sure how to feel about it.

Gwen//vid aren’t together, but one or both of them has had feelings for a while; Daniel swans his way into camp and is all charming and a douchebag and a murdering piece of shit, like he is, and … I think David would be more easily won over, because he’s just so sweet and trusting, and so the two of them start something … I imagine David would keep it secret from Gwen, because he knows she’d disapprove, and it turns out she does but whoops she’s also kinda totally jealous as well because she knew him for way longer and he just … swooped in … And then it all comes out and they realize they’re in Love but hey, Daniel, and again I think the V makes the most sense until something triggers Gwen and Daniel to hook up, at which point it kinda closes into something resembling a triangle.

None of them are in a relationship, someone does something stupid and they end up in a weird “friends/frenemies with benefits” situation but David is too soft for that life so Dan//wen just kinda grit their teeth and get along because they both love David too much to let this go, even though they’d really prefer their current relationship of “hating each other (with occasional and regretted benefits,” which was much more their speed.

I half want to find a version of all this that is happier and fluffier but … I just can’t get there from here. David is maybe sweet enough to forgive Daniel for all the child-murdering stuff (again, don’t think too hard about it or it falls apart), but I think Gwen would see right through Dan’s crap and never reach a point of liking or trusting him, and Daniel would feel the same distaste because he really prefers people who fall for his shenanigans and feels unsafe around someone who so clearly isn’t buying any of what he’s selling.

plans spontaneous trips

Where the fuck are they going to go? Who is going to be in charge of that? How on earth do we get there from here?

Seriously, this ship makes no goddamn sense and I do not know what to do with any of this noise. How dare you, Anon.

How so very dare you?

#campcamp #camp camp roosterteeth #what the fuck even would this ship name be?#danvidwen #i guess it's danvidwen #ask forest #ship meme #oh my god kill me #this was insanely difficult and i hate all of it #i mean i will always love daniel and gwen sniping at each other because that's classic ddau fun #but adding romance to it?#and i made david wayyyy too sweet and sunshiny here but he'd have to be basically a saint to ever forgive daniel enough to date him #and since i don't think he's a 'sex without feelings' sort i don't see a kismeses thing working out for him #so it's gotta be genuine romance #which only works if david is kind and forgiving to the point of seeming brain damage #and you don't think too hard about all the heinous crimes daniel's committed #really it's just a very 'don't think about it' ship all around #so like #don't think about it #Anonymous

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victorluvsalice · 3 years

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Fortunately, Vlad was not willing to put up with the Angry Blobs of Doom and noped out of there as soon as Eric came outside. At least he doesn’t have to test the effectiveness of his garlic braid! And the angry blobs were content to just fly around outside, so Eric didn’t have to worry about them too much either. All bark and no bite, those things!

However, I do want to appease as many specters as possible, and Eric needed a new goal in life. So I decided to have him play around with some stuff from another stuff pack I haven’t really used yet -- Nifty Knitting! Yes, Eric’s new desire is to become Lord of the Knits, making all the knitted stuff to share with his new friends. So while Guidry set about making quite a lot of unnecessary cake (seriously -- our ghostly friend was constantly either baking cakes or taking out the ingredients for them and then abandoning them), Eric knitted up his very first beanie and presented it to one of the happier specters as a gift.

And, once again, was told it was crap. Well. Fine then. Eric promptly teamed up with Guidry to do another ceremony and show these specters what-for! I don’t know if it did actually show the specters anything, but it certainly did get Eric’s Medium skill up -- all the way to level 3, nice. :) I left it with him clearing out some twisty little tendrils from outside his door -- next time, we’ll see if he manages anything more exciting in his life! Yes, who knew the guy living in the literal haunted house would be having so chill an existence. . .

#sims 4 #newcrest adventures #eric embers #laserwolf #yeah I haven't really done anything with knitting yet!#so this was a good way to get in at least a little playtime #this is why I want do some sort of 'homesteader' challenge or the like #force myself to play with some of the crafting mechanics I haven't yet really tried out #but in the meantime beanies for ghosts #wish giving them presents wasn't so hit or miss!#ah well more ceremonies more medium skill #and now that I'm not obsessed with him maxing out his Charisma #things should get a little more interesting :p #queued

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sweetsweetnathan · 5 years

Text

Robyn and the Elements

Robyn would not describe his training with the Conjurers of Gridania as “pleasant”. It was not that the training was difficult-- the effort required for Thaumaturgy and his brief stint suffering through the personalities at the Arcanist’s guild were both more arduous than anything the Conjurers had thrown at him. No, as was always the case practically everywhere he went Robyn found his peers unjustly offended by his many completely reasonable questions.

“Alright, I have another idea for you,” Robyn spoke with eccentric energy to E-Sumi-Yan, the slim-figured leader of the Conjurer’s Guild. E-Sumi-Yan was a patient man, having far too much to do to humor Robyn’s, yet addressing them nonetheless. E-Sumi-Yan believed that there were no foolish questions, and that if a person approaches their studies with enough initiative to as an unusual question then that person should be encouraged rather than dismissed.

If E-Sumi-Yan was a more cynical man, he might believe Robyn was deliberately antagonizing that exact belief.

“Lava magic. Thoughts?”

E-Sumi-Yan sighed. “Is that even a complete sentence?”

“So Conjuration gives the Conjurer command over, like, the aether in the earth, right?”

“Wrong,” E-Sumi-Yan said, “it manipulates the aether within the earth. It commands nothing.”

Robyn waved his hand dismissively, “Yeah, but the result is the same, right? The Conjurer can tell the earth where to go and the earth will go there.”

“With about a million caveats.”

Robyn said, “We’ll get to those. So I know some Thaumaturgy--”

“You’ve mentioned this,” E-Sumi-Yan said. On several occasions, he thought.

“--I mean, it’s probably not this simple, but what if I cast a little bit of fire magic on the earth I’m throwing around? Or a lot of fire magic? So much that my fire magic and my earth magic make...”

“Lava magic.” E-Sumi-Yan grumbled.

“Yes! What do you think?”

E-Sumi-Yan sighed, “Robyn... Do you really think you’re the first person to ever think of this?” Robyn’s face went from jubilant and focused to the shape of a deflated balloon. E-Sumi-Yan continued, “Thaumaturgy is an expression of one’s internal aether. I can see why it appeals to you: You call and the aether comes. But like I said before, Conjuration deals with the Elements. Earth magic exists by the grace of Earth Elementals. Same with air and water magic. These life-giving elements are not beholden to the whims of mortals. And it’s good that they aren’t; what kind of world would we live in if someone could freely control the water in the ground, or the clouds in the sky?”

E-Sumi-Yan knew he should stop there and let Robyn sit with that question. It was the wiser course of action: Let Robyn come to his own conclusions. His defiant attitude, his inability to see Conjuration for what it was, his desire to subjugate aether that didn’t belong to him, it would only hold him back. The person who suffered the most from Robyn’s shortcomings was Robyn himself.

And yet for all the same reasons E-Sumi-Yan felt a powerful, imperious impulse. It wasn’t enough for Robyn to learn the right way. He must also know that his is the wrong way.

“That aether just doesn’t belong to you.” E-Sumi-Yan said. Robyn’s eyes were distant and defeated before this, but now they awakened with fire and contradiction. E-Sumi-Yan immediately recognized his error: He’s young, he thought, far too young to appreciate that sentiment.

Robyn bowed and departed without another word, but E-Sumi-Yan knew the seed he had sewn in the young man’s heart. Robyn saw Conjuration as a challenge. And like many before him, he was doomed to fail.

In the center of New Gridania there stands a bridge, and beside that bridge flows a river streaming out from a waterfall. Next to that waterfall one could almost altogether forget they were in a city. Robyn had perched himself on a rock with his back to that waterfall and his eyes cast downwards and the gentle stream to which it gave birth. He looked deep into the water, watching the light of the sun cast webs of dancing caustic light under the river’s surface. The sun is made of fire... If the aether of Conjuration is so exclusive, then why can the light of the sun penetrate the water? Does it allow itself to be penetrated? Are these “elementals” intelligent enough for that?

Suddenly a massive stone landed in the water right in front of Robyn, splashing water on his face. Robyn rubbed his eyes furiously.

“Who the hell--?”

“Hey!” Evadaro yelled from the nearby bridge, “Break’s over!”

Robyn stood and stretched in the sunlight. Summer reminded him of home and always made him want to find somewhere with shade and read. In Ul’dah the summers would constantly get so hot as to make any sort of manual labor nearly impossible. As such summertime was a particularly lethargic time of year for much of Robyn’s life, and he often found himself trying to conserve energy whenever he could. Simply put, he was lazy. But Evadaro was right: They had a job to do.

For it was not Robyn’s hobbyistic interest in Conjuration that brought the pair to Gridania. Following their disagreements with the established authorities in Limsa Lominsa, they had been assigned as emissaries to Gridania. It was their job to work as peacekeeping retainers at the behest of the Gridanian leadership. In Robyn’s more optimistic moments, he called Evadaro and himself “Agents of the free cities”. Most times though, he felt more like a sell-sword.

“There’s been a chronic disturber of the peace up in North Shroud.” Evadaro explained, “Some fool drunk that comes around the Mi’qote tribes thinking their women are for sale.”

Evadaro was practically spitting the words on the ground as he spoke them. Robyn knew Evadaro well enough that he felt comfortable drawing a few conclusions: He knew Evadaro had spent some free time with the Mi’qote of North Shroud. In fact, Evadaro stayed there several nights within the last week. Robyn would assume Evadaro had found a girl there to fancy, were Evadaro not so serious about the whole business. No, if it were a girl then Evadaro would be bragging about it. He’d wear his heart on his sleeve and show it to everyone who would bother to look. Evadaro found something else among those Mi’qote, something deeper than a summertime tryst.

Robyn could reason out that much, but the exact nature of that “something deeper” was a mystery to him. He felt no strong desire to prod into Evadaro’s business though. If he wants me to know, he’ll tell me. Until then it’s his business.

A thick canopy of leaves blocked all but the most persistent shafts of sunlight from disturbing the depths of North Shroud. The lessened light put Robyn on alert, while Evadaro strode through the forest with vigorous pride.

“I’ve been meaning to take you out here for a while,” Evadaro said, “I’m interested to know what you think of the food the tribe serves. And their music-- they play lots of music. No amphitheater, they don’t have that...”

Evadaro went on like this the whole walk to the village. Robyn was genuinely interested, though there was only so much words could do to build his anticipation. It’s all alien, Robyn thought, stuff for which I have no frame of reference. Maybe that’s what Evadaro loves so much about it: That it’s different. Or perhaps it’s the opposite... Maybe it makes him feel at home.

Nothing in Gridania made Robyn feel at home. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but he knew his senses were less attuned to the complexity of the forest than Evadaro’s were. Growing up in Ul’dah Robyn simply never imagined a forest could produce as many colors as a single tree did in Black Shroud. The ground was uneven. Rain came frequently, and was just as quickly flooding the streets as it was dispersing. It was all an assault on Robyn’s Hyur senses that Evadaro was in many ways better prepared for as a Mi’qote.

They came upon the Mi’qote village very suddenly, such that Robyn hardly knew it was there before they set foot in it. The village was more like an encampment by Robyn’s reckoning. It had no standing buildings, its people instead living in pitched tents, hollowed out trees, and nests made of fallen branches. It was a homestead made entirely without disturbing the land around it.

Immediately the disturbance in the village was obvious: All was quiet except for a tavern near the middle of the town, where a Hyur man raved, “I’m here to see my wife and daughter, ya hear! And not a single one of you is gonna deny me that right!”

A Mi’qote woman stood at the entrance of the tavern, her patrons looking out as she blocked the way of the man. She said, “You have no such right here. Go home.”

“I’m a knight you know,” the man said, “I could have this place ravaged! My friends and I could scour every one of you from this forest! We’ll say you were harboring Garleans. We’ll say you trafficked in cat-flesh. We’ll say whatever we want! No one cares about your primitive lifestyle! Now if you don’t give me my due visitation with my child, I’ll be forced to enforce my rights violently!”

Here he drew a sword on the Mi’qote woman. She hissed to his face, “You’re a knight who would bear steel against a defenseless woman?”

The Knight gripped the woman by her collar. “I would bear steel against anyone who got in between me and what's mine.”

“I’m your huckleberry,” Evadaro said.

The Knight dropped the woman and slowly turned, hatred in his eyes.

The Knight scanned Evadaro before saying, “Do I know you, boy?”

Evadaro stood perfectly still for a moment. Robyn said nothing either; this was Evadaro’s lead to take, and Robyn could practically hear Evadaro’s heart pounding with righteous indignation.

Suddenly Evadaro drew his sword and stabbed it into the ground. “You were knighted in Ul’dah, yeah? Well so was I. One of the oaths I took was to always offer my enemy a one-on-one fight when I had the chance.”

The Knight studied this gesture carefully. He was a wicked man, but he wasn’t a fool. He said, “We don’t have to be enemies, you and I. Help me get what I want and we can share the spoils.”

There was no response from Evadaro, only a cold, hateful stare. The wind shook the limbs of the trees and waning sunlight danced over the space between Evadaro and the Knight. The Knight shrugged and said, “Very well.”

The Knight stepped forwards slowly, giving Evadaro time to pull his weapon from the ground. “You sure about this?” Robyn whispered. Evadaro gave him no reply.

Evadaro and the Knight let their weapons touch. They were in striking distance of each other. There was no one to signal the beginning of their bout, so the two were forced to watch each other and wait for an opportunity; a blink, a sideways-glancing eye, and leaf turning over the wrong way...

It was Evadaro that moved first, seizing the initiative by slicing at his opponent’s arm. The Knight recoiled and the dance began: The Knight was taller, his reach longer, and each blow flew with more weight behind it than Evadaro could ever muster. But Evadaro was quick, and more than that he was tough. In the same moment his opponent’s sword met his, he was darting past it and lunging for the Knight’s body. At first Robyn couldn’t tell if it was a bout to first blood, or a real life-and-death fight. But when he saw the Knight raise his sword above his head and bring it down towards Evadaro’s skull, all ambiguity was done away with.

Evadaro dodged with a leap, then responded with a lethal attack of his own. He jutted his sword towards the Knight’s neck, and when the Knight went to parry it, disengaged and cut the man’s chest.

Robyn’s heart lept as he saw the Knight’s blood stain the ground. It was a shallow cut, nothing that would incapacitate a trained soldier, but a cut nonetheless. The Knight was aware of his wound and staggered back to examine it. But more than that, he examined the village around him. He saw the Mi’qote he wished to terrorize as they watched him bleed. After all his threats he stood undone, invalidated, reduced; no longer was he a knight who threatened to burn their village if they didn’t obey him. This cut was a moment of weakness that would forever indicate him as a lesser evil of the world, someone entirely capable of boasting from sunrise to sunset, but entirely incapable of acting on it.

The Knight growled and charged Evadaro, swinging wildly. Evadaro didn’t bother to parry. Doing so would only damage his sword. He backed up until the Knight was out of breath and covered in his own blood. It didn’t matter that the wound wasn’t fatal. One does not need to lose much blood before simple movements become nearly impossibly taxing.

Evadaro pointed his sword at the panting Knight, “It’s over. I have drawn first blood. Put down your sword and leave this place. Never return.”

The Knight gripped his sword, “No! No, I will not be denied! I will not!”

His eyes darted around. Evadro grew tense, expecting the Knight to employ another maneuver to try and defeat him. Within a heartbeat Evadaro realized that the Knight’s plan was far worse.

The Knight dashed to the tavern and grabbed the woman that had opposed him before, who was watching at its entrance. He held his sword to her throat, so close that it parted the flesh and stained his blade red.

“Bring me my child!” He demanded, “Bring me my child or this woman will di--”

Suddenly his words failed him. The Knight dropped his sword and unhanded the woman. His hands went to his throat and his eyes went wide with terror. Evadaro looked on with uncertain fear. “What’s going on?” He said aloud and looked around. Answers were nowhere to be found. On looking over his shoulder however he found...

Nobody noticed the green tinge to the air until they saw Robyn’s hand outstretched, arched and gripping the aether in the air around the Knight. He pulled the air into a vortex, creating a vacuum centered on the Knight. The end result was the air was pulled from the Knight’s lungs.

Evadaro could do nothing but watch. The whole village was silent, save for the Knight’s struggle for breath. Robyn felt like a mad genius the whole time, and he knew he looked the part. Has anyone ever thought of this E-Sumi-Yan?

Then something happened that hadn’t occurred since the Calamity. Robyn felt it happen before he saw the effects. It was a mystery to him how he perceived what had happened, but perceive it he did, like a memory that leaped to the forefront of his mind despite lacking any relevant stimulus. The aether cut itself off from Robyn.

The vortex Robyn created dissipated. The Knight fell to the ground, unconscious but alive. Understanding what had just happened, Robyn was frozen in shock. He saw Evadaro exchange pleasantries with the woman who owned the tavern but heard not a word they said. He focused in on himself and found that indeed, his own aether was still there. But when he raised his hand skyward and called upon the elements...

Earth...

Air...

Water...

Nothing answered.

#Robyn Sawyer #robyn and evadaro #Evadaro Amberwyne #my writing #ffxiv #fan fiction

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rydain · 5 years

Text

Author's Notes from a Modern Brutale - Liberties of Adaptation

Tip of the iceberg canons are fun as hell for me to write for because they allow for such freedom of personal influence in sorting out their unstated specifics. I prefer to go more interpretative than compliant, building on the broad strokes of personality and chemistry and setting that strike me the most - bringing in the particulars that fit my greater vision, shrugging off those that don't, and giving a good yank to the author's strings as needed. As the Chips Fall toward their finale, I figured it would be fun to look back on some particulars of development for the cast and the manor that brought them all together.

Here there be spoilers, both for my series and The Sexy Brutale, if you wish to settle in for a long look behind the curtain.

Tequila

The glass shattering siren from modest means is drawn along the lines of a Deep Southern belle or a Texan pageant queen. Her roots wound up a ways north for me, though far enough in Appalachian coal country to be within that cultural ballpark, thanks to My Old Kentucky Home - just too perfect a song for the hope and homesickness of leaving town and country behind for such a foreign world of glamour. Kentucky's patchwork of dry counties also has special relevance to a particular paint can banging uncle I saw fit to imagine as an ace moonshiner.

I wrote Tequila as a rising star rather than an established one to explore the challenges of fitting into that new world - the polish of fashion and posture and speech and presence, the countless social norms learned on the fly but perhaps never fully internalized. The sense of impostor syndrome thus resulting, the conflict between pride in what she had earned for herself and the fear that she was only this far ahead because of Lucas - and that without him, she would only go right back to where she was. I made the two of them official beyond the canonical winking and nudging because she seemed too well stuck on him for an unrequited crush. This also got her across the pond early in her career for the challenges of culture shock and self-doubt outlined above.

Willow

Canonically a purveyor of curiosities and wrangler of eldritch horror, Willow was a tough one to develop within my idea of modern heightened reality. With her creation of charms and a mention of voodoo, I reimagined her as a consultant and adviser with deep family roots in the faith, and her second sight as an instinctive bent toward conversation that amounts to effective cold reading. This involves communication with spirits who Willow would have a literal sense of speaking to - especially Baron Samedi, lwa of death brought to mind by her skull motif, who can assist with the transitions of loss experienced by Tequila and others at the Brutale, and is very much the type to get handsy with lovely ladies.

Willow established her career in New Orleans' French Quarter near the voodoo shops of Rue Royal, inheriting a small townhouse from a beloved aunt who mentored her in such traditions. Word of mouth and within walking distance, her ecosystem supports a frugal lifestyle based on folkways and homesteading skills learned growing up in the bayou - which, along with an understated modest aesthetic, gives Willow a sense of having stepped out of time. This is a point of compatibility with Tequila and her focus on the classic jazz age and the Great American Songbook, modern music along similar lines, and subtly updated vintage style to complete her timeless presence. More fundamentally, both of them work with the emotional texture of everyday lives - stories that Tequila embodies onstage and Willow seeks in her clients with a guiding hand toward a rewrite.

Greyson

I gave Mr. Yolo Swaggins a hand up toward reformation catalyzed by the shock of a prison sentence he subconsciously courted to kick his own arse toward a clean break. This made for a focus on conflicts of the legitimacy Greyson wants so badly to earn. As a professional, he needs to work with difficult types like Thanos, who values traditional university education and thinks his secrets to be well beyond what he sees as inferior intellect, and Clay, who Greyson could bond with over a rude sense of humor and understanding of each other's cynicism - in turn, sharing respect and eventual friendship rather than begrudging acceptance for Redd's sake. Greyson continues to wrestle with temptations of larceny and proving himself to be beyond them, ultimately rejecting the torment and manipulation of a treasure hunt - Lucas' cruel generosity of playing to others' vices for his own amusement. Which Redd plays his own part in, saving Greyson in the psychological sense rather than physically hauling him out of trouble - helping to reinforce the stability Greyson is already working to develop, and that he gravitates toward Redd to share in.

Greyson's considerable ego - once a force behind the more elaborate and higher risk schemes he took part in - is now fed by his infiltration and analysis of locks and safes and security systems, his determination to be better than the epithets granted by his criminal record and prove his naysayers wrong with a glorious display of upright professional competence. Of course he's not above ripping off some scam or another, but Clay does appreciate the unofficial backup.

Redd

By way of this adorable cartoon and followup ask from @frayed-symphony , Redd likes to read. I extrapolated this into university study of literature and a keen sense of wordplay including all the best worst sorts of puns - an embrace of his awkward streak implied by those untucked shirttails and the Old Habits dance lyrics fail. He works through dense classics with the analytical focus of his piano playing, and he gravitates toward biographies and memoirs of infamous figures who lived much larger lives than his Good Boy nature and risk aversion would ever allow. This fascination also influences his attraction to Greyson and his intrigue of Lucas' employ and the Brutale itself, which Redd feels some desire to properly belong to beyond his initial goal of performing piano. Lucas takes a certain interest in Redd as well, wondering what hidden fatal flaw must reside in someone so upright and considered. Redd doesn't have anything nearly as spectacular as the likes of Greyson. Rather, there are natural disadvantages to his polite reserve - hesitation to go after various personal and professional goals, struggle to provide emotional support to Tequila out of discomfort with that messy and potentially prying sort of talk. Redd needs to learn from someone like Willow, with her well developed emotional intelligence, that he's overthinking the matter like so many others.

Redd plays a strong supporting role throughout my work. Favorite characters tend to do that, and he strikes me as a backbone of the Brutale anyhow - a highly capable, dependable, and well liked linchpin of the casino and music hall. His performance career had a good nudge from Greyson, who convinced Redd that he deserved to take the spotlight instead of feeling that it would be unseemly to ask - seizing a chance as he saw it rather than enduring in silence with that stoicism so clear in his game counterpart's somber expression.

The Rockridge bros lift because of shameless personal bias, because Redd needs to get his cage bending strength somewhere, and because I love the imagined contrast of their training - Redd lifting with meditative focus, Clay forcing himself through the most brutal of circuits because it's not a real workout until he's cursing in a lake of sweat. GO HAM OR GO HOME

Clay

With his responsibilities as head of security and care for Trinity beyond their good-natured trolling, Clay came off as a lovable roughneck rather than someone far more abrasive. He and Redd were implied to run the casino together on various occasions, so I imagined that he shared a close bond, mutual protectiveness, and a measured share of bickering with his much gentler brother. Clay is perceptive about scams and the people apt to run them and just as myopic about Redd's romantic proclivities because whatever happens in the flat - and not very often for either of them - tends to occur when they're on opposite shifts. Redd has good reason to know that Clay is accepting - and he is, beyond his initial frustration that of all the blokes in the world, why did it have to be a flashy, arrogant ex-con strutting around on every last one of his nerves? - but he also thinks it would be something he'd feel a need to explain, which of course he can't. This all let me play that eventual talk for laughs and brotherly bonding with just a fun fleeting touch of embarrassment.

Clay has an intense nature and a self-punishing, self-destructive streak that fueled both his prize fighting career and alcoholism. Despite being the older of the two, he long since felt that he lived in Redd's quiet academic shadow, which caused him to give up on himself in various ways that he regrets. Trinity helps Clay to see his life, lumps and bumps and all, as experiences that tested him and left him better for the wear.

Trinity

Trinity first tried sculpting out of stubbornness to prove herself so capable, especially as her overprotective parents thought it would be nigh impossible. She took off well enough that her well off family willingly supported the study of working with expensive materials, the extra tutelage required to do so by touch, and her life in general until her work became steady enough to rely on. Annoyed at the fussy mores of her stuffier relations and the wealthy sorts who commission her, Trinity finds Clay's blunt and unfiltered nature refreshing. Her part time assistant, who helps with tasks beyond the capabilities of touch or muscle memory or adaptive technology, has a sense of down to earth polish and similar head for eloquent vulgarity.

After her in-game rescue, Trinity encourages an already trolleyed Clay to do shots. Rather than think she was bringing him down, unwittingly or otherwise, I see her as a hedonist who overestimates others' ability to compartmentalize. It's just a party - what's the harm in a bit of excess? Rather than feed Clay's alcoholism, Trinity helps him out of it - genuinely appreciating him just as he is, which inspires him to appreciate himself just the same.

Canonically, Trinity and Tequila are stepsisters in some official sense of the term. In my AU, this particular connection would have been difficult to make naturally because they grew up so differently, separated by an ocean and levels of financial means. In the game, the stepsister relationship implies a closeness between the two, gives Lucas a means of introduction to Tequila after admiring her from afar, and piles on the horror when Trinity finds Tequila's body in the laundry chute. The same sort of closeness arises, with found sisterly implications and all, as Tequila is adopted into Trinity's circles by way of her friendship with Redd. Tequila meets Lucas through the posh New Orleans parties she is hired to sing at and thus needs no other connection to him.

Lucas

So here we are in this hopeful world of competence and agency and self-actualization. And then there's Lucas - who I couldn't stand to leave as enough of a knobhead to not only pull an insurance fraud scam in the first place, but contrive it into a flagrant courting of disaster that I don't see myself ever forgiving his canon incarnation for. Then perhaps a magnificent trash fire as opposed to a dumpster inferno, so let's have at him, shall we?

My Brutale can be saved and is heavily implied to be. For that, I planted some seeds of Lucas' sense and a slow trend toward dialing back the worst of himself. He shows a capacity for analytic thought in his artistic patronage, biting poetic wit, and often successful divining of others' deepest desires. He keeps a modest office and cultivates a friendship with Willow, first seen as a quaint curiosity and soon respected for her straightforward insight and steadfast way of pitting such against his own. Lucas wants to do better on some level, but is welded to his identity as a master of ceremonies and peddler of overindulgence, as a grandiose gambler who very much meant to make a bad bet or three because he wound up with a better one eventually and a good story in the bargain. He gravitates toward people with stories of their own, and who have vices he finds amusing to play with, or who fascinate him - and perhaps somewhat frustrate him - because he can't figure out their downfall.

Lucas' issues are more of psychology than cash flow, and able to be turned around before his ledgers go fatally red. Before the worst can happen, other personal losses show Lucas the need to put real work into himself and his dealings - to fight his compulsions toward high risk propositions and assorted impractical excess, to face his failures of neglect and mitigate their fallout.

Eleanor

In the game, Eleanor is an archetype of purity whose forgiveness is meant to redeem Lucas in the player's eyes. I meant to parlay her cheeky macabre quirks into an endearingly oddball artist with an anthropomorphic sense of humor and a larger than life sense of whimsy, fundamentally compatible with Lucas and apt to help him toward his senses. Eleanor is as intrigued by the Brutale's legends as Tequila is tired of their absurdity, breezy and casually polished as Tequila struggles to play the lady of the manor in structured couture. They meet on neutral terms to be naturally contrasted but not cruelly so, and very much without tired tropes of romantic rivalry.

Lafcadio

A symbol of repentance for sins, canonically a separate character as per the origin comic, which made me very happy because he's interesting to envision as an actual person beyond some idealized facet of Lucas’ personality. In my take, Lucas admired Lafcadio's ability to walk away from the Brutale as it was dragging him down. They both preferred to tell the story as the spectacular bet from the comic - a fateful game of roulette - that Lafcadio arguably came out on top of by ditching this liability. This echoes the theme of rock bottom arse kick that my Greyson gets well ahead of time, and canon Lucas doesn't until it's far too late.

Lafcadio and Willow both intrigue Lucas with the depth of their respective faiths. They bond over their insights into their host and desire to inspire him toward better, though Willow is limited by never having seen the Brutale in its prior incarnation, or Lucas at his worst. In my narrative, Willow works behind the scenes by helping people unearth their own deeper truths and provide emotional support to others, mirroring Lafcadio's role in the game - though he will go on, offscreen as this might be, to likewise mirror the Willownage of Lucas that needs to continue.

The Sexy Brutale

Loath to commit the British equivalent of dropping a small city of a warehouse store on top of Tequila's old trailer in Closplint, Kentucky, I researched stately homes for inspiration toward location and overall aesthetic. I later learned I could have handwaved one within brief vague driving distance of any city, and perhaps in the city itself. Still I'm most confident in my sense of veracity when I can point to a spot on a map to rebrand. In this case, Somerleyton Hall, within train commuting and day trip distances of various points of interest, and with an appealing style and a clock tower that sealed the deal. As did its 19th century transformation by a private entrepreneur - which, in my alternate reality, would have been supervised by a master builder named Gorecki, whose descendants continued on with his upgrades and maintenance of the manor. Its adjusted name is Somerthwaite after the meadow surrounding it, thanks to a jaunt down the rabbit hole of Anglo-Saxon geographic nomenclature to ensure I wasn't trying to bollocks the manor on the edge of an active volcano.

British manor houses are so varied and eclectic that a place like the Brutale seems more matter of course than bombastic fantasy. Casinos in the UK were all private clubs until recently and can certainly carry on as such, and any property can house the owner's particular interests. To balance homage with my sense of historic floor plans, I kept the common areas of interest with some remodeling - great hall, casino, theater, music hall and practice rooms, library, conservatory, gardens - and closed off the south end of the west wing as Lucas' private quarters. The basement is for utilities and storage, the uppermost floor for guest rooms both rented and bespoke for close friends of Lucas.

#the sexy brutale #as the chips fall #tequila belle #willow blue #greyson grayson #redd rockridge #clay rockridge #trinity carrington #lucas bondes #eleanor sixpence #lafcadio boone #writing #meta

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the-jungle-podcast-blog · 5 years

Video

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Transcription

[0:00:03-0:00:16]

Welcome to the Jungle podcast. I'm Sophie Renker, Environmental Science undergrad and I am Erin Beiter, Wildlife Science... Bachelorette... holder.

[0:00:18-0:00:19]

I graduated.

[0:00:21-0:00:39]

On our podcast today we decided to discuss the differences between sustainable lifestyle in an urban setting versus a rural setting and the different challenges and solutions that you can use and take.

[0:00:41-0:01:08]

So on the first segment of our podcast today we decide to discuss space. Obviously in the suburbs you have a yard, you have a big home. I'm sure [when] you were growing up in the suburbs of Buffalo can attest to that. Yeah, we had a pretty big yard and a little wooded patch where you could stash things like my neighbors did have a compost pile in there. Three of them in fact

[0:01:09-0:01:15]

And you just really can't do that in a city.

[0:01:16-0:01:32]

I've tried, it really doesn't work out that well. Yeah, a lot of college students and Millennials are living in apartment complexes or live in the city and they have, what? Like four rooms and a pet?

[0:01:36-0:02:01]

And yeah, if you do have some sort of semblance of a yard, it's not always up to you what you can do with that yard. Your landlord might have restrictions. So when it comes to discussion of things like compost or homesteading for people who live in urban areas, that's not an option. No, and it's a whole lot of work to

[0:02:02-0:02:11]

put together like a community garden if you don't already have one. If you do want to, like, reap the benefits of something like that.

[0:02:13-0:02:13]

or like, you know,

[0:02:15-0:02:16]

anything like that.

[0:02:18-0:03:00]

But there are different ways that you can do things inside. You can have like a lil herb nook on your counter. Yeah, or you could try doing some light composting maybe some aerobic composting or even in Manhattan they have places where you can drop off compost. But yeah, the city of Syracuse has one but I think you need to like pay people to take it. I know at least restaurants in the area need to pay to have somebody take it away or I don't know if you need to pay for it at the site but it is an option for people who can't afford it who want to take it to a facility.

[0:03:03-0:03:47]

If you're like me (who is insane), you can throw your vegetable scraps off the side of your porch and hope that the squirrels eat it. Yeah the squirrels do love of spare pizza. Yeah, they actually do. But not everyone can get away with that. And if your neighbors happened complain well you're out of luck. Mine haven't yet, so I will continue to do so. I think we have a couple of rotting pumpkins outside as we speak. They have holes bored into them so the squirrels can get into the inside. But I guess that's another thing is not everyone has the capital

[0:03:48-0:04:09]

to embark on different projects to be sustainable. Even those little composting boxes. Those can cost money. I don't know how much but I think when the latest like both like a good stainless steel one that you put on your counter that has a filter was closer to $30.

[0:04:10-0:04:26]

That's not too bad. But that's just the kitchen one, not including the huge ones that just look like an upside down trash can, those are like $100. Yeah, and they can get even more expensive from there. Especially if it's a tumbler [type of composter].

[0:04:30-0:04:31]

Yeah.

[0:04:32-0:04:41]

So if you don't have permission from your landlord to dig up your lawn, or you don't have a lawn at all, it can be very challenging to compost. Yeah.

[0:04:42-0:05:17]

One solution if you want to take this route (again, it's a little nuts) you could-- if you eat a lot of vegetables, you could feed them into some sort of animal that you keep with you in your house. Like a caged one. Such as a guinea pig or an herbivorous reptile. Rabbits? Rabbits. Rabbits are really great. You can toilet train them. You could change your diet, be on the same diet as a rabbit. How cute is that? Have you heard of red worm composting?

[0:05:20-0:06:05]

I have. I have. I feel like that would do well in a small area too. It still-- it takes up like one of those big plastic Tupperware containers, but you can kind of like tuck that away in a closet for dedicated enough. Yeah, that's true. And you don't have to put it like outside to get that good decomposition. You got little buddies to do it for you. You just have to be dedicated enough to pick out all the worms at the end of each cycle. Gosh, that's true. If you have kids maybe they would enjoy that. I’m sure that they would. At least I would have when I was a kid. I can see my parents roping me into something like that. Chores: sweep the kitchen; vacuum the rug; dig out the worms.

[0:06:11-0:06:45]

Oh, I like that a lot. I’m going to make my kids do that. And then use the composted it's to put more dirt in your herb garden. Your tiny miniature herb garden on your counter next door window. That’s another thing: grow lights are a rip-off. Grow lights CAN be a rip off. I, you got to just know the right websites. If you're looking to grow plants indoors.

[0:06:47-0:07:04]

You can find them. They're good. They're out there. We recommend LED lights from experience, the plants really like them. The plants really like them. Don't bother with the pink, blue, purple, red lights. They hurt your eyes and the plants don't even like him that much.

[0:07:06-0:07:26]

Yeah, just got like a gentle LED light and they'll be fine. Yeah, probably like 20 bucks for a panel. Yeah one foot by one foot. You could probably even like paste it under some cabinets. Oh yeah that’s a good idea. Definitely.

[0:07:28-0:07:40]

And you know, in these Syracuse winters like there's no way you're going to be able to grow any type of plants in the winter without one. Yeah. Yeah for sure. Extend that growing season.

[0:07:43-0:07:43]

That way

[0:07:46-0:08:28]

I don't know. I feel like I'm always buying herbs and throwing them away. Like you think that you're going to need to make something with them and they just rot in the fridge. Wouldn’t it be great if you just had them on your counter and they never went bad? That’s what saved me. I grew lettuce from a little Hydroponics kit that my mom got me for Christmas. It's fabulous. It comes with its own light, it like cycles the water through, all you need to do is like dump some nutrients in the water every so often. But it grew so much lettuce. And when I would always buy lettuce from the supermarket, and I would bring it home and I'd be like ‘Hmm

[0:08:30-0:08:52]

that lettuce has been in there for some time’ cuz I just haven't been feeling like salad! But you know, when it’s your own lettuce you’re just like ‘Wow. Look at that lettuce. Look at you go. I'm going to eat that. I'm going to eat that right now.’ And if I don't feel like it, it's just going to make more lettuce for when I'm ready for lettuce, man! I really like it. It was a good time.

[0:08:53-0:09:02]

And I think the hydroponic system was a pretty penny, it was like a hundred bucks, which is a little more than

[0:09:03-0:09:06]

I could personally afford but

[0:09:09-0:09:18]

If you really if you want to take on a project you could make your own pretty easily, and there's a lot of people out there who,

[0:09:19-0:09:59]

On the internet, could probably show you how. You know what’s another thing is time. Another thing that's kind of intimidating for people is not only space and money, but the time it takes to learn the lingo and watch all these YouTube videos and then browse online for what equipment you need, and what if you don't have any tools? Yeah it’s just so many trips to the store. Like honestly time is-- it's a real project like getting into more sustainable life cuz you do need to do a lot of research

[0:10:01-0:11:00]

about a lot of these things. Just like buying new like those sponge tampons. I went to a sustainable menstruation product table today at [SUNY] ESF and they had sea sponge tampons, and reusable pads, and menstrual cups. And you just kind of look at it and you go: ‘What the hell is this stuff?’ Yeah, and you're like, ‘I got to learn more!’ and then you're like ‘Shit. I don't have time to do more’. Yeah it’s like ‘I got a meeting in five minutes. Please explain to me what this sponge is and why I should put it up my vagina.’ Yeah. And like ‘I had a bad experience with the Diva cup, please tell me in-depth on how the Luna cup is better and won't hurt me.’ Oh no.

[0:11:00-0:11:29]

Like, I don't have time to dig deep and I know your customer reviews and, you know, snatch these little tidbits and, you know, actually work up the courage to spend the money on the thing and like ‘Ahh!’. It’s just a whole process. Gosh, the amount of time. The amount of time that I've spent in the Amazon customer review section must have been years off my life. Honestly. Honestly, yes.

[0:11:30-0:11:41]

I want to know what I'm buying is legit, like honestly. But I mean, unless you're just crazy, you don't want to spend that much time in there. Yeah.

[0:11:46-0:12:38]

The important thing is is that sustainability doesn't have to be perfect. Right? We're saying all these things, but we don't even do all of them. Not at all. We recycle. We've grown a couple things. We tried composting. It’s still kind of sittin and I don't know if it's actually composting, but you know we’re trying. It’s out there. We make efforts. Yeah, and that's the point is that you're not just kind of sitting around doing nothing consuming and hoping that everything will be okay. And at least feeling like you have some semblance of control over what happens to our planet. Like plastic waste reduced, just waste in general. I even like to think about single-use paper products sometimes.

[0:12:38-0:13:16]

I think about single-use plastics ALL the time. And I’m saying single-use paper like toilet paper and paper towels. How many years did it take for this tree to grow and then for us to cut it down and just use it in a second? How far has it traveled? Like, is it going to break down properly? How long is it going to take to break down? It's like a natural material but it’s going to a landfill. I don’t know. It’s just a rabbit hole. It’s a bit of an existential crisis sometimes.

[0:13:21-0:13:40]

So I guess the point of this podcast is to just kind of introduce normal folk --who don't have a lot of time, space, or money--to just kind of the concept of sustainability and how we can all have an imperfect version of sustainability... but in numbers we have strength. Yes indeed.

[0:13:41-0:14:41]

In numbers, we can influence the larger system I think. If 8 billion people try just a little bit in some ways, they have a huge impact. It’ll have a huge impact like--like if you really just gotta have take-out every week, that's a lot of plastic waste, but you know, like you can make up for it in other areas. Like you can do what fits your lifestyle best and it doesn't have to be everything. It really just doesn't have to. Even just carpooling is great. Even like carpooling, riding your bike if you are able and willing like it really does make a difference. What is it, 30% of Transportation carbon dioxide pollution in the United States is just single family

[0:14:41-0:15:11]

cars. It’s just people driving to the grocery store. It's just people doing normal everyday things. Driving to work every day. That is one third of all of transportation costs when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. If all of us took a little bit of responsibility, then something amazing could happen. For real. And it is happening! Like this is a trend, like this is not going away.

[0:15:14-0:15:15]

Yeah.

[0:15:16-0:15:17]

And I like it.

[0:15:20-0:15:35]

I don't know how to fix the single family car thing cuz I personally own a car and boy I drive it alone SO many places... but... that’s just another example--

[0:15:37-0:16:05]

But that’s a product of two hundred years, maybe not 200 years, but at least a hundred years of the people before us the way that America was structured. So it you can't even blame yourself for the system that we are in but we can still try our best to change it in little ways to make it better. Yes.

[0:16:06-0:16:07]

Yeah.

[0:16:08-0:16:31]

It’s not your fault that there isn't like amazing public transportation everywhere we go. Yeah, we were born into this system and it's not like we have to fix everything overnight or make everything perfect. It's just making little choices, just try and being conscious about your actions. And like what you buy, and what you throw away, and how it will affect our planet. Yeah.

[0:16:35-0:16:43]

And when you put it that way it really does seem like anyone could do it. Literally anyone can.

[0:16:44-0:16:45]

Anyone can

[0:16:49-0:17:07]

Alright, that's about it for our introductory podcast of the jungle. Again I'm Sophie Renker, and I'm Erin Beiter. Have a good day. Thank you for listening.

#sustainability #podcast #thejunglepodcast #urban #lifestyle

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sueboohscorner · 6 years

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Wynonna Earp S3 Ep7: I Fall To Pieces (aka...you will too)

Okay, so, some are saying they think this is just a “filler” episode. I don’t think that is entirely accurate. I mean, at some point, Wynonna and Nicole would have to learn to work together. Michelle was bound to take off at some point too. I mean it is rather surprising that the cops haven’t shown up in Purgatory looking for her yet. We wanted some more of Nicole’s past and we got a doozie and we cried. Wynonna finds out the truth about Doc and she reacted just like I would have and I cried with both of them. Damn it all! This show is stressing me the hell out this season!

I swear. I try, I really do, to try to type a small recap / review. However, Wynonna Earp is one of those shows that is so well written and has such good stuff going on, that I can’t. I just can’t. I don’t want any of my readers to miss anything and to read this and say, “Okay, now I HAVE to watch the actual episode!” So, here we go folks!

We open with, ugh….Wynonna and Charlie in a firetruck trying to get in another…..well…I can’t put that word here. You know what I mean. Wynonna swears that this is going to be their last time. Yeah, right. Charlie thinks it is good stress relief and they should continue. They almost get all their clothes off and get going when two familiar voices are heard. By the way, they are in a firetruck IN THE firehouse! It is Waverly and Nicole handing out fresh coffee to the fire crew and thanking them for their service and dedication. They don’t think so fondly of Sheriff Nedley, but Nicole assures them that it will be different when she is Sheriff.

Inside the truck, they are getting dressed and Charlie remarks that he actually didn’t know Waverly and Haught were a thing. He assures Wynonna when questioned, that Purgatory Pride is his favorite event every year. She is surprised to hear they have such an event and a firetruck gets painted the rainbow colors. Charlie also says that Nicole warned him about her….how she is a hot mess. Wynonna thanks him for the uh….”Pump?” she says and Charlie replies with “That’s gross.” Wynonna tries again….”Backdraft?” and Charlie questions her “Did we do that?” “Heeeeeaaat.” Wynonna says and they kiss and fall back and her hand hits the firetruck alarm.

A very embarrassed Wynonna climbs out of the truck and everyone is there staring. She says there is nothing to see here but a grown ass woman with grown up needs simply leaving a firehouse. Because, you know, that is a totally everyday occurrence. Nicole asks if she needs a ride. “I had a ride. I need a nap.” Wynonna answers. Then admits that yes, she needs a ride. Waverly asks if her and Doc are no longer a thing. Wynonna answers curtly, “We were never a thing and I haven’t seen him in a week.”

At Kate’s house Doc is lying on the floor with Kate in front of the fireplace. He lifts his hand and suddenly jumps up as the ring of Bulshar is burning him. He runs to a vase and ….oh, my…..I see ass cheeks. His chaps are open. LOL. He takes his hand out and looks at the ring and says, “What have I done?”

The bitch of a wife (sorry…I can’t stand her…) says that the ring is rejecting him as he is now a vampire that makes him compromised. However, not to worry, because they are together forever like he wanted. Ummm…..I think YOU wanted that Kate and took advantage of the situation. Doc moves to a mirror and looks at himself, runs a hand over his chest and says, “Just like I wanted” just as his image is disappearing.

Frat boys singing it up in a jail cell at the station. Sheriff Nedley tells Wynonna that they are from the city and their party bus was confiscated. Waverly finds Jeremy asleep at his desk and wakes him up. She asks what he is doing. He has been working on trying to figure out where Bulshar might have moved his operation since they closed down the other one. Waverly thinks that is great, but that Jeremy, not even knowing what day it is, really needs a falafel and some rest.

Nicole and Wynonna are in the Sheriff’s office and are moving a bookshelf while Nedley sits at his desk. Behind the shelf is a door. “We finally get to see your sex cave?” Wynonna jokes with him. He says it is more of a closet and hands them keys. He explains that it is evidence and notes on cases that were a little on the supernatural side. Wynonna asks why he didn’t give them to Dolls. Nedley says he wasn’t sure whether to trust Dolls at first, but now he knows. They look inside and there is quite a bit of stuff.

Apparently, he has been collecting this since he became Sheriff. “It’s like Hoarders meets Storage Wars.” Wynonna jokes. It is up to Nicole and Wynonna to work together to figure out what to keep and what to burn.

Nedley checks with Nicole on how it is going getting backing from City Council on her becoming Sheriff. She complains that Bunny Loblaw won’t return any of her calls and still reigns over City Council with an iron fist. Nedley tells her that Bunny can smell fear and she needs to learn to hide that and take control of the situation. Nicole runs off to make another phone call to Bunny to set up a meeting. “Bunny’s gonna eat her for lunch.” Wynonna remarks to Nedley.

Doc is at the Earp Homestead in the barn looking for a can or container to put the ring in. He finds one and remarks that it will have to do when he hears the cocking of a rifle behind him. It is Michelle. She tells him it isn’t a good idea to go sneaking around with an armed mental patient on the loose. “I thought we were friends.” Doc remarks to her. She laughs and says that he bailed on her Christmas feast. He apologizes and says that very important had come up. He turns around and Michelle “You’re gonna make it up to me. Don’t worry. I’ll drive if you’re too tired.” She needs to leave for a while, to get out of town and to get going or she is gonna roll him for the keys.

Nicole and Wynonna start to argue about cleaning out the closet. Wynonna is sitting reading old notes and finds a picture of a “baby” Nedley when he was just starting out and had a kids with him. With Nicole getting mad because of lack of help, Wynonna rushes in with attitude and starts throwing things out as “crap” or “not crap”. Nicole goes to stop her just as she has a black weird looking mirror. They struggle over it and Wynonna lets go, making Nicole lose control of it and it falls and breaks on the ground. “Smooth move Ginger Spice. You just earned yourself seven years bad luck.” Wynonna says.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Triangle, a small shed explodes (by the way there are creepy looking scarecrows on that fence) and a very ugly looking dude I nicknamed Mr. Fugly emerges carrying very large hedge clippers. He’s a very happy, jolly sort. If you bought that last line you have never watched this show.

Wynonna goes to the bar and meets Nedley there. He is drinking Ginger Ale. She orders her usual, a whiskey and leave the bottle. She shows him the photo she found. “It’s like your upper lip is wearing a skinny tie” she jokes with him. He looks at it and smiles. He asks how the evidence closet is going and Wynonna accuses Nicole of smashing stuff and complains what it is like trying to work with someone with a “pickle up their ass” and that the woman is all work and no play. That someday she is going to snap and chop up someone with an axe. Nedley says to go easy on Nicole and slides the picture back to Wynonna. “You two have more in common than you think” he says as he points to the little girl in the picture.

Nicole is at home trying her best to get ready for the Bunny visit. She turns her back for a second and hears someone behind her. She is startled to see Bunny is there and has let herself in. She offers to take the woman’s coat, but is told, “What. So you can rifle through the pockets?” Then she freaks when she sees Calamity Jane the cat and tells Nicole that either the cat goes or she does because she is deathly allergic. So, poor Nicole picks up the cat and runs her upstairs. Bunny takes the opportunity to look around and sees a picture of Waverly and Nicole together. She makes a face, slowly puts it down and says, “Disgusting!” as she walks away.

Michelle and Doc are at the Earp gravesite. Michelle places flowers on the grave which has both Ward’s and Willa’s name on it. Doc says he is very sorry, but Michelle says that Willa was Ward’s pet and was a spoiled brat with a mean streak. “She would have made a terrible heir.” Doc reminds her that Willa was just a child. Michelle looks at the grave and touches Willa’s name and apologizes for not being there to protect her. She suddenly gets up and walks off. Doc yells after her, asking where the hell she is going now. “Come on. I’ll tell you which way to turn.” She yells back to him. Doc begins to complain, “It’s freezing out here.” And she tells him to “Stop being such a wiener. Besides, I know you have a bottle of Tequila stashed under your seat that will get us through.”

Back at Nicole’s, poor Nicole is trying to have a nice conversation with the wicked witch of the universe. Nicole tells her that she has great plans of how to run the office more efficiently and ways to make the town safer. “Well, that is all fine and good, Deputy Haught, but my main concern is this. Randy Nedley is full of SHIT! I am so sick and tired of being kept in the dark about all the strange occurrences in Purgatory.” She goes on to say that she refuses to be lied to about what is going on “in HER town under HER nose.” Nicole asks what she means. “Well, you tell me. That is why I am here. Unless, you don’t want to be Sheriff.” She adds not to give her “that hooey” about costume parties gone out of control or escaped zoo animals. Nicole tries to say that Purgatory is a “special” place with “special” challenges.

Then Wynonna comes bursting in and says she needs to talk to Nicole for a minute. Nicole says it isn’t the right time, but Bunny smiles and says that it is in fact the perfect time because she was thinking of backing Wynonna Earp as Sheriff. Nicole can’t believe what she is hearing both her and Wynonna laugh thinking Bunny is joking, but she isn’t. She says that Wynonna is “a straight shooter and one tough bitch”

and that the Earp family is one of the original families. She calls Nicole nothing but “a fly-by-night outsider and a “little too…..different.” Nicole has heard enough and grabs Wynonna and takes her to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Wynonna is laughing “Wait until Bunny learns about Purgatory Pride!" Nicole asks what she is doing there. Wynonna says it is about her (Nicole) and Nedley. But before she goes on she reverts back to the Bunny situation. Laughing again, she says “Wait. Did Bun Buns really just say I could be….” Nicole interrupts her, “OH, no. You can NOT take that job.” “I don’t want that job.” Wynonna says. Nicole says that is good because Wynonna would have been terrible at it. She has no police training, is terrible with authority and isn’t even qualified to work at a Chipotle’s” Wynonna takes offense and says that maybe she WILL take that job and be “Sheriff Nedley 2.0” and would be Nicole’s boss.

They are still arguing when Bunny turns around and at the window is Mr. Fugly and she yells out and falls face first on the floor. Wynonna is coming out of the kitchen about to “go get stuff done” and sees Bunny on the floor. “Balls! Bunny’s dead.” She yells to Nicole. Nicole rushes out and sees Bunny there and the cat sitting on top of her. Nicole rushes over and says that Bunny is “deathly allergic” and to get her purse. “Right! Cash!” says Wynonna. Nicole yells “No, for medicine!” They dump the purse looking for an allergy medicine and find a lot more than just that. Wynonna finds Oxy and Nicole hits it out of her hand. They find one and give it to Bunny with some tea which makes Bunny cough and wake up.

They help Bunny up and out to the police cruiser. Nicole says it will be faster to use that with the sirens on. Bunny is complaining all the way. She tells them not to take her to Purgatory General as there are “too many immigrant doctors there”. Nicole just shoves her in the back of the car. She tells Wynonna to go back inside and grab Bunny’s purse. They argue over who is going to go back inside and Nicole finally says she will, but Wynonna has to be right, so she is going to. As they argue back to the front door, two of the frat boys sneak into the police car and take off. Bunny is screaming in the back seat about what is going on. Nicole runs out into the road and exclaims, “You’ve got to be freaking kidding me!” Wynonna chuckles and says, “Look who needs my help now.”

A little bit later, Nicole comes out of the house with Bunny’s stuff and finds Wynonna trying to hotwire the car. She tells her she actually has the keys and that she should actually drive because she is the cop and it would be seen as commandeering the vehicle for official police business. Wynonna says there are bigger fish to fry and shuts the door. Nicole decides she will call Waverly then.

At the station, Waverly is on the phone with Nicole. Jeremy and she are logging into the computer to track the GPS of the police car. Jeremy laughs and says that they are having some super bad luck today. “Speed it up Jagged Little Nerd.” You hear Wynonna say through the phone. Jeremy quickly locates the car, and it is parked. However, Waverly says that they need to hurry.

It seems the two stupid frat boys decided to go to a biker bar run over by revenants. They get to the police car and Bunny starts screaming at them. She tells Nicole “Get me out of here you white trash tart.” Yeah….sure helping your situation there honey. Let me get right on that. I would actually move a hell of a lot slower just to make it more amusing to myself. Nicole finds the extra key and goes to unlock the passenger side door and guess what…..it breaks. Bunny of course screams at Nicole calling her a freaking moron. Wynonna pulls her gun and aims it at Bunny who backs up, but Nicole stops her saying that the bullet could ricochet and hit Bunny. Wynonna raises her gun again thinking it is worth the risk. “OR US.” Nicole adds. Wynonna puts the gun away. Nicole wonders if they could call the fire department to come rip the door off. Wynonna thinks that is a bad idea because the fire crew would never let the Sheriff’s office live that down. Wynonna thinks their only option is to go inside and “find Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Douche” and get the original keys. They wander to the bar and peek inside.

There are quite a few demons in there. Nicole says they are outnumbered and wouldn’t want Bunny seeing them shooting anyway. Wynonna scoffs and takes off.

Along a roadside, Doc and Michelle are leaning against his car. She is working on that bottle of Tequila. She tells Doc how growing up, she couldn’t wait to join the rodeo circuit to get out of the hell hole of a town. However, she came back one August weekend, got drunk and pregnant and ended up marrying Ward Earp. “Well, he did give you three beautiful daughters” Doc remarks. Michelle says, no only two. “Waverly was Julian’s, remember?” Doc pauses then asks, “What’s it like being with an angel?” Michelle simply answers with a question. “What’s it like being with a demon?” She changes the subject in a way. She tells Doc how Julian made her feel like she didn’t have to break her spirit to be happy. That the night Waverly was born, Ward pushed Julian out of the Ghost River Triangle. Right where they were standing now. Doc asks how she knows this and she says that Bobo DelRay told her. “You talked to him?” Doc asks her. She says she did more than talk. She gave Bobo the dinner Doc refused and she gave Bobo his freedom. “Are you out of your godforsaken mind woman?!” Doc exclaims. Michelle stays calm as usual. “Yes, I think we have already established that.” Doc tells her that she has unleashed a monster. Michelle tells Doc that Bulshar is risen and it will take monsters to fight a monster. Doc reminds her that Bobo has tried to kill her own daughters multiple times and she doesn’t get to make these life or death decisions for them. “Who’s gonna stop me? You, Johnny Hank?” Michelle asks. “If necessary.” Doc says getting closer. Michelle smiles and says it looks like they are finally really talking, so ….”Here are my terms.”

At the Revenant Roadhouse bar, the two frat boys are tied up back to back sitting on the bar. The demons are trying to figure out the best way to kill them. Wynonna and Nicole manage to sneak in and almost get the keys from the one guys pocket when they are discovered. They want to kill both of them as well. However, Wynonna says to the one who seems like the leader that he seems like a sporting type. What would be the sport of “ripping Dumb and Doucher to shreds”. She says they should let the boys go and they can have a contest.

A drinking contest. If the girls win, they get to leave unharmed. If the demons win….well…..they can kill them. “You could have just offered them cash.” Nicole tells Wynonna who realizes she really didn’t think it through to the end.

Back at the station, Waverly is getting worried because neither her sister nor Nicole are answering their phone calls. Jeremy brings up a review of the events thus far. How what has happened seems spectacularly unlucky. That makes Waverly think and they rush to the office. They find the broken mirror on the floor and hope that if they put it back together it will fix the problem.

The drinking game is on at the Roadhouse. They have gone a few rounds already with shots. Wynonna takes a shot and chases with a beer. They call for another type of liquor which is gross tasting by the looks of it. They count to three and drink. The demon looks like he is about to puke. He brings up the shot he just had. Wynonna claims they have won fair and square and to uncuff them, but spills her beer bottle. The leader demon grabs it and sniffs it and says she was cheating as she was spitting her shots into the bottle every time. Nicole asks where she got that idea. “I learned it from Coyote Ugly” she says. “Oooooh! I love that movie!” says a very drunk Nicole. The demon says now he gets to break their necks and all the revenants shout. Wynonna and Nicole quickly get up, Wynonna pulls out Peacemaker and they make a run for it. They are trying to run in knee deep snow with chain handcuffs on, through the woods. Wynonna is telling Nicole to hurry up and Nicole is telling Wynonna she is too drunk to keep up.

Doc is at Kate’s house going through some of her things. He comes across some ID’s and Driver Licenses. “You’ve found my mementos.” Kate says coming into the room. Doc says they are more like souvenirs of people she has killed. Kate says that it a vulgar way of putting it. Doc says it is the truth. Kate asks if he is helping Wynonna and Doc says “In a matter of speaking.” Kate has to point out that she must be some woman if he is willing to give up one of his precious pistols as Doc wraps stuff up in a sheet. Kate thinks it is sweet that he still thinks Wynonna will still want him. “You know how your jealousy bores me” he says to her. “As you are” Kate adds. “Wynonna made me the way I am” he says and

Kate comes at him growling and bearing her teeth. Kate suddenly does her thing of turning all sweet and says, “My Henry. The greatest gunslinger that ever lived. A filthy, rotten scoundrel.” Doc slaps her hand away from his face. She adds that how sad it is all this stuff he is doing for her. For what? Doc says that she (Wynonna) thinks I can be better. “Than what?” asks Kate. It’s beneath you. Wynonna is breaking your spirit. I love you. At your worst, or even more.” Kate says as she leans in and kisses him. Doc pauses, then pulls away. “Then you should know that I am a man that does not do ultimatums or likes to choose.” Kate laughs. “You and I are linked together forever.” She challenges Doc to go see if Wynonna will welcome him back into her bed.

Back in the woods, Wynonna and Nicole run and then stop because they are arguing. Nicole thinks Wynonna needs to get her head out of her ass because she isn’t the only one who has suffered through something. Wynonna makes fun of Nicole and says in a whiny baby voice that oh, yeah, Nicole survived a massacre. She quickly makes a face saying she regrets saying it like that. Wynonna brings out her gun and Nicole yells how immature she is. The damn gun is jammed. She adds that yes, Nicole survived a massacre, but to get back to her when she is cursed. She tries to aim the gun at the chain, but it is still jammed and then an axe comes flying out of nowhere and hits a tree nearby.

They turn and find that the revenants have found them. The leader says how they are “such catty little bitches” and that they are so deep in animosity that they are basting in it which will make them tastier. Wynonna and Nicole face each other. “You be Scott.” Wynonna says. “You be Tessa.” Says Nicole and they start to fight. Peacemaker finally after a few dead clicks decides to start working and that axe comes in handy. The chain they still have on also is handy for breaking a neck. However, when they think they have them all, the leader comes from behind and grabs them and bends them over backwards under his arms. He asks if they have any last words. They say a few, but then the revenant is killed by something behind him.

It is Mr. Fugly. “You owe me a wife!” he tells them as he closes his clippers. They both decide that this is a worse situation and make a run for it.

Back at the station, Waverly is just about done taping the mirror back together. They are missing a piece she yells to Jeremy who comes flying into the room with it. They have it all back together and hope that they fixed the situation. Just then Nicole and Wynonna come running in yelling about a mountain man. “A gross, scabby mountain man!” yells Wynonna. Jeremy looks at Waverly and says it looks like that it didn’t fix it.

Mr. Fugly comes marching in. Waverly tells him to wait just a minute Gandolph but he throws her to the side. Jeremy grabs a broom and yells, “You SHALL NOT PASS!” and the guy just roars into Jeremy’s face and Jeremy tells him “Yeah, you just do you” and goes to help Waverly. He looks at Nicole and Wynonna and tells them again that they owe him a wife and to choose. Waverly hears wife and grabs Jeremy and they make their way to the office. Meanwhile, Wynonna and Nicole are trying to tell Mr. Fugly why the other would make the best wife.

In the office Waverly says that it must have been something else. They find large pieces of what seems to be an oversized garden gnome. Jeremy yells to the girls that he is a gnome, but Wynonna doesn’t see how that is helping their situation. Waverly and Jeremy take the gnome figure to the desk to use the tape to try to put it back together. Mr. Fugly gnome gets tired of the talking and yells at Wynonna and Nicole to stop talking and grabs them and lifts them up by the neck. They have to choose who is going to be his wife. Waverly says they have one more piece and it is……boobs.

It is a lady gnome! She tells Jeremy to put that piece on but Jeremy sees a lawsuit just waiting to happen. Waverly goes ahead and, wishing they had a gnome bra, tapes the last piece on and turns it towards the big guy. Lightning strikes and the figurine is in one piece. The big guy drops Nicole and Wynonna. “Monique! You are okay.” He picks her up, hugs her and walks out.

At the Earp Homestead, Doc has arrived with a car he says he found at the roadhouse with the keys still in it. Hmmmmm…looks a lot like Bunny Loblaw’s car! LOL!! Michelle looks in the sheet and sees the supplies Doc has brought her.

There is some cash and a ‘new’ ID. She remarks that she knew an outlaw would get what is needed when she needed to get out of Dodge fast. However, she refuses to take Doc’s pistol, as he might need it in the future. “Otherwise, nicely done Johnny Hank!” she tells him as she puts the stuff in the back seat. “Wish I could say the same.” Doc remarks. “Is this where you beg me to stay?” Michelle asks him. “I do NOT beg.” Doc tells her. Michelle goes off on that it seems to be her lot in life to have to leave to save those she loves. She says Doc knows what she is talking about, that he recognizes her and what she is doing. Doc answers that she is leaving and putting her family in mortal danger. Michelle says that if Julian is outside the Ghost River Triangle and if he is still there, she needs to find him. Doc says that from the moment she walked into that barn she knew he would make her leave and would help her do so. “Sometimes it takes a monster” she says to him touching his hat. He grabs her wrist. “Wynonna will be angry.” Doc says. “She won’t be angry with you. She always seems to forgive you.” Michelle replies. Doc says that she still might not escape Wynonna’s anger because she is abandoning her family for….love. “Oh. Like I am gonna let a vampire lecture me on love.” Michelle quips as she gets into the car and leaves. Okay…..how the hell did Michelle find out?

At the station, Wynonna is startled to find Bunny standing at the counter. She claims it was only a “fancy faint”. “Yeah, the cat made a bed in your ass crack.” Wynonna remarks. Bunny tells her that the doctors say she is as healthy as an ox. “And the cankles to go with it.” Another wonderful remark by Wynonna. Well, Bunny says that she is there to let Officer Haught know that despite that day’s events, she will NOT be getting her support for Sheriff. Wynonna drops what she was holding and goes over to Bunny. She says that despite her best interests, Nicole did what was right. She always does what is right and that is someone who should be Sheriff. She reminds Bunny who saved her life that day. “Perhaps. But she does not belong here in Purgatory. She is not our…..people.” Bunny says with her nose in the air. “Are you a xenophobe or a homophobe?” Wynonna asks her. “Why….pick….just….one?” the bitch replies. Bunny tries to leave, but Wynonna stops her and grabs her wrist. She tells Bunny that they should talk about what really happened today……what she saw. Bunny tells her that it was all a dream…..a very bad dream. Wynonna informs her that in fact it wasn’t a dream. That she really doesn’t want to know all those little secrets that Nedley has been trying to hide or cover over, because that monster she saw today was just the very tip of the iceberg. Wynonna threatens Bunny saying that if she doesn’t back Nicole for Sheriff, she will personally bring that monster and all his demon friends right to her house. Bunny thinks she is bluffing, but Wynonna assures her she is not. Bunny leaves, claiming she needs to go to church.

Wynonna turns and sees Nicole standing in the doorway. She has heard pretty much all of it and thanks Wynonna and offers her a beer. It seems she can now hear space and time with this hangover. Wynonna is shocked about having a beer at work. Nicole laughs and says that some rules are meant to be broken sometimes. Nicole calls a truce, but Wynonna calls it a win.

Wynonna tells Nicole that she used to think Nicole was an outsider too and that she would freak out and leave and Waverly would have a broken heart. Nicole assures her that she loves Waverly. Actually, she loves Wynonna too (not in the same way of course) and that she is often jealous of Wynonna for being….well….Wynonna. “You’re staked to this land, same as me.” Wynonna tells her and shows her the picture of young Nedley and Nicole.

Nicole goes and finds Nedley in his office. She hands him the picture. “You were so damned scared. But still so damned tough.” He tells her. He tells her that somehow she managed to get into a canoe to safety and he found her down river. “You’re the one.” Nicole says quietly. Nedley just says that he kept an eye on her afterwards and what kind of parents let a six year old go to a music festival in the woods. Nicole smiles and says her parents were nothing but selfish and that they don’t talk anymore. Nedley asks if it is because of who she is. “Yeah, a cop” Nicole says. Nedley tells her that when he heard she had joined the police academy, he couldn’t resist offering up the post. Nicole says when she saw the post, she knew she had to take it and that is where she was meant to be. “Everything good I have in my life now, is because I came back to the Ghost River Triangle.” Nicole says with tears in her eyes. Nedley pauses and looks at her. “You’re like a daughter….to me.” He replies.

Nicole starts to cry and gives him a big hug. He has tears in his eyes too. “Thank you. You are a tough act to follow.” Nicole tells him. Nedley just looks at her and says, “I’m not going anywhere. Not if you really need me. Congratulations Sheriff Haught. You’ve earned it.”

Wynonna returns home to find Waverly at the table crying and holding a letter. “She’s gone.” Waverly tells her sister. “She’s gone to try to find Julian.” Waverly gets up and Wynonna holds her little sister.

Waverly cries and says that they had just had a wonderful Christmas together and it was so nice. Wynonna tells her that they can spend their entire lives trying to figure out why that woman does what she does….and they have. Wynonna is facing the table and sees there is a letter from Momma just for her.

Wynonna has read the letter and is headed outside. She stops short on the porch, startled to see Doc standing in front yard.

“Good evening” Doc says with a tip of his hat. He comes up onto the porch. “I come bearing gifts” he says, handing Wynonna a handkerchief with something in it. Wynonna opens it and is surprised to see Bulshar’s ring. Doc tells her it should protect her in the upcoming battle. Wynonna asks him how he got it as Nicole was the last one to have it.

“Details are a little foggy. You know how I like to day drink” he tells her. “Why don’t you keep it?” Wynonna asks. “Anyone ever tell you not to look a gift horse in the mouth?” Doc replies not really giving a definite answer.

Wynonna changes the subject. “Did you spend the day with my mother?”

“Well, she essentially treated me like her Ober.” Doc says

“Uber.” Wynonna corrects him.

“What she told me may require some explanation.” Doc says to Wynonna coming forward.

“She thought so too” as she looks at the letter and Doc reaches for it, she pulls away. “Lemme just read it to you. ‘Dear Wynonna, Don’t trust Doc Holliday. He is not what he says he is.’” Wynonna looks at Doc after each sentence.

“Did she also say she set Bobo free from the well?” Doc asks, clearly trying to steer clear of where this conversation is going.

“She does love to burn a place down before she runs.” Wynonna says, not really acknowledging the Bobo being free thing.

“The recklessness of her actions- I do not see how she could remain here and keep you safe.” Doc says, once again trying to steer the conversation away from the inevitable.

“Just tell me what you did.” Wynonna demands straight faced, not losing eye contact with Doc.

Doc’s face at this point is pure fear. His eyes are wide as he looks at Wynonna.

“Who are you?” Wynonna asks him when he doesn’t answer about what he did.

“Who I’ve always been.” Doc says with a hint of pleading in his voice.

“Don’t talk to me in riddles!” Wynonna says raising her voice and getting frustrated.

“How should I talk to you then?” Doc asks her

“Like you give a shit about me!” she yells at him.

Then it really starts…..

“YOU refused ME!” Doc hisses at her. Wynonna slaps his face. Well, Wynonna THAT IS TRUE.

“Wynonna, I DO care….” Doc says, but gets another slap across his face from Wynonna before he could continue.

Doc gets closer to her. “You are runnin’ out of road woman!” You can see his eyes starting to water. More likely from the emotions running raw than the slaps.

“Tell me what you are.” Wynonna demands. Doc doesn’t answer.

Wynonna slaps him a third time and this time the vampire anger emerges. His eyes glowing and his teeth bared and a deep growl. He suddenly stops himself, covers his mouth as he calms down and backs up away from her.

“Kate. You let her do this?” Wynonna asks. Doc has visible tears in his eyes. “She had you.” Wynonna adds.

“It was the only way.” Doc says……a lame excuse.

“What about us? What about….ALICE?” Wynonna asks him now crying herself. “What would our daughter say if she knew her father sold his soul?!” Wynonna demands of him, digging the knife deeper.

“You, of all people, should understand the sacrifices that have been made.” Doc says. Again….not a great excuse dude.

“You wanted your immortality that badly, you…..selfish asshole?!!” Wynonna screams at him tears streaming down her face.

“You watch your mouth!” Doc yells, coming at her again without the vampire face. Again, he quickly recedes realizing he snapped again.

“BITE ME.” Wynonna says right in his face.

She starts to back towards the door. “There are some…..advantages…..to you being a vampire” she says to him. Doc, tears in his eyes, shakes his head. He knows what she is getting at. “John Henry Holliday, you’re not welcome in my home anymore.” Wynonna says…sealing his fate of being able to step foot inside the house ever again.

Doc, tears running down his face, tries to plead with her. “Don’t do this.”

Wynonna turns and opens the door. “No, YOU did this” she says as she steps inside and shuts the door.

Wynonna takes a few steps inside and stops. She is totally stunned by this, but most of all her heart is broken.

Okay….I am crying. My heart is broken. I love Doc and wish he and Wynonna would work this out. I keep praying that maybe the vampirism is reversible somehow, but unlikely. This final outcome is BOTH of their faults. Wynonna….I mean come on! You keep pushing away a man you love over and over again because you are afraid and don’t think you deserve him. His wife is back in the picture. Where the hell do you think he was going to go if he felt you didn’t want him? You were busy screwing Charlie to try to forget your feelings! However, Charlie is reversible. He can be pushed out of the picture. Whereas Doc……Doc, you were selfish as hell. You have always worried about losing your immortality. Even if your tuberculosis is returning, it can be cured in this day and age. You don’t run to your wife and the second thing your do (first thing was sleeping with her) is fall for her bullshit and let her turn you. Wynonna reacted just like I would have.

We don’t have too many episodes left, so this is going to stress me the hell out the rest of the season isn’t it?

Please….Please tell me what your thoughts are on this episode and the whole Doc / Wynonna dynamic!

#Wynonna Earp #WynonnaEarp #Melanie Scrofano #Dominique Provost-Chalkley #Tim Rozon #Purgatory #Waverly Earp #Doc Holliday

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